Don’t Stop Believing (journey song into)

Luke 18:1-8 (ESV)

The Parable of the Persistent Widow

¹ And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. 

• How many of you ever lost heart in praying?

You prayed, you believed God, and nothing happened. You’ve wondered if God even hears your prayers.

There was a friend of mine who was a worship leader in a church.  More than a decade has passed since I have seen this individual.  About 3 or 4 years ago I read his Facebook status that was just shocking to me. Keep in mind he was a worship leader in a church.  He had the responsibility of leading God’s people into the presence of God.

His Facebook status read something like “Praying to God is like praying to a wall.”  Apparently, there was something that he had prayed for and either did not receive an answer or did not like the answer that he received and therefore compared God who is a living all powerful being who created all things, to a non-living thing like a wall which is man-made that cannot hear nor respond.

My heart was broken for this man, who once led people into the presence of God now does not even believe that God could answer his prayer.

I know he is not the only one that has felt this way.   Perhaps you may be feeling this way also.

If so I hope this message today will be an encouragement to you to keep on praying and to never lose hope.  Jesus starts off…

² He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. 

Let’s first look at this judge.  It is said of him that he neither feared God nor respected man.

In other words, he did not live his life pleasing God, nor did he live pleasing man. He did not submit himself to the laws of God, yet he is said to be a judge over a people.

Just a side note, when a wicked person is in a seat of authority, people suffer.

Proverbs 29:2

When the righteous increase, people rejoice, but when a wicked man rules, people groan.

So it is in this parable.  We can say this man was a wicked man because he did not fear God and he was thereby ruled by the wickedness of his own heart. If you are not ruled by God, then you are governed by your own lust and selfish ambitions.

So we have an ego maniac with a great deal of power.  He can either use this power to bring justice or use it to benefit himself. What will he do?

Luke 18:3       ³ And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ ⁴ For a while he refused,

We see that he did not use his power for justice but rather for his own benefit.

We also see proverbs 29:2 being played out through the suffering of this widow and through this judge’s lack of executing justice. 

This frustrates me to no end, if it is your job to bring justice, then “Do your job” as Sean Payton would say. Does it frustrate anyone else when you see injustice? (sex slavery, Racism, poverty, abortion, abuse, murder especially of a young child, innocent declared guilty and the guilty declared innocent.)

It is also frustrating to see this widow who is apparently in a great deal of distress and has no one else to cry out for her, to get treated the way she does totally disregarded by the Judge.

It’s bad enough that she has lost her husband, now she has an adversary (enemy).  Meaning she has someone coming against her in court, probably regarding the rights of some property.  Besides losing a spouse she now risks losing her home as well. No one is defending her.

That’s just how the enemy of our soul acts.  He will kick you when you are down, in an attempt to keep you down.  he does not want you to get back up. He will try to break your trust in God, he will get you believing that God really does not care for you and that all hope is gone.

We learned that this judge did not fear God and his response shows.  ⁴ For a while he refused.

If he was governed by the laws of God surely, he would have recalled the mandate for judges towards widows and acted sooner on her behalf.

Isaiah 1:16-17

¹⁶ Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, ¹⁷ learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause.

The laws of Israel treated widows as a privileged person.

For example, it became a practice of judges to hear the cases of widows right after the cases of the fatherless.  What a great thing to not have to wait in court and hear the other nonsense.

However, we learn rather than pleading her cause this wicked judge refused to give justice, and he refused for some time. So this woman finds herself in a waiting period.

• What do you do in that time of waiting?
• How do you hold on during a time of injustice?
• What hope do you cling to during those times of unanswered prayers?
• Do you call it quits and just assume you are talking to a wall?
• Do you keep on pressing on?

I like the persistence of this woman.  She realized the source of her help and refused to accept anything less than justice.

but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, ⁵ yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’” 

In other words, I better give her justice because she will not stop asking and she is wearing me out. This woman reminds me so much of my little girl.   Maylen is relentless, she does not quit asking until you first acknowledge her, and/or she gets what she is desiring.

Because of her persistence, because of her unwillingness to quit, because she kept on asking, because she did not give up hope, this woman received justice.  Even when her adversary was against her and it seemed hopeless, she did not stop believing.   Don’t Stop Believing!

This wicked judge eventually changed his mind and acted with justice toward this widow.  

⁶ And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. ⁷ And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? 

Luke compares this unrighteous judge to the Almighty Supreme righteous judge, God Almighty. 

So we will do the same:

Wicked Judge                                                                       Righteous Judge

This woman was a complete stranger                       We are the elect of God called by name

She was to keep a distance away                             We can come boldly to the throne of grace   

She went before an unrighteous judge                       We will stand before a righteous judge

She had no one to speak for her                                We have an advocate with the Father

She had no encouraging word to hold onto                We can hold on to the truth of God’s word

She had limited access to the judge                           We can go to God anytime of the day

Her pleas were provoking the judge                           God delights to hear our prayers

The point being, if a wicked judge is able to give justice to a widow that he does not know, How much more would a righteous and Holy God be willing and able to answer the prayers of those whom He loves and has called.

You are the elect of God.  Meaning God chose you before the foundation of the world was laid. He knows you, He is much different than the wicked judge in that He desires a relationship with you.  He takes delight in the prayers of His people.

• What is your responsibility?

Your responsibility is to pray to Him night and day, and do not lose heart. Even if your adversary the devil is looking for your demise, Don’t Stop Believing.

• To man, it may seem like an impossible dream to believe that God can radically change the east side of Houma. Just as it may have seemed impossible for this woman to experience justice from an unjust judge.
• It may seem out of reach to believe that your loved one will come to Christ.
• You may feel like you are stuck in a rut, and it seems impossible to get out
• You may be experiencing health problems or know someone who is, and it just seems beyond your control.
• You may feel like it is impossible to live as a Christian on your job, or at your school.
• You may feel like it is contrary to reason to live the rest of your life as a Christian.

Whatever impossibilities you are facing today, keep on asking and “Don’t Stop Believing”

Let your faith be stirred by the persistence of this widow woman. 

The only way you lose as a believer in Christ is to give up (throw in the towel) before the race is finished. If you have to walk or even crawl to the finish line, You Must Finish the Race.

You cannot give up the fight.

⁸ I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily.

These are the words of Jesus as He promises to give justice speedily. 

The promise is that He will give justice, who is He? He is God!

If Jesus said it, then we know that it will take place. 

Every wrong will be made right.  If we do not see it in our lifetime, we will see it when He comes back for His church.

Every disease that afflicted His people will be judged, Every wicked person who afflicted the righteous will also be judged.  Every tormenting spirt that was sent to destroy your life will be judged.  

God will have Justice!

He will give justice to them speedily. 

Just to let you know that speedily does not necessarily mean right now.  It comes from the greek word

tàchos which means in a brief space of time.

In fact, this is the same word is used in Revelation 1:1 to describe when Jesus is coming.  In this case the word translates to the English word “soon.”

If you think of all of eternity and then you think of the time that you have wait for every wrong to be made right, we can conclude that time frame is only a brief space of time, it will happen speedily.

Here is what it comes down to.

Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

It is a sure thing that He is coming but will He find faith on the earth.  Will He find faithfulness to prayer and believing?

You started out well by believing, Don’t Stop Believing