03-10-19 Kevin Goins - The Attitude of Prayer

“The Attitude of Prayer”   Luke 18:9-14

We have talked about the “How” of prayer and the “Wow” of prayer, but there is something that is often overlooked and that is the attitude we bring to our prayer. Jesus tells a parable in Luke chapter eighteen which shows us the kind of attitude we need to have when we pray.

I Luke chapter 18 is about __________ and it begins with two parables.

A. The first parable is about how d___________ we should be when we pray. The second parable is about the a___________ we should have when we pray.

B. The parable is composed of _____ parts:

1. We hear a p________ r___________ man talk to God.
2. We hear a tax-collector talk to God in a very d__________ way.
3. We hear Jesus, who knows more about God than anyone, tell us w________ prayer makes it to the throne of God.

II The usual approach to this parable is to do a h_________ job on the Pharisee and his prayer.

A. The crowd who first heard this parable did not have a b______ against the Pharisees like we do.

B. In Jesus’ day there were _______ major religious groups in Judaism:

1. First, there were the E___________.
2. Second, there were the S___________.
3. Third, there were the P_____________.

C. The Pharisees were respected by the people, so when Jesus mentions the Pharisee the crowd would assume he is the _______ example.

III To hear this parable the way the first audience heard it, we must see the Pharisees as they did, as h_________. But then Jesus shocks us by showing us _______ problems this Pharisee had in his relationship with God:

A. First, the Pharisee had a problem with c____________ - his confidence was in __________ (18:11a).

B. Second, the Pharisee had a problem with _____________ - he was _____ of it (18:11b).

C. Third, the Pharisee had a problem with ___________ - there wasn’t _______ in his life (18:12).