Gooding, David: 3 - Proportions & Persistence in Prayer

I promised last evening that in this third session we would think together on the topic of persistence in prayer, which is a problem that besets many people, and that we will do presently, but for the moment we ought to continue a little with the topic that we were talking about earlier, and that is the question of proportion in prayer. To introduce that, therefore, let us read again the parable that we read from Luke chapter eleven and add thereto one or more suitable passages. Luke chapter eleven, verse five. And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight and say to him, Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine is come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him. And he from within shall answer and say, trouble me not, the now the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot rise and give thee. I say unto you, though he will not rise and give him because he is his friend, yet because of his shamelessness will he arise and give him as many as he needeth. And I say unto you, ask and it shall be given you, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. And which of you that is a father shall his son ask a loaf, and he shall give him a stone, or a fish, and he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he give him a scorpion? If ye then, being evil, know how to good gift- to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? In that same gospel, chapter eighteen: And he spake a parable unto them to the end that they ought always to pray and not to faint, saying, there was in a city a judge which feared not God and regarded not man. And there was in, there was a widow in that city, and she came oft unto him, saying, avenge me of mine adversary. And he would not for a while, but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man, yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest she wear me out by her continual coming. And the Lord said, Hear what the unrighteous judge says. Shall not God avenge his elect, which cry to him day and night, and he is long suffering over them? I say unto you that he will avenge them speedily. How be it, when the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? Verse thirty five. And it came to pass, as he drew nigh unto Jericho, a certain blind man sat by the wayside begging, and hearing the multitude going by, he inquired what this meant, and they told him that Jesus of Nazareth passeth by. And he cried, saying, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. They that went before rebuked him that he should hold his peace, but he cried out the more a great deal, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stood and commanded him to be brought unto him. And when he was come near, he asked him, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? And he said, Lord, that I may receive my sight. Jesus said unto him, Receive thy sight, thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his sight and followed him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise unto God. We were finding in our first session this afternoon that the section of Luke's gospel that begins in chapter ten and verse thirty eight is devoted primarily to a discussion by our Lord of the true proportions and priorities of life. And that applies, of course, not only to the pattern of prayer that he laid down in chapter eleven verses one to four, but also in the parable that he proceeds to tell in verses five to thirteen. We observe, of course, that that parable from five to thirteen is likewise devoted to the topic of prayer, and we shall presently find that it is a prayer in which we ask for the Holy Spirit, but of course, whether we get or not will depend upon what I have here for the time being translated, our shamelessness in asking. And our shamelessness in asking, we shall presently find, will depend on how urgent a priority we consider the thing to be for which we ask. That is an exceedingly important point in prayer. The urgency, the necessity with which I regard the thing for which I am asking. Now, I am aware that two difficulties face us when we come to interpret this parable, so let us take the parable slowly. The one difficulty is in the word which, as I say, I have translated, uh, from verse eight as shamelessness. In the revised version which I have in front of me, the verse reads like this: I say unto you, though he will not rise and give him because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity, he will arise and give him as money- many as he needeth. Many people, therefore, have taken this parable to be a parable saying that if only you are insistent enough, importunate enough, you will get what you ask. As though God wouldn't give it to you if you didn't insist. But then come the learned linguists, and they point out to us that the word in Greek does not mean importunity. But strictly me- it means shamelessness. And therefore, nowadays people debate, as ever they did, of course, but more so nowadays, as to what indeed our Lord was saying and what he meant by this particular word. So let's, uh, look at the parable itself first. Our Lord envisages a town in the ancient time in the Middle East, some of them a little different now from what they were then. And a man has a visitor come late at night and unannounced, finds he has not enough food to put before his guest. Now, of course, in the Middle East, in ancient times particularly, if a friend came to you, whatever hour of the day he came, you will feel bound in honor to provide him with as best a meal as you possibly could. So if the man arrived at two o'clock in the morning and knocked you up, and you got up and found it was your friend, you wouldn't say, well, have just a cup of coffee and go to bed, wait till breakfast. That would be a very serious offense against the code of hospitality prevalent in those parts. If he comes at two o'clock in the morning, you must forthwith spread him a sumptuous dinner, as sumptuous as you could possibly provide. And if you didn't, you would be ashamed of yourself, and you would get a bad name. Indeed, the whole village would get a bad name. If a stranger or a friend could come to that village in the middle of the night and not be welcomed with generous hospitality, there would be a mark placed in people's memory against that village as being an inhospitable and therefore a bad. Anyway, then the friend in the parable, he arrives in the middle of the night, and, uh, the house to which he comes hasn't enough food. So what does the man do who owns the house? Goes down the street to a friend of his, knocks on the door, and through the door he shouts to the man to get up and give him some bread or lend him some for a friend of mine, he explains, has come, and I must feed him, and I haven't got anything to, uh, put before him. Now, at that point, our Lord asks a question. What man of you, he said, addressing his eastern audience, and they would know the rules of hospitality because they belong to that part. What man of you would have a friend, you'll see, and you go to him in the middle of the night, you knock on his door, and you ask him to lend you some bread because a friend of yours has come and you haven't got anything, uh, in front of you. What man of you will have a friend like that, that when you ask him, would answer from inside, look, I'm in bed, and my children are with me, because they all slept in the same thing in the ancient times. My children are with me in bed, and I'm comfortable and snug and warm, and this is the middle of the night, man. I can't rise and give you. Would you ever have a friend like that, says our Lord? Oh, indeed they wouldn't. For if it would be a shameful thing for the first man not to feed his unexpected guest, then if he went along to his second friend and said, lend me some stuff in the middle of the night, and the man refused to get up and give him the stuff. That also would be counted an exceedingly shameful thing to do, and gain the village a very bad name. So, says our Lord, no, you wouldn't have a friend like that, would you? Of course you wouldn't. The man will get up and give the loaves that are asked. Why will he? Well, not so much because the man who asked is his friend. He mightn't do it in the name of friendship, but he will do it because of the man's... And here comes our word. What is it? What was it about the man and his request that made the other fellow get up out of bed and give him what he asked for. It wasn't because the man standing outside the door was his friend, it was because of the man's, uh... When the linguists differ, I take liberty to translate it literally, because of his shamelessness. What do you mean, shamelessness? Well, because it might well in common parlance, his cheek. Oh no, not a blush on his face, so it's the middle of the night, but if you could have seen him in daylight, not a blush on his face. When you knock on the door, he isn't apologizing and, oh, I'm sorry to come at this hour of the night, I'm sorry to disturb you, and I, I didn't want to disturb you really. I'll get you out the pen myself if you let me in. Uh, uh, none of that. No. That's a shamelessness. No sense of embarrassment whatsoever. He comes in the middle of the night and thinks it the most reasonable thing to do to get somebody up in the middle of the night to give him, uh, loaves of bread to put before his guests. Not the wink of shame. Not the slightest little bit of pink in his face. Let's use a modern illustration, because perhaps your attitude to guests who arrive off the M one in the middle of the night at half past two is slightly different from what they have in the Middle East. At least I shan't be trying it on you, not tomorrow night anyway. Oh, but let's see about the way we treat doctors and expect doctors to treat us. Here's Mama, and in the middle of the night, uh, you see six-year-old he violently sick, got a big temperature. Now, what shall mother do? Shall she ring up the doctor, get the doctor out of his bed to come, or not? Difficult decision sometimes, isn't it? Suppose she rang him up and got him out of his bed. There's six inches of snow outside, and the man came through the snow, and by the time he got there, the six-year-old had gone back to bed and was sleeping very well and healthily, thank you very much. And upon examination, it turned out to be no more than this, that he'd eaten four plates of strawberries at tea when he should only have had one, and was violently sick, and after that recovered. Wouldn't she feel ashamed of herself for having got the doctor out of bed at that hour of the night, covered with confusion and dismay? Yes, you should think so. And so Mama ponders this, is this little Johnny really sickening for appendicitis or something, that she urgently needs the medic? Or is it little Johnny has gorged too many gooseberries or something and will be perfectly okay tomorrow and ought really to have six of the best, more than penicillin. Ah, that might be a difficult one, but suppose, uh, in the middle of the night, her husband takes a heart attack. He's gone knee blue in the face, and the sweat is standing out on his forehead. Oh, she picks up the phone, doctor comes, all out a very different woman, summoning the doctor. There's no would you come if you please, and perhaps you ought to come. It's doctor, my husband's got a heart attack, come. You ask her, they've got an ambulance standing ready every hour of the day and night. And the woman whose husband got a heart attack would ring up, utterly sh- unashamed. And when the man came to the door through six inches of snow, she wouldn't be the slightest embarrassed and ashamed because she called him in the middle of the night. What is more, if the doctor was any decent at all doctor, he wouldn't be, uh, angry either. Why she wouldn't be be ashamed? Well, it's the urgency of the case, look. If she must act, she must have it. She wouldn't be ashamed to ask the man to come in the middle of the night. Her shamelessness then in asking would because because of the urgency of the need. And because not to, not to ask would in some sense be a terrible disgrace and a dereliction of duty. And the man in the parable, because they had different ideas of hospitality, he wouldn't be the slightest shamed. Because why? Well, because with them, not to feed a guest would be such an unsinkable failure of duty. The man would have no shame in knocking up his neighbor, and his neighbor would agree with him. If it were just a question of friendship, he'd say, wait till tomorrow, old boy, but to feed a guest who'd come. Well, nobody in that village would hesitate to do it. I say he'll rise and give him not because he is his friend, but because of his utter shamelessness. The man who's in bed and hears the sound outside, or recognizes in the tone of voice, doesn't he? And the old medic, the telephone rings, and in his slumbers he, uh, you know, yawns a telephone and hears your voice coming down the other end, my husband's got a heart attack, come quick. Picks up the tone of your voice, doesn't he? And he comes. And you say, whatever have I ever, whatever have I got so urgent as that, that I could ask with such utter shamelessness of God and expect God to give it. What? Well, the conclusion is in the last verse of the paragraph. How much more shall your heavenly Father give his Holy Spirit to them that ask. Ah, but here we get our second difficulty, don't we? This time brought in by the theologians. Ha. They say about, uh, Mr. Preacher. You know, that was a very good verse when it was spoken. It applied to the people who were living in our Lord's day because they were living before Pentecost. And therefore it was right and proper for them to ask for the Holy Spirit. But on the day of Pentecost, of course, you must know, Mr. Preacher, the Holy Spirit was given. He came. We don't have to ask for the Holy Spirit because we have the Holy Spirit. Every believer has. Why, indeed, if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he isn't a true Christian at all. Every believer, every single one of them, has been baptized in the Spirit and has been made to drink of the Spirit. Well, you're right there. Of course, that is so gloriously so, isn't it? Every believer baptized in the Holy Spirit, having been made to drink of the Holy Spirit, is in the Holy Spirit and the Spirit in him. Of course so. And in that sense, no believer needs to ask for the Holy Spirit. But then, is there no sense in which believers who have been sealed with the Holy Spirit need to ask for Holy Spirit? Or just to cover up my tracks and direct my fortresses against the theologians that would shoot me down? I read from Ephesians chapter one, and then I read from Eche- Ephesians chapter three, just to remind you it is in the Bible. For there Paul tells us, does he not, that he had heard of these people, that they had believed. When I heard of your faith, he says. And secondly, he tells them in chapter one that upon believing they had been sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, so they have the Holy Spirit. There's no doubt about it. And he tells them further in chapter three that in one spirit they have access unto the Father, so they have the Holy Spirit then. That is very clear, believers exactly like you and I are. And yet, and yet. He confesses in chapter one and he confesses in chapter three what it is he prays for. And on both occasions, it is for the work of the Holy Spirit in their heart, isn't it? For this cause, he says, I pray. Cease not to give thank- uh, thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, the eyes of your heart being enlightened. Paul is praying for the illumination of the believer's heart by God's spirit. And in chapter three, he tells us that he bows his knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, that he may grant you, that you may be strengthened with power through his spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. Two operations of the Holy Spirit in the heart of the believer that already possesses the Holy Spirit. The two operations for which Paul prays, and prays insistently. We need to pray it too, do we not? Though we are believers. For these things are not just once and for all things, but continuing processes. A spirit of wisdom and understanding in the knowledge of him, a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. The eyes of our heart being enlightened, not just our minds being informed, but our hearts, the deep well of our being, may be illumined by God's spirit. Why do I need it? That I might know in the first place what is the hope of his calling. I'm I'm saying. saved. What am I saved for? I do need to know why I'm saved, I don't know what am I saved for? Then see a man going to the trouble to go down to Messrs McCausen down the bottom of the road and hire a car, and when he got outside the garage, he said to himself, now there's a car here, uh, I've forgotten what I got it for now. What do I want this thing for? What are you doing here? What do we save for? What's the object of the exercise? What is the hope, that is the plan and the purpose that God holds beyond me, the reason why he saved me and the hope for which I would should be, uh, uh, stretching forward. And what's got to happen is that that hope has not just got to be a thing in my head that I've heard of, but a thing that somehow gets right down into my heart by the Holy Spirit's illumination, so it becomes a reality to me, and a vivid and a wonderful thing that kind of takes control and directs my energy. And then I need that God's Holy Spirit illuminate my heart to begin to change my value systems, that I may know what is the riches of the glory of God's inheritance in the saints. For all of us are infinitely more wealthy than we think we are. You say, how come that? How am I wealthy? Well, have you never pondered your brother or sister that's sitting next to you. Do you know what he is, what she is? She is, he is a bit of God's inheritance, you know. The Lord's portion is his people. When I get saved, I like to think what I get out of it, do you know? I ought to stop and consider what God is getting out of it, don't I? What is God getting out of this vast creation? And what is he getting out of it now he's redeemed it? Well, amongst other things, he's getting that, uh, fellow Christian of yours. Do you find that a kind of an anticlimax? Yeah, well, that's nice of God because he's a very loving God. Just want something more than that myself, for heaven. Yeah? Yeah? Do you know, without the slightest exaggeration, if you could see your sister, as one day she will be, you'd fall at her feet. Why, John, when he only saw an angel, said that the angel's feet. An angel's not even redeemed, are they? To see your brother and sister as they will be. When God's inheritance has been perfected and they are conformed to Christ, if you could see it now, you'd be down on your knees. Wouldn't be a right thing to do, but you would anyway. Do you believe it? Does it all sound fantastic and unreal? It does, doesn't it? And that's why we treat one another shabbily sometimes. And Christians get at loggerhead with Christians. Because their eyes aren't really enlightened yet. As to the wealth of God's inheritance in the believers. They don't really believe it. Oh, how it would transform our human relationships and relationships in the church. If the eyes of our very hearts were enlightened to perceive the exceeding riches of God's inheritance in that dear believer that sits by your side. Why, some of us scarce believe it about ourselves. And I pray for it, says Paul, the eyes of their heart be illumined by God's spirit. Then to know what is his power towards us. And how that power has already operated and secured that every believer is seated with Christ in heavenly places, is far on the road towards eternal glory already. What a wonder it would be in life, wouldn't it? If instead of thinking of the blessed Lord Jesus merely in heaven, if really we were strong enough in the inner man, that Christ dwelled in our heart. That needs strengthening. In this sense, yes, Christ is in every believer. In another sense, for Christ to take up his dwelling in all the rooms of our personality requires first an operation of God's spirit, a continuing strengthening of the inner man by his spirit to make it possible. I have sometimes thought, you know, I was living in a little back street in London last year, doing some work, and I had occasion from time to time I had to, when I wanted to go to my place of business and elsewhere, I had to go past the palace. And sometimes there came stupid thoughts into my head. Suppose I was invited in. I wasn't. Um. What would I say? And do? Suppose you've got our 2 and a half hours this afternoon to spend with the Queen. How would you manage? I find it all right to stand on the pavement and wag my Union Jack when she goes by, you know. But I have to spend time with the dear woman. What would you talk about? I dry up suddenly, I can't think of anything more to talk about, or what to say, or how to have real practical fellowship with somebody so exalted. And to do it, you'd need a bit of strengthening, wouldn't you? I should anyway. What about, uh, the Lord of glory? In that sense, dwelling in our hearts or our compass. For it I need to be strength. I have sometimes thought, you know, I was living a little back street in London last year, doing some work, and I had occasion from time to time I had to eat, when I wanted to go to my place of business and elsewhere, I had to go past the palace. And sometimes there came stupid thoughts into my head. Suppose I was invited in. I wasn't. Um. What would I say? And do. Suppose you've got out 2 and a half hours this afternoon to spend with the Queen. How would you manage it? I find it all right to stand on the pavement and wag my Union Jack when she goes by. But I have to spend time with the dear woman. What would you talk about? Dry up suddenly, I can't think of anything more to talk about, or what to say, or how to have real practical fellowship with somebody so exalted. And to do it, you'd need a bit of strengthening, wouldn't you? I should anyway. What about, uh, the Lord of Glory. In that sense, dwelling in our hearts or our compass. For it, I need to be strengthened by his spirit in the inner man, and to that end, Paul himself prays for the believers. They're already believers, but he prays for these two operations by God's spirit in their heart, and he prays, and he prays. And if I had any sense in my head I should pray to, would I get answered? Well, that will partly depend. Partly, I said. It partly depend on how serious you are. And whether you think you can get on without it. Consider the man in the parable. Sudden unexpected guest. Writes him in. Why there's no bread left in the pantry, nor meat either, nor a sausage. So, now he's got a decision. Now, well, let me see, it's half past two. Ah. Worth making a fuss about now, or could the old boy get by till tomorrow breakfast time or till the shops open? Well, whether he goes and asks for it will depend on how important he thinks it is. Whether he keeps on asking till he gets it will depend on how urgent he thinks it is. And so is this matter too. Easy for us to get our emotions stirred in a meeting and say, Lord, I would like that, and go away and forget it. For these things are not sort of sudden experiences all of a moment. They can involve such experiences. They are the work of a lifetime. For who would say that his eyes have already been illuminated enough, or his heart strengthened enough? Whether I keep on asking, expecting to get it. Depend on my shamelessness. My sense of urgency. And the sense in my heart that as I come to God, not God himself would disagree. God himself would say, yes, you are right, my good man. You do need the Holy Spirit's work in your heart. You have every right to come and insist, I agree with you, that this is a thing that must be attended to. Thus may you come, says the Savior. And if you have any doubts that you will be heard, thou, our Lord, seeks to silence them with two further remarks. First of all, the statement of spiritual laws that everyone that asks receives, and he that seeks finds, and to him that knocks it shall be open. That is an invariable law in the kingdom of God. Now, sometimes we get discouraged in our praying, don't we? I do, because I ask and nothing seems to happen at once. And when nothing seems to happen at once, then I get discouraged. It's not good, is it? So when I get home to heaven and the Lord says, Gurin, why did you give up praying? Um, five, six weeks on end. Why you say nothing happened, Lord? I mean, nothing appeared to be happening. Didn't you believe me when I said that everyone that asks receives? At this level, when we ask for this kind of thing, we're not asking now for a brand new motorcycle, we're asking for God's Holy Spirit's working in our hearts, and everyone who asks receives. And you can know this further, says our Lord, if you will think for a moment of your own attitude to your children. What father is there that his child would come and ask for a loaf or some meat or a fish, and the father would give him a stone or a serpent or a scorpion. No father would do that, even though human fathers are far from being perfect, can be very selfish, careless of their children. But if you, being evil as parents, yet have that milk of human kindness that you would give your child the food he needs, shall not your father? And so, as I come, I think of my need and the urgency of it and the utter necessity of it. And I think of the character of God. God himself would be less than perfect if I could come and ask this kind of thing and he failed to give it. And for that reason, says our Lord, you come and ask the workings of his spirit. And now I'm going to utter a great criticism, but it's a criticism of me as much as it is of you, and it might be not j- just of you, but it is of me. I've been in many a prayer meeting. I've heard requests for prayer being asked. I can't remember the last time I heard it asked, please pray for brother so and so, that he might be given the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of God. Have you? When did you last hear it prayed in the church, for the church, that God would give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him? Oh, we don't have to use those words, do we? This, according to our Lord, is one of the great priorities. Should have us at our prayers at all hours of day and night. Let's pass on from that then to the topic, for what time is left, that we promised just to mention, the question of persistence in prayer. Ought I to pray and go on praying and insist I get what I ask for? Or ought I to be content to say, ask and then leave it with the Lord and say, if it's your will, and just leave it and not mention it again? Can I come and claim, or... or must I, when I come, just ask and leave it to the Lord, whether he gives or not? And it seems to me that the simple answer to that matter depends on what it is you're praying for, in part. What things must I always pray for and keep on praying for and never give up praying for? Well, let's take the example that our Lord himself gave in Luke chapter eighteen. He spake a parable that men are always to pray and never give up and never faint. Oh, what was this about then? Pray for what? Ah, this time it's a prayer that God would avenge his elect. Cry unto him day and night, and he is long suffering over them. That's what it's a prayer for. For this parable in Luke follows our Lord's sermon on what things shall be like at the end of the age, just prior to the second coming. He has just told us at the end of the age, the world will be preoccupied like they were in the days of Noah, with their building and their business and their marriage and giving in marriage. So preoccupied with their daily occupations that the Lord will come before they know where they are. The Lord's coming, he says, will be like it was in the days of Lot. And men will be taken surprised and unawares, preoccupied with things material, unprepared for the coming of Christ. And because our Lord was talking about the coming of Christ and the end of this age and some of the terrible conditions that there will happen. Then he told this parable about the widow and the unjust judge that was geared to telling us that we must continue in prayer. We must not give up praying on this matter of God avenging his elect. Then our Lord indicated... I nearly said his doubt. I mustn't perhaps put it that way. But he said, you know, when the Son of Man cometh, shall he find face on the earth? Will he? Why is there any doubt? Well, just you consider the situation in the world anyway. Just you consider the situation in the world as it's ever been since the day that Cain killed Abel. Oh, what great wickedness there has been in the world. How terrible the persecutions. We remember our dear brethren and sisters of a bygone age, tarred and feathered and put on poles and lit as lights to lighten the gardens of his imperial majesty Nero, so his ladies and his gentlemen could dance in the light of Eden. Remember our dear brethren and sisters thrown to the lions, dispatched to the catacombs. We think of them eliminated in Albania now, and we think of them in Russia, and we think of them... in those so many lands when they are particular. And we think, don't we, of the man at work who won't, uh, idle his time away and insists on working properly and won't cheat, and gets into trouble with his fellow workmen who don't want to work, and perhaps loses his job. And we think of the principal of a firm because he won't cheat, goes under and is dismissed or demoted or suffers loss. It's a wicked old world, isn't it? Why doesn't God intervene and put it all right? Doesn't he care? Is it worth praying? Yes, that's what some people say, isn't it? Well, if there's a God, why doesn't he put the world right? Therefore, the believer is faced with a problem. Men are always to pray, says Christ, and not to feign. It is the fact that one of these days God will intervene. One day the Son of Man shall come. One day he shall put the world right. One day he shall avenge his elect, and no more believers will be persecuted, and sin will be put down. But in the long, long waiting, you must carry on praying. Why must I carry on praying? Oh well, our Lord told a parable to the end of men are always to pray and not to faint. He said there was this widow, you see, in this city, and there was the judge, and the widow had suffered, uh, at the hands of unscrupulous men in her town, you see, and they'd, uh, uh, cheated her. And so the widow goes along to the judge to try and get redress from these unscrupulous businessmen that cheated her, you see, but the judge wouldn't listen. Cared not for God no man, this judge. He wouldn't listen to the woman. Suspect he was in the, in the pay of the businessmen anyway. So he wouldn't listen to her. Hubbardy came again. Hubbardy wouldn't listen. Neither for man nor God. Hubbardy kept coming. And you know what some ladies are, don't you? They have that gift. Of course they want something. You don't think you're going to get rid of them just by saying no like that, do you? What? They kept working, as they say, uh, be it on their husband or on the unjust judge, whoever it was. You see, they're going to have what they want, and this woman kept coming and coming and coming and coming until she nearly beat the man black and blue, as the Greek has it, and gave him a few black eyes, metaphorically speaking. So even this heartless, unprincipled judge, he says to himself, uh, oh dear me, this woman has come pestering me. Oh, well, I expect I shall have to give it, for I shall get no peace if I don't. So just to get peace, unprincipled rogue that he was, he gave the woman what she asked in the end. Good job she didn't give up asking, wasn't he? Now, will you give up praying? Do you think what that would imply if you were to stop praying that God one day will intervene and put this world right. If you give up praying, my brother, you are implying that God is worse than that judge. And it ain't worse praying because God is so heartless that he couldn't care less. Don't believe that, do you? Ah, but you see your praying has important implications. Is it worth praying for all that are in authority, for kings and rulers? Is it worth praying in response to the Lord Jesus' word, surely I come quickly? Is it worth praying, even so come, Lord Jesus? Is it worth praying, thy kingdom come? How many folks have grown up and they've lost, they've lost their hope. They don't believe the professed prophecies of scripture anymore, and they've given up praying, and it implies that God's, uh, is so indifferent and hard and unsympathetic and unprincipled. He doesn't care of the difference between right and wrong. So is it, of course, with any promise in any area where God has given his promise. I am to pray. And if God in his wisdom delay the answer, I mustn't give up, may I? If it's a promise of God. Or to give up would be to imply that you've, uh, abandoned the idea that God will keep his promises. So in our praying, we are thinking, we are showing what we think of God. I have God's promises. I have the invitation and the command. When I pray, I can pray in the name of the Lord Jesus. There are some things that I can come and ask because they are explicitly indicated in God's word, and I know that this is the kind of thing that Christ himself would ask, then I may come and ask as though it were Christ asking. I may ask in the name and authority of the Lord Jesus. There's another way I can be insistent in prayer, isn't there? Because it would seem that prayer is not simply asking for things. All the Gospels except John record it that on one occasion, our Lord, in passing up and down the road from and to Jerusalem, saw a fig tree that was full of leaves and had no fruit. And passing by it, he cursed the fig tree and it shriveled. And when his disciples were astonished, he says, have faith in God, for I tell you, whatsoever things you ask, believe that you receive them, and it shall be happen. Oh. Now, had I been there when our Lord Jesus cursed that fig tree, I wouldn't have been thinking that he was praying. I, I would have thought he was commanding. And I said to the fig tree, rooted, he cursed it, wither. It was a kind of a prayer, however, a prayer in which he put forth the images of God. I suppose, I know not how you look at it, I suppose that when the Holy Spirit prays, as he prays within the believer, it is a form of God, the Holy Spirit, putting forth his divine energies within the believer. And I suspect when our blessed Lord prays at the right hand of God for us, it is because, not that he holds a different view from his father and must persuade his father to do something that his father wasn't considering. It is a form of the Godhead putting forth their divine energies. We are invited in the name of Christ thus to pray that God's will be done. In all our proportions, we mustn't forget, must we? I haven't forgotten it, but the time has said I mustn't talk too much about it. That we are concerned not merely for ourselves, we are concerned for the world outside. I come back to that passage of Luke with which we began. That section of Luke that begins in chapter eleven, no, begins in chapter ten indeed, with this consideration of what things are really necessary, and how our Lord had to adjust Martha's concept of what things in life are essential and urgently necessary. That part of Luke, as you know, ends in chapter thirteen, about two-thirds through. As it ends, we are told that our Lord was in a synagogue on one occasion, and there was a woman bound down, and she couldn't lift herself up, and our Lord healed her, and it was the Sabbath day. And the ruler of the synagogue began to object and say, look, are there not six days in the week when you can come and be healed? You come and be healed on them, but don't you come on the Sabbath to be healed. It was a criticism of Christ, wasn't it? And our Lord said, you hypocrite, you hypocrite. Which man of you, if he had an ass on a Sabbath day, wouldn't loose it and lead it away to watering, even though it was a Sabbath, wouldn't you? Oh, yes, of course you would. The farmer got a donkey. Yes, he would loose it on the Sabbath day and take it to water, of course he would, but then that's necessary, isn't it? I mean, that's one of the essential things. Even on the Sabbath, that would take priority. It's got to be done. It's one of those, uh, inescapable, essential, necessary things of life to keep your donkey alive. Oh, so keep your donkey alive, sir, he said. And this woman, whom Satan has bound these eighteen years. Wasn't it necessary for her to get released? Wasn't it? Necessary to lose the donkey, not necessary to lose this woman from the bond of Satan? You hypocrite, said Christ. Is it not number one necessity. Men be released from their bondage to Satan. Therefore, we not only preach, but we pray. Pray for me, says Paul, that utterance may be given to me in the gospel, that I speak it as I ought to speak it. Proportions in prayer. Or persistence in prayer. But then, of course, there are other things where we may not persist, are there not? There are things that Christ has not guaranteed he will give us. Nor God either. And for them we ask. And if it pleases him and is for our good, he grants it. And if it isn't, we must take no for an answer, mustn't we? He is pleased sometimes to hear our prayers and raise the sick. Sometimes he doesn't. We've no guarantee he will always cure the sick. We must learn to do like Paul did. He had a thorn in the flesh. He thought his service to the Lord would be improved if he were relieved of that thorn. Thrice he besought the Lord, and thrice the Lord said, my grace is sufficient. And Paul was left with his. And the supreme example of him who was Lord of all, when he kneeled in the garden and the stones hurt his knees as he prayed, as eloquently as he knew how to pray. Abba Father, he said. And it wasn't the length of the prayer, it was its eloquence. Abba Father. Praying to God by the love of God, by his father's heart. Abba Father, he said. All things are possible to you. Praying by God's power. You love me. You could do it. Then let this cup pass from me. That was sincerity itself. But oh, how you rejoice tonight as you sit on that seat. But he didn't leave it there. But he said, nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done. Shall not we in our circumstance, yes, come with a child's confidence and say, Father, you love me and you could do it, this thing I ask. Do it. But... it's not one of those things that is guaranteed. Therefore, not my will, but thine. Be done. The Lord bless his word for his name's sake.