Luke 18:1-8
Faith is Persistent
Introduction:
Mark
Frost is the author of Grand Slam, a book about the life of Bobby Jones,
the only golfer to win all four majors in a calendar year. Jones later succumb
to a terrible spinal disease, which he battled for 23 years until he died at age
69. He had lost his ability to walk, but it was a gradual decline in which he
went first to a cane, then a leg brace before settling down in a wheelchair. A
friend once asked Jones if there was a cure for the disease. “Oh sure,” Jones replied. “My word, man, what is it?” asked his
friend, thinking that perhaps a new remedy had been discovered. “Death,” Jones said. Jones had resigned
to his fate, and when confronted by friends who mourned his condition, he
simply said that in life, as in golf, “you
play the ball where it lies.”
Isn’t that the way many Christians think about the
difficulties of life? We resign ourselves to “play the ball where it lies” believing it an act of faith to accept
whatever is on our plates.[1] Please
hear this. “There is no such thing as a
Christian resignation in which we have either to submit to a fate of this kind
or to come to terms with it.”[2] Resignation
to fate is not an act of faith. Resignation
is always the gloomy comfort of unbelief.
To what fate have you resigned yourself? What in your life do
you put up with because you believe it to be your God-given fate? Do you, as
many do, excuse your sin or otherwise corrupted lifestyle saying, “Well, that’s
just my fate. I can’t help it”?
Luke tells us we can help it. He says faith is persistent. Persistent faith appeals to the freedom of God; it appeals according to
the will of God; and it does so for
the glory of God.
Appeals to the freedom of God:
Believers on Jesus Christ do not resign ourselves to accept
the dreadful state and status of life in which we sometimes find ourselves. As God’s
people, we do not have to put up with this mess! We can call upon God through prayers
of faith to do for us and to give to us what we need. And we can do so with complete
expectation that God will hear and do what we ask.
During WWII six Navy pilots left their aircraft carrier on a
mission. They tried to return to their ship shortly after dark, but the captain
had ordered a blackout of all lights on the ship. Over and over the frantic
pilots radioed, asking for just one light so they could see to land. But the
pilots were told that the blackout could not be lifted. After several appeals
and denials of their requests, the ship's operator broke radio contact - and
the pilots were forced to ditch in the ocean.[3]
God doesn’t do that to God’s children. God will never require
you to remain in the fate that you are currently experiencing. Is your fate gossip?
God will eliminate it. Is it alcoholism? God will destroy it? Is it
pornography? God will strip it from you. God will never blackout on you. God answers
prayers of faith. And God does so in the freedom that only God enjoys.
Freedom – freedom is the absence of coercion or constraint in
choice or action.[4] The captain of that ship was coerced by fear
of the enemy and made his pilots ditch their planes. Since God is
omnipotent; since there are no powers seen or unseen by whom God can be coerced,
God is free to do as God chooses. And God chooses to exercise his freedom on
your behalf. God chooses to hear and to answer your prayers of faith.
God not only permit us to pray fervently for our needs to be
met, but God commands us to do so.
Psalm 145:18, 19: The
Lord is near to all who call on
him, to all who call on him in truth. He fulfills the desires of those who fear
him; he hears their cry and saves them.[5]
Psalm 50:15 - …call
upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me.[6]
And from today’s passage; verses 6 and 7 - 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?[7]
Through faithful prayer, God will demonstrate himself to be
your God and Helper. God is the God of freedom. And God wants to set you free
from the fate to which you have resigned yourself.
Asks according to the will of God:
So, does God’s freedom mean that God can do literally
anything? No, it doesn’t. There are many things God cannot do. God cannot do
what is self-contradictory or out of character. God cannot be unpredictable,
unloving, arbitrary, unjust, or inconsistent. God chooses to answer prayers that
are made according to God’s own will. A better way to say this is: “Though there are things which a holy,
rational God is incapable of intending, all that God intends to do he actually
does.”[8]
A Christian testifies: “When
I was a boy, Bishop Hamline helped me greatly. When visiting at a house where I
was, he took me aside and said, 'When in trouble, my boy, kneel down and ask
God's help; but never climb over the fence into the devil's ground and then
kneel down and ask help. Pray from God's side of the fence.’ [9]
When appealing to God to meet your needs, be sure you are on
the right side of the fence. Be sure that you are asking according to God’s
will, not your own sinful desires. For,
to appeal to God to bless a sinful behavior of condition is to ask God to deny
God’s own character and to, therefore, cease to be God. Sometimes we do so
primarily because we do not know the will of God because we have neglected the
study of scriptures. Or we have looked to the scriptures and have perverted
them to meet our own sinful desires.
Another aspect of faithful prayer is
persistence.
A father had just put his young
daughter to bed. He had just settled down in the living room, when she called
out, "Daddy, will you please bring
me some milk?" "No, Sally
you've already had your milk!" said Dad. A few minutes later she
called out again: "Daddy, I want
some milk, please!" "No,
Sally, I'm busy now. Go to sleep and don't call me again!" Two minutes
later, Sally called again: "Daddy, please
bring me some milk!" "Now
listen, Sally, if you aren't quiet, I'm going to come and give you a smack!"
There was a short silence. Then Sally called out: "Daddy, when you come to give me a smack, will you please bring me some milk?"
[10]
That is persistence. Karl Barth, last century’s greatest
theologian, says that prayer that does not persist is faithless prayer. The
prayer of faith has the hallmarks of the prayer of our Lord in the
To what fate have you resigned yourself? What in your life do
you put up with or enjoy because you believe it to be your fate? Faith is persistent. Faith appeals to
the freedom of God and it
persistently appeals according to
the will of God.
And does so for the glory of God:
A young American engineer was sent by his company on a two
year assignment to
The answer to prayer is, to you and me and God, the
all-important part of our praying. Just as the playing of that harmonica was
evidence that the young man had been practicing, so is the answer to prayer direct
and unmistakable evidence of God's being. It proves that God lives, that there
is a God, an intelligent being, who is interested in you and in me. It proves
that God listens when we approach him in prayer. There is no greater proof that
God exists than the answers to prayer. Listen to Elijah's plea in 1 Kings 18:37:
"Answer me, O Lord, answer me, so these people will
know that you, O Lord, are God,
and that you are turning their hearts back again.” [12]
Why does God answer faithful prayer? God answers prayers
because the answer to prayer glorifies God. Unanswered prayers leave the
praying ones in darkness, doubt, and bewilderment, and convey no conviction to
the unbeliever.
It is not the act or the attitude of praying which gives it
value. The value of prayer is not found in abject prostration of the body
before God, or in intense or listless utterances to God. It is not in the beauty
and poetry of the diction of our prayers. The value of prayer is not found in the
marvelous argument and eloquence in praying. No one or all of these things
glorify God. It is the answer which brings glory to God’s name.[13]
Persistent faith appeals to the freedom of God; it appeals according to the will of God; and it does so for the glory of God.
Conclusion:
C. H. Spurgeon once said, "Prayer pulls the rope down below and the great bell rings above in the
ears of God. Some scarcely stir the bell, for they pray so lethargically.
Others give only an occasional jerk at the rope. But he who communicates with
heaven is the one who grasps the rope boldly and pulls continuously with all
his might."[14]
Do you believe that you live helplessly before an
irresistible fate? That is a faithless resignation. Real, genuine, God-given faith
is persistent? What does it mean to you to know that omnipotent God is free to
act and chooses to answer your prayers? For, God answers all prayers, which are
offered according to the will of God for the glory of God. Stop blaming fate on
your situation and condition in life. You have the rope – pull it! Amen!
[1] Karl
Barth, edited by G. W. Bromley and T. F. Torrance, Church Dogmatics, II.1 – The Doctrine of God (Edinburgh: T. &
T. Clark, 1957) 511.
[2] Ibid
[3]
Attributed to “Today in the Word, MBI, October, 1991, p. 12” at
eSermons.com
[4]Merriam-Webster,
[5]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (Ps 145:18-19).
[6]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (Ps 50:15).
[7]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (Lk 18:6-7).
[8] Attributed to “James Packer, Your Father Loves You,
Harold Shaw Publishers, 1986.” At http://www.esermons.com/
search.asp?user_id=15766&theOtherType=illustrations&whichOne=other&whichOne3=o&whichFile=omnipotence
– adapted.
[9]
Attributed to “Topical Illustrations” at http://elbourne.org/sermons/index.mv?search
[10]
http://elbourne.org/sermons/index.mv?illustration+954
[11] Attributed to “Bits & Pieces,
[12]The Holy Bible : New International Version (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996, c1984), 1 Ki 18:37.
[13]
Attributed to “E. M. Bounds, The
Possibilities of Prayer” – at http://www.worldinvisible.com/library/
bounds/5bb.10597-possibilities/5bb.10597.10.htm
[14]
http://elbourne.org/sermons/index.mv?illustration+4431