If you have your Bibles, turn with me I'll have a song they'll do from camp and then we'll have next Wednesday one of our youth guys preach so it'll be a good just a teen service to celebrate what God did in camp that week and there'll be Be a great chance to support our young people. God's really blessed in that area and we're excited so Luke 18 I'm gonna look at a message entitled how to persevere through the challenges and discouragements in life.
How do you persevere when life can be discouraging and challenging? This is a very wonderful portion of Scripture that I trust will speak to your heart tonight, and Luke 18, let's read verse 1 down to verse number 8, the Bible says, and he spake a parable unto them to this end that men ought always to pray and not to faint, saying there was in a city a judge which feared not God neither regarded man. There was a widow in that city and she came unto him saying, Avenge me of mine adversary, and he would not for a while. But afterward he said within himself, though I fear not God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge sayeth, and shall not God avenge his own elect which cried day and night unto him, though he bear along with them?
I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth. God, we thank you for your word tonight. We pray that it would be a lamp to our feet, a light to our path. Lord, I know that there are those tonight that are facing challenges and struggles in heavy seasons, weighty times.
Discouragement can come in many shapes and sizes, different challenges that we can face as Christians, as people living in a country that is promoting so many things that are sinful. I pray that you would bless tonight. May your word be powerful in our hearts.
May we love your word and may we live it out. I pray that you would bless the evening. Bless the teen services tonight that are going on. I pray for young people to feel the weight of the word and be surrendered and humbled by your presence, God, that souls would be saved, lives would be changed. God, we pray that young folks would be called to the ministry, mission field, and the service of God. We pray that you would be with the kid service tonight as well, Lord, and we thank you for all those that are with us in attendance. May your blessing be upon us now. We ask it in Christ's name.
God's people said, man, you may be seated this evening. Anybody had a tough week this week? You say it's just kind of been a tough week, okay? We know what it means when it rains, it pours, maybe not in June, but right with the weather, but when it rains, it pours in life. Those challenges seem like they can come in waves. Sometimes life can go smooth and then when you hit a rough road, it seems like it just continues to compound itself. Sometimes life can hand us a lot of obstacles and challenges.
Sometimes those are external. Sometimes it's outside stuff that we're dealing with, life stuff, but sometimes it's internal. Sometimes there are struggles that come in life and you can't really put your finger on it. You ever feel down and you're not quite sure why you feel down?
Anybody ever deal with that? And it's like, man, I just feel weighted down. I feel like, raise your hand again. I just want you to see that this is not an uncommon thing, where you just feel discouraged. You're like, I don't know if something's off chemically in me.
I don't know if we had a full moon or something. I don't know what it is, but I just feel discouraged, feel down. I feel just depressed.
Maybe you're here today and you're in one of those seasons. You just feel worn out. You feel tired. Maybe there's some personal struggles you've been fighting and battling. Maybe you're tired of doing the right thing simply to fall back into things that you didn't want to do, act how you didn't want to act, or to say something you didn't want to say, and it seems like sin gets advantage of your life and you submit to those things.
Maybe you're tired of dealing with someone in life, maybe somebody at school or at work, or maybe at home, maybe somebody that's in your neighborhood. Just something that's wearing you down. Maybe you're just tired of dealing with a world and culture that promotes sin. You know, this month, again, somebody, when I came in, they said, happy Patriots month. I said, I like the sound of that.
We will continue to promote that. But as the world becomes more godless and sinful, you just get worn out. You just get worn out by this stuff. You're tired of reading the news.
You're tired of seeing negativity just constantly promoted. Sadly, some Christians have thrown in the tout. They've quit serving the Lord like they once did. They gave in to sinful temptation.
They got discouraged, and so they stopped serving God, or they got overwhelmed by pressures in society, and they just don't want to live for Jesus anymore. Jesus, here in Luke 18, just gets done talking about his second coming, where he will bring justice to this world, and he's going to remove sin and set his kingdom up. All of that's dealt with in chapter 17 of Luke, and here he gives us a key to staying faithful until the day he comes and establishes his kingdom. How do you not lose heart?
How do you not give up or get discouraged? And the answer to that is, you must become a person of prayer. This is a powerful parable, and our Lord gives the answer to the way you and I gain victory over discouragement. And I think sometimes we think, well, I have prayed and I pray, but I don't know that we understand the primacy that prayer must have. And the first thing we see in the text here is the priority of prayer. He says in Luke 18 one, and it's, and he spake a parable unto them to this end that men ought always to pray and not to faint. He focuses here on the priority of prayer. The focus of the parable is that men ought always to pray.
Matthew Henry says it supposes that all God's people would be praying people. When you read through the letters that Paul wrote, he talks about constant prayer. He says in Romans 12 12 that we would be continuing instant or steadfast in prayer. Ephesians 6 18 he says, praying always with all prayer and supplication. Philippians 4 6, he says, don't be anxious for anything but in all things by prayer and supplication. Colossians 4 2, continue in prayer. Colossians 4 12, always laboring fervent in prayer. 1 Thessalonians 5 17, he simply says, pray without ceasing. So prayer was really a central part of Paul's life in ministry, and he says it's something that you should constantly be doing. And Jesus prioritized prayer. You find Jesus praying before every major event in his life. He was one who was known to go away and pray all through the night, and they would find him praying.
He gave many teachings on prayer. I just wonder how much of the anxiety, worry, spiritual defeat in the believer's life is a direct result of not prioritizing prayer in our life. Prayer is the response of the soul that sees God as the answer. It sees God as the answer, so it takes their life and problems in prayer. Instead of worrying about it, how they can work everything out, they see God as being the genuine answer.
Not as one piece in the answer, not as I need to make sure I do that, but that is my answer. Prayer is putting God in the driver's seat. It's saying, God, I trust you more than myself. The Christian who prays faithfully, you need to understand, will live faithfully. True biblical prayer is an act of self-denial. It is a rebellion to pray. You're rebelling against yourself.
That's why Jesus said, when you pray, you say, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, because I know my will doesn't always line up with God's. So prayer is a rebellious act against yourself. You rebel against your own nature.
You rebel against your own sufficiency. You say, God, I am desperately in need of you. It's lifting up God as we humble ourselves. Sadly, often a Christian who lives defeated or overwhelmed often will be the one who makes prayer a last resort instead of a first priority. People find time to pray instead of making time to pray, and such a statement already has dethroned prayer.
If you have to find time to pray, we find time for things that are not priorities. You make time for what is essential. I don't find time to go to work. See if I can find time to show up to work on time. No, you get there or you're fired, right?
You get there or you lose your job. I'll see if I can find some time to pay my bills this month. No, you will make time to pay your bills. We need to understand that where we put prayer in our life is exactly where we have put God in our life. When we devalue prayer, we have devalued the God who we are elevating in prayer.
And so the person who has made the statement of not finding time has already dethroned it. When you make time for prayer, you're making time for God. When prayer is prioritized, God is prioritized. And to not make time for prayer is essentially to tell God, you're not enough of a priority for me. You're just not a priority for me.
I'll see if I can get to you. You say, well I wouldn't say that out loud. We don't have to say it out loud when we live it out loud. The example we find of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane is really clear. He's facing the cross in less than 24 hours. The sin of the world is being placed upon him. If ever there were a time Jesus was going to throw in the towel, it would have been then. If ever a time he needed a good night's sleep, right?
I mean you have the longest day of your 33 year life tomorrow. But instead of sleeping like the other disciples, he was praying fervently. And not only did he pray one time, but the Bible says he went and prayed.
We know he prayed at least an hour. He says, could you not pray one hour with me? He goes away, prays a second time, and it says he prayed the same thing. And then he comes back.
They're sleeping again. He goes away and prays the same thing again. So very likely that could have been a three-hour prayer session. And you find that it's not like he went away and prayed an hour.
We'd have been like, well that was enough, right? I covered the bases. I gave it all to God. God's omniscient. God's sovereign.
Put it in his hands. Whatever comes, comes. Jesus is like, no that's not enough. Of course God's sovereign.
Of course he's omniscient. I'm not praying for God's benefit. I'm praying for mine. In Christ as God prayed for his own soul.
And if he did for his own soul, how much more for ours would we need to go to God in prayer? I just wonder when we make prayer plan Z instead of plan A, why we deal with so much more anxiety, stress, worry, discouragement, feeling overwhelmed. Why we all raise our hands and say collectively, sometimes I feel down and I'm not sure why. That's what you call spiritual warfare. In my life I'm old enough to know that is real.
You don't know why. It's not always physical. Sometimes it can be.
But many times there is a real enemy that hates what you're believing and he wants to railroad you and get you off course. Jesus is sweating great drops of blood. Do you think it's physical? The physical manifestation was only a reality of how internally powerful the anxiety was. The pressure was so hot on the inside it came out with hermatidrosis. He's literally sweating blood.
This is uh this is our model. I mean Christ prays plan A, he prays praise plan B, plan C, it's all he would do. I mean Lord what else what else you gonna do? That's that's all you can do. And a lot of times we get to these stresses in our life we're like well well at least we can pray about it.
After we've already exhausted all the other options, right? I've tried to work it out, conversate this thing, I've tried to look through all the papers trying to find a new job, I've worked all the other resources, I've done all these things and you know I guess I'm gonna have to pray about this one. And I think God is gracious enough to us to allow us to feel the weight that we cannot carry so we can take it to the one who can. Why is God making life so hard? Maybe because we'll not come to him unless it feels that way. Sometimes the sheep wonder because they feel like it's too easy so he lets the pressure come so they realize how much they need the Good Shepherd. You ever think your hand maybe went up because God loves you that much?
Thorns come don't they? It wasn't physical for Paul, it was internal. How do I know it wasn't a physical ailment that caused Paul's thorn in the flesh? Because he didn't whine about his physical conditions. But what he did complain about was all the spiritual warfare, what he did talk about was all the attacks that he had against Judaizers and all these other things. That's what he was dealing with. That's what was weighing him down. He wasn't like, oh Lord take away this physical problem I have. He didn't whine about that anywhere. I've preached for years through the epistles.
Years. What his problem was was all the spiritual warfare that was going on in the form of people that were against the gospel. And I can tell you friends as Ephesians 6 says, we don't wrestle against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against spiritual wickedness and rulers of darkness of this world.
I mean there is there is real things that go on. And so just understand that there is a God who, if this battle is spiritual, we need some spiritual weapons, right? What's he say at the end of Ephesians 6? He says, pray for me, that I would be bold, that I may preach the gospel with boldness as I ought to preach it. Pray for me.
You kidding me? You need prayer for boldness Paul? You're like a kamikaze preacher. I mean you don't fear death of anything. They can't beat you enough to silence you into anything. You need boldness.
You're a lion. And yet he did. I just wonder all the things that Paul dealt with in life. So just understand 2nd Corinthians 12 8 9 where he talks about that. He says, it is interesting when Paul went to Christ it says, this thing I besought the Lord thrice or three times that it might depart from me. And do you notice God didn't answer him the first time he prayed.
He didn't answer him the second time he prayed, but he did answer him the third time he prayed. And Christ responds and says, my grace is sufficient for thee. My strength is made perfect when you're strong.
Is that what he said? That's why we raise our hands friends. You feel weak? I wonder how far we would get from him if we felt strong. Oh I wouldn't wander away.
Oh he knows. Who's here because some pain brought you to God at some point in your life? Praise God for the pains.
The pain that draws us to him friends is less than the pain that we would face if we went away from him. Sometimes people say, I can't believe God allowed me to go through that. One day in heaven we're gonna say, God praise you that you let me go through that because I never knew there was a cliff that was waiting for me. And for my wife and for my kids I would never have seen what I could have become. I didn't realize what it would do it would destroy me.
It would destroy generations. And so he sought the Lord three times. And you have to ask yourself, why didn't God answer the Apostle Paul the first time? Because the thorn needed to do its work. The delays of God are not delays of ineptness to answer. And they're not delays of unkindness.
They're delays to allow the thorn to do the work it needed to perform. So Hebrews 11 6, God wants to see do we really believe him? Jesus prayed three times, Paul prayed three times, when's the last time you and I prayed three times about the same exact need. He says, but without faith it's impossible to please him.
He that cometh to God must believe that he is, and he is a rewarder of them that do what? Diligently seek him. There is a there's a descriptive word there for seeking, right? Diligent.
You must be diligent. Here at the heaviest season Jesus highlights the importance of prayer. Paul highlights the importance of prayer.
So so after he talks in Luke 17 about, I'm coming back, kingdom will be set up, justice will come. Do not get discouraged and faint in your mind. The way you don't do that is by prayer. Now look at the second point here, the danger of prayerlessness. Luke 18 1, that men not always to pray and not to faint. The focus is on the priority of prayer and it's it's sustaining power. And he gives he gives this equation by deductive reasoning, that if we do not pray we will faint. So men not always to pray so they don't faint, because if you don't always pray you will end up fainting.
Now the word faint here is a is a Greek word eka keo, ek meaning out of, and kakos would be like the other Greek compound word and it means like evil, but it's when you tie those two compounds together it carries the idea of idea of being utterly spiritless, to be wearied or exhausted. It speaks about a believer who loses heart, they get so discouraged that they just want to quit. They're just so discouraged. And what are some things that can discourage us?
I jotted down five things, I know there's more and you could probably come up with your own list, but mine are kind of a broad macro view. First of all, I think our own sin can discourage us. Anybody ever get discouraged by your own sin? You ever think you'd be over it by now? Like I thought I thought it, you know, 20 years old I would be done repenting of that.
I thought I could get a hold of my mouth or my eyes or my mind or my thoughts or my attitude or whatever else you can struggle with in life. So no matter how long you've been saved you're gonna battle the flesh. I think about Romans 7. Paul says, I know that in me that is in my flesh dwells no good thing.
He says in Romans 7 24, O wretched man that I am who will deliver me from the body of this death. I've talked to people through the years that are battling with sin and they may say no ten times to that sin. I'm not gonna do it, I'm not gonna do it, I'm not gonna do it, I'm not gonna do it, I'm not gonna do it. On the tenth time they give in. Had a long day, they got stressed out, they came home, they said some things they shouldn't have said or they behaved in ways they shouldn't have behaved at work or they they just they gave in to that temptation whatever that thing may be in their life. And then they think, you know, what's the use?
I just I fail, you know, and they don't realize, you know, you are having a 90% success rate right now. It's never an excuse to sin. You need to repent, you need to get right, it's never right, but you need to understand we are in the sanctification process. Ain't no one at lighthouse perfect. We on board with that? Sometimes we think, well if I sin then I'm not even saved.
What's the use? Make sure you read your Bible and and realize that there is no one perfect. First John 1 8 & 9 says this, and notice this, I talked to a guy one time, he believed you could become sinless and he thought our church taught wrong because we said even though you're saved you're not gonna be perfect. He said you need to be perfect, it's the only way to get to heaven.
I said could I have a conversation with your wife? Because as I poked him in his overweight belly, you know, I thought about it, you know, you know we like to do and that's not super kind but when somebody says they're perfect you're trying to graciously point out some errors. But it's like it's easy to point out sins you don't struggle with but you don't hear a lot of people preach on gluttony. You ever been to a church with a 400-pound pastor who's preaching about everything in the world that's sinful and he's not taking accountability for his eating habits? We don't like to say that out loud do we? But would it be a little discouraging to you if I was 400 pounds up here and you knew that I threw down 5,000 calories a day of unhealthy food and I tried to preach on don't be smoking, don't be cussing, don't be it's like sir you're gonna die at 50.
All right I'm not trying to be mean. Does the Bible speak like gluttony sin? Speaks actually more on gluttony than smoking.
I could talk about that for a while. Smoking is not a good thing to do obviously. So but notice what 1st John 1 8 9 says and I don't smoke I don't chew and I don't run with girls who do right? So 1st John 1 8 9. But 1st John 1 8 9 says this. Notice who wrote the book of 1st John?
John right? Now look what he says. This is what I shared with this gentleman who said he was sinless. I said look what John said.
He said if we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. Is that 1st 2nd or 3rd person? Okay that's 3rd person. So he's including himself in that right? He's not saying you 2nd person he's saying not saying just I he's saying us-ins that's Kentucky for we-ins. So but what he's saying here is he is including himself.
Is that important to understand? He said we're deceiving ourselves if we don't think that we ever sin. Look what he says in verse 9. But if we confess our sin if we confess our sin he God is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all that. Now that's not salvation forgiveness that's a father forgiving his son for sinning.
Because when you get saved the judge becomes your father you become part of the family. So so we are not perfect and you need to understand it but don't let sin define you. If you sin repent of it cast it away and commit to living for God. Never make ever an excuse to sin. You should hate sin. But if you ever sin you're not defined by that. Humble yourself do what the Bible says repent cast it away and live for Christ. Proverbs 28 13 says he that covers his sins shall not prosper but if you confess that sin you forsake that sin you will have mercy. You confess it you get rid of it and God will be merciful to you. But if you confess it and you don't forsake it then are you really serious about confessing it?
No. Lord I'm sorry about this sin and you're holding on to it he's like you're not sorry about it. You need to get rid of that. It's not perfection but it is direction. But I can tell you it can be discouraging living with ourselves can't it? Anybody else like that's why when people get too judgmental on other people it's like hey clean your own life up and as spouses do we need to hear this sometimes? We do don't we draw the circle around ourselves. There's enough to work on inside that circle that we're like how dare I ever get outside of this circle? There's a whole lot to clean up and that's true for me that's true for all of us right? So secondly but but I don't want you to get so discouraged by your sin that you don't live for God. And I see some people there like that they either go all in for God or they just you know that scared me.
Did you see that? I don't get scared very often but I was like what is standing? I feel like there's like something right on me. In 20 years of preaching I've never jerked on stage before.
Thank you Caleb you your guitar startled me. You're gonna watch that on rewind on the thing. I like jumped I was like what in the world? At least I didn't make a noise.
You ever do that? That'd have been bad. You know let's delete that out of the live stream. Felt like it was like right it said that's discouraging.
Don't lose heart you know what if I had a heart attack? It went down you know it's wasn't praying enough. But our sin can discourage us. Second thing is our the sin of other people can discourage us. Anybody ever allowed somebody in your past like maybe they sinned maybe had a pastor that sinned maybe somebody you looked up to maybe a maybe a teacher in a class maybe even a parent but they they did something sinful and it just really can cause great discouragement.
And we read about that there was a there was a well-known pastor I don't even want to mention his name but just a been a good preacher for many years and he stepped down from his church recently and that's been on the news that last week and and you know that that can happen to anybody you know and but but it can be discouraging. Friend don't and I think sometimes friendly fire is more painful than enemy fire as Christians. Do not let a sour or sinful Christian keep you from serving God with joy. Sometimes people will allow that. Years ago early in the church I was feeling discouraged the church was growing seeing a lot of people come to Christ yet in the midst of that there was somebody that was just so discouraging to me in the church and they were just constant negativity constantly pushing things and it just just always that they were jealous over things they were dealing with problem I mean just just always stirring stuff up and it was really discouraging to me and and I felt like God's saying listen you have so you know the the vast majority of the church is excited don't put your focus on on that person don't let them control how you feel and and I had to say God forgive me for allowing that person to rob me of my joy because their spirit is so sour and and and so just know that can happen and and I tell you please never be that Christian that causes other people to get discouraged you know Jesus warned about that didn't he said don't don't be a stumbling block to a young young one which can be a young Christian or a young physically physically aged young believer or an older person who's a spiritually babe in Christ because it's better for you to not live then than to be that kind of a stumbling block but but don't don't serve God or serve God for the goodness of people you serve God for the goodness of God you know I think about Jesus he had 12 disciples and you know 11 of them were faithfully loving and serving and doing things right but at the end of his life you know Jesus dealt with the Judas who bailed out on him you imagine if Jesus said you know what I'm not gonna I'm not gonna be faithful to what the father desired and I'm not gonna do what these people need because of Judas or what if somebody came along in the early church and said you mean only only 11 of those guys stayed faithful I'm not gonna Judas bailed out and what if they made their commitment to Jesus based on Judas but you know what sometimes people do they they'll stop following Jesus because of the Judas is in life when did Judas ever become the standard for me serving Jesus it can also come out this way I've seen people that used to serve God faithfully in church they stop serving God faithfully because they're like yeah I got burnt years ago by you got burnt by who maybe that was God testing your endurance maybe that was a thorn just like Peter got a thorn that was so severe but instead of praying about it once twice and three times and getting strength and an answer from God you bailed out you lost heart so you come to church but you don't serve you're not gonna be a member you're not gonna get involved why because you got burnt before I didn't know when we started serving Jesus based on the perfection of the people I didn't know that it was as long as everybody treats me exactly how the Bible says then I'll serve Jesus well that kind of Jesus doesn't exist in the Bible the Jesus in the Bible says come with it you better bring your cross it's not easy and you will face enemy fire and friendly fire but you serve me still feed my sheep Peter be faithful and if you have I understand it can be tough it can be hurtful it can be painful when I was young our family was a young family and a church in the city we were growing up and the pastor there exciting pastor Church was growing all of us were in elementary school and that pastor ran off with the secretary we thought that pastor was a perfect man first major exposure I ever remember having of a church was that church that that rattled us but we immediately from what I remember we just got back into another church and we just never could find a good church to get grounded in but we were going to church we kept us in church through the years and that man saw my dad years later and he came up he was so broken he said if I could only go back I would have done it all over again so miserable he ended up running off and ended up marrying the other lady down the road he said I would have I would have reversed everything and gone back and just miserable about it I tell you sin will ruin so much the Bible says by a whorish woman a man has turned into a piece of bread or a crust of bread guard your life thirdly not only the sins of others our own sins but the trials of life can discourage us 2nd Corinthians 4 16 that same echo your word is used here he says for which cause we echo Keke or faint not but through our though our outward man perish yet our inward man is renewed day by day like physical pain can be exhausting some of y'all have like back issues knee issues you wake up you're like okay I should be good by noon right and then I'm stiff by four you know not to be teasing about it but the older you get some of you I know deal with this my dad talks to me about it and I'm even feeling some of it because I jacked my ankle up in high school that affected my lower back so now I deal with some lower back issues because it you know the kinetic effect it affects things doesn't it so so now my back I deal with a real tight back in the mornings like really really every morning and it's like and my dad's like I can only sleep for about three four or five hours at most at night and then I have to get up and then I just you know you deal with that and I know some of you deal with that and it's like that's why you know maybe when you when you retire you can take naps sometimes a day but it's sometimes it's just because you can't sleep at night very well and and and it's sleeping isn't it's like you you talk to a teenager like I mean I suffered like 12 hours it's like you'd be an ICU if you did that you can walk for a week man my body is done like so you know it's it's pain in life can be very discouraging in a very genuine in real way that it can it can wear you out and just know trials in life can be very discouraging financial struggles loved ones passing away emotional hurts sometimes family members who oppose your faith a lot of things a fourth thing that can cause us to be discouraged is the challenges others face when bad things happen to those serving God you may feel like it's not fair that those you care about we're dealing with some kind of trial and then you get upset because how could God allow that earthly trial to come against somebody who's serving the Lord you know this Friday I'm going to my in-laws and and my wife's brother Chad phallus he passed away I think it's his 14 years now and he was a young pastor he started a church up in Greenville Ohio six months after I we started the church here church was doing good they had about 50 people coming and he had a two month old at home a two-year-old at home he was heading back to to the church there after he had got home to eat lunch and a 16 year old born a star ran through a stop line because he was on his cell phone hit my brother-in-law is like one of my best friends in life and killed him on impact and let you know left behind a two-year-old and a two-month-old you know it's like you feel like God seems unfair in that like like God are you why you know but but no God's not unfair Chad's in heaven his kids came to know Christ later in life and I just saw his youngest son yesterday and he feels called to preach the gospel he's a teenager in high school now and loving Christ and you know his wife never missed one service he passed away on a Monday I think it was and she was at church on Wednesday and just the church family wrapping their arms around her and and it's just been a wonderful thing to see her faith continue to stay strong and and and listen sometimes life can be so challenging you know what Paul said in Ephesians 3 13 he said wherefore I desire that you Eka Kepko it's that same word that you faint not the same word Jesus used in Luke 18 1 that you faint not at my tribulation for you which is your glory because they saw Paul suffering and it bothered them I don't want you to lose heart because I'm suffering to get you the gospel and then sometimes we lose heart because of the length of the race sometimes just the length of serving the battles you ever you ever want to get in shape and you go out you're like I'm gonna run a mile you're like when did a mile get so long I mean this is ridiculous you know get on a treadmill it's like running this is a marathon this thing's a lie it's I've gone further than that and you know I'll never forget back when I could run and I was I was out running trying to trying to get into the seven-minute range you know Braden's running in like the fives and stuff he's crazy man and I'm like I broke eight minutes you know so and I wasn't a big runner but I just going out casually running at times so I remember just getting like running like several miles at like an eight-minute pace was like like Fanta I was so excited I broke under like high sevens it's like 755 so but I remember going to a track meet that my daughter was running in and there was a girl running in the back and I was like she's barely moving this this girl was running she was like getting laps she was so far back and I was like I was thinking why is this precious girl out there running she's just so far back she's moved it just looked like she was walking I found out her pace was eight minutes I was like that's me that's me out there she's not even moving I was so humbled I thought I was flying I was running the winds blasting against me I was like friction burns I'm like that's what I'm doing it's embarrassing she ever get into a race you're just like it's just too hard I want to give up it's long it's enduring sometimes Christian life can feel like that it's like man you know you're pushing and you're serving and the Bible says be not weary in well-doing right what's the Bible say in Galatians 6 9 let us not be ekkakeo it's the same Greek word used in Luke 18 1 do not let us not be weary in well-doing for in due season we shall reap if we faint not if we faint not second Thessalonians 3 13 he repeats it but ye brethren be not ekkakeo be not weary in well-doing listen what he's saying is don't give up don't be discouraged don't throw in the towel the race is worth it the king is worth it the souls are worth it press on keep running even if it feels like you're barely moving keep moving so how do you keep moving Jesus made it clear in Luke 18 1 that may not always to pray and not to faint not to lose heart Christians who have remained faithful through the years have remained faithful to prayer through the years prayer is nourishment to the soul like food is nourishment to the body a malnourished body can become weak and faint under duress and a malnourished soul can become weak and faint under trials you know we're real good at checking the power on our phones you ever get down to like 2% you're like oh come on like who it's all the way down you know it will do hey you don't have a you don't have a power cord for an iPhone do you careful I mean you'll be at the airport like hey you have a you have a you have a power cord you're like oh yeah yeah yeah or you go buy one for $3,000 in there the airport and you're like yeah you know I shouldn't spend three grand but I will because I gotta have this thing powered up you know we're so desperate to make sure our phones are powered up all of us are like that nothing wrong with that but but what happens when our spiritual life is not powered up the desperation is just not the same is it what if we had the same desperation for prayer as we do to plug in a core to a phone and we say God I need to get with God I need to be with the Lord I need to get on my face I need to sneak off to a room and get on my knees I I need to I need I need Christ I mean if we have time to worry we have time to pray we have time to talk to people about our trials we have time to talk to God about them Jesus says we ought always to pray pray without ceasing let's look in the last point the encouragement of prayer verse 2 through 8 sift through this very quickly in verse 2 through 8 Jesus gives this incredible illustration so encouraging one of the most familiar techniques that the Jews used to drive a point home was known as cow they Homer cow they Homer Q a l v a h o me r it literally is translated light to heavy but it's an argument from the lesser to the greater is the idea it would be the idea of X is true how much more would Y be true if it's true in the lesser situation how much more it's true over here and they use this stuff all the time it was a logical rational way it was it was a way to bring an inescapable conclusion you would pin someone down with these kind of arguments in a court case but but Jesus is using it here to drive home a very important point of why Christians should faithfully pray and it's it's one of my favorite stories and and it starts off with a wicked judge in verse number two says there was in a city a judge which feared not God neither regarded man two things about this guy he had no fear of God what that means is this he did not care what God thought about it he had no reverence or respect for God God you mean nothing to me not only did he not fear God but he had no regard for man the word regard speaks of having any shame before men this man was shameless like you could not guilt him into something he would not feel bad about anything he doesn't care he's an atheistic hearted man who is cold toward people he's basically violated the first two commandments no love for God and no love for people then the second person in the story is an afflicted widow verse three it's interesting that in the book of Luke Luke mentions widows more than all the other Gospels combined just a side note he says there was a widow in that city and she came at him saying avenge me of mine adversary now one thing about widows in those days is they just struggle to survive struggle to make ends meet God gave clear commands in the Bible to not neglect widows feet Exodus 22 22 says ye shall not afflict any widow or fatherless child Isaiah 1 17 relieve the oppressed judge the fatherless plead for the widows Deuteronomy 27 19 brings down a curse on people who don't do that now this widow didn't have a husband she did not have someone who could help protect her someone who would help provide for her she is at the hands of an adversary she's in desperate need for the law to step in and protect her and do for her what her husband's not there to be able to do for her to vindicate her of the abuse that she is taking from this adversary now courts in those days were were kind of set up where a judge would basically travel from city to city he would set up a tent and then they would have men around that would basically bring the cases like you would present your case you would give like the case to one of the guys they would present it to the judge and then the judge would either take that or not take that and so the agenda was determined not by the law but by those who surrounded the judge his assistance so basically if you wanted to get your case heard by the judge you kind of needed to bribe financially one of the assistants like a here's some money can you make sure my case gets hurt the woman had some difficulties first difficulty courts in those days were only for men they lived in a male-dominated society and if you had a case men would bring them to court as a woman living in Palestine in those days you didn't have any authority to go to court secondly she was poor she couldn't bribe anybody if she wanted but she does what she can which is the only thing she could do was she could talk she could use her mouth she could she could cry out for justice and that's what she does she says avenge me of mine adversary now notice verse 4 it says and he would not for a while because he had no shame he didn't care about her she means nothing to him but notice what causes the man to change his mind in verse 4 but afterward he said within himself though I fear not God nor regard man he is a he's a self-admitted wretch verse 5 yet because this widow troubleth me I will avenge her lest by her continual coming she weary me the word weary is from a Greek word that literally means to like black in your eye he's like I have no choice but to take her case because she is beating me up with her words she's were not that I care about her she's just exhausting me she's wearing me out she won't shut up in the vernacular of our day he he is exhausted with her so this unjust unloving ungodly judge listen brings justice to the woman's adversary not because he's a good man not because she had money to bribe the people with to take her case not because the judge cared about her but simply because her mouth kept pleading her calls notice in Luke 18 6 and the Lord said hear what the unjust judge saith Jesus said did you hear what he did did you get this he did what was right even though he didn't care what was right he could not resist the continual pleas of this widow that were beating him up now the argument call they home air this this argument from the lesser to the greater Jesus Jesus applies it in verse 7 and shall not God avenge his own elect which cried day and night unto him though he bear long with them I tell you that he will avenge them speedily what he's saying here is if a poor widow got what she deserved from a selfish judge how much more will God's children receive what is right from a loving Heavenly Father she had no one to help defend her she had no advocate but we have Jesus Christ the advocate with the father this widow had to cry from without the tent but we are those who are able to come into the very holy of holies and the inner veil she was unloved uncared for but we are called the beloved of God Jesus said in John 17 23 that the father has loved us with the same love that he has for Jesus it's an incredible thing we're not some poor widow crying from outside the tent we are beloved children of God crying to God from within the veil you don't have a cruel and sensitive judge who is bothered and annoyed by your request rather you have a loving Heavenly Father who invites you to come to him Luke 18 verse 8 says I tell you that he will avenge them speedily the word avenge speaks of God giving justice to his children and the trials and hardships of life if Jesus says the father will answer speedily why are there seemingly delays in the answers to prayer verse 7 tells us shall it says in shall not God avenge his own elect which cry day and night unto him though he bear long with them the phrase bear long speaks of the patience of God the patience of God that he has with the believer in this sense that that that God is patient and allowing the trial to produce the right outcome in our life and he is holding the heat there because it is designed to accomplish something better than if it wasn't there we don't understand that on this side of heaven but God does I like what Wiersbe said God's delays are not the delays of inactivity but of preparation God delays for the purpose of accomplishing a work in the believer you ever read Deuteronomy chapter 8 verse 3 & 4 why did he bring him through the wilderness to humble them to see what was in their heart he wants to see will you seek me or not I think sometimes God brings trials in her life let me see if Josh actually believes in prayer let me see if he actually believes that I can answer prayer let me see if let me let me let me put that allow that person to go through that trial just to see if they actually trust me enough now they only prayed once they must not really believe it now they didn't know they pray twice but will they pray a third time like Peter did or Paul like Paul did and like Jesus did now God can answer you on your first prayer sometimes we need to go back and back and back and back well I prayed about that person getting saved or I prayed about that person getting better or pray again seek him again Jesus closes with a warning in verse 8 as I wrap this up he says nevertheless when the Son of Man comes when he cometh shall he find faith on the earth you know what he's saying here when I come will I find anyone who hasn't lost heart will I find anyone who persevered will I find anyone who lasted will there be anyone who kept persevering and the only way they persevered because they prayed listen I think the temperature of the world could turn up to a point where the only ones who last are the ones who pray the the spiritual attack the physical the sin all the things are going in life that's why it's important to be in church we heat up with the body of Christ the only ones who last are the ones who pray now listen to me be on guard that you and I don't play the victim card woe is me all my life is so hard and everybody else has it easier than me and now it's always me let's stop licking our wounds and start loving our Lord Jesus for me to live is a gift that I never have deserved you have saved me you have forgiven my sins you have promised me eternal life I have a home in heaven I am a citizen of heaven whatever I face on earth doesn't even compare to the glory which shall be revealed in me you are worthy of me dying for you if I went through the greatest trials in life you would still be worthy we so often can look at our trials and I think it does such a disservice Jesus made clear it's not an easy path don't lose heart listen some of us may have be growing weary and well-doing you're not reading your Bible like you're sued you used to memorize scripture now you used to serve you're not serving like you used to do here journals you're not doing here you used to used to share the gospel you're not sharing the gospel used to serve in some ministry you're just not serving now don't be a used to was there as my old preacher used to say be one who gets involved and says Christ I want to serve you till I die and when the tithes the trials come and the hardships come Lord you're faithful through it all I close with Galatians 6 9 let's all read this together and let us Galatians 6 9 and let us not be weary in well-doing for in due season we shall reap if we faint not I want you to know friends there is there is a reason for our service everything you do to the Lord is not in vain a lot of things we do in life will be burned up in this life they're not bad things always are just just things we do in life but everything you do for the Lord is eternal and so don't be weary in well-doing in due season you'll reap you know you plant those seeds you gotta water them you gotta water them a lot right now you gotta water them you got it but you know what that fruit will come that fruit will come just keep watering just keep watering don't don't don't wear down don't fail don't stop keep serving him amen you have a father in heaven that loves you read back over those stories like that and think man if that wicked judge would do that for a widow he did not care anything about how much more will my loving Heavenly Father answer prayers for me who he gave his son to die for my sins amen you
