Prayer Vouchers

Scripture: Luke 18.1-8; 2 Timothy 3.14-4.5; 1 Peter 4.7


Text messaging is the latest instant way to communicate with people. If email is not fast enough, and making a phone call is too much trouble; just send a text. Whom do you text and how often?

Some of you are thinking, “What is a text?” Others of you are thinking, “I have done it but its not really that important to me.” And then there are a few people here, perhaps mostly teenagers, who moments ago answered my question with, “Idk, my bff, jill, 24/7.”

If that’s you, you are really into texting. More on that in a bit.

I have a text message for all of us today. It’s found in Luke’s gospel. It’s a story that Jesus tells, a parable. When Jesus tells a parable his listeners know that this may be a made up story but it also very well could have happened. They don’t know. But they know that it’s real. It’s true.

“So, there was this crooked judge, who doesn’t believe in God and is cynical about life. . .”

Nothing far-fetched about that.

“And there is this widow who is in trouble, maybe her landlord is trying to kick her out, and she goes to the judge for help.”

Of course the judge doesn’t want to help her. What does he care about the widow? He doesn’t. And he tells her that. NO! Go away. It’s not my problem. But she won’t take no for an answer. She keeps coming back. And finally, to get rid her, the judge says, “Alright. Enough. I’ll help you. Just quit coming to me.”

Then Jesus brings it home. “If this crooked judge will answer a request, won’t God, who is good, hear the cries of his children? He won’t waste time. He will get right on it.”

I am sure his listeners got it right away. You could see the lights go on in their eyes. Aha! Yes, we get it! But Luke, I guess, wasn’t so sure about us, so he prefaced this story with these words, “He told them this parable which means we should pray and not give up.”

Luke wants to make sure we get the meaning of the story. He wants to make sure we know that God is real and God is present in this world, and is active in our lives.

And so prayer is not just wishful thinking, or some mental, psycho-social exercise. It’s not the way old women waste their time or little children get to sleep at night.
To pray is to engage the true force and power in this world on your behalf.

Look at the context of this parable. Jesus is teaching about the Kingdom. In the previous chapter it says,

“Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, he answered them, ‘The kingdom of God is not coming with signs or in a particular location, look, the kingdom of God is among you and around you.”

The kingdom of God, meaning, every space and place where God is and rules, is everywhere in this world. Now, if this is true then God has some explaining to do. Or rather, God has some work to do. And He is doing it. And God invites us to participate in the work.

The Salvation Army contacted me the other day and asked if I would write vouchers for them in the Hollidaysburg/Duncansville area to help folks in need. The way it works is, they give me budget and I write the voucher to a local business on behalf of someone who needs help. I don’t have the money myself, but I have a piece of paper, the voucher, to give which the Salvation Army will translate into a reality, a good reality.

Likewise, when we pray, we’ve got nothing but air and words, at least at face value. But the One to whom we pray has the power to give reality to our prayers.

Think of it another way. I don’t know how text messaging works exactly. Yeah, I could give you some words, stuff like digital encoding that is transmitted over radio waves and picked up by another receiver and reencoded into information that someone else can read. But basically I’m just blowing smoke. I don’t really understand that. Heck, I don’t really understand how a phone call works and I’ve been doing it all my life. I feel like I’m in Willy Wonka’s television room. Transport a chocolate bar into the tv? Sure, why not.

Prayers are being sent up (or out) all the time. Probably every second a prayer is being sent by someone somewhere is this kingdom of earth. Do I understand how this all works, how God pays attention to all that and responds to it? No, I do not. But I find prayer at least as plausible as a phone call or a text message. And I find prayer eternally and infinitely more valuable than all our instant technology and communication. Because prayer changes our reality, destroying evil and bringing about God’s rule.

Also in chapter seventeen, Jesus talks about the Last Days and the coming Judgment. He makes the connection between the importance of praying continually with the reality we are living in and the times in which we live. We are in those last days, so the best response is to pray.

“The end of all things is at hand; therefore keep sane and sober for your prayers.” 1 Peter 4.7

Keep sane, or self-controlled, and pray. That’s what Peter has to say about it.
When we are facing these days we must respond by praying.

“Not fight. Not preach. Not counsel. Not organize. Not even evangelize. Just pray.”

If the world is going to come crashing down around us or erupt into a fiery ball, then we better learn how to pray now. When the sky falls, when mountains collapse, when nature’s red in tooth and claw – to pray well under such circumstances takes exceptional clearness of mind and enormous self-control.

So start now. When the worst that you have to deal with maybe is a flat tire or the flu bug or too many bills; learn to pray now. Learn that grace under pressure.

Why is Tom Brady the best quarterback in the NFL? It’s not that he has the best stats always. He has grace under pressure. In the biggest games, he plays well, like it’s any other game.

How can some people live more faithfully than others? They learn to pray every day under normal circumstances. They learn to focus and control themselves enough to pray in moments of calm. It serves them well in the days they need it most

Listen to what Mark Buchanon writes, “The habit of prayer will not magically arrive for you amid the flaming debris of the apocalypse. You’ll have to get it well in hand now, and work it into your daily rounds as patiently as petit point stitches. Then, when that day comes that you need it most, there it is.”


“The eyes of the Lord run back and forth across the whole earth, to show himself strong on behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him.” 2 Chronicles 16.9

“Nevertheless, when the Son of man comes, will he find faith on earth?” Luke 18.8

Joy Is Our Serious Business

Luke 17.11-19; Psalm 66.1-12; 2 Timothy 2.8-15


The National Consumer Safety Board recently did a study of lightweight trucks in Texas. They installed a black box type device that would record the audio in the truck before a crash. They would interested in what they would hear before the crash. They were not surprised to hear exclamations and screams, but what they were surprised is the number of times that last words they heard before a crash was, “Here, hold my drink, we’re gonna try somethin’.”

That story has little to do with our text today, except that the joke made me laugh as deeply as anything in awhile. And laughter has very much to do with Joy, and so, I guess, that joke has a lot to do with our text today. Because Joy is our serious business and is the natural attitude of all who love God.

Dallas Willard writes that the Psalms are the best expression of who God is and how God relates to us. Immerse yourself in the psalms and you come away knowing so much about God and about yourself.

“Make a joyful noise to God, all the earth; sing the glory of his name;
Give to him glorious praise. Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds!” Psalm 66.1-3


Are these just religious words, or do they actually describe a reality that people can and do participate in? Do you make joy?

It’s a legitimate question. I know that we often make sadness, make hurt, make anger, make trouble. We don’t like our lives. We are miserable and we want to make others that way too. And we do!

Is joy so scarce? Is life really this bad? Jesus says no. Life is full of the glory and richness of God. Is there much more to be joyful about than sad over. The difference lies in seeing and responding.

Jesus is traveling in the border country between Jews and Gentiles. It’s a mixed bag of people in the border towns and villages. And as He is going into a village he meets ten lepers. They call out to Jesus for his pity and help.

Jesus sees and hears them, which is a different response than these lepers are used to. Most people pretend they don’t hear and they don’t see. But Jesus sees better than most people. Jesus notices a lot. And this is the first key to rediscovering joy in your life.

Begin to notice the good things and good people you have learned to ignore.

A life well lived is about paying attention to simple gifts and unearned pleasures. We all the ask question probably once a day, “Why did this have to happen to me?” And when we ask that we mean, why did this bad thing happen. We should be asking probably ten times a day, “Why did all this good come my way? Why all this pleasure? What did I do to deserve this?”

In Sunday school the class I’m in is talking about the Beatitudes of Jesus. Dallas Willard points out that they only make sense when you consider the audience he is speaking to. They are a mass of raw humanity. Their lives are in the “down position.” They are poor, bankrupt, disease-ridden, socially inept, morally perverse, spiritual zeroes. And yet, Jesus points to them as he speaks, “Blessed are you when you are poor . . .blessed are you the ignored, the outcast. . .Blessed are you who have no friends but God.”

You are blessed not because you’ve earned it but because God is so good He gives it to you. He gives it because you need it.

“The gospel of the kingdom is that no one is beyond beatitude.”

As you may know, the Samaritans were looked at by the Jews as an inferior race of people ethnically and spiritually. But low and behold, that tenth leper that was healed came back to thank Jesus. It is noted he was a Samaritan. He is the only foreigner in the group.

“One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him – and he was a Samaritan.”

What the Samaritan saw was what the others missed. He didn’t deserve this great thing. It was totally unexpected. And he wept for joy. There was no containing his praise. Thank you God! Thank you Jesus! Thank you God!

We teach our kids to say thank you for simple gifts whether they feel thanks or not. It is a basic step of growth and maturity. Aunt Edna may bring that horrible tuna casserole she always makes for dinner. You may want to say to her, “Aunt Edna, that is worst sort of dish that I have ever tasted. The way you have tortured those noodles – you ought to be locked up.” That’s what you want to say as a kid, but what you, in fact, say is, “Thank you, Aunt Edna, for this good meal. Thank you.”

It’s not about faking gratitude or joy. It’s about growing up to be able to see that nothing is owed you in life. Isn’t this the difference between maturity and selfishness, a loving child and a spoiled brat?

This life can be for you a life of long, bitter pain or it can be a life rich beyond measure of purpose, joy, and love. The difference is not in the circumstances that come our way but in what we choose to see and or ignore. How many times do we need reminded of this lesson?

Those who see blessing don’t have to be told to say thank you. It comes automatically.

Say thank you more often and then, more often than that.

Bill Hybels encourages pastors to be “thanking machines.” I have tried to be better at this and you know what? The more I say thank you the more aware I become of all the other unearned blessings I have received. On Sunday morning we all have opportunity to say thank you God and share the praise. Frankly, I’m a little disappointed sometimes in how little we thank God. Take a little quiz with me now.

If someone got up and danced in the aisle during our singing, how would you respond to that? Would you: A) get up and dance with them B) say, you go ______, nice moves! C) Smile at them with bemusement and pity, and think, “that is so weird.” or D) Get angry and vow never to return to this Holy Roller Church

Could I suggest it wouldn’t hurt for more of us to “get a little weird” with our passion and praise once in awhile? Raise your hands, clap, bob your head. Maybe an extravagant act of praise would help us rediscover a sincere thank you, help us rediscover our joy. Maybe many of us have become so familiar with the routine of our lives and our church that we have stopped seeing what we used to.

Joy is our business. Joy is our strength. True faith produces joy and this joyful faith will make us well.

Trust God In Everything

Scripture: Proverbs 3.5-8; Luke 17.5-10


Have you ever marveled at a sleeping child? It is one of my favorite times to look at my sons. They’re quiet, for one thing. But also, they are beautiful when they sleep. They sleep the sleep of innocence. No troubles can touch them in their beds. No harm can come to them. They are protected. Anyone who has looked at a sleeping baby knows what I’m talking about. Everything about them is beautiful. They drool on the pillow – “Ahh, look isn’t that cute!”. Or they pass gas – “Oh, did you hear that? They tooted! How lovely!”

We grownups aren’t as attractive in our sleeping, I think. We kind of sprawl out and our faces go every which way. And we snore. And nothing is cute anymore. “Look, they’re drooling, eeewww!” I mean, I haven’t watched myself sleep, I’m just going by what I’ve seen in others. But I assume I’m as unattractive as anyone.

But here is what is beautiful about we sleeping unbeauties: we sleep because we trust.

We can fall asleep not just because we’re tired but because we trust that no harm will come to us or to those we care about while we rest. When you have trouble falling asleep, is it more because you’re not tired or because your mind is racing with worries and troubles? When we sleep well, we are implicity saying, Lord I leave it all it your hands now – I’m going to bed. That’s a very spiritual thing.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. . .”

Trust is a better word than believe. Trusting in God is really what believing in God is about. Because trust is so much stronger than “giving mental assent’ which is how we usually think of “believe.” Trust is putting your life in God’s hands time and time again. Trust is saying to God that I know you know what you’re doing, better than I do.

God knows what he’s doing when he teaches us about living. If we are willing to forgo “leaning on our own understanding,” and letting God have a go at it, we might just be amazed at how life begins to work for us.

I have to admit that I am often reluctant to not go with my first instincts and my perceived wisdom. And often God works through experience and insight and intuition that we possess or has been given to us. But there must always be a prayerful request and recognition, “Not my way Lord, but your way.”

“In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.”

Our ways – our habits, our routines, our thoughts, these are the things that must be transformed if we would be changed people of the Kingdom. As we talked about last Spring, our habits and behaviors are the means by which most sin happens in our lives and our world.

The group, Caedmon’s Call, has a song called, “Share in the Blame.” A line in the song goes,

“Don’t blame the president, don’t blame the king, don’t blame your history for what you might have been. We will be free where the grass is green and the lion is tame, if we just hold up the mirror now and share in the blame.”

Our sinful nature is expressed through cracked hearts and crooked minds. That’s really who we are to begin with. Our capacity for rationalizing our sin is self-starting. It’s the Energizer Bunny. And no matter how much we have paid the price for our sinful behavior in the past, our bent minds say to us, “This time will be different. I’ve the got the angle now. I’ll stop before anyone gets hurt.”

“Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil.”

Fear the Lord means having proper reverence for his wisdom. Your way is better God. Your way is always better. Jesus, you do everything well. You’re the Master. You’re the One.

In moments of temptation or doubt, if you find it hard to reverence God’s wisdom, then at least fear His wrath so that you can shun evil. If we do this much, just shun the evil that our cracked hearts and crooked minds have trained us for, then we will experience health and life and refreshment.

Hear the Good News: the Lord does not deal with us as we deserve but according to His grace and the character of His love. Grace, his powerful presence, is poured out on the scales of justice like a huge pitcher of iced tea. Hmmmm, beautiful!

Trust is the appropriate response to God’s wonderful grace.

Many of you I’m sure have seen the WWII movie, Saving Private Ryan. It’s the story of how a platoon of soldiers is asked to risk their lives in the middle of the Allied Invasion of German-occupied Europe to find and bring home alive one soldier, Private James Ryan. The movie is based on a true story. The platoon finds Ryan, but at great cost in lives. The captain of the platoon, played by Tom Hanks, before he dies has words of instruction for Private Ryan.

Earn this. Make your life count. Earn this.

The lives of many were given for the life of one. This is the opposite of how God expressed his love for us in Jesus Christ – the life of One was given for the many. And yet the response to such a gift is very similar: Earn this. Make your life count for something. Justify the sacrifice.

Of course we cannot pay back the sacrifice of Christ. But we can live out that sacrifice. We can acknowledge Him in all our ways. We can say thank you for His grace with our trust.

“Suppose one of you had a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. . .Would he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”

Marry Well

Scripture: John 2.1-11; Proverbs 15.17-18; 21.9


Quick. Think of the most important days of your life.

High School Graduation. Your first kiss. Your first “real” job. The birth of your child. The death of a loved one.

I remember my important day.

I remember I went fly-fishing that morning. Didn’t catch anything. Then I got married that afternoon. I caught what I was after. You don’t forget your wedding day.

Why is it so important? Is it because you made a lot of money that day? No. Is it because of the great jokes told by the best man. Not the speeches I’ve heard. Is it because of the worship service? I can barely remember that.

No. It’s important because of the decision you make that day – the decision to bind yourself to another human being for the rest of your life. It’s not just a choice for that day, or for the foreseeable future, it’s for life.

Better make a good decision. It’s important. Who you marry affects so much about your life. Flunk a test – no biggie. Dent your car, so what. Get a bad haircut – it’ll grow back. But don’t mess up deciding whom to marry!

“Better a meal of vegetables where there is love than a beefsteak with bickering.” Proverbs 15.17

“Better to live on a corner of the roof than share a house with an ill-tempered wife.”
Proverbs 21.9

Does anyone care to disagree with the wisdom of Proverbs on the subject of marriage?
There is a lot more than beefsteak at stake when you decide whom to marry.
Yet, curiously, I never heard a sermon growing up about picking the right person to marry. And it’s not because the Bible is silent about it. But the Bible takes a decidedly different approach to marriage than our culture today.

For example, when Abraham was interested in finding a wife for his son, Isaac, Abe told his servant, “Just don’t get him a wife from the Cannaanites.” His concerns were two-fold, one cultural, the other spiritual. He wanted his future daughter-in-law to share the save values and culture as Isaac. And more importantly, he wanted Isaac to have, not a pagan Canaanite woman, but a God-fearing wife who loved the Lord. Apparently, Abraham didn’t care what the woman looked like, he cared how she lived and what she believed.
Can you imagine this arrangement today? I can’t either. I mean, look at the reality shows we watch today. Notice, we don’t have an equivalent of the old Dating Game. You remember the Dating Game. One contestant and three potential dates, all of whom are hidden behind a screen onstage. Do you know why we don’t have that show on today? Because no one wants to buy what they can’t immediately see. The girl doesn’t care what bachelor number three believes about anything, she just wants know if he’s hot or not.

Our culture teaches us to look at the packaging, while the Bible has different priorities, priorities like good character, sacrificial giving, a loving spirit. It’s not that the Bible is against dating or romance, it’s just that either they’re irrelevant or worse, they get in the way of seeing what’s really important.

What’s Jesus advice on marriage? Well, we know he attended a wedding. It was in the town of Cana, district of Galilee. We don’t know who was getting married. We just know Jesus and his disciples attended along with Mary, Jesus’ mother. Okay, so Jesus is there and he preaches a sermon on marriage. . . Wait, no, he didn’t. You would think he would. It’s a great opportunity to say at least a few words about the love of a man and woman. It’s a teachable moment, if you will. But, as far as we know, the Teacher says zilch, zippo, nothing on the occasion. Except, in one small exchange over the wine running out. And with that, he suggests he doesn’t want to be involved.

“Woman, why involve me?” as if to say, “I’m not the one getting married.”

But he turns water into wine so everyone can have enough to drink. This is, as you may know, his first public miracle. This has always struck me as odd for a first miracle. Why not do something more important, at least heal somebody?

But this miracle points to something that is very important. After the wedding host tastes this “new wine” he congratulates the groom on his choice of wine, “Most people serve the best wine first, but you have saved the best, this new wine, for last.”

Jesus is the New Wine. This “small” miracle of water to wine is meant to point to Himself. On the occasion when two human beings are declaring their love for each other, a miracle in itself, Jesus’ miracle speaks volumes: “My love is better.”

Jesus’s love is the agape love of God for all of us. Agape love is unconditional. Mark Buchanon writes,

“Conditional love, love predicated on desire and expectation, takes an if. . .then form. If you are good, if you please me, if you return love to me, if you are beautiful and remain so. . .then I will love you. With conditional love, decision follows emotion: I feel love; therefore, I will love.”

Agape works the opposite way. With agape, emotion follows decision; its emotion is the fruit of decision: I will love; therefore, I feel love. Agape love is given not because of love but in spite of love. It is not earned. It is unprovoked. “It seeks those who never so it coming.” Agape loves don’t sing, “I can’t help falling in love with you.” They can help it. That’s just the point: they choose it.

This is love of Jesus. And this is the meaning of marriage and marrying well. To the extent that your marriage helps you love one another and love God, then it is a good one. That is the goal of any and all human relationship, to love God and love one another and so become what He intends us to be.

To marry well is to make a good decision, based not exclusively on appearance but on character and spiritual affinity. And then even more importantly, the decision to continue to choose fidelity and love. You love not because you feel like it but you because choose it and then you feel it.

Jennifer and I have been married over twelve years. I can honestly say that I love her now more than the day we got married. And I can also say, with some confidence, she loves me more. We know what love costs. We know better what love is.

I want us to grow old together in love. I want us to look at each other through the old wrinkled eyes and say, “You are the one I have been waiting for my whole life.”

I want us to cross over to the Promised Land and say to the One who waits for us, “You are the One we have been waiting for all our married lives.”