Sermon Series: Getting to Know God-The Parables of Jesus 

Learning About Praying 

Luke 18:1-8

PSBC 10/14/01 AM

In a nutshell: God wants us to always pray and not give up. And when we pray we should be persistent, precise and passionate.

I. Introduction

A. Metaphors

This morning, I want you to reach back into your Junior High school experience and remember something your English or grammar teacher taught you. For some of you that's going to be quite a stretch, because it was a long time ago. For others of you, that will be a very recent occurrence.

The concept I want you to pull up into your memory banks is the concept of a metaphor. A metaphor is a figure of speech in the English language where you use something totally unrelated to a particular idea, to describe that idea. Usually metaphors capture our attention, because in a few words, they accurately describe our emotions or the facts of a situation.

Let me give you some examples: -"That person is about as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs." -"I feel about as helpless as a trombone player in a phone booth." -One I gave you last week, "You can't tell how much gas is in the tank by how loud the horn honks!" -Greg Laurie used one at a Promise Keeper rally I went to, "Going to church doesn't make you a Christian, any more than going to McDonald's makes you a Big Mac." -But my all time favorite comes from the old TV program, "Cheers". Norm walked into the bar, and Sam the bartender asked him, "How's it going, Norm?" And Norm answered, "It's a dog eat dog world out there, Sammy…and I'm wearing Milk Bone underwear."

Then there are metaphors that use contrast to emphasize truth… -I played football at Wheaton College with a guy by the name of Mick Detlefson. Mick stood 6'5" tall and weighed almost 300 pounds. His nickname was "Tiny". -In the old Three Stooges comedies, the one guy who had no hair was called, "Curley".

I think you get the idea. Metaphors paint vivid pictures for us through word pictures or contrast in order to emphasize the truth about something.

B. 2 Metaphors Well, in the parable we're going to look at this morning, Jesus uses two metaphors to teach us something about God. And He uses both kinds of metaphors that I've just described, to do that. -In one part of the story, He uses contrast to teach us about the character of God, -And in another part of the story, He uses a word picture to teach us how to go about talking to God-what we call, "praying".

C. Only one thing taught about God

But even though Jesus uses two metaphors in this one parable, it doesn't change the premise I've been telling you about since we started this series of sermons on the parables of Jesus-every parable teaches us something specific about God.

And if you remember from other messages, or if you're here for the first time, let me use this metaphor for you…. …Every parable is like a ball of string. If you can find the beginning-or the main idea about God that's taught-then you can easily unravel it, and have something useful. But if you try to understand a parable without identifying that main idea about God, then it's like trying to unravel that ball of string from the middle-you just wind up with a confusing mess.

And in the parable we're going to look at today-the Parable of the Persistent Widow-Jesus tells us right at the beginning what is being taught about God. He basically says, God wants something from everyone of His children…He wants us to pray and not give up.

The parable is found in Luke 18, and I'd encourage you to turn there and follow along as I read the first 8 verses…

Luke 18:1-8 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 about men. 3 And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, 'Grant me justice against my adversary.' 4 "For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, 'Even though I don't fear God or care about men, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually wear me out with her coming!'" 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 earth?"

Like I said, there are two metaphors in this story-the word picture and the contrasting kind. Let's look at the one that uses contrast, first…

II. Metaphor #1-God

This one is used to open our eyes to a realistic view of God.

A. The Unjust Judge

One of the two characters in this parable is a judge-basically, the town Justice of the Peace. Quite frankly, this judge shouldn't be sitting on the bench. He is described as a person who didn't have a respect for God, and he didn't give a rip about people. So, who did he care about? He cared only about himself.

So, the story goes that a widow had someone do her wrong. Someone was trying to take advantage of her, or cheat her, or harass her. And she wanted justice. And the only person she could turn to was the town Justice of the Peace-the guy who didn't respect God, and didn't' care about people-especially helpless widows. But the judge was her only hope to put an end to the injustice that she was suffering.

So she went to him and said, "Give me some justice against this person whose out to get me." And the judge says, "Excuse me? I think you've mixed me up with someone who cares. Now, get out of my courtroom." So, he shoos her out of his courtroom, and the judge thinks he's done with her. But she surprises him. The next day she comes back to plead her case, again. And the judge has to throw her out a second time. This happens day, after day, after day. She shows up, she pleads her case, and he throws her out.

But finally, the judge gets weary of this woman bothering him, and says to himself, "Everyone knows I don't respect God, and that I don't give a rip about anyone but myself. But this woman is going to give me an even worse reputation in the community. Plus, she's getting on my nerves. Just to shut her up, I'll give her the justice she wants." And so he does.

B. Jesus contrasts God with that Judge

Now, Jesus contrasts God to this Justice of the Peace. In verses 6-8, Jesus basically tells His disciples, "Keep in mind how that judge acted and what he thought. He didn't care about anyone but himself, he was demanding, and he only acted out of selfishness, even when he finally helped this woman." Then Jesus says, "But that's not the way God is."

Illustration: I remember reading a story in the paper some years ago about a man who was so troubled by world conditions, particularly about the moral conditions in the United States that he was going to fast and pray until God sent a revival on this country and corrected the moral degeneration that was taking place. He announced that he was going to continue his fasting and praying all the way to death. He was very serious about getting God's attention. The papers carried the story day after day. Soon, his strength began to fail, and he grew weaker and weaker. Finally he was confined to bed. But he never gave up. He still continued the fast and he continued to pray. Then finally he died.

Now, was that really prayer? Frankly, no it wasn't . That was blackmail. That man was holding his own life-pistol to the head of God and demanding all His money. He was insisting that God work on his terms and his timing. He was assuming that God was like the unjust Justice of the Peace in this parable.

But folks, Jesus' point was…that's not God. God is not unrighteous, He's not so callous to our desires that we have to connive and struggle and persuade Him to move. When we pray, He not only hears right away, but He answers right away. However, because He sees the total picture and we only see a part, sometimes His answers to our prayers is "No", or "Wait", or "I've got something better," or "Yes".

Friends, don't make the mistake of thinking you're God and that you know what's best for your life. If you think that, you're setting yourself up as a god, and you're degrading God to a pawn in your own chess-game-of-life.

So, Jesus is setting the record straight in this first metaphor. God loves you. You never have to doubt that, no matter what the circumstance. He wants to see justice in your life. And He wants what's best for you. So, when you pray, make sure you keep those facts straight in your mind.

III. Metaphor #2-How to Pray

And that ushers in the second metaphor in this parable. This metaphor uses the other character-the woman-to teach us three things about praying effectively to God, who loves us!

A. Persistent

The first thing the woman illustrates is that we must be persistent in our prayers. She kept coming to the judge. The first time she sought justice, she was turned away. The second time, she was turned away. The Bible says she kept coming for "some time." It was long enough that she was about to wear the judge out. We call that being persistent.

Illustration: There is a story about a football coach who was preparing his team for a big game. In order to inspire them he showed them some film clips of great plays and great players. One player that appeared in several of the clips was a massive lineman who was shown hitting one player so hard that the player didn't get up. He just laid there on the ground and had to be carried off the field. -In the next clip this same big lineman hit a guy so hard that he went limping off the field. -Then in the next film clip, this same lineman laid a hit on another player, and that player fell to the ground, but this one bounced right back up. -On the next play, the film clip showed the big lineman hitting the same player again, taking him out of the play, but the player bounced right back up. -Then the next clip showed the same player getting hit by the same big lineman, yet again. And even though he was taken out of the play, the player bounced right back up. -And this went on for several more plays. In each play, the same player got knocked to the ground, was taken out of the play, but still he bounced back up. The players watching the film started cheering for this brave "underdog".

Then the coach stopped the film and asked his guys, "Which player do we want on our team?" And the enthusiastic players all responded in unison, "The guy who keeps getting up!" And the coach replied, "No! We want that big guy who keeps knocking him down."

Friends, we need to be persistent when we pray, like that lineman who kept knocking down the opposition. Let me ask you, "Do you have a prayer list of people and things you pray for with persistence?" If you don't, you should. At the very least you should be praying for your family, your church, our President, and for God to use you as a link in the chain of events that brings someone you know, to a relationship with Jesus Christ.

And that leads to the second way the widow in the parable teaches us to pray…

B. Precisely

Look again at verse 3…

Luke 18:3 3 (she) kept coming to him with the plea, 'Grant me justice against my adversary.'

That's pretty specific, isn't it. She had a definite request. And that's the second way we should pray-precisely!

Illustration: Imagine going to court with only a vague idea about how someone has wronged you and what you want the court to do about it.

"Judge, this person said some bad things about me, and I didn't like it."

The Judge would ask, "What bad things? What do you want us to do about it? Do you want us to slap their hands with a ruler? Do you want us to wash their mouth out with soap? Do you want us to have them give you some money for damages?"

"Oh, I'll take the money!"

"Alright, how much money? Ten dollars? No? How much more?"

Sounds kind of ridiculous, doesn't it? But don't a lot of us do that in our prayers?

"O God, bless me. Help me to live right. Help me to be what you want me to be. Bless all the missionaries. Bless our church. Be with my family." We pray stuff like this so often. And when we do, I don't think we really know what we're asking God to do, or what we're asking Him for. And friends, that's a hindrance to believing in the power that God wants to demonstrate through prayer.

James 5:15 says our prayers need to be offered by faith. But…

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

In other words, there has to be an object of our faith-something specific for which we are believing.

Now, when we pray precisely, don't get me wrong, we're not to ask for something selfishly, or carnally. It should be in tune with what we know God wants. And the more mature we become in our faith, the more we feel that gentle nudging of God that prompts us to pray for specific things.

Illustration: When I was pastoring in Missouri, our church needed God to supply $10,000 beyond what we were able to give. I asked the church family and our church leaders to pray for that amount, specifically. A few weeks before the end of the year, a stock gift came in the mail. I checked the value of the stock and it was $5,000. I put out the word that God had supplied half of what we needed, and we now needed to pray for $5,000 more to meet our need.

Our church board was to meet the next week, and they were the only ones who could give approval to sell the stock. But a snow storm hit, and snowed us all in, and delayed our meeting for a week. When they finally met they approved the sale of the stock. So, the next day I went to a broker to sell the stock. But in the meantime, God did His work. During the delay from when we were given the stock and when we finally could sell the stock, it had doubled in value, and was worth $10,000. God had specifically taken care of the specific need we brought to Him.

Friends, I could tell you story after story of how God has provided like that for us, over the years, when we've prayed specifically. The point to all this is that when you pray specifically, you will get specific answers to your prayers.

And what I've learned from these answered prayers is that it I serve a God who answers prayer. …And that in turn motivates me to pray more. …And that in turn helps to build my faith in God's power. And an upward spiral begins, that the Bible calls, "faith to faith". (see Romans 1:17 KJV).

Are you being specific in your prayers? -If you want to know how to specifically pray for our country right now, check out the "In the Face of Tragedy" brochure at the TELL ME MORE table, when you leave today. -Do you want to pray for our church finances? Pray specifically that God will supply $35,000 beyond what we can give, by the end of the year, to meet the vision. -Do you want to see lives changed and relationships healed? Start praying for people by name.

That widow had a goal and persisted in that specific petition until it was answered. Many of us need to sit down and think through what we need God to do, then get much more specific in our praying.

C. Passionate

Finally, the metaphor of the widow teaches us to be passionate in our prayers. This gal cared about what happened to her, and she cried to the judge like she cared, "Grant me justice! Grant me justice!" This gal was making a scene in the courtroom. She cared so much that she cried out with her whole heart.

I believe God is sitting back looking at us and listening to what we pray, and He says, Excuse me? Do you really care about that? Where's the proof?

Friends, what moves you? What are you passionate about? Your family? The vision of your church? Your career? Your leisure activities? Your ministry to others? Our country? Whatever it is that you are passionate about, those should be at the top of your list to pray for, every day. Every day I pray for 6 specific things that I'm passionate about: 1. Diane, Jori and Brian 2. My church family 3. For God to supply His part of our faith-budget this year, to the tune of $35,000. 4. For God to use me in specific ways to advance His Kingdom. 5. For God to give me all the faith I need for what He wants me to do that day. 6. For our leaders on a national and local level

I'm passionate about those things, and I plead with God every day for His answers to those requests.

So, I'll ask you again, what are you passionate about? What turns your crank? That's where you should start praying.

And here's something I've found over the years. The more time I spend in prayer and learning about God from His Word, the more my passions start to conform to His interests and desires. Selfishness is replaced by a real desire for what He wants. And the things that matter most to Him start to matter more to me. And as my interests start to align themselves with God's interests, the power of prayer becomes more evident and the results from my prayers increase.

IV. Conclusion

Friends, this matter of prayer is so important. It's important because it is designed to link us intimately with the very Creator of the Universe, and in that link to join Him in what He is doing on this earth-to be involved in His grand plans that will last for eternity. And in the process, we find out how much He loves us!

One of my favorite devotional writers, Oswald Chambers, wrote the words on the front of your WIG's this morning…

"Prayer does not prepare us for the greater work; prayer IS the greater work."

And when we're Persistent, Precise and Passionate, that's the prayer God is going to answer. -That's the kind of prayer that makes life exciting and expectant. -That's the kind of prayer that will change circumstances. -That's the kind of prayer that will change us. … and that's why God wants us to always pray, and never give up.

Amen.