The sermon discusses two parables from Luke 11 and Luke 18, both emphasizing the importance of persistent prayer. The main message is that believers should pray without giving up, bringing their requests to God with faith and endurance. The parables teach that God answers prayers, although not always in the time or manner we expect. The speaker encourages listeners to persist in prayer, knowing that God delights to give good gifts to His children.

Well, good afternoon, church. If you want to take out your copies of the Word of God and open up to two different places, Luke chapter 11 and Luke 18. We're continuing our series on the parables of the Lord Jesus Christ and we're going to be looking at two of them this afternoon. One in the Gospel of Luke chapter 11 and one in chapter 18. These two parables, the reason I'm putting these two parables together even though they're separated by several chapters is because these parables essentially teach the same thing.

They are really the same story told with a few characters swapped out. It's the same basic story and the conclusion of these parables, the thing that we are to grab hold of and what we're to learn from these two parables is that we are to be persistent in prayer, that we are to pray and not lose heart, as the Lord says, or as Luke says in chapter 18. These parables teach us to pray and to not give up in prayer. So with that let's look at these these two parables and see how they teach us that we ought to pray with faith and endurance, pressing on, often repeatedly bringing the same requests to our God. So first, let's look at Luke chapter 11, verses 5 through 13.

Now the context you see there in your Bible, this follows immediately after Jesus teaches the model prayer. He instructs them in how to pray and now this parable is intended to come along and give instruction in what manner to pray. You pray with persistence, pray in this ongoing manner. Luke 11 verse 5. He said to them, which of you shall have a friend and go to him at midnight and say to him, friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has come to me on his journey, and I have nothing to set before him.

And he will answer from within and say, do not trouble me, the door is now shut and My children are with me in bed. I cannot rise and give to you. I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him because he is a friend, yet because of his persistence he will rise and give him as many as he needs." And then Luke 18, beginning in verse 1. Then he spoke a parable to them that men always ought to pray and not lose heart, saying, There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. Now there was a widow in that city, and she came to him saying, get justice for me from my adversary.

And he would not for a while, but afterward he said within himself, though I do not fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me, I will avenge her lest by her continual coming she weary me verse 6 then the Lord said then the Lord said hear what the unjust judge it said and shall not God avenge his own elect who cry out day and night to him though he bears long with them. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this time we've set aside to be in your word, and Lord we pray that you would speak to us through these passages. Help us, Lord, to see wonderful things in your law. May you instruct us, and may we be encouraged by what we read here.

May our prayer life be strengthened by what our Lord commands and may you be glorified in this time together. In Jesus' name, amen. So the elements of these parables are very simple. There's nothing overly complex to these stories. In the first parable, a man is presented as going to his next-door neighbor at midnight because a visitor has arrived to his home and he has no food to give this visitor.

Now this strikes us as very odd because we're not used to visitors coming to our home at midnight, at least I assume most of us aren't used to that. But this timeframe, that wouldn't have been quite so unusual. Often travelers would travel at night to avoid the heat of the day. And so a traveler goes through, he arrives at this home at night, and the man he is visiting doesn't have any food to give him to strengthen him after his his journey, so he goes next door and now Though the exact circumstance isn't unheard of in their day. It is interesting that Jesus says it's at midnight It's almost as if he's setting up the story that this is at the most inconvenient time imaginable.

Everyone's in bed. No one's up. Remember, this is well before you have electric lighting. This is before you have all the distractions that may regularly keep us up at midnight. This is a time frame, that period of time when people were regulated by, well, is the sun up?

It's time to be up. The sun's down. Let's go to bed. But this is midnight. It's the worst time for a visitor to come or for you to go knocking on your neighbor's door.

But inconvenient or not, the man goes to his neighbor and he knocks and he says, friend, I need something. And that's a good way to start a conversation at midnight, remind the guy that you're his friend, because it might not be the case after the conversation's over. But he begins, he goes and he says, a friend, I need this food because a visitor has come. And naturally, the neighbor is less than thrilled with this, because it's midnight, and he tells him, politely at least, to go away. He says, don't trouble me, the door's shut, I'm in bed, my children are in bed with me, it's going to be chaos if I get up to give you this food.

It's not the time for this. Please leave. The imagery is a single room home, essentially, where The main living area would also be the sleeping area, and there's a common pallet or mattress that the whole family would sleep in. The husband would be closest to the door as the first line of defense in case their home is invaded at night. But he's able to have a conversation through the door with this annoying neighbor, and he's trying to tell him to go away, I'm going to wake up the kids, my wife's going to be upset, everything's going to be utter disaster if I actually go to the kitchen and rummage through the pantry for food for you.

Let's leave this till the morning. He's trying to, not unreasonably, wanting to keep peace in his home, not disturb his family, all because his neighbor didn't go to the grocery store this week. But the man that the parable centers on doesn't give up. He keeps knocking, he keeps asking. And Jesus says that the neighbor won't get up and give him any food because he's a friend.

But he will give the man food because he won't go away. He won't stop asking. It says because of his persistence he will rise and give him as many as he needs. He'll give him whatever he wants, just make him go away. The second parable is pretty much the same if you flip over to Luke 18.

The characters are changed but the basic story is unchanged. A widow is going to this judge. Now what is interesting here is it's not an issue of convenience or inconvenience. This judge is a wicked judge. He does not fear God, he does not regard man.

Everything in his exercising of his authority of a judge is all about himself, what promotes himself, what accomplishes his goals. He's not concerned about God or man. Justice is the furthest thing from this judge's mind. But there's this widow who has been apparently defrauded or something, we don't know the circumstances, but she is going to this judge over and over asking him for a judgment against her enemy. She's wanting what she deserves.

The judge flatly doesn't want to do it because he has no concern about man or God. This is not the kind of man that a society should put in the role of a magistrate or a judge, but that is sadly often the case. But this widow breaks down his opposition, not because of the reasonableness of her request, not because of her eloquent arguments from the law of God, she breaks down his opposition simply because she just won't go away. She keeps coming to him. The judge himself, verse 5, because this widow troubles me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.

She wears out his opposition by coming to him over and over again. She annoys him into compliance. And so he gives her what she wants. He relents. So these elements are very simple to understand.

The stories are not complex. The man and the one, the widow and the other, they persist in their asking until they get what they need. Now, Remember, when we look at interpreting and applying the parables, we have to look at what is the point of a parable. A parable is generally a story or a metaphor that intends to convey essentially one point. Not every element has to correspond with reality.

We often want to turn the parables into allegories and assign a particular meaning to every little detail. We can come to these parables and try and allegorize them and give a specific meaning to everything and say, well, this character means this and this event is this circumstance and so on and so forth. And so we come to these parables and we say, well, the man and the widow, they're us. We have needs. And we go to God and and what he's asleep and doesn't want to get up he's a Wicked judge.

He won't give us what we want unless we aggravate him enough that's not what these parables are teaching, obviously. I hope we all understand that. No, that's not what the parables are intended to communicate. Rather, these two stories, these two parables, are intended to teach us a single principle, that of persistence. We are to be persistent.

These parables are often called the parable of the persistent neighbor and the parable of the persistent widow. And they communicate this message that we are to be persistent in prayer. And as much as I dislike alliterating, we could probably title this parables on persistence in prayer. We are to pray with faith And we are to pray in repetition, going to God, and often bringing the same requests to Him. We are not to simply bring a petition one time, and if we don't receive immediate results, give up and go on.

That's not how God's people ought to live in this world. That's not how we are to go to our Father in prayer. We are not actually the man and the woman in the story, we are merely to learn from their example of going to these people in their persistence. We are not to see God as a wicked judge or a man who's asleep in his bed and doesn't want to get up. Rather, we are to learn from these that sometimes God takes a long time to answer our prayers.

It's not because he's unwilling or unable. It is often because he has a greater purpose. But we are to learn from these parables. We see even this in Jesus' conclusions to the parables. In Luke 18, 6 through 7, He says, hear what the unjust judge said.

Verse 7, and shall not God avenge his own elect who cry out day and night to them? It's an argument from the less to the greater. The unjust judge who doesn't fear God, he doesn't respect people, he will eventually answer if the woman comes to him persistently. How much more will the God who chose you as his child Answer your prayers if you persist in them. Now the end of verse 7 is a little difficult to translate.

The New King James says, though he bears long with them, we can look at the NIV and the ESV, render it more of a rhetorical question, will he delay along over them? But regardless of how you translate that section, the idea is God will answer his people's prayer. If they persist, if they continue, he will answer. In fact, verse eight goes on to say, he will avenge them speedily. In Luke 11, Jesus also sets up this argument from the less to the greater.

The man will give to his annoying neighbor because of his persistence, so Jesus says, ask, and it will be given to you. Knock and you will find, or seek you will find, knock, it will be opened. And it's interesting, the verb formation there, these are present tense form imperatives, and the idea could be argued that this has the idea of keep on asking, keep on knocking, keep on seeking, it persists in it. Clearly the context teaches that, even if the grammar isn't necessarily that. Jesus uses an example of a father answering the request of his children to show how much better God is than the man asleep in his bed.

Look at verse 11 in Luke 11, if a son asks for bread from any father among you? Will they give him a stone?" And then he goes on, a serpent, will he give him a serpent if he asked for a fish or a scorpion instead of an egg? And the conclusion is of course not. Even among men who are evil, Jesus says, they generally will not give something harmful to their children when they ask for food. How much more will your Father in heaven give you good gifts?

That's what the parallel in Matthew says, but Luke actually changes it slightly here. How much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him? Not just earthly goods, but even the greatest of spiritual blessings. Your Father is so concerned, He will give of His own spirit to you when you ask. He is a kind Father who delights to answer His children and give them what they need.

These words, how much more ought to encourage us. There in verse 13 in Luke 11, how much more will your heavenly Father give you his Spirit? God is willing to give far more, far more abundantly, far more good than you can even think of asking. He's a God, a Father who overflows in abundance and goodness toward his people. He's a father who delights to give these things to his children.

How much more will your heavenly father do what we see in shadows of what earthly fathers do? Our God is not a man asleep and unwilling to be roused unless we annoy him. Rather, he is a good father who delights to give gifts, especially the greatest gift of his own spirit. Not just temporal and earthly goods, but heavenly goods, his own spirit that leads his people to the knowledge of the truth and to happiness and the blessings that come from holiness and obedience. And so we see that these parables are intended to instruct us to be persistent, to endure in prayer.

But what does that mean, to persist in prayer? If that's the primary message, what does that really look like? Well, again, I mentioned in verse 9 in Luke 11, the Lord says, ask and it will be given. And the structure and the formation of the verb in the original language indicates this is something that's ongoing. This is repetition.

But even the Lord himself says, because of his persistence, the man will rise and give him what he needs. Now the word translated persistence here is interesting. It's a compound word actually from the word shame and the negating prefix. And so we could translate it as shamelessness because of his shamelessness he will give him. One resource suggests, translating and interpreting this is his unembarrassed boldness.

It has the idea of going beyond what most people would be comfortable in doing. What most people would think is proper. This is going beyond that. This is when others would be shamed into ceasing or too embarrassed to continue. The man without any concern about such things keeps on knocking.

That should be our attitude in prayer. You've been praying for how long? For the salvation of that family member? You've been asking God for how long to give you a new job? Don't you think it's time to just kind of give up?

No. Because God is not on our timetable. God calls us to persist. It doesn't matter if you or your friend or whoever thinks you've been asking for too long. God says, no, keep asking.

Keep persisting. Keep going because you have a Father who wants to give good gifts to his children. And if that's who your Father in heaven is, Where else are you going to go for these things? You have these needs, where else can you take that request but to the one who can actually answer and give you what you need? So persist in doing it, endure, pray with faith, knowing that eventually God answers the prayers of his people.

Back to Luke 18, verse 1, Luke tells us that The point of this parable is that men ought always to pray and not lose heart, to not grow weary in prayer. The New American Standard renders it as pray and not become discouraged. The NIV, to always pray and not give up. To not give up in prayer, to persist in it, to not become discouraged. Just because you don't receive an answer when you think you ought to, doesn't mean you give up praying for what you want, what you want, what you need.

We become far too easily discouraged in our prayers. We give up far too soon. I know I do. My natural inclination is ask once, maybe twice, and then, okay, well, that's it, and time to move on, I guess. And I think part of the problem is just our modern world of convenience and instant gratification, but also just our own sinful, rebellious hearts.

We want God to do what we want, when we want it, and how we want it, as if God is some cosmic butler constrained to do our will, rather than we are his servants here to fulfill his in the world. So just because something takes time, we should not give up. Just because we don't receive an answer for a while doesn't mean we it's time to to abandon that request. Persist in it. Be enduring in prayer.

Keep going to God and ask Him for what you need. Now we do know that despite the absolute language used here, the rest of Scripture does tell us that there are times when God does not answer prayer, at least not always in the way that we want. God is not a vending machine that we just put in the right inputs and get out what we want. Scripture tells us you ask and you do not receive because you ask amiss. In another place, If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear.

If we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. So that's a promise, but there is a restriction according to His will. And even in these parables, isn't the implication that if we don't persist, we won't receive what we need? So it's not an ironclad absolute that God answers every single prayer in the way that we want. But the point of these parables is that God does incline towards charity, towards his people.

He inclines his heart to give us the things that we ask for. He calls his people to persist in prayer and he also calls on us to pray in faith, expecting that he'll answer. That's what these parables teach us. So what should you pray for? You may have heard the quote that's attributed to Augustine, to love God and do what you please.

I think I've said that before myself. And the idea is if you love God and you do what you please, what you please will be what pleases God. So if you love God truly, do what you want because what you want will be what's pleasing to God. We can apply that to prayer. Love God and ask for what you please because the heart that truly loves God will ask for the things that God is ready to give, the things that God has called his people to ask for.

This is very appropriate because of what we're doing this week. Wednesday, we are having that global day for revival, the global day of prayer for revival this Wednesday. We should be praying for revival. We should be praying for the salvation of our children, our parents, our families, our neighbors, our nation, the world. Why?

Because we know God wants that. Scripture tells us that the nations have been promised to his son. We've been told in Scripture that one day all the nations will turn and worship the Lord. So we know God is going to do this, and so we pray for it. Now I can't say what exactly you should pray for every day, but pray for the things that you know God wants to give his people.

So know your scriptures, know what God has promised to you. Know what God has said He will do for His people. And search the scriptures to find what the heart of God is toward His people and pray for those things. Pray that you would be conformed to the image of his son. Pray that you would be a light in this world to your family, to your co-workers.

Pray that you could understand his word and his will. Pray that he would prosper you. That is something good to pray for. So I want to end our time this afternoon simply reciting some of the wonderful verses that teach us what God tells his people to pray for. Some of these wonderful promises that we have in scripture regarding prayer.

Starting with what we read here. So I say to you, ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be open to you. Another place, call upon me in the day of trouble.

I will deliver you and you shall glorify me. Another place, call to me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things which you did not know." Another place, if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and I will forgive their sin and heal their land. Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. The prayer of faith will save the sick and the Lord will raise him up.

Confess your trespasses to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed because the effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Now this is the confidence that we have in him that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us And if we know that he hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we've asked of him. And the Lord himself, therefore I say to you, whatever you ask when you pray, Believe that you receive it and you will have them. So be persistent in your prayers. You may have been praying for the same thing for weeks, months, years.

Do not lose heart. Do not give up. Endure and keep going to your God because he's the only one that can give you what you truly need. Continually knock on the door of heaven and seek good things from your heavenly Father. Pray and do not lose heart because your God delights to answer prayers.

So let's pray. Our Father, we thank you for this wonderful encouragement you've given us. Lord, thank you for being a God who longs to hear from your people and who gives good gifts to your children. We pray, Lord, that you would bend your ear and hear our prayers and that you would answer and that in answering you would build us up, encourage our hearts, and that you would be glorified. Thank you, Lord, for being so kind to us.

Please bless the rest of our day. May this day be pleasing to you, and may you go with us the rest of this week as we seek to accomplish your will, knowing that you go with us, and that you are a Father who loves us and cares for us. Oh Lord, may you strengthen us and may you be glorified in all that we do. In Christ's name we pray, amen.