Dependant on God

Luke 18:31-43

Addison asked me this week: What is your favorite place on Earth?

• There are several ways you could answer this?
• Most natural beauty: Oregon Coast- I love it.
• Most nostalgic: My Grandma’s cabin from when I was growing up.
• Most enjoyable place: At home with my children-
• Reading books- talking about life- sharing meals.
• Tucking them in at night - hugging them before I go to work.
• Spiritually encouraging: at church with my brothers and sister in Christ.
• The lens I look through determines my answer.
• The best place for the Christian to be: is the state of realized dependence on Christ.
• When you realize: All I have is Christ and he is all I need, that is where you belong.
• The rich young ruler trusted in riches- He didn’t see his utter and exclusive need for Christ.
• Over the next two weeks we will interact with people who could see there dependence on Christ.
• Blind Man: We’ll see highlighted his utter dependance upon Christ for mercy
• Zacheaus: We will see the response of obedience to Christ’s call
• Both demonstrate their Full trust in Christ

4 Reasons why you can trust God

1. He shares with us all we need to know (31).
2. I love that Christ continues to share with his disciples what he is doing.
3. Some dismiss God as not caring or not being present w/o reading His Word
4. God’s Word is intensely practical.
5. He has given us exactly what we need to navigate life in accordance with His Word.
6. You see Christ’s heart in desiring to equip his disciples
7. Even though there not getting it, we see Christ’s desire to prepare them.
8. Upper Room Discourse Jesus say this:

John 15:5 “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.”

1. Christ treats us as friends showing to us the path we are to follow.
2. Last week Pastor Leo taught us that the Bible shows us the path to a blessed our happy life.
3. The Bible thoroughly equips us.
4. God shares with us everything we need for life and Godliness.
5. Why is Luke recording this if the disciples weren’t going to understand?
6. Luke has a goal of providing certainty and he wants us to be certain that this death did not take Christ off Guard.
7. He went to Jerusalem fully understanding why he was going there.
8. He has made 5 different disclosures in Luke about the upcoming death.
9. He gives the disciples all that they need for life.
10. A few weeks ago I was thinking, specifically of my boys, what experiences should they have before becoming an adult? What should they know?
11. They should know how to change a tire, check their oil, bait a hook, shoot a gun, and set up a tent. Things that prepare them.
12. More than that we often want our kids to know how to navigate life, relationships and getting a job.
13. Our preparation falls short because we don't know everything.
14. Christ knew the end from the beginning so his did not. He gave the disciples all they needed- 
15. He gives us all we need through his Word and His Spirit.

2.He accomplished for us what we couldn’t (32-34).

1. If Christ saw us in our need and served us when we were his enemies then he is worthy of our trust.
2. What did he accomplish?
3. Endured the suffering we deserved
4. Our sins make us the ones deserving death, mockery, abandonment, suffering.
5. Christ was perfect, he deserved praise.
6. Only one perfect person ever lived and we killed him.
7. He endured the suffering that we should have endured.
8. I’m always struck when a christian talks about how they deserve better. Do you really want to talk about what we deserve?
9. Fulfilled the Scriptures
10. He was the one prophesied of:Isaiah 50:6 and Is 53
11. He obeyed the law perfectly.
12. He rose again, conquering death.
13. Sure we could die.- But only Christ could rise again
14. He was buried to demonstrate the certainty of his death.
15. 1 Cor 15:3-8 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.
16. After he rose again hundreds saw him to prove its truth.
17. The Fulfillment of the Law, The Appeasing of God’s Wrath, and, The Victory over Death.
18. Christ did what we could never do- 
19. Here is the point Luke is making: You can have certainty that Christ saw all of this coming before he made it to Jerusalem.
20. The God that we trust: He is an all-knowing, supremely good God. Knowing the cost he went to the cross to accomplish what you couldn’t
21. This is a God you can trust with the twists and turns of life.

3.He moves towards us in our hardest moments (35-37).

1. I am a deep believer in the providence of God.
2. There are no accidents with Him.
3. As such, this day on the Jericho road was a divine appointment.
4. It was no accident that Christ was here for this blind man.
5. You can see the deep faith of the blind man as he calls out.
6. The crowd told him that this was Jesus of Nazareth- He called out for Jesus son of David.
7. He is the only person in Luke to call Him the Son of David.
8. God had promised David that, “His throne would be established forever.”
9. Jesus the Messiah was the fulfilment of this covenant.
10. The blind man saw what others missed
11. Contrast:
12. This blind man could not be more different from the rich young ruler presented a couple weeks ago.
13. The Blind man saw Jesus clearly while the disciples missed him.
14. The Blind man understood the Scriptures teachings while the Pharisees didn’t
15. The Blind man depended eagerly while the rich man resisted.
16. In this passage you can see that the blind man saw Christ more clearly than most anyone else.
17. He clearly saw a Savior approaching.
18. A Savior who knew his need and saw his faith.
19. A savior who doesn’t run from chaos but brings order from nothing.
20. I don’t know where you are in your christian walk…
21. What I can say is that the God of the Bible enters into our grief, struggles, pain and sorrow.
22. He is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit - Psalm 34:18.
23. Many people walk away when things get hard but our God does not.
24. When we were still his enemies he died for us.

Christ isn’t just present with us he is powerful.

4.He is powerful enough to reward faith (39-43).

1. They sought to quiet the man (39).
2. Stop yelling - Everyone wants to see Jesus
3. This doesn’t stop him, however.
4. When someone truly sees there need and the savior standing there nothing will stop them from falling before Him.
5. Jesus stops to ask the crowd to bring the blind man to him
6. The irony is the crowd that was quieting the blind man is now directing him to Jesus.
7. Jesus heals the man and tells him that his faith made Him whole.
8. If today, your in a place desperately dependant on God- Thats not the worst place to be.
9. For it is here that you can rest in the fact that you have a dependable God.
10. The God of the Bible is one who is powerful enough to reward the faith that you come to him with.