Sermon Tone Analysis

4~/14~/96 \\ \\ PERSISTENT PRAYING \\ LUKE 18:1-8 \\ \\ \\ INTRODUCTION: \\ "I don't think I will ever pray again!"

These were the words of a precious woman who had just experienced a \\ great disappointment.

She had prayed for months that her marriage might be saved.

She had prayed \\ expectantly that her husband's heart might be changed and that they might be reconciled.

But the divorce \\ request had been granted.

At that moment God appeared to her more like the unjust magistrate in our parable \\ than the Heavenly Father about whom Jesus spoke.

It is experiences like this that keep many from a consistent \\ prayer life.

\\ \\ It is to those of us who may have become discouraged about prayer that Jesus speaks this parable.

"He spake \\ a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint."

The force of these words is \\ that we are to persist in prayer.

It does not mean that we are to pray constantly, but rather that we are to be \\ persistent in prayer.

\\ \\ \\ This is one of the more challenging parables that Jesus gave.

The seeming indifference and callousness of the \\ unjust judge makes it a challenge to us.

We know that this characterization of the judge is not consistent with \\ what we know of God from the scriptures and especially from the life of Jesus.

However, a closer look at this \\ parable will indeed encourage us to persistent prayer because of the good things that happen to those who \\ pray.

\\ \\ I.  PERSISTENT PRAYING OVERCOMES DISCOURAGEMENT.

\\ Our Lord is preparing His disciples for the years ahead.

They are to be the first generation that will live \\ between the two comings.

He has been speaking of His second coming in the chapter before.

He has warned \\ His disciples that they will go through some difficult times before He returns to earth the second time.

They will \\ go through the kind of experiences that Noah knew when he lived in a generation doomed to be destroyed with \\ the flood, and their experience will not be unlike that of Lot who lived in Sodom in the days just before that city \\ was destroyed because of its wickedness.

The times ahead can be discouraging Jesus warns.

\\ \\ He gives us a feel for the discouragement by his presentation of the poor widow presenting her petition to the \\ unjust judge.

He presents this setting to help us understand that the way you overcome discouragement is by \\ persisting in prayer.

\\ \\ 1.

The discouraging condition.

\\ \\ Jesus presents His people in the figure of the widow.

The widow in that first century world was plagued by a lack \\ of influence and helplessness.

Jesus knows that His disciples will feel that same helplessness as they face the \\ wrongs and the injustices of the world in which they live.

They will feel themselves to be utterly helpless to do \\ anything to affect the circumstances in which they live.

\\ What do you do when you feel yourself to be void of influence and utterly helpless in the midst of an unjust and \\ evil world?

You do what the widow did - you go to the One who has the power and the authority to make a \\ difference.

The unjust judge did have the power and the authority to make a difference.

There might be a \\ reluctance on the behalf of the widow, but there was no lack of power to act on behalf of the widow.

Instead of \\ lamenting your helplessness you pray.

\\ \\ 2.  The discouraging circumstances.

\\ It is obvious that Jesus means for us to understand that the widow has been unjustly victimized.

Some \\ adversary has taken advantage of her helpless condition.

He has taken from her something that is rightfully \\ hers.

He has made her circumstances difficult and painful.

\\ \\ The people of God have always had adversaries who have been ready to unjustly victimize them.

Their chief \\ adversary is the devil himself and he is constantly energizing and motivating others to take advantage of the \\ people of God.

What do you do when your adversaries have unjustly imposed their will upon you or unjustly \\ taken something that is yours or unjustly victimized you.

You do what the widow did - you go to someone who \\ has the authority and the power to make a difference.

In her case the one who had the power and authority to \\ make a difference was an unjust judge but in our case the one who had the power and the authority to make a \\ difference is a sovereign heavenly Father.

\\ \\ \\ Any time you face discouraging circumstances the Christian alternative is to persist in prayer.

In stead of \\ surrendering to your circumstances you seek the face of the One who can change your circumstances.

Our \\ heavenly Father has all authority in heaven and in earth.

He is able to do that which is right.

You overcome the \\ discouragement as you seek His face in prayer.

\\ \\ Does this mean that God will always alter your circumstances in your favor?

No.

One saintly man was asked \\ shortly before his death how he handled the fact that God was allowing him to die despite his prayers and the \\ prayers of thousands for his healing.

His answer was this:  "When I am in the presence of God, it seems \\ uniquely unbecoming to demand anything."

As you seek the face of God in prayer, just the privilege of being in \\ His presence has a way of changing your perspective upon your circumstances.

Just being in the presence of \\ God builds in you the confident expectation that when history is finished God will have done what is right.

The \\ way you keep from fainting is that you keep on praying.

\\ \\ II.

PERSISTENT PRAYING RECEIVES AN ANSWER.

\\ Jesus did not speak this parable so that we would learn to live with unanswered prayer.

Rather, He wants us to \\ rise above the discouragement that the seeming indifference of God might create in our hearts.

The real thrust \\ of the parable is that prayer will make a difference.

God does respond to the prayers of His people.

\\ \\ 1.

The divine pattern.

\\ \\ As we listen to our Lord's description of this unjust magistrate we are to see a contrast.

The unjust magistrate is \\ just the opposite of our sovereign God.

The only thing the two have in common is that they do have the power \\ and authority to make a difference.

The unjust magistrate had the power but had no inclination to make a \\ difference on behalf of the widow.

He finally consented to make a difference only when she had become a \\ nuance before him.

God is not like that.

God does not respond only when we have bothered Him so much that \\ He is uncomfortable.

There is in God always an inclination to respond to His people.

Listen to the application \\ that Jesus made, \\ "And will not God bring about justice for His chosen ones, who crieth out to Him both day and night?

Will He \\ keep putting them off?"

It is interesting to notice that Jesus says our relationship to God is much different from \\ that of the widow to the judge.

Instead of being an unknown stranger before God we are His "chosen ones."

\\ We are those that He has personally called into relationship with Himself.

Surely He will not continue to put off \\ the appeal of His people that come to Him day and night.

\\ \\ 2.  The divine promise.

\\ After His word of application of the parable Jesus gave a promise.

"I tell you, He will see that they will get justice \\ and quickly."

In the context our Lord is describing the response of His people to the oppression and injustices \\ they encounter in the world.

Every generation has felt the oppressive hand of the world upon it.

The recourse \\ for the people of God in such circumstances is prayer.

The promise is that in His time and in His wise way God \\ will vindicate His people.

God will see that which is right is done.

And when ever the time is right, He will do it \\ "quickly."

It will not take God a thousand years to straighten things out when He decides in His wisdom that it is \\ time to do it.

He can do it "quickly."

\\ \\ In ways that even go beyond our understanding, the prayers of God's humble chosen ones affect the flow and \\ the outcome of history.

All history is under God's authority and God's power.

When ever we address a petition \\ to Him, we are presenting it before the one who had the power and authority to make things right.

We can do \\ so with the confidence that He will in His own way and in His own time do what is right.

\\ \\ This is a tremendous encouragement to persistence in our prayers.

Good things do happen when God's \\ people keep on praying.

\\ \\ III.

PERSISTENT PRAYING SUSTAINS FAITH.

\\ \\ The final word of our Lord in His application of this parable is extremely helpful.

He said, "However, when the \\ Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?"

This question puts the whole passage into context.

We are \\ living in the time between the comings.