Why Pray at All?

All right. Well, good morning, everybody. Thank you all for being here today. I’ll go ahead and invite everybody to take those seats back and go ahead and sit down. That’d be nice. Then the sounds will get more intrusive the longer you keep standing and talking. So, there we go. It’s one of the built-in mechanisms for us here. Awesome. Thank you all so much for being here today. Really excited about the Fall Fest, and yeah, just another opportunity that we’re going to have to be able to love on our neighbors and on our community, providing just some fun time for parents to be able to bring their kids out, grandparents be able to bring their grandkids out, random people to bring random—no, I’m just kidding. That’s not—it’s not—it’s not what we’re into here, by any means, but you can be praying ahead of time.

Tonight during the Fall Fest, we’re going to take a few moments to kind of break from the action just for me to share a little bit about why we are doing that as a church while we’re putting on this event, and going to just share the gospel, the—the hope that we have in Jesus Christ, and how folks can enter into a relationship with God through what Jesus has done. And I’m going to share that tonight during Fall Fest and invite people to believe. That will begin at like 5:30. So, if you’re not here with us tonight at like 5:30, if you’d just be praying for us, that the Lord would be using that. You know, one of our hopes is that God would take this time and totally crash somebody’s life. Like He would totally interrupt what they’re expecting, and He would break in, and He would reveal how good and how great He is to them. That’s our prayer for Fall Fest, and that’s actually what we’re also going to pray for right now.

If you’ve been with us any—any length of time, you know that we spend a portion of every Sunday morning just praying, just asking God to do something, because we know that in our own strength we can’t do what—what we need God to do. So we come to this moment where we pray as a church. This month we’ve been praying, “Who is your one?” Who is the one person in your life that is far from the Lord, far from the church, that needs the hope of Jesus in their life? So, I would invite you, you could grab a neighbor if you feel comfortable praying out loud, or just sit by yourself and pray. Who is your one? Who’s the one person in your life that you want to meet Jesus? You pray for them. I’ll put a bow on it here in a moment. Thank you guys.

Holy Spirit, thank You so much for today. Thank You so much for bringing all of us here, for giving us just a few minutes really to be able to gather with some—some family and some friends and some current strangers that are become—that will become church family. God, thank You for centering us for just a few minutes. Father, when I think about my one, I’ve got—I’ve got two buddies in my mind. Really good guys, Lord. Very successful in their fields. God, I can—I can go to them for a lot of help, Lord. They’re—they’re consistent in my life. They’re even faithful to check up on me, Lord, to rejoice with me as I rejoice, and to kind of weep with me as I weep. But Father, I know that they don’t know You. They don’t have a—a saving relationship with You. They’re—they’re far from You, even though that they are really good guys. And God, I pray that You would just interrupt their lives. Please, God, please break in, please help them to see that they need a Savior. They need someone to fix their lives. They need someone to bring some peace and some stability to the chaos they live in. God, please do that. Please do that tonight at Fall Fest.

Lord, as I—I share the hope of Jesus with people, God, let—let’s be honest, God, I feel like people that come to a trunk-or-treat Fall Fest at—at a church already have some awareness. They probably already know that Jesus was at least a—a really special teacher. They probably already know that the Bible is important. They probably already know that being a good person is better than being a bad person. But God, do they know that they are bad? Do they know that they are Sinners that need to be saved? Do they know that Jesus was actually God in the flesh who came to live a perfect life for them? Do they know that we can learn about these things in Your Word, which is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, is breathed by You? God, invade their lives tonight. Please invade this room right now. God, I have been faithful to my end of the deal. Lord, I got with You. I got with Your Word, and I studied, and I prepared, and here I am. And I need You to do something. We need You to do something. So God, we ask that You would. I pray that You would give us attentiveness to Your Word, a desire to receive it. Lord, I pray that You would open up our hearts and our minds. You would unlock my mouth. That You would do something with this that we can’t describe any other way than that God came in the room and did something. Please, Lord, we love You. It’s in Your great name that we pray. Amen.

Amen. Well, you go ahead and open up your Bible to Luke chapter 18. I’ll meet you there in a few moments. Luke chapter 18. We are going to round out this series that we’ve been doing the past couple months, just walking through some of the parables that Jesus taught. These parables are incredibly special. These were stories with real-life kind of everyday images and moments, but they were meant to communicate eternal truths about God’s kingdom. Some of the parables were meant to invite people to enter the kingdom. Some of the parables were meant to kind of just show you what the kingdom is like. Jesus taught in parables because He knew that if He on day one just gave everybody the full truth of who He was, it would make the whole getting to the cross and dying thing happen a little too quickly. So there were people that genuinely wanted to know more about what Jesus had to say and offer. So He would give them parables which would kind of whet their appetite for more. He also knew that in every crowd there’s some people who don’t actually want anything to do with Jesus. They’ve already got hard hearts. They’re just kind of part of the crowd for a variety of reasons. So He taught the parables also to kind of keep them at bay.

So this Sunday we’re going to look at our final parable. Certainly not the only parables that Jesus taught. We’ve really just kind of sampled them. This is going to be the parable of the persistent widow. Before I get there though, I want to ask you a question. Have you ever given up on God? Have you ever gotten to this place out of frustration, anger, fear, sadness, or like a total emptiness where you’re just done? I think honestly if you and I are being really truthful with each other, we’d recognize there’s a lot of reasons why you might get there. Maybe you’ve got a very real need in your life and you were just waiting on God to provide an answer, waiting for God to provide some sort of solution, a way out, and there’s just been delay and waiting and what feels like silence. And that silence is just giving way, and you’re at this point where you’re like, “God, I just don’t know if I can hang on anymore.” Maybe you’ve suffered some sort of very real wrong. Someone has done you dirty and you are waiting for justice. You need a right resolution to something that’s happened and it has not come yet. You’re like, “God, why is it this way? I respect You. I respect people. I take care of my responsibilities. I handle my business.” And still this has happened to me. When are You going to make it right in my life?

People give up on God too. I think honestly they’re kind of dissatisfied. Guys like me get up on a platform and we talk about how Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life and how a relationship with God is incredible and you can have eternal joy and happiness forever. But in your day-to-day experience of it, you’re like, I don’t know. I open my Bible, it’s kind of obscure. I try to pray and it’s just kind of me hitting the wall. You’re just kind of dissatisfied. There was a season in my life where I was so close to giving up on the Lord. You know, I met Jesus As a 15-year-old in my buddy’s car, my faith in Jesus really got tested. As a 22-year-old sitting in an apartment, and I had learned that my parents were getting divorced. Man, I was 22. I’m so grateful I had been married at that point. I had an incredible wife and best friend who could help me go through that. We were part of an incredible church where the moment my pastors heard about it, they started pursuing me and taking me out to get meals, and they were just kind and just praying for me. I can’t imagine going through that without incredible support like that.

But still, when my whole basis of my upbringing, my childhood, when all that was being torn apart, man, like my relationship with God, I was like, “God, where are you in this?” And I didn’t feel like I heard anything. I prayed for my parents to reconcile and things to become right, and that never really happened. And I felt like there was an injustice done against me. And man, I was so—I was just at this point where I was just kind of done. And I happened to be a seminary student. I was preparing for this right here. I was like, “God, where are you?” I’m curious. Have you ever been there? Have you ever been at this place where you’re just giving up? Maybe you’re there right now.

Jesus, in His kindness and His wisdom, knew and knows that we get to those moments in our lives. So He taught a parable which we’re going to study this morning that recognizes it. We’re going to look at this parable that can look at life and say life is hard, and sometimes you will be tempted to give up on God. Please don’t believe so strongly in your own discipline and willpower that you don’t recognize that, man, we are just like one accident, we are one phone call, we are one diagnosis away from giving up on the whole thing. But praise be to God, He does not give up on us. So today we’re going to look at a parable, we’re going to study a parable where Jesus specifically taught us how to not give up on God.

Luke chapter 18. What I’m going to do, I’m going to walk through this parable for just a few moments. I’m going to draw out the main truth of what Jesus is getting at. Look at the logic of this type of lifestyle that Jesus wants us to have and what that lifestyle might look like. So look at Luke chapter 18, verses 1-8, with me.

Now He, Jesus, told them a parable on the need for them to pray always and not give up. There was a judge in a certain town who did not fear God or respect people. And a widow in that town kept coming to him saying, “Give me justice against my adversary.” For a while he’s unwilling, but later he says to himself, “I don’t fear God. I don’t respect people, yet because this widow keeps pestering me, I will give her justice so that she does not wear me out by her persistent coming.” You could—we’ve all been there, right? It’s like, “Stop annoying me. Stop bothering me.” That’s where this judge is at.

Verse six, the Lord says, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God, won’t God grant justice to His elect who cry out to Him day and night? Will He delay helping them?” No. I tell you, He will swiftly grant them justice. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man—Jesus, talking about Himself, when I come back, when He comes—will He find faith on earth?

The parable is simple enough. You’ve got a persistent widow on one side, and you’ve got an unjust judge on another side. This widow is advocating for herself. This tells you that this widow has no husband to advocate for her or take care of her, and she’s got no sons to advocate for her as well. She’s advocating for herself. And to make matters worse, at some point she’s been done wrong. She’s got an adversary. So she keeps going to the judge because she knows, though I have been hurt, I’m not hopeless. There is a judge who will give me the justice that I deserve.

However, the judge on this side is unjust. He doesn’t fear God. He doesn’t respect people. Frankly, he’s a bad person who is bad at his job. The widow keeps coming to him constantly. She is persistently pestering him. She’s bold in bothering him. She is constantly just laying into this dude, constantly at his office. Judge, judge, judge, give me what I deserve. Come on, give me what I need. Every day, bothering him, pestering him. You get the sense. He doesn’t—he’s not able to leave the office on his lunch break and walk down to the deli and get his hummus and pita without this lady trailing him. Hey, what’s the—what’s the status on my case? Hey, have you figured out where we’re going? What’s the next step? Do I need some other documents? She is just constantly on his case. She’s coming to him day and night just bothering him.

Eventually, the widow gets what she deserves. Not because he’s had a change of heart or because he’s met God. She gets what she deserves because he’s just tired. He’s done with it. She keeps pestering him, and he comes to the end of his wits. He’s like, “The only way to get rid of this woman is to give her what she deserves.” That’s the parable, man. Simple enough.

Yet Jesus knows that even if it’s simple enough, we still need it to be dumbed down just a little bit more. So, He interprets it for us. He says, “If even an unjust judge will grant justice when he’s bothered enough by people he doesn’t care about, won’t God”—man, say that with me—“won’t God, man? Won’t God grant justice for the sake of His elect, people He does care about?” The unjust judge does not care about people, yet he will do his job. God, who cares infinitely about people, won’t He? Won’t He take care of them?

And man, let me just say because some of us, our radar just went off. We heard that word “elect.” That’s not a word to squirm at. Not a word to get nervous about. Just take it at face value. God loves you. He has chosen to love you. That’s good news. Okay? God so loved you, in fact, that He chose before time to set the scope of that love on you, on someone He knew would sin against Him. Yet for God’s own glory and their eternal good, God would make a plan to redeem and rescue people out of sin to be His own people forever. That is a God worth trusting. That is a God worth bothering and pestering and bringing our difficulties to.

Here’s the deal. You need to know this. There is somebody in the room right now that needs to hear me say God deeply loves you. God’s wild about you. He would move everything between Him and you so that He could move close to you and that you could see Him as kind and gracious and beautiful. God loves you. He deeply loves His people and He will surely grant justice to His people.

Yet some of us give up on Him. Some of us give up on God because we no longer trust Him any more than the unjust judge of this parable. All that being said, let me ask the question again. Have you given up on God? Are you at a place this morning and you’re just kind of done and you find yourself in here and I’m asking you this question that you don’t want to be honest with? Have you given up on God?

When we do, our lives, man, we get pretty prayerless. We stop talking with God because we actually want this kind of protective void between us and Him because we’re actually nervous about being close with Him. When we give up on God, honestly, we get a little ungrateful in life because we stop recognizing that God is the Father of every good and perfect blessing from above, and He is constantly showering us with His kindness, but something else has happened that we can’t see His kindness in the midst of all of it. So, we’re just ungrateful.

When we give up on God, we grow cynical and we’re always wondering. It’s like, well, this good thing is happening. This job is happening. This kid is healthy right now. This house is cool right now. This car is nice right now. I’ve got my health right now. But, man, when’s that going to be taken away also? Man, I can’t trust in God. I can’t count on any of this stuff. And we become a bit cynical.

And when we give up on God, we ultimately just start living for ourselves. Got to get mine. Got to protect me. Got to look out for number one because I don’t know if there’s anybody else looking out for me.

Have you given up on God? Jesus says that He is going to come back and He is looking for people who will believe in God despite the frustrations, despite the fears, despite all the stuff we can’t control. He is looking for people who will give God a chance. So what’s the main point? What’s the main point that Jesus wanted us to get? You see, here’s the deal. It’s not that if you complain loud enough, God will give you what you want like He’s a tired parent in the aisle at Publix. That’s not how we ought to relate to God.

The main point also is not just that God looks out for the down and out, though the Bible does say God has a particular heart for people that have marginalized and hurt. Here’s the main point. The main thing I want you to take away from today is this. God is faithful with forever and He is trustworthy for today. He is faithful for forever and He is trustworthy for today. You can take that to the bank. You can set your life on that. And I think that you want that to be true. Why else would you be here? Why else would you be here unless you wanted to hear some sort of message of hope and certainty in a life that is constantly changing and the tectonic plates of your networks and your relationships and your career and your health keep shifting. You need something strong and firm. It is this that God will secure your eternal future and because of that He is carefully patiently like a good dad watching over the day-to-day of your today.

Unfortunately so many people only hear that God is interested in forever. All they hear is that God cares about your the salvation of your soul or that God’s got this end times plan. And people that only hear that God cares about forever assume that God is basically disinterested in the day-to-day details of your life. Basically, God doesn’t care about the small things that keep you up. God doesn’t care about what frustrates you. God doesn’t care about what worries you. All He cares about is saving you. And you’re like, man, if there’s a God out there that doesn’t actually care about Monday, do I really care about Him?

Others see so much pain and sadness in their lives. They doubt whether God can really secure eternity. Like when you lose a friend or a friend betrays you or you’ve been given an incurable diagnosis and you don’t know the way forward or the financial strains keep burdening you and weighing on you and you’re like, “God, if You can’t solve these things, how in the world could I trust You with my heart? How in the world could I trust You with eternity if tomorrow is going off the rails?” Jesus came to show us that God is faithful with forever. He is trustworthy for today.

Don’t just take my word for it. Let’s look again at the parable and see what Jesus did because He gave us the logic behind it. First, there’s a contrast Jesus wants us to see. Jesus goes from lesser to greater. He says that God is not like the unjust judge. If the judge will give the widow what she deserves, won’t God give us what we need? Matthew 7:9-11 put it this way. Who among you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? What dad in this room if your son asks you for a fish, you’re going to give him a snake? If you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your kids, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him? There’s a lot of really good parents in here. And when your kids ask you for a snack, you’re not popping them in the face. When your kids bring a very real need before you, you’re not ignoring it. If you can be such a good parent to your kids, how much more God to you?

Look at the contrast. God is not like the unjust judge. The judge is reluctant and selfish. God is righteous and compassionate. And if the persistent widow can move the heart of the unjust judge, how much more can a son or a daughter of God move the heart of the one who moves everything? How much more? You need to know this. God loves you. And when you pray, He is listening. When you cry to Him, He cares. When you are worried, He is concerned for you. He’s concerned for you.

But don’t just look at this contrast. Listen to the promise where Jesus goes from the greatest thing to the less thing. Verse seven, will not God grant justice to His elect who cry out to Him day and night? Will He delay helping them? Justice for His elect. That refers to ultimate vindication. Some of us in this room will experience very real consequences for following Jesus. Some of us will be passed over for jobs. We’ll be hurt in relationships. God might even call some of us to go overseas as missionaries and give our lives for the sake of the gospel. And Jesus is here saying, “Hey, when it’s all said and done, every injustice you experience for the sake of following Jesus, every time you’re passed over because you love Christ more than the world, every time you have to decide to love God more than the things of this world, God stores that up. And one day, He’s going to make all that right.” And if God is able at the end of time to make all the injustices right, then we can trust that today He cares about you. One day all the suffering that you endure because you follow Jesus will be made right. If God can surely handle the greatest pains, if God can handle the greatest injustices, how much more can we trust Him with our daily needs and requests? Romans 8:32 puts it this way. He, God, did not even spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all. How will He not also with Him grant us everything? If God has already given you the most precious, most costly, most prized possession He has, which is His Son, how will He not take care of your needs tomorrow? If God has already taken care of your ultimate need to be forgiven of your sin, how will God not also take care of your other needs like a roof over your head and food for your kids? If God has already cured the most incurable disease in you, which is your sin, will God or can God also cure the other diseases that rack your physical body? If God can take care of the biggest stuff, He can help with the smaller things. But Jesus’s heart is that you would not stop just knowing these things, but that you would have a lifestyle of prayer. That might seem out of left field, but look at verse one. Jesus told them a parable on the need for them to pray always and not give up. Jesus’s heart for you is not to know a bunch of correct stuff. Jesus’s heart is not that you’d be able to pass some sort of theological test or seminary entrance exam. God’s heart for you is that you would have a relationship with Him where day to day you would be able to commune and just talk with and be with Him. That’s His heart for you. But you will not get there if you have given up on Him. You will not get there if you don’t trust Him. You see, prayer, it keeps you aligned with God. It lines you up with God’s sense of justice and His mercy until His plan unfolds. So Jesus, it’s natural then why He would end with that question. When I come back, will I find faith on earth? That’s the test. It’s not whether you bother God enough to get what you want. It’s not whether you pray hard enough to force God’s hand. The test is whether you will pursue the God who wants you. Whether you will love the God that loves you. Whether you will continue to be held by God or if you’re just going to give up on Him. Prayer is how faith learns to wait. Prayer is how we go to God. Prayer is how we pester Him. But prayer most importantly is how we are with Him. It’s how we remind ourselves that there is a God who loves us and wants you. And all of this, all of this logic, all of this hinges on the heart of God for you. All of this hinges on the fact that there is a very real God who has a very real love for you. The men in the room that are going through Experiencing God this past week or next week, you’re going to talk about how God pursues a continuing love relationship with you that is real and personal. How there is a good and holy God who created all people. And He created us for a relationship with Himself. But those very first people, Adam and Eve, they broke God’s law. They broke His heart. They went away from Him. And because of that, they created this chasm between God and man. And God out of His kindness said, “I’m going to fix this situation.” Because they cannot fix it for themselves. There is no amount of religion they can do to make it right between us. There’s no amount of good works they can do to make it right between us. There’s no amount of good experiences they can have to fill this void that God once had in us. So God set His heart on us and overcame the greatest injustice this universe has ever seen. And it was not done against you. The greatest injustice this world has ever seen is that we would not love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. The greatest injustice that’s ever happened is not the words that were said behind your back. The greatest injustice is not what’s going to happen to you next year where someone’s going to take all of your money, all of your possessions, and turn all of your family against you. The greatest injustice is what we have done to God. Where we did not love God with everything that we are just because He deserves it.

There is only one person in this universe that is always good. There’s only one person in this universe that is pure and that is always right. There’s only one person in this universe that is worthy of worship. There’s only one person in this universe that is worth your life and His name is God. And every single time we lie, every single time we look at someone that’s not our spouse and we want to treat them like our spouse, every single time we are greedy for more money and more stuff, every single time we covet someone else’s possessions. Every single time we dishonor other people, we are offending God.

Think about it this way. My kids have tons of those little Matchbox cars. And let’s say I took one of them out to the driveway and I took some of that gravel and I scratched the car. How much would that cost to replace the car? A dollar maybe. Whatever. A dollar. Ultimately, Luke would get over it. He doesn’t care. He’s probably already done that. I don’t care. Now, let’s say one of my kids takes that same rock and scratches my car. Okay, now we’re starting to get it. How much would it cost to fix that? >> I don’t know. It’s a Honda Accord. I, you know, >> thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that valuation. Thank you. Yeah. And I’d be real mad. Like, I’d be I’d be pretty hot about that. But ultimately, it’s not that big of a deal. To be honest, I probably don’t go get it fixed. I don’t know that the car is worth me doing that now. Someone takes a rock and goes and scratches one of those antiques on the back basketball court. Oh, okay. That feels a little more special, too. Okay. Now, let’s say I take that rock and I go to DC and I go find the one that the president is riding in and I throw it through the window. What happens to me then? >> I get three hots in the cot man for the rest of my life. And he’s just a man. Let’s be honest. Couple years down the road, he’s just another guy on a list. There is one that’s perfect. There is one that’s timeless. There is one that’s truly infinitely worthy of everything. And we take our rocks and we are constantly throwing it through the windows of His car causing a universal injustice against God. We deserve to be man laid out like that. I don’t deserve another breath. I deserve to be struck down right here. But God doesn’t do that. Why? Because God loves you.

God took on the cost of my sin on Him when He sent Jesus. God knew I would sin. God knew I would I would go against His perfect holiness. And God said, “It’s okay. There is one way I can fix this.” And it’s not through giving them rules to follow. Those rules just showed us how bad we are at following them. God sent His own son, Jesus, to fully pay the price that you and I can’t pay but deserve to pay. Our sin has merited an infinite debt against God. Something we can never pay off. We can never work hard enough. We can never buff it out of the side of the car. We can never do that. So God sent Jesus to do it for us. If God can take care of our debt against Him, if He can forgive our scratches against His holiness, how much more will God take care of you this week? Why not pray? Why not pester God? Why not bug Him with the things of your life? Now, I want to invite you to begin a lifestyle of praying to that God because that God is just waiting to hear you speak with Him. There’s three ways. All right, this is where we kind of get the the practical stuff.

I want to invite you to consider joining us for the boiler room 9:15 Sunday mornings over in the old church. Now, we don’t talk about prayer. I don’t teach a lesson on prayer. We just pray for a few minutes. We just kind of warm up this church and our community by praying to God. We have a text chain throughout the week. Every time you write a prayer request on one of these connect cards, I read it and I text it to the boiler room and your prayer gets prayed for all week. If you’re interested in joining us for the boiler room, either in person on Sundays or being part of that text chain, you just write connect. You you write boiler room on your connect card before you leave today and put it in one of these plates and we’ll get you added.

Some of us need to join for the second way to have a lifestyle of prayer. I’m I’m believing that God is challenging our church to take part in a 24/7 prayer chain in the year of 2026. Here’s the deal. There’s an initiative in Charleston that has over 60 churches, not all Southern Baptists, where churches are claiming a day of the month, so just once a month, where their church owns a 24-hour prayer chain where just in the comfort of your own home, in your recliner, whatever you need, you would take you, you and your church would just be part of praying for our nation, for our city, for our church, for people in our community. I believe that God is calling us to take part in this. God is giving us a burden and a heart for prayer. And what better way to do that than by taking a full day out of the month and us from sun up to sun down, whatever it is, to be praying.

Some of us, the boiler room feels crazy. A 24-hour prayer chain feels crazy. You just need to begin. The guy that directs the 24/7 prayer initiative in America wrote a book on prayer. And this is what he says. Bear with me. Prayer is more practice than theory. So, let me offer a starting place with a phrase borrowed from Dom John Chapman. Pray as you can. Don’t try to pray as you can’t. If you can’t pray for an hour, great. Don’t try. It’ll feel like an eternity. Pray for a minute. Pray as you can and don’t try to pray as you can’t.

If you zone out every time you pray at home, pray while you’re running errands or exercising or walking down the sidewalk. If you can’t concentrate enough to pray out loud, journal your prayers with paper and pen instead. If you can’t pray with hope and faith, God isn’t bothered. He wants you to tell Him about your doubt and disappointment. If you can’t pray in phrases of praise and adoration, then don’t fake it. Pray your complaints, your anger, your confusion. And if you are more comfortable with cynicism than innocence, unsure about your motives, afraid of silence, afraid of an answer, or pretty confident you’re not doing it right, you are in the perfect starting place. Pray as you can and somewhere along the way you will make the most important discovery of your life that the Father loves you. That discovery is God’s end of the deal. Your part is just to show up honestly. Show up. Keep showing up. That’s the one negoti non-negotiable when it comes to prayer. Keep showing up.

And that invitation is for everybody. If you need help learning how to just begin praying, write that on the connect card. And let’s talk this week about what it can look like to just begin.