June 13 | The Parable of the Persistent Widow | Kristi McLelland

[Music] good morning church of the city y'all ready to worship come on stand to your feet father we come to you this morning with the joy in our hearts ready to lift our hearts ready to lift our hands ready to lift our voices in our eyes to you the king of kings we've come to worship we adore you here lord go [Music] [Music] you know this one [Music] [Music] [Music] me so open it up [Music] is [Music] [Music] and [Music] [Music] who can stop the lord almighty who can't stop the lord almighty sometimes you just gotta remind yourself who can stop the lord there's nobody [Music] there's no great better [Music] is [Music] [Applause] is [Music] is [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] is [Music] [Music] my [Music] there's nobody like you there's no one stronger there's no one greater oh jesus you're the lion you're the lamb and you're fighting for your children oh you're winning all our battles thank you lord and who can stop the lord almighty oh who can stop the lord almighty there's no one stronger who can stop the lord almighty come let's just sing that i say who can stop the lord who can stop him or who can stop the lord almighty we remind our souls who can stop who can stop the lord [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] until you came along you put me back together now every desire is now satisfied right here [Music] i know it's true [Music] [Music] cause the god of the mountain there's not a place [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] is shame and glory come on and turn it around you're the only hope nobody else can do it two currencies [Music] [Music] you're you're the only only [Music] lord there's nothing come on [Music] nobody beat you lord well there's nothing better than you [Music] nobody nobody worth is nothing nothing is better i love you lord for your mercy never fails me [Music] [Music] until i lay my head [Music] [Music] with every breath that i made [Music] of the goodness [Music] is [Music] [Applause] with every breath that i am [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] is [Music] oh [Music] that i made [Music] [Music] where jesus split and died for me i'll see his wounds his hands his feet my savior [Music] entrenched in tears they laid him down and just still the entrance in by heavy stone [Music] cyst praise the name of the lord our god oh praise his name forever for endless days we will see your praise [Music] the sun up [Applause] [Music] [Music] oh [Applause] we will see [Music] who shall return [Music] [Music] and i will rise on jesus [Music] is is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] just all over this room right now let's just take a minute maybe two minutes and just begin to sing your own song the bible says god inhabits the praises of his people let's begin to lift him up oh maybe you just need to sing the name of jesus oh jesus oh jesus [Music] [Music] [Music] please [Music] [Applause] [Music] there [Music] break is chain break everything [Music] [Music] [Music] break every day [Music] me [Music] foreign [Music] oh father we just praise you um because you're worthy of praise god and i can imagine there are several hundred people even thousands of people in this room god that are singing from this place of just excitement and uh just this this place of knowing and sensing your goodness in this moment there are others in this room god that are singing from a place of trusting even in the not knowing experientially right now that you're good maybe because of a circumstance god so all of us collectively god regardless of our the sense we have the feeling that we have god we're worshiping you in spirit and in truth so we just thank you god we thank you that there are those that we can those that might be a little bit lower can kind of ride the backs of god and just kind of be in the in their wake so to say and so we just thank you god we praise you you're worthy of our praise we worship you in spirit and truth we're grateful for this time god we don't take it for granted lord the opportunity we have to gather together and to worship and i just thank you for this full room we love you lord we worship you in jesus name we pray amen well good morning church in the city you guys can take your seats and glad to see you all here it is a full packed house today and i'm glad to see it yeah i'm uh i'm just looking around i'm just like i wonder how many people we have from california how many people from new york and the california people probably annoyed at like this point like just stop joking about us coming here just want to be here with you i just had one of my baby sisters move here from japan last night at one in the morning i picked her from the airport another tennessean i'm grateful to have here so uh you don't have to clap for that but i'm excited so thank you um just good morning um if we've never met before my name is jonathan pitts i'm one of the pastors here on staff uh privileged to be a pastor here on staff and excited to be with you today and if you're visiting for the first time the second time or the third time we hope you feel at home today um here in this place of worship as you can tell we like to worship here at church of the city so glad to have you here today um i want to just say thank you for those of you that are continuing to keep these doors open with your tithes and your offerings um you know ultimately we've kind of changed the way that we do tithes and offerings here at church of the city with covid and all that but i want to i want to pray for our giving because we have hundreds and actually thousands of families that give every single week to not only keep our programming going our kids ministry our student ministry and all the things that we're doing but also our missional partnerships we have 26 missional partners at this point organizations outside of our own that we're actually sending money out to that are supporting um just different groups different marginalized groups in our community just different people that are in need and we get to be a part of that work so thank you for being a part of that and i want to pray for the gifts that have been given if you've not given yet and you want to give cotc.com forward slash give you can give there if you want to give cash or checks when you go out the back you have an opportunity to do that as well but let's just pray for our collective giving today father we're just grateful for the fact lord everything that we have is yours every dollar we've received every job we have every gift that we have god it's yours and so we just gladly and freely give back to you and i just pray god that every gift that you give would be stewarded well by our team here god for the uh for your glory and for the good of others lord that we get to serve so thank you for that opportunity thank you for uh just the abundance uh that you've put us in you put us in a place of abundance and to steward abundance god so i ask that you'd help us to steward it well we love you we trust you in jesus name amen well a couple quick announcements for you before we move on to our teaching today and the first is if you want to join this church you've moved here recently or you've been wanting to join and you're looking for an opportunity we have a couple of stakeholder classes coming up our stakeholders are what we call our members here at church of the city you're invested i'm invested we're stakeholders and so june 15th and august 3rd the next two classes june 15th is coming up a couple days here if you want to register go to cotc.com forward slash franklin you can register registration will be closed the day of so if you don't make it by the day by the 15th you can come on august 3rd but registration will be closed on the day of so register by the 14th for the class of the 15th on august 2nd for the august 3rd class it's at 6 30 p.m it's a digital course online again june 15th and august 3rd uh next cotc dailies are a daily devotional that our pastoral team does and right now we're in the book of proverbs you should get that delivered via text message to your phone at any time and if you've not signed up for that awesome opportunity to start your day off in god's word together collectively kind of uh in unison so if you're interested in getting signed up to to get those cotc dailies uh text cotc daily to 94090 again that's 94090 text cotc daily to 94090 uh next noonday prayer we actually kicked off our noonday prayer 12 p.m on wednesdays couple people are here in the front gary i see you uh i had more than 100 people here this past wednesday for our noon day prayer we are committed to prayer committed to seeing freedom amongst ourselves and for our community and so we're just going to be seeking the lord every uh noon on wednesdays every wednesdays at noon uh here at franklin and then also uh downtown our downtown church will be doing it on tuesdays spring hill will be doing it on thursdays you guys can attend all those but here at franklin you can join us in the chapel again we had more than 100 people there for that was awesome but it's a new practice that we're just trying to intentionally set time aside just to pray and to worship together and so again this tuesday 12 p.m join us the last thing i want to share you guys many of you know i've been leading what's called the advisory council for race justice and reconciliation it was kind of my honor to uh to begin that that team and now we have probably about 50 people that are actively involved in in that and we are consistently seeking opportunities to learn continuing um to act on the behalf of others in our community especially those that are marginalized and continuing to seek reconciliation both reconciliation with god but then also reconciliation with each other and if you're interested in learning more about that you haven't heard about that before you can go to cotc.com forward slash reconciliation that page is kind of dedicated to the things that we're doing and some learning some different books and resources that we have but you can visit that there but one of the things that we've been doing recently is we've actually partnered with three organizations in our community the first of which is strong tower bible church many of you guys will know pastor chris williamson we've partnered with their church as well as the african american heritage society and a project called the fuller story project in franklin and the fuller story basically came about because there were a bunch of pastors in the franklin area that were trying to figure out what do we do we've got all these different ways of of um understanding how to move forward with with all that's happening with race and our culture and our city and um they actually came up with an idea to um to to put together some historic um markers in our community that kind of tell the fuller story of what's happened in our city and some of that injustices that happened years ago and some of that are just great things that have happened and so they're telling those stories and so there's a couple of events that are happening juneteenth is a day that many of you guys might not know that celebrated in our country specifically in the south i grew up in the north in new jersey i didn't know what juneteenth was until i turned like 30. but juneteenth is a day where um many african-americans in addition to celebrating 4th of july as a day of freedom also celebrate juneteenth because june june 19 1980 or 1865 was a day where the slaves in texas specifically found out that they were actually free two and a half years after the emancipation emancipation proclamation and so it's a day of celebration and so what's happening in franklin uh this coming saturday are two events one at pinkerton park which is a the 17th it's called the 17th annual juneteen celebration health fair and the other is a celebration of freedom uh the first is happening in pinkerton park the second is happening on the square and so our team is actually joined to volunteer and actually support those events many of your brothers and sisters in christ and the predominantly african-american churches will be out there just celebrating and um and just encouraging each other and so we've joined in just a partner it's a fun and exciting thing that we're getting to do and i would love if you have any interest in joining us joining our team out there we're going to have a table in pinkerton park that's going to be from 12 to 3 in pinkerton park and then the event happening the fuller story event happening on the town square will be from 10 to 4 in downtown franklin so if you're just walking around you're like what's going on just know they're juneteenth celebrations and the event in uh on the square is actually uh in celebration of a colored soldier um marker and a monument that will be a that will be directed in uh the coming weeks and so they're just celebrating we're just celebrating that would love for you to join us out there for that but um anyway thank you for supporting me in the work i do many of you guys have encouraged me in this work and i'm really grateful for that but without anything further we're going to be stepping into our fifth week in our series storyteller christy mcclellan is up to teach us in god's word so i'm excited about that but before that we're going to share another story we've been sharing a story every week here's another one for you guys to check out so father's day of 2020 we had this incredible surprise that my husband adam and i were to be expecting a little baby we were so excited so on september 10th of 2020 i had a dream and i saw our little baby and she was in just a white bassinet this bassinet of white and it almost looked like she was laying on lamb's wool i remember looking at her and thinking this is the most beautiful baby i've ever seen and she had this little curly hair and she had these beautiful eyes and she was just giving these gut laughs and then she paused for a moment and looked sad no don't don't cry baby don't cry it's okay it's okay and i could just sense the presence of the lord over my right shoulder and so she began to smile again and i woke up thinking oh my goodness i just saw my kid and i can't wait to meet her and on september 11th i had so much hope and faith and confidence that i was going to have a healthy pregnancy but i realized by the afternoon that the lord had given me a divine opportunity to meet a baby that i would never actually get to hold in my hands this side of heaven we found out on september 11th in the afternoon that we actually lost her that was an unexpected blow to the chest and so the first thing that i wanted to do when my body healed was just get into the house of the lord in worship and i remember adam and i going up to the back corner of the balcony sitting in worship service and just pouring out our hearts to god pouring out our worship and our hearts to god and that was the sunday that christy mcclellan was preaching and she was talking about the word shema and how it's the same meaning for to hear as it is for to obey i said god you know what in every season even in my grief i want to hear and obey your word i want to hear and obey your voice i want to do what you say and as clear as he was sitting next to me and as clear as somebody in the room were speaking i heard him say then finish the nursery and that just took the breath out of me and i just began to cry and i looked over at adam and i said adam i've heard the voice of the lord he said finish the nursery and he looked at me for a second and said then that's what we're going to do. a couple weeks later the church had um an infant lost service that just impacted me incredibly and throughout this season i just been living in this this grief this heaviness that i knew was normal and natural to lament but it was a heaviness that it wasn't from the lord i knew it wasn't from the lord and i just needed it to come off and it came off in that service at the infant lost service and i went home feeling this sense of freedom and this ability to move forward and at that point was really when i could open up that nursery door again i had a friend call me first thing in the morning i had a dream last night and in the stream you were pregnant and i said i'll put that in my back pocket and fast forward into november we were up in the mountains really just taking a time to reflect remember how big god is how good he is even in these seasons even in these trials and i could just hear him whisper but remember my promise and in that moment i immediately began to feel a little ill only for us to figure out as soon as we got home the next day that somehow i had gotten pregnant when the doctor said i wasn't supposed to the week of my friend's dream back in october and i said goodness you did it lord you spoke to me at this point you pulled me out of the depths at this point you were working things together at this point and i had no clue until we got to the end and he said remember my promise then the story still isn't over but i know that i can trust a minute because he's brought me this far my name is ilea and this is my story oh good morning church family good morning good morning stories are powerful ilea and adam we are with you celebrating how many of you saw ilea leading worship this morning with that beautiful pregnant belly that baby's gonna come out with a microphone singing all 97 verses of amazing grace perfect on pitch it's going to be amazing stories are powerful it was john tyson up at church of the city new york that said this religious people have preferences missional people have stories you know when you take the adventure with the living god when you take him by the hand and when you walk out the way of the kingdom with him you come up with your own stories your own stories of deliverance of freedom you see the living god living in your midst having his way bringing the kingdom of god down to the ground full of shalom and harmony wholeness and delight make some noise if the living god's been faithful in your life thus far yeah we're not going to get to the end of our lives and look at him and say you owe me he will have proved himself faithful from beginning to end in ilea's story in our stories in your story in the story of the world see we can smile this morning we can breathe this morning because right now the living god is working a deep and profound restoration renewal and repair to all things and this we take hope we're all going to fool around and make it because of who the living god is amen amen well we're going to finish our enter into our storytellers series this morning we have been walking through the parables of jesus in the new testament last week darren walked us through the parable of the friend at midnight anchored in prayer and today we're going to stay in that same tributary in that same vein of parabolic thought but before we come to our parable today i want to talk a little bit about how jewish parables work when a sage and a rabbi of israel when they use a parable which they did all of the time they are using these stories to share their theologies their perspective on who god is and what he's like what it means to walk with him one third of jesus's written words in the new testament words in red are given to us in parabolic or parable form jesus is full of parables he's full of stories and we have some of them recorded in the gospels it's interesting when we begin to realize that our english word for parable it comes from the greek word parabol which is related to a word parallelos which is where we get the word parallel so a little bit more specifically a jewish parable is a story told in the parallel where different characters different things are being compared and contrasted and parables teach us about who jesus is what he's like and what the kingdom of god is like and what it is like for us to partner with the living god in the repair of the world we do not want to be just spectators of the faith we want to be participants in the faith walking with the living god walking out the way of jesus in the world and the point of a jewish parable is somewhat different than some of our western stories which are given to us for entertainment a jewish parable the purpose is to drive you to a decision a parable is meant to knock you off center it's meant to make you ponder to make you lean in to make you look to make you think to make you correct to make you calibrate your life in the way of jesus it's not given to entertain you it's given to provoke you unto all righteousness it is meant to move you to verb your faith in a new and refreshed way some parables are so powerful they literally function like a bomb they will just go off right in front of you and you're left with no other decision than to respond to act to lean into it and before we come to our jesus parable this morning i want to actually show you an example of another parable from the old testament that functioned like a bomb it went off and it provoked someone to a life-changing decision so if you could go back with me to second samuel chapter 12 when we pick up our storyline here in the bible king david has misused his power and he who has multiple wives has taken the wife of uriah the hittite one of his 30 mighty men he has committed adultery with her he has had uriah the hittite killed and because he's the king of israel everyone knows what he's done but who's going to confront the king who's going to go to king david and say look at what you did he holds the power so who's going to check the king in power well in second samuel chapter 12 the lord is going to send a prophet his name was nathan and nathan's getting ready to check king david but he's not just going to walk in and say hey king david you did something kind of bad he's going to use a parable and as we walk our way through it i want you to notice how david doesn't even see it coming until the very end and then the parable is going to go off like a bomb in front of him and david is left with no other decision than to respond to lean in to verb so our passage is found in second samuel 12 this old testament parable and it reads like this and the lord sent nathan to david and when he came to him he said there were two men in a certain town one rich and the other poor do you see the parallel we have two men one rich one poor set side by side the rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle but the poor man had nothing except one little you lamb he had bought he raised it and it grew up with him and his children it shared his food drank from his cup and even slept in his arms it was like a daughter to him everybody go um we love this little poor man with his one little you lamb our story continues now a traveler came to the rich man but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a mill for the traveler who would come instead he took the ulam and belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who would come to him everybody say that slow down our story continues david burned with anger against the man and said to nathan as surely as the lord lives the man who did this deserves to die he must pay for that lamb four times over because he did such a thing and had no pity then nathan said to david you are the man did you see the bomb go off how many of you wish you could have seen david's face in that moment that phrase you are the man in hebrew it's literally the biblical version of you demand but not in a good way and most scholars would tell you and i agree with it that it was this moment it was this parable going off like a bomb in front of david that drove him to repentance and even to psalm 51. that beautiful psalm of repentance that we have in the psalter the parables are not meant to entertain you they are meant to drive you to a decision so if you're ready to be driven to a decision with me this morning say i'm ready if you'll stand with me for the reading of god's word today our jesus parable our story meant to drive us to decision it's found in luke chapter 18. it's verses 1 through 8 and the word of the lord for us today says this then jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up and he said in a certain town there was a judge who neither feared god nor cared about men and there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea grant me justice against my adversary for some time he refused but finally he said to himself even though i don't fear god or care about men yet because this widow keeps bothering me i will see that she gets justice so that she won't eventually wear me out with her coming and the lord said listen to what the unjust judge says and will not god bring about justice for his chosen ones who cry out to him day and night will he keep putting them off i tell you he will see that they get justice and quickly however when the son of man comes will he find faith on the earth this is the word of the lord thanks be to god as you take your seat if we could go back two thousand years ago to the world of jesus this story would have been very unusual and it would have piqued the interest of the listeners and the hearers and it would have made them lean in and one of the things to note before we start to walk our way through this morning is 2 000 years ago in jesus's world sages and rabbis weren't really using women in the subject matter of their stories women were considered too lowly to communicate the divine jesus comes on the scene and when he is shaping and forming and writing and teaching his parables and stories he so often writes women into it if you want to know who jesus is and what he's like he believes women can communicate the divine amen and we see it over and over and over again in the four gospels we have approximately 27 pairings in the gospels given by jesus christ what's appearing a pairing is a moment where jesus would give two parables one in the masculine and one in the feminine sometimes the masculine story comes first sometimes the feminine story comes first but jesus is adamant about including women in the subject matter of his stories bringing women into the story inviting them to the table and making sure they know that they are being invited to participate with helm in the restoration renewal and repair of the world and it's this kind of a story that we are going to find today now this parable luke 18 1-8 it's known by two different names one of them is the parable of the unjust judge but that sounds like an awful story i don't want to read a story about an unjust judge it's also called the parable of the persistent widow how many of you would rather read that story it just sounds better so we're gonna go with that today is our parable of the persistent widow and we're getting ready to walk our way through it with a better understanding of how jesus's hearers would have heard it understood it and sought to live it out 2 000 years ago in luke 18 verse 1 we find this then jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up for some of the parables throughout the new testament the explicit meaning of the parable is not provided i think in those moments we are invited as a faith community to yeshiva together to lean in together to ponder to discuss it together at other places in the new testament when a parable is given the explicit meaning and purpose of the parable is provided and that's what we have today in our story jesus is telling his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up now one thing to note here is jesus isn't just talking about prayer he's talking about hard prayer he's talking about prayer over time in those places in your life of deep longing and deep ache deep want that you keep bringing it before the lord and you keep bringing it before the lord and there doesn't seem to be movement there doesn't seem to be an answer jesus is talking about persistent prayer what we might say prayer with hutzpah just relentless prayer not giving up how many of you have something in your heart in your soul in your very belly right now that you deeply long for ache for and desire that you have prayed about for a very long time and up until this moment where we're sitting here together the living god has not answered it raise your hand i want you to connect with that part of your story and that part of your life and this parable is speaking to that part in you in luke 18. so if jesus is talking not just about prayer but hard prayer persistent prayer hutzpah prayer in the achings and the longings he could have used examples when he wanted to write a parable from the old testament there are so many greats throughout the history of israel that he could have used if you want to talk about big prayer it would make sense to bring out the big guns and i want to show you just a quick example of some of the greats and their prayers that he could have used as an example from the old testament he could have gone with father abraham all the way back in genesis when he was praying for sodom and gomorrah he could have used jacob one of the three patriarchal fathers of the faith when he was wrestling with the living god at the river javik he could have used moses when he was praying for the israelites after the disaster of the golden calf he could have used hannah who in her barrenness kept crying out to the lord for a child she would go on to be the mother of one of the greatest prophets of israel his name was samuel he could have used nehemiah that powerful prayer in nehemiah 1 where nehemiah is praying lord let me go back to yerushalayim to jerusalem let me rebuild the walls of my city jesus is talking about big prayer and he had some big people from the old testament that he could have used but if you want to know who jesus is and what he's like when he shaped a story about prayer with hutzpah he didn't use the greats of israel he used a woman and not only a woman he used a widow woman she is going to be the hero the heroine i don't know how to say that word of this story and it is beautiful for us to behold so as we come to it now together in luke chapter 18 verses 2 and 3 here's our parable and he said in a certain town there was a judge who neither feared god nor cared about men now stop and pause two thousand years ago when they hear this first line everybody's already on edge because they're being introduced to a judge who has power but the text says that he neither feared god nor cared about men and in middle eastern culture if you want to implore somebody to do something for you you will appeal to their love of god or their love of their fellow man what are the two greatest commandments love god and your neighbor and so we're being introduced to a judge who neither loves god nor his neighbor and yet he holds power jesus is going to call him the unjust judge i call him the creepy judge he is a creepy judge and everybody's on end because they're already thinking whoever has to stand before this judge is not going to get what they need justice will not be served in this moment our story continues and there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea grant me justice against my adversary now this is really interesting in that world that a widow would be coming before a judge period because women in jesus's world were not allowed to give testimony in court their testimony was considered unreliable and so the very fact that in this story we have a widow coming before this judge we're learning a few things about her most likely we know she doesn't have a husband because she's already been called a widow but it probably also means that she has no father no uncle no brother no son no nephew no grandson she is a woman in the ancient world without male affiliation or male protection and covering she is alone alone and in that aloneness she has to stand before not a good judge but a creepy judge and advocate for the justice that she needs everybody hearing this story knows exactly how this story is going to end this judge is going to waylay her not only will she not get what she needs she will probably suffer some kind of injury in it our story continues luke 18 4 and 5 and for some time he refused but finally he said to himself even though i don't fear god or care about men yet because this widow keeps bothering me i will see that she gets justice so that she won't eventually wear me out with her coming in this moment everybody's eyes get huge and they look to each other like did he did we just hear that right are you kidding me this widow with zero power is standing for a judge with all the power and she is actually going to get what it is that she needs not because she was powerful but because she was persistent it wasn't her might that got it done it's the fact that she wouldn't leave the joker alone that's what's making this story work and no one is expecting the dynamic change that jesus brings in this story our judge who is up here and our widow who is down here jesus rearranges the room and by the end of it we have our widow who has up ended this judge with singular persistence as a woman advocating for justice in her world if you want to know what the kingdom of god is like because the parables are given to teach us what the kingdom of god is like then according to jesus the prayer of one widow has the power to upend a judge i want you to think about your prayers in light of what jesus is saying here and the story goes on in luke 18 6-7 and the lord said listen to what the unjust judge says and will not god bring about justice for his chosen ones who cry out to him day and night this is not just a parable about prayer this is a parable about hutzpah prayer persistent prayer in the heart i want to ask you a question this morning when was the last time you bothered the living god with your prayers when was the last time you cried out day and night when was the last time it was so painful to stay active in your ache longing and hopeful expectation of what god can do in that situation in your life that you stayed in it you squared up to the living god and you kept praying and you kept asking with hutzpah this is what jesus is talking about in this story you know we are all coming out of covet and everything all around it and honestly i think we're all coming out of it a little bit weird uh you're weird sorry you're just a little bit weird i'm a little bit weird we're we're just kind of off center we're just we're trying to find our way entering back into normalcy we've lost some things major adaptations modifications to our lives all kind of things going on if there's ever been a time for us to take jesus at his word about the power of prayer i really think it is in this season and i think it's why as a church family we are really leaning into a season of intentional prayer and this week as i was reading through the story and praying a thought came to my mind because we are in a season of communal prayer together here at church of the city and i started thinking if the prayers of one widow can upend a creepy judge what could god do with the collective prayers of church of the city what could he do with our prayers prayed together as a church family the unity in the diversity how might the living god bring the kingdom of god down to the ground that we could actively participate with him in it how many of you want to see wholeness shalom flourishing and delight be the reality of people postcoded we want to see that i want it in my life i want it in your life and i want it for the world that a buoyancy would come back to us that we would catch the wind in ourselves that we would live forward from this era of time as members of a new humanity and jesus and that we would be a people of prayer there's a passage in the new testament as we get ready to close this morning for me this is one of the most fascinating passages in the entire new testament and it's jesus in another place talking about prayer and i want us to end on this today because we're in a season of prayer together as a church family in john chapter 14 verses 13 and 14 jesus is speaking words in red he says this and i will do whatever you ask in my name so that the son may bring glory to the father you may ask me for anything in my name and i will do it now that is incredible because jesus is saying you may ask me for anything in my name and i will do it raise your hand if you prayed for some things and god didn't do it raise your hand how do we line up the reality of those things in our lives with this passage they don't seem to align jesus what are you talking about i can ask you for anything in your name and you'll do it are you kidding me i could give you a list of things that i've asked you for but to this very moment you haven't done it how are we to make sense of this passage well i certainly don't have all the answers to that but one thing i want to raise in front of your faces as a church family in this season of prayer is this two times in this passage jesus uses the word you whatever you ask in my name you may ask me for anything in my name and i will do it that word you in the original greek text is plural it's not your prayers it's you all it's corporate it's communal now i am from rural mississippi so a much better understanding of this would be jesus saying this and i will do whatever y'all ask in my name so that the son may bring glory to the father y'all may ask me for anything in my name and i will do it now some of you have moved here from california new york so let me help you y'all means you all and we say that a lot down here in the south this passage isn't just talking about your individual prayers it is talking about the collective communal prayers of the saints prayed together what might the living god do in the earth through our prayers not just your prayers not just my prayers but our prayers together you know there's another part in the bible where jesus says something like this and you have not because you ask not and y'all have not because y'all do not ask what of the kingdom of god does god want to bring to the ground through your prayers and through mine offered together and as we prepare to come to a close this morning i want to ask you a question that is not theologically sound so don't write it down i'm just asking to make a point if the condition of church of the city franklin depended on your prayers how would she be doing we are siblings in the lord are you coming to the table are you leaning in are you praying for one another are you praying with one another are you holding your seat in this family are you taking your place in this family can we count on your prayers will we live in such a way that you can count on our prayers jesus says the prayer of a widow can upend the judge what can he do through the manifold multiplied prayers of the saints in the earth in this season of human history as we close this morning it was thomas merton who wrote prayer is waiting for a word that we cannot speak to ourselves when we come together as the church and we pray we are posturing ourselves to hear the word of the lord that we cannot speak to ourselves self-talk will only take you so far sometimes we need the voice of the lord in our lives well if the purpose of a parable is to drive us to a decision then our action step today is immediate and direct we need to be a people of hoots for prayer unrelenting bothering the living god wearing him out so we wanted to create space this morning to do this as a church family before we leave this place to take jesus at his word and give our words to him in communal prayer so what i want to invite you to do is to sort of turn in maybe with your family the people behind you and in front of you if you are a person who is comfortable praying out loud we want to invite you to do that now if you do not feel comfortable praying out loud don't worry about that just turn in and get in with a group and we're just going to spend a few moments praying together we're going to pray that the living god will allow us to participate in the kingdom of god coming down to the ground that we don't want to be spectators of the faith we want to be participants we want to receive god's restoration and we want to be his agency of it in the earth so take a few moments to turn in and let's pray together as a church family for a few minutes this morning before we come to communion [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] and as we move from prayer to communion as we move from prayer to communion as we move from prayer to communion you would take your communion elements and just hold them in your hand the rhythms of the faith are best done together there's a reason that we sing to god together that we hear the word of the lord together that we experience baptism together communion together it shouldn't surprise us that we're meant to experience prayer together as the family of god communion is all about remembering and celebrating jesus being reminded of the great table of welcome that we are ever being invited to to sit as sons and daughters in god's household and his family the bible says that on that night jesus took bread and he said this is my body given for you whenever you eat it eat it in remembrance of me [Music] and on that same night jesus took the cup and he said this is the cup of the new covenant whenever you drink this drink it in remembrance of me let's remember jesus together if you'll stand with me church family according to jesus the prayers of one widow can upend the judge what might he do through the collective communal prayers of church of the city i say let's go find out amen [Applause] some of you may need prayer right now i want to encourage you to be like that widow we have men and women on our prayer team that are available for you right now just down the hallway in the chapel for those of you that want to join us this wednesday for noon day prayer let's take jesus at his word and let's allow this story to provoke us under hoods for prayer this week let's pray father we do want to see the kingdom of god come down to the ground and to move out lord that shalom harmony wholeness and flourishing that comes from knowing you from walking with you walking the way of jesus father would you grace us this week to pray and to pray with husband father i pray we would bother you this week there are some things in our lives that we need to cry out to you lord thank you that you shaped a parable about powerful prayers through a widow we are hearing you lord we are hearing you we are listening and we are hearing you have your way in us this week we pray these things in jesus name amen grace and peace church family have a great week

Channel: COTC Franklin

Views: 4,738

Rating: 4.7530866 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: yUnJJVGGfss

Length: 81min 22sec (4882 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 13 2021