Pray Now
40 Days of Prayer 2024 • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Prayer
CALLER ID
CALLER ID
I want to start this morning off with a great story I read this week…
It truly is amazing how God works in our lives! On a Saturday night serval weeks ago, a pastor was working late , and decided to call his wife before he left for home. It was about 10pm but his wife didn’t answer the phone. The pastor let the phone ring many times. It was odd to him that she didn’t answer, but decided to wrap up a few things and try again in a few minutes. The next time he tried to call, she answered right away. “Honey, why when I called the first time didn’t you answer?” She simply replied, “The phone had never rung at the house.” The couple brushed it off as a fluke and went on their merry way.
The following Monday, the pastor received a call at his office, which was the same phone that he used to call home on that Saturday night. The man that he spoke with wanted to know why he had called on Saturday night. The pastor had no idea what the man was talking about at first until the man said, “It rang and rang and rang but I didn’t answer.”
The pastor remembered the mishap and apologized for disturbing him, explaining he had meant to call his wife and somehow he must have dialed incorrectly. The man said, “That’s, OK…Let me tell you my story. You see, I was planning on taking my own life that night. But right before I did I sent up a half hearted prayer, I prayed, ‘God if you are there and you don’t want me to do this then I need you to give me a sign now.’ At that point my phone started to ring. I looked at the caller ID and it said, “Almighty God.” I was afraid to answer it!
The reason why it showed on the man’s caller ID that the call came from “Almighty God” is because the church that the pastor attends is called Almighty God Tabernacle!
What a story.
Today we are continuing our
40 Days of Prayer with a Message called Pray Now.
40 Days of Prayer with a Message called Pray Now.
This entire series, where our Greater Alliance Family is coming together to focus around and pray through the same themes each week and if you’ve been following along in the daily devotionals, which are available online at cmalliance.org, then this past week we have been praying now for Important Decisions, Pray Now for Workers in the Harvest Field, Pray Now for Healing, Deliverance, Evangelistic Opportunitues and Spiritual Insight.
Pray Now.
We know as followers of Christ we need to pray now, and we believe in the power of prayer to an Almighty God, and we hear stories like the one I opened up with this morning and we might think…wow, I just wish God would answer my prayers like that.
Well today we are going to be looking at a teaching of Jesus found in the Gospel of Luke chapter 18 to hopefully not only get motivation to pray, but also encouragement to keep on praying.
1 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. 2 He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. 3 And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’ 4 “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’ ” 6 And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 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? 8 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?”
This parable is called the Parable of the Persistent Widow, or sometimes the Parable of the Unjust Judge. And Luke recorded it for us in his gospel account so that followers of Christ may pray and not give up.
BACKGROUND
1 Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, 2 just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. 3 With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4 so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.
Luke was written to a guy named Theophilus. Luke’s gospel in it’s entirety was written to encourage this young man in his faith…so that he may know the certainity of the things he had been taught…
And likewise, it has been kept by God for the church so that we too may be encouraged…and that brings us to this particular parable in Chapter 18…
The Parable of the Persistent Widow.
And this parable starts off with the reason that Jesus taught it. This is one of only a few parables, or stories that comes with an explaination and it comes at the beginning.
1 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.
Jesus wanted to show his followers something. He wanted to to teach them about prayer, and he wanted to encourage them.
When I was in grade school, we used to have show and tell. I loved show and tell, and usually it went over really well. I remember one time in first grade when I brought my pet pig to school, Charlotte. That was a good show and tell day…but I also had a bad show and tell day, becasue I remember once when on show and tell I thought it would be a great idea to show my classmates and tell them all about my awesome pocket knife that I got for Christmas. Yeah, I didn’t get to tell them a whole lot because I was immediately sent to the office.
But have you ever had anyone show you something for the purpose of training you? Parents show their kids how to tie their shoes, or cook a special meal. Our friends may show us how to play a new game. Well here Jesus is showing His disciples a super important principal about prayer through this parable…Let me show you how this works.
And here in the parable we have 3 main characters.
The Judge Luke 18:2
2 He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought.
Doesn’t fear God or care about people
The Widow Luke 18:3
3 And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’
Persistent (Her Character)
Widows were some of the lowest people on the social scale. They had no covering of a man or a provider, they had no husbands income, no stability. They were in most places and at many times in desperate situations. (And this is one of the reasons that the bible encourages us over and over again to take care of the widows and the orphans.
Add to this widow’s situation, the 3rd character
The Adversary Luke 18:3
3 And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’
Someone or something that opposes or attacks; an enemy; a foe
So Jesus has set the stage and wants to show his disciples something about prayer. He wants to teach them a principal that is foundational to prayer.
So lets re-read the parable to see what Jesus wants to show us about prayer…
3 And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’ 4 “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’ ” 6 And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 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? 8 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?”
We Must Be Persistent in Prayer
A. Prayer is a learned behavior.
1. The disciples were taught to pray: “Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray . . .” (verse 1).
B. Prayer must be a practiced behavior.
1. The disciples are taught to pray always: “. . . pray and not give Vup. . .” (verse 1)
He also shows us that He sees us
He sees us and knows that we have deep concerns in our lives. He sees the injustice in our towns and cities and in our world. Our response is to keep on praying. Keep bringing our requests before him like the persistent widow did with the unjust judge.
We Must Believe God Will Answer
A. God, unlike the “bad judge,” always answers His people’s persistent prayers.
1. God hears our persistent prayers: “And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night?” (verse 7).
B. God’s answers are always just and timely: “I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly” (verse 8).
I used to love Garth Brooks song, Unanswered Prayers but as I’ve grown in my relationship with the Lord, I now have a huge theological bone to pick with the man.
The Lyrics…
Just the other night, at a hometown football game, my wife and I ran into, my old high school flame, and as I introduced them, the past came back to me, and I couldn’t help but think of. The way things used to be. She was the one. That I had wanted for all time, and each night Id spent praying that God would make her mine. And if he’d only grant me. This wish I wished back then, I’d never ask for anything again.
Sometimes I thank God, for unanswered prayers, remember when your talking to the man upstairs, that just because he doesn’t answer, doesn’t mean he don’t care. Some of God’s greatest gifts, are unanswered prayers.
You want to know the theological bone? Because I’ve actually got 2 of them.
#1) God answers prayer. It might not me the answer we want, but he always answers prayer.
God answered his prayer, it just wasn’t the answer he wanted at the time.
God always answers prayers. And it’s always 1 of 4 answers.
#1) The answer that God gave Garth…NO…
#2) Slow (Not Yet, Wait)
#3) Grow (I want you to go through this)- This was Job’s answer to prayer
#4) Go
The questions that we must wrestle with are: are we expecting God to answer our request and when he does, are we going to be ok with how God is answering
A preacher once began his sermon by saying: “Brothers and sisters, Here you are coming to pray for rain. I’d like to ask you just one question, ‘Where are your umbrellas?”
God answers prayer. God listens.
#2) Theological Bone to Pick with Garth
Prayer is not wishful thinking. “If he’d only grant me, this wish i wished back then…”
It’s not wishful thinking…
Pet peeve of mine… When you or someone you love is going through something, asking for positive vibes and good thoughts means nothing. Positive thoughts and vibes can accomplish nothing…On the other hand. When we come to an almighty and all powerful God in prayer…He can and will move on our behalf.
6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
Jesus shows us that we should always pray, and that we should not give up!
Some questions I feel we need to wrestle with today…
What has Jesus shown you today through this parable? What aspect of your prayer life have you needed encouragement in.
I can tell you for me personally, I was a little discouraged this past week during our Wednesday night prayer meeting. And it wasn’t until a dear brother in Christ reminded me that our adversary is always at work. And he will try his hardest to distract us and deter us from the power of prayer. So this message was timely for me this week. I needed the encouragement and I needed the reminder from Jesus that we should not give up. Because prayer is our primary work. And if we are going to see God move in our area, we as a church need the reminder from our Lord that we should be in prayer now. Pray Now.
So what deep longing are you sensing that God wants you to ask Him about and to keep praying for? What injustice has God put on your heart to push into prayer for?
What people haven’t yet heard the good news that Jesus Christ is the savior? That though we are sinners and though we deserve punished by God for breaking his laws, that God loves us so much that we are freed and forgiven from our sin because of Christ. By his blood we are freed. By his wounds we are healed and the punishement that was due us was laid on him.
Can we as a church pray now and not give up? Can we come before the throne of an almighty God and know that he is good, that he is God and that he will answer us.
Church, can we start to bring our umbrellas in the expectation that God is going to move!