Keep Asking For What He’s Promised

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0:00Happy Mother's Day. It is so great to see, first of all, everyone in the room has a mother, and so your life in some way was contributed to by your mother, so praise God for them. And I see lots of mothers in the room, and so I'm thankful for you all, and a lot of people worshiping with their mothers, and that is wonderful as well. So I'm so glad to be in the Lord's house with you on Mother's Day. I'm glad that whoever it was that made those decisions decided to put Mother's Day on a Sunday so that we could be together as a church family and celebrate that together in the presence of the Lord. My name is Joel, and I'm grateful to be serving you all as pastor and serving Christ as pastor here at New Creation. We're in a sermon series on the book of Luke. We're going to continue it today. I remember back in school how fun it was to go to the vending machine between classes or after school. And nothing against these vending machines with books in them. I like that, but I'm talking about the ones with food and snacks in them. I remember as I would jingle the change in my hand or in my pocket, stare in wide wonder at all of the different things that were in the vending machine, I would just start to wonder, what do I want right now? Do I want something salty or something sweet? Am I looking for something chewy, something crunchy? Do I want something I've had before, an old reliable, an old faithful, something, oh, I know that one's going to be good, or do I want to pick something new that I haven't had before? But sometimes there would be a machine that would be notorious for

1:52disappointing you, right? Every school would have one, or office building would have one. Maybe it ate your quarters and it gave you nothing in return. You push the button and nothing would work. Or even worse, you type in the code and that little corkscrew would turn and then it would get hung up on the glass. And now you're faced with a choice. Do I want to make a scene and shake this thing? Or do I just walk away? Sometimes there would be a vending machine that it did not matter how many times it got fixed. It would still disappoint you. And so word would spread, just avoid that machine. Don't even bother with it. It's not going to work. It still wouldn't, it's not going to give you what you pick. So you would never go back. Eventually you would learn, even if it had something you wanted in it, you just avoided that one. Well, today's passage, Jesus talks about prayer.

2:56And when it comes to our prayer life, it can be awfully easy to start treating God like a vending machine. We ask and we ask, and if he doesn't give us what we want, we think that, well, that thing's broken. I'm just not going to go there anymore. We put in our quarters, we stick out our hands, we make a choice. And if it doesn't come through, if God doesn't come through, sometimes we just stop praying. Jesus is going to challenge us here about our prayer life, today's passage. But listen, this is not a guilt trip. This is a reminder about God's constant faithfulness, his everlasting and steadfast love for his people. And he's urging us to lean into it. Lean into the God who loves you. The God who knows what you need. The God who has made promises to you. Lean into it. So let's go to God's Word today. Luke 18, 1 through 8. It's in your bulletin, it's behind me. No matter where it is, it's the Word of God. It is infallible, it is reliable. God speaks through it. God changes us through it. And so we should pay attention to it. Should eagerly receive it like hungry people sitting down at a banquet table to receive food. Amen? So let's come to the banquet and devour God's Word together. 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.

5:09For a while he refused. But afterward 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? Pray with me. Father, do the work that only you can do, bringing about new life in our hearts. Through the going forth of your Word, working in us by your powerful Spirit, Lord, raise up in us new patterns of living that reflect a changed heart that belongs to you. And Lord, most of all, help us to listen to you and see again who the Father is so that we come to him eagerly in prayer over and over. Help us soak in this, Lord, and do the work that you've promised to do. In Jesus' name, amen. Okay, keep asking for what he's promised. Keep asking for what he's promised. Here's one sentence to sum up this passage. Take refuge in your good Father through persistent prayer. Take refuge in your good Father through persistent prayer. Today we're going to look at what we ask for and how we think about the one that we're asking. What we ask for and how we think about him. Let's start with this. The widow keeps asking a wicked judge. So there's two characters in this weird, tiny little parable. Let's start with the widow. You know as well as I do that in any time

7:47or place, a widow is in a hard situation. Of course, she would be lonely, which is hard enough as it is. But in the ancient Near East, the time when Jesus lived, the place that he lived, a widow would have very few options for work. So she would be dependent on family, extended family, friends, neighbors, if she had no family, for her daily living. This is why in the ancient Near East, most widows were poor. But one of her biggest problems would have been her lack of an advocate. Without a husband, she would have no one to go to bat for her, to protect her, to fight for her. This was a significantly patriarchal time.

8:41And a widow would be without someone to speak up and advocate for her. She was vulnerable. And in any society where someone is vulnerable, they're going to be targeted for injustice. And that's what happened here. That's what's happening for this widow. Jesus doesn't give any details for the story that he tells. So we don't know what her crisis was. But it could be maybe that she had a landlord that wasn't tending to her home, wasn't fixing the roof. Maybe she had a neighbor who was slandering her reputation, speaking ill of her, telling lies. Maybe a robber stole from her. Maybe the person that killed her husband was on the loose. Whatever was going on, she was making a choice to come to one of the very few people in her community who was obligated to help her, the local judge. She goes to him and she says, give me justice against my adversary. Justice, you can think of it as giving someone their due, giving someone what they deserve. The purpose of a judge is to dispense justice. That's his or her job.

10:15A pharmacist dispenses medicine. A counselor dispenses counsel and wisdom. A teacher dispenses instruction. And a judge dispenses justice. God knew that to have a just society, there had to be people like this judge to dispense justice. Look at Deuteronomy 16 with me. He says this, you shall appoint judges and officers in all your towns that the Lord your God is giving you according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment. You shall not pervert justice. God put judges in a place and he warned over and over and over in the Old Testament.

11:03He warned about injustice towards the most vulnerable people in society. Here is just one of many passages in the Old Testament that you can read. Look at Deuteronomy 27. God says, Cursed be anyone who perverts the justice due to the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. Three of the most vulnerable people in society. The foreigner, the orphan, and the widow.

11:38So look, according to God's word, this widow was right to plead her case. And the judge was the right person to intercede. She was doing the right thing. She was going to the right person. She had a righteous request of him. Unfortunately, this guy is a worthless, worthless judge. She comes to the courtroom. She waits her turn. She lays out her case, but there is nothing she can say to persuade him. She appeals to divine law, to God's expectations. Maybe she even quoted that one of these passages from Deuteronomy. The judge says, don't waste your breath, lady. I don't even believe in God. So she tries to claim her rights, her rights in society. He laughs at her. I don't care about you.

12:38I don't even care what other people think about me. She reviews the merits of her case. All the facts, everything that's happened, he sneers at her. Justice is just a figment of your imagination. There is no such thing. Get lost. He is unmoved. But to his surprise, so is she.

13:10The next day, she comes, raps on his door, elbows her way into the courtroom, gets back in line. The judge looks up. You again? I thought I told you to beat it. Yes, me again, judge. I got nowhere else to go. Well, you're the guy that I'm supposed to come to. I'm begging you to help me. But he dismisses her again. Next time court is in session, guess who's there? Once again, she is getting in line. Give me justice. Vindicate me, she cries out to him. And she is right to do so, and he is wrong to keep turning her away. This goes on for some time. Who knows how long this happens, but one day, the judge blinks. In this game of chicken, the judge loses. Turns out she's stronger than he is and more righteous than he is. He is fed up, and he wants her gone. The quickest way to do it is to give her what she's asking for. Because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming. Now, look, he hasn't changed his mind about one thing. He doesn't view God any differently. He doesn't view justice any differently. He doesn't think any differently about people. He doesn't care anymore about his reputation. He is simply doing what is in his own self-interest. Now, what could Jesus possibly be teaching us with such a strange little parable? Well, listen, it has everything to do with contrast. The widow keeps asking a wicked judge because that's all she's got. But we have something far better. We have a good father. In verse 6, Jesus says, Hear what the unrighteous judge says, and will not God give justice to his elect who cry to him

15:46day and night? In this single statement, God gives two crucial ways that God is different than this judge. Two ways. The first is that he is just. He is just. The wicked judge acts because he is tired of fighting. The Lord is a God of justice. The Lord is a God of justice. Psalm 9 says the Lord sits enthroned forever. He has established his throne for justice, and he judges the world with righteousness. He judges the peoples with uprightness. God has no other way than the right way. He never takes a bribe. He never misuses his power. He will never allow evil to go unpunished, and he will never, ever withhold good from those to whom it is owed. Now, of course, sometimes we don't see it that way, and we need to talk about this. The secular humanism that we are swimming in all the time, it colors our eyes, and it clouds our thinking.

17:07We can no longer think straight about God's justice, and there are two particular ways in which the world's thinking seeps into our thinking. First of all, we start thinking that this life is all there is. If a person doesn't get punished or rewarded while they're alive, we call that injustice. But God tells us there is a life after this one. There, complete justice will be administered. He has set a day that he will judge the world by the man that he has appointed.

17:45There is a life after this one, contrary to what the world will tell you. The second thing is that, oh, and we're about to get even harder here, people, the world tells us that people are basically good. The world says most everyone is trying their best, and they should get blessings. After all, we say no one is perfect, but isn't God perfect? Right? God is perfect. He is completely holy and pure, and we are not. All sin, even what we consider to be the small stuff, is rightfully offensive to a holy God. God is just, but we, to see it, my friends, we have to confront the worldly thinking that's in us and replace it with biblical thinking. We've got to replace it with the truth that God gives us. Otherwise, you and I know what's going to happen. Eventually, we will shake our fists at God and say, you are holding out on me. When we do that, we know that the world's thinking is dominating in our minds and not the Bible. When the world's thinking seeps in, and we think, you know what? I'm basically good like my neighbors are, and this life is, it's not measuring up to what I consider to be the rewards that I should get from my own goodness. And we shake our fists at God, and we say, this vending machine keeps eating my quarters. But listen, the other way that God tells, that Jesus tells us that God is different than this judge is also important. As opposed to the judge, God cares. God cares for his people. The judge didn't care about anyone but himself, but God cares for his people. The most important concept that I keep coming back to anytime

19:59I think about prayer, anytime I think about prayer, the most important concept for a healthy prayer life is this, relationship. Relationship. The Christian life is about a reconciled relationship with the God who made you. If you've come to God in repentance and faith, then he is now your good and faithful father. Your father who knows you and loves you. You have peace with him and not a truce. God doesn't have his arms folded and say, well, just don't tick me off. He is not just putting up with you.

20:44Church, do you hear that? He's not just putting up with you. He calls you friend. He calls you friend. One of the most important truths to internalize is that in Christ, God is not against you, but for you.

21:10He's not against you, but he's for you. For your good. For your flourishing. No matter what. No matter how hard pressed you are by difficulty, by suffering, by pain, God is for you. He hears you when you call. He will act on your behalf and he will save you. He will do it. Look at what Psalm 34 says. The Lord redeems the life of his servants. None of those who take refuge in him will be condemned. Sometime I want you to pull up your Bible app. Maybe not right now, but sometime later, pull up your Bible app and do a search for the phrase, take refuge. And just look at the Psalms. You'll find over 20 passages about taking refuge in the Lord. That's what you're doing when you're praying. You're taking refuge in the Lord that loves you and is for you and has promised to save you. That's why we should pray persistently, church, because you have a father. Jesus had just talked about how his disciples would long for his return. He said, you are going to look forward to and long to see one of the days of the Son of Man because they would face rejection, hostility, persecution. This passage is his reassurance to them. I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Look, the time seems long now, doesn't it? But will we still think so in the eternal new heavens and new earth? Are we going to think this time when we were alive on earth was long or short? We're going to think it was so short.

23:08When we are in the eternal kingdom with him, it is going to seem speedy to us that he did not wait to give us justice. Here's one verse from Psalm 37 that sums the whole thing up. One little phrase, for the Lord loves justice. He loves it, and he will not forsake his saints. That is Luke 18, one through eight, in one little phrase. And so, church, we should pray with persistence. This is one of the few parables that begins with a purpose statement. I wish more of them did, don't you? This is one that we got a purpose statement. Jesus says, well, Luke says, obviously because he heard it from Jesus or from someone who was there, this is why Jesus said this parable. He told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. So, it's Mother's Day, and every mother knows what it's like to have their kids keep asking for something over and over and over until you just give up and give in and give it to them. Please, Mom, please. I'm not too proud to admit that I got some things that way when I was a kid. Just asking and asking and asking, and finally, you've worn her down. I would ask my dad, but he would say, go ask your mom. But listen, listen, this parable is not about nagging, okay? We can think that it is, but it's not. Here's why. Here's what it is. It's about steadfastly looking to God for what he alone can give us, okay? It's about knowing which way to look when we have a hope, right? We look to him. It's about looking to him over and over and over.

25:13And it's about what he has promised to give us. I might nag my mom for a toy or for an extra hour of staying up and watching TV. Those are not things that she promised me. This passage is about going to God and saying, God, you've promised to give it to me. I'm coming to you and I'm asking.

25:32It's a promise. Remember, not everything we want from God is something that he's promised to give us. That alone could help a lot of our prayer lives, mine included. Not everything we want from God is something that he's promised to give us. But there are things that he has promised and he's promised to make things right. He's promised for there to be justice in us and around us and in the new heavens and new earth. He will do it. He will give justice to them. So listen, that's what we ought to pray persistently for. Make things right, God. Make things right. We should cry out to him for the deliverance that only he can give us. Now, what does it look like to pray persistently for justice?

26:25We're going to close with three things, three things, three ways in which we can pray for justice. This is what prayers for justice looks like. First, it is praising Jesus for interceding for us. Listen, to ask for justice is to say, God, give me what I deserve. But as soon as those words leave our lips, we remember that by ourselves, we deserve punishment from God, right? In truth, we ought to be asking for a delay in justice, right? God, wait. Wait a little longer because we know we cannot stand in God's courtroom by our own merits. But we're not standing in God's courtroom by our own merits, are we? We have an advocate. We have a Savior that we have hidden in. It is only through receiving the righteousness of Christ that we can stand and be acquitted in the courtroom of God. For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

27:30So to pray for justice is to be thankful for Jesus, first and foremost. The second is this. Prayers for justice look like pleading for God's enemies to repent. Listen, many Christians, even in this country, but certainly in other countries, will face hostility and scorn because of their allegiance to Christ. Let me ask you, how should a person who has received salvation by grace respond? Judge them now, God? No. By no means should God's people say that because that's not what we've received, right? We have received mercy and grace through our Lord Jesus Christ. We should plead for God to change their hearts. Change their hearts, God. Work in them so that they turn to Jesus as we have and have their sins covered like we have.

28:38This too is justice. When a person trusts in Christ, justice for their sins against a holy God has been satisfied at the cross, at the cross. There's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. So yes, Lord, bring justice right now as people have their sins covered in Christ instead of paying for them themselves someday. Third, praying for justice is asking for our holiness to grow. As Christians, we struggle with sin, right? Who among us doesn't struggle with sin? Myself included. We're called to put off our old self like dirty clothes, put them off to grow in righteousness and holiness with our new self.

29:32If justice means conquering evil, then saying give me justice is also saying, God, continue killing this sin in me. It's saying let righteousness reign in me all throughout me. And my friends, it will. It will. It will. Sometimes your heart might accuse you. First John talks about this. Ladies who've been in the abide study, you might have studied this passage. Our hearts will accuse us sometimes. But God is greater than our hearts. Our hearts might tell us, you haven't changed one bit. Maybe God's not even working in you. But then God comes in. The Spirit speaks in us, says, Abba, Father. Yes, you have changed. You are changing and you will be completely changed. That's a prayer for justice, for righteousness to reign in us. Because God will vindicate us, my friends. One last passage from Psalms. Look at Psalm 37.

30:41Commit your way to the Lord. Trust in him and he will act. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light and your justice as the noonday. He will vindicate you. So keep praying for justice and fight sin in your life. Let me close with this. Many times I've heard someone ask me the question, look, if God already knows what I need before I ask it, then why should I even bother praying? Well, this passage raises an even more vexing question. Why should I bother praying if God's already promised to give it to me? You ever thought about that? Well, here's why. Prayer is the discipline of hope. Prayer is the discipline of hope. It's a way of demonstrating to God, yes, I believe that you will deliver me. I believe it, God. And so I'm asking once again for you to bring justice in my life and in the world. That's why Jesus ends this passage with a question. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth? Church, he will come looking for those who are looking for him.

32:07He'll come looking for those who are looking for him. Persistent prayer for justice is an exercise of faith. It's how we take refuge in God who loves us and who sent his Son for us. Pray with me. Lord God, without your Son being sent to die for our sins, we would not cry for justice. We wouldn't dare to because we know we could not stand in your courtroom and be acquitted. But hallelujah that you sent your Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins so that anyone and everyone who repents and puts their faith in him does not stand condemned but is now reconciled to you as father and as friend. Lord, will you help us persistently pray because all of these things are true because of the work that you have done in Christ. Help us come to you and pray persistently for justice, knowing that you are not like that wicked judge. You're a God of justice and you're a God of steadfast love. We pray this, Jesus, in your name. Amen.