MAY 2, 2004

John W. Fowler

Scripture: Luke 18:1-8

Jesus certainly understood that, at times, when His Disciples would be following Him, especially after He was gone, there would be times when they would be very discouraged and times that they would lose heart. And I was sharing last week about how the scriptures can help us to be encouraged, this is especially a message about how praying can help us to not lose heart, to not quit, but to have faith in the Lord that He is great and mighty and with His help we can keep going, and as Paul says in Romans, “We can be more than conquerors through Him who loves us.”

Luke Chapter 18 says:

When you examine your life of prayer, what is it like? If the truth be known, especially when we are desperate, when we are in a crisis, we pray more. People pray when they are going in to the doctor’s office; people pray when there is a financial problem; people pray when there is family trouble. Sometimes when we are really desperate we will turn to the Lord in prayer. You know, in football, Doug Flutie popularized the “Hail Mary” pass—and that is, basically, at the end of the game, you are at the midfield or someway, and the only thing the quarterback can do is just go back and just throw it into the end zone and hope that it will land with an eligible receiver on your team, and sure enough, he did that against Miami. So, when that happens in football now, they call it the Hail Mary pass.

Some of us Christians, though, that’s the way we pray. When we are desperate, we will finally pray. But my hope is that desperate times will turn into times of regular persistent prayer.

Her name is Stormie Omartian and she has written several books on prayer and she laughs about being called an expert on prayer, because she says, “Really, the way I have learned to pray is out of desperation.” This is a woman, now fifty-nine years old, but she grew up with a mother who is mentally ill, verbally abusive, physically abusive and just a lot of childhood trauma to have to overcome. She came to Christ at an early age and she realized, looking back, that it was prayer that helped her to finally work through some of the things she had to—finally forgiving her mother.

Recently she has become even more of a prayer warrior because she almost died. She had a burst appendix. But she says, “Prayer, well, I’m still learning.” But how does she learn to pray?

When asked in an interview, “What are some of the principles that you have learned?”, she said, “I challenge people to think: What could I accomplish today if I allowed God to work through me? What would I like to see? Think of something you want to do, beyond what you can do, and pray for that.”

Too often we underestimate prayer’s power. When we realize that power, you realize you can’t afford not to pray. The more you have to do, the more time you should spend praying. And that, in turn, blesses what you are doing.

Jesus said, “I came so that you might have life and have it abundantly.” That’s the kind of life He desires for us, but our best efforts to break out of our negative habits patterns can’t happen without God’s power, and it can’t happen without prayer.

Why should we pray with persistence? When we pray with persistence, God’s power is unleashed in our lives and the lives of others. Jesus told this story that people would pray and not give up. It’s an either/or. When He’s talking about a widow and a judge, first of all, let me tell you about the judge. The judge, well, they might have said, “Your honor. . . ,” but he was anything but. These were the judges who was appointed by Herod and the Romans. They were notorious for being dishonest. They were actually called “Robber Judges.” And so, if you didn’t have power, if you didn’t have money, you could forget it. And particularly a widow in this culture, who didn’t have a male relative, was just a powerless as she could be. She wouldn’t have any kind of attorney, any kind of representation. It’s a contrast.

But this widow has a key: persistence. She keeps coming. She is there day after day. The judge sees she is still on the docket. He’s getting tired of this. She doesn’t quit. She doesn’t give up. She should know that the way the system works, she is never going to get justice, but she chooses to believe otherwise, and she keeps coming, and coming, and finally he is so tired of her he says, “This woman is going to wear me out, so I am going to let her have what she wants: justice against her adversary.”

And Jesus makes the contrast. He says, “And if your Lord God—a righteous judge—how much more will He hear the cries of persistent prayers of His children who cry to Him night and day.”

It’s a parable that doesn’t tell us that if we just badger God enough we will get what we want. That’s not what it is saying. It doesn’t mean we can blackmail God into getting what we want. But it means that we need to come to Him, persistently, in faith, believing that He is the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords; He has all power; He understands totally what is going on. And what we want to do is to pray, and for our faith to grow, and to not give in to that losing heart.

I think, why do we pray persistently? Because people’s lives, especially communities, are depending on it. I think of Abraham, praying for Sodom. Abraham is especially praying for his nephew Lot. Abraham doesn’t have a child at this time and in Genesis, chapter 18, the angels have come and they have told Abraham and Sarah that they are going to be parents. Sarah laughs about it, as she should, because, you know, she is well up on in years. But then, the angels tell them what is pending for Sodom, and he begins to pray because he has family there. He says, “Lord, if there are fifty, would you spare the city for fifty righteous?”

“Yes, I would, Abraham.”

He begins to think about what Sodom is like. He says, “Well, Lord, how about forty-five?”

“Yes, for forty-five I will spare it.”

He begins to think of the letters he has gotten from Lot, and he says, “How about forty, Lord?” And he keeps going down and finally he realizes Lot has about ten in his family and says, “Lord, for ten, would You spare the city?”

“Yes, for ten, I will spare the city.”

His prayer was answered. The judgment came; the city was destroyed, but at least those ten who were warned, Lot and his daughters, were saved.

Great things can happen when someone begins to be concerned for the community to the point of prayer.

His name was Jeremiah Lampier. He was a businessman. He was concerned about New York City. Edwin Orr, who has written a great deal about revivals, and is in Heaven now, writes about Jeremiah Lampier, who started a prayer meeting in the upper room of the Dutch Reformed Church in Manhattan. He advertised it; six people came. That’s the way it is with prayer meetings sometimes: It takes a while to get it going, but God is there, and two or three are gathered, and so they prayed. But the following week there were fourteen. The following week there were twenty-three. They decided to meet everyday, and soon they filled the Dutch Reformed Church. This was in 1857—the Public Building in downtown New York.

Famed newspaper editor, Horace Greeley, sent a reporter with horse and buggy riding around the prayer meetings, to see how many of them were praying. Well, in one hour he could only get to twelve meetings but he counted 6,100 men praying. The prayer meeting landslide was beginning. People began to be converted—ten thousand a week in New York City. The movement spread throughout New England. Church bells would ring people to prayer at eight in the morning, twelve noon, and six in the evening. The revival went up the Hudson and down the Mohawk. Baptists had so many people to baptize they couldn’t get them into the churches. Can you imagine that! And they even went down to the river, cut a big square in the ice, and baptized them in cold water. That’s wanting to be baptized bad, isn’t it? In one year more that one million people had converted because of persistent praying. Crying out to God, good things can happen; things can change.

In 1932 some business men in Charlotte became concerned about the spiritual climate during the Depression and began to pray. They went to the Ministerial Association, wanting a city-wide crusade. The ministers didn’t really want to do that kind of thing. (Ministers don’t always know everything.) So they kept praying. Sometimes they would meet on Saturdays. Sometimes they would meet at the dairy farm of W. Frank Graham. Things began to happen. Finally, as a result of those prayer meetings, they invited evangelist Mordecai Ham to come to Charlotte in 1934 for the Greater Charlotte Crusade. Their prayers became big: They prayed not only for their community, but even for the world. Wouldn’t you know that among the teenagers who went forward in that revival was a sixteen-year old dairy farmer’s son, Billy Graham, who, by his own admission, was mostly interested in baseball and girls at that time.

Great things happen when God’s people pray. I think of the Canaanite woman who was persistent in prayer, although at this time Jesus was mostly going to just the Jews, and she was a Gentile. She comes to Jesus.

She says, “Lord, you’ll have mercy on my daughter,” (who was terribly demon possessed) and the Disciple said, “It’s been a long day; send her away. I mean, she’s not part of our clientele.”

But Jesus said something to her that seems odd: He says, “It’s not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” What’s He saying? He really is just kind of baiting her, and she says, “Well, Lord, even the dogs eat the crumbs under the table.” And He said, “Woman, great is your faith.” And her daughter was healed.

I think of the Centurion who told Jesus, “You just say the word and my servant will be healed,” and he was healed.

When we pray, why should we persist in prayer? Because, what happens is, our faith starts growing and we begin to claim God’s promises and grow to believe that there is power when we pray. When we pray for healing we don’t always know how it is going to turn out, but we need to remember that the Great Physician is the creator of the ones we are praying for, whether it is our healing or someone else’s, and we need to really pray, and pray with faith.

Richard Foster, in his book on prayer, talks about one of his students who was hit by a car between classes and sustained a brain injury. He was nearby and they allowed him to ride to the hospital in the ambulance with her. Also, quickly, he organized some of his students to pray for her and just taught some simple principles of prayer like some of the promises in the New Testament. But most of all what he would teach them to do was just pray in faith; pray for the doctors; pray for all the hospital personnel; pray for Sally (I think was her name), but just get very specific in praying with faith. He also said he went to a faculty meeting where they gathered to pray, and it was obvious they were not praying with faith; they were fatalistic. They really weren’t praying that the Great Mighty God was going to intervene in this operation—it was just all up to doctors. Doctors are wonderful, and thank God for them, but Christians, we need to do our part: We need to lift them up in prayer. We need to pray for healing and do our part. The young woman came through the operation very well.

Why should we pray with persistence? Because people’s lives are changed and our faith will grow.

How do we do it? Gregory Frizzell has written a wonderful book on how to develop a powerful prayer life. He talks about three foundations for a powerful prayer life. First of all, he says, “We need to view our time of prayer as building a relationship with God.” Not so much a duty, a have-to, or some legalistic appointment that we keep, but an opportunity to get to know our Lord.

Or like Rick Warren in his Purpose Driven Life book, who talks about developing an intimate friendship with Almighty God.

You know, when I graduated from Seminary at Emory, I thought that I was really something. I mean, I had this degree. I had been a youth minister for two years. I had been on Church staff. I really thought, you know, the Church was lucky to have me. It only took a couple of weeks to learn that how much (tape change)….

….if we got Tiger to come here we could get a big crowd. You know all the golfers would watch: “Now here’s how you swing.” It wouldn’t do me any good, because, you know, I don’t have his talent, and you don’t either. But he is an expert. You would listen to him just because he is Tiger Woods.

Oftentimes we ignore Jesus’ own example of prayer. For Him, it was non-negotiable to have time alone with His Father. After He fed the five-thousand, they were ready to make Him king. What does He do? He leaves. Doesn’t leave word where He is going to be. They know where He is going to be: He’s going to be praying to His Father.

But you make a commitment to spend time alone. And how long should you be there? Well, whether it’s five or ten minutes. . . you start where you are, whether it’s five of ten minutes in the morning, or five or ten minutes at night, it doesn’t matter. What is important is that you make that commitment to be with Him, to get to know Him, to spend time alone.

And then, third, you use different types of prayer. When you pray, you use different types of prayer. The ACTS prayer is a good one.

A is adoration. When you spend time with the Lord, you adore Him. You praise Him. You praise Him for who He is, the Creator of the Heavens and the Earth; the Lord, the One who sent His Son into the world to die upon the cross for us; the One who will give you eternal life in faith in Christ; the One who has blessed you so immensely. We praise Him. A great place to start.

C is confession, that we invite God to examine our hearts and then maybe a sinful thing that we have said—it may be a little thing. It may be a little grudge that is starting to develop, but it’s a whole lot better to ask God to forgive, early on, than to wait, ignoring it, just hoping it will go away. We learn the truth if we confess our sins. He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

T is thanksgiving. When is the last time you spent in expended prayer just thanking God for what He has done for you? Yes, it’s tempting to go to Him with what He hasn’t done, what you think He’s not doing—and that’s alright to talk to Him about that—but don’t wait until Thanksgiving to thank Him for turkey and football and pumpkin pie. Start today thanking Him for family, for health, this Church, this nation, for work, whatever. But thank Him.

S is supplication. We pray for our own needs and we pray for others. Sometimes that has been called “love on its knees.” A lot of times the way I pray for others is just simply imagining Christ putting His hands upon them and blessing them. We don’t always know exactly the needs they have, but God knows. When we pray, and we lift people up in intercessory prayer, when we get to Heaven—I feel sure that when it is revealed, the difference our prayers have made—many of us will wish that we had prayed more. But many of us will be glad that we did pray and we persisted in prayer.

Why do we persist in prayer? Because our faith grows, God’s power is unleashed, and lives are changed. And then we have that great faith booster: answers to prayer.

Next Sunday, Liz and I and family get to enjoy a great answer to prayer. I won’t be preaching a Mother’s Day Sermon; I’ll be in Kenan Stadium. Won’t be watching football; I will be watching Number One Son graduate from Carolina and there’s a lot to be thankful for there. First of all, thankful that we are not sending any more tuition payments on Phillip’s behalf. I’m still going to be funding Carolina, but at least one down. I’m thankful he’s not on the five-year plan like his Dad and his uncle were. I’m thankful he’s getting out in four years. We are thankful that this is the son, who when we were excited about moving to Lenoir, announced that he was grownup at eighteen and didn’t want, not only to move here, but he wanted to be on his own and didn’t want to go to college. And so, he discovered what it is to be a painter, to be a ski lift operator, and a cook in a restaurant—which is not all bad.

So you can tell that we are especially grateful. And memories go through your mind of that time: I remember when he first got on the bus for kindergarten. I cried. Liz looked unusually happy though. But she was a stay-at-home Mom. If I had been a stay-at-home Dad I would have been happy too. But we are thankful for those answers to prayer. And I know that, especially when we pray for our children, it is tempting to do God’s part for Him. And when you do God’s part, you worry, and that’s not faith. But when you are faithful to pray—and God will wake you up to pray, for sure—and you start seeing answers, to me, that just eggs you on. It encourages you to keep praying for God to have His will, not only in your children’s lives, but in your life and others around you. That’s why Jesus said you should always pray and not give up. Let us pray.