The Faith of Persistent Prayer: from Luke 18

G'day, thanks for joining the Heights Church podcast today. We hope you enjoy our message.

If you're in the Sydney area, be sure to join us at the Heights Church at Galston

Road, Hornsfield Heights, Sydney, Australia.

The Bible reading is from Luke chapter 18, verses 1 to 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.

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?

Welcome, everybody. And as young people go out, it's great that you're here.

I've got a radio voice from COVID.

It's kind of like a Len voice. Len's got a radio voice. So if I sound better...

There's always good things that come out of it. It wasn't so good having COVID,

but it was good things coming out of it.

Of course, fantastic yesterday to see so many people here helping out.

Phil Kelshaw leads a team and a tight ship, and we got a lot done.

It's going to be even better when instead of Saturday mornings,

it's full of people working on the building.

It's going to be even better when we see Saturday morning full of people doing

ministry in that new building.

So I I can't wait. I wait in anticipation for that. Isn't that good?

You might have heard the term before, anticipation, maybe even pregnant anticipation.

I'm sure Jackie feels that way now. I don't know whether it's anticipation, Jackie. What is it?

It's more than anticipation.

There's this strange term often quoted, we wait in pregnant anticipation.

I think mothers get it. I think fathers get it as well.

It's particularly appropriate towards the end of a pregnancy when the whole

family is living in the now, but not yet.

And particularly since nowadays, you have the ultrasound and stuff like that.

So you even can name young kids before they're even born.

Maybe the anticipation will be blown away when you anticipate a boy,

but a girl comes out, those types of things.

I've heard of that before. But it is this now, but not yet term.

You know the time, don't you, where mum and dad are tossing around in bed,

mum can't get comfortable, the guy gets tossed out, and everyone's in anticipation

of this little gaffer showing their face.

The child has come, though.

We know that. We know that there's a period of time where the mother feels the

kicks, the movement, and the effects of all that's around, and it's revealed in the proper time.

A baby comes. And as Christians, we live in pregnant anticipation for Christ's returning.

We can feel the kicks and we can feel the movement and the effects of the coming

day of Jesus is all around.

The promises of God will be revealed and the second great revealing after Jesus

come the first time will come again and the Lord of all will bring in all of

creation as we've sung about.

The question Christ asks in our passage is when he returns, will he find faith on this earth?

And in our passage today, faith is evidenced by people praying,

trusting in the promises of God, that God will fulfill his promises.

Today, we continue our series on prayer and we're looking at Luke 18.

And we need to very much read that in context because before Luke 18, we have Luke 17.

But the end of Luke 17 is talking about the coming day of Jesus.

Jesus and so the prayer in this passage

is connected to the end

of times the day when Jesus will come and will

he find people praying there's two main characters in

our story it's pretty easy to read really in some ways it's not a it's not hard

to identify yourself with one of them and and like many parables God asks you

to identify with with one of them if you'd like both presented straight up and

down kind of stories, this is one.

And it's although fairly simple to get your head around because of the illustration,

it's not quite that simple.

You're not actually identifying with the widow, and we'll talk about this a

little bit later, and you're not actually identifying God with the unjust God.

So it's actually contrast the characters. This is what this passage says,

that God is not like the unjust judge, and we are not like the widow,

but the call of prayer is the same.

We have the widow. Let's have a look at her. And if you've got the sermon notes,

you can walk your way through that.

And it's very dangerous handing out sermon notes because it means I've got to stick to it.

So if you feel lost, I probably am too.

We have the widow. She wouldn't fit into our Western Aussie profile of a widow

because here in Oz, being a widow doesn't say anything about someone's social

status, but it did in Jesus' story.

The assumption back in first century AD was the widow would be uneducated and

poor and unemployed and unemployable, without power, without status,

and without any connections in society.

Society a modern day equivalent would be like a

homeless person now don't get me wrong with that but

it'd be kind of like that and you might see

the first century widow living living in some kind of a downtown under the under

boxes kind of area in sydney an unfortunate dependent and an outcast really

of society i pray it's not like that in sydney but there are many places in

this world and if you go on over to Los Angeles,

they block off streets, massive blocks.

Where all the homeless people come to spend the night there.

It's not like that in Sydney, thank God.

Jesus brings this story with an announcement that a certain widow had fallen prey to a conman.

And we're not told exactly what she was being harassed about,

but we can kind of guess the tactics was either physical or was financial or legal of some kind.

Regardless she was being worked over by

this bloke and his poor widow who had no

means to protect herself from this man one with no money and no connections

and no status she was in trouble and she had nowhere to turn from it for help

and proverbially she was up the creek without paddle now i don't know whether

you've been in a situation like that where you just don't have anything any Anyhow,

desperate situations demand desperate measures.

And she comes about and does that. You know the dilemma, don't you?

As a teenager, you might have had to ask your parents for help.

Desperate situations demand desperate measures. As a male, you might have had to ask for directions.

Sheer acts of desperation. But really, for those in trouble,

those who have no road ahead, head, there are times in life where desperate

situation demand desperate measures.

And this widow finally realizes that she's one with no hope.

And with the last kick of the cat, not that I mind kicking cats because I don't

like cats, but that's just a term, you know that.

One shot before she goes to the local judge, she pleads her case to throw herself

on the mercy of the judge. And she decides to do that.

But then we have the second character that comes in at the local judge.

And in Luke 18, it clearly describes him first as a judge who has absolutely no fear of God.

And secondly, as a judge that has no respect of human beings,

which is not really good for a judge, to tell you the truth,

that you have no respect for human beings.

Now think about those two statements, though, in more detail.

God's final judgment holds no fear for him.

He does not care at all about God, and he has no sense of accountability at

all to anybody else other than himself, certainly not to others.

Justice for him as whatever he wants it to be.

And he has no regard for people, which I said is not very good for a judge.

People in his courtroom are interruptions and problems and headaches and hassles.

It's kind of like a law and order episode gone completely wrong.

We have a desperate, oppressed widow whose only recourse was to throw herself at this judge,

at his mercy, which he has none in

hope that he'll provide protection for her

against this crooked guy but when we have

when we look at it we have a crooked judge who doesn't

care about god or people so she comes before him in utter desperation and pleads

for mercy and what does he do he laughs in her face but even in her hurt and

utter disappointment this judge still represents to her the only hope that she has.

Somehow she must get him to offer protection against his con man's exploitations.

So she says to herself, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to pester him

until he gives us what we want.

Like as if pestering is going to work, really, does it? Every parent knows.

Teenagers, you can pester and pester and pester, and they eventually will give in.

There's a general rule anyway. I did anyway. Can we go for a surf?

No, no. Okay, we'll go. and then I have to pester.

Susan, can I go for a surf? No, no, no. And she goes, oh, come.

You know that nagging, that nonstop nagging. It's a pretty good tactic most of the time.

And she thinks, well, all I'm going to do is I'm going to pester this judge

until he offers me protection, puts me in jail or kills me.

I'm going to be in his face. I'm going to stalk his every move.

I'm going to be like a flea on a dog. I will be like a shirt on his back.

I'm going to stick to him like glue and every saying that talks about being right in his face.

So she gets in the face of the judge and she's good at it because it worked.

And she pestered this judge into submission.

I can't take it anymore, the judge says. Somebody fix this widow's problem.

I don't care what it is, what it takes, how much it costs, just fix her problem

and get her out of my face. happy ending to the story.

And this widow finally receives the protection from this crooked guy that she

needs, this uncaring judge that offered some kind of mercy, but only because

of her extraordinary ability to nag.

So what's the story about? What's the moral of the story?

Certainly not that we go to God and we nag and nag and nag and nag and nag and

nag because he's like the unjust God who doesn't want to give anything.

Maybe part of our relationships that that we bug people until they cave in,

but it certainly shouldn't be as a Christian. As human beings...

We look at the widow and the widow is penniless and powerless with no status and no connection.

And we face problems in life and with challenges and unresolved conflict and

difficulties, and we can't handle them alone.

So there's nowhere to turn or often, and we have to seek help from somebody.

Yet it fits within that widow, but it doesn't fit within a Christian perspective.

And we'll see that in a second. And you may even conclude that God is like the judge.

Judge he's mean and or busy or

on other things he's operating the universe he he's he's trying to keep the

angels happy and those kind of things and the the needy people that come by

him better not bother him unless it's really important that what some people view god's like,

prayerfully christians though if i'm desperate enough then i'd be like what

the widow did i'd I'd go before, I'd storm the gates of heaven.

And sooner or later, with the help of my friends, with the help of my church,

I'll wear him down. That's what some people feel like.

Sooner or later, I'll manage to pry out the blessing of a closed hand that is

unwilling to open it and give.

And sooner or later, God will shout, I can't take it anymore.

Somebody fix the problem.

You may have thought that at times, and you may have sat in churches that think

that, and I sure hope that you don't understand the story of the widow and the

unjust judge that way. There's a guy called C.

Samuels, and he has a book called Storms in the Book of Reaching God's Ear.

And he asked this, do we repeat our request because we think that the quality

of our prayer is dependent upon the quantity of our words?

Do we repeat a request because we think that God is ignorant and needs to be informed?

Or if not ignorant, at least he's unconcerned and therefore needs to be aroused.

Do we repeat our prayers because we believe that God is unwilling to answer

and we must prevail upon him, somehow transforming a hard-hearted God into a

compassionate and loving one?

Do we repeat our petition because we think that God will be swayed in his decision

by our putting on a show of zeal and piety?

Some people are absolutely convinced that God's greatest challenge associated

with prayer is finding the lost key that will somehow open up the storehouse

of love and blessing and power that God doesn't want to open. Great book by C.

Samuels. If that's the way you think, you would write books with titles like

this, Breakthrough Prayer, The Secret of Receiving What You Want and Need from God.

Sounds like a bit of a makeup, doesn't it?

But if you go to our local, big, convenient bookstore that many of glow went

to yesterday you'll find that book there 10 prayers god answers says yes to,

secrets of the lost mode of

prayer prayers that avail much or maybe you'll have a cover blurb which is one

of these books it says does your prayers feel limp and lifeless if praying has

become a task something something healthy that you can be keep on putting on it's this like

switching to decaf, it may be that you're missing a critical truth that could

break you into a place of intimacy and power. Wow.

You can find all of those books in places, but the greatest book that we have

is the Bible that teaches about prayer.

And we've been looking at that over our series. And if there's some mysterious

way to get into to pass his reluctance, to devise a way to persevere or to break through,

to storm our way into his presence, well, then there will be people who will write about it.

But the one who breaks through into God's presence has already done that. And that is Jesus.

And if we look at our passage in verses six to eight, so listen what the unjust judge says.

And will not God bring about justice for those chosen ones who cry out to him day and night?

Will he keep on putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice and quickly.

Jesus is giving the meaning of the parable. He is saying it's not an allegory,

which means we don't fit one of the players in it.

And where we might in other parables assume one of the characters,

it is the actual opposites that we are in contrast to what Jesus was saying. This is what it is.

We're not the powerless widow.

People are not like the widow. In fact, we're the total opposite,

where the widow was poor and powerless and forgotten and abandoned and had no

relationship with the judge.

She was just a face. She was just a problem for the judge. As a Christian, you are heirs of God.

You are not abandoned. You are adopted. You are not hopeless.

He does not forget about you, and you are a priority because you're related

to him as son and daughter.

Isn't that amazing? In no way should we be ashamed to come before God to enter

into his courtroom and hang out in the heavenly courts in his chambers at any time.

He asks us to cast all your cares on me because I care for you.

There's nothing going on in the universe that would keep him from directing

his full attention to your conversation or your requests because you're his

children and he loves your voice.

You're not like the widow and God is not like the judge. The judge in the story

is crooked and unrighteous, unfair, disrespectful.

Uncared and preoccupied with personal matters where God is righteous and just

and holy and tender and responsive and sympathetic. that God wants to hear our prayers.

He's interested in you. He says, as I mentioned, cast all your cares on him

because he cares for you.

And not only is he interested, but he is able.

God is able to answer prayer, whatever it is.

Beyond God's interest and ability, God creating planets wasn't such a problem for him.

And creating a world wasn't such a problem for him

and stilling storms wasn't a great problem for

him and raising from the dead wasn't a

big problem for him might be a problem for us to

kind of understand and get our head around but it's not a problem for him so

our problems are not a problem for him he's inviting you to pray and Philippians

says this present your request to God cast your cares on him and truth be known

he's He's probably wondering why more are not accepting his invitation to pray.

He's interested in you. He's able to answer and he's inviting us to pray. So how do we pray?

Teaching from this parable is that we must continue in our prayers.

And even when there seems to be no answer, even when there seems to be that

God is silent, we keep on praying because God, unlike the unjust judge,

is loving and good and gracious.

And when we persist in prayer, it's not because we haven't yet got God's attention.

It is because God cares and he hears us and we know he hears our heart,

even when our mouth doesn't speak.

Paul modeled Jesus in the garden when he spoke about it in Corinthians.

He talks about how he had a thorn in the flesh and what that was,

we don't really know whether whether it was eyesight, whether it was some say had a hearing problem.

Others say, not me, others say, not me, that he was married.

Whatever the problem was, we understand that these three sustained a passionate

and continual intercession from him.

Paul didn't think that God didn't hear him. His repetition wasn't due to his

lack of faith, like, Lord, sorry, I'm back.

You know, just me, here I am. Just can I say it to you again,

just in case you didn't get it the first time when the TV was on or something like that.

That happens to me. Susan has to repeat it often.

But not God. It was none of that.

But in the end, God said, I'm going to give you more than the thorn in the flesh.

Flesh, I'm going to give you the grace to endure, which is far more valuable

than the thorn of the flesh removed for you.

And there are times for persistent prayer. We know that God hears us and we

know that God will answer according to his will.

We know that God answers according to his promises.

And in our story, justice was sought from God and justice was given to the widow.

And remember what it says right at the end of it says, God will be quick.

It doesn't mean God will be quick in response to our prayer,

like as in we'll pray and then the next minute it will happen.

That means God, when he brings about justice, will bring about it quickly.

In other words, when he comes back.

Straight away, this world will know the justice of God. It might be that we have to endure.

We know, we see the kicks and we see the movements. We see the evidence of God answering that prayer.

We live in the here and now, but not yet.

And we ask God for justice and we have to sit there and recognize in pregnant

anticipation that God will bring about justice in this world. well.

We pray that we might see glimpses of his glory and his mercy come in and provide

justice on this earth now.

But we know when we look at this earth, there is so much injustice in the world.

And why doesn't God deal with it? Well, he will, and he'll deal with it quickly.

We need to remember Peter's wisdom. He says, do not forget this one thing,

dear friends, with the Lord, a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like a day.

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

So what do we do? We keep on praying. And he teaches us to keep on praying.

And certainly a speedy action is going to come. But as I said,

we wait in pregnant anticipation.

And it's not going to be easy when God seems silent, but our responsibility

is not to try to devise a way to get into his presence so he'll open up his ears. That is so wrong.

Or to align ourselves with a certain method, but we need to,

in faithfulness, bring our requests before God.

There's a couple of points to consider. The answer in Paul's case was no.

Far better for Paul that then the removal of the thorn was that God's grace

that was going to give to him.

Also, there's sometimes God's silence means that God is bigger than our answer

that we can devise in our head.

As I mentioned in the first part of our series, is that God is sovereign.

God is all-knowing. God is all-powerful. It's not as if prayer somehow informs

him of something that's going on.

No, his will and his plans are different than our plans.

We want them to align, and sometimes that's what prayer does.

It helps us to recognize and align ourselves with what God is bringing in this world.

The big part about this passage and what it's getting at today,

because we got told right at the beginning, when God comes back again, will he find faith?

So if it's not for anything that we

continue to pray, it is that we are demonstrating faith in a faithful God.

He is faithful to his promises.

The God to whom we pray is not like the unjust God who will only be nagged and

pestered into responding.

Our God is loving and gracious, and we are not like the nameless widow. We are children of God.

And because of this, he delights to hear from his children.

He will answer prayers according to his will and according to his promise.

And once again, like the parable started, when God comes, when the Son of Man

comes, will he find faith on this earth?

Yes, he will. if we have learned in prayer to keep on praying,

to keep on believing, and to keep on trusting in the promises of God.

We have faith in a faithful God.

Amen? Let's pray.

Lord, you are faithful. You are faithful to your promises.

You're all-powerful, all-knowing, sovereign. Your will will come about on this earth.

Sometimes we don't understand what you're doing, There's other times you have

revealed to us in your word what you are doing.

So when we pray for like the widow who wants justice upon her plight, we keep on praying.

We pray for your mercy and we pray for those situations in our world that we

see where injustice just seems to be rampant and prevailing.

We pray that you and your mercy break through and cause your goodness to come

upon certain parts of this world and certain people who absolutely need it.

But in the meantime, Lord, we recognize there will be a day when you come where

your justice will be revealed to all.

And I pray, Lord, that when that day comes, it will be quick and everybody within

a flash of an eye will recognize you are Lord of Lords.

I pray this in your name. Amen.