Persistent Prayer Luke 18:1-8

Morning everyone. Glad to be here on this blessed day. We'll go through here are the announcements. Before we do this week's, we'll do what kind of happened leading up to this. So we had this past Wednesday, just the Praying with Paul book that the pastor leads on Wednesdays at 5 30.

That's a bi-weekly meeting that we have both here at the church and online. Feel free to join if you're available. We also had men's breakfast yesterday, which was a small but intimate group, as Harold would say.

And that was a great time with fellowshipping with men. We do once a month. And leading into this week's or upcoming announcements, we have the leadership meeting coming for elders and deacons that we'll be meeting.

Well, you guys will be meeting here on Wednesday, but we'll have that at 6 p .m. here, just sort of FYI. And then we also have the missionary of the month, who is Penny Hardin. She's part of the BMW, not the car company, but she's a death ministry.

And she's been a part of that ministry for around 30 years now. It actually started in SAC in 1997, which is very interesting. And the church of which that she was ministering with has well over 100 plus members attending weekly at the church on their death, essentially.

Then she moved to Vallejo in 1999, where she's now focusing her ministry efforts there. So just pray for her as she's evangelizing, discipling, and also training up of many deaf women in the Vallejo area.

And hopefully it spreads to surrounding areas as well. And then we also have the next biblical counseling course, the second to last one. It's going to be next Saturday, but we'd still love to have you if you could come.

It'll be at 9 a .m. for all those who are interested. And then we also have the other occurrence of praying with Paul, which will happen on not this Wednesday, but next Wednesday, May 15th at 5 p .m. or 5 30 p .m.

And then we also have women's Bible study. Women, mark your calendars, May 18th. Barbara's going to be leading that. Be here at 10 a .m. And then we also have, if you guys haven't seen it, there's a new issue of The Voice magazine that you guys can pick up.

It's actually in the back on the table there if you guys are interested in. And we'll, before we go into worship, we'll pray us out. Dear Lord, thank you for this day you've given us today. Thank you for allowing us here to gather in fellowship with like-minded Christian believers, Lord, as we worship and praise your name, Lord.

And I pray that you prepare our hearts, Lord, to receive the message that pastor will be preaching us today and that we too can lift up your name and learn more about your character here today, Lord. In your name we pray, in Jesus' name, amen.

We picked our hymns this week generally around the theme of prayer, making our petitions to the Lord. This first one we have is, I Must Tell Jesus. We do thank the Lord that we can bring to the Lord.

And say to him what's on our heart. So stand together with me. If you'd like to turn to Romans.

12, we'll be reading verses 17 through 21. Romans 12, 17 through 21. Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.

Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath, for it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. Therefore, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he's thirsty, give him drink, for in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head.

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Thank you, Father, for the word that it never returns void, and we give this to you in Jesus' name, amen.

Just a children's church at this time, as pastor comes.

Persistent Prayer and the Coming Kingdom

Now let's turn to Luke chapter 18, verses 1 through 8. Luke chapter 18, verses 1 through 8. Then he spoke a parable to them that men always ought to pray and not lose heart, saying, there was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man.

Now there was a widow in that city, and she came to him saying, get justice for me from my adversary. And he would not for a while, but afterward he said within himself, though I do not fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.

Then the Lord said, hear what the unjust judge said, and shall God not avenge his own elect who cry out day and night to him, though he bears long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily.

Nevertheless, when the son of man comes, will he really find faith on the earth? This is the word of the Lord. Let us pray. Father, we're grateful that your kingdom is coming when Jesus comes back physically, and we long to see the whole world ruled by the only king.

And we pray that we would pray during our personal times and during corporate prayers that his kingdom may come soon. Uh, we long to see true justice, God's justice on earth. We long to see true peace, God's peace on earth.

And we pray that you would make it possible. Help us to endure until the end that you may find us praying all of our lives longing for the coming kingdom in Jesus name. As you may have noticed from the song choices today, this passage is on prayer.

And it's just not any prayer. It's not just that type of prayer where you hear something that your brother or sister in Christ has told you that's really challenging is that you say, I will pray for you.

Uh, and hopefully you do pray for them, but it's this persistent prayer that has to do with, uh, the eternal perspective in mind, right? And how I get this context is from the previous passage in which Jesus announces the second coming, his second coming in which he will punish the wicked and vindicate the righteous.

Uh, and he will do it swiftly when he comes, which means we have to consider the original context. The original audience who heard Jesus speak has just heard the good news that Jesus will come back the second time and justice will be established swiftly.

All the rulers and generals and tyrants who tortured and put down Israel in all of history will have their day in court. Remember Israel for most of its history, they've been just attacked from the North or the South everywhere.

Um, and part of it is because of their own sinfulness. They were being punished, disciplined, uh, for their faithlessness toward the God who deliver them. But that's just also the reality of living in a fallen sinful world in which not just at an individual level, but at a national level, nations vie for worship.

Although this is great news for Israel, Jesus in this passage addresses how his disciples must live before the second coming. After all, from the last passage, the length of weight could be, it's unknown.

We don't know when the second coming will be. And for us, the current world affairs make it seem difficult to have hope that things will eventually get better. People often try to place hope in one event or another.

Well, if it's this election, if this election goes this way, it is the most pivotal election. I don't know how many times I've heard the word pivotal related to elections. Uh, in the last couple of decades, it seems like every election is the pivotal election that, that, that determines the fate of this country and even the world.

And I'm frankly not sure if an election can solve all the cultural and moral decay this nation has, uh, endured and experienced. And this morning, the call is not to overthrow the wicked systems and prepare for the world, prepare the world for the coming King.

That's not the message at all. In fact, that's not what Jesus is saying at all. He's not asking for a system change with our own strength. The call this morning is not activism, but rather prayer. It's to persistently go to God, asking for the things that he would want us to ask for.

It's asking for the things with the eternal perspective in mind, asking petitioning for things that heavily relate to the coming of God's only King, Jesus Christ. And if you have been part of the, uh, Sunday evening prayer group or, uh, the new, uh, Bible study on praying with Paul, almost every chapter, uh, deals with the types of petition that we bring to God must be more than just the present physical circumstances.

In fact, we ought to pray for not just ourselves, but for one another to long for and to endure until Christ comes back. It's to long for and desire the full vindication of God's people when Christ comes back.

So the main point of today's message is we must persistently pray without losing heart, despite the seeming delay, because God compassionately listens to his people's pleas and will establish his kingdom.

We must persistently pray without losing heart, despite the seeming delay, because God compassionately listens to his people's pleas and will establish his kingdom. First, until the coming of his kingdom, we must persistently pray without losing heart.

Until the coming of his kingdom, we must persistently pray without losing heart. So after teaching his disciples of the eschatological vindication that's coming, Jesus tells a parable to show them how to live until then.

After all, there is a long period between the teaching and his second coming. Then he spoke a parable to them that men always ought to pray and not lose heart. The purpose of the parable is actually found before the parables even told that men always ought to pray and not lose heart.

Men here, of course, mean any of the disciples, both male and female, right? Men, collectively speaking, is inclusive of anyone who follows Christ. And what this shows is the reality of Christian life is full of suffering and trials.

They're guaranteed. Christians will face injustice and hardship solely because of their allegiance to Christ. In fact, without the right eschatological perspective, as in the perspective on the last days, prayers seem pointless and endurance nearly impossible.

We have to have the right view of what God is going to do in the last days. The parable is to prevent the mindset. It's to prevent the mindset of just giving up. It's to prevent the mindset of apathy.

Oh, it doesn't matter anyway. We must always pray and not get weary. We must consistently pray and not get discouraged. And verse two introduces the first character of the parable. There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard men.

Just like most parables, we are only given the most important detail. Does not matter what city. It does not matter when. The focus is on the characters. The first character is an unjust judge. His motivation for justice is actually absent.

He does not care for God nor man. Not fearing God means he has no respect for God. He has no reverence for God. He does not consider God's will or law when deciding on cases. He will. He also does not fear what God will do to him on judgment day.

He doesn't care about God. And without such a fear, he will not do what is right. And that's a given. Second, he has no regard for men. What this means is he is unashamed of the injustice he is practicing toward the people.

He does not care what others will think of him. In our nation, there are non-Christians who still carry out justice at certain level, at some level, because they regard other people. They may not regard God at all.

They may be atheists. They may be pagans. But they do what is right because they regard other people. And that's why there are secular judges and police officers who do their jobs rightly because they compassionately desire to protect the people.

They feel this sense of urgency to do what is right even though they don't really care about God because they regard people at least. Yet for this judge, even that quality is not even there. He will be unmoved by any compassion for the helpless.

Whether God or men, he frankly could not care less, which means there's no incentive for this judge to do justice. He is completely corrupt. And verse 3 introduces the second character. Now there was a widow in that city and she came to him saying, get justice for me from my adversary.

In that same unknown city, there is a widow. A widow is someone who's lost her husband. And back then in which women actually didn't work in the field as much to get money for the household, this was a tragic thing.

Hence, many widows were known to be vulnerable to injustice. And I think the choice of this character is significant because the widow is asking for justice because she can't get it for herself. If it had been any other character, it might have been possible.

But here's a widow who can't help herself. In fact, the Lord in the Old Testament commands how they ought to care for the widows in various places, not just once. In Exodus 22 through 24, God commands Israel to not mistreat widows because God will hear their cry and act on their behalf.

In the end, if you mistreat the vulnerable among God's people, you're going to have to deal with God. Deuteronomy 10 .18, the Almighty God who cannot be bribed, He's the one who stands up for the widows.

He's an independent guy. God does not need anything from anyone. He has everything that He needs. He is self-sufficient. We call that doctrine aseity. He's to himself. He doesn't need us. He doesn't need any money.

He can't be bribed, which means He has no incentive to commit injustice. He's completely just because He can't be bribed. Now, what does this unbribable judge do? Well, because He does not need any money from anyone, He will take care of those who cannot defend themselves, includes the widows.

Deuteronomy 27 .19 states that you will be cursed if you commit injustice against the widows. You'll be cursed by God. The law reflected God's compassionate heart towards the marginalized. In the end, that's what it meant to be God's people.

People who worship a compassionate God must themselves show compassion towards those who cannot help themselves on behalf of God. That's what it meant to be the people of God in the Old Testament, reflecting God's mercy towards those who need them.

And her request, the widow's request, is understandable. She wants justice from her adversary. It probably is a financial dispute in which she needs whether land or some sort of possession that rightfully belongs to her, but she can't get it herself.

But again, the focus is not about the legal condition. It is about what the judge will do. And knowing her widowhood, she is desperate for the righteous ruling. She needs the judge to act. However, the climax of the parable is that the corrupt judge is immovable.

He is unmoved by God's law, and he's unmoved by the compassion towards the weak. And the first part of the verse 4 tells us that he resisted doing anything for the poor widow initially, and he would not for a while.

However, we see a change through his inner thought. But afterward, he said within himself, though I do not fear God nor regard men. First, his self-reflection shows that he is aware of his notoriety.

He knows his infamous for being cruel. He does not fear God nor regard men. This means the unjust judge did not have an all-of-a-sudden conversion experience one night and decided, I'm going to do what's right.

What have I been doing? This is not about the Grinch who doubled his heart story. Rather, verse 5 tells us the true reason for the judge's change in action. Yet because this widow troubles me, I will avenge her.

Lest by her continual coming, she weary me. The reason for this change is purely selfish. The judge cannot take the constant beatdown from the woman's request. She's knocking on the door. Could you hear my case again?

Daily. Who knows, hourly. The judge cannot take the constant beatdown. Her persistence paid off. She knew she needed justice done by this judge. Although the judge is cruel, although the judge is inactive, the judge is corrupt, she knows that.

But she knows that justice has to be done. And for that little will in her heart, she kept coming back to the judge with no shame, with no hindrance, with no bother. She'll go again and again and again.

And this parable shows us the model for persistence in prayer before the second coming. First, persistence in prayer does not mean using prayer as a magic spell. And you know of different cults that have a written out prayer, and you have to say it a certain number of times in order for God to have favor on you.

That's not right. That's not persistence. That's what we call magic spell. Only if you pray 30 times, God will finally answer. That's called idolatry. It's an attempt to put God in a formula. And what we need to know is God cannot be put in a box for our control.

Second, persistence in prayer means continually going to God because you know He is able to answer. Persistence in prayer depends on your relationship with God. It's how you know God. It's what you know about God.

That's why you keep coming back. You humbly approach God, trusting that He is not only able, but is willing to make it right. It might not be in the time frame of your choice, but He will one day make it right.

And you understand and trust God's character and nature. You know He is faithful because He has a perfect track record of keeping His promises. And you know He is merciful because He saved you, not because you earned it, but because He is gracious and merciful.

And for us, the epitome of God's mercy is found on the cross, when He suffered God's wrath on our behalf so that He could dispense mercy on sinners like us. Not only do you know this, it's not just information that's in your head.

You trust it. You believe it. You depend on it. And because you depend on it, you go to Him daily with requests, even some of the requests that you might have said multiple times before. And for some of you, you have experienced this, so you know this personally.

You've been praying for some family members or friends to come to faith in Christ. And for some of you, you might have experienced God's answer after a decade, two decades. The key is the persistence, not because you want to annoy God, persistence because you trust God and what He has promised to do.

You trust God and who He is. Now, what is our basis for our persistent prayer? We pray persistently despite the seeming delay because our God will answer our cries to vindicate the righteous. We pray persistently despite the seeming delay because our God will answer our cries to vindicate the righteous.

Jesus applies the parable in this section. Then the Lord said, hear what the unjust judge said. And shall not God, shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them?

The application here is not that God is like the immovable judge who will answer only when He is sufficiently annoyed and irritated by how frequently you pray. That's not the correct application. Rather, it's the argument is lesser to greater.

What does that mean? The judge serves as the lesser example to show the greater truth that's revealed. So if the unrighteous judge finally responds to the petition for justice, even out of his annoyance, how much more will the compassionate, righteous judge God answer his people's prayer for justice?

That's the application of the parable. The judge's response is the negative example to contrast how much more effectively and efficiently the merciful judge God will answer His own elect when they cry out to Him day and night.

It's to show how responsive and how receptive God is when His people pray. Here, the context of the prayer is the eschatological vindication of God's people. God will avenge the very people that He has saved.

He will fully restore them. And they may be suffering right now. They may be persecuted right now. But their cries are not ignored. Their prayer requests for justice are not disregarded. And that's not because your prayer requests just hit the right marks of God's standard.

It's because God is merciful to listen to your prayer requests. God's response is that He bears long with them. It means God is patient with His elect. What does this mean? In one sense, Christians need to wait until the full vindication.

This is because, in fact, God is patient with the world, even the wicked people God's patient with, so that those who do not believe Him may have the opportunity and the time to respond. God is long-suffering to not zap anyone who blasphemes Him because He gives them time to respond in repentance and faith.

That's the first part of His patience. In another sense, God bears long with us, in fact, by providing some relief to us in our time. It is purely God's grace that the world is not the worst that it could ever be.

Imagine all the weaponry that all these nations have, and they didn't use it all up against each other. That's God's patience. That's God's long-suffering. It is God's extraordinary mercy that the gospel is still preached in this country.

We live in a country where the moral decay is so bad that we're not even ashamed of it. We take pride in it, right? That's all that LGBTQ agenda. The thing is, they're not even ashamed of pushing that agenda on kids.

They think they're doing something right, and that's even more disturbing. But the fact that we have churches still in this country, even in this city, the capital of California, that there are churches that preach the gospel from Scripture, that's God's long-suffering.

The fact that Sacramento this morning wasn't wiped out is God's mercy and long-suffering. The fact that in this country, churches are not physically persecuted, or even at the spiritual level, Satan and his demons are restrained from fully unleashing their wickedness into this world.

It is God's patience when he helps us to endure our trials, and when he protects us through our suffering rather than just taking away our suffering. That's God's long-suffering. And ultimately, God will answer the cries of his saints for full exoneration.

Verse 8, I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. This may seem contradictory since we just talked about how God is patient with us, not ending the world, which signified there's got to be some wait time involved until the full consummation of his kingdom.

However, the tension of the imminence of his coming and then the long wait, that tension exists all throughout the New Testament. I'll quote from a few human authors. Paul writes about the imminent total victory over Satan when he's writing to the Romans, Romans 1620.

The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Paul seems to suggest that Satan will be fully vanquished soon. John writes in Revelation 1, when he actually writes of all the eschatological events that will soon take place in 1 .1, the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place.

As far as I know, most of these things didn't take place. Yet, how do we explain this immediacy of the consummation of Christ's kingdom in light of the 2 ,000 years of waiting? We have to compare what soon is compared to the eternity with Christ.

2 ,000 years are just the blink of an eye. Just as one year may seem like forever to a young child who is waiting for his next birthday after a nice party that his parents threw him, yet to an older saint it seems like a blink that a year or another has gone by, another birthday to celebrate.

The coming of the kingdom is speedy, yet it seems delayed. What this means is when we are with Christ, we're not going to think, gee, Jesus, how, how, that was a long time. We're actually going to think, well, compared to all eternity, you did come pretty quick.

That happened really quickly. You know, after a thousand years of just living with Jesus, like, what is, what's that in comparison to the 80 years you lived on earth, 90 years, right? Hence, the next part of the verse implies its delay, the seeming delay, not that God is ever late, but when we experience it, it seems like we're waiting.

Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he really find faith on the earth? There are a couple of implications with this question. First, the second coming could be later than expected, especially for the first century disciples.

In the end, they did not get to see the second coming. Second, the spiritual condition around the time of the second coming will be poor. The question is asking, will there be faithful prayer warriors when he comes back on the earth?

That insinuates that there might be less faith, fewer faithful believers on earth nearing the time of his second coming. Third, despite this gloomy state, Jesus is coming back. Jesus coming back does not depend on how great the world is, or how prepared the world is, or how faithful the people of God are.

It only depends on him and him alone. In that regard, the warning to all the saints today and back then is to be watchful and pray. Continue to pray knowing that Jesus will come soon to establish his kingdom despite what the world looks like right now.

And I think for some of you, the older saints who have lived through major events in history, you're not too worried when things seem to be going downhill. Another economic downturn, other riots, another war that's looming.

It's because you have experienced God's faithfulness and mercy through the past events. And for all of us, this is a call to persevere in prayer for the coming kingdom. Jesus' call to pray is not based upon some fluffy, heartwarming idea that his kingdom may come.

It's based upon his faithful promise that he will make all things right when he comes back. It's based upon evidence. For many of us, we may be spiritually tired when interceding, not only for our lost loved ones, but even this nation.

It seems like every year they're finding new ways to make something worse. They're finding new ways to celebrate another evil thing. And some of you might be emotionally feeling hopelessness or just almost a sense of apathy, like why even try, regarding the trajectory of our state, this state, California.

Whether the US Congress or the State Assembly, laws are passed that seem to be protecting the wicked and punishing the innocent. And considering where our culture is right now, it is hard to even think about what justice would even look like if the DOJ actually does its job.

It seems like the wicked are scoring points left and right and the Christians are just staying silent and retreating back. And in fact, that has rallied up a lot of Christian men to support things like Christian nationalism.

I'm not against Christians supporting America. I think we ought to pray for America. I think we have to support America. But if our goal, if our goal, if the church's goal is to make America into a Christian nation so that we may be just comfortable, so that we may not be persecuted, I think we're missing the big picture.

And that's because today's text is not going out there and retrieving the ground we've lost. That's not what Jesus tells us today. Today's text is not about encamping in D .C. or the Capitol until the politicians finally listen to our demands and roll back their legally sanctioned perversion and wickedness.

The church's goal today is not to have a place at the table. Not that they would give it to us. Today's text is a call to go on our knees and pray that Christ may come back soon to not only reverse this trend, but to completely vindicate the righteous.

It's way bigger than having the Christian majority serving the Congress. I would say that's a goal far too small. It's way bigger than having a conservative president. It is a request to have an absolute monarch who will rule righteously 100 of the time.

And there will be no opposition that can stand. And how Christians prepare for that is by going to him ourselves. Are you longing for the day when you won't be called a bigot for believing only Jesus can save?

Are you longing for the day when your young children, the most vulnerable among us, would not be exposed to such perverted materials at school? Are you longing for the day when our wicked state would stop funding organizations that slaughter babies in the womb and criminalize those who try to save them?

You have come to the right text. We must persistently pray to the King of Kings to act on behalf of his people who are crying out in suffering and despair. When we suffer injustice for our faith, we must pray with these eternal perspective in mind.

The end is written. We get to be a part of that. And we get to be a part of longingly waiting for it without losing heart. We don't lose heart because it's not some flimsy hope that we have or a nice imagined idea, but that it will be one day reality.

Every mocker, every tormentor, and every persecutor of God's people who may easily evade the human court, who may be easily part of the human court, will never escape the wrath of God when Christ comes back.

Our response until then is to constantly call out to God and trust him for what he has promised to do, knowing that he will establish his kingdom and the gates of hell will not be able to overwhelm it.

That is our call today. And brothers and sisters, if you are feeling disheartened, if you're feeling, why am I even living in California and funding all this debauchery? Well, you have one reason, and that reason is even California will submit to the rule of Christ.

And we ask that Jesus come back soon. Let us pray. Father, we are grateful that our assurance of the future does not depend on our feelings, but depends on the faithful King who has kept every promise that he's made.

That our assurance of the righteousness that will rule over all the world is not based upon fiction, but based upon the fact that Jesus Christ died for our sin and conquered sin and death once and for all.

And we just eagerly wait for the risen King to come back, help us, help us to not lose heart, help us to not get discouraged, help us to not get depressed, especially when we're on the winning side. Help us to live in that identity of the victorious people, the people who belong to the conquering King.

In Jesus name.