Prayer: It's Always Too Soon To Quit - Life of Christ Part 60

Now, not long ago, I had a very interesting comment with a lady that was in my office, and we were sitting there, we were talking, and finally she turned to me and she said, Lon, she said, when you pray, she said, do you ever sometimes feel like nobody's really listening?

Well, I don't know. That's kind of an interesting comment, but it reminded me of something I read in Newsweek magazine a while back. Newsweek ran an article called Talking to God, and in this article they said, and I quote, many Americans are raised without any habits of personal prayer. What's more, most people cannot conceive of a God who would listen even if they did address him in prayer. And so here we've got this woman, and even though she's a very strong Christian, she was still asking me, Lon, I'm going through a real dry time. Is this normal? Does this happen to other Christians, where it seems like the heavens are made out of brass and every prayer you pray bounces back? Well, my answer to her is absolutely. I've had those kind of experiences. Maybe you have too. I think every Christian goes through those times where we wonder, is anybody really up there listening?

Hey, hello. And it just seems like nothing's happening. And the passage that we're going to look at this morning from Luke 18 is all about God, all about our prayer life and all about our relationship to him in prayer. I told this lady in my office, I said, you know, when we begin to feel like that, that's when we need to go and rely upon what God says in the Bible about himself, what God says in the Bible about prayer, what God says in the Bible about our relationship to him in prayer. That's when we have to walk by faith. And so I want to give you some information from Luke 18 this morning that will help you to do that when you're going through one of those dry times. And maybe you are right now.

So maybe it's really good you showed up this morning. Let's look at the passage together. Verse one. Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.

Now what's interesting in this passage is that the so what is upfront. I mean, Jesus tells us before he even starts what he wants us to get out of it. What he wants us to get out of it is the message that we as Christians should always pray and we should never cave in and give up in prayer. And then he gives us some information that's supposed to bring us to that conclusion. So let's look at the rest of the story and see if indeed we're convinced when we're done that we should always pray and not give up.

First two. Jesus said in a certain town there was a judge and he didn't fear God and he didn't care about man. And there was also a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea.

Grant me justice against my adversary. There's two main characters in Jesus's story. The first one is a judge. This was a judge whom the Bible says he didn't fear God. He didn't care about man. This was not a God fearing man. This was not a righteous judge.

In fact, in verse six, Jesus even calls him an unjust and unrighteous judge. He didn't care about people. He wasn't merciful. He wasn't compassionate. He wasn't kind. He wasn't motivated by true justice. That's why he was an unjust judge.

Here was a guy who cared about nothing but himself, didn't care about anybody but himself. And so he definitely didn't care about this widow. Now the widow, verse three, we need to understand that in the ancient Near East, widows were a very disenfranchised group of people. In the ancient Near East, they had no legal rights.

They had often little income. They had no rights in society. So here was a woman with no legal power and no economic power and no social power coming to a judge who was only going to do something for somebody who had some power and they could benefit him. You understand what we've got here? The stage is set, a woman who's powerless coming to a judge who could care less about her.

She has no clout. She can't offer him any benefit in any way and yet she's asking him to do something for her. Well what do you think probably happened? Do you think he probably said, oh sure, I love to help you.

What do you need? You think that happened? No, of course not. All right, let's look. Verse four, and for some time she kept coming to him, verse three says, she kept coming to him. For some time, verse four, he refused. Well we knew that.

We could have written that, right? We knew that's what he was going to do. But she kept on coming. She kept on coming. She kept on coming day after day after day. And finally, verse four says, he said to himself, look, even though I don't fear God, even though I don't care about men, yet because this woman keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets the justice she wants so she won't eventually wear me out with her coming.

This woman refuses to give up. She begins getting on his nerves. She begins driving him batty. He sees this woman in his dreams. He begins to hate coming to the office in the morning because he knows she's going to be there waiting for him. He hates going home at night because he knows she's going to be sitting out there waiting for him. He tries to go around the back entrance. She's there.

He tries to come in early before hours. She's there. She follows him to lunch and he says to her woman, what is it about no that you don't understand? But she just keeps coming and coming and coming and coming and coming. And finally he says, verse five, this woman is bothering me so much. The Greek word literally means to beat somebody up to the point that you give them a black eye. He said, this woman is pummeling me to death. She's going to give me a black eye so that I don't fear man. I don't care about God, but this woman's driving me nuts.

Give her anything she wants and get her out of my face. You know the movie What About Bob? Female Bob right here. That's all I need to say. If you've seen the movie, you know what I'm talking about. Does not know when to quit.

Just keeps on coming and keeps on coming. Now I kind of think there's a little humor in the story here. I mean, you know, here's a guy who says there's not a man in the world that intimidates me.

And God himself, I'm not even scared of him. But this woman has found a way to drive me out of my picket mind. I think that's kind of humorous. But you understand the point. The point is you've got a lady with no power but a lot of persistence. You've got a judge who doesn't care one lick about her. She's absolutely meaningless. She's not worth the dust on the road to this judge.

But because she keeps on coming, won't give up, won't cave in, won't lose heart, she finally wins in the end. That's the story. Got it? Okay. Now it leads us to the really important question and what's that? So what? So what? Now friends, we need to be real careful or we're going to interpret this little story.

We're going to get the point wrong. Here's the common interpretation. The common interpretation is that this woman kept pestering the judge, bugging the judge, going after the judge, pressing the judge until finally reluctantly the judge went, oh, all right, just take what you want and get out of here. And often the way it's presented is if we as Christians will keep pestering God and bugging God and going after God, eventually and somewhat maybe reluctantly God will give us what we want. Now I'd like to say to you that in prayer I believe there is a need for stamina. And in prayer there is a need for persistence but I believe that this is not the point of this story at all.

As a matter of fact, I think the point of the story is the exact opposite, that the message of this parable is found in the contrasts that are in the parable. In other words, the judge and God, are they alike? No, they're totally different. The widow and us as Christians, are we alike? No, we're totally different. The heart of God and the heart of the judge, are they alike?

No, they're completely different. The message of the parable is not that the judge is like God and we're like the widow, but that the judge is not like God and we're not like the widow. And that's the real message of the parable is that God is more anxious to give than we are to even ask. He's not like the judge. Look at this contrast between God and the judge. The judge was selfish, he was self-centered, he was a rogue who only cared about himself, but God is our loving Heavenly Father who cares so much about you and me and loves us so deeply that he died on the cross for you and me. Are those two people alike?

No, they're completely different. And look at us and the widow. The widow had absolutely no clout, no position, no status with the judge whatsoever. But the Bible says that we as Christians, we are the children of God, Romans chapter one. We are the personal sheep of God, John chapter 10. We are the citizens of heaven, Philippians chapter three. We are the friends of Jesus Christ, John chapter 15. And there's a total contrast between the widow's status with the judge, she had no relationship, and our status with Almighty God, we're his dear children.

We're not like the widow. And finally, there's a contrast between the heart of God and the heart of this judge. The heart of this judge was hard. He didn't care about people, he only did things that benefited him.

And folks, would you notice that even when he granted the widow her request, he only did it because it benefited him. What did he say? He said, this woman is bothering who?

Me. And she is gonna drive me out of my mind, give her what she wants. He wasn't concerned about her even in doing what she asked for. But when we come to God, 1 Peter chapter five verse seven says that we're to bring all of our cares to him because, magic words, listen, he cares for us. Every heartache, every pain, every groan, every tear that we feel and we cry, God feels it with us and God cares about us and God is deeply involved in our lives. He's not like this judge.

And so friends, can you see the utter contrast that's here? And that's why Jesus says what he says in verse six. And the Lord said, listen to what the unjust judge said, don't you hear it? And will not God, here's the point, will not God, who's not like this judge, bring about justice for his chosen ones who cry out to him day and night?

Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, Jesus said, he will see to it that they get justice and then they get it quickly. God will not put those children of his off the way that judge put that woman off because God's not like the judge and we're not like the widow. You understand the point?

Okay, so here's the idea. If a selfish judge responded to a widow who was meaningless in his sight, simply because she wouldn't give up, verse seven, will not God. How much more, here's the fulcrum of the story, how much more will God respond to our cries as his dear children if we simply won't give up? You got the point?

All right. So what Jesus is teaching here is that God is listening and that God does care and that he's more anxious to answer our prayers than we are to ask and because of that, verse one, we should never stop praying. We should never give up.

So long as Jesus is alive and you're alive, it's always too soon to quit in light of the heart of God. Now I got a care card, you know, not too long ago and there's no signature on the front, it's blank or I would have called this lady, but I want you to hear what she said on the back. She said, please pray for my husband, an atheist who hates Christians and especially his wife. I think she's his wife, by the way.

I think that's how it connects. If you really have a heart for unsafe people, then pray hard for this man. I have prayed for him for 20 plus years and I can't pray anymore. Forgive me, Lord. I just want to go home.

That's all that's on it. I have prayed for him for over 20 years. I can't pray anymore.

Just take me home. I've had it and I got that and I sat there and I thought, golly, I wish that lady would have put her phone number, put her name or anything on it so I could call her. I mean, I don't even know who sent this to me. I don't even know if she's here this morning, but what about this lady's comment? I mean, you say, Lon, all right, I hear what you're saying here in Luke 18 and I understand the point, but how do you take what Jesus is saying in Luke 18 and how do you connect it with this, huh? Here's a woman praying for her husband for 20 years and God doesn't do anything. So how is it that God's going to move quickly and listen to all of our prayers? And Lon, while you're at it, could I ask you how about all those things that I've been praying for all those years that God's never answered my prayers and I've gotten frustrated and I've gotten discouraged and I've been ready to give up. Well, if Luke 18 is true, then what's going on in my life? How come he hasn't answered all my prayers? I mean, I would like an answer to this woman's question and I'd like one for myself too.

Let's answer the question. How come God sometimes doesn't seem like he's responding to your prayers the way Luke 18 says he's going to? I have three reasons why God may not be responding to your prayers the way you want him to.

Write them down, put them on your dashboard, they'll help you. All right, number one. Why doesn't God sometimes respond to our prayers the way we want him to? Number one, because many times what we're asking for, God knows is not good for us.

Many times what we're asking for, God knows is not best for us to have. Now, I want you to look back in James 4. James 4, if you're using our copy of the Bible, it's page 855, James chapter 4. James 4, verse 3.

Here's what it says. It says, when you ask, verse 3, when you ask, you do not receive sometimes, and here's why, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you're asking for on your own pleasures. Dear friends, do we understand that God is not Santa Claus here in America? I'm not sure we do. Do we understand that God is not the genie in the lamp? You know, we rubbed a little lamp and out pops the genie, and then the genie's there to give us whatever we want? Do we understand that God didn't make the world, and God didn't put you and me in it, and God didn't offer to become our Savior and our Lord just so he could give us all our creature comforts that we feel like having?

Do we understand that? I don't know if we do fully, but you see, God is not in the business of being your genie or my genie. God's in the business of leading people to personal faith in Jesus Christ so their sins can be forgiven and they can go to heaven.

And then for those people who are willing to come to Christ, God is in the business of raising up those people who become his own children to becoming men and women of God. That's what God is in the business of doing. And folks, so many times, we come along and we ask God for things that do not fit with God's purpose for what he's trying to do with us. We ask God for things that if he were to give them to us, we would self-destruct. And many times, the reason God doesn't give us what we want is because as a good father, he's dedicated to giving us as his children what is best for us, not just what we feel like having.

I mean, being a father is not easy in that regard. I was out with my teenage son yesterday and we were walking up to Sports Authority. We parked the car and we were walking in, and I said, you know, I can't wait until you get old enough. We've been kind of arguing in the car a little bit about the fact that he was wrong and he wouldn't admit it because I knew he was, and we're going back and forth about this. And so, you know, I'm going, oh, I wish I was as smart as you are. And so when we got out, we're walking in and I said, you know what I'm waiting for? I'm waiting for you to get to be a parent so you can look back and realize what a great dad I am. That's what I'm waiting for. And then I said to him, I said, son, what do you think the odds are of that happening? And he said, 50-50. But I'm a patient man.

I can wait. And I just hope I see it before I die. But my children, if I gave my children everything they want, you know what my children want? They probably want what your children want. My children want to play video games all day. They want to stay up and watch television all night. They never want vegetables to appear on their plate.

They want to stay up to midnight on school nights and one or two o'clock on the weekends. They want to lay in bed and be waiting on hand and foot and never do any chores around the house and have me and Brenda serve them. He said, well, do you do what they want? Are you crazy? Are you out of your mind?

No, we don't do what they want. Absolutely not. Girls, I want to tell you something. You marry one of my guys and he'll know how to wash dishes. He'll know how to vacuum floors and do laundry and fix school lunches and set the table and clean the bathroom and cut the grass and put the paper bag back in the kitchen trash can after he takes it out. He'll know how to do it all.

Now, whether you can get him to do it with you, marry him is up to you. I don't know, but he will know how to do it. I promise you, because we're making him learn all three of them. And friends, we're trying to raise you gals some winners. We're not trying to raise you some jerks.

We're trying to raise you some winners. And the way we're doing that is by not giving these guys everything they want. We're giving them what they need, what we know is best for them.

And they simply don't have a big enough perspective on the world to understand why what we're doing is for their good. That's why I hope they'll live long enough to hear him admit it, which may or may not happen. But if you're a Christian, I hope you understand that in the same way God is raising his children and by not giving us what we think we need, by not giving us what we want to advance all of our creature comforts, don't you understand that God many times is keeping from us things that would hurt us and damage us. And God may not be answering some of your prayers, folks, because if God did, you'd self-destruct. I love what J. Vernon McGee, the great commentator said. He said, I have learned over the years that the best answer God has given to some of my prayers was no.

That was the best answer he could have given to some of them, no. And the same is true for you and me. And I hope you and I are smart enough to figure that out. Number two, reason God doesn't always answer our prayers is because a lot of times the situation that we want to get out of, that we're praying for God to take us out of, is the very situation we need to stay in for God to develop our character. Remember, God's trying to raise men and women of God.

He's trying to develop character. And I want you to turn in the Bible to 2 Corinthians chapter 12. It's page 822 in our copy. 2 Corinthians chapter 12. And I want you to hear what the apostle Paul said about a similar situation. 2 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 7. Now, you know, our very first response to trouble of any kind is to run right to God in prayer and watch Paul do this very same thing. Verse 7. Now look what he says, to keep me from becoming conceited.

Ooh, there's an interesting beginning to a sentence. To keep me from becoming conceited, Paul said, because of all the surpassing great revelations that were given to me. You say, what's he talking about? Well, he's talking about the fact, friends, that he wrote half the New Testament. That's what he's talking about.

And that would be a pretty heady thing, don't you think? So Paul says to keep me from getting conceited. Look what God did. There was given to me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me.

You say, Lon, what was that? Nobody knows. Some people think it was bad eyesight. Other people think it was some other physical affliction.

Nobody knows. But look the way he responded to it. Verse 8. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. Does that sound familiar? It sounds just like me. Probably sounds just like you.

Man, you're walking along, minding your own business. All of a sudden, whap, man, God slapped something on you or whap, something comes into your life. Washed machine breaks, car breaks, somebody gets sick, you know, whatever. And what's the first thing we do?

Man, we drop to our knees and we go, oh, God, get this off of me. Take it away from me. Right? That sound familiar? That's what I do. That's what Paul did.

So don't feel bad. The apostle Paul did it. He did it three times. Look what God said to him. God said, no, Paul, I'm sorry.

Verse 9. My grace is sufficient for you. My power will be made perfect in your weakness. I'll get you through it. But no, I'm not going to take it away. Uh-uh. Because you need it, Paul.

Why? To keep you from becoming conceited. You see, there was something in Paul's character that God wanted to do, that God needed to do, and that's why he needed Paul in that situation. And he couldn't answer Paul's prayer the way Paul prayed it because he couldn't develop Paul's character and do both. And he's committed to developing character. And my dear friends, success, I hope you realize this, never developed anybody's character.

It ruins a whole lot of people's character, but it never develops anybody's. And the kind of success you and I want all the time, hey, listen, if God gave it to us, it would be the worst thing he could ever do for us. I was reading back in Luke Chapter 9 when I was back there about a year ago. We were working on that chapter. I used Matthew Henry's commentary. I don't know how many of you know Matthew Henry. He's an old British writer. He's long gone and dead, been 100 years or more.

But I used his commentary, and he's got some great stuff in there. And I came across this quote, just a couple sentences, that so struck me that I copied him down and put him up on my wall in my study. And I don't know if these will be meaningful to you, but in light of some of the things my family's going through and some of the situations we find ourselves in that we want out of and God's not taking us out of, boy, these words meant a lot to me. And I must read this three or four times a week, these sentences.

See what you think. And I quote, he said, 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 a need to be in heaviness. But when God sees that the work is done and that we need healing, we shall have it, end of quote. Boy, that means so much to me because it says to me, Lon, you know where you are right now with your family and your children and your daughter? That's right where God wants you to be, buddy. If God feels you need to be there for a little while because it's better for your soul, then you need to stay there, pal. And when God thinks it's ready to take you out of there, God will take you out of there. But you just sit tight, let God do what he needs to do. And friends, if God has you in a vice right now and it feels like God's squeezing the life right out of you, I'm telling you, you need to walk by faith.

I'm telling you that you need to believe the word of God, believe what God says about himself, believe what God says about the deep love that he has for you. God's not trying to squeeze the life out of you. God's trying to squeeze the sin out of you. God's trying to squeeze the unrighteousness out of you.

God's trying to make you into what you prayed he would make you into, which is a man or a woman of God. And we need to submit to his discipline and we need to let him do it his way and you'll like the product. Trust me, you'll like the product.

You may not like the process, but you'll like the product. Why doesn't God answer your prayer sometimes? Because God's got you right where he wants you to develop your character.

And when he's done, then he'll get you out. Number three and finally, why doesn't God sometimes answer our prayers the way we want him to? Number three, because sometimes he is answering and you and I don't have enough sense to see it. Sometimes he is answering and we don't have enough wisdom and perspective to realize it. I don't know how you are, but I think that I take an awful lot for granted from God. Maybe you're not like me. Maybe you're better than I am.

And if you are, God bless you and I'm glad you are, but I take a lot for granted. You know, I'll look up at God and I'll say, God, why aren't you doing more for me? And God looks back down and says, Solomon, I don't understand. Why can't you see everything I'm doing for you? What is wrong with you? Well, what's wrong with me is I'm human.

That's what's wrong with me. What's wrong with me is I have this tiny little tunnel vision on the world and this tiny little bit of tunnel vision on my life and I want everything done inside this little tiny tunnel. And if God doesn't answer me right inside this little tiny tunnel, the way I've got it all worked out in my mind, then I say, God's not answering my prayers. But you know, God is not working in this little tiny tunnel I'm working in. God's working in a big expansive universe and God is doing all kinds of things for me and all kinds of things for you that may not fit in your little tunnel. And we need to be wise enough to look outside the tunnel and say, maybe God is doing a lot more for me than I realize.

I'm just not smart enough to have figured it out. I love Psalm 103. It says, praise God and be thankful for all of His blessings. He lifts your life from the pit. He forgives your sin. He heals your diseases.

I mean, you know, I get over colds and things go away and I caught the mumps and didn't die. I mean, you know, God did do all this stuff for me. And then it goes on to say He doesn't deal with us the way our sins deserve, but as high as the heavens are above the earth, that's how great His mercy is. God's not doing something for me?

Come on. And friends, I believe that God's probably doing more for you than you realize, but maybe He's not doing it inside that tiny little tunnel you've got constructed. So you're saying, God's not answering my prayer. Well, wait a minute.

Maybe He is, but He's just not doing it the way your little tunnel's constructed. As you know, my little girl has a seizure disorder. It's a bad one. About a year and a half ago, our local neurologist down here really threw up his hands and said, look, I don't know what else to do with her. She's only two, and she was then about less than a year old. And he said, she's harder than most cases I've ever dealt with. You all need to go see a place like Hopkins. So we began being treated up at Johns Hopkins.

They have a pediatric epilepsy center, and that's where we go for our main treatment. And when we go up there, it's kind of interesting. We go in a room. One person comes and talks to us.

They come back. Another person comes in. They talk back. Then they all go confer. Then the main doctor comes in with all the little ducklings behind her, all the interns and the residents.

They all waddle in behind her, and they all fill the room. And that's kind of how it works at one of these teaching hospitals. And so we were there once.

This was about four, five, six months ago. And they said, we want you to meet somebody. This is a doctor from Canada, Nova Scotia. He's the foremost pediatric neurologist in all of Eastern Canada.

You know, di da di da di da. I never heard of the guy. Shook his hand. Nice to meet you.

God bless you. You know, big muck-a-muck. I don't know who he is.

Never heard of the guy. That's great. You know, I'm glad he's here. And he said, we had brought this new EEG that we had had done on our little girl.

You know, that's a brain wave tracing. We'd had it done down here. And he said, would you mind if I look at that before we come in to talk with you and meet your daughter? And I said, no, I don't care.

Sure. So he took it and went over in the other room, and you could see him, you know, working his way through it. You know, they're about that thick, you know, and they worked their way through it. So when they all came in the room and they watched for about half an hour, they watched Jill do her thing. They watched her. They asked her developmental stuff. They checked her out and did all this kind of stuff.

He was very quiet. And then at the very end of our time together, he made this comment. He said, you know, he said, when I looked at that EEG over in the other room, having never seen your daughter, and now I come in here and I see your daughter and how well she's doing, he said, if you'd have told me that EEG went with that little girl, he said, I never would have believed it. He said, the EEG is so bad, and the little girl is doing so good. He said that you could not have convinced me if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes.

That EEG and that little girl went together. He said, you all are very lucky. And I said, well, you know, we had a lot of people praying for her. I didn't know what else to say. And as we were walking out of the hospital that day, I was real quiet, and Brenda said to me, you know, what's wrong with you? You know, something's not right.

What's bothering you? And I said, well, I don't know how to quite explain this to you, but I said, you know, for a while now, I've been praying and saying, God, with all these people at McLean Bible Church praying for my little girl, and with all of my family praying for my little girl, and with all these friends we've got around the country and the world that know us praying for my little girl, God, why aren't you doing something with my little girl? Why aren't you healing my little girl? Why aren't you answering prayer? I mean, how can you not be responding to all of that prayer? He said, and then I come up here today, and I walk out of that room after that guy makes that statement, and now I find myself thinking, you know, all this time, God's been answering all that prayer, and I just haven't had enough sense to realize it. And I said, for right now, frankly, I feel pretty crummy, that I would impugn God and say, God, how could you dare not answer the prayer? And all of that time, he's answering, and I was just too stupid to see it. I feel pretty crummy right now.

And friend, I want to tell you something. If you're praying, God's answering your prayer. He may not be answering in that little tiny tunnel where you want it, and he wasn't answering that little tiny tunnel where I want it, but God's answering your prayer. And it may be that you're too stupid like I was to see it, but that doesn't mean God's not answering your prayer. You need to just broaden it out a little bit and say, God, show me how you're answering, so I won't impugn you falsely, like I did to him. Well, why doesn't God answer our prayers?

Those are three reasons. Let me make one last comment, and I'm done. What if I'm praying for somebody that is like this lady? I mean, what if I'm praying for a loved one, and they're not coming to know Christ?

Twenty years! This lady said she prayed for a husband. What do I say about that? Well, what I say about that to you, my friend, is that if you're praying for a loved one, God wants that loved one to come to Christ more than you'll ever want him to come to Christ. The Bible says, 1 Timothy 2, 4, God wants everyone to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth, but there's a complicating factor, and that's the free will of your friend, the free will of your relative.

Matthew chapter 23, Jesus said, how many times I wanted to gather all of you people in Jerusalem under my wings, and you would not. You see, man has free will, friend, and God will not, God never has, and God never will compromise the free will of man. I believe if you're praying for somebody to come to Christ, God is doing everything he can justly and righteously do to bring that person to Christ, but he will not trample on that person's free will. That person's got to make the decision he wants to come. God can woo him, God can lead him, you can take him to water, but he's got to want to drink. And even if that friend of yours dies and never comes to Christ, you listen, God did everything he could justly and righteously do to bring your friend to Christ. You've got to believe that because it's true, but don't you dare give up. Don't you dare give up.

It's too soon to quit. I'm a Christian today because of the prayers of a dear black lady. Her name was Cora Lee Goodman. She was my housekeeper.

She began when I was two months old, and she worked for me until the time I left for college when I was 18. And I'm a Christian today because of the prayers of that lady. That lady prayed for me and my family 21 years until I came to Christ. She prayed for my dad, for my mom, for my brother. And when I came to Christ and I was 21 years old, I went to find her.

She was living in Portsmouth, Virginia. I went back to find her and to tell her I'd become a Christian. And I showed up at her house, I had hair out to my shoulders and bell bottoms and a tank top on and motorcycle boots and my dog with me and a backpack because I hitchhiked up there from Chapel Hill.

And so I, you know, I was not what you normally saw walking down the street. But anyway, I showed up at her front door, knocked on the door. She came to her. Actually, she peeked through the window first and then she opened the door and I told her who I was.

I wasn't sure she recognized me. And I said, she said, What are you doing here? I said, I've come to tell you that I gave my life to Jesus Christ. And she said, Lord, I say, honey, come on in here.

That's what happened. And I went inside and we sat down and she said, You know, when I came to work for you when you were two months old, she said, I began praying for your family. She said, But honey, I never thought today I'd see you be a Christian.

I said, Well, here I am bigger than life. And I'm a Christian today because of 21 years of praying by that black lady. You know, she died in 1975 and went to be with the Lord. My dad came to know Christ in 1976. In 1989, my brother came to know Christ. In 1992, my mother came to know Christ.

All four of the people she prayed for came to know Christ, three of them after she was dead and with the Lord. Friend, is it ever too soon to quit? You bet. Don't you ever quit? You know, God may answer some of your prayers after you're gone.

He didn't promise he'd answer them all while you were still here. Three of the four people she prayed for my family came to Christ after she was gone. But God honored those prayers.

It's always too soon to quit. And in closing, may I say if you're here and you're not a Christian, you're here this morning, I can assure you somebody is praying for you too. But you know what? We can't pray you into the kingdom of heaven. We can't pray you into being a Christian. God can lead you to the water, but you've got to want to drink.

And my challenge to you if you're here and you've never trusted Christ as your personal Savior is, yeah, we love you and we'll do everything we can, but you've got to make a decision whether you want Jesus Christ in your life or not. And nobody's going to make that decision but you. Don't think, well, if God wants me to be a Christian, I'll be one. Uh-uh. God wants you to be a Christian, but you've got to make a decision and nobody else can make it but you.

And I hope that you'll understand what the rules are and you'll make that decision as soon as possible. Let's bow together in prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, as we pray today, I want to ask that you would forgive me for the many, many times that in prayer I impugn you, I accuse you of not listening and not answering when it's not true. I just don't have enough sense many times to be able to see what you're really doing.

And I have the feeling, Lord, there's a whole bunch of folks here just like me. Our vision is so limited. We've got such tunnel vision that, God, we really don't appreciate all that you're doing for us.

Forgive us. Remind us you're not like this judge. Remind us that you love us so deeply and that you're raising us to be men and women of God. That you do what's best for us. That you'll develop our character but that you'll answer every single prayer in a way that we'll be happy with when we get to eternity. So, Lord, I pray this morning that you would stoke the fires in our lives again. If we've become discouraged in prayer as many of us have, if we've become downcast, stir us today to get back on our knees and seek the face of God and never give up knowing that you're not like that judge but you're a loving Father. Renew our prayer life, God, as a result of what we've learned from your Word this morning, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.