The Nature of God and Prayer | Rev. Paul Lawler

If you’ve ever wondered whether God is listening, or why it feels like He’s slow to respond, Jesus tells one story that flips the entire question on its head. In this sermon, we learn that persistent prayer isn’t about wearing God down; it’s about not losing heart in a world that can slowly pollute your spirit.

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Transcript

[0:18] All right, church family, if you have a Bible with you, let me invite you to open it to Luke chapter 18. We're going to journey 1 through 8,

[0:25] verses 1 through 8, as we continue our series on prayer. So Luke 18, 1 through 8, I'm going to dive right in and begin to read. So hear God's word. And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said, in a certain city, there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, Give me justice against my adversary. For a while he refused, but afterwards he said to himself, Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming. And the Lord said, Hear what the unrighteous judge says, And will not God give justice to his elect who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?

[1:27] And we trust that God always adds his blessing to the reading and the hearing of his eternal word. In Jesus' name, amen. So I'm going to begin this morning by sharing a quote from F.B. Meyer. He once said this, the greatest tragedy of life is not unanswered prayer, but unoffered prayer. And so we've been journeying in this series now. Now, this is our third week, and we begin by learning about the right posture of prayer for the sake of effectiveness. Last week, we talked about why praying scriptural prayers matter. Dr. Ricky Moore, a friend of mine, once said, we cannot calculate the damage scriptural illiteracy has done to prayer. And so this is why we continue to open up God's Word together and look at what is it that's being modeled in God's Word, what's being taught in God's Word around developing as a man or a woman, a believer in prayer. And you may remember the axiom we learned last week, relationship before results.

[2:37] Intimacy with the Father fuels results in prayer, but what matters most is drawing near to God as Father.

[2:48] Oswald Chambers once said, our ordinary views of prayer are not found in the New Testament. We look upon prayer as a means for getting something for ourselves, but the Bible's idea of prayer is that we may get to know God himself. So, loved ones, prayer and your heart connected with God are deeply interrelated. We really unpacked that deeply last week. But this is one of the reasons why the Bible teaches us, guard your heart. It's the wellspring of your life. And so we would ask the question, do I pray in order to guard my heart or do I guard my heart in order to pray? And the answer is yes, yes.

[3:34] Remember Samuel Chadwick once said, the one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying. He fears nothing from our prayerless studies, prayerless work, prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom, but trembles when we pray. And as we've journeyed together, we've discussed how the Bible seems utterly

[3:57] unfamiliar with casual prayer. We're going to get into that more deeply next week, which brings us to today's topic, the nature of God and prayer, and how understanding the nature of God also fuels a woman or man's prayer life in Christ. So let's begin by asking a couple of questions. Here's the first one. Why would Jesus tell a story like the one we're going to explore this morning?

[4:26] Well, there's several reasons. First, he wants us to better understand God's nature. But secondly, he wants us to understand God's willingness to be responsive when his children cry out to him. And so this is a story of a poor widow who appeals to a judge for help. Now, in Jesus' day, widows had a difficult time making ends meet, and that's a significant part of the story. So she goes before a judge in a courtroom, but it's not a courtroom like a nice building that we see in many of the cities in America or county seats. The courtroom that she journeys to is actually in a tent, and it moves from place to place as a judge covered his circuit. So the judge, not the law, sets the agenda as the judge sits regally in his tent, surrounded by all of his assistants.

[5:26] Anybody could watch the proceedings in court as it moved from place to place. But only those who their cases had been approved for a hearing would get a hearing. And that usually meant bribing one of the assistants so that you would get bumped up in the order and your case would be heard. Now, again, the fact that this is a widow is very significant in the story. And the reason is because she has obstacles to overcome. First, being a woman in that day and time, she had little or no standing before the law. In the Middle Eastern culture of the day, women did not go to court. Secondly, since she was a widow, she had no husband to stand with her in court.

[6:15] And then thirdly, she was poor and she couldn't pay a bribe even if she wanted to. Now, when Jesus begins teaching on prayer with this story, he knows everybody knows that. And so when he jumps in to this unlikely scenario of a woman who begins to bug a judge, he knows everybody already has an understanding that the odds are stacked against her. So Jesus says this, in a certain city, there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in the city who kept coming to him and saying, give me justice against my adversary. For a while he refused, for a while he refused, but afterwards he said to himself, though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this woman keeps bothering me, I'll give her justice so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming. So, you see what's unfolding here? The judge decides to give her justice simply because—.

[7:16] She won't wear him out anymore because she's bugging him. She's a source of irritation. And so a part of what Jesus would have you see as a believer is this. If a selfish judge will finally meet the needs of a poor widow woman because she irritates him.

[7:38] And we've been learning about God's nature already, how much more will a loving father respond? If an unjust judge would give justice, imagine how God, a just judge, will give justice. Now listen to Jesus' words. Hear what the unrighteous judge says, verse 6 and 8. Will not God give justice to his elect who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, Will he find faith on earth? Now, again, there's a contrast here because we might charge human beings with being indifferent to needs, but you cannot charge God with being indifferent. And what we see is that when truth is wed with prayer, truth often over time rises to the top. Think about it. This is MLK weekend, right? a weekend where we honor the legacy, the life, the impact of Martin Luther King, who was quoting the Constitution that all people are created equal. But that is rooted in a biblical reality, amen? That before God, all people are equal. At the foot of the cross, the ground is level. And as one pastor theologian once said.

[9:03] Racial reconciliation is not merely a social issue, it's a blood of Jesus issue. Because at the cross, Christ bled and died for all human beings, for the glory of God. Now, church, say amen, because that's true. But you see, what's happening in this parable, when Jesus is teaching us that this unrighteous judge is responding to this woman because she's irritating him, you might ask, what is the ultimate point of this parable? Well, here it is. God is nothing like this judge.

[9:38] Nothing like this judge. This woman had no advocate, no one to speak on her behalf. But the Bible proclaims that you have an advocate in Jesus Christ who stands before the right hand of the Father pleading your case. The Bible tells us that God's word is full of promises, but this woman had no promise to bring before this judge. This woman was an outsider, but the Bible tells us that in Christ, you are not an outsider, that you in Christ are a child of God. And this is why Jesus in Luke 18.1 tells us this parable, In effect, that you and I as believers, we ought to always pray. Now let's, I told you I was going to ask you a few questions this morning. Here's another question. What does he mean by ought to always pray?

[10:34] Well, let's respond to that. There's a difference between praying crisis-oriented prayers and Christ-oriented prayers. Now, here's where I risk being misunderstood. When we're in a crisis, should we pray? Amen. Yes, yes. Let's make much of that. But Jesus is inviting you into something more beautiful, more rich, more abundant, and that is that you would be a man or woman, a believer who prays, in other words, because you're Christ-oriented, you're Christ-centered, you're salty, and this would be a part of just your regular rhythm, that your praying would be as natural as breathing. Now, we have a goal as a church family related to our mission that all of us would spend time individually in daily worship and prayer. And I hope and I am praying for all of you that that would be something that God cultivates in your heart and life. Daily time with God in his word and in prayer. So let's fan that by God's grace into flame. But what Jesus is describing here is that just as I breathe.

[11:48] Rhythms of prayer would salt and pepper my day, that it would be rhythmic, if you will, just like breathing. Now, right before Jesus taught this parable, like in the preceding verse in Luke 17, I think 37, Jesus says something that's kind of strange. Here it is. Here's what he says. Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather. And then he starts sharing this parable on prayer. Doesn't that come off a little odd? It's like where the corpse is, there the vulture will gather, and then we jump into this parable about a widow woman. Now, you may remember that before the Bible was canonized, you didn't have chapters and verses. So all of this flowed with a clear connectivity. And I want to submit to you that we all can miss something very important here. Here we go. Vultures gather around things that are dying and rotting. Now, I know, again, as I say from time to time, that's profound. Write that down.

[12:55] But I would remind you that if you will listen closely and pay attention, that we recognize there are things in our culture that are dying and rotting. Every time you hear a siren you're reminded that we're in a fallen world things are dying, Every time you walk out your front door of your home and you lock the door, it is a symptom of the fact that we live in a fallen world. Many of you, before you walked into this worship space after Sunday school, you locked your doors on your car. Why? Because we're in a fallen world. It's all around you. And you don't even think about it because it's just become so natural. But it's all a result of a fallen world. There are conflict between people, conflict between nations. There are cancer diagnosis and other ailments. What we are aware is that things are diminishing, and Jesus is using this picture to depict that as the vultures gather, the atmosphere of this fallen world is dark, and it's rotting away. But then he invites us to move into a different atmosphere, and it's an atmosphere of a prayerful life. It is an atmosphere that as you tap into the king and the kingdom of God, it moves you into the ability to live in a different atmosphere, an atmosphere where there's peace that passes understanding.

[14:25] An atmosphere where you have the capacity to know the love of God, but also give the love of God at such a deep level that you rise above many of the conflicts around us. That there's an atmosphere that you can live in that defies earthly reality. And so that's what he's driving at in this passage, because when we live in this atmosphere of prayer, we're drawing forth the pure air of heaven. It's a different atmosphere. So when Jesus says we ought to always pray, he's inviting us into a more regular, constant communion, a loving communion with the heavenly Father. That's why David Platt says this, our goal in prayer is not ultimately to get things from God. Our goal in prayer is ultimately to know, love, and enjoy God.

[15:17] Loved ones, when you read in your Bible, or even you hear a teacher or pastor say things like unpacking what the Bible says about praying constantly, it is not so that you become more religious. God help us with that, right? It's so that you enjoy communion with God and you know richness in communion with God. Let me do a brief flyover of just a little bit of what the Bible says about this. 1 Thessalonians 5.17, pray without ceasing, just like breathing, stay in communion with God. Ephesians 6.18, pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert, always keep on praying. Luke 21.36, watch yourself therefore and pray always. Romans 12, 12, rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer. Ephesians 6, 18, praying always with all prayer. Colossians 4, 2, continue in prayer. This is why C.S. Lewis said, to be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than being alive without breathing.

[16:22] He wasn't talking about checking a box when you're checking at the hospital, I am Christian. It's deeper than that. He's talking and describing about knowing the riches of what it means to know Christ and follow Christ, to commune with Christ. This is what the apostle Paul knew when Paul would break out in prayer in different books of the Bible, that he knew a man who had been called to the third heaven, who had seen spiritual and eternal realities,

[16:52] knew the power of prayer, what was available to us as believers. What did the apostle Paul know that you and I need to know? And then we see Jesus in a lifestyle of prayer as he would pray in the garden. He would pray on the mountaintop. He would pray in the wilderness. He would pray in the lonely place. He would pray all night long, to quote the theologian Lionel Richie. What Jesus knew, we all need to know. Oswald Chambers, to quote him again, prayer does not lift us for the greater work. Prayer is the greater work.

[17:27] It was a young lady at Christ Church Birmingham who I'd watched God really begin to grow and develop her. She was just awakening to the beauty of Jesus. She had come to Christ, obviously, through the gospel, but she was really growing. And she made an appointment at my office one day, and she said, Paul, there's some things happening. I just want to tell you as my pastor. And so she said something that came across real awkward. Here it is. She goes, as I'm learning and praying, Paul, I'm enjoying God.

[18:08] I was like, okay, you made an appointment. I didn't say it. I thought it. You made an appointment with me to tell me that you're enjoying God. But I began to rejoice with her because what she was describing was that she said, Paul, there was a time when I thought prayer was just make my list and say a few things. And she says, what's happening is I'm enjoying drawing near to the Father and communing with Him. And I'm finding a greater peace, a greater presence, a greater joy. She goes, oh, life's not perfect. And she named a few problems. Their family was navigating. She says, but something's I just enjoy being with God. It's like, this is awesome. Listen to what A.B. Simpson once said. Our God has boundless resources. The only limit is us. Our asking, our thinking, our praying are too small. Our expectations are too limited.

[19:09] Perhaps this is why Jesus says to us in verse 1 that he tells us this parable so that we not only ought always to pray, but also that as we pray, don't lose heart. In other words, losing heart is a symptom of prayerlessness in our life. And Jesus is not inviting you to be religious. Jesus is inviting you to draw near. I will say it again, what we said last week. What Jesus emphasizes, what the Bible emphasizes in the New Testament is this. Come closer. Come closer.

[19:46] Come closer, intimately with the Father. And the phrase losing heart, or some of your Bibles translated fainting, describes a believer who gets so discouraged in prayer that you quit. Years ago, I had minor surgery. It was outpatient. I always joke and go, it's minor unless it's you. But it was outpatient, not serious, not anything serious. But when I came, I didn't come out of anesthesia well. In fact, I don't know that I was coming out because the surgery was early in the morning and at eight o'clock at night, I'm still struggling to try to wake up. I'm just groggy. I can talk to Missy and then go back to sleep, talk to the kids and fall back asleep. And so finally, doctors and nurses can say something's wrong. So they peeled back the cover and my right arm where the IV was in, I was like, for the first time in my life, I had biceps.

[20:46] And I was like, well, you know, have you ever seen that caricature of Popeye with those exaggerated arms? Well, my right arm was just exaggerated. And I don't know, some of you are medical professionals, and I may not state what happened exactly right. But what had happened is they didn't hit my vein with the IV, and it was just stuck in my flesh. And my body was, because the anesthesia wasn't in my bloodstream, I was slowly metabolizing it. And that's why I couldn't wake up. Well, when they pulled the cover back, my middle son was standing looking right over Missy's shoulder. And they peeled it back. This arm looks so unique. And I watch him. He teeters this way. And then he teeters this way. And through my grogginess, I'm going, I'm like, get west. And he goes, boom, he goes out. He faints. And Jesus here in this passage is teaching us.

[21:46] If we don't pray, we will faint. Simple as that, that you're designed to commune with God. And so when he says pray and don't lose heart, one, you can lose heart because you get discouraged. And so Jesus is saying, guard yourself against that. And then also you can lose heart because you think the prayers aren't being asked or answered fast enough. And it's important that we all recognize that God moves in God's time, that God also is not only working in your life or working in your circumstance, but God's also working in the lives of other people. And God has a perfect time. Remember, we've been learning whatever we pray according to his will, he hears us. And so be mindful that when you're praying scripture over a circumstance, when it's properly interpreted, that God's hearing your prayer in his sovereignty, He is at work, and we don't relinquish everything to God because, in other words, we don't go.

[22:44] Oh God, whatever's going to happen is going to happen because you're sovereign. No, we pray because he is sovereign, because he is all-powerful, and we pray for him to work in our circumstances. But be mindful as we're praying, he's also working in the lives of other people. And oftentimes when he's weaving a mosaic together in his sovereignty, you play a part in that. Your circumstance plays a part in that,

[23:10] but so do the lives of many others. So what we are seeing here is don't give up on God and don't give up on prayer. Don't faint.

[23:19] Now, as we close, let me comfort you with those words because some of you are going, this service is going to go way over because we've done a lot today. And glory to God for a new believer and baptism and amen.

[23:33] I am thankful for all the diversity in the body of Christ. And let me say, let me give you context what I mean by that. All of us, most of us have a background. Many of you, within the sound of my voice, you may have grown up in the Catholic church.

[23:48] You might have grown up in an independent church. You might have grown up in a Methodist church. You might have grown up in a Presbyterian, Episcopal, Anglican, Baptist.

[23:58] There's a lot of diversity in terms of our stories. Many of you, no background at all, but all of us have come to know Christ. We put our faith in Christ. But I'm thankful, even though there are lots of tribes in the kingdom, there's one kingdom, but I'm thankful that there have been voices in our own tribe in Methodist history who've given voice to what we're talking about today. Listen, listen to this quote from a Methodist, E.M. Bounds. He said this, What the church needs today is not more machinery or better or newer organizations or more and novel methods, but people whom the Holy Spirit can use. People of prayer, people mighty in prayer. The Holy Spirit does not flow through methods, but through people. He does not come on machinery, but on people. He does not anoint plans, but people, people of prayer. John Wesley also believed adamantly and lived a life of prayer. In fact, he said, God does nothing except in answer to prayer. So if we're to accomplish anything of eternal value, we need to do it out of prayer. Wesley called prayer the grand means of drawing near to God.

[25:09] And when we pray, we have supernatural enabling. This is why Doug Small once said, without supernatural enabling, we are merely a social institution doing the work of encouragement, worthy work, but less than the call incumbent upon the church, upon God's people.

[25:27] Years ago, when I had the honor of pastoring a church plant in another city.

[25:34] I have shared with you before that I've never had the opportunity to pastor a church that God actually brought Holy Spirit-empowered, sustained revival. But in that church, I have shared with you from time to time, is that the best name I can give what I witness is this. There were microbursts of the movement of the Holy Spirit. There were these times where God, his presence, was almost like an Isaiah 6, would just settle on the congregation in worship. Sometimes it would happen through worship songs. Sometimes it would happen through preaching. Sometimes it just happened. God in his sovereignty chose to move. There were times where we would sit in silence for a moment. I think I've shared this with you before. Or if I were to just orchestrate, go, okay, we're going to be quiet for the next five minutes, you would hear some things in all likelihood, unless God chose to show up. There'd be a child who says something, mom and dad, what are we doing? Things like that. But when this has occurred, you could hear a pin drop. And nobody had to explain to a five-year-old what was going on. They could sense something as well.

[26:53] Now, because I don't have a better title for it, in these moves of the Holy Spirit, word got out around the city. And there were people who began to come to the church because they were hungry to see and be a part of revival.

[27:17] And revival, in its classical sense, didn't happen, but there were visitations. If I'm confusing you, shoot me an email and I'll clarify, or at least do my best. But here's what began to happen. there were people in our city, maybe a half dozen or so, that began to tour churches in the city. In other words, he would say, what are you doing? He goes, we're chasing after God. We're going to go to this church this week or this church this week. We're looking for where God is moving. And I suppose if you have a moment like the Asbury outpouring, what we witnessed in Wilmore, Kentucky a couple of years ago, it's understandable that people would chase after God when there's a sustained visitation of the Holy Spirit. But what's not healthy is constantly running in different directions, chasing after God, and never settling within His body in a healthy church where

[28:22] I'm learning to grow in relationship with God. I'm learning how to practice life with other believers, practice the one another's of Scripture, to love one another, correct one another, build one another up in love, the kind of things that happen when you get rooted in the Scripture and prayer and in the body of Christ.

[28:46] And what happens, if I can use that as an illustration, is that for many people in our heart, we say, I want God, but we run in different directions. And I want to remind you that based upon Jesus' words right here, he's available right where you are, right here, right now.

[29:12] Today is the day of salvation. And that word salvation not only means that you're delivered from hell and death and birthed into eternity, but its root word has everything to do with the Greek word teleos. It's not the root word, sozo, but it means to come into a place where you begin experiencing human flourishing. This is what Jesus said when I came to give you life and to give it abundantly. And your first step is not to run or chase. Your first step is surrender. Surrender. To surrender to Jesus, to surrender and declare in your mind and heart that you believe in what he said, that he loves you so much he gave his one and only son. Whoever believes on him will not perish, but have everlasting life. To believe him when he says, I did not come to condemn you, but I came to save you. To believe him when his word declares that when you're in Christ, there's no condemnation.

[30:09] And to believe him when the word declares that when your life is in Christ, Old things pass away and new things come. To believe him that in your life in Christ, that as far as the east is from the west, that's how far he removes your sin from you. To believe him when the word declares, bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. He is the God who heals your diseases. He's the God who forgives your iniquity. This is too good to be true and too true to ignore, loved ones. And the first step is always surrender. And out of that root system of what God has done at the cross, this births you into intimacy with Jesus, intimacy with the Father, the reality that your sins at the cross have been taken. And now you can grow. Now you can flourish. Now you can begin to bloom. Now you can begin to enjoy God, whom the book of Romans declares that before you took that step of surrender in the gospel that you were at enmity with God. But God in Christ has healed that enmity when you surrender your heart and life to him.

[31:20] And so that you step into a brand new life that flourishes and enjoys God for his glory. Loved ones, would you pray with me this morning as we move in these directions?

[31:33] I've got an image I want to pray over you, but I want to ask you, or at least invite you to let the image become personal to you. It's a fire that's been built, but it's not lit.

[31:45] And there are embers under the fire. And so I want to ask you to ask Jesus this question. Jesus, would you blow a holy wind of your Holy Spirit on the embers of my heart? I want to ask you to do that right now. Lord, breathe on me breath of God, as the old hymn says.

[32:10] And Lord we pray that the breath your breath the breath of the living God would cause the embers of our heart to ignite the dry wood of our hearts, and we pray Lord kindle your fire within us of the first love of Jesus Christ, and we pray that you would kindle this fire.

[32:35] Lord, in a way that the fire becomes a blaze and that we individually and who we are corporately would be that city set on a hill. And so here are our prayers all over this room, prayers of surrender. We let go, we wave the white flag, we confess you're the Lord, we're not, I'm not. And we pray that you draw near all around this worship center. Or draw near to the five-year-old or draw near to the 35-year-old the 65-year-old and the 85-year-old it's never too late in you draw near we pray, and this we pray in the strong and eternal name of Jesus amen.