Persistence in Prayer

It's great to be with all of you again and see your wonderful location here.

I haven't been here since you moved in, but this is beautiful.

We're going to speak tonight about persevering in prayer.

But before we do so, I want to tell you a story about when I worked for the world's second largest brass and copper mill.

So I worked in this gigantic factory for one summer, probably more than that, 12 years ago.

And this was a huge, huge location that ran three shifts around the clock and had these enormous machines,

employed probably about 1,000 people working around the clock to melt down and to process these heavy metals, brass and copper,

and to all kinds of things, whether it's copper wires or bullets or all kinds of things like that.

It was kind of a crazy place to be.

So I worked there for this one summer.

I worked with this man, Tom, on this one particular machine on a task that is not worth recounting.

But the two of us worked together all summer on this machine.

We would go out every couple of hours so that Tom and the other guys could take their cigarette break just outside of where we worked.

And we would go out there, and these guys would smoke, and they would talk about mostly women and cars.

And, you know, to be honest, it was a place where someone like me did not feel totally in my element.

So here are these guys, all of whom are 35 years older than I am.

They've all been working in the same place for 35 years, inhaling these chemicals and impounding their bodies

and having their eardrums blasted out.

The guy I worked this job with, he was preparing to have carpal tunnel syndrome due to the nature of the job,

which is the same surgery that the three last guys who had this job before him had had before they stopped that job.

So this is where I was.

I just finished my freshman year, and I already had more college education than all of them combined.

And yet, day by day, they were educating me on how to do this kind of work.

So this is what we're doing.

And all summer long, we go out and we have these conversations.

I'm mostly quiet.

And one day, I don't know how this happened, but we started talking about prayer.

It had nothing to do with any other conversation that happened that summer.

But we were talking about it, and I spoke up.

And this one guy, whose name I can't recall, he always drove into this area, this outdoor smoke break area.

So he drove his fork truck into the area and just sat on his forklift while the rest of us were down.

And he and I started having this argument about whether prayer does anything.

And I was arguing that prayer, in fact, accomplishes things.

And he was arguing that, well, it's a nice thing to do, but it's actually not really, it doesn't do anything in and of itself.

And so this is the weird thing.

We were kind of going back and forth, wearing our hard hats.

And eventually, he gets down to the end of his cigarette, and we head out.

And we had spent all summer talking mostly about the appearances of women and Hemi engines.

And then here was this conversation about prayer.

And so I'm walking back to this machine that Tom and I operated.

And Tom had been quiet during this conversation.

And as we're walking back, Tom said to me,

You know, I agree with everything you said there.

When I go home at the end of the day, I read my Bible and I try to pray.

And as soon as he said this, you know, my first response is,

What?

What are you talking about?

I mean, on the one hand, A, we've barely talked all summer, working on this machine together.

But B, you've given no indication all summer that you would think the least about prayer in any aspect of your life.

And then here it is.

Suddenly, there's a conversation which you're not taking part,

but it provokes something in you that really is core.

You haven't known how to express in this context.

And I know that most of you don't work in the second largest brass and copper mill in the world,

but perhaps you can relate to being part of a culture that doesn't know how to talk about prayer.

Perhaps in your workplace, perhaps among your family,

perhaps even among the particular Christian circle where you feel closest with people,

praying is not something that comes naturally.

Talking about prayer is not something that happens automatically.

And so that's what we're going to talk about tonight.

Persistence in prayer.

Maybe this isn't your cup of tea.

Maybe this isn't the thing in which you feel most comfortable in the Christian life.

Maybe when you hear a sermon, you're riled up for the sermon about justice,

for the sermon about faith and science.

And we talk about those things here.

But we affirm in this church that the entirety of the Holy Scriptures are the Word of God.

And so we proclaim all of them as things that should form us.

And so maybe this is the square peg to your round hole.

Maybe this is something that has a hard time fitting.

But if that's like you, if you are like Tom,

if you have a hard time placing this concept of prayer in your life or in your culture,

then I want to offer this sermon as hopefully a help to you.

I want to offer as a challenge,

as a challenge to form ourselves to this square peg,

to find out where it fits in our lives,

and then also to invite you into maybe some ways of viewing,

persisting, continuing in prayer in ways you haven't thought about before.

So let's pray for a moment.

Heavenly Father, thank you that we can connect with you through prayer.

You have ordained, you have allowed,

you have created us for this means of communing with you,

of being in your presence,

of speaking with you,

of hearing from you.

And this is a great gift to us.

And we pray right now that you will open our spirits,

which have been warped and damaged and dulled,

to your Holy Spirit.

We pray that you will renew us and enliven us today in prayer.

Amen.

I'd like to begin with a quote about prayer from Pope Francis.

He said this,

The first task in life is this, prayer.

But not the prayer of words like a parrot,

but the prayer of the heart,

gazing on the Lord,

hearing the Lord,

asking the Lord.

The first task in life is this,

prayer.

It's not simply,

not simply,

you know,

spouting off,

you know,

word after word after word,

and getting to like two hours,

and accruing a certain number of brownie points.

But this,

this,

this wonderful,

this wonderful presence of gazing on the Lord,

hearing the Lord,

and asking the Lord.

There's a great Presbyterian pastor from about a hundred years ago,

who wrote a book on prayer.

And he referred to as this,

this man was named,

his name was David McIntyre.

He said,

Prayer is the lifeblood of the Christian.

Prayer is the lifeblood of the Christian.

What flows through the Christian life for us,

what brings life to every part of our bodies,

is prayer.

And just like,

just like the blood in our bodies,

the blood is not actually the nourishment.

It carries the nourishment to our feet,

and our hands,

and our head.

And in the same way,

prayer carries us to nourishment,

and to life,

and to renewal in God.

If that's the case,

why do so many of us feel like giving up on prayer?

Why do so many of us get tired of prayer?

I hope that this parable,

this parable that Jesus told,

can be an encouragement and a help here.

Here's again how the parable went.

Jesus said,

In a certain city there was a judge.

So he's comparing this to a judge,

who neither feared God nor respected man.

And there was a widow in that city,

who kept coming to him and saying,

Give me justice against my adversary.

And for a while he refused.

But afterward he said to himself,

Though I neither fear God nor respect man,

yet because this widow keeps bothering me,

I will give her justice,

so that she will not beat me down

with her continual coming.

And the Lord said,

Hear what the unrighteous judge says,

and will not God give justice to his elect,

who cry out to him day and night?

Will he delay long over them?

Briefly,

you may struggle for a bit

as you read this kind of parable.

The first question that may jump in your mind is,

Does God say this about our prayers?

Why are you beating me down

with your continual coming?

It sounds a little awkward.

And this happens because

there's this particular way of persuasion or logic

that this culture used

that is a little bit different

from what our culture uses.

We use certain assumptions

to get through persuasion quickly.

And in their culture,

one way that they did that

was this process by which they said,

How much more so with God?

So they would describe something like God,

a judge who has power,

and then eventually he does something good.

How much more so with God,

who is all-powerful,

will he not do something good?

We do some similar things

when we speak logically.

We talk about human rights.

And very quickly,

we're all on the same page, right?

We know that something,

something has to be true about that,

you know?

Something is violated

when someone's human rights are violated.

And so we have this kind of quick take on that.

And I think that's a good thing,

that we're able to agree

on some of these things very quickly.

We perceive these things quickly

because of a certain progress

that we've made

in thinking about these things.

In this culture,

they had made a certain progress

and a certain accrual

in thinking about God.

They could just know.

When we're talking about God,

we're talking about someone

who is all-powerful

and all-good.

Maybe you don't share those assumptions,

but that's kind of what's going under

the parable here.

And if you don't share that,

if you're not sure about that,

if that's hard for you to accept,

let's just look at this

as a picture for a moment.

If that were true,

then this is what it would look like

in this parable.

So let's just take that for a moment.

If it were true,

here's what it would look like.

Here is this unjust judge,

someone who has power,

and eventually he does the right thing

because this person keeps on,

this widow keeps on coming to him.

So how much more?

God himself will be faithful.

That's the first aspect of the parable.

God will be faithful.

God will come to the aid

of our cries for justice.

The opposite side of that

is the widow.

And this is the great line

that this story ends on.

Jesus says,

I tell you,

the judge will give justice

to them speedily.

Nevertheless,

when the Son of Man comes,

will he find faith on earth?

So there's a double aspect to this

how much more logic.

How much more for the judge

is he like,

will God give justice?

And then for the widow,

this woman who came

with her pleadings,

how much more

will you continue to come to God

with your requests?

That's the question

of this parable.

The truth about God

is definitely true.

God is just.

God is faithful

to those to whom he has called.

How about you?

Will you be faithful

in your prayer?

I think that's a difficult thing

for many of us.

Will we be faithful?

We all have given up in prayer.

We all have done it.

We all have stopped.

We all have walked away.

We all have found better things to do.

And this passage is about

a woman,

an individual,

who continues in prayer.

And so I want to encourage you

as individuals in prayer,

but I also want to encourage us

as a church

and as a community

in prayer.

And I think that,

and I think that what can happen

is if we all take up

together

an attitude of prayer

that will be so much more helpful

so that we're not just

individual islands

of a tom out there,

like this guy that I worked with,

someone who has no context

for connecting with people

out prayer,

with connecting with people

in prayer.

If we can do this together,

it will be such an encouragement

to each other.

And so for this reason,

I want to draw out of this story

a couple of attitudes

about prayer.

Sort of three strands.

I have three attitudes

about prayer,

which will help us

help us to develop

a culture of persisting,

continuing in prayer.

So here we are.

The first attitude of prayer

that this widow,

this woman has,

is this.

Her first attitude is,

the heart cries out

for justice.

The heart cries out

for justice.

Prayer begins with your heart,

from your perspective anyway.

Prayer begins with your heart.

When you bring your pain,

when you bring your resentment,

when you bring that dejection

from that horrible situation

with your boss,

when you bring that broken hardness

from the relationship

that just ended,

and you direct that God word,

when you direct that to God,

is the beginning of prayer for us.

And I know that,

you know,

for many people,

it's not that hard

to think too much about that,

about, you know,

we have pains,

and we complain about them

all the time,

so why not complain

about them to God?

What is unique about prayer

is not simply

complaining to God,

but this.

The attitude of the heart

crying out for justice

works out something like this.

It is that,

something is not right.

We hold on to these two truths.

Something is not right,

and God desires

to make it right.

Something is not right,

and God desires

to make it right,

and we don't know

how those two things

can go together,

but that's what generates

our prayer.

Something is not right,

and God desires

to make it right.

We have,

on the one hand,

God's concerns,

and we have,

on the other hand,

our heart.

And in prayer,

what really gets going

in prayer

is when God's concerns

and our heart

begin to line up.

And this happens

in a number of ways.

This happens

by reading Scripture

on a regular basis.

This comes by

worshiping together.

This comes by

immersing ourselves

in Christian community.

In all of these things,

we begin to understand

God's concerns

and to apply them

to our hearts.

And as these things line up,

God's concerns

in my heart,

it's like,

it's like two gears

that begin to mesh

and like,

clink, you know?

Then it starts to move.

And the gears of prayer

begin to go.

And so I want to

encourage you in that.

The heart cries out

for justice.

Study.

Immerse yourself

in God's concerns.

And your heart

will line up

with those concerns

in unique ways.

And prayer will begin.

That's the first attitude

of prayer

that we see

from this widow.

Her heart cried out

for justice.

Something was not right.

She knew that

there was desire

of God

to make it right.

That in and of itself,

I've got to admit,

it's simply tension though,

isn't it?

Something is not right

and God desires

to make it right.

There's another aspect.

The widow

expects it

to be made well

somehow.

So next to that truth,

that tension,

something not being right,

God desiring

to make it right,

we have a great hope.

Anything can be made new

and all things

will be made new.

Anything can be made new

and all things

will be made new.

This is,

this is the great truth

in a post-Jesus world.

Now that Jesus has come

and died

and rose

and ascended to the Father,

right now,

anything can be made new

and eventually,

all things

will be made new.

This is our great encouragement

in prayer.

That God hears

prayer now.

Some things

are going to be made

well now.

And we don't always know

what those things

are going to be,

but some things

will be made new

and that depends.

What,

what things will be made new

depends in part

on prayer.

Now,

we don't know

which prayers

will be answered

all of the time.

We don't know

which prayers

will be answered

in the short term

all of the time.

But,

again,

God has created us

in such a way

that he wants

to answer our prayers.

It depends,

in part,

on our prayer.

There is a,

there's a great quote

from the 19th century

preacher,

Charles Spurgeon,

about this,

about how God

wants to respond

to our prayers,

how he wants

to take something

so simple

as,

as,

as us

coming down

on our knees

and whispering

our concerns to him.

this is what

Charles Spurgeon said.

He said,

prayer is the slender

tendon

that moves

the muscle

of omnipotence.

Prayer is the slender

tendon

that moves

the muscle

of omnipotence.

We bring

so little

to prayer

and yet

what we ask for

and what God

wants to give

is his great power

of working

as a creator

and as a preserver

and as an intervener

in the universe.

This is what,

this is what God

wants to give

to us.

He wants to move

the muscle

of omnipotence

in response

to our prayer.

Again,

we don't always know

which prayers

will be answered

now,

though anything

could be.

There is nothing

outside of the realm

of possibility

in this post-resurrection

world.

And one day,

all things

will be made new.

All those prayers

for justice

and for righteousness

and for healing

will be answered

when Jesus comes

and restores

all things.

And in fact,

that's a lot

of what this parable

is about.

You hear these words

again and again

in this parable.

Justice,

justice,

crying out for

injustice,

an unjust judge.

And in the New Testament,

when justice

is talked about,

much of the time,

it's referring

to God bringing

his justice.

That's the coming

of the kingdom

of God.

God bringing

his justice,

his righteousness

to earth

is the coming

of the kingdom.

And just in the same way,

the parable refers

to the coming

of the Son of Man.

Also,

a way of talking

about God's

kingdom coming.

We can apply

this teaching

to our lives

in many ways,

many things

about prayer,

but there's a very

particular way

in which we cry out

and we pray

for God's kingdom

to come.

This is really

the core

of what God

wants us

to persist in.

Persist in praying

for the coming

of God's kingdom.

What is that

in your life?

What is that

in your workplace?

What is

the injustice

where you work,

among your

co-workers?

What is the

horror and the pain

in your family?

Where is the

brokenness

in your group home?

anything can be

made new

in Jesus

now

and everything

will be made

new.

That's the second

attitude of prayer.

Let's move on

to a third

attitude

that this widow

has.

Of course,

this is the whole

point of the parable.

Not only

did she feel

injustice,

not only did she

hope for something

better,

but she persisted

in prayer.

Her third attitude

is this.

This is a quote

from basketball,

but I think

you'll get it.

Quick guys

get tired,

but big guys

don't get small.

Quick guys

get tired,

but big guys

don't get small.

Again,

this is something

that people talk

about in basketball

sometimes.

You may have

heard that

tall people

have an advantage

in basketball.

And even

if you know

anything about

basketball,

in recent years

the sport has

moved toward

outside shooting

and quickness

that sometimes

de-emphasizes

size,

but at the same

time,

the ultimate

player in

basketball is

someone who

can shoot

from the

outside,

who can go

quickly,

who is also

6'10",

7'10",

tall.

It's the big

guys who have

an advantage

in basketball.

And in the same

way,

in prayer,

if we have

a short-term

vision,

we can tire

out,

we will tire

out.

What we need

is a long-term

vision for

faithfulness,

for growing

into a big

guy in

prayer.

We've been

in the middle

of this

sermon series

about the

book of

Daniel,

and in the

book of

Daniel,

these faithful

believers are

exiled into a

foreign land,

and the whole

book is about

ways in which

they continue

to be faithful

in that

foreign land.

In this

parable,

one particular

way to be

faithful is to

continue in

prayer.

And that can

mean a lot of

things.

Like I said,

we typically

have a one-week

perspective on

so many things

in our life.

We start

exercising.

Within a week,

we're either

feeling great or

ready to move

on to something

else.

You start a new

diet.

Within a week

or two,

you're either

loving it or

you're hating it.

I want to

encourage you to

think with a

long-term vision.

Think with a

five- to ten-year

plan for what it

would be like to

be a man of God,

to be a woman of

God.

What would that

be like,

thinking five to

ten years down

the road about

what your path

would be to be a

faithful prayer,

to be a person of

character, to be

someone who

manifests the

presence of Jesus

around them, who

seeks again and

again over years

for God's justice

in their community.

It would actually

give you a lot of

freedom.

We think about

discipline and

difficulty in

developing a rule

of life or regular

spiritual disciplines,

but this gives a

lot of freedom.

You don't have to

figure it out next

week.

You don't have to

be a great prayer

two weeks from

now.

Think long-term.

Try new things

out.

Memorize a

psalm.

Give yourself two

weeks to memorize a

psalm and I

guarantee you can

do it.

Memorize one

verse every day,

a psalm that's

ten or twelve

verses, and pray

that for the

church.

Pray that for

your friends.

On Sundays, take

some time.

Take some time to

think about what

you're going to

pray about that

week.

Set out, take a

piece of paper, I'm

going to pray for

these five or ten

people, and pray for

those this week.

Write the names of

your friends on

index cards, and

pray for those

throughout the week.

Do three or four a

day.

Play a worship song

while you're praying.

Be creative.

If you're having

trouble thinking about

this, I would love

to talk with you more

and brainstorm.

You can be

creative in thinking

about prayer if you

have a long-term

vision for persisting

in prayer.

It is so freeing,

let me tell you.

You do not have to

figure it out a week

from now.

So that's the

third attitude

that I want to

tie together.

So let's tie these

things together

here.

These three

attitudes, as they

say, a cord of

three strands is not

easily broken.

We've said that the

heart cries out for

justice, that anything

can be made new, and

all things will be

made new.

This attitude of

hope and this

encouragement to

persist in prayer.

Quick guys get tired,

but big guys don't get

small.

Why do we try to

persist in these

things?

Why is this so

important?

Why is prayer a

lifeblood for us?

Why is prayer so

important?

I think the key is

toward the end of

this story.

It says near the

end that God will

give justice

speedily.

He will give

justice soon.

And that can mean a

few things.

Soon.

That's kind of

nearness when Jesus

talks.

And the most

immediate thing that

Jesus did soon after

this parable was die

on the cross, spend

three days in death,

death, and rise

from the dead.

The most immediate

soon and speedy thing

he did was to

voluntarily submit to

injustice.

He was swallowed by

his enemy, death, and

sin, and he snatched

the keys and torpedoed

the mothership of death

itself.

And death has been

dying a long death

ever since then.

A long, slow, and

wounded death ever

since then.

And that is the

encouragement that we

have in prayer.

We don't just have

this desire for

spiritual things

whereby we sit

cross-legged and

we're really happy

about how long we

can keep our eyes

closed and focused

on a small dot on

our eyelids.

No, no.

We believe that

when we pray we

have this hope

because Jesus has

torpedoed the

mothership of death

and we are

participating in

its long, slow,

obsolescence.

At some point

there will be a

final convulsion

of death itself

and all things

will be made

new.

All things will

be made new.

And this is what

gives us hope

for all of these

things.

When our hearts

cry out for

injustice, we

remember this.

We believe that

anything can be

made new because

we can participate

in that death of

death, that

renewal of all

things.

And we have

faith that all

things will be

made new.

There is a

mortal wound to

the enemies of

God, sin, and

death itself.

And so we

persist in prayer.

This is my

conclusion here,

but I want to

end with a very

specific

encouragement, or

a very specific

request, I should

say, as well.

We said that

this parable in

particular talks

about God's

kingdom coming.

God's justice

and the son of

man coming is

about God's

kingdom coming.

And the most

particular, the

most specific, the

most immediate

way that we can

pray for God's

kingdom to come is

to pray for this

church, to pray for

Church of the

Advent.

Many churches

have teams of

prayers who pray

regularly for their

pastors, to pray

regularly for what's

going on in the

church, the

ministries of the

church, to support

those things in

prayer, to

be the slender

tendon that

moves the muscle

of omnipotence in

their church.

And I want to

invite you to be

part of that.

We're going to

create an email

list for people who

want to pray

regularly for

Church of the

Advent, emails that

will go out to

encourage you, to

give you things to

pray for.

So if you're

interested, please

email me,

bwandel, B-W-A-N-D-E-L

at adventDC.org.

Find me after the

service, and we'll

get you on that

list.

I want to

encourage you,

because this is

something that God

has given to us.

This is something

that the

scriptures challenge

us toward, but

this is also the

square peg around

which we are

formed.

As we are formed

through prayer, it

will become easier

for all of us, as

we develop this

culture of prayer,

to engage in

God's mission.

salvation.

So let's pray

together.

Heavenly Father, we

thank you so much

that we get to be

part of your

kingdom.

Thank you so much

that we get to be

part of your great

work of destroying

death itself, of

bringing newness and

life and redemption

to the world around

us.

And we pray that you

will make us faithful

in prayer.

Just like you,

Jesus, we're

faithful unto death,

we pray that you

will make us faithful

through our whole

lives by continuing

in prayer.

It's in your holy

name we pray.

Amen.