Persistent in Prayer — Luke 17-19

0:09 Morning. Morning. Nice to be back. Luke 18. For all of those of you who served, I thank you for your service to our country.

0:31 Tomorrow is, of course, Veterans Day here in England. It's called Remembrance Day. And the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, an armistice was signed to end that war. And so it's a great reminder. Many of you probably have served or had parents who served who had also had grandparents who served.

0:55 So, we're thankful for them all and certainly, for... Especially all those families who had a son or a father who never came back, was buried there in foreign soil. I would suspect, and I say this lightly, that this past week has thus far been considerably less hectic than two weeks ago, less anxiety, right, because of what our nation has gone through. And do you know how many people showed up for vote? Do they have statistics in Ohio?

1:50 See, Pennsylvania is what they call swing state. So it's like lines out every door of polling places. And then they tell you how many of this district showed up, and they have a percentage. Does does Ohio do that? Do have a percentage of how many people showed up to vote?

2:12 Anybody? I don't know what it is. Yeah. They do be fair. So do you know what this area is?

2:20 Was it high or low or... From what I've heard, high. Yeah. I think most counties we're from, most districts are probably high, and some way up there. So there's a lot of energy.

2:38 Would you think it would equal the percentage of how many were at permitting? That's our point. I would like to know how many percentage of Christians showed up Tuesday at the throne Of grace, praying for their candidate to be elected? That would be interesting to me. How many showed up to God's throne begging God to direct their candidate to be the president?

3:30 Alright, compared to permitting. Alright. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word, and we thank you for this portion that's before us today and ask that our hearts would be open to what you have to say to us through it. You've recorded these details for our learning, And we...

3:54 Each detail, Lord, has impact on our lives, and we pray that we... The details that you would direct towards us today would be that which would be most impactful. So commit ourselves to you for that purpose and pray in Christ's name. Amen. I only say that, and I I get it, I say that lightly.

4:17 Kind of lightly because so many people ask me, you know, and other people ask me, zero like my answer. Well, they won't argue with me. I don't read unarguably in scripture. Anyway, Luke's gospel chapter 18 is our text. And to begin with, we should read just to catch where Christ is on the planet at this time.

5:07 I always, unfortunately, sometimes have to ask my wife, you just said something to me incredibly important. What's the context? I need a little bit of context. Verse 11 of this chapter... Of 17 says, now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee.

5:32 And just let that sink in. Vision, if you can, If you can, you know Galilee is up north. You know Samaria is North of Judea. And you know Judea. And you know Jerusalem's in Judea.

5:47 And we know, as our brother pointed out from John four, that Christ at times traveled through Samaria. But on this particular day, it doesn't seem like that because he ends up, we know, in the end of Luke 18 in Jericho. And Jericho is down the valley, the Jordan Valley. So it seems like if he's walking and he has one country on his right and another country on his left, then he's walking on the border, which is what it says. He's walking on a border.

6:18 I don't know if you ever walked on a border. It had a whole country on one side and a whole different country on the other side. I know when I was in Germany visiting Lian, we stayed in France right on the Rhine River. It had a pedestrian bridge that you walked over, you were in Germany if you went straight. If you turned right, you were in Switzerland.

6:38 Alright? It's a very unique place on the map. Pedestrian bridge across the Rhine River. Alright? Christ literally has his people in Galilee where he grew up on one side, and I think they're probably on the left because if he's walking towards the east on his way to the Jordan Valley, then Samaria is on his right.

7:00 I just... Geographically, these things mean something to me. I don't know why. They probably mean nothing to you. For me, it's a wonderful picture of Jesus Christ.

7:16 He has his people on one side. He has... Regardless of what you think the Samaritan's DNA was in regards to how much Jewish blood they actually had, that's irrelevant. He called them foreigners in this chapter. He called the Samaritan who came back to give him thanks and praise, he said, this foreigner.

7:38 That's a word used for Gentile. Alright? But the point is Jesus Christ is right here, and he's got his people and he's got Gentiles or foreigners on his side. And this is the wonder of the Lord Jesus, how he's gonna make a way for both people to be saved. He's on his way to Jerusalem, not for his last time, because he'll be back.

8:07 Because he'll be back. But for this earthly ministry, he's on his way to his last Passover. Again, we see at the end of the eighteenth chapter, he's healing somebody outside Jericho. Then in the nineteenth, he engages with Bartima or Zacchaeus. And then he's riding a donkey into the city from...

8:29 As we know, he left Jericho to go into Jerusalem up over the pass. And so Christ is on his way to Calvary. He's on schedule. He is on schedule. There's no sense of urgency in his steps.

8:52 And there's no sense of determent. Nothing stopping him. He's on his way. He's on his way. In this traveling that he's doing, it's gonna take up to three days.

9:08 This isn't a one hour conversation. This is gonna be a short message. But this conversation that we see starting after that in Luke 17 in through Luke 18, all the way to the end of 18, it reaches Jericho. That's a couple days. Alright?

10:09 Always good for followers to look at the leader and say, I like what you're doing. I want to do the same thing. That's always a good sign of a true follower, wanting to emulate the leader, wanting to build. So they asked him. And of course he says, well, when you pray, say, Our Father, who art in heaven.

10:28 And then he teaches them, he uses a parable about somebody who wants and knocks on the door late at night. And so we've had that discussion. Now this is not that same day. This is a different day. A different year probably.

10:44 And now we have Christ having gone through what you looked at at the end of Luke 17 in all the days that are coming. What's approaching us? What are some situations that are going to be on this planet as he prepares for departure that, guess what, you're not going to control. You can't vote it in or out. You're not gonna control what's coming.

11:11 Sorry. It's above you. It's beyond you. But what you can do is when you pray, not give up. This is what you can do.

11:28 Don't be discouraged in prayer. Don't lose heart. Don't lose faith. Don't lose trust. Don't get confused when you don't receive the answer that you thought would be right, would be most glorifying to the Lord.

11:48 That you, in fact, would prefer this circumstance. So if you would just move over Christ, we'll insert my plan instead of your plan. Beloved brother, there's things coming on this planet. No 330,000,000 Americans are gonna affect it. We're not God's nation.

12:13 We're a nation of individuals who've been saved because of the word of God, because of the man named Jesus Christ who stood in front of people and said, I am going to build a church and nothing is going to stop me, of every nation, every tribe, and every tongue. And us in America, we're included. Hallelujah. What a blessing to be part of it. But he's got a people in Israel, and they're still under great judgment.

12:41 They are still under great judgment even though they have their nation back, even though there's so much going on that seems so prophetic and true, and it is. But the point is that's God's nation of Israel. We're his church. Those who live in America and know Christ as savior, you're his bride. You're his bride.

13:05 You're not his country. We're his bride. We've been called out of darkness into his marvelous light because God transferred our sins onto his body. He transferred his righteousness onto us. And in the process of his spirit coming to live in us and seal us and making us a member of his body, he's translated us out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his dear son.

13:35 He's put his word into our laps and into our minds and into our souls. And he therefore begins by his word to transform the way we think, to transform the way we think. We don't think like we used to think. We don't hold the same values anymore. We don't think like normal Americans because we're not normal Americans.

13:53 We're not mere Americans. We're the body of Christ. We're his ambassadors on this planet. He's transforming the way we think, the way we act, the way we treat people, the way we talk. Yes, he's transforming us.

14:18 You call it whatever you want. I call it the capture because guess what? I hate to tell you, it's not an invitation. He's not inviting you off if you want to come now because you're not... It's not inconvenient for you.

14:32 There's a day coming when Jesus Christ is going to say, come up here. And you're gone, if you know. You're gone. You don't even have to believe it. I didn't believe it when I was first saved.

14:45 I can't believe that. That's hokey. I mean, I'm just going to go straight up. Yeah, because faith comes from hearing, hearing the word of God. The more I read, the more I believe.

14:56 Yeah. It's not an invitation. He's calling us off the planet. He's capturing us. And on the way?

15:05 This gets better. On the way? He's transfiguring us. He's changing these vile bodies, these tents. If the tents that we live in now are destroyed, we have one in the heavens made without hands, eternal.

15:21 Being transfigured, He shall change our vile bodies and fashion like unto his glorious body according to the power he has, that he is able to subdue all things to himself. Philippians chapter three. Because our citizenship is in heaven. You got a passport? Don't matter to him.

15:42 You got a passport with him. Signed, sealed, and he will deliver. This is Jesus Christ. And I'm sorry, America, you're not going to vote to change that. And there's nobody in America who can change that.

15:59 There's no group of members for 535, 438, a hundred. There's no there's no there's no cabinet. There's no... Nobody's going to change this. This is Jesus Christ.

16:15 You can prepare for it. Or you can choose to not believe and be unprepared. And if you choose not to believe what I'm telling you and you become unprepared for his return and his free gift of salvation in order to prepare for his return or for your personal departure, whether it be through death or not, I won't even come up to you later and say, I told you so. But he will. Cause he will hold you accountable for his word that you heard.

16:48 He will hold you accountable for the day that he brought to your attention that you can be saved or you can choose to not be saved. Okay? You can choose not to be saved. Now, these weren't easy things for these Jewish Galilean disciples to hear the rest of Luke 17. It would only make sense that he says, listen, when these things happen, you're going to pray for deliverance.

17:22 You're going to pray that it doesn't happen. You're going to pray that it doesn't include you. You're going to have all kinds of get me out of this mess type responses to what he's bringing on the planet. You're going to. As I suspect many shallow professed believers prayed this past week, get us out of this mess.

17:54 It is not wise to just hurry on in this passage. I could preach on this one verse all day. I'm not going to because I promised John I was was gonna transition all 14 verses. Yeah. I like John.

18:38 It's easy to have a praise life. Thank you, thank you, thank you. In fact, one of these people, there's three prayers, three people who prayed in these 14 verses at our mind. One of them is very thankful that he's not like other people. He's so thankful.

18:57 We'll get to him. Just relax. But praise is a certain style of praying that it's easy to do. Who can be thankful? We can have the Lord's Supper and just thank the Lord, thank the Lord.

19:08 And that's not wrong. But it's not the kind of prayer that Christ is talking about. Nor is it necessarily closet prayer. What I refer to as, and if there's any reason why people get discouraged is because they don't understand the difference between that should be somebody praying privately but they brought it to a place where other Christians are gonna hear them pray. And so what they're praying is kind of iffy, and I don't know if I can say amen to it, so there's automatic confusion.

19:36 Yeah. That's not this prayer either. And in order for them to help understand what kind of prayer he's talking about, he then tells a parable. And he very rarely is going to tell the reason he's telling a parable before he tells the parable. Very rarely.

19:53 I'm telling you exactly why I'm telling you this parable. Because I don't want you to give up praying. I don't want you to quit praying, even though you're going to feel like you're not getting answers, like you're not getting answers, which we've probably all been to. We've all been there. We all get discouraged that nothing I ask for I get.

20:15 Face it. Because somebody along the line happened to dupe us into believing that we just ask in Christ's name, we got it, If I have enough faith. And if I have enough faith, I can move mountains and I get anything I ask for. And so it's a matter of me not having faith. Well, I didn't get it because I didn't have enough faith.

20:33 No. Kind of real thin ice. That's kind of real thin. Alright? So if that's been the problem, I apologize.

20:44 What about just a lack? In my time, my life, just that some of the quick, easy, simple ways to detect when I'm discouraged and praying. No urgency. And I want... Yeah.

20:59 Later, I'll pray for that. We heard it from Peter, about Peter today. How urgent was his prayer when he was sinking? I'll I'll do that later. After I drowned, I'll pray.

21:17 He had some urgency. And when there's no urgency in the things that really are on my heart, then that's an issue. That's an issue. And it's just the lack of praying, which I appreciate even here coming here. So I've been here, Andy called me yesterday, we'd pray together.

21:37 Brother came up and put his hands on me and said, I want to pray for you. Donald, come up. I want to pray for you. Yeah. How many Christians don't pray all day?

21:46 They think they're praying because they think about requests, because they think about what would be better, and they think about what would be a good answer, and they think about a solution, but they don't actually go into God's presence and say, I want to beg you for a moment. I want to beg you for a moment. Pardon the interruption. Can I beg you for something? There's no urgency.

22:07 If there's no urgency on our part, what's God to think? Do they really care? Do they really care? His parable then about this not being discouraged in prayer, starting at verse two, he said in his parable, in a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. And there was also a widow in the town who kept coming to him with the plea, grant me justice against my adversary.

23:14 Which, you know, if you ever had one, it's a shame for a man to have a black eye. Unless you got it like I had them before, but not one person gave it to me. So then you wear it with honor because it took, like, five of you to give me a black eye. No. But this is what that word means.

23:33 To attack me means to punch under the eye till it's bruised. And the Lord said, listen to what this unjust judge says. Will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice and quickly.

23:55 However, when the son of man comes, will he find faith on earth? Wow. When you add all that to this whole subject of prayer, suddenly it it becomes a little bit more to the point. Because now we have a widow. You know, God's heart goes out to widows.

24:16 You know, and a widow is somebody whose husband is gone. It sounds familiar, don't Christ has a bride, but he's gone. He has a bride who lives on the planet, but he's gone. You're not dead. He's alive, but he's gone temporarily.

24:37 And so the church then looks like this woman. And she's going to this, what he uses as a picture of an unjust judge who doesn't care about anybody but himself. So much so, he just wants to stop her because he's afraid she's going to give him a black eye. What a comparison to our God. Our God who loves it when you come with your fears and your anticipation of what's coming next that you can't control.

25:06 Who's the adversary? Well, we have the word used four times in the New Testament. Most times, the three times it's used in the Gospels is talking about a financial legal matter. Seems like the woman might have been in debt. But the fourth time it's used is by Peter.

25:33 Be alert. Chapter five of first Peter. Be sober, your enemy, your adversary. It's the fourth time this word is used. The devil.

25:49 He sneaks around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him. Standing firm in the faith because you know that the family of believers throughout the whole world is undergoing the same kind of suffering. The whole world. Believers worldwide, a picture of the universal church with a common adversary, the enemy.

26:17 He's sneaking around trying to catch people. He's a sneak. Right? He wants to ruin your testimony. He wants, number one, he wants you to quit praying.

26:34 And we don't see that. We don't see him. We see a whole other political party as our enemy. Let's pray against them. They're not your adversary.

26:52 This is your adversary. And he's the adversary of every believer on the planet. Why aren't we praying for believers all over the world? You got one name at the throne of grace that you're praying for president? What about Justin Trudeau right across the lake?

27:13 What about how about this? A Jewish Mexican, Scheinbaum, who's now the president of Mexico. How about Vladimir Putin? How about Kyr Starmor? How about Emmanuel Macron?

27:31 How about Olof Scholz? How about Benjamin Netanyahu? How about King Abdullah? How about Sisi in Egypt? Modi in India?

27:49 Xi Jinping in China? Soon in Korea. Harris in Ireland. Sweeney in Scotland, Giorgio Maloney in Italy. Have you prayed for them?

28:20 Paul told Timothy when he left them at Ephesus, first and foremost, you pray for all people. You start with kings and all in authority. Do you pray for people? Do you pray for people who are suffering? The works of the adversary through these people.

29:18 And besides that, if I wanted to, I'd ask my father. He'd send legions of angels to save me. Brothers and sisters, our adversary is the enemy. It's a Satan. In a society that he controls that we've been duped into believing is friendly to us.

29:36 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. Alright? These are the issues. Listen to Revelation 12 verse nine. The great dragon was hurled down.

29:48 The ancient serpent called the devil or Satan who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth and his angels with him. Then I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, now have come the salvation and power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Messiah. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters who accuses him before our God night and day. He's been thrown down.

30:12 They triumphed over him by the blood of the lamb, by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. Yeah. Yeah. When you you wanna be part of that crowd, don't you? You didn't love your life to shrink from death because that's what the devil's doing.

30:32 That's how he controls the planet, and that's our God who's letting them. Like he let them walk in the garden. Because his son's got a bride. His son has a bride that he's called out of darkness. And the glory of the man is the woman.

30:52 Paul says to the church at Corinth, the glory of the man is the woman. Yes, beloved and brothers and sisters, how easy it is to quit praying about the fact that we're surrounded by a God of this world who's got his agents. And don't be surprised if he is the minister of light doesn't transform his ministers into angels of light. Paul has to warn the church at Corinth. Yes, this is serious stuff.

31:24 James chapter four, what causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but you do not have. So you kill. You covet.

31:34 You cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and you fight. You don't have because you ask. You don't ask. When you ask, you don't receive because you ask with the wrong motives. Who wants to put that shoe on and wear it?

31:49 You ask and receive not because you ask with the wrong motives. No. I only got purest motives for it. Don't dupe yourself. Don't dupe yourself.

32:00 Then, you know, 14 times in the book of James, James says to the Christians, my brothers and sisters, my brothers, my dear brothers and sisters sometimes. But how about this, adulterous people? Adulterous? Adulterous? Yeah.

32:23 Because our adversary constantly invites us to partake of the pleasures that he can offer us on this planet. We're spiritually promiscuous. We engage with things that aren't good for our souls. They're not good for our souls. Anyone that chooses to be a friend of the world becomes God's enemy.

33:22 Just think how many times Christ said to people who said, we we need not my hour has not yet come. Mary and Martha, go tell Jesus the person he loves is sick. What's he do? He waits till he dies. I mean, those are hard truths to know that God's will sometimes is better and bigger than yours, and you're not going to get what you want.

33:50 But for most people, they quit asking. They quit asking. Do you pray against our adversary, him who rules the planet, that keeps people's eyes blind to the glorious gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you pray against him? Do you know you have a God who says, I love that prayer, even though it's not time?

34:16 I love it when it pains you to see Lucifer have such a playground on this planet that my people will even get lost in because they're having so much pleasure while they're here because they think it's recreational. You know, I got in a conversation the other day, and forgive me, and I'm gonna I'm gonna do the verses, John. Don't worry. We're talking about the commercial Jesus gets us. Anybody see it?

34:50 He gets us. Well, that's a heart tugger. It tugs on your heart. He gets us. It gets us.

34:56 Is that all these pictures of people you wouldn't get? Right? You would shy away from. He gets us. And I just wanna write into them, but I know it.

35:07 You mean to say he wants us. He wants us. No matter who you are, he wants you. Whatever condition. Well, somebody said, I like it that Jesus is kinda casual about this.

35:21 Excuse me? Casual? You read through the gospels, you read what happened when he was in the garden praying, sweating as it were great drops of blood. And they came and took him, and knocked him down with his presence and his identity and he helped him up and said, okay, I'm going ask you again, who are you looking for? Was that casual?

35:46 You think before Pilate he was casual? You think when that guy was putting a nail in Jesus Christ's hand he was casual about it? Oh, do it if you want. He directed it through. He had to so it wouldn't break a bone.

36:00 Then he said, thank you, off another. No bones broke. Not breaking a bone on the way through. That's Jesus Christ. He was not casual.

36:10 We're thankful. He lets us be casual towards him. We say that as a mark of our fellowship. Well, we're kind of casual here. Jesus Christ never walked in casual.

36:20 Trust me. He always came with the same purpose. I'm the head. I'm the head. You want body life?

36:30 I'm the head. You don't function unless I'm the head. Which reminds me. You're talking about location on your agenda? You're gonna move?

36:44 I'm gonna go away and come back. You're not gonna be here? You said location, right? Building and location? You thinking about moving?

36:54 We're having a discussion about it. Who's who's having that discussion? There's hive offs. There's no moving. Alright?

37:03 Anyway, when you lose sight of the adversary, you won't pray against him. You won't pray for deliverance, and you won't pray for all those who've been captured by him. You just won't because he's a... Doesn't matter. He's a nonexistent adversary.

37:29 Anyway, verse nine. To those who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told them this parable. Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself by himself and prayed, God, I thank you that I'm not like other people, robbers, evildoers, adulterers, even like this tax collector. And I give twice a week, or I fast twice a week, and I give a tenth of all I get.

38:10 Meanwhile, the tax collector stood at a distance. He wouldn't even look up. And I like this from this morning's meeting. But beat his breast and said, have mercy on me, God. I'm a sinner.

38:26 And Jesus said, I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humble, and those who humble themselves will be exalted. Now I don't believe that that parable followed seconds after the first parable. I'm just putting that out there. I think there's a whole shift of location.

38:47 They're still walking. His disciples were warned, you can't give up, you got to pray. The adversary is real. And I love it when you come even though I have a timetable. I have a timetable.

39:01 Now to talk about a parable about Pharisees seemed to me like he was introducing more people into the crowd. And there were amongst them, of course, people who were Pharisees. Now Pharisees are proud people. Most Pharisees in this day drew their lineage and their opinion from Ezra, the great assembly that Ezra started, and Nehemiah, when they took oaths about how separate they were going to live. They didn't ever call themselves Pharisees because for most people it was a cult.

39:37 Nobody calls themselves a cult. But they practiced Phariseeism. Alright? So this is it. These are two people who went into God's presence or thought they got in, but one didn't get into God's presence.

39:50 He prayed thus with himself, which I think sometimes we feel. My prayers never got out of the room. They bounced off the ceiling or off my bed. I mean, they're just, you know, it's really hard to pray when I'm listening to this great Christian music. And I like to sing and then also say a quick prayer.

40:09 I mean, I'm not I'm not saying any of that's impossible, brothers and sisters. God, twice in the New Testament, once in James, once in first Peter, says the same thing. I resist the proud. I resist the proud. You don't feel like you've been in God's presence?

40:30 Maybe it is true. Stay back till you're a little bit more humble, till you're broken about what you are and who you are, till you want mercy rather than just come in and be thankful that you're not as bad as everybody else. Yeah. Three different types of people praying. Two parables.

40:57 And this is Christ on his way to Calvary. Now I cannot speak for how you feel about your prayer life. I cannot. I don't know you well enough. I've never been to your prayer meeting during a week.

41:16 I know that in Erie, prayer meeting's roughly 15%. That's all. That is sad. That is sad. And I don't know what prevents you, but I encourage you to sort it out with Jesus Christ.

41:44 To sort it out with him. To have a face to face with him and just say, Lord, I'm such a bad prayer, but I I want to at least do this. I want to pray for at least half the countries that I know Christians are suffering in, or people are prevented from hearing the gospel. Because we have an adversary. He's real and he's against us.

42:32 I don't know why I was Luke here... Luke two and then back for Luke something now. Luke 18, you'll be done before I come back. Lord, will I? I don't know if I can come back.

42:41 I won't know your address. Closing in prayer. Gracious God, we thank you for your faithfulness to us. We admit, Lord, we don't pray well. We don't...

42:57 You told us we don't know how to pray oftentimes. Your spirit, Lord, causing groanings in us, just so burdened, whether it's for family that are unsaved and don't know you or family that do know you and have walked away from you, whether it's neighbors, Lord, who are going through horrific physical, mental, emotional ordeals in their life and yet without you, without hope, and refuse to believe and cry out to you themselves. Lord, we can't solve everything. We we wanna be recognized as people who pray. Really pray, Lord, against the enemy, against all his ministers of light, against all his tricks, all his sneaky ways to get us to partake of the tree.

43:52 Still begging us to partake of that which is not good for us. Lord, come quickly. Oh, Lord Jesus, how long? How long we sing till we can shout that glad song. You, Lord Jesus, return.

44:10 Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Dismiss us now. We pray in your precious name. Amen.