Transcript
Speaker: But if you have your Bibles, go ahead and open them up to Luke chapter 18. Luke chapter 18. That's where we're gonna be with the remainder of our time.
Speaker: And again, I just want to say how how humbled I am and how grateful I am to be able to be here with you guys this morning and to be able to share the Word of God with you guys. I don't ever take it lightly when Victor gives me the opportunity to preach.
Speaker: And, you know, i get the question all the time. ah They say, Josh, do you still get nervous? And I say 100% every time. So we're going to go through this. But we're so I'm super excited about the message of the Lord's place in my heart this week. And as I think i've said this before, as we continue to work through the book of Luke, it's just it's it continually amazes me about the sovereignty of God and how the scriptures speak to us in a timely manner.
Speaker: I feel like every time we continue to work through this book, each message, each chapter speaks to something that is going on right here, right now. i don't know if y'all feel the same way, but for me, that's how it is.
Speaker: And so this morning, though, as we go into Luke chapter 18, this message was a very timely one for me. And the topic we're going be looking at this morning is is on prayer. It's on prayer.
Speaker: I don't know about you guys. Prayer is one of those things that, ah one, it's the most valuable thing that we have as a believer. Okay, I'm just going to start off with that. It's the most valuable thing that we have as a believer.
Speaker: However, I feel like it's also the most neglected thing that we have as believers. I feel like it's the most undervalued thing that we have as believers. We have a tendency of relying on so many other things when it comes to our faith that we neglect this one thing that actually draws us into the presence of God and that we actually experience the full power of God through it.
Speaker: And so I think as we go into this, lu or Luke was trying to remind his readers, this Gentile audience that he's writing to, he's saying, hey, as you guys are getting grafted into the family of God, remember this one tool that the Lord has given you through the power the Spirit is prayer.
Speaker: This direct connection and communication with the Father. And as Jesus talks about this, he's going to be reminding his disciples as well of the power of prayer as they go into facing what they're about to face. So before I get any further, though, I just want to do a brief recap of where we've been.
Speaker: And how this is significant with how Jesus leads into it. So if you go, we're going to go back to Luke chapter 9. And this is Luke chapter 9 and verse 51. We see the beginning of the Jesus' ministry taking a turn towards Jerusalem.
Speaker: He'd been doing his public ministry. And then at that time in Luke chapter 9, it was time for him to turn his attention to Jerusalem for the sole purpose of what? This right here. Going to the cross.
Speaker: Walking in faithful obedience to the will of God, his father, right? And to dying on the cross of our sins. So he turns his attention to to Jerusalem. Along the way, Jesus continued to minister and to teach his disciples. He taught large crowds, both Jews and Gentiles.
Speaker: He was also addressing over and over again the heart condition of the religious leaders regarding their handling of the law towards God's people. and we And I pray that as we've walked through that, that it's also been a humble reminder for us today as God's people how we handle God's word.
Speaker: And how we take that word of God and share it with others. And exhort one another. And encourage one another with it. And now as is as their journey is swiftly coming to its final destination destination in Jerusalem, we see that Jesus continues to prepare his disciples for what they are about to encounter once they enter the city, which is his imminent death and sacrifice.
Speaker: Not just his imminent death, but the betrayal, everything leading up to it. And we see we saw that within the last few chapters when how Jesus, even when he was talking to the Pharisees, addressing their heart condition, he even addressed the disciples. He says, listen to what I'm telling these guys.
Speaker: Guard your heart against how these guys are acting, their pride, their selfishness, their their ah their ego. They're only worried about their own performance, their own status among community. They're really not even worried about the word.
Speaker: He says, humble yourselves. Remember me. Walk faithfully so that way you do not end up like these guys. And then ah last week in chapter 17 in the final verses there, Jesus, when he's being addressed or asked about the kingdom of God and when it will appear, he gives this incredible message to the Pharisees who asked it and also reminds it to the disciples about the kingdom of God and how um the kingdom of God is going to come like a thief in the night.
Speaker: But he also says that though there's a future coming of the kingdom, the kingdom of God is also present right then with them because Jesus had arrived. And so for us, this is that dual reality for us. The kingdom of God is here.
Speaker: You guys are a part of the kingdom of God. You guys, or I say you, we as the body of Christ are the living example of the kingdom of God right here, right now. How we choose to act, how we choose to serve, how we choose to pray, how we choose to encourage one another.
Speaker: It all stems from the power of God and that we get to bring the heaven the heavenly kingdom down to earth right now. But however, there is a future day where God will come and establish his kingdom forevermore, a physical kingdom.
Speaker: And so Jesus was revealing this thing to them. And he was talking about, however, when it when it comes to the physical kingdom coming, he's also referring to his second coming. He's saying, when the kingdom comes, the Son of Man is going to come.
Speaker: And it's going like a thief in the night. No one's going to know. It's going to happen unexpectedly. But you have to be ready. You have to be on guard.
Speaker: And he even looks at them in verse 33. He says, whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it. Whoever loses his life will keep it. In other words, he says, if you continue to to try to solve things right here, right now, and you take your eyes off the kingdom, you're going to lose your life. However, if you remain faithful and you walk true to the word of God and you walk true to him, there you will find it, even though you may have nothing here.
Speaker: So there's so many things that Jesus revealed to the the religious leaders and to his disciples in this in this passage. And as he concludes, he says this, and they said to him, um ah sorry, I'm actually jumping ahead of myself here. But Jesus then turns his attention to his disciples and and probably recognizing their their their posture or their countenance, he then begins to encourage them with this right here in verses one through 17 of chapter 18.
Speaker: Okay. um So I would love to read this with you guys. So if you guys wouldn't mind standing with me and we'll jump in together.
Speaker: says this in verse one of chapter 18. It says, and he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.
Speaker: He said, in a certain city there was a judge who neither feared god nor respected man and there was a widow in the city who kept coming to him saying give me justice against my adversary for a while he refused but afterward he said to himself though i neither fear god nor respect man yet because this widow keeps bothering me i will give her justice so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming And the Lord said, hear what the unrighteous judge says.
Speaker: And will not God give justice to his elect, his chosen, who cried to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily.
Speaker: Nevertheless, the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth? Amen. will he find faith on Then he continues to verse nine. He also told them this parable to parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt.
Speaker: Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee standing by himself prayed thus, God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.
Speaker: I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get. But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner.
Speaker: I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.
Speaker: Verse 15. Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them. And when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them to him saying, let the children come to me.
Speaker: ah Do not hinder them for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.
Speaker: me pray. Father, we come before you, Lord, and we just ask that you just be with us during this time. Lord, that you allow your word to speak to our hearts and reveal the areas of our lives where we need to learn how to be more persistent in our prayer and how we need to approach our prayer. But Lord, maybe there's things in us that you need to humble us by. And I just pray, Father, that you just truly humble us in light of who you are and in light of others.
Speaker: That we may truly be like the children and that we may and come into the kingdom with great childlike faith. God, we love you. We praise you. We thank you for this morning. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Speaker: Thank you. You all may be seated.
Speaker: So this morning, this passage, we will see that Jesus teaches us about the importance of persistent prayer and humility that must be found within that. He also teaches us that prayer is not just a duty, but a vital means of connection and communication to God.
Speaker: urging us that we need to be relentless in seeking his presence and intervention in our own lives. And ultimately, what we will see is that we are called to an unwavering faith in our prayers because God, the righteous judge, will respond to those who persistently seek him.
Speaker: Persistently seek him. Now I get it you guys are like, Josh, you don't want to, when you talk about persistently seeking God, we don't want to be a nuisance to him. We don't want to be annoying to God because then he'll probably not want to hear our prayers. But what we're about to see is that that's not how God operates.
Speaker: God is a faithful God who desires to hear our prayers. And so this morning, I want to see four reasons why we should persist in prayer.
Speaker: The first one is that persistent prayers pay off.
Speaker: And we're gonna dig into that a little bit more because it probably seems like it's like a self-gratifying thing for us, but I'm gonna um explain why this is important, that persistent prayers, they pay off and how we approach them is essential.
Speaker: The second thing is that God's goodness is guaranteed. We live in a broken world that's full of false ideology, that's full of false reality. And we have a tendency of comparing God with the broken relationships that we have here on earth. And we have a tendency to think that he's not good and that he's not gonna come through for us.
Speaker: But what we oftentimes forget is that God is not like any of us. He's far above us. He's a perfect, righteous, holy God and perfect, righteous, and holy, and just judge. And he is guaranteed to be there for us.
Speaker: However, it comes down to how we approach him in in a timely manner. And then the third thing is humility in him. We we should be persistent prayer because it brings Humility. It humbles us before a holy, righteous God. And then lastly, the fourth thing is that it it gives us childlike confidence.
Speaker: So the first thing, though, is persistent ah persistent prayer pays off. We see that in verses 1 through 5. It says, that he told them a parallel to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart In verse one, and then verses two through five, it gives this picture of this this widow who comes before this judge who does not fear God or respect man, but yet she keeps coming at him.
Speaker: And you would think that eventually the judge would like, hey, if you don't get her out of my court, um she's not gonna be able to come back in. Like, this isn't going to happen anymore. But then he does first off, that's not what he does. He continues to allow her to come.
Speaker: But eventually what happens? As she continually comes before him persistently, he eventually what? Gives in, right? And so this is an incredible scene for us because the persistence of the widow is a crucial lesson in prayer.
Speaker: Even when God seems silent, we should continue to pray with hope and faith, trusting in his ultimate justice and his ultimate timing. How many of you guys in the room have actually been in a situation where you've been going before the Lord in prayer and you've been like, God, are you even listening?
Speaker: I don't care how old you are, how faithful you've been your whole life. don't care how long you've been a believer. We have all been there. I've been there. Where we we we find ourselves before God, we're like, God, I've been praying over this person. I've been praying over this situation. I've been praying over our nation for so long, but yet it seems like nothing is changing. Nothing is happening. When is this going to take place?
Speaker: And then eventually, when you as you continue to pray, what happens? You start to lose heart. which is ultimately to what Jesus is addressing here with his disciples. He says, hey, im I'm telling you these parables so that way when you face these things that you will not lose heart.
Speaker: So for us, this is a great reminder of us that when we are faithful and persistent in prayer, yes, there's gonna be moments where we feel like God's not listening, but God is always listening.
Speaker: And what we're gonna see is that his timing is not like our timing. His answers are not our answers because his ways are higher than our ways. His thoughts are higher in our thoughts. But we must be persistent in prayer because in his perfect time, and God will answer.
Speaker: and he will provide for you in a way that you will that you could never imagine. I always go back to my wife because my wife is absolutely beautiful. I love her.
Speaker: And she the Lord has blessed me with her, blessed her heart because she has to deal with me all the time. um But the reality is like, I remember like going through college, you know, coming out of high school, going through college thinking like, okay, I want to find my wife at Union.
Speaker: I was going to a Christian university, right? Everybody there is a Christian, right? i want to find this beautiful woman. I want married. I went four years, no relationship. No one even gave me a second chance. right? um Maybe it's because I'll lose my hair. I don't know. But, and then I get to, then I leave uni, come to Pine Cove and I'm like, okay, I work for a Christian youth camp. There's gotta, they do background checks. They gotta be good, right?
Speaker: and and, and again, years go by, nothing. And then one day i get the opportunity, this is not to get into this too deep, but I get that an opportunity to interview my wife for a position at Pine Cove that i was overseeing at the time.
Speaker: And I interviewed her and I was like, wow this girl is really awesome. You know, I did like my Facebook check, you know, make sure she's clean. She's good. Right. And i was like, wow, she's really pretty. And i was like, well, I'm her boss. Oh, well, so like, and I forget about it.
Speaker: and And then next thing I know, she gets hired, changes happen in my position. I'm no longer in that position anymore. I'm in a different role to where I'm not her boss anymore. And then I see her that fall. I'm like, wow, that's Hannah.
Speaker: And I'm not her boss anymore. and And I just remember thinking, i was like, but there's no way. Like, I don't stand a chance. So I just kind of go about it. and So she comes in August.
Speaker: It's probably around Thanksgiving time. My boss at the time tries to set me up on a date. And anyway, not to get down to a degree, they try to set me on a blind date. It doesn't work out. And they're like, why do you not want to do it? I was like, because it's awkward. I don't want to do that. And then somebody was like, wait, is it that you don't want to do the blind date or is that you have interest in somebody else? And I was like, ugh. And they were like, He's interested, right? So they like caught on. They said, no, they find Hannah and they set us up.
Speaker: But all I say is God's timing in that relationship is so perfect because if I would have gone after the the females that were before me before, I would have never met my wife. We would never have our two daughters. when I mean, I'm so grateful for my beautiful wife.
Speaker: and I'm sure there's many men in here who are the same way as me when they look at their wife like, man, how did we get so lucky? Right? And your wives are like, I don't know, but I wish you were I would have been luckier. Right? now I'm just kidding. um But all have to say is we when we are persistent, God desires us to come before him with persistency because in his perfect timing, he will provide the right thing for you.
Speaker: okay He will provide the right thing for you. And that's exactly what we're seeing here with this persistent widow. She is feeling this conviction her heart that she needs justice for this adversary. And the judge, this unjust judge who doesn't fear God and don't respect me, he's like, I don't care about what you desire.
Speaker: i don't, I mean... Just get over it. Just move on. And she's like, no, I want justice for my adversary to the point to where what did the judge say about her? He was like, I'm just going to go ahead and do this that way. She doesn't beat me down.
Speaker: Like that's how persistent she was. That's how aggressive she was. this ah this This figurative language, i don't think she was actually ready to like, you know, beat him up. But ah she was just coming after him to the point where he's like,
Speaker: Though, I mean, he says, he goes on, he says, though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice so that she will not beat me down with her continual coming.
Speaker: So eventually this woman gets what she desires because of her persistency. And then how does Jesus respond to that? Verse six, He says that, and the lord said hear what the andju or the unrighteous judge says it will not god give justice to his elect you cry to him day at night so if this unjust god orjust judge who does not fear god or respect man is is willing to meet a breaking point of providing for this woman how likely is it that a righteous judge a holy judge our perfect heavenly father
Speaker: is ready to meet our need quickly You see? sort of So again, there' the first thing I want to see here is that persistency pays off. And the second thing is this, is that God's goodness is guaranteed.
Speaker: It's guaranteed. And what I want us to see here of this is that
Speaker: When we are persistent with God, he hears our prayer. He desires for us to come before him, right? We see this all throughout the scriptures, whether it's with Philippians 4, verse 6, where it says, do not be anxious about anything but everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. Let your requests be made known to God, right? We also see in Ephesians 6, 18, that praying at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication to that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for the saints, right?
Speaker: Paul talks about Romans 12, 12, where it says, rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, but be constant in prayer. When we do these things, when we are persistent in our prayer, God is ready to meet you where you're at and to provide for you in his perfect timing and his perfect will. Now, y'all hear that, what i just said there?
Speaker: It's not about what my perfect timing is or my perfect answer. It's all about his perfect timing. his perfect answer.
Speaker: the other thing I want us to see here within this passage is this argument called the lesser to greater argument, right? The lesser to greater argument is a rhetorical device that recognizes truth from one situation applies it to another situation of greater scope, right? So for example, we have this unjust judge who neither fears God nor respects man, but yet he is willing to beat his breaking point.
Speaker: Whereas God is holy and righteous and just. And he is ready to answer you speedily, right? So it's this lesser to greater argument. What this is not saying is that God is like the unjust judge, okay?
Speaker: What this is not saying is that we need to beat God down in order to hear our to to get our request answered. That's not who God is. God is the exact opposite of this unjust judge, okay?
Speaker: He is one who is righteous and holy. He desires to hear you. Again, those passages we just read out of Romans and Ephesians and Philippians, this idea of praying consistently. God desires for us to come and to pray and to seek his wisdom and his will.
Speaker: And when we do that, he he will bless us. We see this time and time again, even in the Old Testament. Not just in the New Testament. We see in the Old Testament. We see it with the Israelites in the Exodus, right? When they're out in the wilderness, what happens? They come before God and they cry out. Or even when they were in Egypt, they were crying out to God. And when God's calling Moses, what he say?
Speaker: i hear the cries of my people. And I'm going to send you to deliver them. And that's how God, that's God's heart. From the very beginning, when sin entered the heart of man, he's heard the cry of it of our heart.
Speaker: Knowing that we need a savior. We need somebody to deliver us, to redeem us, because we in ourselves cannot do it on our own. That's the story and theme of the narrative of the of the scriptures.
Speaker: is that we are broken and simple. We cannot do it alone. We cannot save ourselves. God has to provide the way out for us. We just have to humble ourselves to recognize that and to submit to it. And so if you're in this room today and you're in and you are in a ah season of life where you feel like everything is crashing down around Nothing is working out the way it's supposed to. I pray that you do not allow Satan to have a foothold over that because Satan's gonna do everything in his power to try to twist God's will and God's plan and to make it seem like God does not love you.
Speaker: He's gonna try to twist it and make it seem like God is the unjust judge because that's his scheme. He wants to deceive you. He wants to manipulate you to thinking that God doesn't love you. But in all actualities, when you actually stop and take a step back and breathe, look at creation.
Speaker: Look at how things play out. We have a God who brings chaos into order. We have a God who brings sin or who takes sin and destroys it.
Speaker: He pays the price for it.
Speaker: His son is sufficient to cover the multitude of sin, the blood of which he shall on the cross for us. So again, when we are finding ourselves day in and day out of situations that would feel like we just cannot get over it or we we feel overwhelmed, we need to be persistent in bringing that before the Lord.
Speaker: He desires to hear it. He desires to provide a way for it. So the question is is are you willing to do that? are you allowing your pride or your self-righteousness or your stubbornness to to prevent you from bringing that before the Lord? That's a question I'm asking myself. I am just as prideful and self-righteous as the best of them in this world.
Speaker: So I have to daily choose that. And I hope you guys do too. Because in the moment that you truly surrender that and put that down before the Lord, man, great relief comes.
Speaker: Have you up been in that situation where the Lord finally does answer the prayer and the pressure relief valve is released and you're just like,
Speaker: thank you, right? That's how I feel sometimes with a screaming toddler when she finally stopped screaming, right? And that's a silly example, but I hope it makes sense.
Speaker: so But God, he he guarantees it, right? And what we see in this passage is also we see reflected in other passages like Matthew 7, verses 7 through 11, where he says, "'Ask it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives.
Speaker: The one who seeks finds. The one who knocks, the door will be opened. For which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will he give him a stone?' Or if he asks for a fish, you'll give him a serpent.
Speaker: If you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father who is in heaven give you good things to those who ask him?
Speaker: Who ask him?
Speaker: There's a couple other notes here that i wanted to bring to light though. And we kind of hit on a couple of them already a little bit. But when it comes to this prayer, we do need to bring our prayers before the Lord when it comes to the everyday life situations, right?
Speaker: However, we also need to be mindful of the prayers that we do bring before the Lord. He desires to hear from you, but he also desires for you to come before him with a righteous heart, with the right motive.
Speaker: Uh... I'm reluctant to share this, but I'm going do it anyway. There's a comedian out there named John Crist. Anybody know John Crist? There's a bit that he does about prayer. and And he's like...
Speaker: You know, people bring prayer requests to him all the time. He's like, nah, man, you got to tell me what the prayer is first before I lift it up. Because he's like, because I ain't praying for that. You know, like one of them was about his little cousin who was like the, he was praying over his cousin because he's got tendinitis in his thumbs for playing with the iPad. And he's like, nah, I ain't praying for that.
Speaker: He's like, I'm not lifting that to a holy righteous judge. Right? So like, like that's the idea. Like how what we choose to bring for the Lord, we need to be mindful of that. Because really in context of what Jesus is talking about here, what did he just remind his disciples of before at the end of chapter 17?
Speaker: The kingdom of God and how it will appear and how we need to be ready and be on guard and how we need to be persistent. And so when it comes to our prayers, this in context, Jesus is telling them like, hey, this parable is for you.
Speaker: So what you want, you learn how to pray and not lose heart. But it also reminds you, we need to have a future kingdom coming in mind when we pray. Yes, bring your prayer request before the Lord. Bring your burdens before him. However, also seek the kingdom of God as you do it.
Speaker: You see, how oftentimes our prayers are so circumstantial that we focus our entire world around what's happening here on earth rather than what God is preparing for you in heaven as a believer.
Speaker: So as you pray, pray for your circumstances. Pray for the things that are happening here right now. Be mindful what you're lifting to the Lord, but also have an eternal kingdom scope in mind as you pray. Pray for the Lord to come speedily.
Speaker: Pray for the Lord to come back to restore these things. so I know that's not a weird prayer because I'm right there with you. I love the beauty of this world. I love the relationships I get to be a part of. I love my two little girls.
Speaker: I don't ever want to see anything happen to them. And the idea of being taken into the kingdom of heaven and not knowing what's gonna happen to my two girls, I mean, it's like...
Speaker: that that that that That weighs heavy on me. you all the same way? Or about the rest of my family? But the and at the end of the day, we serve a holy and righteous God whose plan and will is perfect.
Speaker: He knows the heart conditions of man. That's not my place to be a judge of man. That's not my place to worry about those things. My place is to go before a God and be praying for them, yes, but also to seek His will and His plan for the kingdom.
Speaker: To pray earnestly for it. To pray consistently for it. God, allow your will to be done in heaven as it is on earth. Or on earth as it is in heaven, right? Bring it down.
Speaker: Allow me to be, allow us as the body of Christ to be the living example of the kingdom here right now. Try to win as many souls as we can to heaven. So Jesus, this is a dual reminder to the disciples.
Speaker: Be persistent in prayer, but also be mindful of the future kingdom. Be mindful. And so he's we're alluding to his second coming. He hasn't even done the cross yet. He's already alluding to his coming back.
Speaker: So we need to be mindful of these things.
Speaker: And then the other thing I was just going remind us of as we wrap up, and we're going to stop right here. It's going to be two-parter. Is this, this concept of speedily. Again, to remind you.
Speaker: We have a tendency of putting God in our timeline.
Speaker: We think our timeline is good. That our ideas are the best. i think that there's I think that at times. I'm like, Lord, I know what's right. Why are you not listening to me But the reality is like the Lord humbles me. He's like, nah, dude, you have no idea.
Speaker: You have no idea the ramifications of what your prayer, if I answered, he's like, if I answer your prayer the way you want right now, you have no idea how that's going to affect all these other people around you.
Speaker: It's not about you, Josh. It's about the greater purpose and kingdom, the mission of the kingdom. So we have to be mindful of how God chooses to answer and to respond to our prayers.
Speaker: Again, that shouldn't defeat us and that shouldn't get us worn out to where we don't bring them before the Lord. However, it should just be a humble reminder of God. In your perfect timing, I know you'll answer this, but I'm going to continue to bring it.
Speaker: I trust in your plan. Because again, this whole idea of a day in the sight of the Lord is a thousand years and a thousand years is but a day. That's how the Lord operates.
Speaker: And so I pray that as we continue to navigate this life as believers, that we will have that mindset. as As we do face things, the hard things in life, yes, we bring them before the Lord, but we'll have an eternal perspective in mind with our prayers. And that we'll do it persistently.
Speaker: Because would y'all agree that the world that we live in is only continually getting more broken? That's the nature and reality of sin. And if we are not praying over that, then it's only going to get worse.
Speaker: Well, the reality is it's going to get worse before gets better. But... We need to be praying over that. and praying for the kingdom to come now. Right? So, I'm going to ask the worship team to go ahead and come on up.
Speaker: And as we go into this time of intercessory prayer, where am I thinking? As we go into this time of invitation, just want to close with these few key takeaways. As believers, God desires us to come to him with our prayers. This is an essential tool for us in this life.
Speaker: We must not neglect the power of prayer. It is our lifeline. he desires The second thing is that God desires to respond justly and swiftly.
Speaker: He may not always answer our prayers immediately, but his timing is perfect. His timing is may not be like our timing, but he will God's answer is always governed by his perfect justice, his goodness, and his sovereignty.
Speaker: And this is something that we can trust moving forward. I hope you guys know that. If you're in this room and you've never put your faith, hope, and trust in Jesus, I hope you hear me right now. There is a God who loves you, a God who cares for you so much that he sent his only son to die for you.
Speaker: And that is something that is worth trusting. Because it's in that where you can find peace, hope, and truth. And I'm just going to close with Isaiah 55, 8, 9. Again, this idea of his thoughts versus our thoughts.
Speaker: For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, sir, are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.
Speaker: And again, what's the purpose of these parables? What's the purpose of this particular parable? that we may not lose heart when faced with uncertainty.
Speaker: So may we be encouraged by this today. When you are facing uncertainty, bring it before the Lord. Bring your petitions before him. May you trust him. May you rely on him. And if you need to surrender, if you need to if you notice that you you haven't surrendered your life to Christ and you want to do that this morning, to be down front. Come. I would love to have a conversation with you. We can set up a time. we can have conversation.
Speaker: Talk through some of the things that you're going through. I would love to do that. But for the rest of you, I pray that we will, as we did earlier with taking out of the communion, of the Lord's Supper, that we will assess our hearts with where we're at in our own spiritual journey with the Lord.
Speaker: How faithful are we to him in prayer?
Speaker: Are we actually trusting him? Or will we just are we trusting ourselves in just verbally saying we're trusting him, right? So let pray over us and we'll go into this high invitation. Father God, we come before you.
Speaker: And Lord, again, we just thank you for this morning Lord, we thank you for just the opportunity of partaking in the Lord's Supper, this remembrance of the great sacrifice which you paid on the cross for our sins.
Speaker: But Lord, we also thank you for the fact that you are the God who is just and holy and righteous, who is quick and swift to answer our prayers. Lord, you know what we are praying for before we even pray for it, Lord. You know exactly what we're facing.
Speaker: But yet often we we find ourselves questioning and doubting and being anxious over things that you already have a ah resolution for. So Lord, I pray that there's anybody in this room today who has anything on their heart, anxiety, worry, stress, or or circumstances in their life that may be overwhelming. I just pray for that they'll lift it to you, that they will trust in you today, that I will trust in you today, that we'll trust in your sovereign plan. But Lord, as we conclude this time though, I do pray right now for your kingdom to come.
Speaker: Lord, I pray that as each day goes by, that we as your people only continue to prepare ourselves for that day. No one knows the day or the hour when Jesus will return, but Lord, I pray that we will be ready. And then until that time comes, that we will be persistent in prayer, and persistent in advancing your kingdom.
Speaker: Lord, we love you. We praise you. We pray that your spirit will continue to go before us. Holy Spirit, please go before us and allow us to honor you in all that we do. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen.
Speaker: This is a ministry of First Baptist Church located at 1700 Milam Street, Columbus, Texas.
