Persistent Prayer (Part 2) - Pastor Mike Fabarez - Focal Point

well I suppose we're in the right building at the right time for me to ask you a probing spiritual question are we not so let me ask how is your prayer life how's your prayer life how is your time praying every week are you getting some good time in in prayer what kinds of things are you praying about what kinds of things make your prayer list that you actually pray for every day sincerely pray for every single day kinds of prompts and reminders do you use to be consistent in prayer I imagine we were having that conversation one-on-one I might hear from some people something to the effect of well Pastor Mike I you know I want pray more I'd like to pray better I mean my prayer life's not all that it should be but I I try I schedule some time I hope many of you would say that schedule some time to pray and focus on that I pray a lot like throughout the day but you don't always get that prayer time in that I would like to but I I do have some things I pray for every day and maybe if you're a biblically astute you'd say well I like to use even some of the elements that Jesus talked about on the Lord's Prayer the disciples model prayer and I I try to have things that I'm praying about that reflect my worship of God I try to you know the Halla would be thy name category I just I want to tell God he's great I try to be thankful for the things that he's done I work on doing some of that I certainly pray for my daily bread I mean I have several things in my work life and my home life that are concern to me and my family I have needs and I concerned about their lives and I love them and I I do pray for them I probably pray for them every day Pastor Mike those are some things that hit my list every day and of course I find myself praying and sometimes not just in my scheduled prayer time but throughout the day for forgiveness I confess my sins I get convicted of the spirit by the spirit of things I've done that I know are not right and thoughts I've had and habits and I come to God and I tell them I'm sorry and I asked for his forgiveness I'll even pray that section of the Lord's Prayer where I I don't want to be led into temptation and I'll say to God you'll just protect me and keep my path on the keep my feet on the right path and keep me focused on doing what's right and guard my my steps I I pray those things and if I interrupted at that point I said well what about that line in the model prayer of Christ that says your kingdom come that request how's that request coming along I think some might say well I don't know I I guess I've said it before or occasionally I'll say it or sometimes I'll try to get that feeling of Maranatha and I want Christ to come and so I I guess I tried that but I would suppose if I had a one-on-one conversation with everybody in the room at that might be one that's very difficult for people to say yeah I pray for that and that's that's a regular part of my prayer I sincerely have that as a part of my prayer life every day I think that might be a neglected part of what Jesus obviously if you think through that list would have us prioritize right up at the top right after worshiping God and confessing that God is great I mean here's the next thing your kingdom come well I'd like to help you with that part of your prayer life today if you're a Christian I know that you know you need to pray you probably know that you need to pray better and you need to pretty more consistently you need to pray more sincerely and I just want to focus on that one line right there and say certainly I'd like you and I to leave this building this week praying more the way Christ would have us pray as it relates that simple request now the next line in the model prayer of Jesus is you might remember your will be done on earth as it is in heaven and that's kind of an overlapping statement that affects not only what the kingdom come means that the kingdom of Christ would come and Jesus would come back and then of course his will will be done on earth but we know that we are as Christ said salt and light in this world and I suppose some of you prayers are based on that aren't they that you want to be someone who promotes what is good in your workplace in your family in your neighborhood and and you'd like to restrain evil to use some biblical concepts they're my life should be that preserving agent like salt and I want my life to be that and and that's good but I want you to realize that beyond just having that sense of wanting to be a good person restraining evil and promoting what is righteous in our sphere of influence there is the ultimate priority at the top of Christ prayer list that we would be praying every day for his kingdom to come that's more than just throwing the lion out or just thinking well I hope Christ comes back as a matter of fact what I'd like you to see is we study in Luke as we've reached the 18th chapter of Luke to see that these first eight verses are primarily an unpacking of that one line of the Lord's Prayer the first eight verses of Luke chapter 18 are really telling us what it would look like and feel like to really be praying sincerely and consistently not just every day but day and night for the Lord's kingdom to come like you to turn there and find the context so that you can just at least be convinced as I speak to you this morning that this is indeed the contextual immediate contextual setting for this statement about prayer this is not just a passage where Jesus is saying hey let's talk about your prayer life he's talking about one particular kind of praying so go back up in chapter 17 if you would scroll up to where we started the conversation in verse number 20 when the Pharisees came saying hey when's the kingdom of God gonna come now again we know they kind of had a bit of a chip on their shoulder and they were they were envious and jealous of Jesus and his following and so that probably was not a sincere question or if it was it was a question of least accusation that if you're a king where's your kingdom as we study this a few weeks back we recognized that that they weren't good hearted always in their question but most the time they were bad hearted in their questioning of Christ but here they were saying something's a very biblical question hey if you are the king if you are the king that has arrived on this earth if you're the Messiah of the Old Testament then there should be a kingdom there should be a domain you should have made everything right in our society and if you're the king where's the kingdom and if you are the king when is it coming and so that's how we started this topic now two verses later after basically saying to the Pharisees listen I'm the king and you're never gonna know what the kingdom is until you get connected with me and we talked about that and that sermon verses 20 and 21 that you need to make sure you realize that right now we're in what we call the invisible phase of the kingdom but Jesus then turns to the disciples so they don't have any about this and verse 22 if you glanced at it he says to his disciples no the kingdom is coming and it will be visible you will see it there'll be no there'll be no denying it when it happens like the flash of lightning across the sky and then if you look worse --is 25 and following he starts now and lists to Old Testament examples the example of Noah and the example of lot and he says you know the day of the Lord's gonna be bad news for a lot of people when Christ's Kingdom does come when the Son of Man does return when the second advent of Jesus takes place it will mean judgment for most in that generation and the salvation of a few just like Noah and his family just like Lots and his family - his wife you're going to have the deliverance of some but for most people it would be judgment and then he enlists that very familiar phrase that he uses in other context in his teaching in verse 33 if we're gonna try to save your life well then you're gonna lose the kingdom and if by that we mean you try to be someone who says I want to fit in here I don't want to lose face I don't wanna lose reputation I want to be a part of this world I don't want any to be making any hassles about my commitments I don't want to try to shove my religion down anybody's throat I don't anybody calling me a Jesus Freak if you want to be fitting in here you're gonna lose the kingdom you'll lose your life but if you're willing to lose your life as Jesus put it elsewhere for my sake for the Gospels sake in other words if you're willing to lose with the world and their opinion of you will then you can be say you'll get the kingdom and then in chapter 18 which really is an unfortunate division in the numbering system of the Bible that didn't come for hundreds and hundreds of years after the original pinning of the Bible which you've got is a break that makes us think that maybe we have started a whole new entirely different context well look at verse number eight the last verse that we're going to study this morning it is still talking about the return of Christ he puts it this way nevertheless last sentence of verse 8 nevertheless when the Son of Man comes will he find faith on on the earth well the Son of man coming that's certainly that picture of Jesus coming back the kingdom coming it's the reference to Daniel chapter 7 as we often say the Son of Man title with the dominion over the earth and all peoples giving their loyalty to Christ well that's coming so we're still talking that will sandwiched in between it is this discussion about a widow who desperately wants justice and he's basically now comparing the people that live between the expectation of the kingdom and the realization of the kingdom you're going to live in a world where you're gonna do a lot of crying out to a higher authority to God for justice now just this means that things are going wrong and they need to be made right injustice is things aren't the way they ought to be now from a righteous biblical perspective we see that from defining right and wrong biblically and we look around and we see this not what it ought to be and just like God looking at the days of Noah and all those people God says this is not the world that should be and in Sodom and Gomorrah this is not the world that should be and when he comes to straighten things out that is how the Bible defines the just here's another way it's translated the righteous God now saying we're gonna make things right what's crooked is gonna be made straight what's rough is gonna be made plain and all the world is gonna see the glory of God unfortunately those who have rebelled against me it's gonna be judgment for them but salvation for those that have been loyal to me that picture of the coming of Jesus is all about people between now and the time that it comes feeling the injustice and saying you know what God we need you to fix our problem it's a kind of praying it's a kind of perspective that's to use the biblical word or the at least the theological word its eschatological praying it's not praying about I need this thing in my office to get fixed I need my health to get better I need you know this job promotion it's about the big issues of the end of time eschaton and greek is the word for the end it's all about praying about the end the coming of the kingdom so let's read our passage this morning last week we just took that first sentence there that first verse in verse number one and said many people quote this out of context misunderstand it so we thematically look through the Bible at how not to enlist this verse now we're gonna put it back in its context and understand this as Jesus tells the parable and then he explains it start in verse 1 again just to give us where we were he told them Jesus tells them who's that the disciples a parable to the effect that now here's the goal here's what we're supposed to understand from this passage that they ought to always pray and not lose heart so something about persistent praying is on the table now now is gonna tell them the context for that persistent praying it's about people crying out for justice take a look at it tells a parable verse number two here's our passage for this morning seven verses verses 2 through 8 he said in a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man that's one you don't vote for in Orange County I hope that's a bad person doesn't care about God in other words he's the ultimate authority he doesn't defer to any higher authority didn't really care for people he doesn't respect people he thinks he's better than everybody else so that's a terrible judge and there was a widow verse three widows in the first century lot more dependent upon the males in their family to go fight their battles in the marketplace when in the contracts we didn't have all the lawyers I mean you had some of that but ultimately when you were a widow if you didn't have grown sons to protect your your interest in your needs you didn't have a husband to go out there and fight those battles for you in the marketplace or in some kind of dispute I mean she says I'm hopeless hear about my adversary that's coming against me and she comes and she cries out to the judge verse 3 give me justice for my adversary things are wrong things are not right I got someone attacking me unjustly I need you to make it right I'm appealing to you verse 4 for while he refused for a while rather he refused but afterwards he said to himself though I neither fear God nor respected Noboru no respect man this interesting self-reflection here I'm not doing it for God I'm not doing it for my fellow man I'm not doing it because I care for this woman yet verse 5 because this Widow keeps bothering me I will give her here's our word again justice so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming I've had enough we can all identify with this it's got a dripping faucet some kind of email that keeps coming some kind of squeaky wheel at home or some broken thing and ventually like we were wearing me down finally I'll do it so here's a bad man it was no caring no care or concern for a righteous God no care or concern for others he's saying fine this woman keeps asking I'm gonna do it end of parable Jesus explains first six the Lord said of course he's speaking to his disciples hear hear what the unrighteous judge says if you're interested in the original languages of the New Testament New Testament Koine Greek you need to understand and underline that word unrighteous it's the same word that we've already read twice both in verse three and verse five we can translate that word justice we have an unjust judge and she's being asked for justice and he says listen what the unjust judge says what is he saying I'll give you justice he's doing something he's not even in keeping with his character or his nature and he said based on that a messed up man being worn down by a request now take an argument here from lesser to greater look at a person like that who would give in to do the right thing when he's a wrong person do the just thing when he's an unjust person will not God but righteous and just one that's what the word is he's a righteous God he's a just God obviously that's the definition of who he is will he it's will he not verse 7 give justice there's the third time now we've seen that word to his elect his people who what are they doing they are praying for his kingdom to come they are crying to him day and night will he delay long over them verse eight I tell you here's a very declarative statement he will give for the fourth time in seven verses he will give justice to them speedily nevertheless when the Son of Man comes will he find faith on the earth this passage is about your prayer life this passage about my prayer life it's about us making sure that we have the right perspective in our prayer life particularly about one aspect of what Jesus sees is a priority for your prayer life and mine and that is that we're praying for the coming kingdom I hope you can say that you'd like to pray the way Jesus taught you to and you want to pray about the coming kingdom this particular passage shows us that somebody when they encounter the in justices of the world they will go to whatever authority they think might bring them justice and they'll cry out to that authority and here we have someone who's not dealing with things that she can deal with herself she's over her head has no protection all she can do is appeal to the magistrate of the day and say help me I need your justice you have authority and I need you to fix my problem number one on your outline when it comes to your praying am i praying this coming week we need to let injustice prompt more prayer I talked about what is it that you use to prompt and remind you to pray consistently in your life well when it comes to this particular aspect of your prayer life I'm not just asking you to put up some post-it note on the dashboard of your car some 3x5 card near the bezel of your computer at work I'm asking you to use the everyday experience that I hope every Christian in the room has and that is that you look at this world sometimes and have a visceral and terrible uncomfortable response to how messed up this place is and you say that is my biblical prompt to start praying we need to be praying for the kingdom to come and we start with this I look into my heart at those poor reactions that I have to the world which by the way is a sign of your godliness let me say that very clearly as you jot down this reference psalm 119 Psalm 100 scene which if you read it longest chapter in the Bible take you a little while it's a very positive chapter it's about how great God's Word is about how refreshing it is to spend time in the word it's about how the Word of God helps me and sustains me and guides and directs me it's a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path that comes from this chapter and I hide it the word in my hearts why you don't sin against God that's a verse in this chapter well though it's a largely positive passage about extolling the virtues of Scripture listen to three verses in this particular chapter that should be the regular experience of every Christian living in a non-christian world everybody who loves righteousness living in a world that exalts what is unrighteous here's what he says in verse 136 psalm 119 136 the psalmist says my eyes shed streams of tears because people do not keep your law think about that my eyes they cry I feel sorrow I'm sad because people do not keep your law I wonder how many times you have been prompted by things that you see in this world too true and insincere sadness simply because not that they've wronged you but they never wrong to God that you think you know I love God so much I want to live for him and it really bums me out that other people don't I look at people doing things that are against God's rules and I have a jealousy for his honor and I feel bad just because they are disgracing and dishonor and God by their lives here's another verse I said there were three from this chapter that should be noteworthy in this context how about this 1:58 psalm 119 verse 158 the psalmist says I look at the faithless those that don't do what God asked I look at the faithless with here's the keyword discussed discussed why because they do not keep your commands so we got two emotions here of the reaction to people around him that don't do what God has asked and they say first of all I feel I feel sadness and then the visceral description of his feelings I feel disgusted I'm disgusted by the way they malign God mocked God one more and I quote this one often verse 53 psalm 119 verse 53 the Bible says hot indignation seizes me that's what the psalmist says the poet because of the wicked who forsake your law here's three emotions right here and I just wonder how often you feel them sorrow because the world is so messed up people disobey God disgust because people thumb their nose at God and live counter to his rules and anger hot indignation because you watch people who is a text says forsake God's law now you may be of the variety of Christians who thinks that your job is to insulate yourself from all that is negative all the things that make you feel bad and all you want to do is you know go around saying I'm blessed I'm blessed I'm blessed I don't want the negativity I don't want to read the news I don't want to read the blogs I don't want to look at what's going on the world I just surround myself with positive thinking that's a very common form of Christianity but it's not biblical Christianity God would not have you stick your head in the sand and pretend everything's fine in this world everything is not find in this world and even if you try to hide from the injustice eventually and justice of this world will creep into your circle will it not it's gonna affect your families can affect your life and the Bible would remind us that it's a very oddly thing for you to have that feeling of frustration over the world may I get it all the time from my colleagues here at work my wife yesterday pops up this text and she's not normally doing this kind of this news headline and she said look at what's going on I can't stand what's going on in the world and my wife's very nice person but there was hot indignation seizing her yesterday because of a news story and I said man she must be looking over my shoulder reading my notes that I'm preparing for tomorrow's sermon because it's exactly what I'm talking about it is a good and godly characteristic of your life to feel those things and you should let that kind of feeling of injustice in our world prompt you to start praying if your mother was your sixth-grade teacher think that through now and you had a fabulous mom you loved her she was fantastic just the greatest mom ever and she now is your teacher and you're looking forward to this cuz you're thinking this will be a great year I get my own mom as a teacher but you sit there in that classroom and all sudden you realize your classmates don't have the same feeling matter of fact most your classmates don't even know that that's your mother but they don't like the teacher because a lot of students don't like their teacher they give homework they make the enforce the rules they have a bunch of classroom rules and so you find out real quickly that a lot of your classmates they're looking at your mom and they just don't like her as a matter of fact she says something they snicker to each other they roll their eyes she turns her back they'll pick paper airplanes and throw them and pull out the rubber band and the paper clips and spit wads and it's awful in that classroom and you watch all these people disregard everything your mom says and then you find them writing notes about your mom then you see them writing things you know on the on their lockers you know or how awful your mother is and I just wonder if your response would be well I just try to be positive you know I just say to kind of shield myself and you would be sad you would be disgusted and I hope at some point you'd have a hot indignation over those people and if you had a really strong dad I think you'd probably hope that your dad shows up one of those days when all that's going on because you want justice your mom's a nice mom she only wants what's best for these students she's given rules and everyone's disregarding them you want this made right to pray for the kingdom to come is often in the scripture prompted by you and simply looking around in our world sometimes it touches our lives as it does with the widow apparently there's an adversary against her that's wrong in her but it doesn't have to be against you it can be just simply the world in which we live and if you don't pay attention to the world we live in I'm saying that's an unbiblical perspective oh you don't have to be a news junkie you don't have to read the news every single morning you don't have to be someone who's always you know got their finger on the pulse of every terrible thing that's going on but yot not hide from that why so we can be frustrated I want to be for us too I'm not asking to be frustrated I'm asking you to be a man or a woman of Prayer Psalm 55 for instance is a good song I don't have time to take you through it it's somewhat lengthy I I would have you this week though spend some time in it particularly before you go to your small group just read through Psalm 55 and note how this works here's the paradigm we see it often through the Bible it's a feeling of injustice in the world it's a lot of anger and frustration then it moves into in the middle of the psalm a pouring out of my complaint before God and then it ends after that prayer with this I can cast my anxiety on the Lord I can cast my care as it foot in that passage my burden on God I know God will sustain us I know God will not permit the righteous to be to be shattered or folded or moved as the ESV puts it it's an interesting paradigm the frustration and indignation and disgust and disappointment with our world that we live in leads us to this kind of frustration that prompts prayer and that prayer then results in a calm and peaceful heart that says God is in control why because I'm praying for what his justice some things I can't deal with in this world I'm not talking about justice this week next next month next year because I know some things are beyond anything we can do sometimes we pray put our hand to the plow and try and exact justice but sometimes we just can't all we can do is wait for God and that's a paradigm by the way that's going to go like this in your life as a matter of fact it may be everyday you go through this roller coaster experience of being disgusted frustrated and angered by the sinful rebellious world we live in we take our burden we cast it to the Lord and then we come out of that with to put it in the words of Philippians for a peace that surpasses all understanding that's the end of that discussion on prayer but it starts with this don't be anxious about anything not asking you to be an anxious Christian I'm asking you to allow the impetus and the catalyst and the reminder and the prompt of the bad in this world to get you to start praying more consistently what am i praying for God your kingdom come and then God says I'll give you peace but it's not a peace you asked for once and it lasts the rest of the week or the rest of the month it may not last but just for the rest of the morning and by the afternoon you're back on it again look how terrible this is look how awful this is look look at what a mockery of God this is god I need your kingdom to come I'm going to cast my anxiety upon you another passage is worth studying would be 1st Peter chapter 5 when he says you know there's a lot of suffering in this world your enemy the devil he's prowling around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour then he says that your brother's all over the world are experiencing this kind of suffering but it started with this you need to entrust yourself to God put yourself and humble yourself under the mighty hand of God there's a sense of God who's sovereign who one day will right all the wrongs and when you do that he will exalt you at the proper time now I know a lot of you read that in the short term you see this as a myopic God will fix this next week next month next year but it's really an eschatological passage I say that because the passage ends this way that his Dominion is going to rule and his Dominion that's a kingdom war that's a replacement of this world with the kingdoms of the world with the kingdom of God and he says it's forever and ever so I know what Peter has in mind in that passage is that you and I know that we are losing a battle in this culture but one day he's going to exalt us just like Noah on the buoyancy of that flood just like lot being taken out of that city in the destruction and just like the people of God in the darkening culture that we live in are going to escape and I'm not talking about an escapist mentality but I am talking about the heart that prays what Jesus taught us to pray your kingdom come and I want to pray that more often and I don't need a prayer reminder on the dashboard of my car all I need to do is make the connection between the feelings of injustice and my need to call out to God in prayer in Ezekiel 9 the character stick of the godly were those that grown at the iniquity in their society I just wonder if God's looking at this congregation and saying listen they've got the marks of godliness here's a congregation that groans often because they live in a culture that makes God groan often very important for us to realize the Christian life is not devoid of bad feelings as a matter of fact it's those bad feelings that often lead us to prayer which then result in peace and that's something that cyclically in a daily pattern has to be a part of my thinking in my life and my expectation it's normal it's biblical it's godly back to Luke 18 verses 6 & 7 here is someone coming continually to the judge the unrighteous judge to get justice and he relents he gives in he says I'll give it I give her justice I don't want to be worn out by this woman amazingly Jesus in verses 6 and 7 compares God in some way which really is in a comparison it's more of a contrast to the unrighteous judge because I would never want to compare the righteous guide to an unrighteous judge and nevertheless Jesus draws a contrast that says even if an unrighteous judge is gonna bring justice to some woman don't you think God will bring righteousness to his elect now hear what the unrighteous judge says he relented he said yes sure here's your justice verse 7 will not God give justice to his elect who cry out to him day and night I just want to make sure I'm crying out to him day and night but once I start doing that prompting more of that prayer then I want to pray for his justice and he will not delay long over them what does that mean he's gonna solve my problem this week next month next year no this is about the replacement of the kingdom of the world with the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ this is about us not seeing a world that any longer lives in rebellion against God but a world in which righteousness dwells that ought to be our prayer and it's a big prayer and that big categorical prayer starts to affect a lot of the ways I pray about a lot of other things and frankly it takes a lot of things on my prayer list and simply scoots them out of the way he's promised this will not God give justice to his elect it's going to happen a lot of people die with their small battles of justice not one as as often put in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews we die without the promise being fulfilled because the promise is bigger than this life so we're looking to a city whose builder is God and that is the expectation that you and I should have that's a big thought a big prayer that's setting our cells are our minds on things above that storing up treasure in heaven that's living for the next life and not this one it's not that we're so heavenly minded we're no earthly good it's that we're heavenly minded that we start to be very distinguished or I should say discerning about the good that we pursue it's a different mindset it's a big prayer that has to really replace a lot of small prayers in our life but it's a start so it's built on a confidence that God will do what he says he says he will bring it number 200 I put it this way let confidence prompt bigger requests bigger requests that flow from the biggest request which is I want Christ to return now if you and I are praying that as we ought to crying out day and night for God to right the wrong of this entire world you're gonna watch it sort through your prayer list it's going to change the way that you pray if you really believe what Matthew 16:27 says that the son of man is promised to come again with his angels and the glory of his father and he will repay each person according to what he's done if you know that the judge is standing at the door and at any moment he could come back and return and straighten out this world if you live with the imminent expectation of Christ's return I assure you it's gonna change the way you view your prayer life it will move from small requests and short-term requests to big requests let me illustrate this with a really silly illustration which if you're a regular here that's a normal thing so indulge me again if you would you're on an airplane you've gotten a cruising altitude the Bing went off above your head you can roam about the cab and that's fine and all of a sudden as soon as that happens in your 40,000 feet in this cross-country track all the sudden people from every part of the plane pop up and reveal that they are hijackers and to the best efforts of the TS they have commandeered your airplane and it is officially been hijacked and by the sound of what they're saying you recognize there's no doubt this is a suicide mission they're gonna take this plane down and they're gonna crash it at some strategic spot and so now you're on a plane that has been hijacked and then weird things start happening and a lot of the passengers around you start actually sympathizing with the hijackers and you realize that Stockholm Syndrome you've heard about is starting to set in and people really that you are freaking you out that it seems like a majority of people on the plane are all for this they're convinced so as you're flying along and you know that your plane has been hijacked you get a text along with everyone else in the airplane at the exact same time everyone's phone goes off you thought oh I don't even the guy that signal up here and BAM you pull out your phone and it says from the United States Air Force this is silly illustration I realize but follow me now as you read it it says we understand you have been hijacked it is a suicide mission don't panic we were coming to rescue you now I know this may sound odd but there's a way for you to be rescued we've worked for years on this technology we've perfected it we spent a lot of money to perfect it and we're gonna come and we are confident we will save you but here's what you must do reach underneath your seats each passenger reach underneath your seats and if you feel right between your knees underneath that seat you're gonna find a short little tethered latch and it's just dangling down there you didn't notice it but it's there now reach back even further about four inches further there's gonna be a cable if you turning a little flashlight on your phone and you look under there it's a red cable it's a thick cable it's about an inch thick and it runs across perpendicular to the plane and that little cable right there if you take that latch and you hook that tethered latch to that red cable and then you sit in your chair and you tighten your seatbelt we've predicted we've perfected this technology we're gonna bring a gigantic United States Air Force jumbo jet it's gonna fly in close proximity to your doomed plane and we're gonna hit a button and through technology we don't have time to explain in the text you are going to be extracted from the plane and you're it's gonna be a it's gonna be one heck of a ride but you're gonna get your get flung over to the jumbo jet and we got refreshments and it's gonna be great everything's there for you a comfortable ride everyone's in first class of it it's gonna be awesome but about that time you're getting that text and you've read to the bottom you go wow that's crazy did you get that check out I got that text and you scroll little bit for this sincerely the United States Air Force if you need anything let us know here to serve that's amazing so we know I can text the Air Force back they're on their way about the time you process the information and you reach under your seat sure enough there's a little tethered hook and you reach back further and you get your light out there it has a big red cable about an inch thick you take that hook you hook it to that you tighten your seat you go okay man you look at your friends maybe you're flying with your family and you say hey make sure everybody's got it every is good you got other people sending why did you get that text that's a lie that government's not coming no one's coming for you the hijackers they shut off don't read that text it's not true and you recognize that the pitch of the plane we're starting to tilt we start a descent now looks pretty steep I know the captain said we're at 40,000 feet but we're going down pretty quickly and you're praying the airforce will get there you get an update text we're on our way we're not far hang on be strapped in check your cable then you reread the text and you realize they said hey do you have any needs or concerns just text us back well as you're sitting there watching the increasing chaos in the cabin of the airplane you start saying Matt did you did you read any text if there's any if you have any concerns I got a few concerns about this flight you know when he brought that beverage cart down this aisle earlier I asked for peanuts they said we don't serve peanuts anymore hey rotten you know stale crackers they tried to feed me you know what I think flights should have peanuts hey honey I'm gonna text the airforce they said we could text friend I want peanuts on this flight can I get some bay I bet the I bet the flight attendants have a secret stash of peanuts Oh where you said you could do anything I mean if you got technology to get me off this plane I bet you got the power to get me some peanuts on this flight send okay yeah and you know what they also said when I asked for a pillow we don't have any and I walked through first class when I got on this plane and I saw pillows in first class I know this plane has pillows I'm gonna text the Air Force I'm on this flight I'm uncomfortable I don't know how long it's gonna be you might be here a while I don't know I'd like a pillow right cuz yeah you know what if you're gonna get your pillow all they had was Coke products on that cart I ended up with a diet coke I like Diet Pepsi text them see if you can get Pepsi I know we won't be here long but as long as I'm gonna be here I am thirsty I'd like some Pepsi it's silly illustration I warned you to be silly right I just wonder as we're descending on this thing called planet Earth on a suicide mission where the god of this world has taken over chaos is ensuing people are standing up telling you not to believe the Word of God it's not true where's the promise of his coming and you've latched your tether to the red cable of salvation and you're trusting in Christ to save you I just wonder when you get the call to say ask and you'll receive seek and you'll find knock in the doorway open you asked me if you take this thing called the privilege of prayer and you start saying you know what I need peanuts pillows and Pepsi on this flight I just wonder how the Air Force is gonna respond to that what I expected some questions about the cable maybe I expected some questions about how to convince the guy across the aisle to believe the text is true I expected some kind of request that was much much bigger than peanuts pillows and Pepsi which one of God looks at our prayers that we are consistently praying when I said what are you praying about every day if you kind of sat up straight go yeah there are things I'm praying for every day I'm feeling good about this question about prayer but all those things were really the equivalent of peanuts pillows and Pepsi I just wonder if God's looking at our desires to be more fit to have a raise to be recognized to get a bigger house I just wish we had this vacation whatever it is you may be I just he's gone what in the world are you guys doing you jamming the phone lines with a request like this think bigger prey bigger don't you know this world's gonna crash I know that if you look for it in scripture you'll see this everywhere it's about storing up treasure in heaven it's about setting our minds on things above it's about the fact that everything in this world second Peter chapter three is going to burn if it's going to burn what sort of people ought you to be and let me amend that here just a mic Fabares application and what kind of prayers ought you be praying if you've got to be praying big prayers about the return of Christ and things related to the return of Christ how many prayers on your prayer list relate to the end of the world I know one that always does the salvation of people on this planet that have yet to hook their lives to the cable of Christ I know that's one that gets God's attention because I know the only reason they haven't shown up yet is because God was His infinite knowledge looking on this plane sees that there are some people that need to be latched to that cable that have not reached the place of repentance yet they still are doubting the text they don't believe the communication and they are not yet there and I know one thing that'll get through right to the top of the list and my silly illustration is when you start caring about Kingdom priorities the highest of which is the salvation of your friends and your loved ones because the Bible says this the only reason this is Romans chapter 2 verse 4 that the patience and forbearance of God should be interpreted in your mind is because he wants people to come to repentance which is almost exactly the way it's put in 2nd Peter chapter 3 and that is it the only reason he's not coming back yet the only reason we haven't been ejected yet the only reason the rapture the church has not yet happened is because he's wanting people to come to repentance I know we talked early in chapter 17 in the series about the kingdom we talked about working to make more kingdom converts I'm just asking you today to pray more for the kingdom converts I'm asking you to pray for the end of the world but there's a tension in that because I know that he's waiting for one primary thing I know he's got other things on on his docket but God is looking to see people come to repentance let's cry out day and night for Kingdom priorities Romans chapter 8 remind us that's a good one to study we don't have time to look at it verses 18 through 25 Romans 8 18 through 25 we ought to be groaning along with the rest of the created world as its personified in that passage we can't wait for the redemption of the children of God translation and my stupid illustration we can't wait to get ejected from this planet in the meantime though I'm gonna work Paul said for me to live is Christ to die is gain I can't wait to get off this dying ship but when it comes down to it I'm gonna stay on for ministry means there's never a time to get a raise no never time to excel at work no I'm never time to get a bigger house I'm not saying that I'm just saying don't use prayer as something that limits you to thinking well if God says he can move mountains I know what that means I can get a pile of peanuts right here if I text him maybe I can get a hamburger on this flight those are silly requests and God may look past it in your immaturity as a Christian but if you're growing in Christ it's time for our prayer lists to grow up your kingdom come crying out day and night for justice whether that justice or injustice rather touches us in some poignant way or whether it's just our looking back as the psalmist did in saying I can't stand the fact that the world as Psalm 2 says is trying to cast off the fetters of God but confidence prompt bigger requests if you know he's coming back if you know they're coming to rescue us pray big number three verse eight I tell you he will give justice to them speedily and I wish I had time for all of the ins and outs of the language and the words and the word macular for me and verse 7 which is we can see this in intertestamental writings that make it clear we're not just talking about the fact that the time will be short that's not the focus of this because clearly it's been 2,000 years in the last sentence of verse 8 clearly gives us a sense it's gonna be some time before the Son of man comes back he doesn't want to put that out of their minds at always want he always wants his disciples to feel the imminence of the return of Christ but clearly he's thinking about the fact that will this thing that goes on whittle down the church until we don't have anybody that has faith anymore so we're not talking about this is gonna happen in the next three hours at least from the perspective of the New Testament document that we're looking at if you follow that all I'm saying is this nothing in this passage has been controverted by the fact that it's been 2,000 years till he's come but he will come speedily he will come without delay he stands at the door and he's not going to creep through the doorway he's gonna rush through the doorway as it says for those that are lost it's gonna come upon them here's how it's put in Luke we'll look at this later in the book like a trap it's gonna snap and for Christians we've already seen in chapter 17 it's gonna be like a flash of lightning across the sky or to put in the words of Acts 1 he's gonna return this the way it came we're gonna see him to put it in the words of first test we're gonna meet him in the air all of this picture of a sudden return of Christ is not controverted by the fact that he's waiting and delaying so number 3 what I want to say is that what we want if you look at the bottom of verse number 8 it's to have strong faith until he comes I put it this way number 3 you need to let the delay if he lasts if it's another week another month another year or it'll it's 10 years from now we're gonna let that prompt stronger faith in our life we know that he promised his batting average is perfect I'm going to trust that he's coming back I'm going to let the delay and the increase of injustice and the worsening of our culture simply lead me to trust him more it's gonna whittle away the dross in my faith and I'm gonna say I will believe it and I will hope in this to the end he's coming because his promise is good and he's waiting for a good reason I shared this years ago and pardon me if you've heard it again and I don't want you to psychoanalyze me but I had a recurring dream as a kid that scared me to death I went over to North Long Beach where my grandpa lived as I often did but in my dream I was back in the backyard with my brother playing baseball we often did and in my backyard in my house over in East Long Beach I was good at copying the fence and sneaking in and my reconnaissance to grab the ball and pop over the fence and come back and I'd done it successfully many times but I'd never been in my grandpa's neighbor's yard and in my dream we hit the ball over the fence and so my brother as he often did said you go get it so I hopped the fence in this dream and I got up to this 6-foot finn's and you know how we did his kids you'd get up to the top sometimes you'd sit on the top and then if you were daring you jump off and I landed in his flowerbed which I realized when my feet hit it wasn't a flowerbed it was a big gigantic pit of quicksand this is my dream now and I start to sink and you know that feeling when you have a dream like that we were like oh and you start to yell but you can't yell you're kind of halfway asleep and I know what I probably did this in my sleep my brother probably heard this often as I was trying to eke out a scream as the sand goes up around my knees and then my hips and then my abdomen and then my armpits and my hands and I'm like I'm just about to go under and the more I got panicked in that dream I remember looking in this yard my grandpa's neighbor yard I'd never been in and of course I figured there was only old people in my grandpa's neighborhood so I pictured this old man that lives there and in my dream he sat there about 15 feet from where I was rocking in an old walk rocking chair as I imagined all old people did whittling a piece of wood with a with a knife and I couldn't get his attention the more I screamed I could and finally just about the time the sand was up to my chin he turns and looks at me and gives me an evil smile and I wake up in a panic and a sweat my brother says shut up and go back to sleep that now I had that experience so many times as a kid and no one scared me more in my imagination than that evil old man and I thought he was evil because he had the power to help me and he wasn't helping me and when he saw me I thought you could come over here and help me but he didn't and you know why I thought he was evil because I thought you have no good reason not to intervene and help me now some people put God on trial when you think about the fact that in verse number eight it says yeah I'm gonna give you justice I'm gonna give it to you speedily and we think it's been 2,000 years and my question to you would be why does God delay why is God not coming back why didn't he come back before World War One World War two why didn't come back before Vietnam why didn't he come back before the last big problem in your life why is he letting us continue to experience the injustice of life and the killing of war all the things that are going on with abortion and the sexual ethic vark why why is he let this happen or to put in the words of the psalmist how long O Lord or even in Revelation that scene in heaven there under the altar saying how long well the reason God is not the equivalent of the old man whittling wood in my grandpa's neighbor's backyard if he's God's got a great reason for delaying and I've already stated it we already know what it is he wants people to come to repentance he's not gonna let us drowned it'll feel like it but he's a good God with good reasons and you and I need to be confident in that and recognizing that what we need to do is to ask ourselves why we would put God on trial for not coming back earlier and why he lets us languish it seems in in a wicked and perverse world when in reality what we ought to be doing is putting ourselves on trial coz certainly that's what Christ does in this passage in the bottom of verse 8 he says don't listen he's gonna come back he will speedily get this done he's gonna rush in he's gonna save you but I just wonder why you're not trusting me why is it that this delay is creating in the people who claim to believe God where's faith on their is anyone gonna be trusting in my return is anyone gonna be crying out day and night continually when I come back and after 2,000 years perhaps it's understandable at least from a human perspective why so many churches sit around and pray for more peanut piles on their tray table in their doomed seat that they're I'm saying we're so focused on this because well I don't know Christ said he's coming back but he hasn't you gotta get back to the place where God says here's what I expect I expect my people to believe what I said and even if they have to wait they need to trust me they need to be groaning in prayer as it says in in Romans chapter 8 waiting for the redemption of the body bars Hebrews 10 says knowing that when he comes he's going to come and save his people but what we need I love the words here in Hebrews chapter 10 verse 36 you're in need of endurance you got to keep on expecting it as John put it in John chapter 1 I love these three words he used he says I'm a partner with you in three things the kingdom I know we're partners in the King the suffering that's the interim between now and the kingdom through many tribulations with us enter the kingdom and one more thing and the patient endurance of Christ what we need to do is living between the first Advent in the second living at the end of what I assume clearly is the end of the church age that we are saying we're going to enter the kingdom we're partners in the kingdom we've got our hours at reservation of the kingdom our latch is hooked to the red cable but right now it's suffering and in the midst of our suffering and the prolonging of this age I'm going to need the patient endurance of Christ the patient endurance seems like a passive virtue but it's not a passive virtue it's the ability to tenaciously pursue with great faith a confidence in the promises of God to be able to say you'll find faith in me I hope we can say corporately you'll find faith the faith of a persistent praying in this church we haven't given up hope that you're returning we haven't turned our attention to praying for the little things in this doomed ship we are still praying for the rescue that God has promised I know often illustrate it with David's life who has promised the kingdom but took him over two decades 22 years before he actually ascended the throne over both Israel and Judah that period of time we say man how in just would it seem from David's perspective to be a fugitive on the run from King Saul when in fact in God's mind he was the king and I've often Illustrated that sometimes even going through every paragraph from the anointing of David all the way to the inauguration of David over Israel and Judah and we look at that and feel that but you know you don't have to just go to those examples the paradigm is everywhere in the Bible and that is it seems very in just at the present but you and I need to start thinking about where this ends that's why Christianity is a forward-looking religion think just of the last week of Christ's life think of the last week of crack by Thursday what do you have by Thursday night by Thursday night you have Jesus in handcuffs you have the Apostles scattered like a bunch of sheep when the Shepherd gets struck down you got them cowering in fear and you got Judas you got Judas the criminal in all this the betrayer with a lot of money that night counting it in his house I mean think about that and the injustice of the scene by Friday doesn't get any better it gets worse you got the Holy One the perfect one the one that went around doing good hanging naked on a cross being jeered at by the criminal on his side having Roman soldiers cleaning his blood off their fists after beating him having the cowering disciples among the jeering crowds watching he got the Roman soldiers flexing you've got the high priests and the scribes sitting back with great satisfaction now that this ridiculous threat that claim to be the Son of God is now pinned up on a cross naked and everyone jeering at him on a Roman execution rack couldn't be any more unjust than not any you and I read that we go I know where this is headed anyway but live for a minute in Thursday live for just a while in Friday but Sunday right sunday Jesus walks out of a grave not defeated not coming out of a coma he walks out in a resurrected body having vanquished the enemy having paid for our sins we got the disciples now the apostles vindicated you have the women now in great joy that Christ has been resurrected you've got now the Roman soldiers cowering and scared you've got Roman soldiers being paid off so that they can sit home know what's gonna happen we're gonna be in trouble you got the religious leaders now scratching their heads and trying to persecute his followers but they're on the ropes you got Judas is dead body strewn about in a potter's field you've got all the crooked things made straight and the rough places playing you've got all the things that we're in just now made righteous than a matter of days you're living in Thursday actually we might be in the middle of Friday at this point but Sunday is going to arrive and if your focus is not on Sunday if instead you're there in the middle of the garden trying to say well how can we make this shadowy experience we have on the fringes of culture just a little more comfortable for us you've got the wrong perspective if you're there in the cross and the shadow of this crucifixion saying I know everyone is maligning Christ in our culture but how can we just stay out of everybody's way and not cause any trouble and not jam our religion down people's throats you got the wrong perspective you need to be crying out day and night for Sunday your kingdom come we want vindication jesus promised the Son of man will return with his angels and the glory of his father and he were repeating each one according to what he's done of you that's true or its false if it's true we've got a lot to look forward to and some praying that needs to be replaced on our list we need not just simply recite a simple line your kingdom come we need to mean it and it needs to be vibrant and needs to be the fuel for sorting through our prayer life I hope it's very common expression from the hearts of our people here at our church as we pray for the return of price let's let's pray right now god help us do you much more focused on what's coming not that we don't plan and not that we don't work it's not that we don't become good students and good employees and plan for retirements all that's fine we can pray for our daily bread and there's nothing wrong with that but we ought to be crying out day and night for justice God there's some aspects of justice we can have something to do we can actually make a change we can be salt and light but even the best and most effectual Christian in this room recognizes when they get down on their knees after listening to the news after watching what's going on in our county and they cry out to the only one that can fix this and they plead for justice God make it right what's right is maligned and what's unrighteous has been exalted as it said there and Luke earlier in chapter 16 what's exalted among men is an abomination to God and this world is messed up if we were of the world it would love us as our own but Christ you chose us out of this world and that's why the world hates us there's a lot of animosity and hostility toward the biblical worldview toward us as believers and Christians and followers of Christ we don't want to become martyrs of victims in our own minds even if we become literal martyrs we don't want to have a martyr complex we want that to lead us to Psalm 55 praying that makes us pour out our heart to you our complaint goes before you our request and then the resolve and satisfaction of a God who has promised us that he will make it right and a faith that is vibrant and strong that doesn't waver give us more of that experience so that the peace that surpasses all understanding can guard our hearts and minds in Christ Lord we do pray with the early church for you to come back and if we ever did look at the context of that passage in first Corinthians 16 we see it's not just about we want you to come back because their lives would be better it's really about the problems in this world need to be rectified so help us to be sad help us to even be disgusted and at times even angry at what's going on and pray that you would send your son to make things right in the meantime let us get more people to latch their lives to the only lifeline that's available and that's Christ spilt blood on a cross make us good faithful bold loving merciful evangelist this week as we anticipate and cry out for your return in Jesus name Amen man you are dismissed

Channel: The Focal Point-CBC

Views: 1,378

Rating: 4.7333331 out of 5

Keywords: compass bible, focal point, compass bible church, christian sermons, bible compass, bible study, compass study bible, mike fabrez, pastor mike fabarez, mike fabarez sermons, mike fabarez sermon, Persistent Prayer

Id: qC4CBrJwq84

Length: 56min 31sec (3391 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 12 2017