Pastor Ralph Douglas West - Two Ways To Leave The Church | Luke 18:9-14

0:05 This is the day the Lord has made. We rejoice and we are what? Glad in it. Put your Bibles down, free your hands and think about how God has kept you over the last week and give God praise. Yeah. Not an applaud, but praise to thank the Lord for what he has done in your life, how God has kept you and protected you. Thank you, men, for leading us in worship. And those of you who read scripture and prayed prayers on the day, what a joy it has been as we focus our attention on God's mercy. The Lord's mercy is new every morning. Great is his faithfulness. Well, we've come to church this morning and in a few minutes we'll give the benediction and go back to the places where we've come from, right?

1:10 And so I want to tag this text this morning. Two ways to leave church. Luke chapter 18, commencing at verse 9, is a story that Jesus tells to an audience of people that are leaning on the idea of being righteous, righteous above the righteousness of others in some ways. And so in Luke 18, hear what Jesus says to his congregation that gathers around on that morning. Commencing at verse number 9 To some who were confident of their own righteousness And looked down on everyone else Jesus told this parable Two men went up to the temple to pray One a Pharisee, the other a tax collector The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed God, I thank you that I'm not like Jewel You're welcome.

2:12 Did I just say that? The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed God I thank you that I'm not like other people Robbers, evildoers, adulterers Even like this tax collector I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get but the tax collector stood at a distance he would not even look up to heaven but beat his breast and said God have mercy on me a sinner I'll tell you that this man rather than the other went home justified before God for all those who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted This is the word of God You may be seated There are some stories that we never tire of In the database of your memory You probably have some stories that you grew up on That you never tire on For the first time in Christian history A book outread the Bible if it's a series of books on Harry Potter.

3:40 It led a generation to a new appreciation of reading. And from then to now, there are those that know not only the series, episodes, and characters, but they know the story so well that when you try to edit it, they know how to correct you at certain points. I was like that with some stories that my mother read to me. I don't know if it was my favorite, but one of them I enjoyed was the three little pigs, particularly when the wolf said, I'll huff and puff and blow your house down. It was read to me. It was recited to me. I memorized it, as many of you did of a particular generation. and when somebody tried to alter the story, he knew exactly what they were trying to edit in or edit out.

4:37 Jesus had some stories that he liked to tell and other stories told, you and I appreciate these stories, particularly the ones that we read in the Gospel of Luke. Luke has such a human touch, a kind of justice mystique about it that many people enjoyed. May I say ethnically, and it's true, that you hear Luke preached in African American churches more than any other group of people because of the socioeconomic and the religio justice that's attached to the stories that Jesus tells. In the words of Jill Scott, when she was commenting on the music of Frankie Beverly and Mays, She said we pay him to sing his music. There are stories that we love the same way when it comes to Jesus. That when we read Luke 10, maybe of the Samaritan, we know the story so well that we never tire of it.

5:39 Luke 15, the story of the prodigal, whether it is the lost coin, the lost sheep, whether it's the lost son or the lost brother at the house of the prodigal father. I've never heard anyone in any church ever decry that they didn't want to hear that story or more of it One reason why we enjoy hearing those stories so much is because we know them And so when we hear them and the preacher preaches we think we're preaching more of the sermon than the preacher is That is a truth That's the reason why foreign texts are not received as warmly because all of the data is new but the stories that we know we love to hear retold. I shouldn't tell you this but there are certain movies that I can watch and that was a series of movies I watched for over a year every night before I went to bed.

6:35 They were not the artistically best movies. They didn't help me sleep. I just liked them. And I can turn it on now and watch this series of movies as if I've never watched them before. I'm that way about Bible scriptures. I can read certain stories in the Bible. I've been reading them now for over 49 years, and I never tire of them. In fact, they always birth something new. The people that I like most who read Bible stories are the people that say to me, well, I don't need to hear that. I know everything there is to know about it. These are the most arrogant people you'll ever meet in your life. They know more than anybody else knows. I know people who have dedicated an entire life to a book chapter in a particular book of a Bible where they've studied it over and over for more than 30 years.

7:31 There's something about reading stories. There's something about hearing stories, knowing the movement of the stories that excite us. But there's nothing like a story that turns us on edge. like the story that I just read to you. Other than the Samaritan story of this religious and racial outcast being the hero of the story, I've just read to you a story that when the people heard it, they were startled by it because not just of the characters, but the role that they play. Jesus did something out of the norm. He turned the hero into a villain and then turned a villain into a hero when he told a story. And the way that he got into it is when you read verse 9 because there were some that were confident in their own righteousness and they looked down on other people.

8:30 Let me say that one more time. That there were some people who had come up to the temple. There were some who sat in a crowd. There were some that leaned on their goodness, their self-righteousness, their rightness, and they looked down on the others. You would never agree that that's you, would you? But you have to be careful because sometimes we allow in our Christianity that little disease to unease us, to make us assume that we're a little better than somebody else. and here Jesus is saying to the members of the Church Without Walls that you are here today in this room and if life has been good to you, I want you to know it's not because of your goodness, it's because of the grace and the mercy of God. Preach Pastor Wells.

9:24 And so this is a story about self-satisfaction. Self-satisfaction is a word that suggests that you can't be improved. You are comfortable with where you are. You have achieved all of what you want to achieve. I'm not talking now about consumerism and getting houses, car, materiality. That's not what I'm... I'm speaking about in your morals and ethics and spiritual. Where you say, I can't be improved. Pastor West is wasting his time preaching to me because I have already excelled to the highest level of spirituality there is. And Jesus said there were those who came to the church when I was confident of their righteousness and they looked down on others. Some of you have a tendency of life has been real good to you. and you can brag and say that my children have never done A, B, C, or D.

10:23 Speaking of in the negative. And then you kind of said looking at somebody in the room that you know their children have made missteps and you kind of look, you know, religiously snobbishly down your ethical nose. And then you say, well, they only did that because, you know, their mom and dad ain't all, you know.

10:43 And Jesus says, and some being confident, in their righteousness, they look down on others. Jesus had this unique way of addressing things like that, and he couldn't couch them in a story. He said, well, you know, one day in the week where people go to church, two people came to church. One was a Pharisee, and nobody was bent out of shape about the Pharisee. If anybody was going to go to the temple to pray, it was going to be the Pharisee. It was that other person that Jesus interjected that threw things out of equilibrium. He said, and a tax collector. Well, you and I may need some help on the tax collector, but the people that heard Jesus tell that story said, wait a minute. You can't put Pharisee and tax collector in the same sentence. You can't put them under the same roof.

11:40 One belongs despite their religious arrogance, but the other one has no religiosity at all. And so Jesus now gives us a look at this story as he makes these comparisons between the Pharisee and the tax collector. And so he begins with this self-satisfaction of this particular person and his rightness with God. And so he says the Pharisee came to the temple and when he made his way there, he went there to pray. There are a few things to pick up when you read this story. Hopefully you still have your Bibles or your iPad or your phone on and you're not texting while I'm preaching.

12:22 He says, I want you to pay attention to something here. Notice the posture of the prayer of the Pharisee. The Pharisee makes his way into the temple. And once he gets into this place up there, he takes a position in which he's going to pray. So he stood up and that was the right way to pray. He stood up and he prayed at that very moment there in the temple. He did it right. I mean, this is a Pharisee. There are only 600 of them, 6,000 of them at one time whenever you read about them. These are the people who have memorized the law to perfection. These are the people who have subdivided the law and subdivided the subdivision until they had subdivided the law into laws that not even God had made. It was impossible to follow or keep up with the laws.

13:21 This is what made them morally, religiously, ethically superior to everybody else. The other people couldn't keep up with them. And so the Pharisee, whose name is derived from the word purity, not a bad person, by the way, and I know that they're often seen that way. You need some Pharisee to help keep things ethically in line. It's always the overdoing of it. And then it's always using themselves as the standard. You see, if you're the standard of morality, you always win. What rule do you measure with? And if you're the standard, you're always going to come in on the rule of 10 or the rule of 100. but if Christ be the standard, we always come beneath the bar because his standards are beyond ours. And so he comes to the temple to pray. He assumes his posture, he stands up and then listen to and watch the attitude of his prayer. Do you see it said he stood up? Why do you think he stood? I'm asking you. It's test time. You've been coming to church a long time. You've been reading the Bible, you're always telling me how smart you are. Where was he standing? You're right.

14:38 That's exactly where he was standing. Jesus told a story, used an illustration in a sermon in Matthew 6. And he talked about these people who come to pray and they always stand where everybody could see him. And so where this person stood was in the intersection of the temple. And when they were standing there, he was standing where everybody could see him in all four directions. He had gone there not so much to pray as much to be seen. And so he stands there and you see his attitude in his posture of prayer when he is about to raise his voice in the content of the prayer that he prays. listen to what he says when he prays he says God I thank you that I'm not like these other folk that's gonna come in there who do you think he was looking at when he said that well he wasn't looking in the mirror this was not a reflection of himself he's cutting his eye to the corner and looking behind him at a fellow named the tax collector and say Lord I thank you I ain't like them. Now there are prayers that have been discovered over the years that give more explanation to how this man prayed. He said, Lord, I thank you. Number one, I'm not a Gentile. Then secondly, he said, Lord, I thank you that I'm not a slave. I'm free. And Lord, I thank you that I'm not a woman. These are prayers that have been on earth and this is how the Pharisees prayed.

16:13 and when he was praying he is losing as his ruler the tax collector that's behind him to say I'm glad I'm not like this extortioner I'm glad I'm not like this robber I'm glad I'm not like this adulterer and so if you are measuring your life by those of others yes you are always religiously superior but where do you stand when you measure yourself against the goodness grace and mercy of the living God. So he comes in there and he prays his little prayer. And notice now you can come to this conclusion. Come here for a minute. It's not a prayer at all. He's making a recitation, but it's not a prayer. You don't have to be a Christian long to know that there are always at least four ingredients that come to prayer.

17:10 Whether you know how to name them or not, this ought to be in prayer. And if you're not doing this, you probably haven't been praying. You may have been Phariseeing, but not praying. I don't know if it's a word. I make it up sanctified and send it forth. But authentic Christian prayer always begins somewhere with a confession. A confession of need, a confession of shortcoming. But then there's always some element of thanksgiving. to thank God for who God is and what God has done and how God has provided. But then there's also a petition, that is your request to God is saying, Lord, I stand in need of thee. I cannot live life without you. And then there's also intercession that you never come to the altar by yourself. You're always praying for somebody else. And that's when church gets good, when you take the focus off of you put it on God and somebody else and the Lord always includes you into the equation well here you get an idea of this church service of what's taking place can I go further into this self-rightness of prayer that this man is praying when you look at it Notice how he reminds God of what he's done.

18:39 He tells God in church, in case the Lord has forgotten, Lord, this is what I have done. Now, I know you would never, never admit to anything, but I've heard that. You know, people want to send God there and send God here and move God over there, all that kind of stuff. And the Lord's saying that, you know, then people get upset. The Lord didn't visit me. He didn't come. That's why I don't go to church. I quit because I prayed and God wasn't there. Yeah, it was. God got hands working every day. But if you're not using your hand, how can God work? You are the one to visit the sick. You are the one to go to the prison. You are the one to bring healing. All of this business, this is elementary Christianity. when you're still waiting on God to do everything in your life.

19:36 God has saved, rescued, and delivered us and called us into community to build community so that we can live at one minute with him and with others. I knew you wasn't going to get happy about that. And the person next to you can't help you now. And if you're really serious, you ought to tell them, be quiet. We can talk about football later after the benediction. I'm interested to hear this because I've been waiting on God. I've known people who've been walking with God for a lifetime and then their mother fold their tent, a father fold their tent, and then they quit on God. You ain't got no promissory note that you're going to be here forever. I don't care who you are, how much you love God, there's an expiration date attached to all of our lives and you had better get ready for that. But if you love God as much as you say you do, then you are a resurrection child.

20:39 You know absence from the body is present with the Lord and one day we shall meet one another again. preach Pastor West whether they want to hear it or not. I quit on God because I got sick. You keep on living. There's a whole lot of things you're going to entertain, a lot of things that you're going to invite that you didn't ask for. But what we do have with God is his divine presence that you don't have to walk through it by yourself. I'll be in it with you. Preach, man. I got a witness for myself now. Now let me get to this prayer now. He says, he says, now Lord, look at what I've done.

21:36 I like this prayer. He says, Lord, now I have fast twice a week. Well now, this may not mean much to anybody else. Helmut Tillich was a great German interpreter and he says there was two ways, two things that affected a person's level of spiritual maturity.

22:01 Tillich said that one is what's in your stomach, the other is in your pocketbook. Two things that the Lord said that he would provide. So we fast twice a week and say, what's the big deal? Well, you only have to fast once a year. and now here's a guy that's fasting twice a week on monday and thursday monday is the day because moses went up into the mountain thursday is the day when he comes down and so he's he's fasting on the day that the law had come to him that man should not live by bread along by every word that comes out of the mouth of God. So he's fasting twice a week. I mean it's a little exorbitant but I mean you can't criticize, that's pretty good. But then he said and then I fast twice a week but then I tithe.

23:03 Get this, don't go to sleep now on everything that I earn or obtain. Now get that He tithed Not on produce I work, I get paid, I give No, that's not what he said He said, I tithe on everything I obtain Some of you lost things in the flood or the rain Imagine you lost a television It cost a thousand dollars You replace it with your money And then this morning what you're going to do is pay the tithe on the TV that you bought because you bought it from somebody that you don't believe tithe, so you're going to pay the tithe on the TV. Extreme, maybe, but I'll take it today. And that's what Jesus was getting to.

24:00 He said, this guy, fast, twice a week, pays, tithe on stuff he ain't got to pay it on. So you get an idea if you're living like that when he said, Lord, I thank you that I'm not like Ralph West. Lord I thank you Because I fast twice a week I don't wait for no Lent season Ash Wednesday Get no ashes and then cheat. I fast twice a week. You get the idea. There's no humility in this person at all That's the point that Jesus is getting to Rita Snowden, and I move on to my last statement and I'm done.

25:12 Rita Snowden tells the story of being a tourist with other tourists in Germany. They had gone by Beethoven's little room where he composed music and played his music. Rita said that she was with a group and there were some in the group who were accompanist musicians. One young lady when they went into the room and the docent said, this is the room where Beethoven composed much of his music. We assume that this is the room where he composed Moonlight Sonata. But that one of the young girls felt that this was an invitation to sit at the bench where Beethoven had played. And she began to play out of reciting the piece that Beethoven had written.

26:16 The dosan said, that's interesting that you would sit there and play that. A couple of weeks ago, we had Padaransky with us. And at this time, Padaransky is the most acclaimed pianist in the world. And we ask him to sit down and play Moon High Sonata. And he said, I can't do that. I could never sit down. I could never put my hands on the keys. I could never play the piano where Beethoven had played. I can only stand back in reverence and awe and respect of the musical genius that he has produced the kind of work that he has done. And here this morning if we're not careful we'll start thinking because we can recite something, memorize something. That we know something that we're able to enter into the places that belong to God alone.

27:14 Humility reminds us that God is the one that exalts us, not ourselves. Priest Pastor West. Now the Pharisee gets more attention in this. But it's the tax collector that gets the punch. Jesus is a master to a storyteller. notice all the time he spends painting this picture of a pharisee religiosity and you sit there and you say lord don't let that be me Lord do not let that be me and Jesus counters the story and I'm done and he looks at the humble confession of a tax collector Imagine a man in full Ku Klux Klan dress walking, falling down at that altar.

28:18 You might get an idea Of the shock it would be For a tax collector to go to the temple to pray Tax collectors don't go to the temple to pray That's the point Pharisees go but not tax collectors Who's the tax collector you ask? In World War II There were many Jews who were exterminated not because they were caught but because their hideouts were revealed by what people call quizlers quizler was a nasty term when Jews heard it they grimaced at it because it was an insider a Jew working with the Germans to preserve their life by telling where other Jews would be Amen.

29:17 If those two images Cause any irksome in you Then you got an idea When these people heard That two men went to the temple to pray Then you get some idea of how the people felt when Jesus told the story. He's just telling a story and they are saying, I cannot believe that he's telling this story. And then he says, notice the posture of this man that prays. It's just simple. He says, the Pharisee stood at the center of the intersections where everybody could see him in four directions. This man didn't even come all the way into the temple. He stayed out where the Gentile courts are because he felt unworthy to enter in.

30:16 the Pharisee raises his gaze this man says I'm not worthy to even look in God's direction and his posture is one of humility that's all he knows to give to God is his humility, that's it And then look at his practice you see it don't you you're looking at it you see what he's doing he's beating his breasts while he's praying head down in humble confession beating his breast the tense of the verb in the greek new testament is that he didn't just strike himself one time it was a continual beating of his breast The heart was the center of emotion and he felt like that it was his heart that had led him into a life of taxation and abuse and extortion on his own country people and now for whatever reason, he's in God's temple and in God's house.

31:38 God has gotten a hold of him and he does not like what he sees and who he is and he's trying to break his heart. And there comes a time with all of us that when we come to God, we ought to ask him, Lord, break my heart. Break me out of my habits. Break me out of my conditions and traditions. Break me out of my custom. Break me out of my habits. Break me, Lord. Because you know if the Lord breaks you, he has a way of making you. If God empties you, he has a way of filling you. I'm almost done.

32:20 And how did he pray? Compare his prayer to the length of the prayer that the Pharisee prayed. It's seven words. All he could muster up was just simply say this. God, have mercy on me. A sinner. he didn't just stop it Lord God have mercy on me because a lot of us get to that God have mercy but he identifies who he is I am a sinner I'm separated from you I've fallen short of your glory I understand that the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord have mercy on me I know Paul must have read this when he wrote his first letter Galatians when he identifies him as a sinner and then at the end of his writing he doesn't call himself a sinner he calls himself the chief of sinners because God is able to have mercy on you that's something that you ought to know if I could give a gift to you this morning there are so many people that I know inactive in God's work because you're still holding on to what God forgave 10 years ago.

33:50 Let me say it again. The hardest people to talk to are believers in Jesus Christ who've made a misstep. God has forgiven them. I don't care how many times you tell them that they still live as if they are unforgiven. Whenever you have confessed to God, the great hymn says, the Lord has taken your sin, not in part, but the whole, and nailed it to the cross. All them songs you sing in these hymns, this ain't for your fill in the gap time before the sermon. Read them lines. hear what God is saying love lifted me when nothing else can help love lifted me this ain't got nothing to do with old church new church it got to do with good theology when i was sinking deep in sin far from the peaceful shore buried deeply stained within seeking to rise no more the master of the sea heard my despairing cry from the waters he lifted me now safe am I love lifted me yeah I gotta sit down now but my soul got happy because if there's any gift I could give to some of you and you carrying a while carrying around the burden what God lifted a long time ago and what do you care if somebody say look at her and look at him walking around you tell them you're right that's what i used to be and i'm a living testimony that god can take what used to be and give you a brand new story god have mercy on me a sinner oh i gotta sit down but my soul got happy I know what the Lord can do

35:55 yeah and so this man this man the tax collector the least of the people left church that day and this is what Jesus said and he went home justified that's a legal term that means when you showed up you was guilty Guilty as sin But When you went home You went home Justified You didn't get that You been acquitted That's better than that You been exonerated Better than that The Lord blotted out your transgressions Washed your sins away every time somebody come along and they try to write in your story the Lord said don't do that I nailed your sins to the cross and that's what you go home today with saying and the Lord nailed my sins to the cross and then he buried them in the grave now here's the good news when Jesus got up.

37:20 He told your sins, now you stay in the grave. Because I've forgiven you as far as the east is from the west. Have a good day. May God bless you real good. But you ought to rejoice that my sins have been forgiven. That the Lord has washed away Oh my sin Have I got company in here Don't go home The way you can Don't go home Carrying your burdens Don't go home Taking your problems back with you Tell them I left them at the altar And I'm going to leave them there I'm trying not to go there But my soul Gets a little happy when I talk about that Let me ask you You help me Is there anybody here?

38:19 I'm serious. I can really testify. What happens when the Lord lifts your burden? He'll put... Oh my goodness. Somebody said it over there. For you didn't hear it over there. He'll put running in your feet.

38:43 Slap him in your hand. Joy in your heart is joy. that I have. The world did not give it to me. And the world can't take it away. I'm trying to leave you. Why don't you help me just one time and just thank the Lord for sending us home justified. I may not be what I ought to be. I'm not everything that I could be. But thank God I'm not. Yeah. Yeah. what I used to be. You don't mind doing it, do you? Find somebody. You don't even have to grab them. Just look in that direction and just tell them, I've been forgiven.

39:35 Sins have been washed away. Now some people don't know what that means yet, but just keep on living. Just keep on living. And say, I know the law have made a way for me, I've been forgiven. Went home, justified. That's the good news, church. Went home, justified. The news is so good for somebody here today that you are sitting there saying, I just don't believe it. Because I know what I've done. I know what I've done. I'm guilty of sin. and you telling me that God can forgive that? I'm here to tell you, not only can God forgive it, God can erase it. God can blot it out.

40:29 Yes, he can. On Sunday, when you see these people standing up, clapping and waving, they ain't got nothing to do with that cultural identity. They standing up because they're testifying. That's my story I know how God can forgive I know how God can set free That's why you don't let people Come tell you you supposed to be a Christian And you did this and hold on now I'll let you say I supposed to be this and that But you're not going to tell me About my walk with Jesus I may not be everything But I know I'm not what There you go And when the man went home, the last line of that whole story, Jesus said, now if you exalt yourself, you'll be humble.

41:24 But if you go home with Jesus, he'll exalt you. And I watched God do that to people in this church. Spiritually and physically, raise them up. Our Father, we stand in agreement today. because we know that we're like that tax collector. that the best prayer we got is to say, God, have mercy on me and sinning.

41:56 But thank you for forgiving, restoring, renewing, reviving, remaking. And there are people here today, there are folk in their life that's always reminding them what they did 50 years ago, 40, 30 years ago, 20, 10 years ago, last year. give them the same gift that you gave to that publican leaving that day.

42:29 To remind them if you could fix it yourself, you would. But since you came, I will. And send them home justified. Now help us to go back to where we come from and make the difference make the difference that only you can make in our homes in our schools our communities on our jobs to make the real difference lord we thank you for what you've done and what you continue to do in the strong name of jesus we pray and give you praise amen give god praise today church yeah celebrate the lord's goodness all over the building And I'm out.