Pray for 20/20 Vision Rev. David Maier (Workbook Page 43)

PRAY FOR 20/20 VISION Rev. Dr. David P. E. Maier

PRAY FOR 20/20 VISION 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 and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people — robbers, evildoers, adulterers — or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’

PRAY FOR 20/20 VISION “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 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.” Luke 18: 9-14 NIV

PRAY FOR 20/20 VISION “Without stories we end up with stereotypes – a flat earth with flat cardboard figures that have no texture or depth, no interior." Eugene Peterson

PRAY FOR 20/20 VISION Luke 11: 5-13 Luke 18: 1-8

PRAY FOR 20/20 VISION 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 and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people — robbers, evildoers, adulterers — or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’

PRAY FOR 20/20 VISION “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 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.” Luke 18: 9-14 NIV

The consequence is that Churches collect a lot of undesirable people: PRAY FOR 20/20 VISION The consequence is that Churches collect a lot of undesirable people: Sinners mostly

PRAY FOR 20/20 VISION Pharisees Tax Men

PRAY FOR 20/20 VISION On the day of this story, both men have gone to church to pray. Prayer, this universal venture into intimacy with God … so basic and easy to begin but so difficult to sustain. Prayer, this so often suppressed or distracted desire to live a life that is more that skin deep. Prayer, a refusal to live as an outsider to the only God … and to our own soul. Prayer, this “best” which is too often corrupted into the “worst,” … because its rich interior maturity too often deteriorates into a mere pile of pious clichés or mindless repetition.

PRAY FOR 20/20 VISION So it not surprising that the setting most conducive to the cultivation of true transparency, of true inner maturity should be so often deficient in it. Virtually no one goes to church to pray with the intention of not dealing with God, at least early on. But when we find that we can get — so effortlessly — all the social benefits of being associated with God without having to deal with God, it is hardly remarkable that form without content (our usual word for this is “hypocrisy”) is so prevalent in places of prayer.

PRAY FOR 20/20 VISION Hypocrisy is a unique sin in that it does not begin in a temptation to do wrong.

PRAY FOR 20/20 VISION REPENT Hypocrisy is the lazy replacement of a strenuous interior life with God with religious makeup and gossipy god-chatter. REPENT

PRAY FOR 20/20 VISION We need to remember that God’s grace, opposed to “earning,” inspires “effort”! Surely all of this calls us to be zealous in our prayer life and in our prayers.

A closer look at Pharisees… John 8: 1-11 PRAY FOR 20/20 VISION A closer look at Pharisees… John 8: 1-11

Grace is a God who stoops. PRAY FOR 20/20 VISION Grace is a God who stoops.

Do you trust your Advocate or your Accuser? PRAY FOR 20/20 VISION Let this sink in for a moment. In the presence of God, in defiance of Satan, Jesus Christ rises to your defense.   Do you trust your Advocate or your Accuser?

PRAY FOR 20/20 VISION Grace wins.

A closer look at the despised and estranged … like the Tax Collector PRAY FOR 20/20 VISION A closer look at the despised and estranged … like the Tax Collector Mark 5: 21-34

PRAY FOR 20/20 VISION Note her difficulty. Note her dilemma. Note her deliverance.

PRAY FOR 20/20 VISION Note her discovery. Note her declaration. Note her designation.

PRAY FOR 20/20 VISION “I tell you that this man, – the tax collector – rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

PRAY FOR 20/20 VISION May God enable us to SEE and yield to His invitation to come with our burdens – to seek Him – and to go home justified, at peace, and strengthened and to bring as many others with us as well.

PRAY FOR 20/20 VISION “Who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen”

Anniversary & Award Recognition