<TITLE>03. Par 8-11</TITLE>L-8 You know, we middle-aged men, we have things in common. We like to meet with people of our age and talk.
When you see a little girl about five years old hanging around grandma, there's something wrong. Grandma's got a sack of candy setting somewhere. There's too much difference in their age. They can't have things in common. The little children has things in common. They--they talk each other's language, about their dollies, and about their tops they're spinning, and the little boys. The Bible says in Isaiah, "The little children playing in the street..." They had things in common.
The young ladies, they have things in common. They like to meet and talk about their boyfriend, and, you know, and... They have things in common. And the other ladies, you know, they have things in common. They like to meet and talk, and meet and talk. So they just have things in common. Well, the men does the same.
The Kiwanis in the city, they like to meet together, have a little dinner and talk over the business of the city, how they can feed the poor and little things that should be done. The Kiwanis has things in common, the lodges.
And Christians have things in common. That's what we're out here for this afternoon. We got things in common. We've got something that we're all interested in. If it wasn't, we'd be out in the parks or out on the highways. But we got things in common. We want to talk about Jesus, for that's what we have in the common grounds today among us is the Lord Jesus. We never come out here just to be seen. We come out here to talk about Jesus. And we come to fellowship around His Word and with His people. That's what we're here for.

L-9 But how could this Pharisee, ever invite Jesus, Who he hated, to come down and have dinner with him? And it must have been late in the afternoon, I suppose, just as the going down of the sun, and the sun's setting. And Jesus was tired. He'd been preaching all day, and, perhaps, a hoarse voice... and--and from speaking, and His face burning from the direct rays of the Palestinian sun.
And as our story starts, I can see a young man, sweaty all over. His legs are sweaty and dusty. And he's standing outside of the great ring of people, pressing upon Him to hear the Word.

L-10 And, you know, I've heard many good preachers. And how I love to hear good preaching. I don't get the privilege of doing it very much. But I love to hear a good preacher who knows the Word. But, oh, how it must be to hear Him say something. Just one Word from Him would thrill our hearts beyond any voice that we ever heard.
And how the people must have pressed on Him to hear the Word. And as we look down to one side, I see this young man, tired, quivering from fast running, sweat all over his body, standing on his tiptoes, looking up. "Oh," he says, "that's Him. That's Him. For I never heard a man speak like that."
You see, he had been detached and had been sent out by his great, rich pastor to find Jesus. It must have been a relief for him when he found Him. He had went into one place and to the other and find that He was not here, He'd gone somewhere else.

L-11 But a few days before that, his rich master, who lived in another city, was a great man in that city. He had great influence. And people had great respects for him. And I can see him...
Now, these Pharisees was a long ways from being poor men. Some of them was exceedingly rich. They got the tithings, and the offerings, and the cuts from the sacrifice. And they were rich men. And they were looked up to. And they had to live an honest life, and respected as the clergyman in the city.
But may I say this, that with all that, which is all right, but if your heart isn't right with God, you're not nothing in the eyes of God yet. No matter how religious, how respected, how good a name you have, how honest you are, doesn't mean one thing in the eyes of God.


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