Living On A Prayer

We're gonna be in Luke 18, I've titled the message Living on a Prayer. Because the thing about those songs is it unites us when it goes stomp, stomp, clap, and our heartbeats all go together. Right at that time, we're unified with our team and the same mission. Take me home, country road, or swaying together. Everybody longs for a place they belong, to be seen, to feel connected in the living in a prayer.

It's the. It's this idea that, like, we can't do this. This is out of our control, but maybe there's some hope. And what's happening in our passage is the disciples have been given some really difficult news in Luke chapter 17. And they've asked this question about Jesus return.

When are you coming back? You're not doing what we thought and hoped. You're not going to overthrow Rome, you're going to die, but you're going to come back, right? And he says, the kingdom of God's already before you, but it's not yet fully experienced. There's this tension that you live in, this delay, this waiting time period.

The already, but not quite yet. And nobody is going to know when I come back, but it's going to happen suddenly, but I can't tell you when. But when it comes, it'll be like when the flood came in the days of Noah and people were planning to do jobs and trade and build stuff, and they were starting projects and judgment, or like Sodom and Gomorrah and people were doing all the things that you do in life, getting married and building new houses and fire from heaven. There'll be judgment, it'll be sudden. And then.

I love that this parable, it's a story that Jesus tells. We've talked about that in the series, that Jesus tells stories because he wants to connect with our hearts and pierce through. A lot of times, just thoughts that we have. And we may agree with something he says, but we don't really get it. And so he tells this story to pierce into our hearts.

And sometimes we're left wondering, is that what the story's about? But it seems like when we're putting pieces together, not this one, look at verse one. Then Jesus told the disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. That's the point. All right, sermon's over.

Wrap it up. That is the point. He says more about it after he tells the story. And that becomes interesting because he doesn't say what you'd expect, knowing that the point is what he said, in verse one, Jesus told this story, this spiritual story, teach a spiritual truth. So made up story, it's true because it points to a truth.

So that you would keep praying. Remember, the context is I'm coming back. You live in this tension. Sometimes it's going to seem like evil's winning, but I'm coming back. It'll be sudden, but it doesn't mean it's coming right away, but it'll be sudden.

Keep praying. Don't drift, don't give up, Stay on task. So what we're having here, it could seem like I'm about to tell you, like, pray harder, pray more. Here's how to pray. Here's the five reasons to pray.

Theology of prayer. That's not what this is about at all. This is actually like a survival guide for your faith. And you'll notice that when we get to verse eight, if you got your Bible, you can read it with me. But some verses will be on the screen.

I already read verse one. I'll read it again. Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them they should always pray and not give up. He said, and here's the story, the parable, the story thrown alongside of a truth. In a certain town, there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought.

So this is the characteristic of what this guy is like. This means he's unrighteous, not a good judge. But this would be stereotypical for the listener. They expected judges to accept bribes. That was normal in this culture at that time.

And there was a widow, most helpless you could imagine in that town, who kept coming to him. Wait, she's pleading her own case to a judge? She has no legal rights in the society. So this is shocking. Grant me justice against my adversary.

So there's three characters. There's the judge, the widow and the adversary. Adversary is like a secondary character. Main character is the judge and the widow. For some time he refused, but finally he said to himself, even though I don't fear God, he knew this about himself or care what people think yet.

Because this widow keeps bothering me. It's like your kids. Can I have a dessert? Can I have a tree? Can I have some candy?

No, no, no. I already got too many dentist bills. No, can't do it. No. Yeah, please, just.

Can I, can I, can I? Okay, you're wearing me out.

Because this widow keeps bothering me. I will see that she gets justice. Wait. He knew what he was doing was not justice.

So that she won't eventually come and attack me. That's actually boxing language. Some translations say, give me black eyes. I don't think that the judge was physically afraid of her. It's a metaphor.

She is wearing me out. And the Lord said, listen to what the unjust judge says. 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? Now pause.

Some people make the mistake of then compare. Here's how God is like the unjust judge. Nope, that's not what this parable is doing. This is not comparison, it's contrast. The unjust, even the unjust judge listened because he was going to get worn out.

God cares about you and he's just. Everything about the unjust judge is the contrary to, to our Father. He doesn't fear God. He doesn't care about people is what that phrase means. And then verse eight is where he wraps it back to verse one.

I tell you he will see that they get justice and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find. Doesn't it say prayer but remember why this parable was told Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them to that they should always pray and not give up. And then verse eight says, I tell you he will see that they get justice and quickly. However, when the Son of Man, that's Jesus, comes, will he find faith on the earth?

Interesting question. He's talking about prayer through this whole passage, the parable, the part right before the truth of what he wants us to get. And you think about prayer and what our culture thinks about prayer, what prayer is. Like I said that stadium, Gillette stadium, you know, 50, 80,000 people there chanting out, living on a prayer. Were they crossing us?

Our Father who art in heaven. Do they know how to pray, which posture to pray, how long, how often? Nah, I don't care about any of that.

We probably don't have a shot here, but we're throwing up a prayer. It's like a wish at that point. A lot of times, that's the way we think of prayer. Think about the language that's used. Like somebody's going through something difficult and you don't know if they're a believer or not.

Like, I'm sending my thoughts and vibes towards you. What are people saying in the culture when they mean that saying, I care about what's happening, I don't have any control. That's true. They're right. But if you then say, I'll pray for you, like it's a wish.

Oh, you've minimized prayer or if you look at this passage and think, if I just pray enough times, then God's gonna do what I want him to do, because even the unjust judge does. So I'll just keep. I'm just gonna keep praying, keep asking, keep annoying God until he does it. He's more patient than you. Just so you know, that's not what's being said here.

Because we oftentimes make prayer about the outcome. What if prayer is actually designed to be shared with God because it's the deepest desires of your heart and it's not just like a little child trying to get our way?

There's something significant happening here. And we see this woman, verse four, it's clear there's multiple times she goes to him. There's a delay. Unlike most people that we see often, even in the Bible, the delay can lead to doubt. But to continue to pray and persevere against the injustice that she's praying against here, that her adversary is holding against her, it shows the defiance she has to the power structures around her, to the circumstances of the world that she lives in.

And remember our context. Chapter 17. The world's gonna be. It's gonna be evil. It is tough.

And you're seeing here, and I'm taking a leave of absence, but I'm coming back. When? I'm not gonna tell you. But here's. Keep praying.

You're defying the world around you. Even in the midst of the delay. Our first point is the delay. Think about the delay here. This woman faced multiple delays.

It's easy for us to read this and just go from one verse to the next, as if she'd waited. And then eventually there's an answer. It says in verse four. For some time, this unjust judge refused, but he finally said to himself, okay, so how long is the time? Well, it's a while, based on the grammar.

She's coming. And this isn't seconds, it's seasons, which is oftentimes how God works. Is there anybody here that likes to wait? I'm just curious, just a genuine curious question. I will not make you come up on stage.

Not trying to embarrass you. Did anybody get up today and someone said, what are you going to do? I said, well, everything's going to take a lot longer than I had planned. So not a lot, because I'll be waiting. Do you ever get an email from the doctor's office?

Please arrive 15 minutes early. I think to myself, I'm going to have to wait when I get there. Why would I come earlier to wait. I want to wait extra. I don't want to wait.

I hate to wait. Anybody here? Hate to wait. Wow. We see.

We are united. Boom, boom, boom, boom. There we go.

You get that text message you send out, and then you got three dots and the three dots disappear.

How long do you wait? Are they going to reply? I know they saw it.

Red light. Have you ever sat at a red light and then thought, every lane has gone. I've got to be next. And it's not you. Somehow, it's not you.

There's lights that I know do that. I may have run them when they were orange. All right.

My kids. That's red. Nope. Orange, yellow. It was switching.

It was switching still.

See? Imagine what it was like in this passage to be one of the disciples, because that's what he's telling it to. The widow's not a real character. It's made up. Judge is not a real character, but he's speaking to real listeners and religious leaders.

The disciples are there. They've been talking about, when's the kingdom coming? Well, the kingdom's already here, but you're gonna have to wait for it to fully come. And when you think about what that was like, if you're one of the disciples, you left everything. You left your tax collector's booth, you left your family business.

You left everything. You had to come follow Jesus. You thought he was gonna overthrow Rome. He's not.

Okay, change of plans. I'll deal with that. But you didn't think he was gonna die, and now he's telling you he's not only is he gonna die, he's gonna race him up, but then he's gonna leave. When are you coming back? Can't tell ya.

And then he tells this story, and it's a shocking story because he talks about a widow. And a widow then and a widow now are not quite the same thing. Widow then. Her social services system was the goodwill of other people hoping that someone would help her out. And apparently no one will because she's going to the judge as a woman and she doesn't do that.

It doesn't sound normal to us. Like, this is weird, not saying it was right. It just is the culture. She has zero legal standing. And you read through the Bible, the way that a woman would have any leverage at all in culture would be she had to have a son or a brother or her dad's still alive, the husband's dead.

And so does he have any brothers? Is there like a brother in law, an uncle, somebody there's gotta be a man. There's no man. And so here she is. She's helpless.

She's got no protection, no representation, no leverage. All she's got is her words, and she just keeps using them. What was that like? Because it says she kept going to him. That's.

That's the language used multiple times, verse 3, 5. It's multiple times in the passage that she kept coming to him. And it doesn't imply that it's always in court, that she's just waiting for the next court meeting. So she probably appeared before him at court and then didn't hear anything. So she found out where his favorite breakfast place was, and he comes walking out with a bagel.

Hey, Judge. Judge, right over here. Oh, geez, that lady again. And comes out of work. Hey, Judge, I wasn't there today, but can we, before you get home, can we talk to.

And she just keeps coming and keeps coming because there keeps being a delay. She has to wait and she has no power.

And the other character is the judge. He's dangerous because it says that he does not fear God. He has authority, but he does not recognize being under authority. The fear of God in the Bible, it's called the beginning of wisdom. So this man is a functional fool.

He doesn't fear God and he doesn't care what people think, which you might think. Well, good. He's not a people pleaser. That's a good thing. No, it's a way of saying he doesn't care about people.

So apparently he's not elected. He doesn't just, oh, I have to do this stuff every once in a while because I don't. I'm not care about them, but I have to do it to keep my job. No, he's all about self preservation and he's got no accountability. So he can do whatever he wants.

And it's typical for them to take bribes, but she can't even bribe the guy to get what she wants to get what's right because she's broke or she would have bribed him. Now, let me be clear again. The judge is not God.

This is not a comparison parable. It is a contrast parable. And then here you have these widows. The original listeners would hear that the judge was like the religious leaders, the ones that are asking about the second coming. Because in the Old Testament, oftentimes, the way that Israel was rebuked was they overlooked.

Widows says things like this. Isaiah, chapter 1, verse 23. Your rulers are rebels, partners with thieves. They all love bribes and chase after gifts, they do not defend the cause of the fatherless. The widow's case does not come before them.

Malachi, chapter three and verse five. So I'll come. This is God speaking. I will come and put you on trial. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive the foreigner of justice.

But do not fear me, says the Lord Almighty. So here's this judge who doesn't fear God, doesn't care about this widow. The New Testament is even more harsh, says the same thing about religious leaders. Jesus, speaking about the religious leaders of that day, said, basically, they lack grace and truth. They're not teaching people the truth, and they're not there to serve people.

They're there to get something from people. And that is not what a spiritual leader is supposed to be. He says they devour widows. Mark chapter 12, verse 40. They devour widows houses, take all their money, and for a show make lengthy prayers.

These men will be punished most severely. Woe to you if that's you. First Timothy, chapter 5, verse 3. Give proper recognition to those widows who are really in need. But if a widow has children or grandchildren, these should learn first of all to put their religion into practice by caring for their own family and so repaying their parents and grandparents for this is pleasing to God.

The famous passage on widows in James, chapter one. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless as this. To look after orphans and widows in their distress. And then this is an interesting comment that's related to that. And to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

That tells you everything's about you.

And so what the New Testament is saying is, if we want to know your theology, we don't need to go to the seminary and ask somebody what's a Calvinist and what's an Arminian? It's not about, did you grow up Presbyterian or Baptist, or did you vote Democrat or Republican? If we want to know what you believe and if you believe, how do you treat people who can't give you anything in return? And the examples that are used are the most vulnerable and voiceless in society, in our culture. Last week we had on stage Wendy Bonanno, who's the director of Gateway Women's Crisis Pregnancy center here in town.

And oftentimes unplanned pregnancies happen, and oftentimes in Wake county, the plan is to abort, and they're there to Speak up on behalf of those babies who literally have no voice and plead for life. They show up for people like that. That's who this woman is. She has no voice, but she keeps using her words, keeps talking. There's delay after delay.

Delay is not denial. I wonder. I don't know, but I wonder how many prayers go unanswered because somebody thought not yet meant no, you prayed, didn't happen. Not God's timing yet. Why'd you stop?

Let me ask a different question. What are some things that you used to pray fervently about that you don't pray about anymore? For you, this message might be a reminder. Why don't you pray for that again? Maybe it's a prodigal.

Maybe it's somebody that's lost. Maybe it's a healing. Maybe it's an injustice in this world and you feel like no matter what I do, it doesn't matter. It might matter to somebody. Maybe you don't change the whole thing.

Maybe you don't rectify the whole broken system, but it might matter to somebody. Keep praying. She does the story. In a certain town, there's this judge. He's wicked.

And there's a widow. She kept coming, verse three, to him to plea. Grant me justice. She's pleading for justice. It's not just a favor, not just extra benefits.

I want justice against my adversary.

Verse four. For some time. In verse four, for some time. The language that's used there in the Greek is a period of time. So she kept coming for a period of time.

He just kept denying her, kept denying her, and she just kept coming.

What do you do in those moments? It's not abnormal in the Bible. In fact, here's a common prayer in the Bible, and it echoes what was said in verse 7. Did you see verse 7, verse 7? And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones who cry out to him day and night?

That's eschatological language. That means it's about the end times. Remember our context. Chapter 17. When are you coming again?

Here are some prayers. They all are the same. How long? How long? And then the prayer reveals what they were actually feeling and thinking.

What's said isn't necessarily true, but it's how they honestly feel and what they're thinking. How long? Habakkuk, chapter one and verse two. Lord, must I call for help? But you do not listen.

That's not true. He just hasn't answered the way you wanted. Doesn't mean he's not listening. You don't Listen, or I cry out to you. Violence.

But you don't save, you don't rescue.

Is that rude? Is that wrong for the prophet to pray like that? What about this in The Psalms? Psalm 13:1. How long, Lord, will you forget me forever?

Is that true? Is the psalmist forgotten? No, that's how it feels. You gonna forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me, God?

Why are you hiding? Why won't you look? Why won't you pay attention? Why don't you see me? Where are you?

Is that rude? How about the martyrs in Revelation, chapter six?

Some cut in two, some of their heads chopped off. Orange jumpsuits. They called out in a loud voice, how long, sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood? That's the question of chapter 17.

Psalm 79, verse 5. How long, Lord, will you be angry? Forever? Was God angry? We don't know.

How long will your jealousy burn like fire? Psalm 90. Relent change, Lord. How long will it be? Have compassion on your servants.

Don't you care? Remember in the boat, the disciples of Jesus? Do you care if we drowned? I cared. It didn't feel like it.

Because the delays oftentimes feel different than what's true. And we distort God's image and we begin to doubt his character. Which takes us to the second point, the doubt. Undoubtedly, this woman doubted she would ever get a response. But she kept coming.

She kept coming. That's the language that's used there. She kept coming. Verse 3. She keeps bothering him.

Verse 5.

Do we persevere spiritually in a world of instant coffee and instant gratification and instant answers to text message? Instant message, right. Like all kinds of instant. Oftentimes we take delay as rejection. And if there's a delay, we begin to tell a story.

And the story is only based on what we see and what we feel. And maybe there's more happening. Maybe the person you texted's battery died. They're not just ignoring you. Or maybe, like me, there are days of the week when I don't check text messages.

Sorry, not sorry. My kids will be like, you can't do that. I'm like, I didn't buy a phone so I could be on call to everyone. They're blown away by that type of thinking. Maybe your message got lost.

Maybe the doctors saving someone's life in the other room. Maybe. There's a lot of things that could be happening. It's not usually the story we tell ourselves. Why does God delay?

Is it because he doesn't care, as the psalmist said. Is it because he doesn't hear you? He doesn't see you? He's unable. He's unwilling.

Sometimes that's how it feels. But if you go through the Bible, you'll see he's continually delaying. And his delay is always tied to his love for you. And there's a multiplicity of things happening depending on which story you look at. Look at Abraham and his situation.

God could have given him a child right then. The first time he told him the promise, it still would have been miraculous. Cause the dude was already really old. But he gives him a promise when he's really old and then delays. Do you think Abraham doubted?

He did. Her name was Hagar.

And God delayed more after that. Not as punishment, because it actually wasn't about Abraham in that situation. It was about God getting all the glory. So that it was so evident. This wasn't just like a special birth.

This was a miraculous birth. What about David? David gets told he's gonna be king in First Samuel, Chapter 16. He doesn't become king until a different book, Second Samuel, Chapter 25. And sometimes we read something, it's like, wow.

It's just like a couple seconds there that she had to wait because it was like, same verse, but he wore out. Okay. Nope. Sometimes you turn a page of your Bible 400 years. Like, it's like sometimes.

Sometimes things are significantly longer than they seem as we're on the outside looking in. David spent years hiding in caves. You don't think that he thought to himself, I could do this better than the other guy, Saul, you should expand the kingdom. And David does. He makes Jerusalem bigger.

He expands the kingdom. He's like, I'm gonna buy Greenland. Like, he's got a vision, but it's not time. Wait, wait, wait. The cave.

Cave? Why? He's growing David. Independence. It's not because Saul was a good king.

Saul was a bad king. Could argue he was mentally insane. He was certainly insecure. And. And he wasn't godly.

And David was a man after God's own heart. Why wouldn't. Wouldn't God want David on the throne and not want Saul? God's doing more than, you know, part of it was preparation for David to grow independence. Joseph.

How about Joseph? He has a dream when he's a teenager. Foolish. He tells everyone the dream. But it's a long time into the book of Genesis.

Read it multiple chapters. The majority of the book, about Joseph's story. He's promised a position, but he's not ready for the position. So he's put on pause, a delay. And in that, we know what's happening, because the Bible actually tells us.

Psalm 105. Wait, it doesn't tell him. Not to our knowledge, because it didn't end in the book of Genesis. It says this in Psalm 105, though, talking about the situation he was in, says that he, God, sent a man before them. Joseph, sold as a slave.

They bruised his heel, his feet with shackles. His neck was put in irons. He went to. He was in jail for being faithful. And while he was there, he was faithful, and he was forgotten again.

You don't think he ever cried out like the psalmist? Why have you forgotten my God? My God, why have you forsaken me? Was my dream a cruel joke? I'm not gonna be leading anything.

I was leading and doing a good job to try to be faithful to you and end up here. And then I tried to do a good job for you here. And this is what I get.

Here's why. Till what he foretold came to pass. Till the word of the Lord proved him true. So the word of God doesn't just promise stuff to us, it tests us. The word for prove true here in Hebrew is talking about being refined.

It's showing what's inside and revealing it outwardly. But in order for that to happen, there had to be a delay. It's like an mri. Have you ever had an mri? Anybody here at an mri?

If you've had an mri, you'll know it's not a cure. It doesn't treat anything. It just exposes what's inside of you from this tube. It's like a test of lots of things, but they're scanning to see, but they're not fixing anything. That's the test.

That's oftentimes the delay. But it's God's love. That's the reason why it's happening. Sometimes it's because God's more committed to your spiritual formation than he is to your relief. And all you can think about is the relief.

If you don't do the relief, you must not care. Oh, it's because he cares. He's not bringing you relief, huh? There's bad stuff happening. Yeah.

Have you read John 11? It's probably the clearest example in the Bible of God delaying because of love and bad stuff happening. John, chapter 11. What happens is. I'll read it to you.

There's a guy that he loves. His name's Lazarus. Now, a man named Lazarus Was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. Which Mary?

There's a lot of Marys. Verse 2. John knows we're gonna think that, so he says this Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair. So he loves his whole family and stay at their house when he was in Bethany. So the sister sent word to Jesus, Lord, the one you love is sick.

When he heard this, Jesus said, this sickness will not end in death. No, it's for God's glory. Okay? That's part of what's happening here. So that God's Son may be glorified through it.

Okay, we know how that's gonna happen. Now, Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. Why are we being told that? Because what he's about to do seems opposite of what we think love is.

The next word is pivotal in a grammarian type sense and in our theology, and it's actually there in the Bible in the original language. So he loved them. Martha, Mary, Lazarus. So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he delayed.

Wait, doesn't love respond? Doesn't love go?

Isn't this like a 911 call? Get there as fast as you can. He's like, let's grab some iced tea, guys. This isn't gonna end in death. When they get there, he's dead.

Now. If you know the story, you know what he was saying. But none of that makes sense to the people living it in the moment. He loved them, so he delayed. If you keep reading in chapter 11, you know why and what that meant.

Verse 14. So when he told them plainly, Lazarus is dead. He's talking to his disciples. They still haven't gone at this point. And for your sake, I'm glad I was not there.

If you're them, aren't you thinking? He just said, this isn't going to end in death. So is he lying? Does he get confused, too, like what's happening here? Because he just said he's dead.

I'm glad I was not there. Well, you said you loved him so that you may believe. Now, let's go.

He delayed for their development, for their faith. He cared more about their spiritual formation than he did their relief. The delay was because of love. God's delays are part of God's plan, even when we don't like them. Don't give up.

That's the point of this passage. Don't give up. Abraham doubted. David doubted. Joseph doubted.

I'm sure everyone, not just Mary, And Martha, in that passage, doubted. The one guy that gets called a doubter in the Bible is like superhero. In that passage, Thomas, the next verse, when Jesus says, let's go, the other disciples all been saying, if we go to Jerusalem, they're gonna kill him. Thomas says, let's go die with him. That's my guy.

I wouldn't have believed either. Just so you know, if all my buddies came and said, we just saw the guy that we love the most raised from the dead, okay, everyone else in the world can lose their mind. I'm not losing mine. I won't believe unless I see either. But now we're asked to believe and we don't.

We don't get to see the scars. The only way I would believe is a miracle. The only way I would keep believing is a miracle. And that's what this passage is about. It's a miracle for you to be saved.

It is a miracle for you to stay saved. This is about perseverance. And the way you do it is through defiance. That's what verses one and eight are showing us. There's a widow.

She's helpless. You know, there's a judge. She's unjust, but she just keeps going. Vindication is repeated multiple times. I've alluded to it, but let me read it to you.

Verse 3. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming. That's her seeking vindication. There's this justice she needs to see. This is one time.

Verse 5. Yet, because this widow keeps bothering me. Unjust Judge speaking. Verse 7. Will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones who cry out to him day and night, keep seeking vindication.

And then verse eight blows my mind. I tell you, he will see that they get justice and quickly, but not quickly in the sense of like. They'll ask and it'll happen. Remember the context. When is the kingdom coming?

Can't say. No one knows. But when it comes, no one's going to expect it. And it'll be sudden and it'll be judgment. So then he says here, they'll get justice and quickly.

Yeah, there's going to be justice.

We know why he waits. And praise God, he hasn't come back yet. Because I know people that will spend eternity separated from him if he came back right now. You just keep waiting just to let come back. Because I don't like this and I don't like the injustice and I don't like war and I don't like divorce and I don't like rape and I don't like kids being trafficked.

And I don't like there's people without parents and I don't like there's people that die of starvation. I don't like sexual abuse. Would you just come back? There's people that haven't turned. Would you have the sexual abusers and the people that are angry at you?

And the atheist we have, he's not slow in keeping his promises. We're told in second Peter, he's waiting for more people to turn to him.

Whatever the injustice was here in this passage, which we don't know what it is, it was so important to this woman. She wouldn't stop.

So I try to guess like I don't know and it's a made up story so there's not an actual injustice. But whatever was important, was it, did she have debt and the husband died. Now she's got no way to make money. She's asking the debts to be forgiven and the debtors won't. And that's the adversary?

I don't know. Is her kid sick and she can't get treatment. She can't pay for any of the treatment. She's pleading for mercy. And the doctor's the adversary?

I don't know. Have you ever seen the movie John Q. Denzel Washington holds up a hospital. It's a movie. It's a movie. Not accusing him because the system has decided the fate of his child.

He's going, no, that's not how this is going to go. That's rebellion. That's what prayer is. It's rebelling against the brokenness in this world. Prayer is a sign that we've surrendered to the one who is going to make all things right and wipe every tear from every eye.

When we cease praying, we've surrendered to the brokenness of this world. This is the way it is. That person will never turn. This is hopeless. I can't do anything.

See, the reason why verse 1 and verse 8 are tied together and it says the reason why I told this parable so you wouldn't stop praying. But then the question at the end isn't, will you be praying? The question at the end is, will he find faith? Because what happens is you don't just stop praying one day. You stop praying because at one point you lost hope that it would matter, that the prayer even mattered.

So you stopped asking. And eventually you get exhausted and eventually you stop believing. That's why prayer and faith are tied together like they're on a string. Here. See, prayer, it's not to get you to like a, you know, cult, just chant out the same words over and over again.

Keep caring, keep believing, keep hoping, keep persevering. And the prayer is the sign that it's happening, and the prayerlessness is a sign that it's not. So for some of us today, the call to keep praying is a call back to things that maybe you've stopped praying for people you've stopped praying for. Another thing about the John Q Movie is it actually happened. There was a guy who actually held a hospital hostage because of what caregivers were saying for his son.

And let me be clear before I tell you the story, I am not endorsing holding anyone hostage ever. Okay? If anyone goes to the hospital after this, holds someone hostage, I clearly stated, don't do that. All right?

But there was a guy, his name is George Pickering. In 2015, his son had had a stroke. And the doctors came to him and said, he's brain dead, and it's time for us to start what they called terminal weaning. Slowly take him off of life support and he's going to die. And he said no.

And he came back to the hospital drunk with a weapon. Both bad things. Not saying to mix those things either. And he held the hospital hostage, and he demanded to be with his son, and he believed that his son was not brain dead. And he believed that his son was alive.

And I'm gonna let you see what happened, that I would know whether George was brain dead or not. While Pickering initially had a gun, he was quickly disarmed by his other son. But continued threats prompted the standoff. Pickering stayed at his son's bedside as SWAT officers tried to negotiate his surrender. Then something happened during that three hours.

George squeezed my hand three or four times on command. Seeing that his son was recovering, Pickering surrendered. There was a law broken, but it was broken for all the right reasons. I'm here now because of it. This is George Pickering iii, the man family members say they were told would not recover from his stroke.

And tomah, it's duty of a parent to protect your children. And that's all he did. Pickering says he and his dad share an unbreakable bond. They run a small electrical engineering business and even built their home together. Everything good that made me a man is because of that man sitting next to me.

As for the criminal charges against Pickering, one was dismissed, the other lessened. He was given credit for the time he served in jail and was released this month. Phoebe Smith is Pickering's attorney. This case has always been about a father protecting his son when his son couldn't protect himself. And with the criminal case over, father and son say all they want now is to live their lives peacefully.

The important thing is I'm alive and well, my father's home, and we're together. It was good to come home. There's no place like home.

What a great line. It's good to come home.

You know what Hebrews chapter 11 gives us? The hall of faith. This passage is saying, is there going to be faith when I come back? Hebrew, chapter 11. Repeatedly, the characters in that passage, whether it's Abraham, Enoch, various different Moses, different folks, men, women, Rahab, they didn't consider this place their home.

They were longing for a better place. And you know what? About half of them experienced the promises that were given. About half of them didn't. Half of them saw victory over lions and over armies and had children brought back from the dead.

And about half of them were killed.

This is this. Hebrews chapter 11. About Abraham. By faith. Abraham, when called to go to a place that he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.

Can I get the rest of the plan? God? Nope. By faith, he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country. He lived in tents, as did Isaac, his kids and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.

For here's why. He was looking forward to the city with whom foundations, whose architect and builder is God. Verse 13. All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised.

You don't think they kept praying? They only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. Verse 32. What more shall I say? After listing a whole bunch of people I don't have time to tell you about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah bought David and Samuel and the prophets who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, gained what was promised, who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of flames, escaped the edge of the sword, deliverance, whose weakness was turned to strength, and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies.

Women received back their dead, raised to life again. There were others who. Who were tortured. Think about this. They're crying out Revelation 6, when will justice come?

They were tortured, refusing to be. They had the opportunity to be set free, and they said no, refusing to be released that they might gain an even better resurrection. No, I'll stay here. And you can cut me in too, because I'd rather have a greater reward in heaven, remember our context. When are you coming back?

It's eternal perspective that we often lose. Some faced jeers and flogging, even chains and imprisonment. They were put to death by stoning. They were sawed in two. They were killed by the sword.

They went about in sheepskins and goatskins. Destitute, persecuted and mistreated. The world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground. These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised.

Delay, certainly. Seasons of doubt, but continual defiance.

Don't give up. That's the summary of the message. It's like the Jimmy V speech, right? Don't give up. Don't ever give up.

My favorite part of that speech is when they tell him he's out of time. Not because I'm a preacher. He's like, there's a guy in the back telling me, I've got 30 seconds. I've got tumors all over my body. Like I care about that guy in the back.

What are they gonna do to him? But if you listen to that Jimmy V speech, those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, he's a basketball player and then a Coach, coached on NC State. He's giving a speech at the ESPYs, dying of cancer. He talks about how to enjoy life. He's just talking about life here and now.

Don't give up. Don't ever give up. Inspiring speech. Jesus is talking about eternal consequences way bigger than the Jimmy B speech. Way more significant than an espy.

We'll all be at a place where all we have is a prayer. The question is, do you quit or do you keep knocking? Let's pray, Father. I pray you'd give us perseverance. I pray we would all keep praying, keep hoping, keep believing, keep asking, will you fix every problem we know you won't before you come back?

Will you fix this one? And we offer up to you the marriage that's hanging on by a thread. Will you heal miraculously? Someone in our church, someone connected to our church today? Will you save someone who seems unsavable?

Will you have someone turn back to you, who seems so hardened, Maybe even say that they hate you? Or maybe they pretend like they love you, but they live exactly the opposite? Will you bring them back today?

Will you reconcile a marriage that's already been declared over? Like that kid was declared dead? Everyone else had to stop, and the dad wouldn't. This widow, if she had just sat around waiting for an answer. Would have never received one.

She just kept asking and kept asking. And we ask last week, Mother's Day. Will you bring prodigals home? Will you bring prodigal mothers back?

Will you save? Will you change? Will you transform us?

Help us to not become hardened to this world by this world and conform to this world. Give us hope, Keep giving us miracles, little miracles that we see, huge miracles that happen. Other people's miracles, our own experiences. God, will you move and revive and change? We know you can.

Will you? Please? It's in your son's name I pray. Amen.