Peter Piper Prays Persistently Series

JUST JESUS: CHAPTER BY CHAPTER THRU LUKE

Peter Piper Prays Persistently

LUKE 18:1-8

#justJesus

PETER PIPER RHYME

Peter Piper prayed a peck of persistent prayers,

A peck of persistent prayers did Peter Piper pray;

If Peter Piper prayed a peck of persistent prayers,

Praytell the payoff of the peck of persistent prayers Peter Piper prayed?

INTRODUCTION 2… https://www.barna.com/research/silent-solo-americans-pray/

Starting a sermon with facts and figures is always fun for some of us, so let’s do that today! Get ready to be astounded and amazed and bored at what the numbers show us.

“Almost all American adults (94%) who have prayed at least once in the last three months most often choose to pray by themselves. Not only are most prayers a solo practice, but the vast majority are also most often silent (82% compared to 13% audible and solo prayers). Affirming this shift is the fact that only a very small percentage most often pray audibly with another person or group (2%), or collectively with a church (2%).

Black (27%), Hispanic (16%) and all non-white Americans (20%) are much more likely than white Americans (8%) to be outwardly expressive by praying audibly when alone. This is also true of those in the South where charismatic traditions are more common (17% compared to 9% in the Northeast), and especially true of evangelicals (25%), a quarter of whom pray out loud when they are alone.

American adults who pray with regularity do so with varying motivations, the most common being to offer “gratitude and thanksgiving” (62%). Generationally, this is lowest among Millennials (53%) and highest among Boomers (71%). An equally popular prayer incentive is the “needs of their family and community” (61%), followed by “personal guidance in crisis” (49%). The latter is most common among those with lower levels of education (49% with a high school diploma or less, compared to 39% of college graduates).

What does that all mean? Prayer is the most common spiritual practice among Americans no matter what religion they belong to or even if they have no religion. Americans pray mostly alone and see it as a solitary activity defined primarily by their immediate needs and personal issues.

BACKGROUND AND INFORMATION

Before we jump headlong into our passage today, we need a little bit of background in two different areas for the passage in Luke 18 to make sense for us.

First, what is prayer? John Piper, a well-known minister in the United States, when preaching on Colossians 4:2-4 defines prayer (in a way I like) as, “Mainly it means asking God for things. By "things" I don't mean objects - stuff. I mean, generally, whatever your heart desires or needs. And, of course, what your heart needs most is God - to know Him and trust Him and love Him and obey Him. I know that we should come to God with more than asking. We should come confessing sins and giving thanks and praise. In a broad sense, prayer includes all that. But, speaking precisely, prayer is requesting, asking… But prayer, in the strict sense, means requesting. So, I define it as asking God for things… the essence of prayer is the expression of our dependence on God through requests.” (http://pipersnotes.com/piper2k/1-9-00.htm)

I like that definition of prayer a lot. “Prayer is the expression of our dependence on God through requests.” It can mean adoration and praise. It can mean confession. It can be thanksgiving and also asking. It can mean all those things. The purpose of any prayer is to praise God, but at the same time we also need from Him as so we have that tug in our minds and hearts. He is the Almighty God! He is the One who Forgives. He is our Provider! So now we know what prayer is and we are all on the same page this morning when we speak about prayer: “Prayer is the expression of our dependence on God through requests.”

In addition to a definition of prayer, we secondly need some background on how rabbis often taught in Jesus’ day. This will come in handy when we tackle our passage for today which is Luke 18:1-8. One of the ways that religious teachers in Jesus’ day would teach would be to argue or teach something “from the lesser to the greater.” In Latin it is called “argumentum a fortiori” and has been around many centuries in philosophy, law, and educational circles. What does that mean? It means that the teacher makes the case with something that is tangible and easy to understand and then applies the same principle to something greater and abstract and difficult to understand.

For example, in Matthew 6:27-34, Jesus teaches the crowds not to worry by giving the example that God takes care of birds and grass which mean little (lesser) and so God will take care of His people (greater). Both are true and informs us about the huge and incomparable love God has for us.