Sermon Tone Analysis

Three Reasons Why You Ought to Keep on Praying

 

*Luke 18:1-10*

And he spake a parable unto them /to this end,/ that men ought always to pray, and not to faint; 2Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man: 3And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary.

4And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; 5Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.

6And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith.

7And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?

8I tell you that he will avenge them speedily.

Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?

I think most of us would acknowledge that prayer is usually not on the agenda of most worship services.

Prayer is usually occasional!

It is usually an emergency!

It usually a spare tire that we pull out of the trunk when all the others have gone flat!

Thus one of the key elements’ that’s missing in our worship is prayer!

Now, this story that Jesus gives us through Luke, falls into the category of a parable.

And you need to understand that a parable can fall into several categories—it could be a parable of comparison or it could be a parable of contrast.

The parable of the Prodigal Son is a comparison, in which we compare the father with God; and the son with the believer; and the one who stayed home with the self-righteous believer.

But this parable is a parable of contrast.

And if you miss that, you’ll miss the meaning of the parable.

It is a parable of contrast.

Now let me say this, the word parable is a compound Greek word; the prefix “*para*” meaning beside, and the suffix “*ballo*” (where we get the English word ball from) and it means to throw.

It is something thrown along side of something else to give it meaning.

So a parable is honestly an earthly story that’s thrown along side a spiritual truth to give it meaning.

So here, Jesus has a deep spiritual truth that He wants us to understand, and to simplify it, He gives us a story.

Now, in order to understand the story, you’ve got to understand the cultural setting of the story.

Now, this is a court room, and usually when we think of a court room in our western culture we think of a huge building; but no, you need to get an understanding of eastern culture.

In those the judge would pack his tent and travel from one end of the country to the other with his huge tent.

He was the law!

And what he said went, and he had his assistants around him.

The people stood on outside the tent waiting to bring their case to the judge.

Now if, if you had money and you could get to one of the assistants and bribe them who in turn would bribe the judge, then your case would be heard and you would be assured of winning.

This is what Amos talks about in Amos 2, when he says that they sold the poor for a pair of shoes.

Setting forth the fact that, what ever was offered, the bribe could be as little as a pair of shoes.

And so it is much like today, if you’ve got money you can basically get away with a whole lot of stuff.

And so, our story, evolves around a widow (now she has no husband), and she is deprived.

And yet Jesus chooses to make this widow an object lesson to show us that we ought to always pray.

Now, she has, she has, she’s got several problems!

Number one she’s a widow; there is no old age assistance, no well-fare; no section eight; none of that!

And then she has no husband!

And a woman could not testify in court, so she did not have any representation, and she had no husband who could testify for her.

And so she’s got all of these problems; she can’t go inside because she’s a woman.

She has no money to bribe the judges.

And we’ve got a mean judge on our hands.

And yet Jesus uses this story, that when you’ve got a no good judge, you’ve got obstacles in your life, no money, deprived, cashed out; He says, in spite of the obstacles against you, He says, KEEP ON PRAYING!

   And, I’m talking to somebody here; there are some obstacles in your life where the odds are stacked against you!

And the devil has told you just forget about it, throw in the towel; but this text teaches us what ever you do, KEEP ON PRAYING!

   Now, as I’ve said, this is a parable of contrast.

And I want to take a good look at it because in it, the first contrast is between praying and fainting.

The second contrast is the no good judge and a loving father!

And the third contrast is that of the elect versus that of the poor widow!

{I’ll discuss it and take my seat!

That’s the frame work!}

 

   Now, the first thing I want to say is that Jesus points out that,

 

*I.

**Praying Is Better Than Fainting*

* *

The question today is what is prayer?

The Greek word used in this text for prayer is “*proseuchomai*” (/pros-yoo’-khom-ahee/).

The prefix “*pros*” is a preposition of direction towards and “*eucomai*” means desire.

It is desire directed toward God!

You say, isn’t all prayer directed toward God; No! Because in Luke 18:11, the Bible says, “the Pharisee prayed thus within himself.”

So there is much prayer that is prayed today that is not directed towards God; it is directed towards my peers.

Oh yes, I used my literary language skills to impress my peers, but prayer is directed towards God.

The story is told of a young man who was asked to pray over dinner; so he bowed his head, closed his eyes, and lifted up his eyes and said, “I’m through.”

And they said, “But we didn’t hear you!

And he said, “I wasn’t talking to you!”

   We like to use stuff like “God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou /art/ God.”

Now come on now, usually when you’re serious about praying, you’re not worried about verbs or language skills or nothing, you’ll say “O Lardy please have mercy on me!”

And usually if it’s serious you’re down on two knees; and if it’s real serious I’m down on my face.

#.

What is Prayer?

“*proseuchomai*”—this word also, it carries the idea of worship, because every time we pray, prayer goes up in worship.

Here’s what I mean, every time you pray you come into the throne room of God.

And it does not matter if He answers in the affirmative or not, because, for the simple reason; the more I’m in His presence, the more I spend time with Him, the better I become, and the better I know about Him.

Every time I pray, prayer goes up in worship, because I can’t really pray without saying thank you.

I can’t really pray without offering Him praise and thanksgiving.

So prayer helps me because prayer number one goes up in worship.

#.

But then secondly, *prayer goes down in warfare*.

Let me say this, have you ever notice that when you seriously pray, that you can think of some of the most ungodly things!

While you’re down on your knees, it’s as if the devil starts parading all kinds of stuff across the screen of your mind.

And that is because when you seriously engage in prayer, prayer evokes warfare; the devil gets busy.

Now here’s how I know that that’s right, because in Daniel chapter 10, when Daniel prayed and he fasted twenty-one days; then after twenty-one days the angel came and said unto him, “Daniel from the first day that you set yourself to praying, we heard your prayer.

Your prayer was answered!”

{But watch this}, the angel that was bringing the answer was engaged in warfare trying to get the answer to you.

{…Still with me!}

 

#.

Prayer goes up in worship, down in warfare, but thirdly *prayer goes out in work*.

For you can’t really pray without preparing to do something.

The story is told of a fellow who had been praying for a job.

He came rushing into church early one Sunday morning, out of breath, he said to his pastor, “pastor you know, I know God is going to give me a job, because I closed my eyes and opened my bible, put my finger on it, and when I opened my eyes my finger was on the book of jobs.

He said there were over forty-two of them in there and I know one is for me.

{Touch somebody and tell them to pray!} Pray because you can pray anywhere.

* In a whales’ belly like Jonah;

* on a bed like Hezekiah;

* in a dungeon like Jeremiah;

* on a roof top like Peter;

* In the garden like Jesus.

* In a lions’ den like Daniel.

I’m saying just pray.

{Touch somebody and tell them what ever you do just KEEP ON PRAYING}!

Now let me say something!

I just want to drop this in!

Because, you know sometimes the devil will say to us, “now you know there’s no need in you praying about that; look at you with yourself, raising your hands—there’s no need in you praying.

But let me say something to you, the Bible says, God knows our frame.