WELCOME to His Life Ministries, where imperfect people are perfectly welcome.

Our Vision is to Glorify God and Make Disciples through MANY SITES yet ONE Church Family.

LUKE 18:9-17
To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody 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 up and prayed about himself: God, I thank you that I am not like other menrobbers, evildoers, adulterersor even like this tax collector.

LUKE 18:9-17
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 tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God.

The Pharisees belonged to the Jewish religious elite. They thought their own goodness was so impressive that it could not fail to make them acceptable to God. They held rigorously to the ceremonies and traditions of the law, making a public show of their religiosity, all to be seen by other men, many of whom they despised as being beneath them.

The Pharisee in the story is the epitome of one who is self-justifying. The Pharisees sincerely believed in their righteousness that they attained by keeping the law. failing to understand the grace of God .

Tax collectors, because of their association with the hated Romans, were seen as traitors to Israel and were loathed and treated as outcasts. They were wealthy because of their positions from the taxes they collected keeping a hefty share of the collections for themselves.

In this parable the tax collector knew he was a sinner, and it is from this admission that he prayed to God.

The Pharisee assumed the typical posture of prayer, indicating that he may have stood as close as possible to the Most Holy Place, establishing his right to draw near the presence of God. The Pharisee had this sense of entitlement because he considered himself righteous enough for Gods attention.

Notice that his prayer contains no confession. He does not ask his sins to be forgiven, perhaps because he believes he has no sins to confess or ask forgiveness for. Nor is there any word of praise or thanksgiving to God. His prayer is all about him. Even the thanks he does offer is designed to exalt himself and place himself above others whom he treats with disdain. He has judged others as unworthy and himself as justified. He declares his own efforts at fasting and tithing as justifying himself before God.

Going to the temple to pray with the condition of his heart as it was, he might as well have stayed home. Such a prayer is not heard by God.

Unlike the Pharisee, who stands boldly in the temple reciting his prayers of self-congratulation, the tax collector stood afar off or at a distance, perhaps in an outer room, but certainly far from the Pharisee who would have been offended by the nearness of this man.

This mans posture spoke of his unworthiness before God. Unable to even lift his eyes to heaven, the burden of his guilt and shame weighed heavily upon him, and the load he carried had become unbearable. Overcome by his transgressions, he beats his breast in sorrow and repentance and appeals to God for mercy. The prayer he speaks is the very one God is waiting to hear, and his attitude is exactly what God wants from all who come to Him.

Deluded Pharisee
(Luke 18:9-17)
Borrowed from Wiersbe

Throughout His public ministry, Jesus

EXPOSED the
self-righteousness and unbelief of the Pharisees (see Luke 11:39-54).).

LUKE 11:39 ff
Then the Lord said to him, Now then, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You foolish people! Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone.

Woe to you Pharisees, because you love the most important seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces. Woe to you, because you are like unmarked graves, which men walk over without knowing it. One of the experts in the law answered him, Teacher, when you say these things, you insult us also.

Jesus replied, And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them. Woe to you, because you build tombs for the prophets, and it was your forefathers who killed them. Woe to you experts in the law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering.

When Jesus left there, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law began to oppose him fiercely and to besiege him with questions, waiting to catch him in something he might say.

A He pictured them as debtors too bankrupt to pay what they owed God (Luke 7:40-50), guests fighting for the best seats (Luke 14:7-14), and sons proud of their obedience but unconcerned about the needs of others (Luke 15:25-32). The sad thing is that the Pharisees
were COMPLETELY

DELUDED and thought they

were right and Jesus was wrong.

This is illustrated in this parable. The Pharisee was deluded about prayer, for he prayed with himself and told God (and anybody else listening) how good he was.

WARNING: HOW YOU TREAT PRAYER and PRAY, REVEALS YOUR CONDITION

The Pharisees used prayer as a means of getting public recognition and not as a spiritual exercise to glorify God (Matthew 6:5; 23:14).

He was deluded about himself, for he thought he was accepted by God because of what he did or what he did not do.

The Jews were required to only once a year, on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:29), but he fasted twice a week.

fast

He

tithed everything that came

into his possession, even the tiny herbs from his garden (Matthew 23:23).

He was deluded about the

publican who was also in

the temple praying. The Pharisee thought that the publican was a great sinner, but the publican went home justified by God while the proud Pharisee went home only self-satisfied.

WARNING: HOW YOU TREAT FASTING, TITHING and SINNERS, REVEALS YOUR CONDITION
WAS IT AN ACT OF HUMILITY?

To be justified means to be

DECLARED righteous by God

on the

basis of the SACRIFICE of Jesus Christ on the cross (Romans 3:19-4:25).

The publican repeatedly smote his breast, for he knew where his greatest problem was, and he called to God for mercy.
The publican knew the

enormity of his sins,

but the Pharisee was
blissfully ignorant of his own heart.

The Pharisees

pride condemned
him, but the publicans

humble faith
saved him (see Luke 14:11 and Isaiah 57:15).

It is the prodigal son and elder brother over again (Luke 15:11ff). In contrast to the proud Pharisee are the children who were brought to Jesus (Luke 18:15-17).

If the proud Pharisee had become like a child, he too would have gone home justified. MAIN IDEA: "p________________ must be in humility *DEDULED: mistaken; decieved

MAIN IDEA:

PRAYER must
be in humility

OUR PRAYING
reveals our condition

There is only one thing that separates us from God and it is not our sin (this is a play on words). It is our self righteousness. Our self righteousness does not turn God from us but us from God.

It is not my sin that moves me away from God, it is my refusal of grace both for myself and for others. And grace comes only to those who are humble enough to receive it.

A Koreans Message for the Filipinos 18 July 2008 Written by Jaeyoun Kim
Filipinos always complain about the corruption in the Philippines. Do you really think the corruption is the problem of the Philippines? I do not think so. I strongly believe that the problem is the lack of love for the Philippines.

"may we LOVE to PRAY than to PREACH; may we LOVE to PRAY than TEACH; may we LOVE to PRAY and make this our ONLY MINISTRY, whereby all the rest is just a fruit thereof"
-- MAMISOK ka lang QUOTES of JR

PRAY before PREACHING this SUNDAY; PRAY before LEADING in Songs this Weekend. PRAY before SERVING others; PRAY PRAY PRAY.

REMINDERS HOW to
Pray

in FAITH Pray In POWER Pray like NEVER BEFORE Pray PREVAILING PRAYERS!

PRAY?

Our Father Who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name.

YAWEH - SHALOM
The One Who Gives Peace Ephesians 2:14

Thy Kingdom come Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven

Lets DECLARE the kingdom of God and the will of God upon our SELVES!

Lets DECLARE the kingdom of God and the will of God upon our FAMILY!

Lets DECLARE the kingdom of God and the will of God upon our NATION!

Lets DECLARE the kingdom of God and the will of God upon our CHURCH!

Lets DECLARE the kingdom of God and the will of God upon the

CITY

Give us this day our daily bread

And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil

For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Saturday

CINEPLEX Araneta 6pm HLM PARK YX 5pm HLM PARK 5am -- UNITED HOUSE of PRAYER HLM PARK UNWIND 6pm NGC EastSITES 5am