From His Heart

Speaker 1

Today on from his heart, you'll be strongly encouraged to never give up. Here is Pastor Jeff Shreve.

Speaker 2

Have you given up on a dream that God put into your heart? Did you read something in scripture that leaped off the page a year ago, two years ago, five years ago, 10 years ago about some ministry, something God wanted to do in you and through you, and you just knew this is from the Lord for me, but you haven't seen it come to pass, and you've given up?

Keep praying, keep seeking, keep trusting. Keep bringing that to the Lord. I love what Adrian Rogers says: it is better to die in faith than to live in doubt.

Keep praying and seeking his face. He can heal every scar with real truth, real love, real hope from his heart.

Speaker 1

Now, the truth is this: your life, my life, our lives together need to be in prayer all the time. Conversing, crying out to Him, being ministered to God in prayer. But we don't tend to do that, do we? We may have seasons when that is part of our effort, but plain old life creates distractions, and our prayers get sidetracked. Is that true for you? Well, you're not alone.

This is from his heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve, who today will remind us that God prays that if we'd call on Him in prayer, He'd listen to us. Today we're going to discover four simple but important truths concerning prayer. The message today is entitled "The Prayer Life of a Good Soldier." This is part two of this lesson. It's from Pastor Jeff's series, "Soldiers of the Cross."

Open your Bible now to the Gospel of Luke, chapter 18. We'll look at verses one through eight and get ready for a blessing. Here again is Pastor Jeff.

Speaker 2

I want to share with you four very simple but very important realities concerning prayer.

Reality number one, prayer is a challenge. It's a challenge. He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart, not to give up, not to throw in the towel and not to quit, not to say, "This is too hard, and I am done with prayer." Prayer is a challenge. You say, well, why is that? Why is it so easy to give up? Well, number one, the answers that we seek are not immediately given. That's one of the big reasons why we can lose heart and we can lose hope and we can give up. We say, "What's the use?" I mean, we pray about things, and sometimes we pray and pray and pray and pray and pray about things. And we say, "Lord, when are you going to answer?" The answers we seek are not immediately given, and so it's easy to lose heart.

Secondly, the anguish we feel in waiting can cause us to give up. Waiting is hard. David said, "I would have despaired unless I believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord. Be strong and let your heart take courage. Yes, wait for the Lord." Prayer is a challenge.

The second reality: prayer is essential. It's a challenge, but it is essential. Jesus said men ought always to pray and not to faint, not to lose heart. At all times, they ought to pray. Robert Murray M'Cheyne, the Scottish preacher of the 1800s, says this: "What a man is on his knees before God, that he is, and nothing more." Prayer is essential to our Christian lives. Prayer is the means by which we talk to God. That's what prayer is. Prayer is how we talk to God. The Word is how God speaks to us. Now, does God ever speak outside of His Word through circumstances and people? Sure he does. But primarily, God speaks through His Word, and he's never going to say anything that is not consistent with His Word. But in good times, in bad times, in all times, we ought to pray. It is essential to our walk with God.

And prayerlessness, when you think about it, is a sin of pride, a sin of bitterness perhaps, and a sin of self-deception. Why don't we pray? I mean, the scripture says, "You have not because you ask not." You ask and do not receive because you ask with wrong motives to spend it on your pleasures. Why don't we pray? Many people are self-deceived because we think, "Hey, I got this covered. I can do this, God. I don't need you, God." Oh, when the bottom drops out, then we pray. Why? Because then we need God. And what we need to understand is, as the song says, "I need Thee every hour." I would say I need Thee every second of every minute of every hour. We desperately need God. So prayer is a challenge, and prayer is essential. That's how we talk to God.

And then thirdly, prayer is powerful when it is God-directed and persistent. So he told them a parable. And the parable was designed to get them to pray and not to give up and not to throw in the towel on prayer. Look at it again. Here's the parable: There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God and did not respect man. Now, in Israel at that time, you had lots of little courts, little civil courts, and it wasn't out of the ordinary to find a judge who was not a righteous judge. This judge is the worst that Jesus is talking about in this story that he made up. He didn't fear God. He didn't respect man.

Verse 3: "And there was a widow in that city, and she kept coming to him saying, 'Give me legal protection from my opponent.'" And for a while, verse 4, 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. Why? Lest by continually coming she wear me out." Man. And the Lord said, "Hear what the unrighteous judge said. Now, shall God not 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 speedily."

Suddenly, however, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth? So here's this story about this weak woman. She doesn't have any power in the situation. The judge has all the power in the situation. He is full of arrogance. She is full of evil impotence. She has nothing. But she is going to defeat the arrogant judge. How does she do that? She has the law on her side, and she is persistent. "Give me legal protection, justice, literally, against my adversary." Somebody had taken things from her, probably her means to live. And so every day she's coming and coming and coming and coming and coming.

And the guy says, "Listen, I don't care about God or man, but I do care about myself. And this lady, she keeps coming. She's going to come forever. She's going to wear me out. So I'm going to give her what she wants so she'll go away." And because of her persistence, he says, "All right, I'll give you what you want. I will judge your case based on truth, and I will judge for your benefit."

Now the Lord said, "Verse 6. Hear what the unrighteous judge said. Now shall not God..." This is a parable of contrast. God is nothing like the unrighteous judge. He's nothing like the unrighteous judge. But the Lord is making a point, and here's his point: If an unrighteous judge responds to persistence from a woman he doesn't care about at all, not related to him, he doesn't give a rip about her. All he cares about is himself. He's a terrible judge. But if an unrighteous judge will respond to the persistence of this woman he couldn't give a rip about, how much more will God, who loves you, God, who is not a heartless judge, but a judge who's your father? Who loves you with an everlasting love? How much more will that God hear your pleas and respond to you?

See, it's an argument from the lesser to the greater. God is nothing like the unrighteous judge. And we have the opportunity to come before him. And we're not like the widow. We are his elect as believers in Jesus. We belong to him. We're his children. I have three beautiful daughters, and I love my girls. And they know that dad loves them. And they know, probably too much, that if you have a need, go to dad. And dad can't say no. Now God can say no. Dad has trouble. But you know, if it's outside of God's will, he's not going to do it. But my girls just know, "Hey, if you come to dad, well, dad listens. Dad will receive. And if it's something that is going to be good for the girls, I'm going to try and help them any way I can."

Sometimes I can't. Sometimes it might be beyond my control. But the God of the universe, he can do all things. Our Lord God, Thou hast made the heavens and the earth by Thy great power and by Thine outstretched arm. Nothing is too difficult for you. So God is nothing like the unrighteous judge, and answered prayer, as this teaches about answered prayer, comes through truth and persistence. Truth and persistence. You bring the truth of the word of God to your prayer time. "Lord, you have said, if I pray according to your will, you hear me. And if you hear me in whatever I ask, I know that I have the request which I have asked from you."

So it's truth and it's persistence. I keep coming and coming and coming and coming. "Call to me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things which you do not know." I've told you before that promise from Jeremiah. That doesn't mean God answers on the first ring, because God doesn't necessarily do that. God says, "Ask and keep asking. Seek and keep seeking. Knock and keep knocking." And if you ask and keep asking, and if you seek and keep seeking, and if you knock and keep knocking, then you will find, and the door will be opened, and you will receive. We give up so easily.

Hey. We pray the truth back to the Lord, and we persist, and we say, "God, you promised." Now here, here's the question for you: Why does God seem so slow in answering our prayers? Have you ever thought about that? It's like, "Lord, you can do all things. Why are you so slow in answering my prayer?" God is at work even when you don't see him at work. God is working as we pray. Because Romans 8:28 says, "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose." And Jesus said in John 5:17, "My father never stops working. And so I work too." He's working until now, and I am working, and God is at work.

But when we ask for things, it's not our timing; it's God's timing. And so God will say, sometimes he'll say, "Yes, that's right. That's what we're gonna do." But there needs to be a gap of time in here. Or God says, "Well, you're praying a good prayer, but I'm gonna do it a little differently than what you want to do, but you're on the right vein." And then sometimes God just says, "No, no, you're not praying according to my will." Moses asked God, Moses, who could pray, he asked God, "Please let me go into the promised land." And the Lord says, "No, I told you no. When you dishonored me before the people, and I told you to speak to the rock, and you hit the rock, and you dishonored me and failed to hold me as holy before the people, you forfeited your right to go into the promised land. Don't ask me about this again. You're not going in. I'll let you see it, but you're not gonna enter in." And so Moses didn't ask the Lord again. Sometimes the Lord just says, "No."

But God is at work even when you don't see him at work. And listen, when it comes to persistence and answered prayer, remember this: Why does God love persistence so much? Why does he want us to pray and keep praying and keep praying and keep praying and keep praying? Why does he love that? Because it shows that we trust him. It shows that we believe him. It shows, just like Joseph as he kept praying, it shows that, "God, you've given me this dream in my heart. I know it was from you. And I'm not giving up on this dream." Men ought always to pray and not to quit, not to faint, not to lose heart, not to throw in the towel.

Do you remember the story in Matthew, chapter 15? Jesus is up in the area of Tyre and Sidon, which is north of the Sea of Galilee. And it's a Gentile area. And this woman, a Canaanite woman, she was called a Syrophoenician woman, comes up to Jesus and his disciples and she says, "Lord, help me! My child is cruelly demon-possessed." His response? Nothing. He doesn't even speak to her. She keeps shouting after Jesus, "Lord, help me! My daughter is cruelly demon-possessed. I need you." And she's shouting and shouting and shouting and shouting after Jesus. The disciples say, "Lord, she's shouting after us. Tell her to go away." And Jesus says to her, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."

So first he gives her silence. Then he says, "You're not an Israelite. I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." And she falls down before the Lord at his feet. And she said, "Lord, help me." And he said to her, "It is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." You're that woman. You're crying out to him. He doesn't answer you. And then he says, "I'm not here for you. I'm here for only the lost sheep of the house of Israel." And then he equates you with a dog. Most of us would say, "Well, forget it. I heard you were compassionate. I heard that you were gracious. Forget it. You're none of those things. Never going to ask you for another thing. I'll make out some other way. I'll just do it on my own."

"It's not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." And she looked up at him and she said, "Yes, Lord. But even the dogs eat from the crumbs that fall from their masters' table." And he said, "Woman, your faith is great. Be it done to you as you wish." And immediately her daughter was delivered from that demon. Immediately she was restored. Well, what was Jesus doing? He was testing her. And why does God not answer our prayer? Boom. Just like that. He's testing us. Do you really trust me? Will you really seek me? Are you coming for my hand? Just what I can do for you? Or do you love me?

See, if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then who will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land. If all we want from God is His blessings, but we don't want Him, he's got to weed out course. And that weed-out course is, "I'm not going to talk to you." And then I'm going to give you another test. "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." And then I'm going to say, "It's not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." Those were all barriers to her. And she kept pressing in. And the Lord loves that because that shows that we believe Him. That shows that we know he's good. That says, "I'm not looking at circumstances. I'm looking to you. I'm not giving up. I'm looking up to you until you shall be gracious to me."

So prayer is powerful when it is God-directed, when it's in the truth of his word, and when it's persistent.

And lastly, and very quickly, prayer will be lacking as we near the Lord's return. Verse 8 is a shocking verse. It says, "When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?" What a question. When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth? Is anybody going to be genuine? You know, Jesus in Luke 17, he said, "For this coming of the Son of Man will be just like it was in the days of Noah. It will be just like it was in the days of Lot." The days of Noah, that's when God brought judgment on the whole earth. Only eight persons were saved. The ark is this massive vessel, but only eight persons believed God enough to get on the ark. When Lot was rescued out of Sodom, it was only Lot and his two daughters. His wife went, but then she turned back and she was consumed in the judgment. Very few were found to be people of faith when judgment came.

"When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?" And he's talking about prayer. How do you know? If you have faith, it shows up in your prayers because you believe God and you're calling upon his name and you're crying out to him day and night. "Shall not God bring about justice for his elect who cry to him day and night? And will he delay long over them?"

You know, it's interesting. In verse 8, I tell you that he will bring about justice for them speedily. That word speedily doesn't mean like you pray, and then it's boom, it's coming. It means when the Lord comes, it will be speedily. It will be suddenly. The second to the last verse of the Bible, Jesus says, "Behold, I am coming quickly." It's the same word that's used here, same root word. That doesn't mean, I mean, it's been 2,000 years. You're coming quickly. Well, from our estimation, it's been a long time. That's not very quick. But what he's saying is, "I am coming suddenly. I am coming rapidly. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, bam, I'm here." And then all of a sudden the Lord is here.

That's why I've said you don't have time. When the Lord comes, you don't have time to get ready. You have to be ready because he comes quickly. He comes suddenly. He comes at an hour when you do not think he will. So you have to be ready.

Hey, we have an opportunity, such a great gift from God to pray and to link our nothingness with his almightiness. We can call upon his name, the name of the God of the universe, the God who spoke the worlds into existence, and he listens to us. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive because you don't pray according to my word. You pray your will and to spend it on your pleasures. But hey, if we will seek the Lord and call upon his name and we'll ask and keep asking and seek and keep seeking and knock and keep knocking, he says, "I'll hear, I'll respond. I'll open the door to you at the right time."

In closing, let me ask you, have you given up on a dream that God put into your heart? Did you read something in scripture that leaped off the page a year ago, two years ago, five years ago, ten years ago about some ministry, something God wanted to do in you and through you, and you just knew this is from the Lord for me, but you haven't seen it come to pass and you've given up? Keep praying, keep seeking, keep trusting. Keep bringing that to the Lord.

I love what Adrian Rogers says: "It is better to die in faith than to live in doubt." Keep praying and seeking his face. George Mueller prayed for a man to be saved, and he prayed for him for 50 years. And then Mueller died, and the man was still unconverted. But at his funeral, at George Mueller's funeral, that man gave his life to Christ. Don't give up on prayer. The prayer life of a good soldier is persistent, and we pray according to his word, and we fast and we pray and we trust him no matter what.

Speaker 1

How is your heart today? Is it spiritually filled with a desire to pray to God and receive His blessings? To absorb and manifest the truths of God, hearing His voice and putting them into action for the kingdom's sake.

You've been listening to part two of the lesson called the Prayer Life of a Good Soldier from Pastor Jeff's seven-message series, Soldiers of the Cross, emphasizing the power of prayer, the power of suffering, the power of courage, and the power of discipline. It's a must-have for the heart of the believer.

This series is our special thank you gift for your support to From His Heart this month of any amount. With that gift, we'll also send you Pastor Jeff's companion booklet, the Lord's Army, both for your support this month. Support that is used exclusively to produce and distribute these programs to hundreds of stations across the nation and around the world. Each and every day, we couldn't do that without you. Pastor Jeff receives no income from this ministry; he is our chief volunteer to get these resources.

Just make your gift today of any amount when you call 866-40-BIBLE (866-40-24253) or go online to fromhisheart.org to request this month's special thank you gifts. We love you, and we want you to know that we do, and God is glorified in your desire to want to reach others with these kinds of messages.

So thank you from the bottom of our hearts, and thank you for listening today to the message, the Prayer Life of a Good Soldier. I'm Larry Nobles, inviting you to join us tomorrow for the first part of the last message in this Soldiers of the Cross series that will explain how you heal from your wounds if you're a good soldier. Be with us on Wednesday for this message of restoration when Pastor Jeff Shreve opens up the Bible and speaks real truth, love, and hope from God's heart here on From His Heart.

Speaker 2

There is treasure is true, there is blessing, there is hope that you always dream of. He can heal every scar.

Speaker 1

From his heart is the listener supported Broadcast Ministry of Dr. Jeff Shreve speaking the truth in love to a lost and a hurting world.

Remember, no matter what, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.

Find out more about that when you go to fromhisheart.org.