SPEAKER_03: Everyone goes through a desert.
SPEAKER_03: Every believer goes through a desert.
SPEAKER_03: In fact, you're likely to go through multiple ones.
SPEAKER_03: Because it's God's main way of taking a wandering heart and tying it to himself.
SPEAKER_02: This podcast is a ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_02: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_03: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_03: The Lord God whom we will sing unending praise.
SPEAKER_03: We will we will never exhaust celebrating and exclaiming your worth, your value.
SPEAKER_03: We'll never tire of it, we'll never bore of it, we'll never be unenergized by it.
SPEAKER_03: We will see clearly what we see dimly now.
SPEAKER_03: So this morning we ask that you would in this room and around tables and around computers and phones and couches, that you would meet with us through your word.
SPEAKER_03: This is nothing for you to do.
SPEAKER_03: You don't just meet with us in a building.
SPEAKER_03: You are very present with us.
SPEAKER_03: And Lord, we we just claim that you are the very present help in every trouble.
SPEAKER_03: We ask that you would, through the Spirit, give us great confidence and hope in that, and that we uh, your sons and daughters would be in unanxious presence in this uncertain time.
SPEAKER_03: For the sake of Christ and the gospel, we pray these things.
SPEAKER_03: Amen.
SPEAKER_03: Thank you for tuning in, logging in.
SPEAKER_03: Thanks for you guys being here.
SPEAKER_03: We're still under the restriction cap.
SPEAKER_03: This morning, the text we're gonna be in is Luke 18.
SPEAKER_03: So turn there in your Bible or on your second screen.
SPEAKER_03: And this is the parable of the persistent widow.
SPEAKER_03: And this is kind of also kind of a little uh a little appetizer.
SPEAKER_03: So this summer Neil's gonna be on sabbatical, and for a good portion of that, the staff is gonna be uh filling the sermons, preaching, and we're gonna do a series on the parables of Jesus.
SPEAKER_03: And so here's kind of your first installment of the parables.
SPEAKER_03: So Luke 18 will just be in verses one through eight, and we're gonna kind of walk through verse by verse, explaining it and applying it to our lives.
SPEAKER_03: So, verse 18, verse 1, Luke writes, and he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.
SPEAKER_03: And I'll just first say that parables are a kind of a small genre within the larger genre of gospels.
SPEAKER_03: And so it's this small little style of writing where Luke is recording, in this case, a story Jesus told.
SPEAKER_03: And it's not, it's true that Jesus told this story, but it's not a true story.
SPEAKER_03: It's one Jesus is making up, and it's all to make one very, very clear point.
SPEAKER_03: Now, it's pretty rare that we get the point right in the beginning of the story.
SPEAKER_03: So here's what Luke said.
SPEAKER_03: Let me read it again.
SPEAKER_03: He told them, Jesus told them this parable to the effect they ought always to pray and not lose heart.
SPEAKER_03: So you're wondering where the sermon's going, this is where it's going.
SPEAKER_03: We are quitters when it comes to prayer.
SPEAKER_03: This is our first observation.
SPEAKER_03: We give up praying way too easily.
SPEAKER_03: And the first disciples gave up way too easily.
SPEAKER_03: Luke records it through the Holy Spirit, because we give up praying way too easily.
SPEAKER_03: And so let me just plant this seed right in the beginning of the sermon.
SPEAKER_03: If you knew God was going to eventually grant your prayer request, if you knew eventually he was gonna say yes, what would you not stop praying for?
SPEAKER_03: What would you persist in prayer?
SPEAKER_03: What would you not give up hoping in?
SPEAKER_03: What would you not give up going before him?
SPEAKER_03: If you knew for certain he is gonna re-grant this eventually.
SPEAKER_03: We somehow lose belief that he's good and he does good things.
SPEAKER_03: So let's walk through the text together.
SPEAKER_03: Verse 2.
SPEAKER_03: So Jesus tells him the story.
SPEAKER_03: In a certain city, it doesn't matter what city, this is a made-up story, right?
SPEAKER_03: In a certain city, there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man.
SPEAKER_03: So let's pause there.
SPEAKER_03: You have a judge, and especially in Judaism, the chief criteria to be a judge, a good one, is you had to fear God.
SPEAKER_03: If you're gonna have wisdom and be able to apply to people, you had to fear God.
SPEAKER_03: This God doesn't fear God and doesn't fear man.
SPEAKER_03: There's also in this city, verse 3, there's a widow in that city who kept coming to him, saying, Give me justice against my adversary.
SPEAKER_03: So we have a judge, and we have a woman who needs justice, and there seems to be no chance for her to get it.
SPEAKER_03: What she wants is a good thing.
SPEAKER_03: What she wants actually is part of God's revealed will.
SPEAKER_03: There should be justice, right?
SPEAKER_03: There shouldn't be injustice.
SPEAKER_03: Uh offense should have a punishment.
SPEAKER_03: Widow should be cared for, not marginalized, not sidelined.
SPEAKER_03: She keeps coming to him, and we don't we shouldn't read that she kept coming, and I got a you know, next, here's the next docket.
SPEAKER_03: It wasn't she kept bringing case in case in case before him.
SPEAKER_03: It's likely she couldn't afford, maybe even the first time to be heard in his court.
SPEAKER_03: Where she would find him is where you and I would find him on the street, outside the market, buying bread, outside his house, walking somewhere.
SPEAKER_03: And so she would try and judge, hey, judge, I need justice.
SPEAKER_03: And he would ignore her.
SPEAKER_03: Look at the text.
SPEAKER_03: Verse 4.
SPEAKER_03: For a while he refused.
SPEAKER_03: So for a while, not hearing her, don't see her, security, get her out of here.
SPEAKER_03: Bailiff, get rid of her.
SPEAKER_03: For a while he refused.
SPEAKER_03: But afterward he said to himself, Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this woman keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.
SPEAKER_03: So he refuses for a while.
SPEAKER_03: Get away from me, you don't want to hear it.
SPEAKER_03: He doesn't respect God.
SPEAKER_03: He doesn't fear God.
SPEAKER_03: Doesn't respect man.
SPEAKER_03: Apparently, he doesn't have to worry about re-election.
SPEAKER_03: Alright?
SPEAKER_03: So I don't fear what any man could say to me.
SPEAKER_03: I don't fear what God could do.
SPEAKER_03: But he gives her justice because he loves himself.
SPEAKER_03: And he just doesn't want any more of this pain of her accosting him, of her bothering him.
SPEAKER_03: The original language is this phrase, she will not beat me down.
SPEAKER_03: This phrase is she will not, she will not blacken my eye.
SPEAKER_03: And so because she keeps on persisting, this evil judge will say, unjust judge, doesn't fear God, doesn't fear man, what's he do?
SPEAKER_03: He grants her justice.
SPEAKER_03: Verse 5.
SPEAKER_03: I will give her justice, so she will not be beat me down by her continual coming.
SPEAKER_03: Now, that's the setup.
SPEAKER_03: Here's the point.
SPEAKER_03: Verse 6.
SPEAKER_03: And the Lord said, Hear what the unrighteous judge says.
SPEAKER_03: What did he say?
SPEAKER_03: I'll give you justice.
SPEAKER_03: Verse 7, and will not God give justice to his elect, who cry out to him day and night?
SPEAKER_03: Will he delay long over them?
SPEAKER_03: I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily.
SPEAKER_03: Jesus asked the question.
SPEAKER_03: This evil judge who does give justice, won't God, who isn't evil, won't he give justice?
SPEAKER_03: Won't he meet legitimate needs?
SPEAKER_03: Won't he fulfill his revealed will?
SPEAKER_03: The second point, second observation.
SPEAKER_03: Your view of God will be revealed by your prank.
SPEAKER_03: Your view of God, what you really think about God, it'll be revealed by how you pray or your lack of praying.
SPEAKER_03: If you think God is stingy or uninterested or annoyed or bored or disappointed by you, you're probably not going to persist in prayer.
SPEAKER_03: If you think, no, he's the true and better judge, who's actually wielding all that's occurring in the world to bring about the final justice of everything, the final exaltation of Christ.
SPEAKER_03: If you believe, no, God is perfect in wisdom, God is perfect in his timing, God is perfect in justice, he's perfect in knowledge, he's true, he's consistent.
SPEAKER_03: If you believe that he is good, Psalm 119, 68, if you believe he is good and he does good, then you stand a chance of persisting in prayer.
SPEAKER_03: If you believe I'm not going to be put off by God, I'm not going to be neglected by him, I'm not going to be ignored by him.
SPEAKER_03: See, sometimes when we pray and we don't receive kind of in our timing, or we don't receive what we think we're asking for, we misinterpret God as either unjust or uninterested, or just He's unacceptable, unaccessible by me.
SPEAKER_03: And it's just not what the scripture says.
SPEAKER_03: Pray because of your position before God.
SPEAKER_03: Look at verse 7 again.
SPEAKER_03: To his elect.
SPEAKER_03: You and I, we are not a widow when it comes to Christ.
SPEAKER_03: We're not one who has no standing before him.
SPEAKER_03: We're not unprotected, not unprovided for.
SPEAKER_03: We're not unwanted.
SPEAKER_03: If you're in Christ, if you're a believer, you have been chosen by him, adopted by him as his son and daughter.
SPEAKER_03: You have full access to the riches in Christ.
SPEAKER_03: You're a child of the king.
SPEAKER_03: So those who cry out to him day and night.
SPEAKER_03: What he's not saying is, yeah, you got to get in there and you got to blacken his eye, you got to twist his arm, you got to force him to get, no?
SPEAKER_03: His whole point is you don't have to do that with God.
SPEAKER_03: In fact, what you think you're doing, what you think is praying for a long time, it really probably isn't praying that long.
SPEAKER_03: You don't have to badger him to get him to do good.
SPEAKER_03: You don't have to manipulate him to get him to do his will.
SPEAKER_03: Commenting on Luke 14, author Kent Hughes, he's talking about discipleship of kids, but it relates here.
SPEAKER_03: He says, he writes this we fall short as parents.
SPEAKER_03: We fall short when we spend more time in the car in one day shuttling kids to games or to lessons than we do in a whole month prayer for their souls.
SPEAKER_03: We spend more time driving kids around to lessons and games and extracurriculars, more time in one day than we do in a whole month.
SPEAKER_03: That's wrong.
SPEAKER_03: It's a complete misunderstanding of how God economizes things.
SPEAKER_03: It's it's really what Ken Hughes ends up saying, it's it's disproportionately loving kids over Jesus.
SPEAKER_03: It's disproportionately thinking, I'm actually the one who is good and does good and not him.
SPEAKER_03: Number four, fourth observation.
SPEAKER_03: Pray because he loves to do his will when it's asked for.
SPEAKER_03: God loves to do his will when it's asked for.
SPEAKER_03: And in fact, you you you understand a measure of this.
SPEAKER_03: I've seen it most often with my kids, but I see it in friends.
SPEAKER_03: When our kids were 10, 9, and 6, they uh they really wanted uh a we for Christmas.
SPEAKER_03: We was kind of out and they've been to a friend's house, like, oh dad, we gotta get a wee.
SPEAKER_03: Can we please get a wee?
SPEAKER_03: And we're like, oh, I mean, talking to just two of us, yeah, probably.
SPEAKER_03: But to them, I don't know, guys.
SPEAKER_03: You know, we don't really need another hobby to, you know, we kind of we don't need to sit around a TV and do stuff, and I don't know, you guys are pretty busy already, and and so we're just you know kind of putting a wet blanket on it.
SPEAKER_03: Well, of course, we bought this thing and wrapped it up and hid it in our box, and and you know, here's present, you know, uh, to all three boys.
SPEAKER_03: Oh, all three boys, it's gotta be a good one.
SPEAKER_03: Okay, all three boys.
SPEAKER_03: And they get around and and um they start opening it, and once they see what it is, they go crazy.
SPEAKER_03: One of them jumps up, starts screaming, starts jumping on furniture, jumping off furniture.
SPEAKER_03: Another one's kind of tearing apart, opening the box, a third one's just screaming, yelling because the other two are yelling.
SPEAKER_03: And we couldn't have been more happy.
SPEAKER_03: Seeing their unbridled joy in what Jenny and I had done.
SPEAKER_03: We were planning to do this anyway, we just wanted them to ask for it.
SPEAKER_03: God, the Father is like this, he loves to see his will done when it's asked for.
SPEAKER_03: Now, you know, we got this wee, we all got like bicep tendonitis from playing tennis.
SPEAKER_03: And your father delights in you throwing a parade over what he's done.
SPEAKER_03: Your father delights in you throwing a parade at how incredible he is.
SPEAKER_03: Not making up stuff, but when he comes through when you needed rescue, he delights in you jumping around off the furniture.
SPEAKER_03: Let me give you an example of prayer answered.
SPEAKER_03: I can give you a lot.
SPEAKER_03: Let me give you one that's you're looking at right now.
SPEAKER_03: A little over two years ago, um, in the ministry role I was in, I'm really just feeling I'm kind of on the off-ramp here.
SPEAKER_03: And it's time for a change, something else.
SPEAKER_03: I worked in this field for a couple decades and asking the Lord, look, uh, the fields are white for harvest.
SPEAKER_03: You want to put me in a different field?
SPEAKER_03: And I had a couple of small groups I was involved in, people I was connected with.
SPEAKER_03: Blake, how can I pray for you?
SPEAKER_03: I'm I'm open, pretty open to a job change.
SPEAKER_03: I haven't been for a while, and I don't know what that looks like, and I'm, you know, I don't want to do pastorjobs.com.
SPEAKER_03: I'm not trying to do that.
SPEAKER_03: I just want the Lord to get involved in this.
SPEAKER_03: And about five months goes by, and I get a contact from Neil.
SPEAKER_03: And I talked to him you know a year or two earlier about this role.
SPEAKER_03: I get a contact from Neil, and he says, Don't you want to pin you?
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, the rumors are true.
SPEAKER_03: Dominant's really retiring, he's really gonna go play golf, he's really gonna go play with grandkids and watch Alabama football.
SPEAKER_03: And so he's Auburn.
SPEAKER_03: Is it Auburn?
SPEAKER_03: Thank you.
SPEAKER_03: Hey, you know.
SPEAKER_03: So he's really gonna do that.
SPEAKER_03: And um began praying pretty seriously, not about the role, I thought the role is a great fit, not about the church, really like this church.
SPEAKER_03: About moving.
SPEAKER_03: And then um praying for my wife, all right, Lord, if you're really in this, you you've got to convince her.
SPEAKER_03: Because we would be doing what our culture says is one of the top horrible things you can do to your family.
SPEAKER_03: You know, number one is not wash your hands, touch your face.
SPEAKER_03: We all know that now.
SPEAKER_03: Uh, number two is move your kids while they're in high school.
SPEAKER_03: Right?
SPEAKER_03: That's the big, you're gonna ruin their lives, they'll be in therapy forever and all the rest.
SPEAKER_03: And within about a month, she moved from, I don't know if I can do that to, I don't know why, but I'm on board with this.
SPEAKER_03: In fact, I know why.
SPEAKER_03: The Lord's making me open to this, believe that He can take care of it all.
SPEAKER_03: But then we begin praying, all right, God, you're gonna have to make our kids on board.
SPEAKER_03: We don't want to foolishly take them somewhere and have them resent us forever.
SPEAKER_03: And within three or four months, God began ordering things where they're pretty open, like, yeah, let's get out of here.
SPEAKER_03: I say all this to say that.
SPEAKER_03: God answers our prayers and he intends to do so, especially when he's the one birthing them in us.
SPEAKER_03: We give up way too easily.
SPEAKER_03: We we la we pray way too short.
SPEAKER_03: The first time I'm praying, hey, pray for me.
SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna open your job change five months before Neil contacts me.
SPEAKER_03: And I'm not here to tell you, and we prayed every day.
SPEAKER_03: No, we didn't.
SPEAKER_03: In fact, when he contacted me, I'm like, hey, good friend, you never believe it happened.
SPEAKER_03: I I think God's answering some of those prayers.
SPEAKER_03: I was surprised, right?
SPEAKER_03: Let me ask this question.
SPEAKER_03: Point number five.
SPEAKER_03: What about when God seems to not answer?
SPEAKER_03: What about Blake when it's it seems like he's not answering?
SPEAKER_03: And I don't mean it's mean for a week or even a month, or it's just lasting a long time, Blake.
SPEAKER_03: What is what happens then?
SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna give you some insight from uh a book by Paul Miller on prayer, and he's gonna help us here.
SPEAKER_03: First, I'm gonna give you a quote from uh guy who's been a mentor of my life.
SPEAKER_03: I call him Grandpa Dave.
SPEAKER_03: Grandpa Dave says this when uh when God seems to not answer prayer, he said, look, God is never late when it comes to answering what we need.
SPEAKER_03: When it comes to doing his will.
SPEAKER_03: He's never late, he's rarely early.
SPEAKER_03: Not a procrastinator, but he's rarely early.
SPEAKER_03: He's always on time.
SPEAKER_03: And so if it seems like God is withholding something from you that seems to be, Lord, this is your revealed will in the scripture.
SPEAKER_03: Why are you withholding this?
SPEAKER_03: Assume he's right on time.
SPEAKER_03: He's right on schedule.
SPEAKER_03: He's not maliciously delaying.
SPEAKER_03: Three options if God seems to not answer prayer.
SPEAKER_03: One, James tells us, if God's not answering prayer, it might be you're just not even asking.
SPEAKER_03: James chapter 4, verse 1 and 2.
SPEAKER_03: What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you?
SPEAKER_03: Is it not this that your passions are at war in you and you desire and don't have, so you murder.
SPEAKER_03: You covet and can't attain, so you fight and quarrel.
SPEAKER_03: You do not have because you do not ask.
SPEAKER_03: One reason why God may appear to not be answering your prayers is you're just not asking.
SPEAKER_03: Not really.
SPEAKER_03: Maybe kind of going through the motions, checking the box, or but you're not really asking.
SPEAKER_03: Paul Miller comments this way in his book.
SPEAKER_03: He says, if you are not praying, if you're not really asking, then you are quietly confident that time or money or talent are all you need in life.
SPEAKER_03: You will always be a little too tired, a little too busy.
SPEAKER_03: But if, like Jesus, you realize you can't do life on your own, then no matter how tired you are, you will find time to pray.
SPEAKER_03: There's another book, the title is You're Too Busy Not to Pray.
SPEAKER_03: Another option, if he's not answering or appears not to answer, is that you could be asking, but you're asking wrongly.
SPEAKER_03: This is the next verse in James chapter 4.
SPEAKER_03: James chapter 4, verse 3.
SPEAKER_03: You ask and don't receive, because you ask wrongly to spend on your passions.
SPEAKER_03: This is be where what I'm asking for really is what I'm asking for is, hey, Lord God, would you give me this thing so it can be my treasured possession?
SPEAKER_03: It can be what I serve and worship instead of you.
SPEAKER_03: Would you give this thing so all my dreams come true and I don't feel like I need you?
SPEAKER_03: Now we never say it that way, but that's functionally what's happening.
SPEAKER_03: Would you give me this thing to wrap my flesh and my passions around, so my hope wouldn't be in the next life, so my hope wouldn't be in you.
SPEAKER_03: He is not gonna do that.
SPEAKER_03: He's not gonna ruin you by giving you an idol.
SPEAKER_03: In fact, if he's quite loving, he's gonna withhold and protect and guard you from that.
SPEAKER_03: James says, so sometimes you're asking, but you're asking wrongly.
SPEAKER_03: You're asking to serve a heart idol.
SPEAKER_03: Paul Miller comments this way.
SPEAKER_03: He says, if we think we can do life on our own, we will all we will not take prayer seriously.
SPEAKER_03: Our failure to pray, listen to this, will always feel like something else.
SPEAKER_03: It'll feel like a lack of discipline, or feel like too many obligations.
SPEAKER_03: It'll feel like I'm too busy, or I just I'm just I'm just not wired to be a prayer person.
SPEAKER_03: I just fall asleep quickly, or my mind gets distracted, or it'll feel like a lot of other things, other than I want to be an idol worshiper.
unknown: What about?
SPEAKER_03: When God says no, Blake.
SPEAKER_03: I'm asking and I'm not asking wrongly.
SPEAKER_03: In fact, what I'm asking for are things the Bible says God wants.
SPEAKER_03: Blake, what if I'm asking for, Lord, give me justice at work?
SPEAKER_03: Give my son spiritual life.
SPEAKER_03: Like, I'm asking for God to save my child.
SPEAKER_03: I'm asking for to give my son new life inside.
SPEAKER_03: Like, what if I'm asking for, give me compassion for my neighbor?
SPEAKER_03: Give me compassion to care about them and to initiate engaging them.
SPEAKER_03: What if I'm asking for, change my anger, change my loneliness, change my impatience, change my anxiety?
SPEAKER_03: What if I'm asking for, Lord, make clear this fruit of the Spirit in my life?
SPEAKER_03: I'm asking for it, and what I'm asking for is not wrong, and it's not happening.
SPEAKER_03: Explain that to me, Blake.
SPEAKER_03: I think Paul Miller is helpful here.
SPEAKER_03: What he says, what the scripture says quite often is what God may be doing is taking you through a desert for a time.
SPEAKER_03: So desert looks like this.
SPEAKER_03: We have kind of a view of this is what God, this is this is my hope, is that God's gonna do this.
SPEAKER_03: I'll use the example.
SPEAKER_03: God's gonna awaken my son spiritually.
SPEAKER_03: This is my hope.
SPEAKER_03: It's in the Bible, he has to do it.
SPEAKER_03: And the reality is hasn't happened yet.
SPEAKER_03: And so this distance between what reality is and what I'm hoping in God for, if that persists very long, it gets painful.
SPEAKER_03: So three responses to this.
SPEAKER_03: One response is kind of to deny it's happening, to deny it's really that bad.
SPEAKER_03: And so that would look like yeah, I'm I'm praying for my child to awaken spiritually, but you know what?
SPEAKER_03: It'll be fine, it'll work out.
SPEAKER_03: Um, God's gonna make it happen in time.
SPEAKER_03: When I was his age, I was way farther worse than he was.
SPEAKER_03: And so we can kind of minimize the pain by making it appear it's not as bad as it really is.
SPEAKER_03: When we do that, we don't pray.
SPEAKER_03: I don't need to pray because right now it's not an emergency.
SPEAKER_03: I don't need to pray because it doesn't need to happen right now.
SPEAKER_03: Another approach, and sometimes this denial leads to determination.
SPEAKER_03: So after kind of initial shock, and sometimes initial shock is after some years go by and this isn't fixed, this isn't changed, this fruit of the spirit isn't prevalent, uh, anger hasn't been conquered.
SPEAKER_03: Then determination sets in where, okay, somebody somewhere knows how to fix this.
SPEAKER_03: There's some amount of money I can pay, some book I can read, some scripture I can memorize, some righteous act I can do.
SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna get really serious about this now.
SPEAKER_03: And so we still have the hope of God, you gotta do this, you promise to do this, and the reality hasn't happened, so I'm gonna try and force that up.
SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna try and make that happen.
SPEAKER_03: This is kind of the determination approach.
SPEAKER_03: And so, what that would look like, if I'm trying to awaken spirituality in my son, hey Blake, how can I pray for you?
SPEAKER_03: You know you can pray for me?
SPEAKER_03: You can pray for my son.
SPEAKER_03: Holy Spirit, make him alive, warm him, light the fire, small group, how can we pray for you?
SPEAKER_03: How can we pray for you?
SPEAKER_03: Blake, how can we pray for you?
SPEAKER_03: Pray for my son.
SPEAKER_03: And she's mobilize everything you can.
SPEAKER_03: And that lasts for a little while until God appears to not answer.
SPEAKER_03: And then the third stage is despair.
SPEAKER_03: Despair is here's what I believed God was gonna do, here's what's happening.
SPEAKER_03: And so I've tried to pretend it's not bad.
SPEAKER_03: I've tried to work really hard.
SPEAKER_03: How am I gonna minimize this pain gap?
SPEAKER_03: I'm just gonna quit hoping.
SPEAKER_03: And it also looks like I'm just gonna not pray about this anymore.
SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna just stop hoping God can ever do something about that.
SPEAKER_03: And that leads to one of two things.
SPEAKER_03: It'll lead either to bitterness and resentment and really distance from God, or it will lead to flourishing.
SPEAKER_03: Let me explain how.
SPEAKER_03: If it leads to cynicism and uh resistance to God, at the core of this is us saying, you're not a good God because you don't give me what I want.
SPEAKER_03: You don't give it to me when I want it.
SPEAKER_03: The one who thrives in the desert, God forms this in them.
SPEAKER_03: God, you actually are what I want most, and you won't take that away.
SPEAKER_03: Not that I want anything else, I just want you the most.
SPEAKER_03: That's what thriving begins to look like in the desert.
SPEAKER_03: The desert can be anything.
SPEAKER_03: It can be a loved one going astray, it can be a chronic illness, it can be your own sin and foolishness, it can be uh some, you can be married to your desert.
SPEAKER_03: You could work for your desert.
SPEAKER_03: For many parents, with the announcement that spring break is gonna be extended one or more weeks.
SPEAKER_03: You could think, oh, that's it, that's the desert.
SPEAKER_03: That's definitely it.
SPEAKER_03: We just we just survived spring break.
SPEAKER_03: I don't know what's gonna happen.
SPEAKER_03: Let me give you this quote by Paul Miller.
SPEAKER_03: Talking about parenting his kids.
SPEAKER_03: He said, I realized I did my best parenting by prayer.
SPEAKER_03: I began to speak less to the kids and more to God.
SPEAKER_03: It was actually quite relaxing.
SPEAKER_03: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_03: I began to speak less to the kids and more to God.
SPEAKER_03: It was actually quite relaxing.
SPEAKER_03: Parents, what if this week wasn't just a ramping up of crazy stress and how are we going to do all this?
SPEAKER_03: And what if it became actually quite relaxing?
SPEAKER_03: And what if the key to all this is persisting in prayer?
SPEAKER_03: What if the key to all this is where God's taking you through a desert where he becomes the thing I most want?
SPEAKER_03: More than I want a clean house, more than I want civil behavior, more than I want things not broken, more than I want my schedule not disrupted, more than I want this extra expense because kids aren't in school.
SPEAKER_03: What if I wanted him to degree with those things, their call on me diminished?
SPEAKER_03: Everyone goes through a desert.
SPEAKER_03: Every believer goes through a desert.
SPEAKER_03: In fact, you're likely to go through multiple ones.
SPEAKER_03: Because it's God's main way of taking a wandering heart and tying it to himself.
SPEAKER_03: Taking a heart that would chase after this idol, this idol, and this desire, and tying it to him.
SPEAKER_03: It's his main way of causing us to kind of give up the fight for the things of our flesh.
SPEAKER_03: Maybe you'd notice when you've been without something for a little while, it loses its life-giving power.
SPEAKER_03: So I experienced a lot as a teenager, I would go to camp and there'd be no TV.
SPEAKER_03: And somehow I survived not knowing what happened in the world.
SPEAKER_03: Somehow I survived not watching shows.
SPEAKER_03: And when I got back, I'm like, I wasn't really running right to the TV.
SPEAKER_03: Years ago, I was uh for a good part of a summer in uh in Romania and uh and uh and Moldova and this part of the the time of this world, they just were on electricity schedule.
SPEAKER_03: You couldn't guarantee electricity, maybe eight hours a day, some days not for two or three days.
SPEAKER_03: And we got back home, and wouldn't you know it?
SPEAKER_03: No electricity.
SPEAKER_03: And it didn't bother me one bit.
SPEAKER_03: I'd be kind of weaned off of.
SPEAKER_03: I'd be like, heck, I can live.
SPEAKER_03: When God kind of removes these heart idols, they lose their life-giving power.
SPEAKER_03: Back to my example of my hope that my kids will follow Jesus, you will unite faith in them.
SPEAKER_03: When you go through the desert, this gets shifted to Jesus.
SPEAKER_03: I have you.
SPEAKER_03: All my other dreams pale in comparison.
SPEAKER_03: Even the good ones.
SPEAKER_03: They're not unimportant, they're just not more important.
SPEAKER_03: And life takes on a little bit more of an unanxious, unpanicked, unstressed life.
SPEAKER_03: In fact, it's what would say to the world around us, I don't understand how you can be the way you are with what's happening around us.
SPEAKER_03: And the funny thing is, you often don't realize you're changing in the process.
SPEAKER_03: You often don't realize that what God is doing is shifting your internal allegiance to Him above all the other things.
SPEAKER_03: Your internally you value Him above all the other things.
SPEAKER_03: Well thing is happening in the desert is you're kind of forced to create this trench between you and the Lord.
SPEAKER_03: Where you just, I need you, I the song I need you every hour, you're oh yeah, I need you every hour.
SPEAKER_03: Desperately need you.
SPEAKER_03: And so you kind of walk a well, a well-worn path, and it deepens and deepens to where anytime you're alone or kind of idle time, you kind of slip into the trench again.
SPEAKER_03: And you find yourself alone in the car and you're turning off the radio more, and you're just you're drifting right back to that well-worn trench, your prayer of being with him.
SPEAKER_03: Well, so what?
SPEAKER_03: Here's a so-what?
SPEAKER_03: Whole point of this text, this sermon is don't lose a heart in prayer.
SPEAKER_03: And maybe you're thinking, I I don't know if I can talk to God.
SPEAKER_03: If there's some distance between you and God, that only gets changed one way.
SPEAKER_03: It only gets shortened one way, and that's repentance.
SPEAKER_03: And maybe the very first thing you say to him is, make me want to repent.
SPEAKER_03: Give me a repentant heart.
SPEAKER_03: For the believer, we need what our first readers is needed.
SPEAKER_03: Keep praying.
SPEAKER_03: God is up to far more than your request.
SPEAKER_03: And like Grandpa Dave said, he's he's not late.
SPEAKER_03: He's not avoiding you.
SPEAKER_03: He's not the unjust judge.
SPEAKER_03: He is good and he does good.
SPEAKER_03: In fact, he is somehow wielding all this world for his glory and for your good.
SPEAKER_03: If you're believing that, it's kind of uh kind of relaxing.
SPEAKER_03: Last point, last observation.
SPEAKER_03: Verse 8, where we turn back to the text.
SPEAKER_03: Faith is proved through prayer.
SPEAKER_03: Verse 8 reads, I tell you, he will give justice to them.
SPEAKER_03: God the Father will, speedily.
SPEAKER_03: Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?
SPEAKER_03: When Jesus comes, will he find those who are really trusting God in prayer?
SPEAKER_03: Will he find those who say, Oh, this is this praying, this relating, this being with God, this is the good stuff.
SPEAKER_03: Will he find those who aren't just begging for desires, aren't just kind of corralling to themselves all the same stuff the world wants, and just kind of adding a please Jesus and thank you, amen, at the end of it.
SPEAKER_03: But those who are kind of blooming in the desert, those who are more and more in unanxious presence.
SPEAKER_03: This is what faith begins to look like.
SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna pause and on the screen is gonna be a series of questions, and uh we're gonna take some time.
SPEAKER_03: I want you to um, where you're we're viewing this, to think through some of these, let one or two of them land on you.
SPEAKER_03: And we have a unique opportunity where um probably where you're at, most of you, all of you, uh you could talk about this in the next half hour, hour or more.
SPEAKER_03: See if one of these doesn't land deeply on you.
SPEAKER_03: It takes a moment to think about these.
SPEAKER_03: I'm a prayer quitter, and I'm part of a congregation of other prayer quitters.
SPEAKER_03: And we ask that you through the Spirit would change us to be those who persist in finding you not hope deferred, not hope crushed, but but you, you are very hope.
SPEAKER_03: And so we be able to navigate every pain, every sorrow with a mixture of gratitude and joy.
SPEAKER_03: Maybe it'd be really perplexing to others, but they would have to know what is this joy you have, what is this hope you have in the midst of all this?
SPEAKER_03: But I ask that you would usher us into a more relaxed life, not a lazy life, not a slothful life, but a life that is uncrushed and unhurried and unpressured by this life.
SPEAKER_03: That we would see through it, you working and then the life to come.
SPEAKER_03: Only you can do this.
SPEAKER_03: And in fact, this is the very thing you want to change in this.
SPEAKER_03: This we ask in the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_03: Amen.
SPEAKER_03: I want to turn your attention that we have uh some announcements to show you via video.
SPEAKER_01: Each summer, our church has the privilege of hosting Pine Cove Camp in the City, a week chock full of God, friends, and fun.
SPEAKER_01: Here to tell us more about it is Parker Merrick.
SPEAKER_00: I think you should go to camp because it's a very fun way to learn different ways to worship God.
SPEAKER_00: The excitement of waking up, knowing that camp is on the way, see all your friends, see your counselor, and once the day begins, you go sing songs, rock climbing.
SPEAKER_00: Every activity they have has like a Bible study that has to go with it.
SPEAKER_00: And have snack time, have lunch, then at the end of the day, you go back to your tents, talk to your friends, and then once you get home, you have all this information to tell your parents about how much fun you had and how much you enjoyed it.
SPEAKER_00: I learned that God would always be there to help you through anything you're struggling through or with anything you need healing with, and that God created this world for us to live in, so we should obey Him and worship Him.
SPEAKER_01: Anything else you want to say about Cam?
SPEAKER_00: It's fun and awesome and you should go.
SPEAKER_01: If you're a fan of Awesome and Fun, head to grandparkway.org slash events to register today.
SPEAKER_03: Camp is fun and awesome and you should go.
SPEAKER_03: It's true.
SPEAKER_03: Um I want to encourage you also to um keep your regular rhythms of um Christian faith in practice, and that is if this is a Sunday you normally practice uh giving, you won't be able to, most of you won't be able to give at the boxes by the doors.
SPEAKER_03: Uh you could give online, and if you do, uh one if you can't figure it out, just you know, find a college student, they pay everything online.
SPEAKER_03: Uh but encourage you if you if you can try and pay with your checking account versus the credit card, we get an extra charge there.
SPEAKER_03: And if you can't figure it out, just hoard it up and then you know uh give worshipfully next time we're together together.
SPEAKER_03: Uh so once you stand if you're able, why don't you stand, even at home?
SPEAKER_03: And uh I'm not sure how this works.
SPEAKER_03: Uh I think this I'm definitely feeling like I really like us being together.
SPEAKER_03: So I'm gonna print out some blessing.
SPEAKER_03: So put out your hands.
SPEAKER_03: Your father loves to see you jump for joy when he comes to the rescue.
SPEAKER_03: Go boldly to him for everything.
SPEAKER_03: He is good and he does good.
SPEAKER_03: So depart now.
SPEAKER_03: Enjoy a deepening of your experience with him.
SPEAKER_03: In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_03: Amen.