Faith that Keeps on Praying
Notes
Transcript
Intro: Mention motive for passage “Keep Praying and Don’t Lose Heart.” Suffering and Time This is relevant to the NOW.
Intro: Mention motive for passage “Keep Praying and Don’t Lose Heart.” Suffering and Time This is relevant to the NOW.
This isn’t right illustration.
READ TEXT:
Enduring Faith is shown in Persistent Prayer
Enduring Faith is shown in Persistent Prayer
TELL STORY:
There was a judge. He was a tall, middle aged man, with geled hair, wore a rolex and the finest clothes. Through his occupation, he had been made a wealthy…even wealthier than what judges should have been. The bribes from the mafia and politicians gave an extra thickness to his wallet. He was corrupt. Though he was a judge, he didn’t care about the law, but used it to his own benefit.
There was also a woman, a widow…The wrinkles on her face and around her eyes told the story of loss and a hard life. She was on the short side, with here gray hair pulled back in a bun. Her clothes were obviously very worn and you could see where she had patched them on several occasions. Instead of wearing the richest and the finest of clothing, she got hers at the Salvation Army, which she would say were just fine to her.
The widow had an adversary. Perhaps a landlord who tried to cheat her continually. So she went to the courthouse to ask the judge for help. The judge could tell by her appearance that he had other more profitable cases to attend to, so he quickly brushed her aside, looking down at his rolex as if to indicate that just didn’t have time. But he underestimated the widow…though she was older and couldn’t walk very well, she still had spunk, she was feisty. She wouldn’t take no for an answer. She would ask the judge again and again. Suddenly that old widow seemed to be everywhere. She began sending the judge persistent letters, asking respectfully for help. When the judge’s wife was at Publix, sure enough, the widow was there in the produce section, asking for her to get her husband to help her. When the judge took his weekly golfing trip, guess who showed up on the fourth green?
One day, to his delight when he arrived at his office, the judge found a plate of home-made brownies; however, when he looked a little closer, he found another note from the widow. On another occasion, as the judge was leaving the spa, feeling refreshed, he walked to his mercedes benz, got in, only to find the widow in the back seat.
Finally, after the incessant calls, the office staff at the courthouse all came together and begged the judge to hear the widows case, so that she would finally stop calling the office and filling their mailboxes. Though reluctantly, the judge finally took the 30 minutes to hear her case and grant her justice. He didn’t look down at his rolex once…He would’ve taken the whole day if he needed to, in order to finally get her off his back.
Repeat motive for teaching: Keep Praying and Don’t Lose Heart. the widow gives us a good picture of persistent faith and prayer. She didn’t lose heart.
Journey- Don’t stop believing.... Faith is not the power of positive thinking. but Faith is trusting in some on else. and this passage is supposed to encourage us in our faith as we are reminded of who God is.
If the Unjust Judge answered the widow’s plea, won’t our God answer the persistent prayers of His children.
V. 6 This a lesson from the lesser to the greater. If the unjust Judge answered the persistent widow, how much more will the just and loving God answer persistent prayer. She was persistent even though she was dealing with an evil Judge, but if we believe that God resembles the unjust judge, our faith can weaken our faith.
A Walk with God: Luke 78. The Parable of the Importunate Widow (Luke 18:1–8)
If an unscrupulous, unjust judge with no regard for men or God will heed the pleas of this pestering woman, how much more will the heavenly Father, who is just and caring, hear the cries of his people.
Keep on Praying because...
Keep on Praying because...
If you are hurting or in pain. If you are dying or diseased. If you have been wronged or oppressed. If the things in your life and the things you see around you cause you to say, “This isn’t right.” keep on praying because
Lies that Kill Faith:
God is good.
God is good.
The judge was corrupt, unjust, and had no regard for right and wrong.
He was hypocritical.
Believing that God is good in a painful world
Right now, we live in a world of conflict. Look around…but don’t separate what you see from what we know from the Scripture. We know that the Kingdom of God is in conflict with the Kingdom of Darkness. So in the NOW, there is conflict. But God has set a day, where that will not be the case.
Why do the wicked prosper psalm
Sin pains and grieves God.
Sin pains and grieves God.
In the film, George Bailey never gets away to live the life he’d always wanted; the life that he thought would make him happy. But heaven shows him the enormous value of the life he hasn’t chosen.
MARTHA
Sin pains God The flood (grieved the heart of God)
And don’t grieve God’s Holy Spirit. You were sealed by Him for the day of redemption.
The universe is a Petri dish. God swirled the happy juice around, poured us into the dish, put us in the incubator, and now he’s on the outside looking in, seeing what grows. What lives and what dies. What works and what doesn’t. “ God Doesn’t Care About You” by huffingtonpost
We need to know that when we are going through an injustice or a hardship that we have a God who agrees with us about it.
God does care.
God does care.
The universe is a Petri dish. God swirled the happy juice around, poured us into the dish, put us in the incubator, and now he’s on the outside looking in, seeing what grows. What lives and what dies. What works and what doesn’t. “ God Doesn’t Care About You” by huffingtonpost
Because of Your adversaries,
You have established a stronghold
from the mouths of children and nursing infants
to silence the enemy and the avenger.
When I observe Your heavens,
the work of Your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which You set in place,
what is man that You remember him,
the son of man that You look after him?
For the choir director: on the Gittith. A Davidic psalm.
Yahweh, our Lord,
how magnificent is Your name throughout the earth!
You have covered the heavens with Your majesty.
Because of Your adversaries,
You have established a stronghold
from the mouths of children and nursing infants
to silence the enemy and the avenger.
When I observe Your heavens,
the work of Your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which You set in place,
what is man that You remember him,
the son of man that You look after him?
You made him little less than God
and crowned him with glory and honor.
You made him lord over the works of Your hands;
You put everything under his feet:
all the sheep and oxen,
as well as the animals in the wild,
the birds of the sky,
and the fish of the sea
that pass through the currents of the seas.
Yahweh, our Lord,
how magnificent is Your name throughout the earth!
Yahweh, our Lord,
how magnificent is Your name throughout the earth!
You have covered the heavens with Your majesty.
Because of Your adversaries,
You have established a stronghold
from the mouths of children and nursing infants
to silence the enemy and the avenger.
When I observe Your heavens,
the work of Your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which You set in place,
Christmas Story.
casting all your care on Him, because He cares about you.
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your care on Him, because He cares about you.
God will vindicate.
God will vindicate.
V. 6-8
God will vindicate his people. God is patient...
The Lord does not delay His promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance.
Here we deal with the issue of time.
Perhaps it will be at His return, but it will happen.
Friends, do not avenge yourselves; instead, leave room for His wrath. For it is written: Vengeance belongs to Me; I will repay, says the Lord.
“Prayer will make a man cease from sin, or sin will entice a man to cease from prayer.” - John Bunyon
Galaxie Software. (2002). 10,000 Sermon Illustrations. Biblical Studies Press.