Keep Coming: Persistent Prayer | Dangerous Prayers, Week 5 | Rachael Wade | New North Church

Hey, welcome to the New North Church podcast.

It's great to have you listening in with us.

Our vision at our church is to be an authentic community of Jesus followers who love and serve people.

So if we can help you in any way at all, just reach out to us.

The email address is hello at newnorth.church.

With that, let's go right to this week's message.

Good morning, New North.

How are we this morning?

Good.

It's so good to be with you always.

If I haven't met you yet, my name is Rachel, and I love this church, and I love being here with you.

It's an honor every single time to be here.

Um, and especially for this year of prayer.

Just heads up, did you know that when the year of prayer is over, which is soon, you still gotta keep praying.

You know that.

You know that.

Okay, I just wanted to make sure.

I wanted to make sure you knew that you kept praying.

Well, I had to laugh a little bit because this sub-series or mini-series that you're in in this year of prayer is called Dangerous Prayers.

And it made me chuckle because the way that I grew up, dangerous prayers, and maybe I'm alone in the room, but dangerous prayers, we used to say, be careful what you pray for.

And then we would say stuff like, uh, Lord, give me, don't, don't pray, Lord, give me patience.

Or Lord, humble me, Lord.

Did anybody grow up like that where those were dangerous prayers?

Thank you, two people.

Uh, but that made me chuckle because I was like, oh, that's what I thought was a dangerous prayer.

But this mini-series, the heart of dangerous prayers, they're about understanding the power and authority that we have been given in Christ Jesus and approaching the throne of God with confidence.

Confidence not because of who you are or how long you've been a Christian.

Confidence not because that you use lofty words in prayer and know all the scriptures, although that is wonderful if you do, but confidence to go to the throne because we have an almighty creator, God of the universe, who from the beginning of time has come near to us and desires for us to come near to him over and over and over again.

Isaiah prophesies on behalf of the Lord and says this give ear and come to me, listen that you may live.

I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David.

Jesus says, You know it, come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

He then says, Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.

And then John writes in Revelation 22, the Spirit and the bride say, Come, and let the one who hears say, Come, let the one who is thirsty come.

These are just a few examples throughout the body of Scripture where we see a heavenly father who loves us, wants to carry our burdens, provide for us, protect for us, and also our part is, though, to come.

One beautiful way to come near to God is through persistent prayer.

And if you're taking notes this morning, I've titled this message, Keep Coming.

Keep coming.

We'll be sitting in a parable in Luke 18, verses 1 through 8, if you'd like to turn there.

Luke 18:1–8

Otherwise, it will be on the screen.

But before we get into the scripture this morning of the parable of the persistent widow, would you bow your heads and would you pray with me?

Almighty God, creator of heaven and earth, the author and perfecter of our faith, God, we just come to you this morning and we say thank you for waking us up this morning.

God, thank you for every man, woman, boy, and girl that is here in this space today, God, and we are saying, Holy Spirit, come.

Father, as we read your holy scriptures, we pray, God, that we would focus on you.

God, I pray against any distraction that would try to keep us from just being here in this worship moment with you.

God, I pray for our persistent prayer life, God, that is resilient and a faith that begins to get stronger and stronger together as a body of Christ.

We give all honor and glory to you today for this message.

In your name we pray.

The saints say, Amen.

Let me read the scripture.

Here's the Bible, Luke 18, verses 1 through 8.

Luke 18:1–8

Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.

He said, In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought.

And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, grant me justice against my adversary.

For some time he refused.

But finally he said to himself, Even though I don't fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually come and attack me.

I know.

We're gonna get to that funny part in a little bit.

And the Lord said, Listen to what the unjust judge says, and will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones who cry out to him day and night?

Will he keep putting them off?

I tell you, he will see that they get justice and quickly.

However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?

This is the word of the Lord.

The word parables in Greek means to cast alongside something else.

Jesus told stories to cast alongside a truth to illustrate a truth.

Thirty-five percent of the gospels, so Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, are made up of parables.

And Jesus uses them as a vehicle for people to learn and unlearn things.

Now, all the parables sometimes they get a little bit tricky and they're not so clear, but here in this parable, Jesus tells us right from the start what we must do as a disciple of Christ.

Always pray and not give up.

Simple, right?

Anyone else for me?

Sometimes we can get a bit discouraged, can we not?

Depressed.

We can lack enthusiasm and we will want to give up.

What about those job interviews?

Job interview after job interview, and nothing sticks.

You have a child that's far from God or far from you.

Your company is not doing well, and you're scared that you're going to have to close the doors, and that means that families don't get fed.

You've got health problems or financial problems or dating problems or infertility or housing problems here in the Bay Area.

Those things can be discouraging.

Discouragement is lost confidence, hope, enthusiasm due to bad results, hard problems, and negative feedback.

But discouragement is also a feeling.

And I want to tell you and remind you today that your feelings are valid.

You're going to be discouraged.

But where we get in trouble, where you and I get in trouble sometimes, is when we allow the discouragement to drive the wheel of our lives rather than take a seat in the backseat or maybe even in the trunk.

Do you hear me, New North?

I imagine that the widow was quite discouraged in this passage.

She had been experienced some kind of conflict and wrongdoing or unjust behavior against her.

And the ones that were supposed to fight for her, so in this case and in this time, a man in her life, so a husband or maybe even a son, they were dead and gone.

And then the person that was put into this position, it says that he didn't care about her protection.

And he clearly didn't care about her flourishing.

Have you ever looked around in your life and said, who will fight for me?

Is there even just one in the workplace, one in my family, one in the city or the country that will advocate and stand up for me, for my family?

The good news of the gospel that I bring you this morning, brothers and sisters, is that we learn from this parable that God is not like this judge or any human.

Amen.

God is not like this judge or any human.

Twice in eight verses, we are reminded that this judge neither feared God or cared what people thought.

But Jesus says in verse 7 and comparing himself to this judge, and will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones who cry out day and night.

Will he keep putting them off?

You see, this parable, it reinforces for the disciples of then and us as disciples today that the God of the universe cares about us and cares about our persistent prayers and pleas.

He advocates for us.

God works on our behalf to bring justice.

And just in case the disciples then or us today are confused about if God plays favorites or cares about just a certain type of people, he shares in this parable that includes the most marginalized person in society, a widow, to prove his point.

You know, widows were the personification of dependence, of helplessness and vulnerability.

It breaks God's heart.

When any of his beloved children experience hurt or harm or prejudice or bias or dishonesty or helplessness and vulnerability.

As followers of Jesus, unjust behavior done to anybody, it should also break our hearts.

But not only break our hearts, it also should move us toward action to defend the weak, the fatherless, and uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed.

Amen.

The judge was not empathetic.

The one put into a position of power to execute justice, he was uncaring and he was pompous.

Scripture says that the judge was bothered by the widow's persistence.

And the only reason why the judge granted it the justice was because he thought he thought that she might attack him.

Which I find is funny that this is in Scripture.

I mean, we don't know much about this judge, but I would say that the only place where the judge is correct is there is nothing like a mad woman.

He got that right.

He got that right.

Have you ever had someone agree to do something because they were just tired of you?

They just wanted to stop hearing from you.

They just wanted you to leave them alone.

We know what that feels like when they just do the thing because we've said it and they're annoyed with us.

But we also know what it feels like when someone empathetically listens to us, when they actually care, when they come close to us and want to hear us and genuinely want to help.

I say to you, brothers and sisters, this morning, God never tires of hearing our broken record persistent prayers.

Never tires, never tires of our broken record persistent prayers.

Our Heavenly Father desires that we make our request known to him.

You know who did this in Scripture?

Hannah did this.

In 1 Samuel 1, we have documented that year after year Hannah would go to the house of the Lord, facing grief, facing suffering and infertility and ridicule for the infertility, but she kept coming to the house of the Lord in prayer.

Scripture captures what we now call depression.

It says that she was so sad, she stopped eating for a time.

Scripture says she poured out her soul on this day to the Lord and she prayed in deep anguish, and she was weeping bitterly and made this vow to God.

Here's what Hannah said: Lord Almighty, if you will only look on your servant's misery and remember me and not forget your servant, but give her a son, then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head.

You see, Hannah reminds you and I that we can be downcast, we can be distressed, we can be depressed, and we are welcome to pour out our persistent, honest prayers to God.

No need to get over your grief, which by the way, that does not exist.

We don't get over grief, we live around it.

And God helps us to hold our joy and our sorrow at the same time.

No need to keep our feelings from God, the one that gave us the feelings in the first place.

Hebrews 4, 16, it reminds us that the one who was just and mighty to save says this.

We can approach God's throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Beloved brothers and sisters of New North, what do you need?

What do you need?

Have you poured out these prayers to God?

Can I invite you to come to God with your tears?

Come to God with your frustration and your anger and your disappointment and even your distrust.

Would you come to the feet of Jesus with your prayers and your pleas?

You see, Jesus is our savior, but he's also our advocate and our friend who sticks closer than a brother and a sister.

Remember Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fire.

He is our fourth man in the fire.

He protects us and he provides.

And guess what?

He even weeps alongside us.

Do you remember how he weeped with Lazarus, knowing that he was going to raise Lazarus from the dead?

This is the kind of God that we serve.

Coming into the presence of God and persistently praying.

It not only means more of God, but it means more transformation to become like God.

You know, when we surrender our hearts, our entire being to God, not conforming to the pattern of this world, but instead walking in the grace that we have received, God will renew our minds.

And when God renews our minds, Romans 12, 2 says that we will be able to test and approve what is God's good, pleasing, and perfect will.

So for that age-old question of how do I walk with the Lord, how do I know God's will?

Well, we've got to walk and receive his grace, but then we've got to let the word of God transform us and renew our minds.

That is how we know God's pleasing and perfect will for our lives.

Now, this for sure is a holy miracle of transformation, right?

Where suddenly our desires start to line up with God's desires.

And this is not just a one-time process.

This is an ongoing, we need to renew our minds daily because we are human.

Because we deal with hurts and hang ups and habits.

Because we want to control our time and our lives and every little bit bitty or big thing.

But this does not mean that we stop praying those bold, specific prayers that we've talked about in this mini-series.

That's not what it means.

It doesn't just say, oh, well, God, your will be done, so I just have no request.

So just whatever you want all the time.

No, it's it's both and.

We pray the bold prayers, we persistently come, but what it means is that we trust that even when we can't trace God's hand, we trust the character of God.

We trust what God has done in our lives and in the body of Scripture because God's got a good resume and track record.

So we must keep our persistent prayers coming.

Many moons ago, my husband Justin and I, we started praying these two dangerous prayers from Scripture consistently.

Lord, open the doors that no man or woman can shut and close the doors that need to be closed.

The second prayer we prayed is, Lord, bring the right people into our lives and take the wrong people out, Lord.

Now, as a person who cares very much about people and has been given spiritual gifts to shepherd people and are wired to bring people together into community, I often think that these two prayers that me and my husband pray are dangerous and often they're dumb.

Here's why they're dumb to me.

Because leaving a place or a people, and I joke because I hate praying them, but they're good, is that even when I have the peace of God, for me, these two prayers will never be easy for me.

It's just my wiring.

But obedience to God is always the best choice.

The truth is, is that those two prayers are refining prayers and they redeem us because ultimately what we are saying by praying those prayers is God, your will be done.

Your will with this job, your will with this relationship, your will with these things that were in, your will be done.

Here's the thing.

I have disobediently stayed in places, in relationships with people, and in jobs, knowing that God has already told me to go.

I know I'm probably not the only one in the room that has done that.

In fact, as I was preparing this message and really thinking about the times that I've been disobedient, the trend for me has been when I stop persistently praying for those things.

That is when I typically stay longer than I should.

Anytime that I've done this, it has caused me more pain.

But there's grace for me, and there's grace for you if you have found yourself in that place.

We want our persistent prayers also to be answered like yesterday, do we not?

We want to pray for a minute and we're like, okay.

In fact, we also say to each other, I've been praying for this thing for forever, and God is not answering.

In our parable in verse 8, it says, God will bring justice quickly.

But what I have found, brothers and sisters, is that God's quickly does not match up with my quickly.

Anybody else?

2 Peter 3, 8 through 9 says this about our timing.

With the Lord, a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.

The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness.

So, yes, he does care, and he does hear, and he does answer our persistent prayers, but not always in our timing, and not always on earth, or not always in the way that we expect our prayers to be answered.

We hate to admit this, but I want you just for a second to take a second and think about the times in your life where you have experienced more of God's presence and transformation.

I'll give you a second.

Think about it.

When are the seasons?

When are the times?

Now I'm willing to bet that it was more often than not in those desert wilderness, valley of a shadow of death, closed doors, seasons.

Where you met God in a way that you don't want to go through that thing again, but you wouldn't trade the nearness, the intimacy, the presence of God, the transformation in your life.

Persistent prayers and continued coming remind us that it is okay to not be okay, but to come to our Father anyway.

Come to God anyway.

It is okay to not be okay, but come to God anyway.

Our emotions might be this way and that way, and we might be very Wobbly in our faith, but we've got this anchor.

Our soul is anchored to the peace of God, and we are holding on to Jesus anyway.

It is in those moments that we are transformed even more because we recognize it in our weakness, God is strong.

God is strong in our weak moments.

So come anyway.

And if you find yourself like me, questioning how or why or when God acts, you are not alone.

It is impossible to understand and wrap our brains around the mysterious and sovereign Savior that we have.

But what we do know for sure, brothers and sisters, is that we are guaranteed God's presence and God's power through the Holy Spirit.

Now the enemy wants us to believe, though, that that is not enough.

And so we combat this lie by the persistent prayers that we are bringing, because what it does is it reminds ourselves of the truth of the gospel, that God has plans to prosper us and not to harm us, right?

Plans for a hope and for a future.

So our part is to call on God and come into God's presence over and over and over again.

Scripture says that when we seek God with all of our hearts, we will find God.

And through the scripture, we see this encouragement for the ones of us who decide to keep coming to God and persistently praying.

Remember, prayer is a choice, and persistent prayer is also a choice.

In scripture, we're encouraged to know that we don't have to persist in prayer alone.

We persist in prayer together.

You know, Israel was a praying nation.

It had been said that the average Jew memorized the entire book of Psalms by the age of seven.

Can you believe it?

That's a lot.

And if you know anything about the Psalms, most of the book is petitions.

And so this means that from an early age they were taught to ask God over and over for the things that they needed.

It was just natural.

And in that same way, but different, New North, you have been in a year of prayer where you are learning to interdependently live and to carry your pleas and your prayers to God individually, but together as the body of Christ.

This is building rhythm.

This is building ritual that is good, and together you are saying, We are coming to you, God, about anything and everything.

You see, persistently praying alongside one another, it also strengthens your faith and it gives you endurance so that you do not lose heart.

Ever been in a season where you don't have the words to pray, but you hear someone over here praying or they're raising their hands, even though you just can't do it because you're just so weary from your season, but others are praying around you.

You are in this body and you're persistently praying together, and somehow that strengthens your faith.

So today, if you have a prayer on your heart and you're saying, I don't know if I should bring that to them, that's a good indication that you need to bring it to the body of Christ.

If you're saying that this prayer is too big or I'm just too weary to pray, maybe that is the invitation today to bring it to the body of Christ.

Because you are a praying body, you can always go online and submit your prayer request.

But you can also scan this wonderful QR code.

I think it's there it is.

Can you see it?

That you can also scan this wonderful QR code.

I mean, if I were you, I would scan it and bookmark it and put it on my phone.

Because this is a quick way that you can say, I need some prayer.

I'm not in the house of God today on Sunday.

I'm midweek, but I need some prayer.

And you're asking this body to pray for you.

Another great way you can pray together, remember is that these altars are open after every service, prayer partners here to intercede on your behalf.

Those community groups that you're about to get started in and join.

You can bring it to your community group leaders and to the group that you're going to be around.

So you see, New North, you are covered on every side with prayer partners that are going to be with you, but your part is to come to God and come to the body.

I want to encourage you, though, to also not just wait for people to come to you in prayer.

Pray for your pastors, pray for your elders, pray for one another.

Stop in the lobby and say, Can we just pray right now?

Let's just let's just do it right now.

Or maybe when you're in your prayer time, you just text the person.

I call these drive-by prayers.

I know, not very great, but that where you just text them and you just say, Hey, I'm praying for you today, and then you just move on with your day.

But pray for one another.

Persist together.

Next, we learn from the body of scripture that we persist in prayer knowing that all will be well.

All will be well.

We can trust God by looking back at what He's done in our lives and through the Bible and look forward to our future hope.

One where God will redeem and restore all things, and we are part of that redemption story.

Let me remind you what I, you and I have to look forward to.

Revelation 21, 4 through 5 says that God will wipe every tear from our eyes.

Does that sound good to anybody else but me?

There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.

If Jesus didn't give up praying for us all the way to the cross, and scripture says that right now sits at the right hand of God the Father interceding on our behalf.

Those of us in the room that are following Jesus, we should follow suit.

Not giving up in prayer, not giving up on even our worst enemies or the things that we think are just too far gone.

God never has stopped praying for us, and Jesus never will.

Maybe take this one into prayer or journal this week.

What or who have you stopped persistently praying for?

Is it healing in your body?

Is it your marriage that's on the rocks and you haven't told anybody else?

Is it a career?

Is it a job, a dream job?

Is it a child that is far from God?

Is it our country or our city?

What is it that you have stopped persistently praying for?

Jesus asks in the last verse of this parable.

When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?

Do you believe that God is who he says he is and will do what he says he's going to do?

Because Jesus is inviting us to a prayer life that is persistent and a faith that is resilient, one that endures season and circumstance and time, one that is determined and confident, one that when the world says there is no way, there is no justice, there is no cure, there is no peace, you and I say, but God.

And then we persistently pray together because we know who God is and how our story ends in victory.

You know, I have experienced God's love and care for me even when the things that I was persistently praying for didn't turn out the way that I wanted.

I have also experienced spiritual transformation, a growing up in my faith that I didn't ask for, but I received from coming to God over and over as a byproduct of persisting in prayer.

Many of us in this room can testify to the signs and the wonders and the miracles on the other side of our persistent prayers.

Our sister Hannah from 1 Samuel, she was one of them.

She persistently prayed, remember, for that son, and she got Samuel, the prophet Samuel, who bridged the gap between the judges and Saul.

She didn't get just one son, though, even though that's what she asked for.

She got three sons and two daughters.

You see, sometimes we are persistently praying and we're asking for one thing, and God gives us even abundantly more than we ever expected or imagined or knew to even pray for.

Anybody else experience this in your life?

Coming into the presence of God, persistently praying and bringing anything and everything to God.

Yes, it is a dangerous prayer, but it is a dangerous prayer to an enemy whose aim is to separate you and I from God's love, from God's presence, and from God's power.

You see, the Father of lies wants you and I to believe that we have to earn our presence into, have to earn our God, God's presence if we have to come to Him.

The enemy wants us to believe that in our most grief-filled, painful seasons, tried to trick us to think that our prayers are pointless, that God has left us, that we've sinned one too many times, and so God won't answer, or even the tricky one that our plans are better.

Oh, but Pastor Rob reminded us two weeks ago that we have to pray our Ephesians 6 armor on daily, daily, and push back against the evil and persist in prayer together.

You see, a persistent prayer life is a Holy Spirit-empowered life where we surrender all things to the one who made all things and is in and through all things.

That, my friends, is a wise, wise decision.

I leave you with the words from beloved Bible teacher, author, and the woman that made me fall in love with scripture, Sister Beth Moore.

Here's what she says to encourage our hearts today.

She says, Don't lose heart.

God has not lost you.

You matter.

Your hopes and your dreams, they matter.

Your fears are neither mocked nor preyed upon by your Maker.

He is not mean, He is not spiteful, He's merciful, and He loves you.

If you forget everything I say this morning, God loves you.

Yes, you have an enemy, but He's no match for your advocate.

You see, God is not the unjust judge, New North.

He is not any other human being that has disappointed you or fallen short, but one who desires for you and me to come near.

Right before Jesus went to the cross, he preached a really strong message to his disciples in John 6, and he said, If you want to leave me, now's the time.

You can leave now.

This is what Jesus says.

And then the disciple Simon Peter says, To whom else would we go, Lord?

You have the words of eternal life.

New North brothers and sisters, where else would we go?

Where else would we go in our disappointment?

Where else do we go with our prayers and our pleas in this city and in this world and the brokenness that we experience?

Where else do we have to go?

But to Jesus, I encourage you to persist in prayer together.

Do not forsake gathering with this body.

Persist in prayer together, and this is how we endure to the end.

This is how we see God's kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.

Do not be discouraged, do not lose heart.

King Jesus.

And God, when we don't believe, Father, would you help our unbelief?

God, I pray for this body of believers.

God, I pray, pray that the rhythm and the ritual of prayer in this body that it would not stop after this year of prayer, but that it would continue on to where the world would know, our city would know that this body of believers is a people that does not cease praying.

God, we thank you for your power.

We thank you for your love.

And God, as we pray together today and continue our worship, God, we are asking for healing in our hearts and rest for our souls.

We love you, Jesus.

We give you all honor and glory and power.

In Christ's name, God's people, say amen.

God bless you, New North.

Hey, thanks for being with us, and we really pray that God spoke to you through his word today.

And we want to stay connected, so don't forget to subscribe to this podcast, and that way you'll be notified the moment we have new content go live.

And if you'd like uh more resources or to donate to our ministry, just simply go to newnorth.church.

Thanks again for joining us.

God bless you, and we'll see you right here next time.