Always Pray and Never Give Up - Grant Partrick

0:17 I don't know about you, but this collection has been really powerful for me. I was particularly marked a few weeks ago by our day of prayer. And you can just sense something is shifting. Like in our church, yes, but not just in our church. I think it's in the church. And so to be in this collection of calling on God, being desperate for God, it's doing something in my heart and in my soul. and I trust it's doing something in yours as well. Leonard Ravenhill once said, the only reason we don't have revival is because we are willing to live without it. And what I sense God doing in his church is we're going, not anymore. We're not willing to live without it. We are desperate for him.

1:09 We want his plans, his purposes in our church, in the church, in our family and across the globe. And I love that we are waking up to that and crying out for God to do something unique and special, something that's so evident from him that no human could try to take credit for it. It's interesting, the word desperate Webster defines as having lost all hope. That's a good collection for a church, isn't it? Or second one, giving no grounds for hope. or third, suffering extreme need. The word itself comes from the Latin, simply means without hope. To be desperate, according to Webster, and according to the world, is to be hopeless. But not so for us.

2:02 Spiritual desperation is coming to a place where we do, in fact, lose all earthly hopes. We don't look to a human being and go, okay, I have hope because of them, or I have hope because of me, or my ingenuity, or my intellect, or my strength. No, we come to a place where we go, no, we, like the world, are hopeless as it relates to earthly man-made hopes. But instead, we long for, and plead with, and look to the God of all hope to intervene. That's what we just sang about, that we have a living hope. Many of you in this room, many of you online, you know what it is like to suffer extreme need. Our nation knows what it's like to suffer extreme need. The world knows what it's like to have an extreme need. But in the life of a believer, our extreme needs aren't meant to drive us to despair, but rather they're meant to motivate us in prayer.

3:07 So today we're gonna look in Luke 18. Jesus gives us two parables that are unique to Luke's gospel. And he's giving us two pictures of desperate people, of desperate faith. And so we're gonna look at these two parables today and ask God to cultivate in us a heart of desperation. Let me pray for us. Father, thank you for the chance to gather today. Thank you for the privilege it is to be called your sons and daughters. thank you for what you are doing in your church right now. Thank you for waking us up to who you are. We say today as a church, as Passion City Church, we want you here. We want your plans. We want your purposes. We wanna meet with you. We didn't come to church today just to attend another gathering. We came today to meet with and encounter the living God. And so I pray that you will drown out all distractions, everything competing for our attention and affection, and allow us to hear clearly from you.

4:06 We wanna leave this place changed by you today. We wanna leave here more in love with you, looking more like you than we were when we came in here. And that's only possible if you show up and do what only you can do. So we ask you to do that and we thank you for it in Jesus' name and everybody said, amen. Luke 18, beginning in verse one. If you've got it, say got it. Okay, for the rest of you, it'll be on screen. beginning in verse one, this parable is called the parable of the persistent widow. Verse one, then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said in a certain town, there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him, the judge with the plea, grant me justice against my adversary. For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, even though I don't fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice so that she won't eventually come and attack me.

5:21 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? I tell you, red letters. He will see that they get justice and quickly. However, when the son of man comes, will he find faith on earth? These eight verses, this parable really breaks down into three clean sections. The first is in verse one, he gives us the purpose of the parable. And then in verses two through five, we see the picture of the parable. And then in verses six through eight, we see the promise in the parable. So let's look at the first one. The purpose of the parable in verse one. This is one of the few parables that Jesus gives us that comes with an explanation in the introduction. So we don't have to have a seminary degree to understand what Jesus is trying to tell us in this text.

6:23 He tells us, here's why I'm telling you this. So this is not one of those, well, what does this verse mean to you? Which just parenthetically, don't do that. I've done that, we've all done that. You've been in a group, somebody reads a few verses and then the question is asked, what does this verse mean to you? Well, it means the same thing to all of us. It means whatever it means. It doesn't have a different meaning for you than it has for your neighbor, it means what it means. Now, it might have a different application to you than it does to your neighbor, but the meaning is the same. And in this text, the meaning is clear in verse one. Then Jesus told his disciples a parable. Why? To show them that they should always pray and not give up. So reason number one, we should always pray. This parable, again, is called the parable of the persistent widow. Now, two words I would not use to describe most of us today are persistent or patient.

7:27 If you think you're crushing it on those two, just a quick show of hands. Okay, great. I was gonna give you a third one, which is gonna be humility, but we'll just park it there. Okay, we are not a persistent people and we are not a patient people. Like, have you ever been to a drive-thru? and you pull your car up, and you got nothing, and you wait for what feels like 20 minutes, probably actually 90 seconds, and still nothing. Let's all name the restaurant that's the worst of that on three out loud. Ready? No, I'm just kidding. It's the worst. At some point, you pull up, and you're like, hello. You start talking to them, you know. Can you hear me? I'm out here. I would like to purchase food. I have money. Can I please order something? But then after a certain period, which is not that long, you just go, you know what? I can skip a meal. It's not going to kill me. I can go and I'll just move on. I've done that so many times. Or here's one inside into me, one of your pastors, but I'm sure we all hate this equally as much. This is the one area where God works the most on my sanctification. It's called an interactive voice response. Do you know this?

8:36 I tried to call my doctor two weeks ago. Thank you for calling so-and-so and so-and-so. Please listen closely as our menu options have recently changed. To which you want to say, no, they have not. You said that last time I called. How many times do you actually need to change them? And there was a point at which you could just press zero. Zero meant I don't want to do this. Now that doesn't work anymore. So I'm in my office by myself. I'm 38 years old and I'm screaming into the phone, representative, human being, person, somebody, zero. And then I press, when it gets real bad, just pray, I'm telling you this, you can pray for me. I'll just press zero like 50 times. Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep.

9:28 And then finally now they'll just come back on and say, this is not an option. please find a different doctor and see one of our recommended counselors on our website we're not a persistent people. Over 50% of new gym memberships quit within the first six months. Guilty. We are still making our charitable donation to Peloton monthly.

9:55 Overall, as a people, here's what's true. We are enthusiastic. That's why when you see something on scrolling across your feed and you think, oh, I'm going to do that. Five weeks to whatever, whatever. Oh yeah, I'm going to do that. You do great for a day or two days. We're enthusiastic, but we don't have a lot of endurance. We're passionate, but we don't have a lot of persistence. I've noticed about myself, seemingly the only thing I'm good at persisting in are passive activities. Activities that don't require my focus and attention. Scrolling or binging television shows. I'm good at persisting at both of those. And yet, in the scripture, steady and consistent investment over time is the way of the faithful.

10:48 We are called to be persistent in prayer, to persevere in prayer. Paul applauds Epaphras in Colossians 4, verse 12. He says he is always wrestling or laboring in prayer. So why? Why persist in prayer? Well, back to the purpose of the parable. Jesus told them this parable that they should always pray and, do you see it in the text, and what? And not give up. And not give up, or ESV, and not lose heart, or King James, and not grow faint. It's in kakeo. It's to lose one's motivation in continuing a desirable pattern of conduct or activity. It is to lose enthusiasm, or it is to grow discouraged. So we are to always pray lest we lose heart. We are to always pray so that we don't quit.

11:44 We are to always pray and not give up. We are to always pray and not be discouraged. In this verse, I love it. And maybe this is just for someone here that's walking through a season of discouragement. In this verse, we see that prayer is the antidote to discouragement. We persist in prayer because we are petitioning the God of the impossible. And when all hope seems lost, we remember that we serve the God of all hope. Second, we see the picture of the parable. Jesus is painting a picture. He's giving us an illustration to see the point. That's what a parable is. You don't understand what I'm saying? Let me give you a picture that you will understand and that will help you understand what I'm saying. And in this parable, he gives us, there's two characters. The unjust judge and the persistent widow. Look what it says in verse two.

12:36 In a certain town, there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, grant me justice against my adversary. Now this is the worst kind of judge you can have. This is actually the worst kind of human being there can be. He's described by two things. He doesn't fear God and he has no regard or respect for people. You're like, bro, I think you are in the wrong line of work.

13:04 Right? These should be a given for a judge. We talked about Jehoshaphat a few weeks ago in this collection. Well, in 2 Chronicles 19, verse 6, when Jehoshaphat is appointing judges, he tells them, consider what you are doing for you judge not on behalf of human beings, but on the Lord's behalf. Yet the unjust judge represents the rebellious, the heartless, shameless, and dishonorable. You've heard it said, maybe, hopefully, unless you're an attorney or a judge, that you haven't been in a lot of courtrooms, but have you been or watched some of these shows that we tend to binge watch? When a judge is introduced, they're oftentimes introduced as the, not so with this judge. He's a dishonorable judge. He's a corrupt judge. And then we're introduced to this desperate, persistent widow. Verse three, she keeps coming to this judge and pleading with him, begging with him, pestering him, grant me justice against my adversary, asking for legal protection against her opponent. That's what she's doing. She's been wronged in some way, and she's seeking justice.

14:09 That is rightfully hers. We don't know how she's been wronged. Likely, she's been defrauded financially. She's destitute in more ways than one. She doesn't have anything to her name. That's why she's here pleading her case. The fact that she continually keeps coming shows us how bad of a spot she's in, but it's also meant to stick out to you and I that when she comes, she comes alone. This was very rare at the time. The courts were for the men, almost exclusively. The only time a woman would come into the courts is if there was no man in her life to represent her and plead her case. And this woman keeps coming by herself. She's got no man in her family. She's a widow. We know she doesn't have a husband, but she has no man that can come and plead her case. No father, apparently. No son. No brother. No brother-in-law. No nephew. No cousin. Nobody.

15:13 She is all alone. She is downtrodden, powerless, lonely, neglected, abandoned. Some might say desperate. And the only weapon she has in her arsenal is persistence. I'll keep showing up. I'll keep showing up. And somebody in this room, somebody online today, you feel like that's all you have. I don't have a way to work out the solution. I don't have anything to bring to the table. I don't have any resources to help this solution. I don't know how to move forward. All I have is the faith to show up again tomorrow, to continue to be persistent. And if I can just encourage you today, that'll probably be enough. Just your persistence to keep showing up and showing up and showing up and showing up. In verse four, it says, the judge for some time, as this woman came and pleaded her case, for some time it says the judge refused.

16:09 And then he finally said to himself, even though I don't care about what God says and I don't care about what people think about me, because this woman keeps bothering me, keeps pestering me, I guess I'll give her justice so that she won't eventually come and attack me. Verse four says he refused for some time. Multiple times he dismissed her. This case does nothing for me. It doesn't make my resume more impressive. There's nothing for me to gain here. It doesn't improve my resume and it doesn't line my pockets. so I'm uninterested. But this woman is relentless. She is persistent in petitioning this judge for what she knows is rightly hers. Do you see the picture? That's why Jesus is telling the story. He's painting a picture of this persistent widow, right? Like imagine she enters into the courtroom. Everybody would be shocked that she was there by herself. Oh man, this must be a really bad situation. She doesn't have anybody with her. She's just in the courtroom. She pleads her case, and quickly, it's dismissed. But wait, you didn't hear me. No, please get out of the way. Next in line, please. Thank you. And then she goes out, and the next day, she calls back, and she's like, hello, I need to speak to the judge. Or maybe she called back, and it was like, hello, this is the honorable judge. Please be patient, as our menu options have recently changed. And she leaves a message with the assistant, and the assistant tells the judge, hey, there's this lady. She seems to really need you. She's got like an urgent matter and she's asking to talk to you. And the judge is like, nah, she's not worth your time. And she's not worth my time. No need to call her back. Then he pulls into work the next day. He pulls into his parking spot with his nice fancy name on the sign and right in front of it is a woman. And there she is bright and early, like, please, just two minutes of your time. Can I, can I please just tell you about my situation so that I can get what's rightfully mine? He's like, no, sorry, I got to go to work. What are you doing? This is weird that you're here. She follows him all the way up to the door. Security cuts her off. She goes to his house.

18:06 She's standing across the street from her house like, hello, when he gets home from work, please would you just listen to me for a second? She will not let this go. She is persistent. And he finally caves. Finally, he gives in. Not because he hears her case and has a change of heart. Some might say he has no heart at all. But because he fears for his own life. He says, because this woman keeps bothering me, because she won't leave me alone, I'll make sure she gets justice so that she won't come back and attack me. This word attack me in the Greek is awesome. The idea is literally, I love the word, it means to punch, to strike in the face and to give a black eye. That's pretty awesome. So this judge, this unjust judge, is going, fine, I'll give you justice so that she doesn't come and just sock me in the eye and give me a black eye.

19:02 This is a pretty awesome woman, by the way. He finally gives in. And so this woman keeps bothering him, keeps bothering him, and finally she's granted justice. And the third thing I want you to see is the promise in the parable. What's the point? What are we to take away from this parable? And you see it beginning in verse six. 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 delaying? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth? Now, I remember reading this parable for a while and I would be a little bit confused because I'm like, wait, okay, Jesus is giving us a picture of something that's true, but it's of an unjust judge. I don't think he's an unjust judge. I think he's a just judge. How are we to make sense of all this? Well, this parable contains both a parable of contrast and a parable of comparison.

19:55 There is nothing to compare about God and the unjust judge other than the fact that they both hold the office of judge. That's about it. That's the only similarity that they have. Now this earthly judge's domain is a particular city and he rules over it unfairly and unjustly and corruptly. But God rules righteously and perfectly over all creation. This is meant to be held in contrast, right? The widow appealed to a corrupt and cold-hearted judge. we appeal to a loving and merciful heavenly father. This widow approached the bench. We approach the throne. The judge was bothered by her persistent. God demands that we pray without ceasing, right? Tim Keller says this, I love this quote. The only person who dares wake up a king at 3 a.m. for a glass of water is a child.

20:49 And we have that kind of access. Somebody needs to hear that today. You are not bothering God by showing up again today and asking him for the same thing you asked him for yesterday. That is not a waste of his time. That expresses faith and trust and confidence in him and he invites it. You are not a bother to him. This persistent widow got justice, we get mercy. So the point is, if this unjust judge who cares nothing at all about this woman will grant her justice, then how much more will we receive from a loving God who is perfect and just and merciful towards his children? It's an argument from the lesser to the greater. If this is true, how much more true will it be for his children? And yet in it, there is a parable of comparison. The comparison in the text, though we don't often like to hear it, is that you and I are the widow. That's who we are in the story. The woman has an adversary, an enemy, an opponent, and she is helpless against him. She is no match for him. Her only chance at justice is to solicit the help of an unjust judge. And we too, you and me, have an enemy. Do you know that?

22:19 John 10.10 tells us that our enemy came to steal and to kill and to destroy us. You need to be aware of that today. Many of us don't pray because we aren't aware of that reality. I love the way that John Piper has said this. Until we believe that life is war, we will not know what prayer is for. Prayer is our weapon against the darkness. We have an enemy, namely Satan, and we are no match for him on our own. but our hope lies not in an unjust judge, but in a righteous, holy, sovereign, merciful, and loving judge who will crush his head under his foot. and we have the privilege of communing and communicating with this God through prayer. Samuel Chadwick said it this way, Satan dreads nothing but prayer. His one concern is to keep the saints from praying. Listen to this. He fears nothing from your prayerless studies, prayerless work, prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil. He mocks our wisdom, but oh, how he trembles when we pray. So what's the promise? You're like, man, I'm on the edge of this whole thing was so that we would always pray and not lose heart. There are many people in this room today, many people online today, you're going, I am on the verge of losing heart. I am about to cash it in. I'm about to give up hope. I'm right there. So give me a promise that I can hold on to.

23:55 All week this week, my heart has been so heavy for parents who raised your kids in the church. You've been in church. You've been praying for them. You've been depositing the truth of God in them. You sent them to camps. You did Bible studies at night. You prayed with them before bedtime. And maybe you got one kid that's following the Lord and you got one that's very far away from him and has no interest in him. And honestly, for a lot of years, you pleaded with God day after day, morning after morning, your tears became your food and you pleaded with God, please would you intervene?

24:34 And yet somewhere along the way, day after day after day, turned your heart calloused and you just lost hope. There are people in this room today who, for years, have been trying to have a child. and every time you take the test you prayed you believed and somehow the results keep coming back negative what what is the promise in this text for some of you you you just have so much doubt it's fogging your whole worldview it's fogging your whole view of god and you've been praying and praying and praying and praying what what's the promise in this text you have health stuff going on. What's the promise in this text? You got dreams that seem to be dashed. Is the promise that if we pray, is the point of the parable that if we pray and we don't quit, we will get what we want when we want it. I wish. I wish I could tell you that. But no, it's not.

25:41 Context is always critical when you read your scripture. And just before Jesus gives us this parable, he's talking about his second coming. He says he's going to come like lightning and light up the sky. Isn't that awesome? And into that picture, Jesus drops this parable. Here's the point. Jesus is going to make all things right. He will bring about justice for those he loves. Revelation 21 says it this way. He's going to wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be one more death or mourning or crying or pain for the old order of things has passed away. So hear me when I say this, I don't know when, I don't know how. Like, like if you're sick and you're in this room today and you're reading this text and you're going, okay, if I pray and if I keep praying, I'm going to get healed. And I would go, amen. I don't know when you're going to get healed.

26:41 I don't know if it's gonna be on this side of heaven or on that side of heaven. I don't know if it's today or if it's in eternity. I don't know if you're gonna lose your battle with cancer on this side of eternity or whether cancer's gonna lose its battle with you on its side of eternity. But what I do know is true is your healing's coming. Your healing's coming. Because you will, for those who die in Christ, what's the song we sing? Death is just a doorway into everlasting life.

27:11 So if you're praying for healing, don't give up hope. And don't forget the fact that God could take it away in an instant. So pray and believe and trust and show up again and plead with him again, not as a negotiation, not as a, yeah, sure, I'll show up if you'll do this for me. But no, because he's the only place we can run. And you may show up to him tomorrow and you may pray for your son again tomorrow. You've been so weary. Maybe you've just given up. You're like, I haven't prayed for him in five years. Show up again and pray for him tomorrow. Does it mean he's gonna get saved tomorrow? No, but what it does mean is that you and God will be together in pursuit of him. What it does mean is you trust God. I believe in God. I know you're able, God. I know that one of your names is able. So I will trust you until I can see with my eyes why you're choosing it to do a different way than I'm asking you to.

28:04 Tim Keller said this one time. God will either give us what we ask for or he will give us what we would have asked for if we knew everything he knows. So can I just encourage you today? Pray again. Somebody specifically in this room, start praying for your daughter again. Believe again. Maybe you feel like, you know what? She just feels so far lost. She feels so far gone. Can I remind you? She's no further gone than you were before you met him. there's not degrees of distance from God you're either in Christ or you're not and regardless of how far away they seem Jesus's arms are not too short to save start praying again start believing again wake up and wage war with the weapon of prayer Spurgeon said it this way and I love it he said plead now plead at noon plead again at night Plead on with cries and tears.

29:09 Spread out your case. Order your arguments. Back up your pleas with reasons. Urge the precious blood of Jesus. Set the wounds of Christ before the Father's eyes. Bring out the atoning sacrifice. Point to Calvary. Enlist the crown prince, the priest who stands at the right hand of God and intercedes for those he loves. Prayer is our opportunity to petition the God of heaven as loved sons and daughters while simultaneously positioning ourselves under his sovereign hand and saying, your will, not mine. The parable ends with a piercing question from Jesus. He says, however, when the son of man comes, will he find faith on earth? Will he find people who still believe or people that have given up?

30:07 Will he find a confident trust or will he find people whose desperation moved him to despair? I pray that he'll find faith in this house. And for us in the meantime, in our desperation, I pray that we wouldn't be driven to despair, but rather that we would be driven to prayer, confident that God will keep his promises. And I believe God is finding faith in this house. Today at Passion City Church, 27 people this morning are being baptized at Passion City Church. Is that not awesome? 27 people.

30:46 And I think when he returns, he will find face in this house. Quickly, I want to get to the second parable and I'll go a lot faster. Don't worry. The second parable gives us another description of desperate face. if there are two words today that mark desperate faith they are persistent and humble and in the second parable we see humility on display it's called the parable of the pharisee and the tax collector let me read it for us just a few verses and then we'll close we need this text right now as a people to some who were confident of their own righteousness and look down on everyone else Jesus told this parable.

31:28 Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed, God, I thank you that I am not like other people, robbers, evildoers, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and I give a 10th of all I get.

31:51 But the tax collector stood at a distance. he would not even look up to heaven but he beat his breast and he said god have mercy on me a sinner and jesus says i tell you that this man rather than the other went home justified before god for all those who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted two men showed up to the temple to pray though one didn't really pray at all he just stood by himself and boasted in his good deeds, touted his resume. Thank you, God, that I'm not as big of a mess up as all these other jokers here. Anybody got multiple kids, you trying to do the prayer time thing at night? You know, it's always amazing. You got, we got three girls, you know, and we asked them, what are you thankful for today? And inevitably from time to time, there's one like, I'm thankful that my sister won't hit me again tomorrow. And I'm thankful that even though she didn't want to today, that tomorrow she'll share her toys with me. You know, it's like, okay, we're going to have to do some work on this. This is what's happening here.

33:00 This Pharisee's view of his acceptance before God comes from his competition among men. I'm better than him and I'm better than her and I'm better than him and I'm better than her and I'm better than him. I'm doing pretty good. God, aren't you proud of me? aren't you so happy i'm representing you you got me on your team that was a good draft pick and here's what I believe to be true here's what I think this parable teaches us pridefulness always leads to prayerlessness pridefulness always leads to prayerlessness to be an expert on everyone else's sin while being oblivious to your own is foolishness of the worst kind and yet as a people you see this happening in the culture we would rather critique other people's sins than confess our own and it's crippling our faith we're quick to post and slow to pray and yet the tax collector he was aware that he needed help and i think the question from the tax collector to all of us today is are you still sensitive to the sin in your life.

34:14 or are you so concerned by everybody else's life that you've grown callous to the sin in your own life are we more worried about comparing ourselves to everyone else or being conformed into the image of the sun heaven's standard is perfection heaven doesn't grade on a curve you won't get there because you were better than your neighbor. You will get there because you were saved by Christ, because you cried out for mercy and God met you there. One exalted himself and was humbled by God and the other humbled himself and therefore was exalted by God. One came in with his nose up and one came in with his head down. And you and I, as we approach the throne of grace, yes, we are meant to approach the throne of grace with confidence, but not a self-confidence in our own resume, in a God confidence blown away by his mercy and grace on display in our lives. This is the kind of desperate faith that pleases God.

35:22 So I ask Jesus's question as we close, when the son of man comes, will he find face?