Persistent, Humble, Marvelment Prayer

Intro

Greyson Glamp

In June of 2013 news broadcasts across the country featured a little boy named Grayson Clamp doing something he had never done before. The three-year-old was born without the auditory nerves that carry sound to the brain. Attempts to restore his hearing with a cochlear implant were unsuccessful, so doctors at the University of North Carolina tried an experimental procedure to implant an auditory nerve directly into Grayson’s brain. This procedure proved successful, and millions of people enjoyed seeing the look of wonder and joy on the little boy’s face when he heard his father’s voice for the first time.

Today with the technology available communication is instant—but even then it is a delight to hear from a friend or family member who is far away. Just as we respond to those familiar voices with pleasure, God delights in hearing from His children.

Why do we pray? Certainly it is not to inform God of what we need. He already knows everything about our situation, and, far better than we could devise, He knows the answer that will be best for us. Prayer is meant in part to remind us of how dependent on God we truly are. But prayer is not just for our benefit. God enjoys hearing us pray! When we come to Him in faith and make our petitions before His throne of grace, His heart rejoices. He likes hearing our voices. Let us never go long without going to Him in prayer.

2 Oranges

While crossing the Atlantic on an ocean liner, F.B. Meyer (a contemporary of DL Moody) was asked to address the first class passengers. At the captain’s request he spoke on “Answered Prayer.” An agnostic who was present at the service was asked by his friends, “What did you think of Dr. Meyer’s sermon?” He answered, “I didn’t believe a word of it.” That afternoon Meyer went to speak to the fourth class passengers. Many of the listeners at his morning address went along, including the agnostic, who claimed he just wanted to hear “what the babbler had to say.”

Before starting for the service, the agnostic put two oranges in his pocket. On his way he passed an elderly woman sitting in her deck chair fast asleep. Her hands were open. In the spirit of fun, the agnostic put the two oranges in her outstretched palms. After the meeting, he saw the old lady happily eating one of the pieces of fruit. “You seem to be enjoying that orange,” he remarked with a smile.

“Yes, sir,” she replied, “My Father is very good to me.”

“Your father? Surely your father can’t be still alive!”

“Praise God,” she replied, “He is very much alive.”

“What do you mean?” pressed the agnostic.

She explained, “I’ll tell you, sir. I have been seasick for days. I was asking God somehow to send me an orange. I suppose I fell asleep while I was praying. When I awoke, I found He had not only sent me one orange but two!”

The agnostic was speechless. Later he was converted to Christ.

The Prayer of Persistence (v.1-8)

If you remember Jesus had been talking about the end of the days and his second coming

So this section in Luke 18 switches from what will happen, to how to endure until that day comes

This is why the Parable tells us ‘pray and not give up’

The final verse in this section, v.8, forms a nice bookend for us, relating it back to the prior passage of the end of days

So Pray and Don’t give up (v.1), so that when the Son returns, there will be faith on earth (v.8)

So how does Jesus expound on his desire for us to pray?

There are two characters, a widow and an unjust judge

The widow had no husband to help stand up for her, no money to bribe the judge, nothing to use except her persistence, and in fact if her husband was alive she would not even go to court!

The judge is a man that fears not God nor man, he did what he wanted!

The setting of the judge

The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Seventeen: People to Meet, Lessons to Learn (Luke 18)

The “courtroom” was not a fine building but a tent that was moved from place to place as the judge covered his circuit. The judge, not the law, set the agenda; and he sat regally in the tent, surrounded by his assistants. Anybody could watch the proceedings from the outside, but only those who were approved and accepted could have their cases tried. This usually meant bribing one of the assistants so that he would call the judge’s attention to the case.

So it has very little in common with our modern court systems, and more in common with Judge Judy!

So there is a widow who needs justice and a traveling judge who is not interested in giving it

So you can imagine as he traveled the circuit, he would come to this widow’s town and think, *uggggg that widow will come again!*

So he gives in because of the persistence of the widow

In fact, the term, ‘wear me out’ is literally “Give me a black eye” as if being hit by numerous blows!

Yet, how do we relate the unjust judge to our relationship with God?

God will grant justice to his elect who cry out to him day and night, and will not delay in helping them!

Justice will be swiftly granted

Hudsen Taylor Story:

When Hutson Taylor was sailing to China to begin his missionary work, his ship was in great danger. The wind had died, and the current was carrying them toward sunken reefs which were close to islands inhabited by cannibals—so close they could see them building fires on the shore. Everything they tried was to no avail. In his journal Taylor recorded what happened next: The Captain said to me, “Well, we have done everything that can be done.” A thought occurred to me, and I replied, “No, there is one thing we have not done yet.” “What is that?” he queried. “Four of us on board are Christians. Let us each retire to his own cabin, and in agreed prayer ask the Lord to give us immediately a breeze.”

Taylor prayed briefly and then, certain that the answer was coming, went up on the deck and asked the first officer to let down the sails. “What would be the good of that?” he answered roughly. I told him we had been asking a wind from God; that it was coming immediately. Within minutes the wind did began to blow, and it carried them safely past the reefs. Taylor wrote: Thus God encouraged me ere landing on China’s shores to bring every variety of need to Him in prayer, and to expect that He would honour the name of the Lord Jesus and give the help each emergency required.

Knowing that our prayers touch the heart of our loving Father in Heaven and that He can meet any need, we should be confident that He will hear and answer when we cry out to Him.

However, that brings us to another question, why are certain prayers not answered in accordance to justice?

The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Seventeen: People to Meet, Lessons to Learn (Luke 18)

How, then, do we explain delays in answers to prayer, especially when Jesus said that God would “avenge [give them justice] speedily”? (Luke 18:8) Remember that God’s delays are not the delays of inactivity but of preparation. God is always answering prayer, otherwise Romans 8:28 could not be in the Bible. God works in all things at all times, causing all things to work together to accomplish His purposes

We don’t have all the answers of why God does not always immediately come down and deal swiftly with injustice, but we do know God is a God of grace

Quite often, we clamour for the calling down of fire from heaven to bring about God’s justice!

This is why James and John were known as the sons of Thunder, in Luke 9 they wanted to destroy a town that would not welcome Jesus

Not even realizing how they themselves have arrogance driving their zeal, instead of God’s zeal!

The problem is that we want to see ourselves as the widow, but we can just as easily be the judge

We as a people help contribute to the culture of evil and injustice that we currently fight against

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn a Russian Novelist and Soviet Dissident said this incredible insight

If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?”

We must remember that our God is a God of steadfast mercy, grace and kindness

So when that day of his second coming happens, it will be a terrible day of judgment!

So perhaps, God not granting justice immediately, is grace unto us as well, who have perpetrated injustice ourselves!

So this is why we continue to be persistent in our prayers, so that God will bring about Justice, and that we ourselves will realize our own hand in injustice and change

Prayer is more than giving a wishlist to God, or talking to the sky, but it is a sacred act of us entering into his throne room

This next section shows us another key aspect of our prayer life

The Prayer of Humility (v.9-14)

Jesus continues in speaking in parables and tells the story of a tax collector and a pharisee and how they pray to God

The key here is Luke 18:9 “9 He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and looked down on everyone else:”

This was directed at the Pharisees, those that thought they had their lives together

Yet, it’s not only the Pharisees, we can also struggle with this ourselves

What is self-righteousness?

Let us look at how the Pharisee prays

He stands in a prominent place in the temple

Speaks to God once, then waxes on about his amazingness

This prayer to God reads like a dating profile of a man that thinks he is God’s gift to women on Tinder

Luke Context

Actually he believed he had done more than God required. He had not only kept the law perfectly and thus did not need to pray for God’s forgiveness, he even fasted twice a week and tithed everything he bought (not just what he earned). His attitude was clear. God was very fortunate to have someone like him.

Author Randy Alcorn puts it this way

“Behavior modification that’s not empowered by God’s heart-changing grace is self-righteousness, as repugnant to God as the worst sins people gossip about”

This man is so thankful what he is not like, he bases all of his ‘goodness’ on outward activity

He would be a well respected Sunday School Teacher, a Deacon, English Director, a well respected member of the community

What about the Tax Collector?

First there is a note of contrast, in ‘but the tax collector’

His posture was different

He did not stand in the front, but in the corner

Not raising his eyes to heaven, but striking his chest asking for God’s mercy

You see standing with your eyes open and raised to heaven was the normal way that Jews prayed

So this man feels unworthy to do this, and shows great grief and morning over his sin by beating his breast

We know that Tax Collectors were despised in their day, but what would a comparison be?

How would you feel if a gay activist, or a drug dealer walked into our church, and fell to their knees, asking God for forgiveness?

We can easily see the difference in these two people

Jesus says that the tax collector goes homes ‘justified’ before God

That is a term of right standing before God, the divine judgment is removed form him, and the term means more than being forgiven, but new standing before God!

He asked for mercy, and he receives it and grace!

The reason it is so shocking that the Tax Collector would be justified is that he also did no outward act of restitution, so the Pharisee’s would reject it

They forget what God had said in Hosea 6:6

Hosea 6:6 CSB

6 For I desire faithful love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

Then Jesus brings up the crux of this verse and parable in v. 14: Everyone that exalts themselves will be humbled, but the one who is humble will be exalted

Do you notice this is not just about arrogance and worldly desires, which it can be, but even spiritual things can be a cause of self-righteousness

In my own life, pride/self-righteousness can become a terrible master

When I first graduated from Moody, there was a time when I would be in constant argument with my parents over spiritual things

The reason being that I felt that I knew more than them, which I did mentally, but they knew the truths I spoke of in their very lives!

So my struggle was that if I had gotten any other degree, people would not dispute what you say, so I had gotten an engineering degree, no one would question me on engineering that does not have that degree right?

However, with a degree meant to go in ministry, it is a bit messy, because the goal is not simply head knowledge, but an understanding of Jesus that changes your whole life, and at 22, there is only so much life you have lived

So I can understand the danger of letting good things like theology, inflate our hearts and stoke our egos too much

So how can we engage our lives in Humble prayer, and help ourselves avoid the self-righteousness of that Pharisaical spirit?

Something that I came across this week by God’s providence is a tradition from the Eastern Orthodox church

You might be aware of the rosary in the Roman Catholic church, and the Eastern Orthodox church has something similar

On this beaded bracelet, you go around and say the ‘Jesus Prayer’

Now what is the Jesus prayer you ask?

"Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

This prayer is pulled primarily from this passage, along with Peter’s exclamation that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God!

I’ve been using this in my own life periodically this week, and it is a great prayer of reset

No matter what is going on, or what mess I’ve found myself in, it allows me to stop and rest in God

In fact, the way the EO Church does it is when you breathe in you say “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God

The breathe out and say “Have mercy on me, a sinner”

What better way to practice humble prayer than use the very world of the humble tax collector?

So we have seen that we want our prayer lives to be persistent, humble, and the final section on this: Marvelment Prayer

The Prayer of Marvelment (v.15-17)

The next story is very much a parallel of Mark’s gospel, of the young children, or infants being brought to Jesus

The disciples are hindering their coming to Jesus, but Jesus invited the children to come to him

The Jewish society of that day placed very little importance on children, they were less than women

Jesus love taking the marginalized of society and dignifying them as important in God’s kingdom

In fact Jesus says that the ‘Kingdom of God belongs to such as these’

And “If you don’t receive the kingdom of God like a little child, you won’t enter into it!”

That is quite a terrifying statement!

So it means we need to grasp what is meant by being like a little child/infant?

So what can we learn from this

Child-like is not Childish!

A child has a sense of wonder of the world, they are excited to learn! Have you ever met a young child obsessed with dinosaurs? They can tell you droves about them at a young age!

In fact, this is why I choose a prayer of “Marvelment”

Does anyone actually know what it means?

The definition of marvelment is “a source or cause for wonder”

The only way to come into God’s Kingdom is to become like a child and be born again per John 3. (Wasn’t this the problem with the Pharisee?!)

It is also not about innate goodness of children, but a quality they possessed

What is that quality?

There are several aspects of it, one I think is humility

Little children, and infants possess nothing, and cannot boast in anything, they can make no worldly claim on God

I saw this quote in the commentary “Exalting Jesus in Luke”

Exalting Jesus in Luke Jesus’s Reply (18:16–17)

Are we like these little children—humble, dependent, trusting? Even in a worship service we can see children looking to their parents. Perhaps they are fidgety and look to their parents for approval. They look to Mom and Dad, perhaps feeling a twinge of hunger and trusting their parents to provide for them. In just a little while they will look to Mom and Dad to strap them into their car seats and keep them safe on the drive home. This constant looking up to Mom and Dad in dependence, trust, hope, and humility is what God calls us to as we look to him as our Father. God promises to give an infinite, unshakeable kingdom to those who seek him that way. In that kingdom we will reign with him.

Do you remember a time that you might of had in which you learned from your parents?

For those with bad parents, it can do a lot of damage in our walk with God, but yet, God wants us to trust him

We can become stubborn, we can make faith into something more complex than it needs to be

Do you trust God no matter what?

Even when the path is hard and the destination unknown?

We love him because he loved us at our lowest, while we were enemies of him!

We trust him because he is completely trustworthy

There is an Elevation Song that says this idea well: Do It Again

Walking around these walls I thought by now they'd fall,

But You have never failed me yet

Waiting for change to come

Knowing the battle's won

For You have never failed me yet

Your promise still stands

Great is Your faithfulness, faithfulness

I'm still in Your hands

This is my confidence

You've never failed me yet

Application

If you’ve been paying attention to this message, the application is in fact the very title of this message: prayer

First our prayer is persistent

Jesus is not doing a simple thing here when talking about prayer to his audience, he is redefining prayer

You see the Jews had a limit of prayer to 3 times a day, because they did not want to weary God with their prayers

We are not heard because of our many words and babbles, but we have unlimited prayers before our Lord

Secondly, we want to seek Justice

The widow was persistent for justice, we do more in prayer on our knees with our voices than we do on our feet, marching in protest

We need to make sure our protest of injustice in layered in prayer, rather than our own thinking and reaction to society

Exalting Jesus in Luke Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement

Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement

Many people regard the Black Lives Matter movement as a continuation of the Civil Rights Movement. There are ways that’s true, but there are also ways the two movements differ significantly. The differing approaches to prayer reflect one such difference. The Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s was a religious movement. The footsoldiers of the Civil Rights Movement were Christians, and so were the leaders. Before Dr. King and the leaders of the Civil Rights Movement ever conducted a protest, they committed themselves to doing their homework on the issues involved to be sure their cause was just. That’s really important. Once they decided a cause was just, Dr. King emphasized spiritual preparation for the protest. He called the people to seasons of fasting and prayer. I have to think it was the prayers of the people that brought forth God’s justice in what was really a short period of time. If we want justice, let us be a praying people who seek a God who himself loves justice and rewards those who seek him.

Now, I know full well, we cannot know this for certain, but it does make you wonder

God is about bringing about justice and his people should be about it as well!

But not let us be so haughty to think we are the sole arbiters of that, and that we are always right, we need to humble ourselves to seek God’s justice, not our own

Thirdly, our prayer is humble

We know that it is by the blood of Jesus we have right standing and have been adopted into God’s family

What you and do after our salvation does not add to anything Jesus has accomplished

We can only continually and persistently come before God, in the way of the tax collector, have mercy on me God, a sinner!

Finally, our prayer is full of marvelment

We pray seeking what God will do again and again

We seek him to do things we can’t even imagine, because he is God

Let us have the awe of children, to learn more and more that Jesus has done

One of the most incredible quotes I’ve heard in light of this is from Annabeth,

The truth of the gospel is deep enough for the most learned theologians, and shallow enough for the youngest of children

The more I learn of Jesus, the more I realize what I don’t know

I have been a follower of Jesus for 28 years, and in little over a month on March 13, will be 29 years

I hope that is you, there is so much about God that we learn from Scripture, from our experiences, and from living life together

So church are you praying? If you are not, join me in striving to do it more!

This is perhaps my hardest habits to start in my life, and has been all 29 years of my faith

Yet, I can tell a tangible difference when I do

So feel free to reach out to me to ask how my prayer life is this week as I strive to do these things Jesus commands us to do!

Let us strive to make prayer as natural as our breathing, even if is simply doing that “Jesus Prayer’ a few times a day!

Because prayer is much more than the words of our lips, it is i the desires of our hearts

And if we are a praying people, it means we are a people that desire God, and that we are constantly in communion with our Lord!

AMEN!