The Persistent Widow
Notes
Transcript
There is a story that took place about 100 years before Christ came. Its not found in scripture, but there are stories that the Jewish people have recorded about this event.
And let me set up what is happening, because when this story takes place it has been roughly 300 or 400 years since there has been a major prophet which has spoken to the Jewish people
And not only that but their is a huge drought in the land that was so sever that it actually threatened to wipe out an entire generation.
And so you can picture there is not much hope, there have not been really any miracles that have happened recently and so people are thinking what will we do.
A lot of people probably had the thought God has abandon us.
But whats amazing is there was one man named Honi (not honey, but Honi) and we do not know a lot about Honi, other than he was a Sage which was basically a wise person
But whats amazing is despite it being a long time since they had heard from God, Honi believed God still heard them.
And so Honi decided he was going to drawl a circle on the ground and the he fell to his knees and said something along the lines of “God, I will not leave this circle until you make it rain”
And with him saying that all of the sudden it began to rain and then eventually pour.
And I know what some of you are thinking that seems a little extreame…
And like I said this is not scripture, but what I love about this prayer that this man prayed was the boldness that he had.
And really as I was thinking of this story and reading it (I actually read it in a book called “The Circle Maker”)
But I found myself asking when was the last time I prayed a prayer that bold with really that amount of consistency,
Where there is something that is in God’s will and that is only possible if God’s hand is on it
and I say I am going to pray about this until God answers with a clear yes or a clear no.
Because so often we pray little prayers and we lift them up before God maybe once or twice.
But what I love is that God calls us to pray with consistency and boldness.
And really today we are looking at a story that teaches us a huge aspect of how we should pray.
Its found in Luke 18:1-8 and it is a shorter parable but has a lot of meaning for us today.
So Luke 18:1-8 and we will be reading it all together today. It says:
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?”
So there is a widow in this story and we do not know exactly what wrong was done to her, but someone wronged her and now she is going to a judge to get justice for the wrong.
The issue is the judge is a person who is concerned for himself.
He does not care about if someone was wronged, he only cares about himself.
And so this woman comes to him and he says no I am not interested in helping.
But this woman keeps coming back again and again
And the judge gets so bothered by her that he does what she wants because she is annoying him so much!
A modern version of this story would be if you had an apartment and something needed fixed, so you asked the landlord and he ignores you
And so what happens? you keep asking and asking and eventually they hopefully fix the issue. right?
And I just need to provide some clarity in this parable because the there are a couple contradictions in this paarable
Because first off this passage is not saying that God is an unjust judge or a terrible landlord.
But so often in our lives we view Him that way.
We get the picture of God with a lighting bolt in his hand,
When in reality thats not who our God is, because we serve a God who is not unjust, but just and full of Grace.
A God who is a loving father that cares for you and what you are experiencing deeply.
But there is a second contradiction here, because in this culture a widow was often someone who was neglected in this culture, it was not right but thats how things were.
And so you get this picture of the judge not caring for her because she is not important in society.
But here is what you need to understand: this person does not represent you. Because you are not someone of little importance, but you are a child of God. But so often we view ourselves as the person in this story.
We view ourselves as damaged good, we say I am so messed up.
I have so much baggage why would God care about me
But whats amazing is we read in scripture that when we accept Him we are remade and even if we do not accept Him we are still created in His image and He cares about you (personally) very deeply.
You know the other day we had to take Tinley to an animal hospital because she had some really concerning things happening and it was a Sunday and the scary thing is when a dog is having issues you get nervous that is will be something really serious and will end up costing a lot.
Because I love my dog, but there is no way I can spend 25,000 dollars on her.
But if we took Liam or Finn to the hospital and it was something really serious and insurance did not cover it.
guess what I would do whatever it would take to make sure they are healthy. I do not care if I go into debt we would not leave them sick.
And really God does not view you how we view an animal, but like I said you are His child and He views you like a loving father who values you so much that He would do anything including die on a cross for you.
Thats how valuable you are.
And lets get back to the parable, because the point of the parable is to say if this injust judge that cared only about himself awnsered this womans request who was lower in society
Then how much more will a God who is a loving father answer the request of a child who He cares so deeply for?
And I need to clarify a little bit more, because the point of this parable is not to annoy God until you annoy Him into submission, but it is to say be consistant in your prayers
Keep bringing things in your life before God, because He is not annoyed but He cares.
And when you are bringing things before God over and over again it shows your faith in God that He hears you and cares.
And this is hard.
If you have ever prayed for a loved one who is sick, it is hard to pray and pray and pray and then just wait.
If you have ever had your life just fall apart it is hard to wait and keep praying
If you have ever prayed for someone who is far from God, it is hard to wait.
In fact there is a confernce that our teens are going to this fall and the main speakers name is Christopher Yuan and he has an amazing testimony
Because for 20 years he was far from God and he was addicted to drugs, and alcohol. At one point He was arrested and placed in prison for an extended time.
And whats amazing is for these 20 years that he was far from God, his mother had a closet that she would sit in and pray for sometimes hours specifically for her son
And whats amazing is at the end of the twenty years her son decided to finally turn to God and accept Jesus into his life.
It took twenty years, but God was able to soften his heart and now he is a professor as moody Bible institute helping raise up pastors.
Can I just say if you have been praying, do not give up. Because God cares and if He has not said no then I truly believe we are called to keep praying and crying out to Him with the things and situations happening in our life
Well look at the last part of this passage because it ends on verse 8 and it ends with a question.
It says:
“… However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”
Basically when Jesus comes back will He find people who are crying out to Him or will He find more people crying out to this world.
Can I ask does anyone remember a time where you had a major spiritual break through?
Because whenever something like that happens what happens?
You read your Bible with excitement, you prayed and would expect to hear something from God.
But as time ran on you began to drift away from God
And instead of crying out to God you start to cry out to the world.
And what happens is we loose our faith in God and place our faith in ourselves.
And this is an issue because our faith in ourselves does not take us nearly as far as our faith in God.
Its almost like if you had a car and the car had gas in it and you said I do not have faith that the gas in the car will make the car move forward, but you do have faith that you could make the car move by pushing it.
So you push the car down the street (and if you are out of shape like me) your sweaty and exhausted.
When the whole time you had gas in your tank and it would have gotten you lot farther.
And my fear is that to often as Christ followers and even as a church we look like a person who places their trust in themselves over the thing that gives them power and the ability to move forward.
And let me just end with the question Jesus asked; when He comes back (and if He does not come back in our life time then when we die) Will we be able to look at our life and say I lived a life crying out to Him, or will we say I lived a life where I placed my hope in the world?
Because the truth is you might go somewhere if you place your hope in the world, but you will not get to the place God has called you to (which is an amazing place) when you are placing your hope in this world.
What would it look like if we placed our hope in Christ and cried out to Him?
Let’s cry out to God this morning.