Dealing With Delay
Notes
Transcript
Never Give Up!
Never Give Up!
1 Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart,
2 saying: “There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man.
3 Now there was a widow in that city; and she came to him, saying, ‘Get justice for me from my adversary.’
4 And he would not for a while; but afterward he said within himself, ‘Though I do not fear God nor regard man,
5 yet because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.’ ”
6 Then the Lord said, “Hear what the unjust judge said.
7 And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them?
8 I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?”
1) Have you been praying for something for a long time and haven’t seen any results?
Know that the devil wants you to give up. He would like to convince you that God hasn’t heard your prayer. That God is ignoring you. That nothing is ever going to change so you should just give up.
So you find yourself in a battle because your prayer life has stirred up the devil. When you decide to stand on the promises of God you will not go unchallenged.
So don’t be surprised or caught off guard.
2) Jesus’s own commentary of this parable is:
1 Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart,
God gave us this parable to empower our prayer lives. To pray and believe for the fulfillment of the promise. To pray until the answer comes.
The greatest temptation is to give up and lose heart before our answer comes.
In some cases become discouraged to the point of despair.
To decide nothing is going to change..
Delayed answers tend to cause us to lose heart.
12 Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.
We have our natural human response when we are waiting on God for a long time and then to add fuel to the fire we have demonic attacks.
To remain in faith in the face of God’s delays can seem almost overwhelming at times.
3) However this parable is about faith and not losing heart. Persevering prayer is an expression of faith.
8 I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
If we stop praying and thanking God for the answer before it shows up we have lost heart and submitted to unbelief.
Faith prays until the answer comes.
This kind of faith is precious and is more valuable than gold according:
7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
4) God loves Justice
The judge in the parable is an evil judge. He does not fear God nor has regard for man.
The only similarity of this person is to God is that he is a judge. Someone who has ultimate authority with their jurisdiction. Whatever sentence is passed it is immediately enforced.
Jesus intends for us to view this evil unjust judge in contrast to God.
God takes personal interest in every human being. Hes sees every way that you have been wronged. Hes sees every abuse and every violation.
So when you come with a complaint He will embrace you and welcome the opportunity to grant you a hearing. God loves justice. In
23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.
22 You shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child.
23 If you do mistreat them, and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry,
24 and my wrath will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless.
12 O house of David! Thus says the Lord: “ ‘Execute justice in the morning, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed, lest my wrath go forth like fire, and burn with none to quench it, because of your evil deeds.’ ”
Know that when your adversary rises up against you, you can be assured your God loves justice and He is zealous to avenge you of your adversary!
God responds to us not only because He loves us but because He loves justice.
5) The Widow:
3 Now there was a widow in that city; and she came to him, saying, ‘Get justice for me from my adversary.’
The compelling quality about a widow is bereavement. A widow is someone who lost their husband.
Maybe you didn’t lose a loved one but maybe you lost a marriage, or a relationship, or the lose of a dream or aspirations, or finances, or a career, or mental and physical health.
Did you notice that she engaged the judge and not the enemy. She cried for justice not from the adversary but the judge.
6) Justice means not only restoration but restitution.
A) Restoration means to return back to original condition.
The enemy kills, steals, and destroys. Justice will only be satisfied when what was taken from you is returned.
B) Restitution comes into play with God bearing long with you. Not only have you been without the thing that was stolen from you but you have been without it for a long time.
Restitution involves punitive damages for losses sustained over time.
C) Joseph:
Restoration says Joseph has been wrongfully imprisoned by Potiphar. He has been robbed of his freedom. He must be restored to full liberty.
Restitution says he was without his freedom for a long time ( 10 years) give Joseph the throne.
In Kansas a guy by the name of Floyd was wrongfully accused of murder and spend 15 years in prison before he was found innocent.
“Before he was locked up, he had 40 acres, livestock, a wife and kids,” he said. “When he was released, he had nothing … he lost his family, his job, his reputation — everything.”
He was restored back his freedom but in restitution he recieved
80,000 for each year he was imprisoned for a total of 1.2 million
dollars.
D) Job:
Restoration says give Job his health back, restore his finances, and give him 10 kids.
Restitution says double his former wealth, give him the first book in the Bible, a spiritual inheritance both in his generation and every generation to follow, and then a powerful revelation from God.
E) Elizabeth:
Restoration says to give Elizabeth a baby. She has remained blameless before God and cried out to Him for a baby.
Restitution says give her a baby that is a prophet and not just a prophet but John the Baptist.
F) Proverbs 6:30-31
30 People do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy his appetite when he is hungry,
31 but if he is caught, he will pay sevenfold; he will give all the goods of his house.
Justice delayed is not justice denied.
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7 And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them?
7 And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them?
Different translations have a discrepancy for verse 7.
Jesus is saying that sometimes God delays in answering our prayers but that doesn't mean denial.
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Without this parable we can be tempted to quit. However with it we are equipped to remain constant in prayer and expectation.
7) Whats with the waiting and whats its purpose?
A) God wants to show His wrath and glory.
22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction,
23 in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—
24 even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?
1 - when evil conditions are prolonged a long time, it gives God the judicial right to demonstrate the intensity of His wrath and the greatness of His power.
In order to show this level of wrath and power there needs to be a level of violation and injustice to deserve such a display of powerful wrath.
2 - the opposite dynamic is at work with regard to vessels of mercy.
God wants to demonstrate the fullness of His glory on their behalf.
B) God wants to produce character and increase your learning curve.
Everything stops and alls you can do is wait on Him. God puts you in the fire and says “wait on Me”
Fire and heat will change you more effectively and quicker than if you had all the answers immediately.
He wants us to be conformed into the image of Christ. And one powerful way that happens is Him bearing long with us.
IF you look at all the greats in Bible such as Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Hannah, Naomi, David, Jeremiah and many others it took many years to craft and complete their stories.
C) It deepens our faith
2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,
3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.
4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
8) The speedily of God
7 And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them?
8 I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?”
Which is it? Bears long or speedily?
Seems like a paradox or contradiction doesn't it?
3 For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.
Means that sometimes God bears long with His elect to avenge them speedily.
Sometimes God takes forever to change everything speedily.
We see this throughout the Bible:
Noah waited over a 100 years and boom a flood.
Job waits 6 to 9 months and suddenly God delivers
Abraham waits 25 years and suddenly he has a miracle baby
Jacob waits until he is 130 of age and boom he has everything
Joseph waits in prison 10 years and in one day he is in the palace
Moses waits for 40 years and suddenly he is leading a nation
David waits 20 years from the time is anointed king and suddenly he is given a kingdom
Mordecai - Naomi - Anna - Hezekiah - waits forever and then suddenly
9) A Chinese guy by the of Simon Zhao (Zhow) was part of a movement called “Back To Jerusalem”
It was a movement that started in the 1920’s and the vision was to journey from China to Jerusalem, evangelizing in all the territories they traveled on the way.
They sold all their possessions and forsook friends, family, and careers in order to spread the Gospel message to areas of Asia that were dominated by Hindus, Buddhist and Muslims.
In the 1040’s Simon was one of the primary leaders of the movement. He with his wife and a small team departed from his hometown in east China to a town on the western boarder of China.
On their way they faced robbers, bad weather, and remote wilderness. Moving slowly they won many converts to Christ as they proceeded.
When they arrived in 1948 to Kashgar to gather their strength and cross the boarder but the iron fist of Communism descended on the land and the boarders shut.
Simon his wife and team were arrested and sent to a prison labor camp because they were Christians. These were camps that basically worked you to death. Strong young men would enter and most would die in 6 months. Simons wife was pregnant and ended up miscarrying and later died along with Simons whole team.
However Simon would not die and and realized over time God was preserving him supernaturally. Months turned into years. 5 years, then 10 then 15 then 20. He would go on to spend 40 years in a prison labor camp.
He was beaten, tortured, and abused daily either by guards or other prisoners. His vision of taking the Gospel to the nations at prime age of 32 was replaced by trying to survive one day at a time.
In that time Simon never let go of God. Nor did he forget to pray “Lord, I will never go to Jerusalem but I pray you will raise up a new generation of Chinese believers who will compete the vision.”
He was released at the age of 72 with body that carried the marks of all those years in prison. When he got out no one knew who he was.
In that time the Back to Jerusalem movement was going strong and word got out that one of the leaders from the 1940’s spent 40 years in prison for his faith.
When the leaders learned of Simon’s existence, they immediately wanted to hear his story. They told him that they wanted him to tell his story to hundreds of thousands of on fire Christians who were saved in powerful Chinese revival that needed to hear his testimony. Who needed to catch the Back to Jerusalem vision. All’s he needed to do simply tell his story.
Simon would go on to impart vision for global evangelism by the sheer force of his personal testimony and anointing.
Instead reaching a few remote villages, he was used to ignite a flame in tens of thousands of fervent believers, and the impact of his life was multiplied a thousand times over.