Jesus wants us to pray and never give up when we’re in need of God’s justice, knowing that the God who chose us and loves us will never ignore us. Well, I know I don’t look it, and this may be hard to believe, but there was a time in my life about 15 years ago when I was really into running marathons. I know, I know, I know, you’re thinking, where’d that guy go? He’s gone forever. He’s not coming back. I never was actually a runner. You know, like I ran, but I wasn’t a runner. I was the most reluctant of runners. I had just come off a failed church plant. My stress was high. My health was bad. I had a buddy who ran marathons. American Ninja Warrior was on TV. It was a confusing time is what I’m saying. It’s a confusing time. And somehow, somehow, in the midst of all that, I decided, hey, I’ve never run a 5K in my life, let’s start with a marathon. And so, I bought some shoes, and I trained with a schedule that I found on the internet, and I went from couch potato to starting line in 18 weeks. I ended up running three marathons over the course of two years. But there was a moment in that first marathon that comes to mind every once in a while for me, especially if I’m going through something that’s especially difficult and if it’s one of those things where I don’t see an end in sight. I had been told, for this race, that there would be water and food stations every two miles in the race. Marathons are so long, you have to eat and drink while you do them. And so, I was counting on these, and I passed the 20-mile mark, I still had 6.2 miles to go, and for a first-time non-runner like me, that is by far the worst part of the race. But as the despair started to set in to that, as I was going through that final stretch, I began to realize that there were no more water stations. I thought there would be some, but there were no more water stations. I’d burned through all my glycogen stores. There was no more sugar in my body. I didn’t have the fuel anymore, and I never found out why those stations weren’t there. For 6.2 miles all I could do was fight through the overwhelming desire to quit. All I wanted to do was just lay down in somebody’s lawn, I was running through this neighborhood, I just wanted to lay down, and everything in me wanted to just blame the race organizers and just stop. But I knew if I stopped, that I was never going to start again. Even if I tried to lie to myself and say, “well, just stop for a minute and then you’ll keep going”, I knew I would never, never start again. I knew I would just be overcome with my own frustration. So, I had to keep my legs churning because I knew that absolutely, without a doubt, the finish line was coming. I couldn’t see it. I didn’t know where it was, but I knew it was coming. Today we’re going to talk about endurance, but of a different kind. A much harder kind. We’re going to talk about the mental, spiritual, and sometimes physical endurance it takes to remain steadfastly committed to Christ when the world is crumbling around you and you don’t feel like God is listening to your prayers. Jesus is going to give us a parable today, where he will encourage us to keep our spiritual legs churning and keep our prayers to the Lord steadfast, even when we don’t see the end or we don’t see how God is going to make things right. So, our passage and this sermon this morning is especially for those of you who are exhausted today, spiritually exhausted. And I know you’re out there because there’s always a part of the church that feels spiritually exhausted, and you’re looking for that water station that you thought was supposed to be there. But it’s also this morning, for those of you who are doing real well right now, and if you’re seeing answers to prayer and life is going well and you’re excited about all that God is doing in your life. That is fantastic. But as you’ve heard me say on more than one occasion here, the best time to build your theology of suffering is when things are going well. It’s not when you’re in the midst of suffering. And so, I’d encourage you and encourage all of us today to take what Jesus tells us, put it into your spiritual toolbox so that you have it ready when things get difficult. Because Jesus wants us to pray and never give up when we’re in need of God’s justice, knowing that the God who chose us and loves us will never ignore us. We’re in a new chapter of Luke today, Luke chapter 18, but the change of chapter does not mark a change in topic. What Jesus teaches in this parable follows right on the heels of his description of his second coming and the difficult lives that we’re going to live as Christians as the world gets progressively worse leading up to his return. And so, this parable is intended to show us how to live as faithful followers of Christ while we wait and while we suffer. Last week, we talked about the longing that’s in our hearts...
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Mar 8 202633 m