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Well, good morning to you, Providence. It's great to see you. My name's Dave. I'm one of the pastors here, and we want to say a special welcome to our guests and those that are in the other room as well. We say thank you for making that sacrifice already. As Brian mentioned, he's out of town. We're going to be praying for him and the team. We are bringing many of our missionaries from all over the world to one central location over in Europe and to be able to encourage them for a week, encourage their kids for a week. And so it's going to be an incredible time. Many left uh this past week to go and serve. And then close to maybe 70 or 80 of our missionaries are coming in. So it's going to be a sweet, sweet time. But uh if we haven't met, I'm Dave, and it's uh it's great to see. If you have a Bible, Luke chapter 18. Luke chapter 18. And I would echo what he said about the room. Um one other option, it's not mentioned, but you could uh grab an Uber and you not would not have to not have to park at Walmart, and uh they'll drop you off at the front door. You can walk in and get some coffee. Uh be amazing. So uh just another option to throw out there. But we're grateful for what God's doing and uh bringing some folks here, and uh we're just trying to serve all of you the best we can. Um we're gonna continue this morning in our summer study of the parables, walking through them. Um, and just as a as a reminder, this this parable, this is a unique way that Jesus would teach. He would, instead of maybe stating the lesson directly, um, he would use everyday situations, uh, characters to illustrate deeper truths. And what what it oftentimes presented was a a whiplash effect. Um, it was almost like a shocking moment uh at the end of some of these stories that he was telling, where you think it's going one way and it goes another. Some even call a parable an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. And so this morning we're gonna look at Luke 18, 9 through 14, and we're gonna see a sharp contrast between two men to give us Jesus. What we're trying to do is to give us this vivid illustration of who and what it looks like to be made right with a holy God and who makes it into heaven. It's a wake text, it's a sobering text. And so let's read it this morning. And before we do, let me pray. Father, please help us, please go before us, strengthen our resolve to lean in and look at it and have it look at us, and pray that maybe distractions that come, even that what's coming this week, what's happened this past week, we could just sit for just a moment in your word and you would teach us. So open our eyes to behold glorious truths from your word. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Verse 9, it says, He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves, that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt. Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus, God, I thank you that I'm not like other men, extortioners and unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get. But the tax collector standing far off would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, God, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted. This is God's word. In two thousand seven, a famous violinist by the name of Joshua Bell performed in the subway in Washington, D.C. with a violin that was worth three point five million dollars for forty-five minutes. A thousand people came past him, seven stopped to listen, and he collected thirty-two dollars in donations. Two days prior, he had sold out a theater in Boston where tickets were a hundred dollars each. Looks can be deceiving. In our text, it looks like one guy is close with God and the other is far from God, and yet Jesus draws us in and makes a surprising distinction. And here's a question that we desire for you to ponder. If and when you take your last breath on this earth, if you were standing before a holy God, and God asks you this question, why should I let you into heaven? How would you respond to that question? It's of absolute importance and significance. And Jesus is gonna draw our attention today to what we probably should say in that moment and what we shouldn't say. I want to show you three truths from this parable about Jesus and those who are made right with God and have the hope for eternity. Weighty text, I know it's summertime, vacations, but here we go. Here's the first one Jesus reveals the heart of the proud. Jesus reveals the heart of the proud as seen in man-centered self-righteous prayers. He's gonna reveal the heart of the proud. Now notice the text in verse nine, he goes after those who he knows are trusting in themselves. He says, He told this parable, not to those who followed him, but but to those who trusted in themselves, that they were righteous, and they actually treated others with contempt. And so he's leaning in to that audience, even within the text, and he's exposing the dangers of self-righteousness. So meet the first man, the Pharisee. Two of them went up into the temple, two of them, in other words, are going to church. You've got a Pharisee and a tax collector. The Pharisee is the Jewish religious leaders. They opposed Christ and his teachings. They were constantly trying to trap him in some of his teachings. And then he would point out their religious hypocrisy. They were doing good deeds, mainly to gain praise from others. They listen, they loved the approval of man. Notice the posture, even of these prayers, as they are both in the temple. He's he's he in the position of the temple. He's he's off to a decent start. Um although he was standing alone, right? He's he the text tells us he was he went up to pray. The Pharisee standing alone, prayed to God, God. He starts his prayer with God. He's standing alone, probably because he feels like no one's as good as he is, and he's gonna probably make his way to the front of the temple. But he starts off by saying God. That's a good place to address God in a prayer by saying God, by calling him his name. But then he says, I thank you. So we're four words in, and it's looking decent. It's looking decent and how he's addressing, how he's praying, and then it goes south really fast. He begins to quickly move to making much of himself. We'll see five times the pronoun I where he is referencing himself. In other words, this is what happens in the prayer. He gives God one nod and he takes five. This is what's happening. He is full of himself and it starts to come out. Look, you are never more empty than when you are full of yourself. You're never more empty than when you are full of yourself. And how can you tell if you're full of yourself if you are always seeking to measure your status rather than show his mercy? Notice what he does, he starts with the comparison game. His measuring stick is his morality, not God's holiness. And he looks down on those in society that no one wants to be like or around, and in his mind, he's always going to win that moral argument of who's the greatest. So he inflates his ego to deflate any chance of being made right with God. This is so dangerous. This is sobering. The religious folks in the crowd are probably at this point sort of nodding along with this guy, saying in their heart, that's that's right. We like them. Dropping a few amens, feeling so good about themselves, but the surprise is coming. Oh, he goes, he goes from the comparison game to the credential dropping game. He begins to boast and drop his resume. Matter of fact, you shouldn't bring your resume to God in prayer. He's keeping the law, he's going above it. He's so impressed with himself that all he talks about in his prayer is himself. I mean, if he walked in today, he might have two or three Bibles with him. Study Bible, another Bible, looking, looking all put together on the outside. I mean, the law didn't even require that much fasting. He's going above and beyond. He's tithing of all that he he gets. He's letting God know what he's doing. And he's just to the point where he's so thankful he's not like others. Listen, listen. He's not asking God to bless him. He's thinking to himself, God is so blessed to have me. That's what's happening. Oh, it's subtle. Oh, he's in the church. He's in here. Tithing, serving, fasting, these are good things. They don't make you right with God. The prayer is revealing the heart. When you're so full of yourself, it's not much room for anything, especially God. And it's like a car that looks all put together in the garage, and yet what's under the hood when you crank it, all the lights are going on on the dash. Something's off inside. Something's something's awesome. And listen, listen, 11 o'clock service. Those that have joined us, listen, you can be so close to God in your mind and still be headed toward hell because of what's in your heart. This is heavy. You can be standing and praying in church and not know God. You can look like you know the Lord and be lost, and you can be lost and actually know the Lord. Pride will will only deceive you and destroy you, and it will deliver you to hell. If you're trying to gain God's acceptance by your good works, you've got a better chance of swimming across the Atlantic on a deflated paddle board to England. It's not gonna happen. Look, and it's and it's not about, it's you gotta get this. It's not about the effort, it's about the gap. The gap between our sinfulness and his holiness. It's a chasm that's so enormous that your best day will come up short. Listen, the the long jumper that holds the world record is twenty-nine feet, 4.25 inches. And he'd be a fool to try to jump across the Grand Canyon. Would he not? He'd be a fool. And this is what people do spiritually, religiously. Listen, here's the point. Here's the point. Don't overestimate your goodness and underestimate his holiness. Mercy begins where merit ends. The gap is too big. And look, our culture, our culture, it's it's training your heart and your mind to get more approval and more attention. And if you're not careful, it will carry over into your spiritual life, and you will approach God like you do Instagram. Posting in your prayers all the reasons God should like you, craving approval for what you do. This is how Instagram makes money. What they want you to crave attention, they want you to crave approval, they want you to get likes. This is how they make money. And it fills up their bank account and it empties your heart. Listen, if you want to be free from the addiction of approval, rest in the approval that God has shown you. That while you and I were sinners, Christ died for us. Rest in his love for you, and it will slowly remove the grip of longing for more likes. It's amazing what will happen. Tim Keller, a pastor from New York City, passed away recently. He says this about pride. He says it's it is carbon monoxide of sin. It's the carbon monoxide of sin. It silently and slowly kills you without you even knowing it. Listen, if we're always gauging our approval in our mind because of someone else's failure, it's not gonna work. God shouted loudest when addressing my own pride in my own life. You have it, I have it, we all have it. News story of something that happens with someone. Sometimes our first reactions, right? I'm glad I'm not like. I'm glad I'm not like building up our own resume. Pride will destroy you. And it's in all of us. I'll never forget God spoke really loud. One time years ago, I had the opportunity to go on a mission trip of all places, right? On a mission trip to play basketball. I played basketball in college and met some guys at the gym. We were just playing pickup at this moment, and God opened the door for us to go overseas to play. And we were in another country, and as we went from city to city, we would have police escorts and thousands of people would welcome us into the city. And and before the end of the trip, we we actually thought we were decent, and we had to remind ourselves we were playing pickup at the YMCA at this time in our life, right? And the last game it sold out, probably five, six, seven thousand folks. It's packed, it's being shown on the local station uh in this province over in China is where we were at. And and I'll never forget, it was it was right before halftime. I I grabbed, I grabbed a rebound and I turned. I knew it was halftime, and I just slung it like the full length of the court. One arm didn't even shoot it because I couldn't get it, and and it's and it's flying and it's looking really good. And it hits bottom of the net, Draeno hits it. I go to center court, the place is erupting, everyone's on their feet. I'm going crazy. And and I should have known, I should have known at that moment, at this moment, uh, God was even working in that moment because international rules, it has to be through the realm, not out of your hand for it to count. So they called it off. And I'm like, what? So that was a little subtle, right? That was subtle. And then and then when I get home, right, I set up a date night with my wife because I knew my buddy had recorded the game. And I don't tell her what happened, I want to show her what happened, right? So we've got a date night on the couch, a little snuggle fest, hanging, and and I'm like, sweetie, watch this now. Watch what happens. You won't believe what's coming. And and right in the moment, right, it's it captures, it's showing, it's showing me getting the rebound, turning like this, and the screen goes black. I'm like, I jump off the couch, right? I call my buddy, I'm like, bro, what's like what what happened, like, yo, like what happened, bro? Like, I thought you you recorded the whole game. He's like, bro, I forgot to tell you. Like, tell me what? He goes, Well, I knew it was halftime, so I stopped recording right when you got the rebound. I was like, no, bro, what are you doing? And in that moment, I haven't heard God speak audibly, but it was loud and clear through a blank screen that he wasn't that impressed with that shot, and neither should I be. And I probably should be more concerned with what he did, what he did, more than what I did in a place where it's illegal to be a Christian. Listen. What does Jesus hear in your prayers? And do you spend more time measuring or marveling at his mercy? James 4 says he opposes the proud. Proverbs 29 says, One's pride will bring him low. So, Jesus, what does he do? He he reveals the heart of the proud, but he also regards the heart of the humble. Notice he regards the heart of the humble as seen in God-centered mercy-pleading prayers. He regards the humble. Now, one life's appalling to God and one's appealing to God. Notice our tax collector in the text in verse 13. Tax collectors, who are these guys? These are the guys employed by Rome to rip off their own people. Greedy, just collecting more than they should. They were hated. They're unrighteous. And he's coming under conviction of sin. And Jesus is telling this parable to show what it looks like to be made right with him. And notice just his posture right off the he stands far off. He doesn't really feel like he should be in the presence of God. And when you feel like you shouldn't be in the presence of God, you're ready to be in the presence of God. He won't even lift his eyes. He's beating his chest. The Pharisee wanted all eyes on him. And this man is only longing for the eyes of God to be looking at him, but doesn't feel worthy. The Pharisee's eyes are always sideways. The tax collector's eyes are down. This is the posture. This is the position of his heart before a holy God. The Pharisee takes up three verses with his prayer in 33 words and in one verse in seven words. The tax collector says way more than the Pharisee. Notice what he says: God, be merciful, be merciful to me. The text says, a sinner, the rendering of the original Greek is actually the sinner, meaning, meaning he wasn't just a sinner among sinners. He saw himself as the chief among all sinners. He was the sinner. He cries for mercy. He cites no resume. He makes no comparison except to God's holiness. And he's completely undone, not knowing he's ready to be redone. He makes no defense for his sin. He only shows dependence. And what's fascinating about this word, let me just give you this really fast, is the word for mercy. It's used numerous times in the New Testament, but this particular time, it's actually a different word that's translated mercy, and most of the time it's translated propitiation. And it's a word that's found in Hebrews 2. That's Luke, we translated be merciful to me. Hebrews 2, 17, Jesus is the high priest in the service to God to make propitiation for the sins of the people. What's happening right here? It's not mercy just as in compassion. This guy knows that he needs mercy that shows up in a way of a payment, that somebody's got to pay a debt that he owes and he can't pay it. It's not like he's in the courtroom and he's pleading mercy and he's like he paid, he got a speeding ticket, and he's like, you're free, mercy shown, you go. Somebody's got to still pay the penalty. And he knows that. And he casts himself on God's mercy. Listen, listen, you can be the loudest with the most words, and everyone hears you except God. And you can be the quietest with the fewest of words, and the only person that hears you is God. And that's all that matters. Be merciful to me, the sinner. All he cares about is if God would hear him. Mercy. Mercy's not receiving what you do deserve. He deserves the righteous wrath of God. And he can't pay the penalty that he owes. And so he's needing someone else to do it. And in the gospel, this is what Christ has done. In the gospel, Christ's life, death, burial, resurrection. He's lived the life you and I could not live. He's died the death that we deserve. He was buried and He was raised victoriously from the dead to conquer, to show, to validate that what he's accomplished is oh, he's overcome sin and overcome sin's wages, death. He's overcome both. And this is how you're made right with God. This is how freedom comes from sin and self. When you live from acceptance, not trying to get accepted. God regards the humble. Isaiah 66 says it like this This is the one to whom I look. He who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word. 1 Samuel 16 says, The Lord does not look at the things that people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord He looks at the heart. 1 Peter 5 says it like this: cloth yourself, all of you, with humility toward one another. For God opposes the proud, but what does he do? He gives, he gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, casting all your anxieties on him because he cares for you. Listen, think about life. Think about life for just a minute. You come, you come into this world, right? You're swimming in your mother's womb for nine months, water breaks, doctor gets you out, right? And they smack you. And you start breathing. And you can't feed yourself, you can't even dress yourself. You're you someone else has to feed you, someone else has to dress you, right? Then think the last day. The last day, when you take your last breath, you can't even dress yourself again. The way we enter the world and the way we leave the world, we are completely helpless. And I want to encourage you this morning. Don't wait to the last day to be humbled. Don't wait to the last day. Don't wait to a sickness. About a year ago, I got a call from a dear family member that said, I've got a friend and he wants to see a pastor. Would you go with me? So I made my way over to Duke University, and I walk into a room with a man who has lived most all of his life full of himself. Philanthropist, wealthy name is on buildings in this city. He had had a surgery that didn't work, and they were gonna have to do another surgery that was gonna be 12 hours long, where they rerouted a vein from the bottom of his leg back up to his heart. And they said, You've got a 50-50 chance of making it through the surgery. That's when the pastor gets the call. And I walk in and I sit down with them. I'll never forget it. He says, So tell me what I need to do. I said, You've done a lot, but it's not it's not gonna work. He says, What do I do to be made right with God? How do I get in? I said, I know you've given a lot of money, you've done a lot of good stuff, but none of that, none of that will get you in to heaven. So you have to plead the blood of Christ and ask for forgiveness and repent and trust. All trust. The only thing you need to bring to God is your need to be with God. And he sat up on the bed and kicked all the doctors out, all the nurses. And he says, Okay. And he cried out to God, have mercy on me. I spoke at his funeral three months later. And the point of telling you that is don't wait until you had due to have surgery. You may not you may not make it. Do it now. Do it today. Cast yourself on him. And he'll show you mercy. Come to him humbly. Notice the text how it ends. This is for the original audience, is the shocker. This is the surprising statement. Notice the third point: Jesus redeems the humble and he rejects the prideful. He redeems the humble and he rejects the prideful. What a shocking statement that will come. Jesus declares the surprising verdict of justification. Both are at church. One, listen, listen, one thinks God owes him and the other knows God owns him. Huge difference, right? And to some to give you a little quick theological category, I use this to just understand maybe the because both are at the temple, both are praying, both are at church, but but there's two different, could not be two different perspectives. I call this the dog and cat theology. Here it is, real quick. You give a dog a biscuit, um, right, and and you come in and the dog just jumps on you every day. It's like he's he's tasted mercy every day. He jumps on you and he looks up at you and he says, Man, the way you treat me. No, the dogs don't talk, but if he did, the way you treat me, you must be God. And then for the cat, right, you groom the cat, you feed the cat. I don't know what you feed cats, I don't like cats. Don't email me about this illustration. And if you do, it's Brian at pray.org. So just so here we here we go. The cat is groomed, the cat is you take you pet the cat, you love on the cat, and and the cat looks up, and the cat looks up and says, the way you treat me, I must be God. And this this is how we live, isn't it? This is how we live. It's subtle. We start comparing, we start a resume, a list, and before you know it, man, we we're thinking way too much of ourselves. Way too much. And what happens is the Pharisee thinks he deserves heaven, and the tax collector knows he's doomed to hell. The way up is down, the way up is down. This is the shocking moment. Jesus says, I tell you, this man, this man, the tax collector, went down to his house, justified, made right with God, and everyone, everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted. God does not justify the impressive, he justifies the humble, he humbles the proud. And how does he do it? How does he justify us? There's somebody else in the text, and it's the storyteller himself. Jesus himself will humble himself to the point of death, death on a cross. And here's the good news in his mercy. God did not only just withhold what we deserve, his righteous wrath, he redirected it to a cross with his son on it, and he paid that penalty. The most humble one in all of history died on a cross, was buried in a grave, and rose from the dead. And 2 Corinthians 5 says it like this He who knew no sin became sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God. This is how you're made right with God. You plead mercy, you trust Christ, you fall on him. Keller says it like this the gospel is that we're more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dare believe, yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Christ than we ever dared hope. And the question of the hour, if you're standing before God and you say, and he said, Why would I let you in? If you start, if you start with I, you're in the wrong line. You're behind the Pharisee. If you start citing your resume, my parents grew up in the church. I grew up in the church. I was baptized when I was five. If you list all of your accomplishments and not his grace and mercy, it's a dangerous road. It's a sobering road. If you plead mercy, if you were asked this and you the only thing you could say is because of Christ and Him alone, then you're probably lined up behind the tax collector. Ephesians says it like this but God being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. 1 Peter 1 says, according to his great mercy, according to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Christ from the dead. He's rich in mercy, according to his great mercy. Plead his mercy today. If you've never made a decision for Christ, or you've made a decision to come to church thinking that that's going to get you into heaven, it's not. Today, plead mercy in humility. Get rid of the resume. We want you to live godly, but you don't live godly to be accepted. You live godly because he's already accepted when you've trusted him. That's the difference. And so today, let's confess our pride when it rises up. Let's confess our pride. Let's cultivate humility. Let's cast ourselves on Christ's mercy and be made right with God. Be justified. To be justified is to be declared righteous. And that's what you want on your last day to be right with Him and Him alone. And one of the ways we celebrate mercy is we remember Christ by taking the Lord's Supper. And so here's what I want to do. I want to take just a few minutes to give you an opportunity to pray, maybe pray through some of these things we've talked about. And then I'll close out our time, and then we'll lean into this together. So just spend a few minutes there praying. We thank you for your kindness that you've shown to us that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. So we confess our need for you, not only for salvation, but to be strengthened day after day after day. God help us as we grow in you that our depth of our wretchedness would directly impact the height of our worship. The gap is so huge. And you met it in your son on a cross. We're grateful. So we give you thanks for this bread and this cup, for what it reminds us of. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, the night that he was being portrayed, and throughout the scriptures, he tells us a warning for those who don't know Christ to not take this bread and cup because you're proclaiming something that's not true about you if you haven't made a decision to follow Christ and trust him. And so I would ask you to let it pass if you haven't made that decision. If you have, I want you to receive it with joy. And it's it's a joy that he set up for us on the night that they were celebrating the Passover, the night that they were celebrating what God had, how God had delivered them years and years before from bondage, of captivity. And Jesus shows up on the scene the very night they're celebrating. He goes, actually, that was pointing to me, because I'm the one that's gonna deliver you. I'm gonna be the ultimate deliverer from sin and death, our greatest two problems and enemies. And he took the bread and he said, This is symbolic of my body. It's broken for you. It will be broken in a sense on a cross. So take and eat with great remembrance of what he's done. And in the same way, he took the cup. He said, This is the cup of the new covenant. My blood would be shed once and for all. Forever, for the forgiveness of sin. He said, take and drink in remembrance with joy. Father, we give thanks for this meal that we get to take together. For those who aren't there yet, we pray that you would open their eyes and use your word this time. The most glorious, greatest news in the history of the world that Christ died for us. Stir their hearts, awaken affections. For the many that have celebrated this supper, God, I pray you would send us out this week, walking in humility, casting our cares on you because you care for us, making much of your Son, Jesus. We love you. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.