LUKE 18:1-8

1. LUKE 18:1-8

2. Have you ever wondered if prayer really makes a difference? • Have you stopped praying because of discouragement and doubt? • How many of us have actually given up and stopped praying?

3. This parable of Jesus is immediately after His warning concerning the Second Coming. (Luke 17:20-36) • Jesus was emphasizing the need to be watchful with the need to pray. • Jesus gives 5 wonderful reasons never to give up. • What are they?

4. Jesus point in telling this parable was that they do not lose heart in prayer.. (v.1) • Prayer is not something that we ought to do if it pleases us. • We “must” pray. • If we do not pray, we will lose heart.

5. It is said that George Mueller, the founder of the great Christian orphanage in England was a great man of prayer. • He continued to pray even when the answer seemed delayed. • When he was young, he prayed for two of his friends to be saved.

6. He prayed for more than sixty years. • One was converted shortly before Mueller’s death. • The other, a year after his death. • The first character in this parable is a judge. • He did not fear God or man.

7. In New Testament times, the courtroom was not a building but a tent. • It moved from place to place. • The judge set the agenda. • Only those who were approved and accepted had their cases tried.

8. The second character in this parable is a widow. • As a widow, she had little standing before the law. • Widows were often oppressed and taken advantage of. (Is. 1:17, 23)

9. She did not have a husband to stand with her in the court. • She was also poor and her adversary was oppressing her. • Her situation seemed hopeless. • But she was persistent. • Every day she begged the judge for help.

10. In the court, in front of his friends, in the street, in the market and at his home. • Her only option was to keep asking the judge to help her. • She had no other alternative.

11. Verse 4 says that the judge finally became weary of her constant petitions. • Although the judge keeps refusing, she keeps coming. • The judge is finally moved to help to save his own reputation.

12. A Note from Wesley’s Diary • Sunday morning May 5 – preached at St. Ann’s, asked not to come back again. • Sunday p.m. May 5, preached at St. John’s. Told to get out and stay out. • Sunday a.m. May 12 , preached at St. Jude – cannot go back there again. • Sunday p.m. May 12 preached at St. George’s – kicked out again.

13. Sunday a.m. May 19 preached at St. Peter’s – told not to return. • Sunday p.m. May 19 preached in the street – kicked off the street. • May 26 a.m. preached in a meadow – a bull was let loose. • Sunday June 2 a.m. preached at the edge of town, kicked out again.

14. June 2 p.m. afternoon service in a field – 10,000 people came to hear the Word. • Do not give up, the answer is around the corner.

15. Delay is not denial. • We have always struggled with the silence of God in regards to some prayers. • God answers all pleas of justice and does so quickly.

16. The moment God hears our request, if it is His will, He begins to work out the answer. • A soldier was hitchhiking his way back home. • Stops a car.Gets a lift. • Just 30 minutes from his home, begins to share the Gospel to the driver.

17. The driver stops the car. • Bows down his head and receives Christ. • Thanks the soldier for sharing Christ. • The date was May 7. • Five years later, the soldier decides to visit his friend. • Unable to meet him, but meets his wife.

18. Inquires about her husband. • Tells her how he shared the Gospel to him. • Asks if he remembers the date. • May 7. • Her husband was involved in a car crash that day. He never came home.

19. She had prayed for years for her husband salvation. • Never knew God had kept His word. • Do not give up. God is working out the answers

20. Why are we to be persistent in prayer? • Because prayer demonstrates faith. • Without faith, prayer is but a ritual. • We need to concern ourselves not on the faithfulness of the Lord but rather on our own faithfulness.