Good morning everyone. It's been a while since
I've been up here. I'm hoping you'll all be better
behaved than the people I'm normally in front
of each week. Don't count on it. Thanks Karen.
On the day of Edith's birth, our eldest and firstborn,
I enjoyed a peaceful sleep in until about 7 .30am.
Now usually I was the first to awake so when
I woke and felt that Lucy wasn't there, I went
looking for her. She'd been awake since 2 a .m.
with contractions. Now feeling rather guilty,
I snapped into action. I massaged her lower back,
I retrieved food and water, offered heat packs
and added the last -minute items to our hospital
bag. There was excitement, nerves and... Great
anticipation for this day. Today was the day
we would get to meet our little girl. But a few
hours pass and things weren't progressing as
fast as I thought they might. So my mind began
to wander. And I remembered that we took our
dinner to the beach the night before and I parked
the car under a tree. And when we came back from
dinner, the car was covered in bird poo. So I
took the opportunity to go and wash the car Yeah,
I did Now when I returned I was straight back
into the back rubbing and the heat packs And
phoning the hospital just to let them know that
we weren't far away But the hospital staff said
it wasn't quite time and they asked us to wait
Now I figured given that it wasn't time to head
in yet. Well, we might as well just watch a little
bit of television After all, if we're going to
sit here, we may as well be entertained, right?
By 1pm, contractions were consistent and quick,
so we got in the car and we headed in. Now this
was go time, and I returned to peak levels of
alertness. I packed the car, messaged the mothers,
drove in super carefully, dropped Lucy off, parked
the car, escorted Lucy to the ward and into our
room. I was right back in there alongside my
wife helping to see this through to the end.
I helped Lucy by holding her hair, applying the
gas mask and offering reassurance. Hours of this
passed by, and it's about 6pm now. My stomach
makes itself known to me and reminds me that
it's dinner time. Lucy can't move because of
the epidural, so I head across the road and go
to get some food. After all, a man has to eat,
right? I browse the restaurants, sit down, order
and eat, and when I'm finished, I return to the
hospital. Things still don't seem to have progressed,
so I wander the room, fiddling with things, looking
out the window, and eventually I lay down on
the couch and drift off to sleep. A couple of
hours later, I'm woken when the nurse exclaims,
ooh, I see a head. Here she comes. I leapt out
of bed and sprung back into action. I was bedside,
attentive and fully alert and it wasn't much
longer until our beautiful Edith was born at
about 10pm. Well, waiting and delays can draw
out all sorts of responses in us. They can make
us lose interest, look for alternatives, become
frustrated or even grow cold and indifferent.
Now I've obviously told that story in a particular
way for emphasis, but the reality is here I was
in one of the most joyful moments of my life
and I still couldn't sustain my attention for
even 15 hours. I drifted, I got distracted, my
interest faded, and that's what waiting does
to us. If something doesn't keep us going, we
begin to lose heart, don't we? And in many ways,
the Christian life is a life of waiting. We are
waiting for Jesus to return and make all things
right, but that waiting can feel long, almost
2 ,000 years long. And it can produce the same
responses in us. We lose heart, we grow indifferent,
we become distracted, or we begin to wonder,
is he really coming back? And the Bible itself
acknowledges this struggle. In 2 Peter 3 verse
4, the people scoff, where is this coming? He
promised. Ever since our ancestors died, everything
goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.
And in Matthew 24 12, Jesus warns that the love
of most will grow cold. And maybe you felt that.
Because while we wait, life keeps happening.
Suffering, injustice. temptation, grief, and
we seek answers to these things but sometimes
they don't seem to come and so slowly and quietly
our faith erodes. We might not say it out loud
but we begin to wonder why keep praying? Why
keep going? And this is the struggle which Jesus
addresses in today's passage. Very graciously
Jesus tells this encouraging story to his disciples
to remind them and us to keep going because Jesus
will sort everything out. And we're going to
explore this big idea today in two points. Be
persistent in prayer and be confident in God's
character. But before I go any further, let's
just pray. Heavenly Father, I pray that we might
find these words of yours a great encouragement
in our walk with you. Lord, may they meet us
where we're at and may they move us to treasure
you and to persist in faithfulness to you. Amen.
The parable of the persistent widow shows us
a woman who has no power, no status and no protection.
Having lost her husband, she is socially and
economically vulnerable with no one to advocate
for her. Yet she has one thing, persistence.
She returns again and again to the judge refusing
to give up and her persistence reveals her faith.
She keeps coming back because she believes justice
will be done. Jesus draws our attention to this
widow. Her example shows us how we are to approach
God with relentless, dependent prayer. Like her,
we are called to always pray and not give up.
Prayer is a declaration of our dependence on
God. It's an acknowledgement that we cannot ultimately
provide for or sustain ourselves. Culturally,
we don't like the terms dependence and vulnerability.
We prize independence and self -sufficiency.
We prefer not to be found in need of others.
Yet, while we like to think of ourselves as self
-sufficient, the reality is life brings our way
many difficult things outside of our control.
Suffering, broken relationships, chronic illnesses,
grief, persecution, unrelenting sin. And of course,
there is one inescapable event common to all
of us. Death. So in reality, we really are no
different from the widow in need of help. Now
when the widow faced rejection and the cold uncaring
silence of the unjust judge, what did she do?
She didn't let rejection drive her away. She
didn't stop believing he could help. She didn't
think asking was futile. She simply kept going.
She returned again and again believing that justice
could be done. And Jesus is calling us to do
the same. A true faith is tested and revealed
in our persistence, continually returning to
Him, crying out day and night, trusting that
He hears and will respond, whether in this life
or the next. In that persistence, our faith is
deepened and proven. In Tim Keller's book on
prayer, He wrote about a time in his family's
life when they realised the importance of prayer.
He and his wife described it like this. He said,
imagine you were diagnosed with such a lethal
condition that the doctor told you that you would
die within hours unless you took a particular
medicine, a pill every night before going to
sleep. Imagine that you were told that you could
never miss it or you would die. Would you forget?
Would you not get around to it some nights? No,
it would be so crucial that you wouldn't forget.
You would never miss. Well, he says, if we don't
pray to God, we're not going to make it because
of all we're facing. I'm certainly not, he says.
We have to pray and can't let it just slip our
minds. If we truly understand our need, we would
pray. like our lives depended on it, because
they do. Prayer is the pill that can cure us
from giving up in the face of a lifetime of troubles.
And prayer is the pill that can cure us from
giving up and facing an eternity of troubles
without God. We need to adopt the widow's posture
of helpless, dependent prayer and persistently
pray so that we can keep going. But we would
be crazy to persistently pray if we weren't confident
in who we were praying to. Which brings me to
our second point. Be confident in God's character.
In the story, the unjust judge relents and delivers
justice, but not because he becomes righteous
or develops compassion for the widow. No, he
relents because he's worn down and no longer
wants to be bothered. In this parable, Jesus
is not saying that God is like this, bother him
enough and we can bend him to our will like a
child who nags their parent. Rather, Jesus is
drawing a sharp contrast. He's saying, if even
a corrupt, uncaring judge eventually brings justice,
how much more will a loving and righteous God
bring justice for his chosen ones? You see, it's
God's character. that gives us the assurance
to keep coming to him in prayer. By contrasting
the unjust judge, Jesus highlights what God is
like. Unlike the unjust judge, God has a personal
relationship with his elect. We are not strangers
to him, nor are our troubles hidden from him.
Unlike the unjust judge, God is honorable, fair
and righteous. Unlike the unjust judge, God wants
what is good and right for his people. Unlike
the unjust judge, God is not bothered by our
persistence. He invites us to come boldly and
delights in our dependence on him. And unlike
the unjust judge, God is loving, generous and
compassionate. And we see these attributes not
just in this passage but revealed all through
scripture. When we consider the sum total of
God's character from the Bible, we can, as difficult
as it might be, start to understand that God's
delays in answering our prayers are not His absence.
His silence is not indifference, and His timing
is not neglect. Here are a few examples from
Scripture. Romans 8 -28 tells us that God works
for the good of those who love Him. Isaiah 55,
8 -9 says, For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
As the heavens are higher than the earth, so
are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts
than your thoughts. And Proverbs 3, 5 and 6 remind
us to trust in the Lord with all your heart and
lean not on your own understanding. In all your
ways submit to him and he will make your paths
straight. In the midst of our suffering it can
be difficult to comprehend how God wouldn't give
us what we want. But we can find assurance in
His character. He is the all -knowing, very wise
God. We can trust His plans and trust that it's
good for us because His character shows us this
time and time again. Parents will know this struggle.
Sometimes my children ask for something and it's
not necessarily bad. But I have to say no. Recently
they asked to visit our elderly neighbour and
spend some time with her. And I said no. To them
it can seem very harsh and unnecessary. They
would even try to make out to you that it's tyrannical.
But in my head... I'm thinking it's 4 .30 now,
if you go over, she's going to give you treats
galore, ruining your appetite for dinner. Extracting
you from the house will be a half hour operation
as you negotiate more time. We won't get back
home until 5 .30, then we've got to clean up
the toys, have a bath, I won't have put the dinner
on, that'll push back dinner, that'll push back
teeth, stories, Bible, prayer, and bedtime, and
the early night I know you need will be lost.
So no, you're not going. In this situation, I
know the best. But it would be futile to try
to explain that to them. In this situation, my
wisdom and my knowledge of what lay ahead exceeds
theirs. And likewise, what feels like delay or
denial to us is often his good and careful provision.
But it's not just about what God is like. Our
assurance comes from what he's done and what
he will do. Verses seven to eight of the parables
say, And 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. God
has already secured justice for us. He has taken
up our cause and acted decisively to vindicate
us. Like the widow, we were helpless and without
hope. yet in His mercy God intervened in the
most extraordinary way by sending His perfect
Son to the cross so that we might be justified.
In this sense justice has already been carried
out. Out of great compassion for us, God has
addressed our greatest need, eternity. The sufferings
of this world are real and painful, but they're
not final for His chosen ones. They will pass.
Eternity will not. God has made our deliverance
certain through his son Jesus, the very one telling
this parable. And so we can add to the list,
unlike the unjust judge, God has delivered justice
at great personal cost and out of deep love for
us. If this is the God we pray to, then we can
be sure he is for us. You see, God's character,
who He is, what He's done, and what He will do,
reveal to us His faithfulness and trustworthiness.
When we offer requests to a man such as the unjust
judge, we can expect to be left bitter, resentful
and disinclined to keep going back to Him. But
when we pray to God, we anchor ourselves to His
good character and His faithful promises. It
guards our heart from contempt. bitterness, frustration,
and a willingness to give up. Our confidence
in him gives us hope, and our hope keeps us going.
When I'm out at the playground with my girls,
it's interesting that most of my illustration's
about a father -child relationship, isn't it?
When I'm out at the playground with my girls,
I often see them pause in their play, and they
look for me. They briefly seek me out, lock their
eyes onto me, and then simply return to their
business of play. It's like a check. Are you
still there, Dad? Have you still got me, Dad?
Are you still protecting me and looking out for
me? It's the little boost of confidence they
need to keep going. And in a way, our prayers
to the Father are like that. His character provides
assurance like the assurance a parent provides
for their child. Therefore, our persistence in
prayer even in the face of delay, is founded
on our assurance of God's character and his care
for his chosen people. We can be confident God
will deliver because of who he is. If the unjust
judge gives justice, how much more would a loving
father? Before we move on to the application
of today's passage, I want to just briefly mention
the word quickly, which is in verse 8. I have
to apologize to you and say I can't explain.
The quickly part. Two thousand years doesn't
seem quick and neither are our answers to prayer
always quick. So I haven't been able to logically
make sense of why Jesus uses that word. In all
the commentaries I've read they reference 2 Peter
3 8. With the Lord a day is like a thousand years
and a thousand years alike a day. Perhaps it
is as simple as that. Or perhaps it's also worth
remembering that this is a parable. a story Jesus
is telling to make a point. And the point is
that God is better than the unjust judge, even
in his speed. So, in light of this passage, what
do we do? Well, unlike other parables, the writer
Luke, before Jesus begins telling this story,
makes clear what we are to do. Always pray and
don't give up. But here's a few things that I
got to thinking about in the application of this
passage. My first point is quite simply pray.
If you've never prayed, pray. If you've stopped
praying, come back and start praying. If you
don't feel like praying, just pray and tell God
that you don't feel like praying. No perfect
words are required in your prayers. Just get
started and keep going. Secondly, cry out day
and night. We often feel like prayer needs to
be refined or controlled and sophisticated in
some way. I like this verse because I think it
calls us to be honest and real in our prayers.
And scripture is full of raw prayers. It's full
of lament. There's confusion. There are prayers
that challenge God. There are prayers for people
calling for punishment for wicked people. There
are prayers where people wrestle with God. There's
no point putting on a show in your private, personal
prayers to God. Be honest with him and cry out
day and night. And that might mean telling him
that you're tired. It might mean telling him
that you don't feel like praying. And it might
even mean telling him that you're struggling
to trust him. My third point is trust God's character,
not your circumstances. Don't pray in some vain
hope to bend God to your will, but remember to
pray to a loving God who wants to hear your prayers,
who wants to give you justice and has given you
justice. If it seems like God is not answering
you, remember God's wisdom far exceeds ours and
trust in his good character. And lastly, use
the Lord's Prayer as a template. Brendan has
just finished an excellent sermon series on the
Lord's Prayer. And it's a great tool for how
to pray. It reminds us that prayer is not a shopping
list to get the things we want. Instead it reminds
us that prayer is about aligning ourselves with
God's divine purpose and will for our lives.
And it reminds us that it's about praying God
things. So I encourage you to go back and listen
to all those sermons from that series and to
just touch base with them again. and they have
lots of encouraging application points in each
of those as well. You can access those on Spotify
or through our website. But you can't go past
the simplicity of Luke's message in verse 1,
when he says, pray always and don't give up.
Now, as I prepared for today, I came to love
this parable's ending. Jesus doesn't say, when
the Son of Man comes, will He find perfect people?
He says, when the Son of Man comes, will He find
faith on the earth? So the real question isn't,
will God answer your prayers? The real question
is, will you keep trusting Him while you wait?
Faith manifests itself through persistent prayer.
It is persistence in the waiting and persistence
in the face of unanswered prayer that tests and
proves our faith in God. Sometimes when we pray,
our situation changes. Sometimes when we pray
our situation doesn't change but always when
we pray our faith deepens. So when Jesus returns
will he find people whose faith eroded because
they gave up or will he find people who always
prayed and never gave up?