Untitled Sermon (2)

As we look at the text today we have two main characters draped in the back drop of Jesus teaching his disciples through a parable. Jesus is teaching on prayer and the Kingdom of God if we read back in Chapter 17 we see that Christ is teaching them on what was with them and what was to come or theologians call it the eschatology. Eschatology is the ending of time. As I work to conclude this series of don’t quit I am going to wrestle with a few things pertinent to my own personal testimony. Church sometimes as leaders we just need to be transparent and tell our story even sometimes while it is still unfolding. We have a Judge who is notated by many theologians as the unjust judge, and we have a widow who has been done wrong. In the background we have disciples nervous about Jesus talking about leaving, and Jesus teaching them to hold on in spite of. Church, sometimes things will not go your way. Truth be told we have all been at a place somewhere in our lives when we just wanted to give up. We wanted to quit on church. We wanted to really quit on God, because it seems like our evil neighbors, our hateful family members, the dope man, the gangster, the loose woman, the thief, the liar, the politician, the crooked banker, the crooked judge, the crooked police, the crooked government, the crooked boss, and the rest of the evil doers are kicking it while it seems like we struggle on every hand. I just come to encourage you this morning despite what you are facing don’t give up! God will show up, because God is tied to His word. The psalmist told us in , “37 Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. 2 For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb.3 Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.4 Delight thyself also in the Lord: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.5 Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.6 And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday.7 Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.8 Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil.9 For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. Tell your neighbor your inheritance is on the way!!!!!!

2 For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb.

Discouragment

Church the truth is we have to deal with discouragement. In verse 9 notice Jesus says and not lose heart. This lets us know before we even get started tough times are going to come. If there wasn’t going to be tough times Jesus would not have told us to not lose heart. It is interesting church in how so many folks deal with discouragement. Sometimes discouragement comes to make us better. If everyone always tells you yes and everything has to go your way then there may be two problems the first one is you may be on the wrong side, because I remember Jesus telling his disciples that many will hate you and want to kill you for my namesake! Next is God knows that he can’t give you everything you want how you want it because you will become spoiled. In this day and time we have a whole lot of spoiled church folks. They play hookie at church and then set by the phone and wait to see if the pastor will call and check on them. They come to church and try to look sad on purpose so that someone will say what’s wrong and then they will lie and say nothing (well then why are you setting around looking like that?). Some will even come into church walking good and as soon as they see someone they start limping, because they want some attention. I hate to hurt your feelings, but with all that is going on in this world it’s time for the church to grow up and quit acting like a spoiled rotten bunch of children always waiting on someone to do something for them maybe it’s time you start doing for yourself and just maybe just maybe help someone else. Preach Pastor I am doing the best that I can! Even with that discouragement is real. I know its hard sometimes. You are going through hell at home and you come to church to a bunch of whining babies, you try to do good and every time you turn around people are sowing seeds of discord and separation behind you. You plant faith someone plants doubt, You plant love someone plants hate, You plant knowledge and someone stuck on stupid, You sow seeds but someone always have their handout, You work hard and the one who does nothing always have something to say, You come faithfully, but the one who hardly shows up trying to run things, You try to be easy, but someone has to try and make things hard. Tell your neighbor I know discouragement is real but God says don’t lose heart keep on praying!

3 Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.

Perseverance

4 Delight thyself also in the Lord: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

Church you need perseverance if you are going to follow Christ. Notice how Jesus depicts perseverance in this text first he says Men ought to always pray and not lose heart or give up. Notice that Jesus says no matter what happens don’t stop praying. Watch this now the widow woman is dealing with an unjust judge. The reason one can argue the judge is unjust is because the parable says he neither regarded or reverenced God or Man. If we juxtapose this with the mere fact that Jesus taught us earlier to Love God and our neighbor on these two hang all the law and the prophets. Jesus taught this teaching us how to live right. So one can clearly argue that if this guy doesn’t care about God or Man he show nuff don’t care about you! So watch this even though she knows what she’s dealing with she still doesn’t give up. That’s called perseverance! You know you have to deal with evil but you still push forward. You know they don’t really like you but you still push forward. You know they are trying to get rid of you but you still push forward. PERSEVERANCE according to Holman’s dictionary means Maintaining Christian faith through the trying times of life. Sometimes church you can duck some things, but sometimes even though you know what you are facing you plant feet and take a brace, but you remain steadfast and unmovable in the spirit of God! Truth be told Wortham the reason some of us can’t get to the next level is because we won’t face what’s in front of us. When you learn how to face your situation and look those demonic spirits in the eye and let the devil know I am not going anywhere then God will dispatch his angels to deliver an eviction notice on the devil that has been blocking your progress. Somebody tap your neighbor and say neighbor sometimes you just have to go through!

5 Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.

God’s Promise

6 And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday.

PERSEVERANCE Maintaining Christian faith through the trying times of life.

Notice again the characters of this parable. The judge represents the evil government of Rome. Jesus used this illustration to capture the disciples attention. Almost every Jew hate the Roman Empire. They were crooked and unjust sounds a little familiar don’t it Hello?!?! They were the face of evil to the Jews. The widow woman represents the weak and the poor, because a widow in a suedo masculine society had very little rights. A widow could only have power if she had a son as heir to his family’s estate. So here we have a rich powerful and crooked judge, and a poor seemingly powerless widow. Notice now that all she asked for was justice. She didn’t ask for favor. She didn’t seek special services, and didn’t want anything other than what she was due. Sometimes church we have to check our motives to make sure that our motives line up with God’s will. So her only weapon was to worry him to death until he heeded her request. The text says he ignored her for a while, but said to himself if I don’t do something this woman is not going to stop calling, emailing, texting, direct messaging, calling, or stopping by. So he said I will avenge her. In other words I will make it right. Can I pause and give my testimony as I get ready to close. 2018 was a rough year for me and my wife. It was challenging. Let me tell this then I will close. 2018 I started the year off with a new chairman of the trustee board bring back necessary balance back to our church leadership. In May I believe this individual up and leaves without any explanation. Can I just tell yall that hurt me too! Then I find out that my sister in law is deathly ill and things may not improve. Check this out then division sneaks into the church. People who left positions and the church were working to influence people in the church negatively. Watch this even said don’t let Pastor do this and that don’t let pastor know about the money because if he leave we will be in bad shape. I needed this word today men ought to always pray and not lose heart. I shook that off. Then division happens again rumors are stirred and causes people to leave the ministry and guess when this happens right around the time of my love day. Several people were going around stirring up trouble no one corrected them no one said a word. Then we lost families due to discord, rumors, and disagreements. You know what was forgotten during all of this? How did this make pastor feel? Look at me I was crushed and hurt to my core. But I persevered and kept on pushing, Then church an old demon showed up to basically derail my love day, because somebody didn’t like or agree with how things were being done. Many of you may or may not remember this but I did some research on your previous pastor and a demon showed up every love day trying to stop what God wanted to bless the leader with. Then we had the lowest participation as a church financially for our love day only 12 to 15 people basically paid their love seed and guess what who was hurt in the whole ordeal Me, my wife, and my family. I was crushed. I even watched as some people go home and didn’t have anywhere to go, but chose not to support me and my family on our day. To add insult to injury after the love day me and my wife had to stay with a couple of members who were not on the committee and cleaned the kitchen on my love day. Church I tell you I was crushed, but I kept on pushing. My Sister in law died shortly afterward, a lady at my office quit just before the holiday season, and my wife lost her job. Then my musician moved away. I felt like I was being attacked on every side. I was being attacked physically with the stress, attacked mentally with all of the anguish I was dealing with, and attacked spiritually because I loved the church but it seemed like the church didn’t love me. But God said I will be with you even to the ends of the age! God said that he would fight my battles, God said he would take care of me. So I started praying. Here comes 2019 and I am thinking new year new day, but I still have the same problems. Has anyone been there. I had a meeting with my leadership because some things were off, and after that meeting all I could remember saying to myself as I drove home was they don’t even care about me. Every time I brought up an issue they would defend those who were wrong. I am not going to lie church just February I was on my way out the door. There were a few churches who were hinting to me that they would love to have me. I said God maybe I am not the one for this assignment. I almost quit church. I almost gave up, but I could not let go of my assignment. I called my pastor he said Ron hang in there God is going to work it out. I called my overseer with Full Gospel he said Ron don’t quit don’t give up on your assignment God has you there for a purpose. Then after we had a program on a Wednesday night at Pastor Morman’s church hardly anyone showed up accept the choir and a few others. None of my leadership showed up, and I am not going to lie that was like the straw that broke the camels back. The next week we were having revival and many of you don’t know but Pastor Patrick Washington noticed spiritually something was wrong and he loved on me and prayed for me in my office and told me that God was going to restore everything that I lost and then some. Some of you may remember we were a little late on Monday night coming out. Church I just kept praying and kept pushing! After that word. Somebody say After that word God started to shift things in my life and my ministry. Wortham if anything is going to change in your or shift in your life it’s going to take the word of God to make it happen. I just kept praying and kept pushing just like that widow until God answered. Watch this church. I was leading all the while I was bleeding! Then I watched God shake and shift some things. My wife got a job after being unemployed for three months, but the beauty was God kept us the entire time. Then watch this I get a call one Friday evening and one family said Pastor we are coming back, but we never really left. Somebody say God will keep his promise! Then God gave us a new musician while bringing back our old musician in a new role somebody say overflow! Then another family came back and new members joined somebody say overflow! All I can think about as I close today is that God will keep his word! If God said it then it is already done! The text says then Jesus looks at his disciples and say if the cries of a poor nothing no good widow can change the mind of an evil man what do you think a loving God will do for his children? Somebody say He will answer! Every Sermon I heard said don’t quit, don’t give up. Every mentor and leader I talked to said stay with your assignment. I don’t know who I am talking to in here this morning , but don’t give up because God is about to shift some things you have been crying about in your life, in your finances, in your spirit, and in your family. I just want to tell you don’t give up because God will do what he said he would do! He’s going to fulfill every promise to you! Don’t give up on God because he won’t give up on you! because He’s ABLE!!!!!

7 Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.

8 Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil.

9 For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth.

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