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A Call for Persistence (Luke 18:1-8)
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A Call for Persistence (Luke 18:1-8)
Gospel of Luke: Examining Our Spiritual Health
Sunday Message recorded 04 September 2022
by Assoc. Pastor Josh Shell
First Baptist Church
1700 Milam
Columbus, TX, USA 78934
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Transcript
Sunday Joy and Baptism
00:00:06
Speaker
Well, good morning, everyone. Wow, this thing is hot. If you weren't awake, you are now. So, well, it's good to be with you guys. Guys, I feel like I can say this for all of us, but we as believers in Jesus, I don't think there's any better way to start off a Sunday morning than with baptism. Amen? That's awesome.
Acknowledgments and Gratitude
00:00:26
Speaker
And to see two of our young students who are going through the WANDA program,
00:00:29
Speaker
Come to know Jesus need to be baptized. What an example. So Clayton, Brian, thank you all for the example that you all set for all of us in that. And we pray for you guys and Kim, you as well. We are so thankful for Kim and her being part of our church family. So it's very exciting. But
Labor Day Weekend Wishes
00:00:47
Speaker
I hope you guys have also had a very great Labor Day weekend so far. I mean, obviously we, many of us have tomorrow off. And so I pray that you will use that time wisely and rest. I hope you guys have also enjoyed the rain.
00:01:00
Speaker
But this morning as I kick off, if you wanna go ahead and get your bowels out, you can go ahead and open up to Luke chapter 18. That's
Gift from In-Laws: A Parenting Break
00:01:07
Speaker
where we're gonna be today. We're gonna be continuing through our series, through the book of Luke. So we're gonna be in Luke chapter 18.
00:01:17
Speaker
But while you guys are turning there, it's funny. So yesterday, Hannah and I, my wife and I, we got a very special gift from my in-laws, Gary and Sharon, who are with us today. They actually babysat Shiloh for us to where we can have an entire day to ourselves.
00:01:37
Speaker
Amen.
Fall Memories and Halloween Strategies
00:01:38
Speaker
Many of you guys know we have a 13 and a half month old and she is starting to walk and she is energetic and she takes up a lot of our time. So any moment we get away from her, as much as I love Shiloh, please hear me say that. I don't ever want to spend time away from her really, but it's always a blessing, especially for Hannah and I. But while we were out, Hannah's back there blushing right now, sorry.
00:02:01
Speaker
But while we were out, as we were driving around, we were talking about the weather and how now is the time of the season where Starbucks is bringing back their pumpkin spice latte and you get your pumpkin loaf and all these things. Who's excited about pumpkin spice lattes, anybody? That's right. Guys, it feels like fall is coming back.
00:02:21
Speaker
Right? And that's exciting because summer was really hot and we had no rain. Well, now with it raining, it just feels like fall, amen? So, but as we were talking about this, and as I was preparing, even looking over my notes last night, I recalled back on a time in my childhood that many of you guys may actually, may know where I'm coming from, but during Halloween. Okay, so I know Halloween is still a month away, but when I was thinking about the fall, the story came to my mind.
00:02:51
Speaker
And I was thinking about a time when I was probably in eighth grade, so I was getting to that age where I was part of my last year trick-or-treating, according to my dad, okay? I still think I could trick-or-treat now. It's fine, because she doesn't want candy. But I was about eighth grade, and I was with my buddies. We were out trick-or-treating.
00:03:10
Speaker
And we came up with this strategic plan to get the most candy out of people that we could, okay? So what we would do is we would have our costume on, right? Of course, me, I was a skater kid at that time, so I was posing as like Tony Hawk or whatever, but an eighth grader, you know? But we would go up to this house,
00:03:32
Speaker
wearing all of our costume, right? And then we would grab our candy as much as we can get and we would leave and go away. And a few minutes later, we would go back, but we would remove an item of our costume. So that way they, I mean, obviously they knew who we were, but we would pose as a different character. I'm like, no, no, we've never been here before, right? We want our candy. And they're like, no, go away. And I was like, oh, come on, dude, are you serious? Right?
Parable of the Persistent Widow
00:03:57
Speaker
So me and my buddies, we kept doing this over and over. Like in our minds, we were being persistent.
00:04:02
Speaker
We were trying to be as strategic and logical as possible to get the most candy in that evening while the people who were passing out the candy were like, you guys are being a nuisance. You guys are ruining Halloween. Get away. You guys are annoying middle schoolers. So all I had to say is in our minds, we were being persistent.
00:04:22
Speaker
And let me just define to you what persistence means real quick. So persistence is a firm, continuous action and a course of action in spite of difficulty or opposition.
00:04:33
Speaker
Well, in our minds, the people passing out candy were being difficult and they were opposing us. So we were being persistent. Well, like I said, according to them, we were being annoying. So, but all that to say is, as I was thinking about this story, it kind of reminded me of this parable, which we're gonna be looking at now. And some of you guys are probably thinking, Josh, this is a far-fetched story compared to what we're gonna be looking at today. But it reminded me of what we're gonna be looking at. And what we're gonna be looking at today is the parable of the persistent widow.
00:05:02
Speaker
and Luke chapter 18 verses one through eight. I'm really excited to look at this with you guys, but will you guys pray with me real quick and we will jump into this together.
00:05:14
Speaker
Lord God, we just come before you this morning and we are just so thankful and amazed by the work and what you're doing. I know in times such as today where many of us, we have a tendency to get overwhelmed or anxious or worried about the state of our country or the state of our world, whether it's political, whether it's
00:05:35
Speaker
general health or whatever the case may be, Lord, we can stop and be amazed by the fact that you are still working, that you're still here, that you're still ever present with us and you're leading us and you're guiding us and all we have to do is come before your throne of grace with persistence and trust and faith and to know that we can feel your presence as you lead us and guide us. But Lord, I pray that as we look at this passage today, Father, that you bring peace that surpasses all understanding
00:06:03
Speaker
in our hearts and our minds in regard to this. Many of us are experiencing different things in our life right now that it's hard to bear. And it can be overwhelming, but Lord, we just lift that to you now. And I pray that by the end of this morning that we will learn what it means for us to lay it all at your feet and to follow by faith with great persistence. And it's in Jesus' name, amen.
00:06:27
Speaker
All right, will you guys stand with me as we read this parable in Luke chapter eight, verses one, or Luke chapter 18, sorry, verses one through eight. And it starts out like this, and it says, and he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. And he said, in a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man.
00:06:52
Speaker
And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him saying, give me justice against my adversary.
00:06:59
Speaker
For a while he refused, but after 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. It will not God give justice to his elect, who cried to him day and night.
00:07:24
Speaker
Will He delay long over them? I tell you, He will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth? Pray with me one more time. Lord God, just lead us and guide us through this discussion today. Lord, I pray that you open our hearts and our minds and our ears to what you have to say. It's in Jesus' name, amen. Thank you, you guys may be seated.
00:07:53
Speaker
By the way, just to finish my story, eventually the people who were passing out candy gave in to us and gave us more candy. So persistence works out.
00:08:02
Speaker
And that's not, I'm not trying to tell you students in here that that's a good idea. Don't do that, okay? Don't do that. So, anyway, so this is a very powerful parable and it's, I feel like it's very strategically placed from what we looked at last week with Victor and the idea of gratitude being our life's greatest buoy, right?
Justice, Persistence, and Faith
00:08:22
Speaker
And how in every circumstance,
00:08:24
Speaker
no matter if we're facing joyous times or tumultuous times or hard times, we always need to have a heart of gratitude because of the salvation, the free gift of salvation, which we have in Christ Jesus, right? Well, in this, in the same breath, it's not that we just need to have a heart of gratitude, but we also need to have a heart of persistence when it comes to our salvation, when it comes to the free gift of salvation in Christ. We're not promised easy times.
00:08:50
Speaker
All throughout scripture, you can see that Jesus warns us of that there will be times when hardship will come, persecution will come to the church. That's inevitable. So why we think that when persecution comes on the church as this far-fetched idea, I don't know why.
00:09:07
Speaker
It's biblical, it's right there. But all that to say is this idea of having a heart of gratitude in your salvation also needs to come with a heart of persistence. And that's exactly what Jesus is trying to communicate to the audience in this passage. Now, the way that this passage or this chapter is broken down, verses one through eight,
00:09:28
Speaker
When we look at the finer details and looking at the audience, Jesus is actually speaking to his disciples, more specifically to the Jewish audience. And then as you continue the chapter, he then turns his attention to the Gentile audience. So what we're gonna be looking at today though, is intended for the Jews. Or in our case, you see, as we read this, there was this word that we'll look at here in a minute called the elect. Now I'm not, don't worry, we're not getting into all that, okay? That's a little bit above my pay grade.
00:09:59
Speaker
What he is saying is that he's speaking to the believers of Jesus. The elect are those who know Jesus, who believe and confess as Jesus is Lord and Savior of their life. But I do appreciate how Luke doesn't leave us questioning or in the dark about what this parable is about. He opens up this parable explaining the purpose of the parable.
00:10:23
Speaker
And it's the idea of discipline or prayer or not losing heart. Sorry. But all it is is this idea that we don't need to lose heart or we don't need to stop praying. We don't need to do these two things because when we are facing or when we're walking through life, when we're facing hard times, persistence is key.
00:10:45
Speaker
You can't just stop. Whenever hard times come, and if you stopped every time a hard time came in your life, you would get nowhere. You would backtrack. And so what Jesus is saying is we need to be persistent in praying constantly for God's justice to take place in this earth.
00:11:04
Speaker
which is the overall subject of this parable, justice. We'll hit on that here in just a second. But it's this idea, though, that would ultimately lead Paul and stir Paul to write this theme of letters to the believers of the various churches in the New Testament, which includes us, by the way. So this here, what he has to say in Romans 12, 12, he says, rejoice in hope.
00:11:26
Speaker
Be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Ephesians 6.18 says, praying at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication, to that end, keeping alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints. And then lastly, Colossians 4.12, continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with what? With thanksgiving.
00:11:51
Speaker
So this is a constant theme that the church needs to adopt, that they can't live without. We all need to be persistent as believers in Jesus. Now, for those of you who are in the room today and you don't have a relationship with Jesus, you're probably thinking, well, this message isn't for me. Well, no, this message is for you.
00:12:08
Speaker
Because as an unbeliever in Jesus, someone who does have a relationship with Jesus, you're facing times that you cannot carry on your own. So I pray that as we talk about this, that you will heed this message and that you will come to put your faith and your trust in a God who is there for you and who is going to carry you and who does provide for you and care for you.
00:12:31
Speaker
But what's cool about this parable is that this parable is also very similar to the one that Jesus gives back in Luke chapter 11, verses 10 through 13, where he gives us this illustration of an earthly father who loves their children. And he talks about how just as an earthly father, if he loves their children, he's not gonna give them bad gifts.
00:12:51
Speaker
He's gonna give them good gifts. Well, if our heavenly Father, and He compares it to our heavenly Father, He says if our heavenly Father is perfect in love, why would He give us bad gifts? If God is perfect in love, if God's perfect in love, He's gonna give us every good and perfect gift for His children.
00:13:10
Speaker
Well, in the same way, this parable demonstrates the same kind of love from the Father, except in this case, it's not love of good gifts, but rather it's love for justice. Because our God is a loving and just God.
00:13:29
Speaker
And he does this so beautifully by introducing, Jesus does this so beautifully by introducing these two characters that I wanted to turn our attention to. So there's two main characters to play in this parable. The first one is the unjust judge, right? Say that five times fast. The unjust judge, okay? This unjust judge is described this way, that he neither feared God nor respected man.
00:13:54
Speaker
Wow, that's powerful, right? And I don't think we really get to the depth of what that means. So when he says that he does not fear God, nor respect man, he's saying that he does not care about anything in this world, that all he cares about is himself. Like in context to the audience, this would have been the most evil man on the planet because he didn't care about anything but himself.
00:14:17
Speaker
And so when we picture this unjust judge, the Jewish audience, the Jewish listeners at this time would have been baffled by this guy's actions, as Jesus told this parable. Because for someone like him to be put into a position as judge, especially when it comes to the Jewish law and tradition, they are put into these positions by the temple.
00:14:39
Speaker
Okay, so by the religious leaders, they would put it into these positions. And as they were put into these positions, they would have to uphold the job description or the standard of which was given to them. So just listen to these two things. So in Exodus 18, 21, this is what is spoken of the job description of a judge.
00:14:59
Speaker
Y'all ready? It says, moreover, look for able men from all people, men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe, and place such men over the people as chiefs of thousands and of hundreds of fifties and of tens. And if that wasn't enough, think about what King Jehoshaphat said in Second Chronicles, sorry, wrong testament, Second Chronicles 19, six and seven.
00:15:26
Speaker
And this is what the king says, he says, consider what you do, talking to the judges, for you judge not for man, but for the Lord. He is with you in giving judgment. Now then, let the fear of the Lord be upon you. Be careful what you do, for there is no injustice within the Lord our God.
00:15:47
Speaker
So again, for this judge to come out to be a man who does not fear God nor respect man, this is completely mind-blowing to the Jewish audience. This is not typical. But it is quite obvious so that this judge did not care to follow the criteria listed in Exodus and in Second Chronicles, and he only cared about his own self-interest. He did not honor God, nor did he care for the interests of people, but he sought to serve himself.
00:16:17
Speaker
Now, I'm sure all y'all in this room are probably thinking of at least one person in your life who probably fits into this category, right? Well, we need to let that go first off, okay? Because we are not other people's judges, right? So he introduces the unjust judge, then he then introduces this next character, the persistent widow.
00:16:42
Speaker
And this persistent widow is described to wanting and seeking out justice against her adversary. Now I'll say this, it's just a side note. There is a place and time for justice for your adversary, okay? Justice is something in which God desires. And if we follow and pursue justice in light of who God is,
00:17:04
Speaker
and he's gonna provide it for us. But one thing we're gonna pull out of here though is that the heart of why she is seeking the judge for her adversary. But this character would also hit close to home as well to the audience because of the commands given to the Jews regarding taking care of the homeless, the helpless, and the widows.
00:17:25
Speaker
Right, so very similar to us today, as believers in Jesus, we are called and commanded to love our neighbor, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, to love your neighbor as yourself. Right, so if we're in this situation and we did the same thing, we would not be loving our neighbor. If we were in the judge's position and did not heed what this widow was saying, we are not loving our neighbor well. Let that sink in.
00:17:51
Speaker
So again, this is mind blowing for the audience as Jesus continues this parable. And the fact that this particular judge did not rule in favor regarding this woman's request would not have sat well with them at all.
00:18:04
Speaker
So this story ultimately, unfortunately, reflects though a very common scenario during this time. There was men back then who would take advantage of the widows, not talking about the judge, but when someone, when there was a widow, there would be these men who would take advantage of the fact that there is no financial supporter for women.
00:18:27
Speaker
back then who lost their husband or lost their child, right? So the woman's by themselves. So it'd be these men who come in, take advantage of them, build up a debt against the woman to where eventually she would have to give them their property or her property, which is a really sad situation. So again, the only defense that this woman has as the persistent widow is to go to seek out legal restoration, right? Or to go seek out legal help.
00:18:53
Speaker
And then only to find out that this judge is not gonna help her. So this situation is really not going well. And the Jewish audience would have not been happy about this at all. So for the judge not to hear him move in her favor of the widow, only spoke all the more about his selfish motives and his ability to quickly turn a blind eye to injustice.
00:19:16
Speaker
So even just to stop right there, I said, for us, as we love our neighbors, if we are quick to turn our blind eye towards injustice or to someone in need, we are no different from this unjust judge. Does that make sense? So before we judge this judge, we need to really search our hearts in the matter of how we seek others out as well, and how we view others in light of who God is.
00:19:47
Speaker
But now I would love to actually compare and contrast this parable because what we have a tendency to do with parables like this is that we like to place ourselves into the parable as if like we are the persistent widow. So when we read this parable and we read about this unjust judge, you're like, man, you can think of someone in your mind where someone's treating you the same exact way and you put yourself in victim mentality. Just like the persistent widow, I'm like, man, I tried to seek out justice and no one heard me.
00:20:15
Speaker
Man, you know? But the reality is that this is not the intent of this parable. When Jesus
Prayer, Humility, and Divine Justice
00:20:21
Speaker
told this parable, he was not saying it so that you could put yourself in the position of either persistent widow or the unjust judge, but rather he's saying, you don't need to be either one of these. And I'm gonna explain how, I'm gonna explain why. So when it comes to the unjust judge, he's actually gonna be compared to our just God.
00:20:40
Speaker
Right, so the unjust judge says that he did not fear God, nor man, he didn't care about anything in the world, but rather when you look at our God,
00:20:49
Speaker
He is the exact opposite. So for us, this is great news because for when we are facing hard times or tribulation or when we have tension among brothers and sisters in Christ or whatever the case may be, we have hope knowing that we can go to a God who is just, who is loving, who is merciful, who is compassionate, and He is perfect in everything.
00:21:11
Speaker
And guess what? He desires to bless you and he desires to serve justice for you, which is what we're going to see at the end of the parable. So we don't need to go before God as if like, Oh God, please hear me. I know this is kind of a weird situation, but please hear me. No, we need to go before the throne of grace with confidence.
00:21:31
Speaker
knowing that our God, who is Lord of all, who sent his son Jesus to come and die on the cross for our sins so that we can be in right fellowship with him, and guess what? Be adopted into the family. We don't need to be afraid to approach his presence. He desires us to come before him with our requests and with our worries and with our anxieties.
00:21:55
Speaker
And he also desires us to come before with thanksgiving and with everything joyful, right? But we don't need to view God as this unjust judge, as if like he is sitting up there on his throne, looking down on us, trying to smite us and trying to do, or as if like we're just a pawn in his game. So if that's your mentality today, whether you're a believer or an unbeliever,
00:22:19
Speaker
You need to, one, you need to go before the throne of grace and you need to change that mindset. You need to open, you need to surrender your heart and your mind to that because we have a loving God who seeks us, who desires a relationship with us always, desires to provide, desires to take care of us. He's never going to leave us nor forsake us.
00:22:48
Speaker
Now moving on to the persistent widow though, this is where it gets interesting, okay? So we're gonna compare the persistent widow to us as the believers, as a believer, okay?
00:22:59
Speaker
So as we read about the persistent widow in her situation, we have a tendency to see her persistence in approaching the judge as the application for our life. So what I mean by that is this, is that when we see her great persistence in wanting to seek out justice for her adversary, and we think that if we only go before God in the same manner, then finally he will give us what we want, right?
00:23:25
Speaker
I mean, after all, that's what happened in the parable. She was persistent. She was constant in seeking out the judge to where eventually he broke, he gave in. I mean, just hear what he said. He said, for a while he refused, but after 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.
00:23:51
Speaker
That idea of, that statement of, will not beat me down by her continual coming is actually like a boxing metaphor. It's one that Paul will later talk about in one of his letters to the Corinthians where he's punching the air like a boxer, right? So this lady is coming to the judge, so much so to where he feels like he's getting beat up, like physically.
00:24:17
Speaker
Like Mike Tyson came and bit off his, I'm just kidding, sorry. But like this idea though is that he is getting so annoyed and he's getting so beat down by her persistence that he finds like, find whatever lady, if you just stop coming to me, I'll give you whatever you want. Again, that's not who God is. God's not one who's passive and he's just waiting to, and he's waiting for you to come at him. He's like, come at me bro. Like that's not what he's wanting.
00:24:45
Speaker
And that's not what we need to do as believers in Jesus. We don't need to approach God as if like me. And if I only pray so many times a day, or if I say a prayer that fits a certain criteria, or if I do this or do that, then God will answer me. No, I want to tell you this. That's either the mindset of a legalism. That's either legalistic or you're viewing God as an idol.
00:25:10
Speaker
as if you serve God enough or if you pray to him enough that he's just gonna give you what you need or what you want. No, that's not how God is. He's not a genie. We need to come to before our God every single day with persistence, with a heart of gratitude, with what we looked at last week, but also with full assurance and hope and faith, knowing that God is for us and he is not against us.
00:25:38
Speaker
that he is a just and righteous God who desires to give us the things that we need, not the things that you want. There's a difference. Not the things you want, but the things you need. And guess what? When you pray, there's gonna be times where he feels like God does not answer. Because one, he probably doesn't need to answer you with some of your requests. Let's be honest.
00:26:06
Speaker
Okay, transparent moment. There's times where I go before the Lord and I'm like, Lord, please let Shiloh sleep. Is Shiloh gonna end up sleeping? Yes, she's gonna end up sleeping. What's the heart behind my prayer? I want sleep. Lord, put Shiloh to sleep. Do you think, I mean, come on, seriously? Like, how selfish is that?
00:26:30
Speaker
I know my child's gonna sleep, but I go before the Lord with this request as if like, oh Lord, if I just come before you, you're so broken that you're finally gonna put my daughter to sleep. No, that's silly. But that's how we approach God sometimes with our prayers. When I say sometimes, most of the time. But when we approach God, we need to approach God with full assurance and hope, knowing that he is listening and guess what? He's already providing.
00:26:58
Speaker
God is not surprised by our circumstances. He's gonna provide everything we need in that moment for that day for us. He's not a passive God. He is listening and he is there and he's gonna provide. But more specifically though, in this situation, what's the overall subject here, right? Justice. Justice. A word that is very high in our culture today.
00:27:25
Speaker
justice. We seek justice for just about anything nowadays. But again, this idea of justice is not contingent upon what we think is right or wrong. It's contingent upon what God says is right and wrong. There's a difference.
00:27:46
Speaker
And so with this persistent widow, she had it going right. She was going before the judge, she was asking for justice, but yet her heart, from what it seems like in the story, is that it was for all her own motive. But when we go before the Lord and we seek justice against our adversaries, we need to come before the Lord with a humble heart.
00:28:12
Speaker
and not in the sense of justice to bring about condemnation or what I'm trying to think.
00:28:23
Speaker
Anyway, so like when we think about justice, we want this person to be disciplined. We want this person to be found out wrong. And a lot of times it's out of an angry heart or a frustrated heart. But really, when we come before the Lord, when we seek out justice, we need to come before Him with humility, but also for His justice, for His justice to reign on the earth.
00:28:44
Speaker
And what does that look like? That means that we need to, for us, for that justice to play out, it means that we pursue what the Lord desires on this earth, for everyone to be loved and for everyone to come to know Him as Savior and Lord, and to abide by His commands.
00:29:08
Speaker
So again, this idea of justice is not anything that's about us, but it's all about who God is and about his just nature and about his just commands. Is there any question about that? It's funny because I don't mean that in a sense. I'm not trying to act like we don't know what justice is or anything, but this topic is such a hot topic in our culture today, especially in the church.
00:29:37
Speaker
that we need to address it. What we consider right or wrong in the church is contingent upon what is right or wrong on the side of God, upon His commands, not our own. We need to understand that. But I wanna move on to this.
00:30:03
Speaker
What we see here is we've already hit on the differences between the unjust judge and our just God. But I wanna hit on this real quick. God is, like I said, He's not like the unjust judge, but rather our God, from what we see of Jesus, is not just righteous and holy and just, but rather He regards His people, the elect. And that's a beautiful thing.
00:30:31
Speaker
I don't want us to end this time without us understanding that. That God is for us. He's not against us. He's not trying to keep you at arm's length. He wants you in his grasps.
00:30:45
Speaker
His heart is for those who love Him and who are committed to Him. He will not delay over our requests. We see that in this passage where it says that right there in verse seven where it says, and will not God give justice to His elect who cried to Him day or night? Will He delay long over them? I tell you, He will give justice to them what? Speedily, quickly.
00:31:11
Speaker
So he desires to give us justice speedily, quickly. But I also wanna remind us of this, that it's not according to our timeline. We have a tendency to think, God, bring us justice quickly in our timeline. But let me tell you something. I'm just gonna remind you what Peter says in his letter, 2 Peter 3.8, he says, but do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord, one day is a thousand years and a thousand years is one day.
00:31:40
Speaker
God's timeline is not on our timeline. When He chooses to give you what is needed, we need to be ready to praise Him. But until that day comes, we need to be patient and we need to be persistent in prayer. That is our role as the body of Christ. To be persistent with prayer and also going back to last week with great gratitude over what God has done.
00:32:08
Speaker
So what does this mean for us, our prayer life, right? As Jesus wraps up this parable, he ends with this rhetorical question. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth? Now this isn't Jesus asking if there will be any saved left when he returns. So he's not asking, oh, is there gonna be anybody saved when I return? That's not what he's asking.
00:32:31
Speaker
But rather, it's Him challenging His disciples and His audience to pick up the mantle as prayer warriors and pray persistently for God's justice to prevail over all the earth, not our own. So again,
Reflection on Motives and Invitation to Faith
00:32:43
Speaker
when Jesus returns, He's not, I mean, obviously we're still gonna be here. That's believers. Like He's gonna come and we're gonna be here, we're gonna see it. But...
00:32:52
Speaker
So he's not asking if there's not gonna be anybody say, but rather he's saying, but for us, while we're in this period waiting for Jesus to return, it is our duty as a believer and as a church to be praying persistently for God's justice to prevail over all the earth. Again, that's his justice, not ours.
00:33:12
Speaker
If we as believers in Jesus do not like the way that this world is shaping out to be right now, the answer is not this. The answer is not to complain about it and to ask God to fix it for our own pleasure and our own comfort. That's how we have a tendency to approach it at times.
00:33:31
Speaker
That's not the correct answer. For us, if we don't like the way that the world is shaping out to be, the answer is for us to pray to our heavenly Father who is just and righteous and good and ask persistently for his justice to prevail so that by his good deeds, all may come to know the saving power of Christ Jesus. That's how we ought to be praying. That by the example that we are setting, those who are lost will be found.
00:33:59
Speaker
Those who do not know Jesus will come to know Jesus by the good deeds in which God does through us, not on our own, but by God through us. This is a weighty thing for us as a church, and we need to wake up and understand that.
00:34:19
Speaker
But I want to close with this. There's a really powerful quote that I'm going to read to you by Chuck Swindoll. Many of you guys know old Chuck. At least I've read some of his books. He says this, having encouraged his followers to persistently pray for justice on earth, his rhetorical questions toward faith, not merely trust in his work on earth or his ability to save us from sin, but believe in his imminent return.
00:34:45
Speaker
So I'm going to reread that to you guys. Says, having encouraged his followers to persistently pray for justice on earth, his rhetorical question points towards faith, not merely trust in his work or his ability to save us from sin, but believe in his imminent return.
00:35:02
Speaker
So again, as Jesus concludes this, he is encouraging the believers that we need to be constant in prayer, persistent in prayer in all things. And we need to be praying persistently for God's justice to reign. So that way, one day when he does return, there'll be more and more in the family that guy can welcome home. I'll be ready to do that.
00:35:33
Speaker
Because that's a big responsibility church. And it takes a really big heart check in order to do that. So my challenge to us as believers today is that we will, as we leave, that we will really do a heart check. That we will understand the purpose behind why we are praying and the motive by which we are praying. But for the unbelievers in here, for anyone who does not know Jesus, I pray that
00:36:03
Speaker
you will come to know the fact that God is a loving, that he's a loving, just God who desires to have all of us in his family. After all, we were created in his image and his likeness. He wants all of us to be in right relationship with him. So I pray that if you have any questions or if you have a desire to start a relationship with Jesus today that you will not hesitate, that you can come down, you can talk to me, you can talk to Victor, you can talk to any other believer in here.
00:36:33
Speaker
And we can make that right today. You can start that relationship with Jesus. But if you have anything else on your heart, if you have any bitterness or frustration towards anybody else in your life that you need to lay before the throne right now, that you will pray either in your seat or you can come up here to the altar, you can pray with me, you can pray with Victor, but we need to let that go.
00:36:57
Speaker
We need to let our selfish motives go. And then we need to trust in the fact that God is going to provide for us in every way, especially when it comes to justice. Will you guys pray with me?
00:37:11
Speaker
Lord, God, we again just thank you for your word and we thank you for this time. And I pray, God, that it was honoring to you, Lord, that your spirit will be working in us and through us throughout the rest of this day and the week to come. And Lord, that we will just humbly put ourselves before you, allowing you to change our hearts, Lord, to where our hearts are in constant relationship and communion and communication with you.
00:37:38
Speaker
Lord, that we will just persistently be praying for justice to reign. And again, that's not out of a sense of wanting to see our own desires come to play. But Lord, the desire to see your word come to life in this world.
00:37:55
Speaker
That is our prayer. But Lord, I do pray right now that if there's anyone here that needs to confess or to lift anything to you, that they'll do that now. But if there's anyone who wants to start a relationship with you, Father, who just finally understands their need for a Savior and their need for a loving, just God to come into a life, to lead them and to guide them, that, Father, they'll do that today as well. But Lord, no matter what it is, I pray that we'll just lay it all down on your feet now. It's in Jesus' name. Amen.
00:38:28
Speaker
This is a ministry of First Baptist Church, located at 1700 Milam Street, Columbus, Texas.