I would ask you to turn to Luke's Gospel, chapter 18. And I just want to ask you pointedly and personally, how is your prayer life? Is it non-existent? Is it weak? Is it growing? Is it real? When I say this, what comes to mind? 9-11. I know what comes to most of our minds, but a different 9-11 comes to my mind. Acts 9-11 says, The mark of a regenerate heart. When Saul of Tarsus was arrested on the road to Damascus, and Barnabas was sent to him, the Lord said, Behold, he prayeth. 9-11. Acts. Answers to prayer are so marvelous. And here's a question. Here's a searching question. That every young person who knows the Lord Jesus, to the oldest among us, the newest Christian, to the believer that's known the Lord for years, do we pray about the littlest things every day in our life? The tiniest things? Do we lift those things to the Lord in prayer and say, Father, work in this? Conversational prayer. Ejaculatory prayer. Throwing up prayers from your mind and your heart. Even when you never open your mouth and say them out loud. Praying without ceasing. Do you pray about the littlest thing? Before we read, just some answers to prayer to give glory to God. That we've seen in over the years and even recently one year. One summer, we were scheduled to go to Kirksville, Missouri, where Charles Lighter lives. And he and I were doing a wedding together from two people, a girl from Missouri and a man in our church. And we were to leave about noon the next day. Well, my son and I were, the night before, it was late afternoon into the evening, we were delivering some flyers in this neighborhood for some youth activity. And apparently, our checkbook was laying in our seat. And apparently, my son somehow got to sitting on it. And apparently, he unconsciously pulled it out. And it fell outside in a far neighborhood in our town because I knew it was there. And when we got home and I began to look for it, it was not in the car anywhere. It was not to be found. And I began to panic. We needed it for the trip and I didn't know where it could be and we didn't have time really to go looking. And I was just anxious and worried. So my wife Linda says, well, have you prayed about it? And I wanted to say, yeah, alright. That's what I wanted to say. You know, we men have a hard time humbling ourselves when our wife asks us the embarrassing questions. And I said, no. And so, that's all she needed to say. I was rebuked. She walked on in the kitchen. And you have a choice at that point. And sometimes we don't pray because you know why? We will be embarrassed if we don't get an answer. That is a trap of the enemy. Because listen, our responsibility is to ask God. His responsibility is to answer when and how He wants to. The answer is not my responsibility. My job is to pray and believe God and ask Him and leave the results to Him. we nail that down, we'll pray a lot more. Because our Father knows what we have need of, and He knows when and how to answer. He's had some practice at it. So, I humbled myself and I prayed. Linda and I prayed. We asked the Lord for that checkbook. Well, did we know how God would answer that prayer? No, we didn't have a clue. But the next morning, I went out to check for the mail. The mail hadn't come yet, but guess what was in my mailbox? It was there by itself. Now, I didn't start thinking an angel grabbed it and flew over to our house and put it in the mailbox. Somebody had found it, and the address was on it, and they brought it by our house. And God answered prayer, specific prayer. Years ago in West Texas, the first church that I pastored out in ranch country, this church was in a little town, Guthrie, Texas, 90 miles north of Abilene, 90 miles west of Fort Worth. I'm sorry, 90 miles west of Lubbock. This town, Guthrie, Texas, sat in the middle of a 600,000 acre ranch. And everybody in the church worked basically for the ranch or for the county. One night at prayer meeting, a lady in the congregation said, Hey, could we pray for Sonny Props? That was his name. He's a cowboy over at another ranch over here. He's a believer, but he rarely gets off on Sunday, and he really doesn't have a pastor. And so, but he's dying of, I forget what kind of cancer it was, over here in Wichita Falls in the hospital. He doesn't have a pastor. Would you go visit him? And I said, sure, I'll go visit him tomorrow. And one of the men in our church, a godly cowboy, he was 60 years old, and his job on the ranch was breaking wild horses. That's what he did every day at 60. One of the godliest men I've ever known, John Gaither. And so, John Gaither and I said, we said, well, let's meet up at the hospital. I went to bed that night and about four o'clock in the morning, the Holy Spirit woke me up. It was as if somebody had honked a horn outside or a loud noise. I woke up. Instantly, I was wide awake and God was impressing Sunny props on my heart. I was burdened for him as if he was a relative. And I said, Lord, what do you want? And instantly, the Lord said to my heart, just clear, you go in that hospital room and you tell him he's healed. And peace and assurance flooded my heart. I knew what God was going to do. I went back to bed and I slept like a baby until about 8 o'clock. We drove to the hospital, walked in there, and he was semi-comatose. He was, not to be gross, but he was foaming at the mouth. He couldn't talk. He couldn't respond to anybody. They were desperately trying to get all his children there from around the country before he died. And John Gaither and I put on the mask and the gloves, and we went over, we laid hands on him, and we prayed. And I bent down to his ear and I said, Brother, the Lord says you're healed. And I walked out of the hospital room. I never saw him after that one time. But within 24 hours, he was conscious. Within 48 hours, the doctors couldn't find anything wrong with him. He left the hospital and he lived for years. God wants to answer prayer. He really does. And if you're a Christian, whether you're 10 years old or 14 or 19, Verse 79, God wants to give you a history of Ebenezer's of answered prayer. That you can look back on and say, God heard my cry there. He did this for me when I was in distress. He delivered here when man couldn't have done it. Ebenezers have answered prayer. I mean, when we prayed for Connie and her mother, were we actually seriously believing that right then God was hearing us and He was going to start doing something, He was going to dispense grace, He was going to move in their lives and do something as a result of our asking? It's an amazing reality, this thing of prayer is. Luke 18. Our Lord gives two parables on prayer in the Gospel of Luke. One of them is in Luke 11. And we could have gone there because that whole chapter is phenomenal. Jesus is setting an example of prayer. When He ceases, the disciples say, The Lord teaches us to pray. He starts teaching. I say unto you, well, He gives a parable about prayer. First, the Lord's Prayer, Luke's version of it. Then He goes into a parable about the friend who has a friend who's come at midnight. He has nothing to set before him. He gives the parable and then He says, And I say to you, ask and you'll receive. Seek and you'll find. Knock And the door will be opened for everyone who asks and keeps asking will receive. Everyone who seeks and keeps seeking will find. And everyone to whom they are knocking, and they keep on knocking, and they don't stop knocking, to them the door will be opened. And then the Lord says some other things related to prayer right in that whole chapter. And the greatest being, if you, being evil, give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who are asking Him? Matthew says, give good things to those who are asking. Well, that's Luke 11. That's another sermon. Luke 18, he does the same thing. Look with me in verses 1 through 8 at this other parable on prayer. Now notice something. This is the only parable where the teaching or the lesson the parable is supposed to teach is told at the front end. He told them a parable to the effect that men ought always to pray and not faint or not lose heart. So in other words, guys, here's the teaching of the parable. Here's what this parable is teaching. We ought always to pray and never give up. Then he gives the parable. He said in verse 2, in a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected men. And there was a widow in that city. Now stop right there. Think about on the human level, political level within a city like San Antonio, who would least likely to have clout with the big shots? a poor widow. She can't bring any political persuasion. She doesn't have any influence. So the Lord pictures humanly the weakest, littlest influence on a judge that there could possibly be. A widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, give me justice against my adversary. She didn't have a flowery presentation. She didn't have a PowerPoint presentation. She didn't have big arguments. In fact, she had one thing. She had one thing that she kept saying. I'm here to ask you to give me justice against my adversary. And she kept coming. For a while, verse 4 says he refused, but afterward he said, West Texas paraphrase, she's going to wear me out. I'm going to answer her. Though I fear not God nor respect men, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, keeps coming, she keeps pestering me, I will give her justice That she, so she will leave me alone and not wear me down by her continual coming. And the Lord said, now notice this. Jesus says, listen to what the unjust judge said. Will not God, verse 7, will not God give justice to His elect who cry to Him day and night? That's a rhetorical question. Which means the answer is obvious in the question. Will not God, who is not a wicked judge, who is not put off by others who does care, will not God give ear to the cries of His elect who continually come? The Lord says, I tell you, He will answer them speedily, just in time. When the answer needs to come, He's going to answer those who are crying out. And then Jesus closes with almost a rebuke. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, is He going to find faith? In other words, God will hear the cries of His children who cry out to Him continually. But when I come, am I going to find anybody who really believes this? How's your prayer life? John Piper said prayer is the splicing of our weak wire to the lightning bolt of heaven. So you don't have to be strong to pray. You have to be weak. Prayer is the language of the weak. Prayer is a weak person who desperately needs God, who says, my father has told me in His Word that He answers prayer and He invites me to come. He is true and faithful and I'm persuaded of it. Therefore, I'm going to come and ask because He's invited me to. And He says if I'll cry out to Him, He'll answer. That's faith. You remember Luke 2. It says of Mary that she believed that there would be a performance of that which was told her by the Lord. Think about that. Faith is not a feeling or an emotion or a great effort you make. Faith is your heart being persuaded. My God, who is my Father, has promised He will answer. He has promised to do what He said. He has said not one word of His faithful promises will fall to the ground. He will hear and answer. He's told me that. Therefore, I'm believing He is who He said He is, and He's faithful to do what He's promised. I'm persuaded that He will do it. Romans 4, Abraham. It says that he was strong in faith as he gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that he was able to perform what he had promised. Prayer. God loves to work for His people and through His people. And He ordains to fulfill many purposes through our asking. I mean, just think about it. You don't have to have special spiritual gifts to pray. You don't need money. You don't need a public ministry. You don't need to have set time. And your prayers for somebody in America or Canada or South America or India or Indonesia or across San Antonio or across Texas, your prayers in the secret place can be an effectual ministry to do for them something that God wants to do. Prayer is effectual. That is, it works. Or we might better say, God does work in answer to the cries of your heart if you will pray. And the more you'll pray, the more He'll answer, the more He'll do things for others, and the more He'll advance His kingdom. God loves to bless His people, especially in answer to prayer. And prayer is the cry of a childlike heart to the Father, and it's sweet music in His ears. He loves to hear His children pray. Psalm 50, verse 15. I love this verse. It's one of my favorites on prayer. Psalm 50, verse 15. You ought to memorize it. Store it up for a day of trouble. God says this, Call upon Me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver you, and you will glorify Me. Now, folks, that's wonderful. God says, Call on Me in the day of trouble. It reminds me of Hebrews 4, 14 through 16. that we have a high priest who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. And so when we have a time of need, we can draw near. We can come and we can obtain grace and receive mercy in a time of need. Call on me in the day of trouble and I will. And the result is you'll glorify me. What a promise for a time of need, a day of trouble, a day of distress and heartache. A.C. Dixon was a Baptist preacher that followed Spurgeon a few years after Spurgeon died at the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London. Dixon said this. I think it's wonderful. He said, when we depend on organizations, we will get what organizations can do. When we depend on men, we will get what men can do. When we depend on education, we will get what education can do. And when we depend on ourselves, We will get what we can do. But when we depend on prayer, we will see what God can do. Do we depend on prayer? What an amazing reality. And our Lord said men ought always to pray and not think. Our Lord Himself made the strongest statements for prayer that can be found anywhere. These two parables, Luke 11 and Luke 18, plus many, many statements. There were statements he made about prayer that I didn't even mention in the Sunday school hour, like Mark 11, 24. Think of it. Our Lord said, I say to you, what things soever you desire when you pray, believe that you receive them and you shall have them. So we don't bring our hearts and our faith to the level to lay hold of what God has said. He just delights in simple childlike people who take His promises to heart and believe them and appropriate them in prayer. What sort of things do you desire? When you pray, Believe that you receive them and you shall have them. Or Matthew 21, 22, And all things whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive them. What does it mean to believe, to be believing in prayer? It simply means when we go to prayer, we believe the truth that because we're accepted in the Lord Jesus Christ. When we pray, we understand that He is hearing me because He's told me He's hearing me. I have an audience with Him. I know He is hearing what I'm bringing to Him. And He's promised to do what I ask. If I'm coming in the name of His Son for His glory, He's promised to do that. Now, why would the Lord Jesus Christ emphasize believing prayer so much for His people? Think about this. Follow me. Why would Christ emphasize prayer so much for His children if He did not desire us and call us and expect us to take seriously believing prayer. The very fact that He calls us to it so much in the New Testament and in the Gospels is evidence that God wants us to be serious about it and that He wants to answer prayer regularly. First truth in this parable Jesus gives is very simple. Truth number one, men ought always to pray. That's the lesson of the parable given before the parable is given. Men, meaning believers, all believers, ought always to be given to prayer. Every believer. Brethren, pray. We are to become emphatically and purposely and seriously and joyfully we are to become people of prayer and a church that prays and lays hold of God. The greatest conquering and overcoming days in the history of the church and in the lives of believers are when the saints really joyfully lay hold of God in prayer. Lord, teach us to pray. And you know what? If you start making that a primary prayer of your life, I challenge you. I exhort you. I beseech you. I plead with you. I encourage you. Pray that every day. Lord, teach me to pray. I'm weak. Teach me to pray. I'm needy. Teach me to pray. I'm self-dependent. Teach me to pray. I'm ignorant about prayer. Lord, teach me to pray. Lord, I'm weak about it. I'm inconsistent. Teach thou me to pray. And the living Christ, who did it on earth, and His Spirit who dwells within you, He will teach you to pray. He'll do it. He'll give you joy in prayer. He'll give you desire for prayer. He'll enlarge your heart to pray. If you don't know how to pray, and one day you're as weak and dry as the desert, you open this book, you get on your knees, you turn to Psalm 119, you pray the whole thing, and I guarantee you, you'll be different in prayer when you get up than when you started. Lord, teach me to pray. The weakest saint, the weakest sister or brother on their knees in prayer has power with God that nothing on earth can ever bring. He will teach you to pray if you're teachable and if you desire it. But prayer is the language of the poor. You see, the self-sufficient don't need to pray. The self-satisfied don't want to pray. The self-righteous sure won't pray. It's the publican, not the Pharisee, who's heard before God in the temple. Those who learn to wield the sword of prayer, they affect things for the kingdom. Men ought always to pray. And David did. David said, Lord, morning, And evening and at noon will I pray. He said in another psalm, I will give myself to prayer. Jesus said, pray to your father who is in secret. He said, after this manner, pray ye. He said, watch and pray, that you enter not into temptation. A prayerless heart will fall into the traps of sin that are laid as snares for us. But a prayerful heart will have a watchful heart. Men ought always to pray. When it was said of Saul after he was converted, Behold, he prayeth. It was the mark of a regenerative heart. A true Christian does pray. A true Christian from their heart says, My Father, Our Father, No unconverted person will ever address God as Father. They won't do it. They might say such stupid things as, well, the good Lord or the man upstairs. But an unregenerate heart that doesn't know Christ will never say Father. But God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts whereby we cry Abba, Father. Oh, what a thing it is. Beloved, men ought always to pray and not faint. And this same Paul, who was Saul, later said to the whole church, pray with the Spirit and pray with understanding. Be devoted to prayer. Pray without ceasing. Brethren, he said, pray for us. And in Philippians 1.19, when Paul is in prison and he writes to the Philippians, He says, I believe, I'm confident that this situation, my imprisonment, will be turned through two things, your prayers and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Did you know that your prayers can turn people's situations? Brethren, we ought to pray. We ought to be serious about it. God will hear and answer. James says, Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray. For the fervent, effectual prayers of a righteous one avail much. And he hears the cries of his afflicted ones. And James says, Pray one for another. So what a great reality. Our Lord says to you and I and to every one of His children, Men ought always to pray. Now, do we take that to heart? Do we cultivate a habit of prayer regardless of how busy we are? Do we cultivate a habit of prayer? See, it has to be learned and cultivated. We have to be taught of God to pray. So, do we have a heart that says, Lord, I'm busy, I'm easily distracted, I have these children, on and on and on, I have work demands, but Lord, in my life, would You shape my life into a life that responds to You and says, Lord, teach me to pray, because You said men ought always to pray. Truth number two in this parable. Not only men ought always to pray, Truth number two is in this first verse as well. And not lose heart. Truth number two, we must learn to not faint and give up in prayer. It's a warning against giving up in prayer or becoming prayerless. stopping praying when for a while you've been praying for something or someone. You see, we're tempted to give up when we don't see quick answers. And we begin to think, well, God hasn't heard my cry, therefore He must not want to answer, and we lose heart. We faint. We give up. Are there family members, neighbors, or friends of yours that you used to pray for and you quit? As we say out in West Texas, you done give up. You quit. You fainted and you stopped. George Mueller had two friends, two men, he prayed for, his journal records, he prayed for them every day for 50 years. And he died and they were converted after he died. Never give up. God's answering is His business. You leave that up with Him. You're told black and white. And it doesn't have to be red letter. I don't like red letter Bibles. Jesus said every word of it. He said men are always to pray and not faint. Don't give up. God will hear and answer your crimes. Just as much as Thames or Charles or Paul Washers or the Apostle Paul. You're on the same praying ground, beloved. Men ought always to pray and not faint. And women too. But we give up and we faint. We give up and faint because we hadn't seen results or because we get opposition. or because we get distracted, or because we don't see God answering according to our schedule, or within our comfort zone, or according to our human reasoning. We exalt human reasoning above divine revelation that God says, I'm going to answer you. We exalt human reasoning and we reason and we say, God hasn't answered, therefore, I guess, I judge, He doesn't want to answer in this. We look at circumstances and we interpret them as an answer of no. But a delay is not a denial. In fact, that parable in Luke 11 teaches that. And the Luke 18. The friend at first said to his friend, my kids are in bed. I'm in bed. I don't want to get up. No, I'm sorry. And because that friend had to have it, because he had to have bread to give to others, he wouldn't stop. And the Bible there in Luke 11 says the friend got up and answered him, not because he was his friend, not just because of the relationship, he got answered because he wouldn't take no for an answer. And this one widow wouldn't take no for an answer. When you will not be denied in prayer something that will glorify God, And it will advance His kingdom. And it's within the guidelines of Scripture. If you don't want to be denied, you give yourself to it and you keep praying for it and you don't ever give up. But we faint, see. We faint and we give up. But God's not on our timetable. We're on His timetable. You and I don't know when the best time and the best way for God to answer is, you see. But He's promised to answer our cries if we faint not. Samuel said, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray. Prayerlessness or giving up in prayer is sin. It is sin. Adam Judson, the great missionary, said these words, I'm persuaded that we are all more deficient in a spirit of prayer than in any other grace. Yet God loves importunate prayer so much. Could we drill that in our hearts? Could we get an injection of the truth of this that God loves importunate prayer? He's not a stingy, miserly God like that judge in the parable. He loves importunate prayer. He loves it. Few and short and feeble prayers are often a sign of a low spiritual condition. And it's easy to slide into being ritualistic and almost Catholic in praying. I remember a deacon in the church, my home church when I grew up, a Baptist church out in West Texas. He would get up to lead in prayer on Sunday night. And everybody in the county knew exactly the words he's going to use. I mean, he would say, Father, we thank you for thy bounty. We thank you for the gifts we're going to give. Bless the gift and the giver. Amen. And it was a dead ritual. A dead ritual. How ritualistic do we get at prayer? When we mouth words, And our hearts forget who it is we're approaching. The awesome, mighty, glorious, beautiful, living God in Christ that we're in conversation with. And our hearts aren't in awe. And we lose consciousness of the fact that we are talking to our God who's listening to us. How we need to be reminded. But we don't believe it enough. Men ought always to pray and not give up, not faint. Well, there's a third truth here quickly. Look in verses 6-8 of the parable. There's one truth that verses 6-8 is trying to get home to us. Put this in your mind and heart. Here's the truth. God will hear and answer prayer. Verses 6-8, the Lord says, hear what the unjust judge says. Will not God give justice to elect? Will He not hear their cries, those who cry to Him day and night? I tell you, He will hear them and answer them speedily, just in time. He's going to answer when the answer needs to come. And Jesus says, is there anybody who has faith to believe this? Is there any â€" where's the Christian who says, I believe that God will hear my cries when I keep crying out to Him, so I'm not going to stop. I'm going to pray for their salvation. I'm going to pray for an outpouring of the Spirit here. I'm going to pray for conversions. I'm going to pray for the salvation of lost loved ones. I'm going to pray for this financial need to be met when men cannot do it. I'm going to keep praying and I'm going to keep asking because I believe God is Jesus says, is there anybody anywhere who's going to believe like that? How about you? It's a wide open door. Go for it. Tozer said, we can have as much of God as we want. And I believe that's true. Because you've got a regenerate heart, a new heart. that loves Him. You have the Spirit of God within you. You have exceeding great and precious promises of God. So lay hold of it. Go for it. Extravagant grace. Extravagant answers to prayer. Jesus said, Where are those who believe this? When the Son of Man comes, will He even find such faith on the earth? Oh, beloved, God will hear and answer prayer. He will answer the cries. He'll hear the prayers. He will be moved by the importunity of his children in prayer. He'll do it. Every child of God ought to pray. With such confidence, every time their heart goes to prayer, every time their mouth opens to prayer. They need to pray with confidence. God is hearing me and He will answer my cry. Now, if you don't believe that when you pray, why even pray? Are you just praying a dead ritual to try to get some emotional boost from it? No. When you pray, believe God's hearing you. Because He is. Because you're His child on a standing of grace. He doesn't hear us because we're sincere. He doesn't hear us because we're earnest. He doesn't hear one brother more because the brother is zealous in prayer than the sister who just prays from the quietness of her heart. He doesn't hear prayer on the basis of anything except Calvary. When a child of God prays, He hears. He will hear. He said, ask of me, he said to the Lord Jesus in the eternal covenant of redemption, ask of me and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance. God had closed all the wombs in Abimelech's house and the Bible says that Abraham prayed and God healed all of them and his wife and maid servants all had children. The Lord turned the captivity of Job when he did what? When he prayed for his friends. It was after Jonah cried out from the belly of hell that God spoke to the fish and the fish fed him up on dry land. Elijah, a man just like you and I, his prayers brought a famine and his prayers brought a flood. God hears the cries of his elect. Brethren, pray. desires, our Lord Jesus Christ desires to cultivate a spirit of prayer, an attitude of prayer, a joyfulness of prayer, an excitement in prayer we've never had. And God says to us, call unto me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things which you know not. And Paul said, unto him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above, all we can ask or think. Now how high can you ask and how high can you think God is able to do exceeding abundantly more than that? So brethren, pray. Pray. Pray. Men ought always to pray and not faint. Let's pray right now. Anyone who needs to pray, let's just have a time of prayer and I'll ask Brother Tim to close it. Let's just cry out to the Lord whatever is in our hearts this morning. Father, we come in the name of Your Son. We come, Father, to You through Your Son in His righteousness alone. We thank You that we have access to the throne of grace. We thank You, Father, that Your eyes are over the righteous and Your ears are open unto our prayers. We thank You, Lord, that You hear the cries of Your children. We thank You that You've invited us and commanded us and called us to pray. Lord, You've described Yourself there in Psalm 65 as the God of prayer. To Thee shall all flesh come. Father, we lift our hearts today and we pray that You would just unstop the clogged pipes of our soul and let a spirit of prayer flow. Would You strip us and deliver us from things that hinder prayerfulness, self-dependence, pride, Lord, a cold heart. Would You teach us to pray. Would You quicken us to pray. And then we will call upon Thy Name. Lord, work in us to will and to do of Your pleasure in this area of prayer. Teach us to pray as the disciples. Lord, I ask You, pour out upon us a spirit of grace and supplication. Would You draw us, Lord, more and more to the private place of prayer? Would You change the desires and affections of our heart that we want You more than anything else, that we delight in You, and that we delight to draw aside and be with You, Lord, in prayer, whether it's in our office or in our recliner or in the car or walking in the field or in the bathroom or laying on our bed or sitting on our porch. Lord, to be in Your presence, to set the Lord ever before us and to just commune with God to utter our hearts to You. Lord, teach us. Lord Jesus, teach us to pray. O God, thank You so much, Father. And I thank You that You hear me, Father, today. In the name of Your Son, I pray with thanksgiving.