Luke 18:1-8 (NLT)
1 One day Jesus told his disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up.
2 “There was a judge in a certain city,” he said, “who neither feared God nor cared about people.
3 A widow of that city came to him repeatedly, saying, ‘Give me justice in this dispute with my enemy.’
4 The judge ignored her for a while, but finally he said to himself, ‘I don’t fear God or care about people,
5 but this woman is driving me crazy. I’m going to see that she gets justice, because she is wearing me out with her constant requests!’ ”
6 Then the Lord said, “Learn a lesson from this unjust judge.
7 Even he rendered a just decision in the end. So don’t you think God will surely give justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off?
8 I tell you, he will grant justice to them quickly! But when the Son of Man returns, how many will he find on the earth who have faith?”
PRAYER
For 3 weeks in October 2002 fear gripped the hearts of those who lived near Washington DC. Up and Down I-95 a pair of snipers were working together, systematically killing unsuspecting people who were just going about their daily routines.
The first shooting took place on the evening of October 2 where one victim was killed. The next morning it got worse.
• At 7:41 am, James L. Buchanan, a 39-year-old landscaper known as "Sonny," was shot while mowing the grass at the Fitzgerald Auto Mall.
• At 8:12 am, 54-year-old part-time taxi driver Premkumar Walekar was killed while pumping gasoline into his taxi at a Mobil station.
•
• Sarah Ramos, a 34-year-old babysitter and housekeeper, was killed at 8:37 am at the Leisure World Shopping Center in Aspen Hill. She had gotten off a bus, and was seated on a bench, reading a book.[3]
• At 9:58 am, 25-year-old Lori Ann Lewis-Rivera was killed while vacuuming her Dodge Caravan at a Shell station.
• 9:15 pm, Pascal Charlot, a 72-year-old retired carpenter, while he was walking on Georgia Avenue at Kalmia Road, in Washington, D.C. Charlot died less than an hour later.
On October 7, at 8:09 am, Iran Brown, a 13-year-old boy, was wounded as he arrived to the Benjamin Tasker Middle School in Bowie, Maryland, in Prince George’s County.
Fear quickly spread throughout the community, upon hearing about the shootings. Many parents went to pick up their children at school early, not allowing them to take a school bus or walk home alone. Montgomery County Public Schools and private schools went into a lockdown, with no recess or outdoor gym classes. Other school districts in the area also took precautionary measures, keeping students indoors.
Two days later, on October 9 at 8:18 pm, 53-year-old Dean Harold Meyers was shot dead while pumping gasoline.
Again, two days later, on the morning of October 11 at 9:30 am, 53-year-old Kenneth Bridges died while pumping fuel at an Exxon station off Interstate 95.
On October 14, at 9:15 pm, 47-year-old Linda Franklin, an FBI intelligence analyst was shot dead after she finished shopping at a Home Depot.
After a five day wait, 37-year-old Jeffrey Hopper was shot on October 19 at 8:00 pm in a parking lot near the Ponderosa steakhouse.
On that same day, 50 Christian truckers got together to pray to pray that somehow the sniper terrorizing the Washington, DC area would be caught. Ron Lantz would be retiring as a driver in a few days and didn’t even live in the area, but he felt sure that God would answer their prayers. In fact, he told the others there that God was going to use him to catch the sniper. Ron Lantz was a man of faith.
A few days later, on October 22 he was listening to the radio as he was driving again through the region and felt compelled to pull off the highway to a rest stop. It was just a couple of miles from where the prayer meeting had taken place. As he pulled in, he was shocked to see a car similar to what was being described on the radio right there before his eyes.
Carefully trying to read the license plate, a chill went up his back as the numbers matched. He quickly called 911 and remained there for what he said were the longest 15 minutes of his life until the police arrived. The authorities advised him to block the exit and so he and another trucker parked their rigs across the only way out.
The Police arrived to find the 2 suspected murders sleeping in their blue 1990 Chevrolet Caprice, the two men were arrested, tried and found guilty.
Ron Lantz and 49 other Christian Truckers discovered that God answers prayer.
No matter how difficult or impossible the situation seems.
No matter the magnitude of the problem that you are facing.
ALWAYS PRAY AND NEVER GIVE UP
John Maxwell writes in his book, Partners in Prayer;
"In the summer of 1876, grasshoppers nearly destroyed the crops in Minnesota. SO in the spring of 1877, farmers were worried. They believed that the dreadful plague would once again visit them and again destroy the rich wheat crop, bringing ruin to thousands of people.
The situation was so serious that Governor John S. Pillsbury proclaimed April 26 as a day of prayer and fasting He urged every man, woman and child to ask God to prevent the terrible scourge. On that April day all schools, shops, stores and offices were closed. There was a reverent, quite hush over all the state.
The next day dawned bright and clear. Temperature soared to what they ordinary were in midsummer, which was very unusual for April. Minnesotans were devastated as they discovered billions of grasshopper larvae wiggling to life. For 3 days the unusual heat persisted, and the larvae hatched. It appeared that it wouldn’t be long before they started feeding and destroying the wheat crop.
On the fourth day, however the temperature suddenly dropped, and that night frost, covered the entire state. Result - it killed every one of those creeping, crawling pests as surely as if poison or fire had been used, It went down in the history of Minnesota as the day God answered the prayers of the people."
Always Pray and Never Give Up, never lose your hope and your faith in God. Never doubt that he is able to save you.
When King David was in danger of his life he wrote a Song to God. He shows his real heart, he shows his real emotions, and he shows how real his faith was.
Psalms 22:8 “Commit your cause to the Lord; let him deliver – let him rescue the one in whom he delights.”
Who are you counting on to deliver you when the tough times come?
You have to let God deliver you. You have to give your problems to him in prayer and let him deliver you. He can’t take control of your life if your hands are still on the wheel. You have got to let God deliver you.
Jim Cymbala is the Pastor of the Brooklyn Tabbernacle. Starting from very meager beginnings, the prayers of the Church had been used by God to start a revival which saw it’s influence multiplied in the city of New York.
Cymbala’s oldest child was his daughter named Chrissy. Chrissy was the model child growing up, but around 16 she started to stray. Her parents didn’t notice at first, but she drifter farther and farther away from them and God until one day she didn’t come home.
This was every parents nightmare, and it was only magnified by the fact that the Cymbala’s lived in New York City, and this was before they had a Police officer on every corner.
Some nights Chrissy was home and other nights she was nowhere to be found. Her father tried to control her with everything he knew, but she just went farther and farther away.
The stress was cutting into Pastor Jim’s life. He would take the 25 minute drive to Church alone, just crying and asking God to help himself pull it together for a day of services. In the middle of the worship service he would feel his attention shifting to prayer for Chrissy instead of focusing on the needs of the people, and to this day Pastor Jim Cymbala says that he does not know how he made it through those long days.
While this was going on Jim found out that his wife Carol needed to undergo a hysterectomy, she would never give birth to another child. The devil spoke to Carol and said, You might have this big choir, and you’re making albums and doing outreaches at Radio City Music Hall and all the rest. Fine, you and your husband can reach the world for Christ – but I’m going to have your children. I’ve already got the first one. But I’m coming for the next two.
And Carol was overcome by fear and distress. Her family meant more than any choir or outreach. One day she said to her husband, “Listen, we need to leave New York and I’m serious. This atmosphere has already swallowed up our daughter. We can’t keep raising kids here. If you want to stay, you can – but I’m getting our other children out.”
You want to talk about stress then here you go. A daughter that is no longer living under your roof, a wife that is threatening to leave town, with or without you. That’s rough.
“We can’t just do that. We can’t just take off without knowing what God wants for us to do.”
Carol went for her surgery and when she returned, she found the strength to make the decision to stay at the Brooklyn Tabernacle, but Chrissy was still out on her own.
The more that Jim Cymbala tried to take matters into his own hands the worse things got with his daughter. He persuaded her to go and talk to a friend of his that was also a pastor. She did and the pastor phoned Jim back with this report.
“I love you and your wife, but the truth of the matter is Chrissy’s going to do what Chrissy’s going to do. You don’t really have much choice, now that she’s 18. She’s determined. You’re going to have to accept whatever she decides.”
Jim Cymbala hung up the phone and something very deep began to cry out, “NEVER! I will never accept Chrissy being away from God.”
God spoke to Jim and said to stop crying, screaming, or talking to anyone else about Chrissy. He was only allowed to talk to God about her. In fact, he even knew that he was to have no further contact with Chrissy until God acted.
The fall came and went and soon Christmas was upon the Cymbala family, and still no Chrissy. Christmas came and the family was still not together.
February rolled around and at the church prayer meeting Pastor Jim Cymbala preached from Acts 4 about the church boldly calling on God in times of persecution. When the preaching was over the praying had began a Usher delivered a note.
This note was from a lady who knew the voice of God and it said, “Pastor Cymbala, I feel impressed that we should stop the meeting and all pray for your daughter.”
Well, what do you do when you get a note like that? Do you disrupt the prayer meeting and change your agenda? Do you keep it to yourself.
Jim Cymbala read the note and something in it rang true. He took the microphone and told how his daughter had been away from God and from home and he asked the people to hold hands and to pray.
The room sounded like a labor ward in the hospital. There was moaning, and crying and wailing and the people were in an intense spiritual battle for the life of Chrissy Cymbala.
Jim arrived home after the prayer meeting and said to his wife, “It’s over.”
“What’s over”
“It’s over with Chrissy. I tell you, if there is a God in heaven it is finally over.”
36 hours later on Thursday morning as Jim was shaving and getting ready for the day Carol comes into the bathroom and says, “Go downstairs, Chrissy’s here.”
And there on the floor of the Kitchen was Chrissy Cymbala. Rocking back on forth on her knees in anguish. “Daddy, I’ve sinned against God. I’ve sinned against myself. I’ve sinned against you and Mommy, please forgive me.”
Father and daughter were reunited and he held her close as they cried together. Sudenly Chrissy drew back. “Daddy, who was praying for me. On Tuesday night, who was praying.”
“In the middle of the night, God woke me up and showed me I was heading toward this abyss. There was no bottom to it – I was scared to death. I realized how hard I’ve been, how rebellious and how wrong.
“But at the same time, it was like God wrapped his arms around me and held me tight. He kept me from sliding any farther and he said, ‘I still love you.’”
And Chrissy Cymbala’s life was back on the track that God had for her. And if you are a parent with a prodigal child, her story should give you hope.
When we rely on organization, we get what an organization can do.
When we rely on government help, we get what the government can do.
When we rely on our schools, we get what education can do.
When we rely on prayer, we get what God can do.
Always pray and Never Give Up.
For Christian in these troubled times, there simply is no other way.
Jesus told the story to his disciples so that they would always pray and never give up. He knew that hard times were ahead. He knew that they would face problems bigger than anyone had ever faced before. And Jesus knew that there only hope was to always pray and to never give up.
God always intended for his Church to pray.
When Jesus taught the disciples how to pray he said, “When you pray.”
In Isaiah 56 God says that his house will be called a house of prayer for all nations. Not a house of worship, not a house of healing, not a house of good teaching. No he said, My house will be called a house of Prayer.
The in 2 Chronicles 7 God qualifies prayer that gets his attention.
2 Chronicles 7:14-15 (NLT)
14 Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land.
15 My eyes will be open and my ears attentive to every prayer made in this place.
EVERY PRAYER, not some, not the majority, not even most. My eyes will be open and my ears attentive to EVERY PRAYER MADE IN THIS PLACE.
What are you praying for this morning? Have you fulfilled the requirements that God put before you. First of all he said.
1. If my people who are called by my name
That means people who have the name of Christ on them. Christians. These are the people that God is talking about. The people who bear the mark of Jesus, the ones who have taken up the cross and the cause of Jesus.
That’s the first qualification, you make the first step and ask Jesus to become Lord of your life
2. If They will Humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways.
You have got to be in right standing with God.
• If there is sin in your life you have got to throw down your pride and say that you were wrong, say that you will take the blame and the shame associated with your sin.
• Then once you’ve humbled yourself you need to seek the face of God.
o The reason people sin is because they are serving themselves and not God.
o The best way to stop yourself from sinning is to seek God.
o Get into his word and figure out who He is. The word of God will renew your mind and will help you to let go of sinful desires.
o Pray and talk with Him and listen for direction, find out what God wants from you.
o Find friends who will fight for you. Friends who will get on your case if you start slipping. Friends that won’t sit back and watch you miss Church. Friends that will pray for you and pray with you. You need friends because God never intended for you to fight alone.
3. Then God will hear from heaven, forgive your sins and restore his promises for your life.
• Some of us are living only a shell of the life that God planned for us to live. Some of us are missing out in life because we pray with sin in our hearts, and we have too much pride to go to our brother or sister and ask for help or forgiveness.
• It is time to make things right with God. This is the service and the morning where you need to humble yourself, submit your life to God and ask for his forgiveness in the places that you have gone off of the path.
Because then God will here from heaven, forgive your sins and restore you.
I want every promise that God has for me. I want to complete the race that he set me up for. I want it restored to me, those years and those things that were lost.
Here is the equation, you humble yourself, ask God for help and forgiveness, seek his face, and hears your prays. He directs your steps and he takes charge of your life and he restores those promises for your life that you destroyed with your sin.
4. Then God hears every prayer offered up in his house; The House of Prayer. And you can know that God hears you, cares about you. If you bring your request before God, he will hear you out.
I want to tell you this morning, If God will just here your prayer than that is enough. Because our God is defined by the word love. And our God is like a parent to us, not holding any good thing back. And our God is mighty to save us from every enemy in life.
So if you have got the promise that God will here your prayer, then you have got the promise that God will act with your best interest in mind.
Illus.:The Hitchhiker
Roger Simms, hitchhiking his way home, would never forget the date—May 7. His heavy suitcase made Roger tired. He was anxious to take off his army uniform once and for all. Flashing the hitchhiking sigh to the oncoming car, he lost hope when he saw it was a black, sleek, new Cadillac.
To his surprise the car stopped. The passenger door opened. He ran toward the car, tossed his suitcase in the back, and thanked the handsome, well-dressed man as he slid into the front seat. “Going home for keeps?” “Sure am,” Roger responded. “Well, you’re in luck if you’re going to Chicago.”
“Not quite that far. Do you live in Chicago?” “I have a business there. My name is Hanover.” After talking about many things, Roger, a Christian, felt a compulsion to witness to this fiftyish, apparently successful businessman about Christ. But he kept putting it off, till he realized he was just thirty minutes from his home. It was now or never.
So, Roger cleared his throat, “Mr. Hanover, I would like to talk to you about something very important.” He then proceeded to explain the way of salvation, ultimately asking Mr. Hanover if he would like to receive Christ as his Savior. To Roger’s astonishment the Cadillac pulled over to the side of the road. Roger thought he was going to be ejected from the car. But the businessman bowed his head and received Christ, then thanked Roger. “This is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me.”
Five years went by, Roger married, had a two-year-old boy, and a business of his own. Packing his suitcase for a business trip to Chicago, he found the small, white business card Hanover had given him five years before. In Chicago he looked up Hanover Enterprises. A receptionist told him it was impossible to see Mr. Hanover, but he could see Mrs. Hanover.
A little confused as to what was going on, he was ushered into a lovely office and found himself facing a keen-eyed woman in her fifties. She extended her hand. “You knew my husband?” Roger told how her husband had given him a ride when hitchhiking home after the war. “Can you tell me when that was?” “It was May 7, five years ago, the day I was discharged from the army.” “Anything special about that day?”
Roger hesitated. Should he mention giving his witness? Since he had come so far, he might as well take the plunge. “Mrs. Hanover, I explained the gospel. He pulled over to the side of the road and wept against the steering wheel. He gave his life to Christ that day.” Explosive sobs shook her body. Getting a grip on herself, she sobbed, “I had prayed for my husband’s salvation for years. I believed God would save him.”
“And,” said Roger, “Where is your husband, Mrs. Hanover?” “He’s dead,” she wept, struggling with words. “He was in a car crash after he let you out of the car. He never got home. You see—I thought God had not kept His promise.” Sobbing uncontrollably, she added, “I stopped living for God five years ago because I thought He had not kept His word!”
Friends, no matter how bad it looks, don’t give up hope.
No matter the size of the problem that you are facing, Always pray and never give up.
No matter how hopeless the situation might look, Always pray and never give up.
No matter how far away your child is from God this morning, Always pray and never give up.
No matter how impossible life may seem, Always pray and never give up.
I want to tell you the truth this morning. All God’s promises are true. If he says that he will here your prayer, he will here them. He will take action on your behalf.
My God will supply all your needs, according to his riches and his glory.
My God is so big, so strong and so mighty that there is nothing my God cannot do.
My God is able, he is willing, he is mighty, and today he will here your prayers if you will just pray to him.
Jesus told the disciples the story so that they would ALWAYS PRAY and NEVER GIVE UP.
‘May the LORD bless you
and protect you.
May the LORD smile on you
and be gracious to you.
May the LORD show you his favor
and give you his peace.’
In the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit, AMEN
