Pray and Lose Not Heart

We speak about so many things and often times we are so
materialistic or we show ourselves to be so materialistic when we speak about
heaven, speaking about streets of gold and gates of pearl and getting all
excited about things you walk and swing on. The fact of the matter is heaven is
glorious because of Christ. But he also wants you to know that heaven is
glorious because of his people, because of not what they are inherently by
themselves, but what he has made them to be. And it just… if anyone were to
ask me, you know, they say, “Well, such and such a thing is a touch of heaven on
earth,” and I would say the closest thing to a touch of heaven on earth is the
fellowship of God’s people. And there is so much that he has done in our lives
and it… One of the saddest things of a meeting like this is that you only
touch the surface, you only touch the surface of the lives of even people that
you spend a few minutes with and then most people you can’t even do that. I
think that it would be a good thing that one day to just have a conference of
fellowship.

What are you going to do? Well, we are just going to hang out
together for three days. Well, are you going to listen to great preaching? No.
We are just going to hang out together for three days. Well, what about
preaching? We do that a lot, but we are just going to hang out together for
three days. We’ll listen to each other’s testimonies and talk about Christ. I
have met so many people here even this weekend that I have never met and it has
been such a great joy. I spent a lot of time with old brother Luke back there
and just talking about so many things and you really need to pray for him. He
has gone through some things that few men… he has gone through something in
particular that few men could ever endure and survive. And I have been praying
for him and I mean this year his wife started hunting and she killed a bigger
deer than he did. I know few men who can survive a trial like that.

And so pray for him. Pray for him also because I plan to go to
Iowa and have no mercy on him either. But I will tell you. I know I seem to be
running on, but cherish moments like these. Cherish times like these. Cherish
being able to be brought into the presence of another believer in whom dwells
the Christ. It is such a great privilege. Today I don’t even know where to
begin. I want to talk about prayer, but then in order to talk about prayer there
are other things that you have to understand and in order to talk about
those things there are other things that you must understand. If I were to
address anyone, address my own son about prayer I couldn’t go on to the things
of prayer until one seed was solidly sown in his heart. And that is this. God is
good. God is good. Now, I know you say, “Ok. Let’s go on now. Let’s learn some
things about God.”

No you could spend an eternity just trying to understand that
God is good. And the way I see most believers live, even those that are very
pious, much more devoted than I am, the lack of joy and the lack of believing
that God is for them, they are so mesmerized by their own failure that they
don’t even see that is not even the point and that the whole… are you
expecting one day to be swallowed up in the fact that you finally know how to
live the Christian life? Are you expecting one day to draw all your confidence
from the fact that finally you are able to dot every eye and cross every T? I
mean what are you expecting, to one day arrive and then come into this great
joy? You are never going to arrive and therefore you are never going to come
into this great joy because the great joy doesn’t come from that. It is not your
continuous work for God, but Christ’s finished work for you. And that is what
you must understand. I want us to look for just a moment. We are going to hop
all around today and I want you to go to Ephesians for a moment in chapter two.
In talking about prayer there is… and talking about the goodness of God there
is something I would like to say. Sometimes, you know, if we were to speak with
a doctor, Dr Barry or just any physician, do you realize that he would know much
more about my wife than I do. Do you realize that? A physician could sit down
and tell me things about my wife that I never knew with regard to how her heart
works and how her muscles contract and expand and how well all the different
things about how her body works…. He knows more about my wife than I do, than
I ever will. He can grasp concepts about my wife that are so far beyond my tiny
mind that I will never be able to know them. But he doesn’t know my wife like I
know my wife.

It is the same thing in everything about God, especially for the
young theologian. You need to understand this. You may be able to quote the
Westminster. You may be able to… you may understand the Greek and the Hebrew
and you may read so many books, but do you know him? You may be able to analyze
him, but do you walk with him? Do you know him?

Sometimes we are so concerned about knowing all this stuff that
we are like the difference between a scientist and a child. My little boy Ian,
for example, I mean the kid could pass out from excitement by looking at a white
wall. You know, and you stand there and you have this scientist and he is
looking at a sunset and he is explaining how the light reflects and all these
different things and why these colors occur and why this happens and what
exactly the tilt of the earth and the clouds and the atmosphere and everything
and my little boy is just looking at him like… But the colors. He wants an
explanation. The little boy just wants to look at the colors, just wants to see
the beauty, just wants to wonder how God painted such a thing, from where did he
get the paint and what was his brush?

It is the same way in so many things about God. You want to know
this. You want to know that. You want to… how do you pray? How do you study?
How do you do all these things? But the thing that you most need to do is just
look and go whoa. Just look at him. There is such a difference between knowing
truth and knowing God. Now knowing truth is a means. It is part of the journey.
It is essential. It is foundational. But it is not the whole thing. It is not
the whole thing. And that is why a little old woman in Romania who can barely
read the Bible can experience more of the workings and the truth of God than a
man who can read it backwards and forwards in the original language.

Now when we look at Ephesians chapter two we understand
something extremely important. Why has God saved you? You know, I have heard
people say, “Well, God has saved you to serve.” Did he have a need? And if he
did have a need, couldn’t he have found somebody better than you? Well, first of
all he doesn’t have a need and yes he could have found somebody better than you
and better than me. And so him saving us to serve I think is pretty much out of
the question. Now we need to serve, but that is not the purpose for which he
saved us. It is not like God has a need. Why has he saved us? Has he saved us so
that we would love him? Well, again, did he need to be loved? Did he save us so
that somehow we would so love him and if we do so love him who is being exalted?
God or us? Is our love to be the topic of the thing of the Christian life? So,
no he didn’t save us just to love him. Why did he save us? If you look in
Ephesians chapter two, going down through there, beginning in verse one talking
about us being dead in our trespasses and sins and all the heinous crimes we
committed in verses two and three. And we get to four and it says, “But God.”1

• Ephesians 2:4

I have a sign in my office. It is quilted and it is in a frame.
And it just has two words, “But God.”2 And every time there is a trial. Every
time there is a weakness of mind that prevails, every time I stumble and fall,
every time I don’t know what I am going to do because things I have already done
that were wrong, I look up and I see those two words, “But God.”3 And that is
all I need. That is all I need. And he goes: But God, being rich in mercy,
because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our
transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been
saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places
in Christ Jesus… Why? Why has he done all these things? “So that in the ages
to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us
in Christ Jesus.” Why has God saved you? He has saved you to make a
demonstration out of you. He has saved you to demonstrate something about
himself. Now, let’s just imagine for a moment Bill Gates gets a lot of
publicity. Everyone is always talking bad about Bill Gates. I mean, after all,
you get 100 billion dollars and there are going to be people who are jealous.
And like all men he has his faults.

But let’s say that Bill Gates has some terrible publicity
lately. People talking about him, saying he is unkind and cruel and all sorts of
things. So he decides, look. I have got to give the world a demonstration of how
good I am. So I am going to find the lowliest person on the face of the earth
that I can find. He picks one of you college students. And he says, “I am going
to do nothing but lavish on them absolutely the full extent of all my wealth.”

Would any of you like to be volunteers? And, you see, here is
the thing. The lowlier you are and the least you deserve, the less you deserve,
the more magnified in being good to you. Do you see that? Jesus even gave us the
principle. I mean, if you love someone who loves you back, I mean what glory is
in that? You treat those kind who treat you kind, what glory is there in that? I
mean how do you show unconditional love? There is only one way. You show it upon
the one who meets none of the conditions. This has never been about you meeting
the condition so that somehow God would love you. It has always been about God
glorifying himself by loving you unconditionally, you who meet none of the
conditions. Do you see that?

• Ephesians 2:4-6

• Ephesians 2:7

I see Christians all the time and they are in this thing even
though they would not say it. If you look at their life, they are in this thing
of somehow being worthy of something. And that is not what Christianity is
about. Now, back up for a moment and I will say this. The teaching that I am
going to give today, the carnal, unconverted, wicked church member will listen
to it and go, “Man, I can just keep on sinning and keep on walking in
ungodliness and God is going to bless me.” But the true Christian, the true
believer will hear these things and say, “If these things are so, I want so much
to be for him. I want so much to serve him. I want so much to be a blessing and
a pleasure to him.” And we look at this passage: “So that in the ages to come He
might show the surpassing riches of His grace.”

What is grace? Unmerited favor. So he has saved you so that he
could show principalities and powers and mights and dominions every created
thing in heaven and on earth and in hell. He has saved you for one purpose, to
lavish upon you all that is his, all of his love, all of his loving kindness,
all of his goodness throughout all of eternity upon you so that every creature
that turns a glance towards you can only fall down on their face and worship God
for his goodness. Folks, if you are a Christian, you have got a pretty good
future ahead of you, perspectives are very, very good for you. Think about that.
Think about that. Think about that. All that the very reputation of the glory of
God which he is so concerned about, he is giving a demonstration.

Now, let me give you another example that say that you have an
ailment of the heart. You need a heart transplant. There is no one available and
so I march up there to the hospital and I say, “Look. I am willing to die. Take
my heart. Give it to the young man.” And they say, “Ok.” All right? Put me up
there on the table. They take out my heart. I pass away. They put my healthy
heart in you and you live. The next morning the newspapers, about whom are they
going to be speaking? Are they going to be talking about you? Are they going to
be talking about how wonderful you are? Are they going to be talking about how
just absolutely special you are? Are they going to be raving about your moral
character? Are they going to be talking good things about you? Are they going to
be amazed with you? No. They are going to be amazed with me. They are going to
be awestruck about me because I am the one who gave it. It is not the one who
receives the gift that gains the glory. It is the one who gives the gift to the
one who does not deserve it. And that is what this is about.

I hear people all the time saying, “Well, I just want my life to
glorify God. I just want my life to glorify God.” And there is a sense, a very
important sense in which we are to live our life to the glory of God, whether we
eat or drink, do the most menial task, it is unto the glory of God. But that is
not the primary way in which God is glorified in you. God is not worshipped and
God is not adored and creatures do not stand in awe of God because of what you
do for him. They stand in awe of God because of what he does for you. And that
is one of the greatest and most important truth behind all praying. Now, I want
us to go for a moment to Jeremiah. Let’s go to Jeremiah 32 for just a moment.
Now in verse 40, talking about the new covenant he says, “I will make an
everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them, to do them
good; and I will put the fear of Me in their hearts so that they will not turn
away from Me..”

Now I want you to look at something here. He has made an
everlasting covenant with them, not only not to turn away from his people, but
he has made an everlasting covenant, an unending promise to do them good. I can
tell you without a shadow of a doubt in my mind that our master withholds no
good thing from his people. Our master withholds no good thing from his people.
And he has made a covenant. He has made an everlasting promise to do you good.
Now, I want us to stop there for a moment because this type of language
sometimes makes us almost think that God is… All right. I have entered into
this covenant with you and I am going to do you good because I don’t break my
promises. I mean if it wasn’t for this covenant you would be history. But now I
have entered into this covenant and I don’t break my promises and, yeah, you are
a rat. And, yeah, you stink. And, yeah, you don’t deserve anything from me, but
I have entered into a covenant and I am going to keep my promise. But look at
the next text verse 41. “I will rejoice over them to do them good. I will
rejoice over them to do them good.”

So it is not… I mean, we would never say these things, but if
you look at the way we live and if you look at our attitudes and you look at our
lack of joy and we look at the way we grumble before God and the things we say
about ourselves, we almost like, “Well, you know, praise God. Even though I am a
stinking rotten wretch, stink in the nostrils of God, he has made a covenant to
do me good and he will do it because he doesn’t fail in his promises.” That is
not what he says. He says, “I will rejoice over you to do you good.”

• Jeremiah 32:40

• Jeremiah 32:41

Now why is that? It is because of what we talked about last
night, you see. When Christ died, right before he died he said, “It is
finished.” What is finished? Sin is finished. Enmity with God is finished. It is
finished. The work or reconciliation, it is finished. Here, you see, when you
doubt these things you are not doubting your own goodness. You shouldn’t have
been trusting in your own goodness to start off with. What you are doubting in
is the power of the cross. The power of the cross put away all your sin. But not
only that, through the perfect life of Jesus Christ, his perfect death on the
tree, his resurrection from the dead, not only have you been forgiven, but the
righteousness of Christ has been given to you. Your standing before God is
always right. And you say, “But how can that be? Because look what I have done
even after being a Christian.” Don’t you understand? It is not about you. It is
about him. It is about his work on the cross. He always sees you now as his
beloved Son in whom he is well pleased. And he rejoices over his people to do
them good.

If I had to look at most Christians, even true Christians’ lives
and lie to him based on their life it would be something like this. You are God
and I am a worm. Step on me and watch me squirm. I think this is like… And so
many people have this type of attitude and they have it thinking they are being
humble when, in fact, what they are doing is casting doubt upon the perfect work
of God in Christ. Part of boldness… now again, a carnal unconverted person
will take this and twist it. But part of boldness is going, “Yes, I can stand in
his presence. Yes, I can enter in where angels fear to tread.” And then when the
devil rises up and says, “But you are not…” Listen. We have been through that
before. This is not about the younger brother. This is not about the younger
sister. This is about the elder brother who is not ashamed to call us his
brothers and his sisters. This is about him. He says, well, the Christian is the
only person who can say, the only person that can honestly say they are going to
heaven and can stand in the presence of God without being proud because their
entire standing and their entire entering in is based on the virtue and the
merits of another. And so when feel as though we can’t enter in, when we feel as
though he does not love us, when we begin to think this way, we are not being
humbled. We are saying the cross has no power, that the work is not finished. We
are saying… when we say that God is not pleased with us, what we are really
saying is God was not pleased with him.

• John 19:30

The work is perfect or it is not perfect at all. The work paid
for everything or it paid for nothing. It says he will no longer count our sin.
My friend, what do you think that means? If you have one sin you go to hell. He
doesn’t have to count very long, just one sin. But all of them have been removed
through Christ. So there is a boldness, a holy boldness, a joyful boldness to
just enter in. Why? Because of him, because of him. It is the one who enters in
and thinks they can enter in because of some righteous deed in themselves that
do violence to the truth of Christianity. But you are not that way, are you?
Haven’t you learned that you stand upon Christ alone or you stand upon nothing?
And if you stand upon Christ alone, it is enough, it is enough. But look at this
passage. He says not only that he will make a covenant, that he has made a
covenant to do his people good, but look at—and I want to use a word here very
loosely—look at the attitude of God. I know it is… or the disposition of God
in doing his people good. Look what he says. He says, verse 41 of chapter 32, “I
will rejoice over them to do them good.”10 Do you see that?

Now this is the language of a bride groom with his bride. This
is the language. I know a lot of you young guys aren’t married, but about the
happiest moment of your life is going to be after you get married. The fact that
you have entered into a relationship with… you are just so excited. You are
just as though you are going to run into a wall. You don’t even know what to do.
You are so happy. And that’s good. You ought to be. The problem in the Church
today is not too much passion, it is a lack thereof, all these dead holy people,
they just… they are boring. Passion. I mean, whoa. That’s right. Amen. At
least there’s one that’s alive here this morning. But it is like I can’t wait. I
can’t wait. I can’t wait. Man, preacher get through this thing. Get the wedding
over. No I am not going to the reception. Jump in the car. I am gone. I can’t
wait. God is going, “I can’t wait.” Man. What are you going to do today, Lord? I
am going to do my people good. I am going to do them good. I am going to do them
good.

• Jeremiah 32:41

Oh, yeah, sure. I could go out there and create another couple
of gajillion universes. Oh, yeah, I could sit here all day and talk to you
angels. I am going to do my people good. I can’t wait. I rejoice over that. It
brings delight to my heart to do my people good. And most of God’s people almost
think that God grudgingly does it because he has entered into some contract to
do it. No. He rejoices to do it. And that is so exciting to me. And it is not he
rejoices to do it to Charles Spurgeon or to Mary Slessor of Calabar or to Amy
Carmichael or to brother Elliot or to John Piper, but to his people and to the
lowliest and most humble of his people he rejoices more to do them good. Why?
More glory. All of eternity, remember this, all of eternity will be nothing but
God lavishing his riches upon your head so that all the angels in heaven stand
there every day if you could say something about glory, every exceeding, every
passing day in glory he will reap, he will heap upon your head a greater and
greater degree of blessing and angels will fall into greater and greater heights
of adoration because of the goodness he has shown to you. But may I ask you a
question? Does eternal life begin when you die? Or does it begin the moment you
are born again? And this demonstration that God seeks to give, does he seek to
give it only to glorified saints made perfect? Or does it start now? It starts
now. It starts now. It starts the moment you believe. Start lavishing upon you.

Anything that I am—I may not be much, but anything that I am—any
blessing, it is just a product of God’s goodness. That is all it is. That is all
it is. And the sad thing about it is I have not more because I ask not for more.
He rejoices to do you good. He rejoices to do you good. He is excited about
doing you good. So many people down through the ages, even up to today have
almost spent their entire lives seeking the favor of some earthly king. Men who
have taken care of an ancient relative only because they hope somehow that an
inheritance will be left to them, men who have given everything just to get into
the presence of someone who has power and hopes that somehow they might be
blessed. And yet the very king of glory has made an everlasting covenant to
rejoice over you in doing you good. Now why is he so concerned with this? Well,
you can say for his own glory and I appreciate that, because that is true, but
be very, very careful. Be very careful with that statement because he also does
it because he is love. He is love. One of the problems that I have—and I don’t
have many—but one of the dangers especially of young men talking about God doing
everything for his glory is that if you don’t see the whole…. you see, if you
emphasize even that, if you emphasize anything about God as the greatest thing
you are probably going to get off the mark, because God is just too big to be
brought into this is everything it is all about. The fact of the matter is God
does everything for his own glory. It is true. It is true. We will spend a life
time rejoicing in that and in eternity doing the same.

But he not only saves you because he wants to get some glory for
himself, he saves you because he really does love you and he really does love
you for this reason. He has decided to. And he is love. It is not just something
he wants to express. As a matter of fact the only reason God wants to express
love is because it is what he is. It is not something he just decides either. He
is love and he is love in absolutely everything he does.

You see, we… especially reformed guys. It is like, you know,
all these covenants and things and they are all… there is a lot of that that
is so important and so true and because of this God does this and all these
different legal and forensic things and they are all true. I spoke about them
last night. But be very careful. You turn this into almost a politic. He is love
and he loves you. He rejoices over you. This is not just about making a promise
that he is going to keep. This is because he really does…

Do you think it is hard for him to keep that promise? That is a
question I like to ask people. Do you think he has made this promise and it is a
hard thing for him to keep? Well, look at me. How could it not be? He is not
looking at you. He is looking at Christ and his finished work that is really,
real. And it is not a hard thing to keep in the same way that for a believer, a
true believer that has been regenerated by the power of the Holy Spirit the
commandments of God are not a burden to him. One of the reasons is not just that
he is a new creature. It says that he has a love in him for God. God’s
commandments are not a burden to us. God’s promises are not a burden to him. He
freely makes them because of love. He is freely able to love because of the
cross of Jesus Christ which is a perfect work. So if you are going to understand
prayer you have to believe something. God is willing to do you good. God has
promised to do you good and more than that God rejoices over you to do you good.
Much of our piety… I have to speak in a couple of weeks at a conference on the
denial of self, the practice of cutting things out of your life, of self
sacrifice, things like that. That is the topic they have given me. But when you
address this issue along with prayer and everything else, you have got to
understand something.

Do you realize that most people’s idea of what happened in the
Exodus is based more on the movie Moses or the film The 10
Commandments than it is actually on the Bible? Do you know a great amount of
our views of self denial are based upon an extremely perverted Middle Ages type
of Catholic theology? Do you realize that our ideas of piety and prayer and
everything are based on things that are not scriptural? You would be surprised
how influenced you are by those things, of what it means to be pious, what it
means to deny self. You would be surprised if just if I were to ask you for a
moment— and I would never do this—but for you to actually, physically in your
mind try to imagine what Jesus looked like.

Do you know what is amazing? It will be basically 16th century
Catholic art that was painted by some homosexual that will come up in your
brain. Do you see how powerful that is? You have to throw out all these ideas.
Oh, he is so close to God. Well, why? Have you ever asked that question? God
really uses that guy. Well, why? Why? What has he got that you don’t have? What
has he done that you haven’t done? What is it? All my life… Young preacher,
listen to me. All my young preaching life I would look at a lot of good
preachers and I would think, you know, what is it that they got that… that…
I mean, how did they get that close? How did they… what was it they did? What?
Who? And then some of them will actually portray… Bless God, young men, if you
want to be used like I am being used you need to do this, what I have done. I
love for young men to come and stay with me for about three or four weeks. I
just love it. Go to Peru with me and things like that so that they can learn
what real Christianity is about. You follow me around, buddy. You will know what
it means to walk with God. You will get off that plane. You will think I am the
apostle Paul. Three weeks with me you will be praying for my salvation and you
will walk back to the States totally disappointed. And it is not because I don’t
want to be godly and it is not because I don’t want to be Christ like. The
problem is you are just going to see nothing but a person that God is merciful
to. You would be surprised. I am amazed. I think sometimes I see young men who
think too much of me. I will personally ask them to go to Peru with me and I am
thinking that when they finally discover this is the grace of God, they will be
so free and so happy and, in fact, most of them get disappointed and angry. And
why?

They are not revealing something about me. They are revealing
something about them. They want to earn something. They want to be something so
that the bless God they can tell people why God uses them. I don’t have a clue
why God uses me. Except that he is good and he has been kind and he rejoices
over his people to do his people good. Now, again, a carnal person will take
that and say, “Man, let’s not worry about prayer. Let’s not read. Just live like
hell and God will bless us.” But if you are truly a Christian you are going to
go, “Whoa. I just heard a bell ring of freedom.”

And freedom is part of what it is all about. Free. That song, I
keep going back to it, but I love that song. You do not want me to sing it in
the shower, but I do. I sing because I am happy. I sing because I am free. Now.
We are running out of time and we haven’t even begun to talk about prayer which
is usually something that I do. I want you to go just quickly to Luke 18 verse
one and I am not going to have… I am just going to try to address this first
verse. “Now He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought
to pray and not to lose heart.” Now there is a tremendous ministry that Satan
has. You know, he is called the accuser and he is the accuser. But there is a
real way in which Satan can be called our advocate. Now, just let me explain
what I am talking about. Or, at least, he seeks to portray himself as our
advocate, our helper. You know, look at… God gives Adam and Eve absolutely an
entire garden. Satan fails to mention that, doesn’t he? Anything you want in
this garden is yours except what? This tree. All right. So Satan comes and says,
“Man.” You know, just rolls his eyes a little bit. “Well, I see you have talked
to deity over there. Man, can you believe that? He won’t let you have this tree.
Man. I would let you have the tree.” Really?

Jesus talks about what kind of Messiah that he was. Satan cared
about him so much, walks over to him through Peter and says, “Now, look, Jesus.
You think. God never asked you to do that and if he did, I mean, what kind of
God is he? All right?” I see this so much in Christians. “Well, I prayed and I
have prayed, but I mean, I just… no answer. I have just lost heart in all of
this.” And someone walks over and goes, “Oh, dear you.” Oh, dear you? Oh, dear
you? You just accused God. You just accused God. I think it was in Anne of
Green Gables or something the lady she was staying with there and she said
something about, “Oh, I am so depressed or desperate,” or something. And the
lady said, “To be that way is to turn your back on God.”

• Luke 18:1

And, of course in the movie they kind of portrayed it as harsh,
but look at what you are… when you lose heart in prayer, I mean, what are you
saying? What are you really saying? “God didn’t answer me. I have just lost
heart. He didn’t answer me when I asked and I have lost heart.” You should never
lose heart because he withholds no good thing from his people. You should never
lose heart. You pray and you keep praying. “How long do I pray, brother Paul?”
Well, let me just give you the answer. This is how long you pray. You pray for
what you desire in your heart until God answers you or until he shows you either
the desire is wrong or it is not the desire’s time. You just keep praying until
he gives you what you seek or until he directs you in another way. But you don’t
lose heart. Why? Because he is the all sovereign God who loves you and cares for
you. If he answers you and gives you what you desire, then it is for your good.
If he withholds an answer for you and makes you tarry before him for 15 years it
is for your good. If he tells you no it is for your good. Whatever he does is
for your good. As a matter of fact in the believer’s life there is nothing that
ever happens to the child of God that is not good. No evil will come upon you or
befall you, no evil, no evil.

You say, “Well, you have got to be kidding me. You sound like
one of these charismatic preachers now.” No, I don’t, because here is the great
difference: Our definition of evil and our definition of good. What is good?
That which most conforms you to the image of Jesus Christ and that which in
eternity will add up to the greatest weight of glory. So what happens? If I am
healthy it is a good thing. With my health I have a good deal of responsibility
to use my health for his glory. If my health is taken away, is it a bad thing?
No. It is a good thing. Why? It leads to greater conformity to everything he
does. There is nothing evil that can befall me. I mean terrorists come in, shoot
me down. What? I go home. “Yeah, but your wife and your children. I mean your
wife is without a husband and your children are without a father.” Really?
Really? What about him being a husband to my wife? What about God being a Father
to my children? If my children are left without a father all the days of their
life, I can honestly say and my wife has told me this over and over, she says,
“It is a good thing.”

But if in God’s sovereign will he desires for you to be here it
is a good thing. If I am given a home it is a good thing. If that home is taken
away it is a good thing. You see, the thing about prayer… When Jesus talks
about the model prayer there in Matthew chapter six. You know, you have to
understand something. Every one of these things and over in Matthew seven where
it says, “Seek, you know, you will find. Knock it will be open.” All these
things, they are all in the context of the person who has set in their mind this
thing. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness.”

Prayer can only be accomplished in the life of the believer who
has set for themselves the will of God as being the priority, the advancement of
God’s kingdom as being the priority. Absolutely everything in our life has to do
with that. In this circle we call the kingdom of Jesus Christ, the kingdom of
God. Can God make me prosperous economically? Yes. Why will he do it? He will do
it only to conform me to the image of Christ and to advance his kingdom. But if
he can conform me to the image of Christ and advance his kingdom and give me a
greater weight of glory in glory, then he will take that away. That is the way
it works. That is the way it works.

The problem is when your desires are set against his, when you
desire something other than your conformity to Christ and the advancement of his
kingdom. If you set those two things in your heart, conformity to Christ, the
advancement of God’s kingdom, the praise of his glory, then your life becomes
like a rock because you sit there and say, “If God gives me the ability to speak
and I can preach, praise God. If an aneurism goes off in my head and I am left
with nothing but a small ability to lift a prayer to God even in silence, praise
God. He has given me a ministry of intercession.” It is all about him. And when
it is no longer about us and it is all about him we are free. We are free. Then
no evil can befall us. And then prayer always makes sense. It always makes
sense, always. Trust in the absolute goodness of God. Now, I wish I… I want so
much to… let me just iterate this. To lose heart has everything to do with
doubting God’s goodness, God’s wisdom, God’s sovereignty. It is to cast
aspersion upon the character of God. This is not an option for the believer.

Now here is the passage in verse two through eight that doesn’t
fit in to anybody’s theology. I mean… and let me tell you something about
fitting theology and making it work. Let me just tell you something. Proper
theology, the proper study of the person and things of God should always be like
this. Look at it as having a suitcase and having too many clothes to put in that
suitcase. You get the suitcase all tucked in on one side where the zipper will
go around. If it is too many clothes, what is going to happen? It is going to go
out on the other side, isn’t it? No matter how perfect you get this corner to
fit, it is not going to fit over here because there is just too many clothes to
go in the suitcase. That is the way your systematic theology ought to be.

• See Matthew 7:7

• See Matthew 6:33

But I want to tell you. If you can get all that stuff tucked in
to a perfect suitcase or your little box and then you can close it, I want you
to know you have manipulated something or left something out in order to do it.
And that is the way these passages are. I believe in the sovereignty of God. I
can tell you with R.C. Sproul there is not a maverick molecule in the universe.
I can say all of that and it is true, true, true. But I can also say, “You have
not because you ask not.” A man one time got very angry with me. He said—because
we were praying for revival. I don’t know why they were praying for revival. We
were praying for revival and I started to weep and cry out to God for revival.
Afterwards he was very angry with me. He said, “Why are you weeping? Why this
emotional display? If God wants to send revival he will send revival.”

And I said, “Then why on earth are asking for it?” You see and
then he sat down with me and he goes, “But that’s not right.” I said, “Listen,
sir. The difference is this. I am a theologian and you are a philosopher.” He
really got mad then. He said, “What do you mean?” I said, “Sir, a theologian
sits there and goes, The Bible says this is true. God is one. The Bible says
this is true. There are three persons who are God, individual. They are persons.
They are distinct. Jesus ,the Son, the Father, the Holy Spirit. Now I can, as a
theologian sit there a bit and work with this thing. But always realizing these
are inferences I am going to create.”

The same with prayer. God is absolutely sovereign and you have
not because you ask not. Now putting all that together probably you really…
you should just go ahead and pray and believe these two things rather than
spending your life trying to figure them out. It is just like with the trinity.
All heresy regarding the trinity came from those who sought to deny it and those
who sought to explain it. Just affirm it. There is a sense of the older I get
the less I have time to wrangle about words and concepts that are too big for
me. Like a weaned child I am going to walk beside him and hope in the God of
Israel. If he tells me he is sovereign I stand on that sovereignty like a rock.
If he tells me I have not because I ask not, I ask.

• See James 4:2

Oh, you know, that is why children are a lot happier than
adults. And that is why child likeness, not childishness, but child likeness is
important to walk with God. You spend less time trying to figure him out and
just more time listening to him you would do well. And he says here, he says
here… he makes it… he says, “In a certain city there was a judge who did not
fear God and did not respect man.”15 What is God doing? He is… this is all
about the character of God. He is setting up something for us to display his
character and give us an opportunity to trust in him. He is going to say, “Now.
I am going to tell you about a wicked, immoral being, a loveless, wicked,
immoral man, this judge. Did not fear God, did not respect man. He didn’t like
anybody.” He goes on. “There was a widow in that city, and she kept coming to
him, saying, ‘Give me legal protection from my opponent.’”16 Now he goes and
makes this hole even deeper. Not only is the judge immoral, wicked and loveless,
but he would be that way to the rich man in the city. How much to a widow that
has absolutely no economic, political, physical power, nothing. She has nothing,
absolutely nothing. I mean he is… get out of here. He’d treat her like a dog.
If you think I am exaggerating you don’t understand this culture. She was
nothing. He goes on. It says, “Give me legal protection from my opponent.”17 I
say, “Get out of here.” But look what it says. For a while he was unwilling; but
afterward he said to himself, ‘Even though I do not fear God nor respect man,
yet because this widow bothers me, I will give her legal protection, otherwise
by continually coming she will wear me out.’ Now, here is a wicked man who is
loveless and immoral. Here is a woman that has absolutely nothing in her to
motivate him to do something. She has no power, no nothing of worth before him.
Yet because she continually comes to him, she is… he is like, “Oh, my gosh.
Not her. Ok. Fine. I give up. I quit. I will do whatever you want. Just leave me
alone.”

• Luke 18:2

• Luke 18:3

• Luke 18:4-5

Now, that is a grotesque picture of an unjust man. The whole
situation is just ugly and vile. And yet look at what he is saying. And the Lord
said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge said; now, will not God bring about
justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over
them?”

Now, again the contrast: this wicked judge who is loveless and
immoral, if he will do these things, what do you think about God who is already,
as we said in Ephesians chapter two and Jeremiah 32, who not only has made a
covenant to do you good, but rejoices over you to do you good? I will never
forget how this played out and God played this out in my own life. It wasn’t
just a coincidence. It was on purpose. I will never forget this. It was one of
the greatest teachings on prayer I ever heard in my life. I was up in… I had
written a discipleship book that was kind of like it was a discipleship book for
Latin America and it just went trough all kinds of things about the Christian
life and very simple and people really liked it. Well, I went up into the
mountains and I had just enough, we had run out of them and I had just enough
for several pastors that I had in mind that I was going to give it away to them.

The first day that I got the conference up in the mountains, all
these just poor pastors, the first day was like this 15, 16 year old boy. He saw
them. And he goes, “Can I have one?” I said, “Get away from me, kid. You bother
me. These are for pastors.” I didn’t really say that, but that was the way I
felt. It was like, “No.” I said, “I can’t.” I said, “These are for pastors.” I
said, “You know, there is a limited number of pastors and I can’t… I just
can’t give you one, I’m sorry.”

The next day… I mean I got up in the morning and I come out of
the hut, you know, wipe the sleep out of my face and I am like… and there he
is right in front of me. “Can I have a workbook?” Every day, every night, every
time at lunch. I thought about maybe I can just take him out back and just beat
the living daylights out of him. I mean he was absolutely driving me out of my
mind. My wife, I came in one day and I am like, “I am going to kill him.” Like
what is going on? “That kid has… look, he is right out there.” And there is
not even a back door to this hut. I can’t get out of this place. Finally the
last day I go to a pastor and I go, “Look, I am really sorry I can’t give you
one of these.”

• Luke 18:6-7

“Why?” “Because I am going to take it over to this kid because I
am either going to kill him or he is going to kill me.”And I gave it to him. He
just drove me absolutely out of my mind, which wasn’t a very far journey. And
then I mean I sat down. I wasn’t thinking about this passage. I wasn’t thinking
about anything and I sat down. I finally got… he was away from me. I sat down
on a log and I am sitting there going, “Oh, thank God. It is over. It is over.”
And God said, “Now, hear what the Lord says.” Now, I can tell you what. I can
start right now if you want. We can spend the next two hours. I can back up. I
can put a suit on. And I can speak with you regarding some very high theology. I
can clean this whole thing up and I can make it look and fit something that
really seems to have a great deal of integrity. The way I have been preaching
this just sounds too vulgar for a good sermon. We can back up and we can do
that. And we can explain this passage away. We can. We can make it look so good
and just explain it away.

I am not going to do that. I use the word “vulgar” in the Latin
sense of being common, not high speaking. There is a real sense in which this
parable itself, this story itself, this story itself is vulgar. It sets before
us something that you either have to just go, “Ok, all right. I am going to take
what I have here.” Or you can spend a great deal of time dressing this thing up
and sucking all the power out of it. And I won’t do that. What is he basically
telling us? You pray and don’t lose heart. You storm heaven. You knock on the
door. You lay there. You get on his doorstep and you stay there every day. Now,
this would be rude to do this to such a high king unless such a high king tells
you to do it. He tells you to do it. I don’t understand the passage that well.
But he tells us to do it.

Do you believe? One of the saddest verses in the entire Bible in
my opinion… look in verse seven of 18, Luke 18. I am going to stop, but he
says: Now, will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and
night, and will He delay long over them? I tell you that He will bring about
justice for them quickly.20

• Luke 18:7-8

I am telling you. You endure. You pray. You don’t lose heart.
You cry out to this good and loving God who is all sovereign and rejoices to do
good over you. You cry out to him. He is going to do something. And then it is
like he stops and goes, “But then again, when I come back will I even find
anybody believing me about this? Is anybody really going to believe it? When the
Son of Man comes, will he find any kind of faith like this on the earth?” You
know, I never see anywhere in Scripture where Jesus marvels over a man’s ability
to espouse correct theology. I never see him stand amazed at someone’s intellect
or someone’s great ability to grasp the major issues of the Christian faith. But
I do see him amazed at someone’s faith and I do see him amazed at other people’s
unbelief. It is not believing that he will give you exactly everything that you
ask of him. It is believing that he will work and do greater things than what
you can ask or think. You see, here is the way it comes down over the long tem,
over the many years of prayer. Here is what you discover. He does not always
give you everything you ask for, but over the long term you quickly recognize
that he always does for you greater than anything you could ever ask or think.
And I am always hearing preachers say that most of you don’t have the answers to
prayer that you are asking for because you don’t continue praying and that is
something of what I have said. But let me listen to you. I mean let me tell you
something very, very important. Listen. It is not that God has not answered many
of your prayers. God has answered more of your prayers that most of you can even
realize. It is just we ask for things and totally forget about it. And then
three or four years down the line he answers it in a far greater way than we
could have ever asked or thought. And we do not praise him. You are not a
people… if you are the people of God I will not tell you, “You don’t have your
prayers answered.” I will tell you, “You have more prayers answered than you
ever imagined.” And that ought to encourage you because look at the pitiful
praying you have done and then look back and see that he has answered those far
beyond anything of your faith. That encourages me. That encourages me.

Let’s pray.

Father, thank you for every facet of who you are, for everything
you are, absolutely everything that you are. Thank you for everything you have
done, everything you are going to do. Thank you for prayers you have answered.
Thank you for prayers that you will answer. Thank you for absolutely everything
in Jesus’ name. Amen.

• See Luke 18:8