Good morning, BCF, on this snow day. Wish we were together, but the Lord had different plans. If you would, please take your Bible and turn to Luke 18, Luke chapter 18, and I will be reading verses one through eight, and while you're turning there, I just want to thank Jared for leading us in our singing this morning. Jared, it's so important what you do, and I just really appreciate you leading us this morning. Hopefully you found Luke 18 in your Bibles. Again, I'll be reading verses one through eight. And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said, in a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and 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. And will not God give justice to his elect who cry to him day and night? 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? Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for this morning, we thank you for your word, and thank you for the gift of prayer. Thank you that as our loving Father, you made a way, you made it possible for us to approach your throne of grace through and because of your Son's completed work on the cross. So Father, help us as a church, help us please to see the power of prayer, and help us to be a people of prayer. We ask these things in Jesus's name. Amen. When it comes to prayer, most, if not all of us, recognize its value. In fact, most of us would affirm these words written by Derek Prime regarding the significance of prayer in the Christian's life. Prime writes, prayer is not simply a most important activity, It is the most important. There is no other similar activity upon which every other activity in the Christian life depends. As my pulse is one of the primary indications of my physical life, so my praying is one of the principal proofs of my spiritual life. And all of us would say amen to that. Yet when push comes to shove for most of us, when it comes to our prayer life, if we're honest, most of us would have to admit that the time and energy we put towards prayer is not where we would like it to be. And the question is why? Why on the one hand do we acknowledge the importance of prayer, yet on the other hand, we spend so little time in it? I think there's many reasons why so many of us struggle with prayer. For some of us, it's just simply a matter of not knowing how to pray. And we shouldn't be embarrassed about that because Jesus knows that about us and even teaches us how to pray. And you can see that for yourself in Luke 11. Others of us waver in our prayer life because of pride. Pride keeps us from praying because we think that we can manage life's affair on our own. For some of us, it's just flat out laziness. It takes time and it takes energy and a little bit of planning to maintain an active prayer life. And we just don't or won't make it a priority. And for some of us, it's just indifference. We don't seem to be burdened with the things that should drive us to our knees. And listen, I just want to make it clear. I want to make it clear that I would be the first to admit that I've been guilty of all the reasons that I just mentioned that lead to prayerlessness. If I do an inventory of my own life and look over those four categories, ignorance, check, in my life. Pride, check. Laziness, check. Indifference, check. But our passage this morning gives us perhaps the most profound or at least the most insightful reason why you and I don't pray. It's as if the word of God this morning does an MRI on our hearts only to discover what is at the core of our prayerless existence. And you know what the test results show? You and I don't pray because we lose heart. We lose heart. What does it mean to lose heart? It means to grow weary. It means to be discouraged. It means to be hopeless. And how does a despairing heart lead to prayerlessness? It happens when our prayers are not answered how we think they ought to be answered and according to our timing. In short, we walk away from praying because we tell ourselves, why bother? Why bother praying for my spouse's salvation? I've been praying for that for years and it's gone unanswered. Why bother praying for my work situation? I've been praying for God to grant me a job. A job in which I can take my gifts and my talents and utilize them. And it feels as if my prayers have been hit in the ceiling. Why bother praying about my loneliness? I've been pleading with God for years to bring someone special into my life and yet here I am still alone. If you've ever or currently, if you ever have felt that and you're failing to pray because of a disappointment or because of dejection or discouragement. I've got news for you. You're not alone. In fact, Jesus knew that this would be an issue for us. And that's why in verse one of our passage, we read, and he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. If you're here, or at least watching this morning and have grown weary and tired in your prayer life. The purpose of this morning's passage and the purpose of this message is to encourage you to persist in prayer, to persist in prayer. Now to give you the context of this passage in Luke 18, Jesus is talking to his disciples. In other words, when verse one says that he told them a parable, the he there is Jesus, and the them are the disciples. And why Jesus addresses the topic of persistent prayer, it's not coincidental, nor is it accidental. Jesus had just talked to his disciples in chapter 17, where it was recorded about his soon departure and eventual return. In other words, you and I are living between the first and second comings of Jesus Christ. The first time Jesus came, he established his kingdom by dying on the cross and being raised from the dead. But then what happened? He ascended to heaven. And we know the next event to take place in God's redemptive story is for Christ to return. So as followers of Jesus Christ, we're living between the two comings of Christ. Last week in David Kingston's sermon, he referred to this in between time as the already and the not yet. And Jesus knew that living in the not yet would be challenging. Jesus knew that his followers would face persecution and suffering. And Jesus knew that for his followers to walk upstream with and in the truth of the gospel, that that would be met with disdain. Recently, I received an email from Open Doors Ministry, which tracks the persecution of Christians worldwide. The email began with these words. By the time you go to sleep tonight, On average, 13 Christians will die. 12 Christians will be unjustly arrested, detained, or imprisoned. Five believers will be kidnapped. Why? Just because they follow Jesus. Jesus knew that this is what the disciples could anticipate. And 2,000 years later, Jesus knows that this is what we, BCF, Christians in this country and Christians around the world could anticipate. Persecution is the path that God has chosen for his people. And in the midst of it, Jesus knew that suffering would cause many of us to lose heart and to give up praying. So to encourage us, he tells his disciples, and by extension, us today, a parable about persistency. The parable, which begins in verse two of chapter 18, has two main characters. The first is a man who worked as a judge. Originally, when I first wrote this out, I wrote, There was a man who served as a judge. This was no servant. This man was a self-serving man who worked as a judge. And we're not told if this man was a Roman or a Jewish judge. I tend to think that he was a Jewish judge since typically the Romans defer to the Jewish judicial system to work out economic grievances. What we are told about this judge is that he neither feared God nor respected man. And this was not just the word-on-the-street perception of this judge. He himself acknowledged in verse 4, I neither fear God nor respect man. This is the judge speaking of himself, giving a self-assessment. What a dangerous an evil combination for any person, much less a judge. When you have a judge, or a political leader for that matter, who does not fear God and does not respect the dignity of human beings, you have a judge who will be intoxicated with power and will inevitably place himself where? Above the law. That is why in the Old Testament, when judges were appointed, they were told the following. Consider what you do, 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 with the Lord our God, or partiality, or taking bribes. But this judge in the parable, he did not fear God, nor did he respect human beings made in the image of God, which probably meant that he was susceptible to bribes. So the first character in this parable is an ungodly and ruthless judge. The second character we meet in this parable is a widow. And what do we know about widows in the ancient world? We know that the life of a widow was difficult, it was rough, it was tough. Remember in the Old Testament book of Ruth, when Naomi went to the land of Moab? And while in Moab, she lost her husband and her two sons, leading her to return to her home in Bethlehem. And do you remember when she returned home and some of the local women said, hey, look, it's Naomi. Do you remember how she responded? She said, don't call me Naomi, call me Mara, which means bitter. Why? Because the life of a widow was a bitter one. Daily provisions that we often take for granted were difficult to come by. for the widow in the ancient world. In fact, that's why throughout the Old Testament, God was keenly aware of the widow's plight and put laws into place to protect and to provide for her. As early as the book of Exodus, we read these words in chapter 22, you shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child. And God's concern for the widow, it flowed from His heart. A heart that according to Deuteronomy 10.18 tells us that God executes justice for the fatherless and the widow. And that He loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. And one way that God executed justice for the widow was to command farmers who were within the community of believers in the ancient world to leave any produce that fell to the ground for widows to come and to collect it for themselves. But the widow in this parable was not receiving justice. She had an adversary that in all likelihood was causing her some sort of financial difficulty. Because of her condition, she had no one to protect her. She had no one to come to her defense. She certainly lacked the funds for legal counsel, but she had one thing. She had persistence. And so she went to the judge to plead her case. Judge, give me justice. And for a while he refused. After all, he neither feared God or humans made in his image, but she kept coming. kept pursuing him, kept shadowing him. I just picture this widow pleading her case to the judge at every opportunity. In the morning, on his way to the bench, she would find her way into his presence. Judge, please give me justice. In the afternoon, in the marketplace, judge, please give me justice. In the evening on his way home, judge, please give me justice. Day after day, week after week, until the judge could not take it any longer. And in verse five, in total exasperation, the judge says, because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming. The term beat down literally means to give someone a black eye. In other words, this widow was so relentless that the judge feared that she would give him an emotional black eye if he were to refuse her justice. Some of us who are parents have been on the receiving end of a persistent child. Sometimes kids just beat you down sometimes to the point where you just give in to their requests. Okay, enough. You win. Not only can you do what you're asking for, but I'll even pay for it if you just please stop. Is that the point of the story? Is that the point of the parable? For us just to beat God down? so that he gives us what we want? I don't think so. The point of this parable is to contrast the ruthless, unloving judge with the holy and righteous God. In other words, if the judge who lacked any godly integrity who could care less about people, if that judge responded to the persistent pleads of a widow, how much more will our God respond to the pleads of His people? That's the point of this parable. You see, unlike the unjust character of the judge, our God, He's just. As I mentioned earlier, God is the God who looks after the widow and the orphan and the helpless. But let's be honest, living in between the two advents of Jesus Christ, it's easy to get discouraged over all the world's injustices. Injustices like the exploitation of women and children that continues to take place through sex trafficking. Injustices like the prejudgment that exists today because of the color of one's skin. Injustices like the atrocity of abortion, which has taken over 61 million lives in the United States alone. Injustices like the mistreatment and even killings of Christians around the world. And it's easy. to look at these injustices and give up and become weary and hopeless. But we need to remember our God, he's just. And one day every sin and every injustice will come before and under his final judgment. But in the meantime, we can still fight against injustice whenever we see it. We are not to be passive. God is a God of justice, and since he cares for those who are weak and vulnerable, so should we. But we can also continue to pray. We pray for our enemies, we pray for the vulnerable, we pray for the values of God's kingdom to find their way in the hearts of those who neither fear God nor respect human life. And lastly, we can pray that we do not lose heart in the midst of so much pain and suffering in the world. So we persist in praying because God is just. We also persist in our prayers because God is caring. Again, the parable's point was not to compare the earthly judge to God, but to contrast the two. The earthly judge had no respect for the dignity of human beings. All he cared about was himself, yet this uncaring judge eventually responded to the persistent pleads of the widow. If that was true about the judge, just think how much more will our caring God respond to our prayers. Sometimes we forget that God really cares about you and that He really cares about me. In fact, if you are His, He refers to you in this passage as His elect. Do you know what that means? That means that before the foundations of the earth, he chose you. He chose you and he chose me to be his very own. And you were not chosen because of your brilliance or your wisdom or for what you could do for God. It was completely based on grace that he chose to make you one of his. Do you believe that God cares about you and for you this morning? I mean at the core of your being. Do you believe that He causes all things to work for His glory and your good? Do you believe that? Do you believe that He knows what is best for you? What you and I think and know about God will determine whether we lose heart or continue down the road of prayer. So we persist in prayer because God is just and because he cares. And lastly, we persist in prayer because God is wise. He's a wise God. Look again at verses seven and eight. And will not God give justice to his elect who cry to him day and night? And of course, the answer to this rhetorical question is yes. Yes, God will give justice because he is just and because he's caring. Then Jesus asks a more difficult question. Will He delay long over them? And the answer to that question is found in verse eight. I tell you, He will give justice to them speedily. To which you say, it doesn't feel speedily. It feels like it's taking forever. How can it be speedily when I've been praying for my son or my daughter for 10, 15, 20, 30 years for his or her salvation? How is that speedily? To which the Bible says, to your legitimate question, our timing is not like God's timing. A day is like a thousand years to God and a thousand years is like a day. From our perspective, God seems absent or uninterested because he's not responding according to our timing. But that's not the case. He is all wise and he knows how to answer our prayers best and when to answer our prayers. And sometimes he answers with a yes and sometimes with a no and sometimes with a wait. Romans 11.33, oh, the depth of the riches in wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways. Are you losing heart this morning? Have you given up on prayer? Let me encourage you to persist in prayer. Yes. This world is difficult, especially as we live in between the two comings of Jesus, but we do not need to lose heart. God is just and God is caring and God is wise. But there's another reason for us to persist in prayer. Prayer is the means by which our faith is fueled. Jesus ends this passage with a very provocative statement. Look again at the end of verse eight. Nevertheless, when the son of man comes, will he find faith on earth? What's Jesus saying there? I would explain what he is saying this way. As we live between the two comings of Jesus, things will be difficult and some will lose heart and some will become so weary that they will abandon their faith. Then the question becomes, how do you know if you might be headed down that road? And the answer is this. Look at your prayer life. Prayer gives evidence to a life of faith that will prevail to the end. Are you losing your heart this morning? Are you in despair? Are you discouraged? Have you lost confidence in prayer? This has eternal implications. If so, let me end with the words of J.C. Ryle, who just sums it all together so beautifully. Ryle writes, do we ever feel a secret inclination to hurry our prayers or shorten our prayers or become careless about our prayers, or omit our prayers altogether. Let us be sure, when we do, that is a direct temptation from the devil. He is trying to sap and undermine the very citadel of our souls, and to cast us down to hell. Let us resist the temptation and cast it behind our backs. Let us resolve to pray on steadily, patiently, perseveringly, and let us never doubt that it does us good. However long the answer may be in coming, still let us pray on. Whatever sacrifice and self-denial it may cost us, still let us pray on. And that's my prayer for me and my prayer for you, that together we would persist in prayer. Let's pray right now. Father God, I wanna pray, Lord God, for those who are listening, carrying a burden, who are discouraged, who are in despair, resulting in a prayerless life. Father God, I pray that through your word and through the power of the Holy Spirit, that you would encourage your people to get back on their knees. Oh, Father God, we need you. We are helpless without you. We can't do it on our own. We've tried and we failed. So Father, put the desire for prayer in our hearts. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.