Luke, The Orderly Account of Truth - Persistent Prayers and Persistent Faith - Luke 18:1-8

Go ahead and open up your Bible. So Luke chapter eighteen.

That's what we're going to be today. Luke, chapter eighteen.

And the message today is titled if you're taking notes,

persistent Prayers and Persistent Faith. Persistent prayers and persistent Faith.

And I realized I didn't put in my notes anywhere

to tell you what the title of the message was,

so I needed to tell you here at the beginning

or I was going to forget later. So that's the title.

But we're in Luke chapter eighteen, verses one through eight.

You guys all there almost? Okay, Well, if your eyes

are sold down, I'll give you a moment, because it's

really important to us that we get to read the

Bible together and follow along. Also, so you know that

I'm not just making stuff up, that it is actually

in God's word what we're talking about today, Okay, Luke

Chapter eighteen, first eight verses. And he told them a

parable to the effect that they ought always to pray

and not lose heart. He said, in a certain city,

there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man.

And there was a widow in that city who kept

coming to him, saying and saying, give me justice against

my adversary. 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 she will not beat me down by her

continual coming. And the Lord said, hear what the unrighteous

judge says, And will not God give justice to his

elect who cry to him day and night? Will he

delay long over them? I tell you he will give

justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the son of man comes,

will he find faith on this earth or on earth?

Let's go ahead and pray. God, we thank you for

this moment. We pause, set aside all other distractions from

our minds, and focus on what you have for us today.

As we've just read your word. God, give us open

hearts to receive what you'd have for us today, to

hear what you would speak to us, to see what

you want us to see. God, none of my words,

but only yours. God, give us eyes to see that.

Let the words jump off of the page and into

our hearts. And as you did with your disciples, God,

open our minds to understand what you're saying. Today, we

thank you for all this in Jesus name. Everybody said, Amen.

All right. We've been in a series called Luke The

Orderly Account of Truth. Luke the Orderly Account of Truth.

Any thoughts on the sermons series so far? I've loved it.

I don't know if you guys have been having fun

with it, but it's been amazing. We're going verse by verse,

not skipping anything through the whole book of Luke, and

Luke put together an orderly account. He investigated this also

that we could know and learn about what Jesus did

and taught. And Jesus did and taught a lot of stuff. Right,

we know that we're only eighteen chapters into this book.

He's did and taught a lot of stuff. And some

of what he taught was kind of hard to understand.

You guys know that a little tricky. But some of

it wasn't so hard to understand. It was kind of

straightforward and made sense. It was pretty easy. But also

I think there's some of what he taught that was

easy at first glance, but if we don't stop and

take a look at the proper context, we might miss

the greater meaning in it. And I really think and

believe that today's text is one of those texts. It's

very easy to understand right on the surface level, but

understanding in the context is going to make it come

alive much deeper than we may may not have seen

on the first glance. There is a greater meaning within

this truth that we're going to see today. And as

a side on, I'm not trying to be weird. I'm

not trying to like look for a hidden meaning in something,

you know, like Bible code stuff. You know, every seventh

word on every seventh page spells out his Kingdom come

or something. It's not that I'm not being weird with it.

We're talking about stuff that's actually in the text. It's

not a secret mystery meaning. It's stuff that we actually

see in the text. But if we miss the context,

then we might miss this cool, greater meaning. So what

I want to do is I want to spend some

time summarizing last week's text. Pastor Jordan did an awesome job,

preaches that text is great wherever he's at, he did awesome.

I loved it all. Hail the returning King right. I

don't know if you were like me, but I was

pumped after hearing. I mean, every time I hear like

Jesus returning, I get pumped and excited. So I'm like, sweet,

all the broken things are just fixed, right, It's amazing.

All hail the returning King. But the reason I want

to summarize this text is because Jesus doesn't skip a

beat when he moves into our text for today. So

I'm going to do a summary of Luke seventeen is

Luke Chapter seventeen, verses eleven through thirty seven. You can

loosely follow along your Bible. I'm not going to read

through it. I'm going to just kind of like hit

the bullet points. But Jesus gets done healing ten lepers

and only one one comes back to praise God for it,

and he tells the man that his faith has made

him well. Well after that happens, the Pharisees ask Jesus

a kind of a weird question. They say, when's the kingdom?

When is the Kingdom of God going to come? And

Jesus says, sorry to hear my guy, it's in your midst.

Well he might he might not have said it that way,

but he says, basically, it's in your midst, right, it's

already here. But why does he say that. It's because

he is the king of that kingdom, and he's standing

right in front of him, right, so they're not waiting

for this king. The king is there, the kingdom is near,

it's right in front of them. But then he turns

away from the Pharisees and turns towards the disciples, and

he starts talking to them. And he starts to tell

the disciples what it's going to be like in the

days of the Sun of Man. What it's going to

be like on that day when the Son of Man

shows up. What do you say, is going to be

like like lightning? Right, like a flash of lightning that

lights up the sky. When the son of Man is Jesus.

By the way, when Jesus shows up, everyone's going to

see it, unmistakably, everyone's going to say, see it. But

before that happens, if you follow along in our sermon

or seize me in our summary, before that happens, something

else needed to happen. He says, a son of Man

must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.

He's talking about his crucifixion. He's talking about his own crucifixion.

So everyone's gonna see when Jesus comes back, but he's

got to be crucified first. You guys tracking so far? Okay,

the kingdom is already here. When Jesus returns again, everyone

will see it and will happen in a flash. It's

going to happen suddenly. But then Jesus continues and gives

two examples of what it will be like when he

does return. And both of these examples in the text

are examples of God's judgment on sin. The first example

you'll see is Noah in the Ark, and the second

one is Lot and Sodom. In the days of Noah,

God brought the flood to do what to destroy the wicked?

And in the days of Lot, fire and sulfurre rained

down from heaven to destroy the wicked. Says that one

will be taken and one will be left. So the

disciples say, well, where would this happen? Where's this going

to happen? And Jesus responds with you'll know. He says,

where the corpse is there the vultures will gather. But

what's this, what's the whole this whole summary, what's the

whole thing? Kind of talking about what's Jesus really getting

at in this It's all about what it will be

like when he returns. This is what it's going to

be like when he returns. When he returns, he will

bring his righteous judgment to earth. There is a time

when the righteous Judge will execute his judgment. And when

he does that, he's going to set all things right.

And we get to look forward to that he's going

to set all things right. I mean, we all know

something's wrong with this world, right, something's broken. I'm not

the only one. We'll feel it. You can't look around

and say, oh, this is exactly what God intended for

the world to be like. There's no one who can

stand there and say that, right, well, we know that's

not true, that this is not the way he intended it,

because he's in the process of making all things new.

That's in Revelation twenty one to five. So he is

making all things new. So he's there's something wrong. Things

are broken now. They just don't seem to operate the

way they're supposed to. Sin has broken everything. It's infected everything.

Work is hard. You guys, ever try to grow something

other than dandelions. It's hard work. Relationships are difficult, they

just are. They're not easy. Sickness, disease, death, those aren't

great things. Rebellious children, can I get an amen from

the parents? Sin has broken God's beautiful design for the world,

created everything perfect in the garden and set in way

that things should be. And they aren't that way anymore,

are they? No? Something is wrong with the world. It

has broken. Sin has broken this beautiful design. But one day,

one day, Jesus will return, and Sin's effect on us

and sins effect on the whole entire world will finally

fully be dealt with. Amen. Yes, one day we get

a look forward to that the King will return. He

will make all things right, He will bring justice to

the world. He will put an end to all unrighteousness,

and only righteousness will remain. That's amazing. Everything that is

in right standing, everything that's proper and right and good

is what will remain. That's not the way it is now,

But we look forward today that that will be the case.

But if you remember back to our text, who read today?

What does any of this have to do with a

persistent widow? How is this that all related to what

we're talking about? This woman who is constantly crying out

for justice. Well, if you look at the first verse

of our text, chapter eighteen, verse one, it's actually a

commentary note from Luke, says, and he told them a

parable to the effect that they ought always to pray

and not lose heart. One very helpful thing is Luke

is kind of giving us the point here right at

the beginning. So it's a preacher. I'm like, very thankful

for that. He's giving us the point Jesus is making

in his parable. But verse one is not Jesus speaking,

it's Luke talking about what Jesus is saying. So for

a moment, I want you to pause, and we're going

to take verse one and just kind of set it

on the side, just for a moment, not being weird,

not reordering the Bible. Just pause and put it to

the side, And I want to read verse chapter seventeen,

verse thirty seven. And then immediately after chapter eighteen, verse two. Okay,

we're gonna put those together, and it says, and they

said to him where Lord, He said to them, where

the corpse is there? The vultures will gather. Listen in

a certain city. There was a judge who neither feared

God nor respected man. So it kind of put you

in the scene. You guys see that Jesus is saying,

where the vultures will gather, where the corpse is there,

the vultures will gather in a certain city. There was

a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. He

doesn't skip a beat, He immediately just keeps talking. We

just get a nice commentary note from Luke. Okay, So

this parable he's telling is connected to his return and

the day when he brings judgment to earth. So there's

some connection here that we need to figure out. This

persistent widow who is crying out for justice every single

day has something to do with Jesus return, you guys see.

That is where are we going to do our investigative

investigative work and try to figure it out. The widow

was waiting for her day of justice, for the day

of the judge would make things right, which is much

like us today. Knowing that this world is broken and

filled with injustice. We are all waiting for the day

when the Judge, the ultimate righteous and good judge, will

return and make all things right. You guys see that connection.

But that day is not here yet. We're not there

quite yet. The day of the Son of Man hasn't

arrived yet. And until that day, while we wait, how

are you waiting? What's the condition of your waiting? How

are you doing? Are you losing heart? We're getting discouraged?

Have you given up asking God to bring justice here

and now for the things here and now? We're given

up asking Jesus to return to make all things new

for eternal perfect justice. Have we stopped believing? Or are

we like the persistent widow while she was waiting for

her justice, never giving up, always persisting and always praying.

When Jesus returns, will he find us waiting full of faith?

That's what he asked in verse eight of our texts today.

Will he find us waiting full of faith? Will he

find us persisting in prayer and persisting in our faith

like the widow? I mean, if you look at just

look at what she's dealing with. Look at verse two.

He said in a certain city, there was a judge

who neither feared God nor respected man. And that's saying

feared gotten. Neither feared God nor respected man is an

ancient phrase, and all that means is that he is

someone who is most wicked and rebellious has no concern

or fear of God, meaning there's nothing that was off

limits to him when it came to wickedness. There's no restraint,

there's no boundaries to what he's willing to do. He's

wicked and rebellious. But not only did he not fear God,

he couldn't care less what man thought of him, and

he didn't respect him either. He didn't care what man

thought of him or just people's what that means. And

he didn't respect him. He had zero shame and not

in the like I'm free from guilt and shame because

of Jesus kind of way. That's the great way to

be team no shame. Right, He's not that kind of

team no shame. He has zero regard for what man

thinks of him. This is the judge that was in

the city. And in verse three we get introduced to

this widow, the one who's making this request to this

unrighteous judge. And there was a widow in the city

who kept coming to him and saying, give me justice

against my adversary. And there's a pretty big reason why

God tells us to care for widows and orphans in

their distress. If you read James one twenty seven right,

what does and orphans are two of the most helpless

groups of people on the planet. Especially back then, women

regularly would rely on their husbands for all financial provisions

while they took care of the home and children, tried

being a single income family, and today it's really hard.

It's not impossible, but if the husband were to pass

away and not to get two sidetracked. But this is

every time we go to Guatemala and help out the

orphans and widows there, every widow that we deal with

is someone whose husband was the sole provider for everything,

and this widow is living in a cornstock husk house

with nothing. So this is like real that these widows

are in great need. These husbands who have passed away,

the widow is struggling to make ends meet. Well, this

particular widow in the parable that Jesus is saying is

in some legal situation, which is why she's calling for justice.

She has this adversary or this opponent who is doing

something unjust to her. She's crying out for justice. And

this word justice in the verse means to protect defend

one person from another, So it's pretty straightforward. She's just

asking him for the judge to aventure and protect her

from some wrongdoing that was brought against her. But she's

asking the wicked and unrighteous judge, the one who couldn't

care less about her or what she thinks, for justice.

That's who she's asking for justice, and he doubles down.

Let's look at verse four 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 by her continual coming. Jesus wants to

make it super clear here in his parable, the unrighteous

judge caved into the widow's request for one reason and

one reason only. And it wasn't because he feared God,

and it wasn't because he respected man. He was sick

and tired of hearing her beg He was tired of

hearing her. She won't stop bothering me, that's what he's saying.

And she just won't leave me alone. He's feeling beat

down because she just wouldn't stop, so he avenged her.

He gave her just He's like, fine, I will give

in and give you justice. So you leave me alone.

And now is where we get to see the parable

show us what smarter people than me call an illustration

of better. It's an illustration of better. Some parables are

parables of comparison. The Kingdom of Heaven is like that's

a parable of comparison. But then we also have parables

of contrast, which is you've heard it say said, But

I say to you right. But then you have some

parables that illustrate what is better. If you look at

Matthew chapter seven, you don't have to turn there, It'll

be on the screen. Matthew chapter seven, verse nine. Or

which of you, if his son asks him for bread,

will give him a stone, or if he asks for

a fish, will give him a serpent. If you, then,

who are evil, know how to give good gifts to

your children, how much more will your father, who is

in heaven give good things to those who ask him?

How much more? God is so much better than you,

evil earthly fathers. And we see a widow getting what

she wants from this unrighteous judge who neither fears God

nor respects man. And Jesus continues in this parable to

show us just how good God is, how he is

so much better than this unrighteous judge verse six, And

the Lord said, hear what the unrighteous judge says? And

will not God give justice to his elect who cried

to him day and night? Will he delay long over them?

I tell you he will give justice to them speedily,

Jesus asking, did you see what that unjust judge just did?

That wicked dude gave the widow justice? But how much

better is God? And I love how Abraham puts it

in Genesis eighteen when he says, shall not the judge

of all the earth do what is just? That's our God,

the righteous judge, who will do what is just. God

will give justice to his people, and he will do

it speedily. And before we get to the last part

of the verse, when Jesus asks, I think a really

really important question, I think Jesus is making I say

two points, but I think it's really the same point,

and he's applying it in two different ways. The greater

context of this passage is in regard to a second coming. Right,

So we spent the first part of the message talking

about right. I'm doing the recap of Chapter seventeen. All

the way up to wear we're at now. So are

we crying out to him day and night for Jesus

to return and bring justice to the world. So that's

I think the application one that Jesus is kind of

pointing out here. And I think that's also the one

we kind of miss sometimes if we don't look at

the context. But as children of God, we also get

to come to him and ask him for anything. Technically

we rely on him for everything. Everything we have are

relying on him for, so we're asking him for And

I think this is the second application. Peter tells us

in First Peter five. I'm just going to go through

several verses here, just kind of keep up if you can.

But Peter tells us in First Peter five, cast all

your anxieties on him because he cares for you. God cares,

He cares about you, so we should bring our worries

to him. And Paul to the church in Philippi. This

is in Philippians four to six. Do not be anxious

about anything, say anything. Do not be anxious about anything,

but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let

your requests be made known to God. Don't worry, ask

God that's kind of the point of that verse. And

Jesus says in the Book of Matthew Matthew chapter seven,

ask and it will be given to you. Seek and

you will find. Knock and it will be open to you.

For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds,

and to the one who knocks, it will be open.

Even Jesus tells us to ask. Give us this day

our daily bread. Every day we are reliant upon God

for everything, and we're told to ask. So yes, as

God's children, we can, and we should come to God

the Father and ask him for whatever we need. He

knows what we need before we even ask. He's clear

about that. But God is also clear that there is

a certain way in which we should be asking. So

I want to take a moment to kind of talk

about how we approach God when we ask him for

things we need or even things we want. Mark eleven,

twenty four says, Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask

in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it

will be yours or Matthew twenty one twenty two. And

whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive if you

have faith. John fourteen thirteen through fourteen. Whatever you ask

in my name, this I will do that the Father

may be glorified in the sun. If you ask me

anything in my name, I will do it. John fifteen seven.

If you abide in me and my words abide in you,

ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

Or James one five through eight. If any of you

lacks wisdom, It's one of my favorite verses in the Bible,

by the way, because I lack wisdom a lot. If

any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who

gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be

given him. But let him ask in faith. Is this

on the screen or no, dang it, she's gonna have

to read it after. But trust me, I promise I'm

reading straight from the Bible. But let him ask in

faith with no doubting. For the one who doubts is

like a wave of the sea that is driven and

tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose

that he will receive anything from the Lord. He is

a double minded man, unstable in all his ways. And

I'll make a mention about lack of faith in a minute.

But that's some strong words about how we should approach

God or the disposition we should have when we're asking

Him for things. When we pray and ask God for something,

we should be asking with faith. Bring your requests to

God and believe that He hears you and he will answer.

Sometimes we don't get what we need or want or

whatever we asked for. Why is that? Why don't we

always get what we want? And? I think it's a helpful.

It's helpful for us to remember what James says in

James Chapter four, the first three verses, what causes quarrels

and what causes fights among you? Is it not this

that your passions are at war within you? You desire

and do not have, so you murder. You covet and

cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel you do not

have because you do not ask, And you ask and

do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it

on your passions. So James points out some really helpful guardrails.

How many of you like to go bowling? Bowling's way

easier if the bumpers are up right. I think prayer

is a lot easier if we remember these bumpers that

James is giving us here. On one side of not

getting what we need or want, it's because we don't ask.

We just don't ask God. What peace we often forfeit,

what needless pain we bear, all because we do not

carry everything to God in prayer. It's how the hymn

goes right. We have not because we ask not, and

this is what I think shows a lack of faith.

We don't ask because we don't believe God can or

we'll do something, which leads into a lot of what

James is talking about. So we have that side. But

the other side of not getting what we want or

need is asking for selfish gain. I've definitely done that

in my past, asked for something just because I wanted it,

and it was being selfish. We ask God for things,

but it's only because we're greedy. And for this, I

think we just have to check our own heart. You

really have to do some healthy self reflection because only

you and God are gonna know. Maybe your spouse will know.

They can read us pretty good, but you have to

do some self reflection on it. Is this prayer request

just greedy and selfish? But if it's none, if it's

neither of those two reasons. My question is, should we

stop asking just because we haven't received it yet. It's

a resounding no. We should not stop asking. Where in

all of the verses that we just read today does

God tell us to stop praying and stop believing? Where

does he tell us to do that? He doesn't to

continue to believe and to continue to pray and ask.

Where to be persistent in our prayers and persistent in

our faith? And that leads us up to Jesus' final

question from our text today. Nevertheless, this is the end

of verse eight. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes,

will he find faith on earth? Will he find faith

on earth? When Jesus returns to bring his final judgment

to earth to bring justice and make everything right? Will

he find us waiting in faith? And I think of

the band come up? Please? Will a son of man

Jesus find us waiting in faith when he returns? We

all know this world is broken and in desperate need

of the righteous judge to bring justice. And we also

know there's still sin in all of us that we're

working to put to death right. If you put faith

in Jesus, if you woke up the next day still

had some of the same sin struggles, didn't you like,

we're still working to put those to death, all keeping

a step with the spirit. But do we cling to

the future hope of glory, the glory that will be

in us and the glory that will be in all

of creation. It's so beautiful in Romans eight, if you

look at verses eighteen through twenty five, it says, for

I've considered that the sufferings of this present time are

not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed.

That's some future like thought, right. That's not setting my

mind on things in front of me. It's setting my

mind on things above the eternal, not the temporal. That's

not being only focused on the here and now. That's

having long term sight to look at the future glory

that we have. These sufferings at the present time are

not worth comparing with the glory that is to be

revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing

for the revealing of the sons of God. For the

creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of

Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself

will be set free from its bondage to corruption and

retain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

For we know that the whole creation has been groaning

together in the pains of childbirth until now, and not

only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first

fruits of the spirit grown inwardly as we wait eagerly

for adoption as sons the redemption of our bodies. When

I say you know the world is messed up, the

reason you know that is because you are groaning inwardly

as you're awaiting adoption to sonship and daughtership. We know

something's messed up inwardly groaning Verse twenty four. For in

this hope we were saved. Now hope that a scene

is not hope, for who hopes for what he sees.

It's kind of an important little little thing, he says there.

But if we hope for what we do not see,

we wait for it with patience. Whatever sufferings we experience

now while we're waiting for Jesus to return, they're nothing

in comparison to the future glory that we wait, the

glory that Jesus brings when he returns. No matter how

broken my heart is, no matter how much strife and

turmoil we have in our family. No matter how what

loss you experience, none of it compares to the future

glory that awaits when Christ returns. We look to the

future glory as we wait patiently. And you want a

little extra just to I don't know, make that point

even stronger. Read first, Peter, He's talk about the same thing.

But like we see from our tay, just bringing it

back to our text, we need to wait. Like the

persistent widow, she was persistent in making her requests to

this unjust, unrighteous judge. But she was also persistent in

her belief that she would get what she was asking for.

She would not quit. So as we wait, we are

persistent in our prayers to God. We are persistent in

our faith, in our belief that He will return and

he will make all things right. So I want to

end our time today talking about persistence because I think

that's an important theme from the text today. And I

was going to sleep one night this last week, and

was before i'd started studying for the message. Kind of

a little late start on it stressed me out this week.

Welcome to the behind the curtains of preparing a message.

But I was going to sleep and I got this

image in my head that grew my faith, and my

hope is that it will grow your faith too as

I share it. And it was an image of water

dripping on a rock over and over and over again.

Have you guys seen what happens to a rock when

water drips in the same spot day after day, month

after month, year after year. What happens to that rock?

It drills a hole right through it. It drills a

hole right through the rock. The water's not sharp, The

water's not like even, it's not like hard like the

rock is. It's not like you're it's not like you're

hitting the rock over and over again with a hammer. No,

the water is what. It's persistent. The water is persistent

and it never stops. It keeps dripping in the same

spot over and over and over again. And this persistent

dripping of water has the power to literally cut rock

something as in these I'm using these two words intentionally

simple and mundane, as a drop of water can do

back something simple and mundane, as a drop of water

can drill a hole through a rock. Life is hard,

This world is broken. Waiting for Jesus to come and

fix everything will get difficult. I hate to be the

bearer of sad news, but it's fallowed by great news.

So it is going to get difficult while we wait

for Jesus to come back. So how can we persist

in our prayer and persist in our faith like a

small drop of water? I truly believe that it's the small,

simple and mundane things of life that we should persist in.

Everyone knows you should read your Bible and pray right right,

check it. Okay, maybe you didn't know you should read

your Bible and pray. But what happens when you read

your Bible and pray every single day? Every day? One

more drip on the rock, go to church, One more

drip on the rock. Pray with your family before you

go to bed. One more drip on the rock. Pray

and thank God before you eat. One more drip on

the rock. Read it devotional every morning, Listen to worship

on the way to work. Pray for a brother a

sister in Christ when you think of them, meeting with

a brother a sister and studying a book of the

Bible together. Choosing to forgive instead of holding a grudge,

choosing to drive the speed limit, seat of five over

bucket of water on the rock, choosing not to go

see a trashy movie, and you guys got to say

it was conviction on this next one, holding your tongue

instead of saying the mean thing, not engaging in the gossip.

How about putting down the phone or turning off the

show and get up your bible. That's a bucket. Yeah,

maybe I should have called the message one more drip

on the rock. Yeah, we'll change it in the post.

But my point is these are not big and exciting things.

They're not. They're simple and they are mundane, but we

need to do them over and over and over again.

This is our Christian walk. This literally is our Christian walk.

It's one drip at a time on the rock. One

day you're gonna drill a hole right through that thing.

God didn't say if we had faith the size of

a mountain, that we could move a mountain, said we

have faith the size of what mustard seed. Faith the

size of a mustard seed, which we found out go

on Hamburger bunks. Maybe they do if someone's like I

do it all the time. Faith the size of a

mustard seed. Right, something small and simple, Yet the outcome

is huge. That's the point there, right as we await

Jesus return to bring justice to all things, to make

everything right, which we all long desperately for, or when

life gets hard, we fall and scrape our knees. All

of our relationships are falling apart, we start losing family

members when life is hard. Be like the persistent with them.

Be persistent in our prayers and persistent in our faith,

and let Jesus find his people full of faith waiting

for him when he returns. Amen. Can you guys stand

on your feet please,