Where Our Greatest Battles are Fought

Where our Greatest Battles are Fought

Luke 18:1-9

Theme: God shows prayer is where the battles of life are won.

Welcome to MVBC today! Thank you for being in church and making God a priority in your life today. If you are a first-time guest, let me invite you to connect with us. We would be honored to pray for you and share the good news of the gospel.

Have you noticed that life is difficult and everything is very complicated? I recently went to the DMV to renew my driver’s license. Little did I realize what I thought was simple became a two-hour project. The two-month advanced scheduled appointment did little to speed up my waiting because I still waited about 30 minutes with an appointment to get started. When I got to the window the lady said, “did you fill out the form online?” There was nothing in the renewal papers saying that. I had to give up my place in line, go to the other side of the room to wait in line to get to a computer to fill out the paperwork and then wait in line again to get back to the window with a completed form. “Oh, you have to take a written test.” I had to do that when I moved back into the state and now I take it again? Yes. Go wait in line again and take the test. Go to another window pay my fees and nearly two hours later, I leave with what should’ve been a quick renewal.

It seems life is filled with battles and difficulties and struggles. While going to the DMV is a very minor event, there are many things which need much prayer over. Events and circumstances will often require extra prayer during the most difficult times. Perhaps a difficult health condition, a huge job change or a a child rearing struggle.

The disciples were having their own struggles. The road was heavy and the shadow of the cross was looming in front of them as they considered their future. Jesus’s departure would bring significant challenges to their lives. They had given up so many things in their lives to follow Jesus full time and now He would soon leave them. Their minds were filled with uncertainties and their hearts were fearful.

How were they to handle to future? How were they to overcome their fears and their battles of daily life?

Today it is not much different for us. We still have our fears, our battles, and where can we go? Many will turn to alcohol or drugs to soothe the pain only to find worse problems occur. Some will try to run away or have nervous breakdowns. God has a better plan.

Here Jesus gives us the most basic truth regarding the battles of life: prayer.

Let me humble you a little today. There is nothing more humbling than examining our prayer life.

How is your prayer life Christian? On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the best, where would you place your prayer scale?

Jesus is the Master in prayer. Nobody is better. Jesus teaches us several lessons of prayer here.

Lesson 1

Constant in prayer

In these verses, Jesus is driving home the importance of not just praying once but continual prayer. It seems so often we give up praying and start fretting. The judge did not believe in God; yet the believer prayed that God would avenge her. The judge didn’t regard man either. God worked in the judge’s life to answer her prayer.

“The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water: He turneth it whithersoever he will.” (Proverbs 21:1)

All prayer begins when you accept Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. Romans 10:13 tells us we are to call upon the Lord Jesus Christ to be our Savior. We realize we are sinners and in need of forgiveness. God forgives our sin through Jesus Christ. When we call upon Jesus, we are calling upon by faith to forgive us of our sins and asking Him alone to be our Savior.

“Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)

Once we have become a believer, a child of God, we begin a daily relationship with Him. Prayer is the way we communicate with God. When we need answers, we ask God. When we need comfort, we ask God. When we need forgiveness, we ask God. When we surrender, we tell God. When we love Him, we tell Him in prayer. When we battle, we go to God for strength and wisdom. When we have difficulties, we tell God. When we lack wisdom, we ask God for wisdom.

This is the reason we have a place here in the front where we pray. We call it an altar which is a biblical term for a meeting place with God.

Constant prayer is the pivotal truth of the Christian life.

Your Christian life is only as strong as your prayer life. We have not learned this simple truth of being in constant prayer.

The guiding lesson here may mean men ought always to pray, and not faint in prayer. Or when we pray, we will not faint. More than likely both are in mind because they would soon fight battles and one battle is when Satan will try to keep us from praying. Satan wants to weaken the believer.

Jesus puts a predominate emphasis on the ministry of prayer. It is God’s way of giving wisdom, grace, strength, comfort, and encouragement. When we are going through the fires of testing, Pray! When we are struggling in rearing our children, Pray! When we are battling lusts or envy or bitterness, Pray! When our marriage is struggling or our kids are straying Pray! Church, when we are trying to build a new auditorium, Pray!

One man said, “Most would work forty hours before they would pray one hour.” Prayer seems to be more work than worry, than fear.”

Jesus’s command to pray is backed by His life of prayer. He prayed always. He prayed in the brilliant sunshine when the multitudes would have taken him by force. He prayed into the night and all through the night. He prayed in open fields when he was feeding the hungry multitude. He prayed by the grave of Lazarus. He prayed in the midst of destruction which wasteth at noon day. He prayed hanging on the cross and here He urges all to pray.

If prayer was so important to Jesus when He was on the earth, why is it not important to us? Jesus modeled a life of prayer because He is the ultimate example of how we are to live.

Just as Jesus commands us to pray, he demonstrates the importance of continual prayer.

Why is our prayer so sporadic? Why is our prayer so anemic and empty? Why is our prayer so irregular? Could it be, we don’t believe we should pray? Could it be, we don’t believe God? Could it be, we don’t know God? Could it be, we are defeated by Satan?

Lesson 2

Intimacy in prayer

Prayer is an exercise of relationship with God. It is the weapon, the tool given to us whereby we may grow in our relationship with God the Father. It is where His children come close to the Father to be with Him, to know Him, and show love to Him. This should be the most special time we have with our Lord.

“He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: My God; in him will I trust.” (Psalm 91:1–2)

When we spend time with the Father, we are assured of His protection and care for His children. This secret place is prayer where we can go to the Father and He is there to dwell with us. It is the closeness here that is emphasized where we grow being near unto Him.

This dwelling in the secret place is like my neighbor who stays inside her home and never leaves. She just dwells there. God wants us to dwell with Him, to stay close to Him, and to be there under His protection.

This means we turn off the radio, the television, put away our phone, and give God our undivided attention. God deserves our undivided attention. In our technology world, it is difficult to give undivided attention to another person. An average person has 27 conversations that last 10 minutes each day. There are an estimated 23 billion text messages sent out a day which will more than likely interrupt your conversations.

Think about a fifteen to twenty-minute conversation, you will get texts, alert reminders, phone calls, and emails pouring in on your handheld device which distracts you from giving personal attention to someone.

When we pray, we need to turn off all devices with alerts and focus in our conversation with God. It is personal, it is intimate, and it is priceless. “We are rich (never had we more equipment), but we are poor (never had we less enduement!” (Leonard Ravenhill).

It may not be words but simply to be in God’s presence. There are times when Janet and I are together without saying anything and we still communicate.

Lesson 3

Victory in prayer

If we are to always pray, everywhere and at all times, then we can live a victorious life. John R. Rice used to say, “all our failures are prayer failures.” It is at this place of prayer where our greatest victories conquer our circumstances. We must bring them all here, survey them, and master them under the mighty hand of God. In prayer we bring our spiritual enemies into the presence of God and fight them there. Have you prayed for them there? You know that temptation you struggle with, the worry you are carrying around, or those big decisions in your life.

Too often we fight them on this side of heaven when God gives us the privilege to do our battling in heaven through our prayers. It is there we bring our troubles to God in prayer.

They will often lose their size or importance when we stand in His presence. “Don’t tell God how big your storm is rather tell your storm how big God is.” (unknown)

It is strange how big things look in a small space like a car, but when you put them in a wide open field, they look extremely small. If a bird flies into a window in your bedroom, the bird will seem so much bigger than when you see the same bird outside in the sky. As we take our burdens to the Lord, the will seem so much smaller in His greatness. It is prayer we rise above the difficulties that seek to destroy us.

“But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 15:57)

Prayer is the ladder from which escape out of this world into God’s presence and see Him in His fullness.

If you are here today without Christ, you are given the privilege to pray and ask God to save you. He will take you just as you are if you are willing to accept Him today. Will you ask Him to be your Savior?

If you are a Christian, what about your prayer life? Nobody here has mastered prayer. We all can grow in this area of prayer. Is there something God is speaking to you about? Will you come and ask His forgiveness? Will develop a loving relationship with Jesus Christ?

It is the place where our battles are won?