Well, Luke chapter 15 verses one and two says this. Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to him to hear him. And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, this man receives sinners and eats with them. And if the title matters to you, I call this the joy of God in reaching the lost. The joy of God in reaching the lost. So we have quite a scene depicted here. We see Jesus doing faithfully what his father sent him to do, reaching people and teaching them. And we also see the presence of two parties, two very different parties. Let's explain them before we make some applications. First, we see the tax collectors and the sinners. And I want to understand this phrase because it's a redundancy, right? Tax collectors are sinners and everyone is a sinner, right? But this specific phrase is seen multiple times in Scripture. It's in Luke 5, Luke 7. There's a couple of parallel references to it in Matthew 9, 11 and in Mark 2. It's, it's actually a saying it's a generalization of people. It's not just describing people who sin. It's describing people whose actions make them hated and outcast and that's important context here tax collectors were Jews who taxed other Jews for the Romans and they were thus reviled and So you can think of this as tax collectors and other people that we despise like that. Not a sinner in the ordinary sense, but social pariahs, not just sinners, but those whose actions caused them to be deemed by the religious establishment to be not worthy or deserving to even associate with. Truly lost souls, despised, hated, looked down on as human debris. They drew near to Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us, to hear him. And then the second party is the religious establishment, the Pharisees and scribes. This man receives sinners and eats with them. I mean, these were men who made everyone wash their hands before eating because they might make themselves unclean. And these were men who accused Jesus of being a sinner because he healed on the Sabbath or plucked grain on the Sabbath when he and his disciples were hungry. So here was their complaint. Jesus received and ate with and taught people that they work very hard to condemn and to keep out. And then there's Jesus teaching the tax collectors and sinners. But now he's going to stop and he's going to teach them, the scribes and Pharisees, and he teaches us. And he gives three parables. These three parables are together a direct response to their complaints. I'd love to just read all three, but there isn't time for that. I trust you already know them and you can always read them for yourself. But let me just give some sufficient highlights and make some comparisons for time sake. There's three things that these three parables have in common. Number 1, something is lost, a sheep, a coin, a sun, right? Number two, that lost thing is found. A man leaves his 99 sheep and goes and finds the lost one and carries it home. A woman sweeps out her whole house to find that one coin. The son hits rock bottom, comes to himself, as verse 17 says, and humbly goes home to his father. And then the third thing they all have in common is this, and I think this is the important thing. There is great joy over the thing that is found. The man joyously spreads the news among his friends and neighbors about the sheep. You see verse six, rejoice with me. The woman joyously does the same thing concerning the coin. In verse nine, rejoice with me. And both of those parables speak of joy in heaven over one sinner who repents. And then of course, famously in the third one, when the son comes home, the father is so joyous, he runs to him as soon as he sees him before he even gets to the house. And you see that familiar, beautiful repentance and the reunion and the great celebration. So something is lost. that something is found and there's great joy. Now, there's a second son in that last parable, right? That's them, the Pharisees and the scribes, the people that Jesus is addressing. They appear right in the parable there. resentful, bitter, proud. Verse 29, I never transgressed your commandment at any time. And yet you never gave me a young goat that I might make Mary with my friends. But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him. What's Jesus trying to do here? He's trying to show these proud, complaining men that their hearts are so, so off. Their complaints are so out of line. God, his father, loves saving souls. He is joyous when people repent and come to Jesus, his son, even tax collectors and sinners. They should be rejoicing that these people have come to Jesus to hear him because the father certainly was. When David repented of his great sin, what did he say? I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners shall be converted to you. Psalm 51 verse 13. There was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed 500 denarii and the other 50. And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them will love him more? You know it, right? Check Luke seven if you need a refresher there. So this is both a rebuke of the Pharisees and a great powerful revelation of truth about God himself. God does not coddle sinners, but he is joyous when sinners learn and repent and believe the gospel of Christ his son. So how does this relate to united prayer? revival. Two quick things maybe that can be incorporated into our praying. Number one, a revived church is a church that has a renewed joyous commitment to reaching and teaching tax collectors and sinners. And number two, A revived church seeks to find its joy in God himself and in the things that God himself finds joy in. And to that second point, there are so many other things that can distract us and pull us into trying to find joy in things in this world, things in the flesh, But a revived church finds joy in that which God finds joy in. And God rejoices when tax collectors and sinners are taught his ways and when they repent and they believe the gospel. And there is great rejoicing in the presence of the angels in heaven. So we can certainly pray and ask God to revive us in these things.