(Video Clip – “It’s a Wonderful Life”, George’s Prayer of Desperation)
Poor George. It’s a Wonderful Life, but George is at the end of his rope. Desperate, he admits he is not a praying man. Still he asks, that if God is there, to show him the way.
Not that unusual of a circumstance. Whether it is an individual’s life, a national terror tragedy such as September 11, or a local disaster like ComAir 5191. When people reach a point of desperation, they often turn to prayer.
Daniel W. Phillips from Russell Springs recently wrote into the Lexington Herald-Leader, “My heart goes out to the family members of all the people who died Sunday on Comair Flight 5191 from Lexington to Atlanta. From all news reports, people turned to prayer to comfort themselves and others. A Lexington police chaplain led a prayer at 10:20 a.m. I am glad that he was there to comfort others. Why is it that we turn to prayer in disasters but turn away at other times? Why are so many people hostile to prayer by public officials in school and at high school graduations but want public prayer during tragedies? If our society were more tolerant of prayer in public settings, more of us would experience peace during our lives, including the tragic moments.”
The church often responds to tragedy based movements of prayer with a sentiment that I think Daniel Phillips is hinting at in his letter to the editor. A sentiment that can turn a bit sarcastic or judgmental at times when crisis strikes and people turn to prayer. The church can almost respond with a, “Oh sure, now you pray. When you are desperate, then you turn to God.” In fact, we can almost make it sound like that is a bad thing.
But this morning I want us to be aware of the fact that there is great power in desperation. When we reach the end of our rope. When we feel like there is nowhere else to turn. When things have gotten so bad that it appears there is no way out. Rather than simply viewing that as a time when people use prayer as a crutch. . .we ought to view that as a time when great, mighty, prevailing prayers of desperation can be offered up to God.
A Newsweek poll several years ago titled "Is God Listening?" indicated that 54% of those the magazine surveyed prayed on a daily basis. 87% believed that God answers their prayers at least some of the time, and 85% insisted that they could accept God’s failure to grant their prayers.
The things people pray for include health, safety, jobs, and even success. 82% said they ask for health or success for a child or family member when they pray. 75% asked for strength to overcome personal weakness, and 51% agreed that God doesn’t answer prayers to win sporting events. I’m guessing those were offered up by UK football fans.
Despite what you may read or see in the media, we are a nation of praying people. And while some people will only revert to prayer when they are desperate, God’s word might even suggest, that is just the time when prayer can become a powerful conduit of God’s mercy and grace.
Turn with me in your Bibles to Luke 18. Jesus is teaching those around Him, and he shares the following parable. Luke 18, verse 2 (read through verse 6).
Parables are an interesting method that Jesus utilized for teaching. They weren’t actual events that had taken place or been witnessed. They were stories. Analogies. Metaphors. Ways of drawing a visual picture of a truth that He desired to communicate.
Some of them can be very difficult to fully understand. There are times when the disciples had to say, “Hey, that parable you taught earlier today. What in the world were you talking about?” And there were other times where Jesus made it very clear what the purpose of the parable was, and what it meant.
On the scale of clear to confusing, this one falls pretty close to the clear side. In fact, there may be some deeper theological, hidden truths in this parable. But I’m a simple mind, and I like the direct simplicity with which an important life lesson can be drawn from this particular teaching.
We know what Jesus is talking about. The word tells us in verse 1 (read). So we know where this is going. Two clear truths we are supposed to be able to get out of this story: we are to always pray, and we are to not lose heart. Pretty clear purpose to this parable.
So Jesus goes on to paint this picture. You have this judge who is deemed as a less than stellar dude. Does not fear God. Does not regard man. According to verse 6, is an “unjust” judge. Doesn’t seem to be a very nice guy.
Then you have this widow. In that day, widows were almost entirely dependent on the surrounding society for their survival. Interestingly enough, our writer Luke seems to have a heart for widows, taking note of their plight throughout his gospel and Acts.
This widow has an adversary. That word describes an opponent, often in a lawsuit. So it is possible that Jesus is describing someone who has sued the widow, and now left her in a desperate situation financially. Apparently, since the judge speaks of avenging her, this widow has been done wrong by this adversary. So ironically enough, in the face of injustice, she has to find herself pleading with an unjust judge.
Well, the judge really couldn’t care less about this woman. He makes it pretty clear that he has no fear, but that he doesn’t want to be nagged. His motives appear to be nothing other than selfish. “I don’t want to deal with her. But she is going to weary me. She is going to wear me out. So rather than have to constantly deal with this, I’m going to give her what she wants.”
Now this is where parables often get very interesting. When we start making the connection between the fictitious story, and the truth Jesus is trying to communicate. So who do the characters of this parable represent? Who is this widow?
Verse 7 (read). God’s own. His children. They are the widow. Or should I say, we are the widows. We are the ones that are, or should be, constantly pursuing the judge. Constantly crying out to him day and night. Constantly pleading our case before him in hopes of receiving relief from our adversary.
What about the judge? Who is he? Well, this parable is a bit different in that God is not the judge. Rather the judge is used to provide a contrast to show how rich is God’s goodness. If this non-God fearing, non-respecter of man, unjust judge will answer the cry of this persistent, desperate widow, then how do you think God would respond?
It pulls us back to an earlier teaching of Jesus’ on prayer in Luke 11. Turn over there quickly with me. Luke 11:9 (read through verse 13). Similar thoughts to today’s passage.
Jesus is saying, “Here is a parable. It is about praying and not losing heart. This widow is desperate, and she seeks out this terrible judge, and annoys him until justice is served. If this no good, corrupt politician will do that, how do you think your Heavenly Father will respond to you when you faithfully, persistently, and desperately call out to Him?”
But then comes the real kicker of this teaching. Verse 8 (read). Do not miss this today. Pay close attention to this passage and lesson. Notice the direct phrasing, the direct connection Jesus seems to make as He speaks of this desperation, this persistence, this crying out to God day and night in prayer, and immediately seems to link that to whether or not He will find faith on earth when He returns.
Of all the things that finding faith on earth can be linked to. He doesn’t link it to still holding Sunday night church, Wednesday night church, and a spring and fall weeklong revival. He doesn’t link it to putting on suits and ties, or dresses and bonnets before going to church. He doesn’t link it to singing 16 verses of “Just As I Am”, or memorizing the Apostles Creed. Doesn’t make any of those things bad. Well, 16 verses might be a bit much.
But in this particular passage, and in this particular place, Jesus makes this connection to a day when the Son of Man will return, seeking out the faithful, and in looking for them wonders whether there will still be people who are crying out day and night. Persistent, desperate people, seeking, crying out to God, praying continually.
In 1972 Jim Cymbala was asked to pastor part-time a small church in a shabby two-story building on Atlantic Avenue in New York City. The location was bad. The people were few. The facilities were falling apart. In fact, he even tells about how a pew broke one Sunday night, spilling several people onto the floor as he preached.
As this young pastor prayed one day about what to do, he sensed God speaking: “If you and your wife will lead my people to pray and call upon my name, you will never lack for something fresh to preach. I will supply all the money that’s needed, both for the church and for your family, and you will never have a building large enough to contain the crowds I will send in response.”
He went back to the church and told them that from that moment on the health of the church would be measured by its Tuesday night prayer meeting. That first night 15 people came. God began to move. The church grew. The prayer meeting became larger. They were forced three times to seek larger facilities. By 1985 they were running 1600 each Sunday service. Hundreds came to the Tuesday night prayer meeting. God brought miraculous conversions.
Today, besides the Tuesday meeting, there is a prayer ministry in which each hour of each day of the week, someone is in prayer for the church and its pastor. Lives are being drastically changed by the power of God. Jim Cymbala began at the Brooklyn Tabernacle as an ill-equipped, under-educated, time-strapped preacher who led a second congregation in New Jersey. The Brooklyn church had no money to pay him, and barely enough attendance to bother with weekly meetings.
Today, the Tabernacle hosts around 6,000 spirit-filled worshipers. The difference came when Jim, in a moment of desperation, set aside his planned message and called the church to pray. And the weekly prayer meeting, not the Sunday worship, became the focal point of the Brooklyn Tabernacle.
Pastor Cymbala writes, hear this, “God can’t resist those who humbly and honestly admit how desperately they need Him.”
There is great power in desperation that leads to prevailing prayer. Let’s look at a few reasons why we need the power of desperation in our prayers. First. . .
1. GOD’S DEFINITION OF “SPEEDY” MIGHT NOT BE THE SAME AS OURS.
We know God’s word is true. Don’t we? Amen? Well, Jesus says that not only will God avenge his children, but that He will do it speedily. So if we know His word is true, and we know He has said that He will avenge us speedily, then we must also be pretty sure that His definition of “speedy” might be a bit different than ours.
Our “speedy” fits into the “I needed it last week” category, right? Not God’s. In fact, if you really want to challenge your theology of prayer, contemplate on whether or not God might actually incorporate delays into His over all plan? Might it be that not only do delays happen as we grow more and more desperate for God, but that those delays might actually be part of God’s plan?
Explore the story of Lazarus. Getting sick, and dying, while Jesus takes a few days before beginning the journey to the resurrection. Think about the disciples on the boat with Jesus asleep in the back or riding out a storm while Jesus prays on the shore. Reaching a point of fearing for their lives. Reaching a point of complete and utter desperation before Jesus acts.
Was Jesus late? Was Jesus clueless? Or might what we see as slow moving, be delays which are all a part of God’s plan.
There are questions I don’t know how to answer. I don’t know why God waits until all the money is gone? I don’t know why He waits until the sickness has lingered? I don’t know why He often chooses to wait until the other side of the grave to answer prayers for healing?
As Max Lucado writes, “I don’t know. I only know His timing is always right. Though you hear nothing, He is speaking. Though you see nothing, He is acting.”
And I do know a second thing. . .
2. DIVINE DELAYS MAY NOT REPRESENT DIVINE RELUCTANCE.
We often assume that, don’t we? “Well, if God hasn’t acted yet, He must not want me to have it. He must not be willing to step in.” Even, “He must not care.” Jesus delay didn’t mean He didn’t care about Lazarus, and desire to heal him. In fact, quite the opposite. The delay meant that there was a greater power of God about to be revealed.
This jump from delay to reluctance often misses out on a truth that we so talk about, and come back to here at SWC. God desires to make you more like Christ, and He will do what is necessary to bring about those changes in your life. And divine delays may not represent divine reluctance, because one of the things God knows is that. . .
3. DESPERATION PRODUCES CHANGE.
One of the things I like about this parable is that there are no great heroes to picture in your mind. You don’t have to compare yourself to a David or a Joshua type as you imagine the scenario Jesus is painting. Because He correlates us to a harassed widow. A tired, life beaten down individual who has every legitimate reason to quit. Judgment has been passed. The judge has been ignoring her pleas, according to Jesus, for quite a while.
But she doesn’t give up. She doesn’t give in. She doesn’t surrender. Why? Because she is desperate. And desperation produces change. It gives a poor, helpless widow the courage to continue hounding a harsh judge. It gives her the wear with all to pursue him free of fear and excuses. What does she have to lose?
Make no mistake about it. The body of Christ is facing desperate times. Our enemy is engaging in a full on assault. As I teach in our Firm Foundations class, Satan has a simple mission. . .to destroy us. It is almost ironic how desperate we see the battles in Iraq and against global terrorism, while acting almost oblivious to the desperate battle that is being raged within the body of Christ today. And when the body of Christ wakes up to the battle we are in, we will reach a points of desperation that results in some changes.
And in that battle there is hope. This is why we join together in a church-wide 40 Days of Prayer. This is why next week we will look at the power of community. Because. . .
4. UNITY OF DESPERATION IS MORE CRUCIAL THAN UNITY OF DOCTRINE.
Francis Frangipane is a huge proponent to unified, city-wide, body of Christ ministry. He writes, “Consider the degree of our national moral decline. In the time it takes to read this chapter, ten babies will be aborted in America. This year there will be an estimated 34 million crimes committed. Of those, nearly 600,000 will be violent crimes, and 72% of that number will be against our teenagers. Our nation is suffering from a deep social and moral collapse. If we have ever needed God’s anointing, it is now, but where is God’s elect?”
Jesus asks, when the Son of Man returns, will He find faith on earth? Will He find a unified, desperate body, crying out to God?
Look at us here at SWC. We have southern Baptists, Assembly of Gods, Church of Gods, Nazarenes, United Methodist, independent charismatic, all attempting to join together as the body of Christ, unified in our desperate need for a touch from God. Within that, there is great power.
More than agreeing on styles of worship, speaking in tongues, one or two definite works of grace, and sprinkling, pouring, or dunking for baptism, there is great power in the unity of desperation. Power that when channeled into prayer, can bring about dynamic, eternal, kingdom impacting, life changing victories.
When George Mueller, the eventual founder of Christian orphanage work in England during the 1800s got saved, he had five lost friends. At SWC we have “Three for God” cards, George had a “Five for God” card. He began to pray for these 5 friends. Desperate for them to receive eternal life. Five years went by, and one got saved. Fifteen years went by and two others got saved. Twenty-five years went by and the 4th got saved! Then, fifty-two years after he began praying for these friends, George Mueller died. Six months after George Muller’s funeral, the 5th friend got saved! The power of persistent, desperation driven prayer.
Bill Hybels who pastors Willow Creek church in Illinois tells about an interesting experience after a baptism service in their church. He writes: “I bumped into a woman in the stairwell who was crying. I thought this was a little odd, since the service was so joyful. I asked her if she was all right.
She said, ‘No, I’m struggling.’ She said, ‘My mom was baptized today. I prayed for her every day for almost 20 years. The reason I’m crying is because I came this close to giving up on her. At the 5-year mark I said, “Who needs this? God isn’t listening.” At the 10-year mark I said, “Why am I wasting my breath?” At the 15-year mark I said, “This is absurd.” At the 19-year mark I said, “I’m just a fool.” But I just kept trying, kept praying. Even with weak faith I kept praying. Then she gave here life to Christ, and she was baptized today. I will never doubt the power of prayer again.”
Sometimes when we pray and pray we feel like we are experiencing the law of diminished returns — so we stop praying. We correspondingly diminish our desires and dreams. We stop believing that God cares and that He will act. It is at just that point of desperation when our prayers might truly begin to prevail.
Wednesday we launch our 40 Days of Prayer. This week’s focus is on the power of desperation. And on your prayer calendar you will find three questions for reflection. But let’s start today. In just a few minutes the praise team is going to come up, and we will spend some time in reflection and praise. But first, ask yourself these three questions.
First, what prayers have I given up on? Maybe it was at the 5 year mark, or the 10 year mark, or even longer, but we gave up. We quit. What prayers have I given up on?
(Video Clip – Wholehearted)
Life is hard. It burns. But if we, the body of Christ, walk around defeated, so will those we are trying to influence for the kingdom. Have we quit praying? Have we given up?
The second question for reflection this week is where am I desperate for God’s touch? What area of my life: finances, physical health, relationships, bondage, chained to sin? Where am I desperate for God’s touch?
And lastly, who do I continue to pray will receive God’s saving grace? Who is on my “Three for God” card? Do I even have one? Who am I willing to be desperate for, and cry out to God day and night that they will be saved? 10 years. 15 years. 50 years.
As the praise team comes. As we sing together. Let’s begin reflecting on these three questions, and ask God to make us desperate in our prayers to touch Him. (Pray)
(Great thanks to numerous Sermon Central contributors for excellent illustrations, points, and thoughts on prayer contained in this message.)
