Tenacious Faith Luke 18:1-8 September 11, 2016 Pastor Vic 1 (Slide#1) Have you ever been driving home at the end of a long trip and it s late, and you re getting really tired you re beginning to doze? You realize your eyes are blinking longer they re not blinks anymore they stay shut for a half a second too long and you get startled awake just as you re beginning to veer off the road. I don t know about you but I have a remedy for that I ask Debbie to drive! But if she s not available, if I m all by myself, I could pull off and nap, but if I m only a few miles from home (and that s where most accidents happen, by the way, within 5 miles of home). Then, if nothing else, I remind myself of what s at stake falling asleep at the wheel and crashing and possibly being killed or killing someone else. That reminder in itself is often just what I need to stay awake at the wheel for the rest of the trip it s amazing what motivation the threat of death can bring! Thinking of what s at stake helps me to do what it takes to stay awake. I ll pinch myself in the arm. I ll sing at the top of my lungs Debbie loves that one. I ll slap myself in the face (she likes that one too!) I ll turn the radio up real loud. I ll roll down the windows. Turn the AC on full blast. Whatever it takes. Yes, I m
2 driving a car, but my number one job then becomes staying awake because I know what s at stake That s similar to the lady in the parable this morning only she was not driving and she was not dozing, she had been wronged and she wanted justice. And she was going to do whatever it took to get the judge s ruling in her favor. So, listen to her story again (Slide#2) 1 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. 2 He said: In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. 3 And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, Grant me justice against my adversary. (Slide#3) 4 For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, Even though I don t fear God or care what people think, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won t eventually come and attack me! (Slide#4) 6 And the Lord said, Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 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? 8 I tell you, he will see that they get justice,
and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the 3 earth? Jesus was saying our prayer life should reflect the persistence of this widow. (Slide#5) I don t think I ever would have thought of prayer like this, if this parable didn t exist in the Bible. I would have described prayer as a much less aggressive thing. It s a privilege, after all, to talk to the Creator of the Universe and there s some decorum that should be attended to. It seems meekness and humility, knowing your place and approaching God in a respectful manner are all the right and good things that are called for when you pray. After all, isn t faith a place where you stop all the drama a place where you get calm and you rest and relax and relinquish, and you say, It s in God s hands now. Isn t that faith? But that s not what Jesus says in this parable. He says faith can look like this too: like an angry person who s been done wrong and won t stand for it anymore and she keeps on banging on the door and ringing the doorbell and calling on the phone and texting, and sending emails. She doesn t give up! Because she knows what s at stake, so she s going to do what it takes to get that judge s attention!
This isn t always what faith looks like, but it is sometimes a persistent 4 faith, a never give up faith. A tenacious faith and Jesus says it gets expressed through prayer. On this 15 th anniversary of 9-11, I can t help but think of those brave souls on flight 93 and Todd Beamer who, while on the line with Verizon operator, Lisa Jefferson, asked her to pray with him the Lord s prayer before he and several others stormed the cockpit in order to try and take back the plane from the hi-jackers. Of course, you remember what happened then the plane went down near Shanksville PA. You can be sure the Lord s prayer was never prayed so tenaciously than that day on Flight 93. From prayer that ordinary random grouping of individuals got the courage to fight back on the front lines of the war with terror. I m reminded of the many times I ve needed a tenacious faith one with teeth that would give me justice when I d been unjustly dealt with. In the midst of my fear and anxiety of my 19 th year. A very desperate place indeed. I needed prayer every day for centering and calm and healing. And it didn t seem to come quickly, but it came! Prayer was part of my every moment during those days it s what pulled me through. I think of Jesus in the Garden, and his tenacious faith expressed in persistent prayer. Great drops of sweat like blood fell from his brow. He didn t get what he
asked for, but He got the strength to go through what he faced. The same can be 5 true for us too. I think we sometimes mistreat prayer. And we don t to ourselves any favors. We don t know what power is available to us! We sometimes treat prayer like a Hallmark Greeting Card. We think God only hears us when we re in a Holy frame of mind reciting the blessings and politely thanking God for each one. Please understand, there s a place for that but Jesus says God also hears us when we re in a desperate frame of mind a stressed-out frame of mind yes, even an angry frame of mind! God s got big shoulders, and that s good news, my friends. Life brings with it many stressed moments and we need to know we have a God who hears us in moments like those. But the larger point of what Jesus is saying here is, it s got to matter to you when you pray, and if you knew what was at stake, it would matter to you. If you could peel back the spiritual reality of prayer and see clearly what is going on when we pray, it would matter to you and me, and we would do a lot more of it a lot more often. We would have a lot more things to pray about. In fact we d start praying about everything! There wouldn t be anything in our lives unworthy of prayer. Every interaction, every fleeting thought, every burden carried, every joy, every
hurt, every thing all of it would be worthy of taking and crafting into a prayer to 6 our Father in heaven if we knew what was at stake. Debbie and I often at the end of the day get a chance to catch up with each other and share what s happened during that day. I used to really suck at this, but I ve gotten a lot better over the 36 years of our marriage and have even come to appreciate the value in detailed descriptions of unfamiliar things, people and events. It s part of the sharing of life that is important to our marriage. I didn t realize how precious that simple recitation of the day would be when we first got married, but now I look forward to it and I know that there s a depth of knowing each other that comes not in the content of what s said, so much, but in the act of saying the time taken to tell and to hear and to affirm and to listen. We don t thrive together without those moments. What is life with God without that kind of checking in on a daily basis? And if we knew what was at stake, I dare say we d do a lot more of that! Jesus often did that at night all night long, he d find a lonely place up in the hills around the sea of Galilee, and he d pray! What did he talk about? He was checking in, He was laying his burdens down. He was praying for guidance in the mission of saving the world. He was nurturing his connection with the Father, he couldn t have done what he did without that! And when words were not adequate, He allowed His Spirit to
speak with groans too deep for words. He did it because he knew what was at 7 stake, so he did what it took to keep that connection strong! And if Jesus needed that kind of time set aside to check in, don t you think we need it all the more?! You bet we do. If we knew what was at stake we would make the time to check in. Cory Ten Boom once asked, (Slide#6) Is Prayer your Steering Wheel or Spare Tire? I think this question gets at what s at stake. If prayer is your steering wheel, then it guides you. You don t let go of your steering wheel. Remember, we were taught hands at the position of 10 o clock and 2 o clock? Now, with the powerful airbags of today it s been revised to 9 and 3. But regardless you don t let go. You stay connected for that constant guidance through prayer. Steering wheel speaks of praying without ceasing, a persistent, tenacious connection with your God. (Slide#7) A spare tire on the other hand says prayer is only used in crises. It s in fact rarely used. None of the normal time runs on a spare. It s only there for a quick fix. You put it on just to get you to a tire store and then you take it off and store it away until another crisis comes along. The power of prayer won t be fully realized if we treat it like a spare tire.
I was watching a certain football game yesterday where one of the teams in 8 the contest was tremendously out-matched the score was way-lopsided at the half and the better team was obviously large and in charge, but with just a few minutes left to play in the half the noticeably better team started getting sloppy. They threw their first interception of the season and they let a long bomb get by for a touchdown from the lesser team. On the way in for halftime, the coach of the better team was interviewed and he was livid. Mad at his team! Even though they were WAY ahead, he knew that his team was thinking they re so far out in front they didn t need to try as hard, and that coach was NOT happy. Jesus is saying the same thing in this parable. He s saying don t give up! No matter what you re facing or how long you ve been praying, don t stop Someone here has been praying for a friend to come to the lord for years,don t give up on that most important relationship with God. Pray daily and pray fervently. Get to know the power in that relationship, not just for you, but for everyone else. Pray with me Lord Jesus, we know you desire us more than we desire you. Help us know what s at stake in this issue of prayer. Help us never give up on you and to always strive to grow in our trust and time spent with you in prayer. Give us your grace, most of all, let our faith in you please you