Always Pray and Never Lose Heart - Live with Lon!

Well hello everybody and welcome to Live with Lon.

So glad to have you with us and we have a great passage of scripture to study today about prayer that I know will bring hope and encouragement to your heart. So let's get ready to dig in and remember what we study. What do we study? Say it with me. The Bible.

Come on now. The whole Bible and what? Nothing. Nothing but the Bible.

Correct. And then we apply it to our lives. So let's pray and we're ready to go.

Here we go. Lord Jesus I pray that you would open our hearts to your word this morning or whenever it is that we're listening. Lord I pray that you would deliver us from our own passions and forgive us for our sins and fill us with the Holy Spirit. Lord and allow us to live in the power of the Holy Spirit each and every day not in the power of our human passions. And Father I pray that you would forgive us for the sins we've committed this week and even this day. Cleanse our heart and now make our heart soft and malleable in the hands of the Holy Spirit as we study the word of God today.

It's in Jesus name and everybody said what. Amen and amen. All right. As you know.

Yes short sleeve shirt. You see it. OK. It's July. It's hot. OK. Now as you know we're studying the gospels and we're in Luke Chapter 18 today. Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem for the very last time. And this parable that we're going to study is a parable that we're going to study. And it's a parable that he tells his disciples and us while he's on his journey.

So without any further ado let's look. We're in Luke Chapter 18 beginning at verse 1. And of course we're using the New King James version of the Bible.

All right. Here we go. Verse 1 and he that is of course Jesus spoke a parable to them to this end. I think the Old King James says men ought always to pray and not faint. This is unusual in Jesus's parables in that he tells us before he even tells us the parable.

Oh what's the so what. What's the point that we're supposed to get out of it. It's clear the point we're supposed to get out of this parable is that we should pray. And never lose heart in prayer. So whatever this parable is about the message that comes out if we interpret it properly is a message to pray and not lose heart.

OK. With me. Now that's how we'll know if we've interpreted it rightly is if that's what we come out of the parable with. So here we go. Now here are the two main characters in our parable a judge an unrighteous judge an unjust judge. This is often called the parable of the unjust judge. Sometimes it's called the parable of the poor.

And sometimes it's called the persistent widow too. So anyway this is not a godly man. He doesn't love God. He doesn't fear man. He's a very selfish man.

He only cares about himself. And there's a widow in this town and widows in the ancient Near East were in a very difficult spot. They couldn't go out and work for a living if they had no man in the house to go out and do that. They had no source of income.

And they were often taken advantage of and misused which is why God talks in the Old Testament so much about his defending the widow and the orphans the widow and the orphans because they were defenseless and open to terrible abuse. And so this woman can't afford a lawyer. So she comes to the judge herself and says Judge I have this adversary.

We don't know anything about the adversary. And I want you to avenge me of this adversary. I want you to decide this case in my favor.

All right. So verse 4 and he would not for a while the judge wouldn't but afterwards he said within himself though I do not fear God nor regard man. Yet because this widow troubles me I will avenge her lest by her continual coming she weary me.

The Greek word there means she wear me out. Now my wife warned me when I preach this for the very first time. Don't say anything smart or funny to try to get a laugh about this. So I'm not OK. No I'm not OK. It is what it is. But this woman keeps coming and keeps coming and keeps coming. No matter how many times the judge says no you ever see the movie. What about Bob.

Yeah. Well she's Bob. OK. And and she just keeps coming and coming and coming until finally the judge says enough. OK. You know he would show up at his front door in the morning. She'd be there waiting for him.

He tried to sneak in the back door in the morning. She'd be there waiting for him no matter what he tried. She was there and finally he said all right do what you want you to do because she's going to just wear.

I can't take this anymore. OK. Now that's the parable that Jesus tell. And before we go on I want us to talk a minute here about this story up to this point the way many commentators and preachers interpret this is that the widow got what she asked for in prayer here to the judge. Because she was so bulldog and so determined and so persistent and so annoying and so weary some that she finally just wore him down and that we need to be the same way in prayer. We need to be persistent to the point that God grants what we want. Now I don't deny that we need to be persistent in prayer.

We're going to talk about that in a minute. But folks this is the wrong interpretation of this parable. This is completely wrong to the contrary. This is not what the parable teaches that if we're persistent enough we will talk an unsympathetic God into finally doing what we want him to do. That is not what this parable teaches. And the reason I know that is because of the three contrasts in the early verses of this parable between the people in the parable and God and us. You say what do you mean.

OK let me show them to you. Number one is the contrast between God and this judge. God this judge is selfish. He doesn't fear God. He doesn't care about man. He is completely self-consumed and doesn't care about anybody else or their needs. On the other hand our God is a loving God a caring God a very ever present God who cares about the needs of people.

As Peter says first Peter Chapter 5. He says cast all your cares on God. Why.

Because he cares for you. He's not like the judge. He's the opposite of the judge.

OK that's the first contrast. Second contrast in this parable is between the widow and us as followers of Jesus Christ. The widow was powerless. The widow had absolutely no basis on which to appeal to the judge.

The widow had nothing on her side to in any way make the judge sympathetic to her. But on the other hand we as followers of Christ we are the dear children of God through the Lord Jesus Christ. Romans Chapter 8. All of us who have trusted Christ have become children of God by which we cry Abba Father. We come to God as his beloved children. And just like if you have children you understand that everything that happens in your children's life they have an inside track with you because they're your children to talk to you to ask for your help to appeal to you. They're your children and they have a unique access to you that the rest of the world doesn't have.

We have that same situation. We are God's children and we have unique access to God because we are his children. We're not like the widow. And finally the third contrast is between the heart of this judge and the heart of Almighty God. The heart of this judge was completely self-centered. Even when he granted the woman what she wanted he did it for his own benefit.

He did it because she was wearing him out and to get rid of her he gave her what she wanted completely self-centered heart. Whereas God has a completely other center of heart. And when he answers prayer and when he does things he does it out of his goodness and out of his graciousness and out of his benevolence and out of his mercy and out of his kindness for others. He's not thinking about himself. If he was thinking about himself God would never have sent the Lord Jesus to die on the cross for us. And the only reason the Lord Jesus agreed to do this as the second person in the Godhead was because he wasn't thinking about himself. In Philippians chapter 2 he emptied himself of his own prerogatives as God and he came and died on the cross for us.

So the contrasts here are absolute meaning. Here's the point that if an unjust judge who cared only about himself actually could and did help a woman who had no way at all to influence him or in any way make him sympathetic with her. How much more will Almighty God, the gracious loving God of the universe whose heart is knit to us as his children and who when we come to him we have access to the most high God. We have continual access and influence because he loves and cares about us. How much more will that God answer our prayers, the prayers of his dear children through adoption in Christ.

Are you with me? That's the point and this is what Jesus is going to say right now. Look he says verse 6 and the Lord said do you hear what the unjust judge said and shall God not avenge his own elect us as his children who cry out to him day and night even though he bears long with them I tell you he will avenge them speedily.

That's it. How much more some translations say will God avenge us his lovely children in Christ. Alright so here's the point. The point is we don't come to God like the widow. We come as his children. He is not like the judge in that all he cares about is himself and his heart is anxious to do kind, benevolent, helpful, gracious things to us, for us we are his children and because that's just the heart of God.

He's a good God. In light of that we should always keep praying because we're not trying to talk an unsympathetic God into finally doing what we want because we bug him enough and we bother him enough. No that is not the point. The point is how much more if this widow got a selfish judge to do something for her how much more will our loving Heavenly Father do things for us if we will just persevere in prayer. So that's the point of the parable and that's what Jesus said at the beginning. The point of the parable is that people ought to always pray and never lose heart. Why shouldn't we lose heart? Well because the God we have and the relationship we have and the way we come to him and his anxiousness to do something nice and benevolent for his children all the time means that we've always got a platform with God in prayer and it's a mighty platform as his children.

Now we understand that. Okay now that's as far as we're going to go in our passage. We're going to ask our most important question now and what is it?

Are you ready? Come on now here we go. One two three. So what. Yeah.

And oh my. Got to say it. Got to say it. It's a sweet day to be alive. How sweet. Come on. It is.

Absolutely. Now I got a care card when I was at McLean Bible Church years ago we used to have these a visitor registration card in the bulletin and there was a room on the back. We called it our care card to write a message to me or prayer request to to to us as the staff. And here's what I got. We'll put it up on the screen so you can read it.

Here's what it said. It said quote please pray for my husband an atheist who hates Christians and especially his wife. If you really have a heart for the unsaved then pray hard for this man. Now watch I have prayed for him for 20 plus years and I can't pray anymore.

Forgive me Lord. End of quote. Folks 20 years a long time to pray for somebody and I can't I can identify with this woman. Can't you identify with her that she is worn down just praying and praying and praying for this man and seeing nothing happen. So here God tells us to pray and pray and pray and never give up.

And yet sometimes he goes months years decades without answering a particular prayer of ours. So how does that fit together. You say on. Well let's talk about that.

And by the way this is just the blinds in my window because I'm taping a little bit later today. So don't worry about it. OK. That's all it is. Don't pay any attention to it. OK. Oh it's better to recognize that stuff than to have people get distracted by it. OK. Here we go. So what about this. Well friends God often delays in answering our prayers and wants us to keep praying and praying and praying and not giving up.

And I understand like I said the frustration of this woman. I prayed 22 years for my mom's salvation. And when I got to 20 I was like good grief Lord I've prayed 20 years and nothing has happened. I paid seven years for my dad 15 years for my brother 22 for my mother. And you start to go holy smokes.

Yeah. Well you know my mom came to Christ at year 22 and I often ask God why are you. Why are you making me keep praying.

Why is it taking so long. Now friends there are reasons why God doesn't answer our prayers right away but makes us keep praying. And I'm not going to give you all of them.

I don't even know all of them. Some of them are between God and himself. But one of them is to humble us. You know if God gave us everything that we wanted right this minute the minute we asked for it like the genie coming out of the lamp we would be some of the most arrogant people in the whole world as followers of Christ. And and so having a humble yourself and get on your knees and seek the face of God and ask again and again and persevere in prayer. It humbles us and even when God answers the prayer we don't get too big for our britches because after praying about it for weeks or months or years we know where the answer came from. And so it doesn't go to our head.

That's one reason. Another reason that God often makes us wait in prayer is to develop patience and endurance in us. You know I read a quote one time that said the one thing that people want most in their leader whether that leader is a general or an admiral in the middle of a war or a corporate CEO in the middle of a problem or a pastor of a church or whatever. The thing that people want most in their leaders is that they remain calm under pressure.

And I can relate to that. My gosh if the leader completely freaks out if the father of the home freaks out if the pastor of the church freaks out if the general commanding the troops freaks out. Well how are the troops supposed to maintain confidence and calm and and a sense of presence.

I understand that you know but you know oftentimes it's people who are along in years who are not 20 years old or even 30 years old or even 40 years old but older who have this amazing patience and calm in the middle of the storm. I remember watching the movies we were we were soldiers with Mel Gibson and of course he was portraying a true story that happened in Vietnam with Lieutenant Colonel Hal Moore who went on to become a three star general. But Hal Moore in this movie played played by Mel Gibson maintains the most amazing calm.

It was that the eye drying valley. They were told that Americans were completely outnumbered completely out tactically maneuvered by the Vietnamese. And he was so calm and even one of his soldiers he said to him we're going to win this fight. Don't you worry we're going to win this fight.

So calm. How did he get to be that way. Well he wasn't a 20 year old recruit and he wasn't a 30 year old captain and he wasn't a 40 year old major. He was a lieutenant colonel who had had experiences in life that had developed patience and calm and endurance in his life. And friends this is what God teaches us in prayer by making us wait and persevere. We learn patience. We learn how to be calm even and endure even in the toughest situations of life.

It develops our our our ability to be good leaders to be good fathers to be good mothers to meet be good parents or whatever. And another reason that God sometimes delays answering our prayers and we've talked about this in the last few weeks is that God's busy getting all the clickers ready to click in with something else going on and he just needs us to hold. So you know for example Joseph is in jail and God says hold I've got to give Pharaoh dreams and do all this other stuff and we're not when I've gotten all that ready then we'll put this together.

You understand what I'm saying. So he had to put Joseph on hold while he got the rest of his stuff ready. And so sometimes God says to us know you just need to go into neutral for a minute.

I've got some other things I'm getting ready and then I'll match you all up. So that may be another reason why God doesn't answer prayer is he's in the middle of of trying to get everything ready to make that answer for you and me and he just needs us to be patient. Okay that's another one but that was those aren't the ones I want to talk to you about the one I want to talk to you about is that often God delays in prayer answering because he wants to grow us spiritually.

And the way to grow us spiritually is to make us go down deep into Christ looking for sustenance. You know when the oak tree is very strong because when the water dries up at the surface, the oak tree goes down deep looking for water. And that means the roots are deep. So the tree is strong trees that grow up in the marshlands and in areas that are swampy where there's all this water on the surface. Those trees are not strong. Their roots never basically leave the surface because they've got all this water on the surface and they can easily be pulled over or blown over. But trees that are forced to go deep to get sustenance and water are the ones that are strong. My friends the same is true of followers of Christ of Christians when God forces us and he doesn't want all the water to be right on the surface because we would we would never develop into strong people with deep roots in Christ.

So he lets the water dry up on the surface. He doesn't answer all our prayers right away and he makes us go deep into him in prayer seeking answers to prayer. And you know after having done that with my mom and my dad and my brother, it taught me so much about just knowing God was going to answer when he was ready. And not doubting him and having a completely different relationship with him than I had when I was a young Christian and everything was on the surface for me.

And it was wonderful. It was a blessing that God made me go deep and there have been other things in my life my friends that I've prayed about for years and years and years. And God answers some of them right away.

Yeah, but the others he didn't. And there's some I'm still praying about and I've been a believer 50 years. There's some things I'm still praying about that happened decades ago. But you know what?

It's all right. I'm calm about it because I know from having done this before from having prayed a long time for things previously. I know when my God is ready, my God can handle anything and my God will answer my prayers.

I know that. And so I'm calm and relaxed about the whole thing. And this is something that happens to Christians, not just to soldiers, not just to corporate executives, but to Christians who have to have to go deep into Christ in prayer and continue to go deep seeking the sustenance of God and eventually the answers of God. So if God's making you do that, my friend, it's OK. Don't give up. Like this lady said, maybe you've been praying for 20 years.

Fine. Pray for 25. Pray for 30. Some prayers may not be answered until you're on the shores of heaven, my friends. That's OK. What did Jesus say? Always pray.

Never give up. Now, I've got a great quote. Sometimes God sees that we need physical sickness for the good of our souls more than we need healing for the ease of our bodies. And then we must be willing for a season because there is need to be in heaviness. But when God sees that the work is done for the good of our souls, that is, remember, and we need healing, we shall have it. Now, that's not just true about physical healing, my friends. That's true about everything in our life. Sometimes we need God to say no for the good of our souls rather than for the ease of our bodies. And when God's finished doing what he needs to do for the good of our souls, then he will answer and we will have what we need.

And the only way you learn to believe that is letting God put you through it and experiencing it by having to go deep in prayer and long in prayer with Christ. OK, well, don't give up. As Winston Churchill said in one of his speeches during World War Two.

Let me put it on the screen. He said, never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never in nothing great or small, large or petty. Never give in. And this is how we should be in prayer.

Don't get discouraged. You've got a God who's listening. You've got a God who's interested. You've got a God who is sympathetic. You've got a God who is good and merciful and kind and benevolent. You've got a God who loves you as his child the way you love your children. You've got a God who is omnipotent and doesn't even have to snap his fingers. He can simply think the thought and your prayer will be answered.

Don't you give up. He'll answer when for the good of our souls, he's done what he needs to do. May God bless you and give you fortitude in prayer. Let's pray. Dear Lord Jesus, thank you so much for speaking to us today and every one of us here, every believer in Jesus here has unanswered prayers that we're still praying about.

For some of us, it's been a week, a month, a year, 10 years, 20 years more. But Lord Jesus, I pray that you would encourage us today to never give in, never give up, to pray and not lose heart. And Lord Jesus, when you are done with whatever reason why you are delaying this, we know that you will answer. And so, Lord Jesus, thank you for your encouraging word today. Apply to our hearts and make us strong in prayer. And we pray this in Jesus' name and everybody said Amen and Amen. Today, God bless you. Let's have a week where we endure in our prayers. God bless.