Dealing with Unanswered Prayer

I was just reminded how God is using us as a church.

And I was reminded about how God is using your financial giving.

Your financial giving.

Just in the last couple weeks, there was a young person that comes to our youth group.

And in the last 12 months, they've trusted Christ as their Lord and Savior.

They've gotten baptized.

Well, in the last couple of weeks, they did something that takes a lot of bravery.

They're part of their Christian school club or their public school.

At their public school, there's a Christian club.

And for their Christian club last week, they stood up and they preached a sermon.

And let me tell you, that's a scary thing to do.

And that happens because of your financial giving.

When we learn to obey and trust God with our giving, He takes the seeds that we sow and He just multiplies them and He changes lives.

And I just want to say thank you guys so much for your financial giving and for trusting God with that area of your life.

We're gonna be in Luke chapter 18, and I want to open up with a question this morning.

Luke 18 · chapter mention

Have you ever done something?

And after a while, you felt like giving up.

Maybe it was really hard.

Maybe uh life just happened.

Maybe maybe you just got tired and weary.

I I remember when I was in college, I was uh I was on the college basketball team.

Yes, believe it or not.

Obviously, they didn't have a height limit to be on the team.

And I and I was on the team, and case you're wondering, I'm five foot seven on a good day, so um, that is my height.

Yes, and uh, and I remember after a year of being on the team and playing all of one minute a game, yes, I was a bench warmer, but don't feel bad for me.

I led the team in high fives.

Come home.

Somebody had to do it.

So some of y'all were there, some of y'all know what I'm talking about.

I I did I did that for a year, and you know what?

After a year that I got tired of it.

So you know I did?

I quit.

I was like, I don't wanna do this.

I don't wanna give you guys your Gatorade and like warm the bench, you know, or it's got my rear end impression in the seat right there.

Done with this.

And uh sometimes I wonder what would happen if I didn't quit.

Maybe, maybe, I could have ended up being a contributor to the team.

Maybe I could have been a starter, maybe I could have been the next LeBron.

Nah, I couldn't have been the next LeBron, that wouldn't happen.

Because I quit.

Because it was hard.

I remember about 10 years ago, there was another time where I was at a place in my life where I knew I needed to do something because I had put on a few pounds.

I know.

Let's put it this way: there were some local fast food establishments that I was single-handedly keeping in business.

So I did something crazy.

You ever done something crazy?

I showed up at a CrossFit gym.

Crazy.

And it was awful.

It was.

And I was like, why is this so hard?

Like, it was like unnecessarily hard.

In fact, so so the way it works is there's like this warm-up, and then there's the workout.

I showed up, we did the warmup.

I was like, that was a great workout.

I'm ready to go home.

They're like, no, no, no, like that was the warmup.

Like now we're gonna do the workout.

I was like, what is wrong with you people?

But somebody told me something that I I never forgot.

They told me something at that gym, they said this.

They said, here's all you gotta do, man, and it's gonna change everything.

I said, all I gotta do?

Like, yeah, like this is this is the secret to being in shape.

I was like, the secret.

They said, just show up.

Just show up.

Because there's coaches that they want to help you and they understand things, and all you gotta do is show up.

That's all you gotta do.

And well, over 10 years later, I've like become a CrossFit coach.

I was a CrossFit coach for a while, and I went in some CrossFit competitions, and and and and somebody boss me like, what do you do to be in shape?

Here's all I do.

I just show up.

That's all I do, and here's why I tell you the story is because sometimes we give up too soon when it comes to the area of prayer instead of persistently showing up in faith.

In fact, I think a lot of times we don't see answered prayer because we give up too early and stop showing up in prayer.

We pray for a while and then we're like, this doesn't really work anymore.

We pray for a while and we're like, why am I doing this?

God, you even hear me.

And today we're gonna see a story that Jesus told.

And I gotta say, this story is a little unusual.

That's a pastor way for saying this story's weird about Jesus telling a story about the power of showing up in prayer, and if you'll show up consistently in prayer, then God can do some great things.

Even if you've been praying for something for weeks or for months, or for years, or maybe for some of us, for decades.

Today is actually part five of a five-part series where we've been talking about prayer.

And if you miss any of the messages, I encourage you to catch up on them because we've just been trying to walk through like what is prayer, how do we fast?

Prayer is relational, what does that mean?

And what I really want you guys to really get this whole idea of prayer, and we have a YouTube channel and podcast and all that kind of stuff.

And today, what we're gonna see is we're just gonna see the power of God's people just showing up in prayer instead of giving up on prayer.

We're gonna be in Luke chapter 18.

Luke 18 · chapter mention

And if you're ready for it, would you say amen?

Luke 18, verse 1.

Luke 18:1

It says, Now he, this is Jesus, he told them a parable.

If you read the teachings of Jesus, you'll know he taught him parables.

What are parables?

Parables are stories, but they're not stories that are pointless.

It wasn't like Jesus said, I got nothing better to do, I'm gonna tell a story.

It's a story with the spiritual truth in the middle of it.

So Jesus is gonna tell a parable, a story with the spiritual truth in it.

And he's actually gonna tell them what the spiritual truth is before he tells the story.

Here's the spiritual truth.

The need for them to, what's those words to pray always, and not give up.

He plainly states, he's like, here's why I'm telling you this parable.

I want you to pray always.

And you say, pray always?

What's this mean?

Here, we could say it like this prayer is a lifestyle, it's not a last resort.

Prayer is a lifestyle, it's not a last resort.

Now, does this mean that we should like be on our knees 24-7?

Maybe.

Maybe get some water sometimes, so I'll go to the bathroom and work.

This is what this is what this means.

It really means we should be in the spirit of prayer.

That we don't just designate prayer just for like five minutes in the morning or five minutes before you go to sleep, but we should have an ongoing conversation with our Heavenly Father.

That we should have the spirit of I'm living my life independence on God.

He says that you should pray always.

This should be a lifestyle and not give up.

You say, Pastor Nate, Pastor Nate, you don't understand.

I prayed for something for a long time and it didn't happen.

And I got discouraged.

Can I just say there's been times I prayed for something for a long time and it hasn't happened, and I got discouraged.

You say, Pastor Nate, you don't understand.

I'm older than you.

I've prayed longer than you've been alive.

And I'm discouraged.

So then, if that's you, if you've been praying for something for a long time, whatever you call a long time, or if you've given up on something, here's what you need to do: you need to lean into the story because Jesus is gonna tell you why you should keep praying.

He's gonna tell you why, right where you are, you should keep praying because yes, the 49ers are going to win another Super Bowl.

We're gonna believe that in faith.

Here's the story he says in verse number two, just making sure you're still awake, okay?

Verse two, here's the story.

It says there was a judge in a certain town who didn't fear God or respect people.

Now, in our western minds, when we think of like a judge, we think of like a courtroom.

Maybe you saw the show Law and Order.

You guys watch Law and Order?

Some of you guys watch the Lord, right?

We think of you walk into a big building, and you have the jury, and you have the judge, you walk in there, and the judge comes in, it's like, all right.

That there's a there's a process, there's a way you do things.

This is what our minds think in our American culture, because that's how things work.

This is not American culture.

This is not in the 21st century, this is Eastern culture in the first century.

It was completely different.

They didn't have big buildings where you would walk in in a courtroom.

The way they did court was in an open outdoor public space, often at the entrance of the city.

So if there was a case happening, people could just stand around and watch.

They could yell in, hey, no, I don't think that.

Oh, did you hear about that over here?

Like there wasn't this order.

There wasn't the judge didn't have a legal process to follow.

There wasn't a jury, the judge was the legal process.

So he could do what he wanted, when he wanted, how he wanted.

You've heard the phrase before the judge, the juror, and the executioner.

This right here, Eastern mindset, eastern court, first century.

The judge, the juror, and the executioner.

This is the picture of what these people would be seeing when Jesus is telling the story about the judge.

He's got complete power, he's got ultimate authority.

Now let's think about this.

He doesn't respect people and he doesn't fear God.

So he's a bad judge with ultimate authority.

That's bad.

That's real bad.

He doesn't have compassion on people, he doesn't care about people, he doesn't care about justice, he's cheering for the Seahawks to win today.

That's my last football joke of the day.

Here's the picture he brings up.

Here's the picture he brings to mind, and it makes me ask the question.

Maybe it makes you ask the question where are you going with this, Jesus?

You just told me that you're gonna tell me a story that I should pray always and not give up, and then you present a picture of a judge that's mean.

Verse 3.

And uh widow.

A widow in the town kept coming to him saying, Give me justice against my adversary.

A widow in this world would be looked at as like the lowest of the low.

See, in this time period, a woman would have zero voice in the court of law.

So this a woman would need a man to advocate for her.

She has no man.

It doesn't appear she has a son, she has no legal right, she's a woman.

She has no money, she can't like bribe this bad judge.

And this woman has been wronged by somebody.

And this, guess what this woman wants?

She wants justice against my adversary, which is very fair.

Somebody's wronged her, she wants justice, and she goes to the bad judge and says, I want justice.

The bad judge doesn't care about that.

Remember, he doesn't care about people, he doesn't fear God.

He goes to her, and she goes to him and says, I want justice.

Verse number four, look at his response.

This is, of course, is what we expect.

He's a bad judge for a while.

He was unwilling, but later he said to himself, even though I don't fear God or respect people, which eh, hey.

Can we just give the bad judge some credit that he's got some self-awareness?

Like he he gets it.

He's like, I don't know.

I respect people, I don't fear God.

Even though, even though I don't do this, even though I'm unwilling to hear this woman, verse five, yet because this woman keeps pestering me, I will give her justice.

So that she doesn't wear me out by her persistent coming.

Somebody ever warn you out by their persistent coming?

If you are a parent in the room.

She shows up again and again and again and again.

She's like that annoying person that keeps showing up at the store want to talk to the manager.

It's like, oh, there, here they are again.

They keep showing up.

Like, go home.

What are you doing?

Keeps showing up.

This woman keeps showing up.

She's persistent.

So verse 6, then the Lord, then Jesus said this.

Listen.

Listen to what the unjust judge says.

Okay.

In case we miss verse 5, let's go back to verse 5 and look at it one more time.

Listen, because Jesus just said, listen to what the unjust, the bad judge said.

Okay.

Here it is.

This is what he said.

I will give her, I will give her justice so that she doesn't wear me out by her persistent coming.

Okay.

Listen, that's what Jesus says.

Listen to what the unjust, just judge said.

So verse 7.

Will not God, will not God grant justice to his elect, to his children, who cry out to him day and night?

Will he delay in helping them?

I tell you that he will swiftly grant them justice, nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?

I I want to say this swiftly does not always mean immediately, but it means decisively.

When God moves, he doesn't hesitate.

When God moves, he does not hesitate and he acts.

You may read this story at a big picture standpoint, and you might say, okay, so Jesus talked about an angry judge, a judge that wasn't good, and then he talked about God the Father.

Is he is he comparing God the Father to an angry judge?

To like a bad judge?

Like, is he comparing this?

Don't miss this.

He's not comparing, he's contrasting.

Here's what he said in verse number seven.

Will not God grant justice?

So here's the judge, here's the bad judge, will not God.

It's a it's a contrast.

Here's what you need to see.

Two vital contrasts.

How many of you guys you paid attention in English class?

And you remember the difference.

Oh, she already raised her hand, so she's straight A student.

That's great.

He paid attention too, okay?

So then you paid attention.

If you paid attention, you understand the differences between a comparison, comparing, and contrasting.

Comparing, contrasting.

How many of you are like me and you slept through that part of English class?

Okay, I got you.

Okay, I got you.

Yep.

Comparison, comparing is looking at similarities.

Contrasting is looking at the differences.

Okay, so Jesus wasn't comparing, he was contrasting.

And just for fun, I want us to compare and contrast something.

And I want you to help me do this.

Okay, so we're gonna compare something.

Where's that?

It's right here.

Okay.

We're gonna compare a good old root beer.

Who loves root beer?

Let's go, okay.

Compare.

We're gonna turn the lights out to make it more dramatic.

Haven't spin around just how we planned it.

And we're gonna we're gonna compare this with a water bottle.

I heard a boo.

Okay, somebody tell me, how are how are these a root beer and a water bottle?

How are these similar?

They're both liquid.

That's right.

They're liquid, they're both drinks.

Hydrate you-ish, yeah, yeah, right.

This will hydrate you.

This actually will probably give you diabetes, but you know, how else are these similar?

Room temperature?

They're both room temperature?

Refreshing, refreshing, debatable.

You can both buy them at the store, right?

Recycle, yeah.

You recycle them both, right?

These are the similarities, okay.

How could we contrast them?

How are these different?

What's harmful and one's good for you?

Yeah, one's harmful, one's good for you, right?

This is good for you, this will give you kidney stones, right?

How else are these different?

One's an acid, one's a base.

Yeah, right?

One's an acid, one's a base.

What are some of the differences?

One you can see through, one base.

Ooh, that's a sermon right there.

One you can see through, one's deceiving.

Yeah.

These are these are contrasting things.

These are the differences, right?

Here's what Jesus is doing here.

He's not comparing the bad judge with God the Father, he's contrasting them.

Think about this.

Bad judge doesn't care about people, doesn't love people.

God the Father cares about people, loves people.

The angry judge, the widow, the woman, was a nuisance to him.

She got on his nerves.

God the Father, God the Father.

When people come to him, we are not a nuisance.

The judge, that woman, annoyed him.

God the Father is attentive to people.

He's not comparing them, he's contrasting them.

That's why Jesus says, will not your heavenly father.

And by the way, he's not just contrasting the bad judge with the father.

He also contrasts us as God's children with the widow.

Think about this.

The widow was a stranger to the judge.

To God, we are beloved children.

The widow had no access to the judge.

We have complete access to God the Father because of what Jesus did on the cross for us.

The woman doesn't have anything, but we have all the promises of God in Christ.

Jesus paints this very clear picture.

Here it is, here it is, here it is, here it is.

Will not your father, will not God.

Why?

He's contrasting the differences between the judge and the father.

And there's also a difference between us and the widow.

And if this is the case, then here's what he invites all of us to do Jesus invites all of us to keep showing up in faith, in prayer.

We have a heavenly father that is not like this bad judge, and all the characteristics of this bad judge, and the bad judge still responded.

How much more?

How much more will God the Father respond when we keep showing up in prayer?

In verse number seven, it says that will not God grant justice?

Will not.

Now, to be sure, are there times when God will say no?

He does say no.

In fact, the apostle Paul had a major health issue, and this is what he did.

He did the same thing that you do when you have a major health issue.

God, I want you to heal me.

And God told him, No.

Say, no.

That's that's Paul.

This is why.

Because God wanted Paul's health issue to be a part of Paul's spiritual growth.

So Paul would rely on the grace of God instead of his own strength.

And sometimes God will say no to us, not because he's against us, but because he wants us to grow spiritually.

And sometimes God says no.

But more often than that, we stop showing up in prayer.

Sometimes God will say no to us.

But more often than that, we stop showing up in prayer.

There's a guy that lived in the 1800s that made the decision to keep showing up in prayer, and you learn the power of it.

And his name was a guy named George Mueller.

Anyone ever heard of this guy, George Mueller, before?

Hope you guys have heard of him.

He's got a decent beard there.

George Mueller lived in the 1800s and he lived in England and he was well known for starting orphanages.

In fact, during his lifetime, 10,000 different orphans were cared for.

10,000 orphans were cared for in his orphanages, and he made it a point that he would never ask people for money.

He would just pray and persistently seek God day and night.

And God provided miraculously the funds for the orphanage and everything that needed to happen to provide food and things for the kids.

George Mueller lived a life that was going in one direction before he came to Christ.

And some would say you could use the phrase, he lived his life wild and out.

Kind of did his own thing.

At 20 years old, he came into the realization that he needed God, that Jesus had come and died on the cross for his sin, and that apart from Christ, he stood as a sinner condemned, separated forever in a place called hell if he didn't turn to Christ.

And at 20 years old, he made the decision just Christ to be his Lord and Savior.

And it completely changed the trajectory of George Mueller's life.

Shortly after that, he began praying for five dudes.

Five dudes that they too would have the same moment in time in their life where they would realize that they need God, that they would admit that they were sinners, they would repent and trust in the gospel and what Christ had done for them.

And he prayed for these guys, for five of them, that they would come to Christ.

The first one, he prayed for 18 months.

And after 18 months, one of the five trusted Christ.

One for five.

He prayed for another five years, and the second one trusted Christ.

That's six and a half years of praying.

He prayed for another six years.

And the third one trusted Christ as his Lord and Savior.

Twelve and a half years.

George Mueller said, I'm going to keep praying for the other two.

But something happened.

George Mueller died.

And they were still living life their way.

They had not yet come to Christ.

But that's not the rest of the story.

Two years after George Mueller died, fifty-two years after he started praying for these men, the last two trusted Christ to be their savior.

One man kept showing up in prayer.

One man kept showing up in faith.

For most of us, if we pray for 52 days, we're like, I don't know if I can keep going anymore.

For most of us, we're like, 52 weeks, there's no way.

George Mueller prayed for 52, it took 52 years after he first started praying for these people to come to Christ.

He showed up in prayer.

He persistently showed up in prayer.

And here's what persistent prayer is: it's simply showing up with faith.

It's saying, Lord, I'm going to show up in faith.

I would ask you if you've been praying for something for a while, do you sense the Spirit telling you no?

If you don't sense that, keep praying.

Are you praying in alignment with God's purposes and God's will?

If so, keep praying.

Keep showing up.

The father's moved as we trust him.

I was talking to a woman right before our service this morning, and she was telling me, we were talking about how God has worked in their family.

And she said this.

She says, I prayed for years for my husband to come to Christ.

I prayed for years for that to happen.

And last year he was baptized here at this church, and right now he's in a group.

Why?

Because one woman persistently showed up in faith.

Because one woman did not get weary in well-doing, because scripture says we will reap if we do not give up.

And what the people of God need is we need this perseverance.

I understand we live in a drive-thru era.

I understand we live in an Amazon Prime era.

It's like I click, one button click, I expect it to be here tomorrow.

We order food on Uber Eats and we're like, why is it not here?

I've been sitting here for 10 minutes.

I want to watch my show.

We expect it to happen right now.

Guys, guys, guys, guys.

That is not always how God works.

Sometimes God answers immediately, but oftentimes it takes persistent praying.

And when we persistently pray, it actually grows us spiritually and it sanctifies us because we learn to rely on God and we learn to trust God and we learn to depend on Him even when it's hard, even when it's difficult.

And what we have to be is we have to be people of God that are saying, Listen, I'm just gonna trust.

I'm just gonna keep showing up in faith.

God, I've been praying for months, I've been praying for years, I'm losing a heart.

Jesus says, Don't lose heart, don't give up.

Because if an angry judge, a bad judge would listen and would hear, I am so much better.

I am a good loving father, I will grant you justice.

Guys, we cannot give up.

We have to show up in prayer, we have to show up in faith, believing that God is who he says that he is, that he can do what he says he can do.

Here's what I want to do as we wrap up.

I want to end by showing you some promises, and we don't have time to get into it, but some promises of prayer on the screen that I want you to hold on to when you feel like giving up.

When you've been praying for that thing for a hot minute, when you were praying for this person and you thought they were going this direction, come to find out.

Nah, I want to remind you of something.

God hears you, God hears you, friend.

Your prayer makes a difference.

James, chapter number five, the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous person avails much.

Friend, don't give up.

Matthew 7 says, keep asking, we will find him if we search for him, we seek him.

In Hebrews 11, your faith pleases God.

So, friend, keep showing up in prayer, keep showing up for your friends in prayer, keep showing up for your family members in prayer, keep showing up in prayer because it moves the heart of the father.

We are a church where we are seeing God answer prayers, we are a church where we are seeing the father move on our behalf, we are a church where we're seeing people take steps of growth after friends and family members prayed for those friends and family for months and years.

We're seeing that happen, and God wants to work, but we cannot give up.

So, friends, instead of giving up, hold to the promises of God and continue to show up.

And when we show up, we'll see what God can do.

When people persistently seek after him in faith, let's all bow.