The Parable of the Persistent Widow

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I no longer want to pastor. That was one of my favorite intro lines that I gave in 2021 to our church. Just a few weeks before that, pastor Caleb and I went to a preaching conference. That forever changed the way honestly, me and Caleb prepare and also the way we deliver our sermons. And I couldn’t wait to share this line ’cause I just knew it would shock our church.

And so I let that line linger. Kind of how I just did five seconds ago, and I let it linger long enough for people to begin to shift in their seats and wonder, was I being serious or is this some clever intro? The conference we went to argued that you should open your teaching with a hook. A hook essentially keeps people’s interest that the longer you wanna preach, the bigger the hook you need in the beginning.

So if you want to preach for 40 minutes, you better get their attention to begin with. It should make people curious, wanting to know more, or furious, just so angry at what they just said. I wanna stick around and see how this kind of shakes out. Movies do this. Novels do this. Sadly, a lot of teaching does not do this, but looking back a few more years of life and ministry under my belt, I don’t think that opening line grabbed people simply because it was shocking to hear.

I think it grabbed people because it was relatable. Who among us doesn’t resonate with the feeling of burning out and wanting to give up. Most of us, as I talk to you over coffee are tired and weary. A lot of us have just grown it. Just realize it’s normal to have low grade depression and a quiet sense of despair, and it’s hard because we live in a culture that’s obsessed with performance and productivity, and so as leaders, we often don’t know how to respond to that kind of pain, to respond to that kind of despair.

Typically, what we do when we sense that people are wavering, our first instinct is just to blame boredom. We think, oh, we just need to grab their attention again. We need to do whatever we can to get them to come and be happy. And so we make. Things shorter and funnier and flashier and sermon series riskier.

We day after day. I know for me, I see experts post online and don’t send it to me later today via Instagram, but I see all the time people saying, your church will grow if you just shorten your sermons. 15 to 20 minutes is all they can endure. That’s how they make the shows. These days, 22 minutes long, you better not say amen.

’cause if you say Amen, I will preach longer. Just to prove a point. I’m stubborn. Ask my wife. But here’s what I’m convinced of. I think we’ve gotten it all wrong. I think we’ve misdiagnosed the problem. See, 📍 the crisis of our generation isn’t losing attention. It’s losing heart. People aren’t checking out and not coming to church because they’re bored.

They’re broken. Yes, distraction plays a part, and we’ve talked about that a lot. And disappointment cuts deep into the soul. Life for so many of us hasn’t, hasn’t gone the way it we expected it to. We were sold a dream that never got close to panning out. And instead of facing the pain, we numb it with another distraction.

And we as pastors think we just need to entertain them, give them another weird reason to come back. But what if it’s simply because we’re losing heart? This phrase, losing heart that Jesus uses, it means when you give up or when you give in. Jesus himself here in Luke 18, is far more concerned with his disciples losing heart than losing attention.

And like so many Sundays, I’m so grateful we put this calendar together last year and I really believe God sovereignly put this parable as the last parable for us on our calendar. ’cause I think it speaks to the moment we are in as a church. Again, today is the last day. It’s 13 parables. And if you’re from Phoenix thirteen’s not a unlucky number.

It’s Steve Nash baby. It’s the real thing. It’s very good. But it’s also, sadly, the last day you will see fourth quarter, fourth soil. Aw, thank you. We are, if you’re new here, you’re like, this church is so weird, but that’s fine. We are having advent starting next week, and so the banner will reflect that. But just this year alone, think about it.

We’ve gone through a lot. We started the year by talking about fourth quarter, fourth soil, but then we talked about what does it look like to practice fasting? And after fasting, we went nine weeks talking about sin, doing lent and giving up things for the sake of God. We had a beautiful time confessing our sin and clinging to Christ.

I still talk to people who still talk about that series today about the different deadly sins. Then we moved on to prayer. We begin to practice prayer as a faith family. And after the prayer series we looked at the upper room dialogues with Jesus and his last moments with his disciples. And during that time, it was a special time in the life of our church.

We literally saw healings. We had our largest prayer gatherings we’ve ever had, and there was a lot of art pieces we showed you on the TV if you guys were there for that. Although Caleb’s not much of an art guy anyways. Then we talked about the practice of witness. We talked about getting out there. How do we, how do we be with the nonbeliever and share the good news of the gospel?

And to kind of compliment that we’ve gone 13 weeks in the parables. We’ve been trying to get uncomfortable by causing us to, to sit in these stories and realize how we need the gospel still. And we need to share this good news to those around us. And along the way, God has grown our congregation. We don’t make attenders here, we make disciples.

So you typically don’t hear about the data, but we have broken a lot of records. This year. We acquired five acres of land at Germaine and Ellsworth. It’s been an incredible year filled with vision for an exciting future. And as I think about the tray in 2021 who said, I don’t want a pastor anymore. I was being honest at that time.

But today, five years later, I realized we’re in a different moment. Five years ago, me and Caleb were genuinely worried that people lost interest in the vision of our church. That’s not as much of an issue today. We will say that in humility, but we are certainly concerned, and I think we’re a target for losing heart, as is every church in our position of growth and excitement for the future, the enemy will do anything he can to pull us down, and Jesus has this same concern with his disciples, and that’s why, let’s read verse one again in the extra spiritual version today, only EESV, and he told them a parable to the effect that they ought to always to pray and not lose heart.

What I find fascinating about this parable, parables usually withhold the punchline. Usually the story’s open-ended and you’re left to try to figure it out for yourself. But Luke, I think he thinks this one’s so important. He gives away the purpose before the parable even begins. He tells you, this is what this parable means.

Which by the way, that teaching conference would say, don’t do that ’cause that is not a very good hook. People would lose interest, but this is Jesus. I think this is okay. But look at this line again. They ought always to pray and not lose heart. This phrase, if you look at it in the English, it sounds like a command, like Jesus is saying, you must pray always.

But if you look at the Greek and you don’t have to, that’s part of my job. The Greek shows us it’s urgent, but it’s actually technically not a command. In other words, it’s not do this ’cause I told you. So what Jesus is saying instead is do this because you won’t survive without it. Jesus is preparing them for despair, which is inevitably going to come in their life on Good Friday when Jesus dies on the cross and it inevitably comes in your life and mine.

And when despair comes knocking on the door, we won’t care if prayer was a command or a suggestion. It’s our very lifeline. We need it to survive. And that’s the heart of Jesus’s teaching today in this parable, write this down. 📍 Persistent prayer is the remedy to despair. I know for me as I was studying it this week, I think it’s easy to think, this is overly simplistic, but Jesus makes it pretty obvious and clear.

Either we pray or we lose heart. You can kind of tell if you’re beginning to lose heart. Maybe you’re not praying as much as he’s calling you to. And again, I think we’re inclined. I’m inclined to kind of dismiss this because it doesn’t align with my experience. I know for me, I’ve been in a season of prayer and I’m still in despair.

What do I do with my hair? How else can I rhyme? Right? Let’s do anyways, but don’t miss this, and I think it’s just really helpful. Jesus’s insistence on persistence is the key to understanding this. It’s not, hey, a quick prayer is the remedy for despair. I think it’s saying the more the despair, the more persistent the prayer.

And guess what? This doesn’t mean you had one good day of prayer. It could be a season where you are constantly pursuing the presence of the father because the pain of the moment is so overwhelming, and so I think it gives us that picture of persistence by telling us a story with two main characters.

Luke 18. Now let’s look at verse two. He said in a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man, and there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, give me justice against my adversary. So we don’t know the situation. We don’t know what the problem is, but the widow clearly has a unjust situation that she has no power to fix on her own.

Verse four, for a while, he refused, but afterward he said to himself, and by the way, we don’t know how long a while is. For a while, he refused. It could have been months, it could have been years. We don’t know. And that’s okay though. He says, I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps.

Bothering me. I’m gonna give her justice so that she will not beat me down. That word beat me down is literally like with a tight fist. Somebody punching them. Think UFC. She This. This judge is being dramatic. The widow is not literally punching, but how many of us know? Sometimes it’s better to get punched in the face than to hear anyways.

Okay, so beat me down by her continual coming. Whew. That was close. Jesus’s parables often use compare or contrast, and I think that’s very important to state the, or a lot of us, we say we, I grew up learning an English class. Compare and contrast. No, it’s compare or contrast because compare in parables means, okay, this person compare them to God, compare them to the kingdom.

They’re like each other. But then sometimes it’s contrast where he’s using stories and people to say, see this person, God is not like this person at all. See this thing, the kingdom is not like this thing at all. And in this story, 📍 is God like this crooked judge? No, there’s only one way. He is similar.

They’re both judges. God is judge. He has ultimate authority. A judge in this time has authority and power. He would say a word and and the future would change. Destinations would change. The same with God. Of course he is. All sovereign. All powerful. And in just a word, he can change any situation, but in every other way.

God is not like this crooked judge. Some of us need to hear that. ’cause when we think of God, we think of this unjust judge, but hear me, this judge only cares for himself. Our God loves us so much. He sent his one and only son to die on our behalf. This judge gets annoyed. I love that line again. So she won’t beat me down by her continual coming.

Our God is not annoyed. He’s attentive. Read the Old Testament and the new. He’s constantly hearing the cries of his people day and night. This judge is corrupt. You can move him by pressure, threat, or bribe. But our God is compassionate. He has moved the scripture says by his steadfast love that endures forever.

They couldn’t be more different. And persistent prayer is the remedy to despair because. Without prayer, we begin to lose sight of this truth without prayer. We begin to interpret God through our circumstance and not through his character. And so it’s our job as Christians. Hear me to pray the truths of scripture back to God and declare this is what I believe about God.

Though my circumstance makes me want to think otherwise. What I wanna do today is show you two ways you and I are prone to lose heart. Okay, so here’s the first one. 📍 Without prayer, we begin to lose heart by giving up on God.

Without daily communing with God. By the way, our definition of prayer is not just asking for things that we want. It’s also to delight in his presence. If you were here in May, that’s definition number one. Prayer is delighting in his presence. If we stop to delight in his presence, if we’re no longer communing and talking to him, it is so easy to start giving up on God.

You begin to look at your loved ones who are suffering, and you start to believe the lie that God is disinterested in my difficulties. ’cause if he cared, he would take care of me. Or you see the evil ones in this world winning. You see the righteous ones losing, and you think to yourself, God must not be paying attention.

Delay from God feels like denial, silence from God. God, I just need a word. I just need direction. I just need clarity. And when he doesn’t give it, we then interpret it as abandonment. And this is so important. Look. God in prayer is not asking you to turn a blind eye to the sorrows around you. He’s just inviting you to bring those sorrows to him.

Read the Psalms. I know for me, I have a daily rhythm where I have my typical prayer rhythms, but then I always read a Psalm and prayer and just read Psalms for a while. David, for example, who wrote a lot of the Psalms, he complains a lot about everything I just mentioned. How? How come the evil are winning?

How come the arrogance seem to get everything they want? How come my loved ones are suffering? How come the righteous ones are overlooked? How come a righteous man could be so holy and let yet die at nine years old? But a but a wicked man could live to his nineties. God, this makes no sense. And what I love about the Psalms, hear me?

David is disappointed about the realities of life, and he’s honest. He’s bringing it to God. But here’s what the Psalms remind us. Honesty. It is not what makes you lose heart. Silence is the biggest way to give up on God is to stop giving it up to God. Put another way. David did not give up on God because he kept giving it up to God.

That’s some of you. You need that word today. One Peter 5, 7, 1 of my favorite verses, cast all your cares on him. Why? Because he cares for you. Anybody know that old hymn? Oh, what peace we often forfeit? Oh, what needless pains we bear? Oh, all because, no, all because we do not carry. If I hit the right note, I would’ve kept going.

I realize I messed that one up. Everything to God in prayer. One of my favorite songs to sing. See Jesus. He’s setting up this contrast to remind you and me of God. Goodness. Some translations. Also, we have a similar story, a parable in Luke 11. They say, how much more it is this use of language, God is saying, okay, this unjust judge did this.

How much more will this good God do for you? Verse six, again, in a different translation. NLTI feel like a rebel. Today. I’m just doing all these different translations except the CSBI love UCSB. We’ll get back to it next week. Verse six says, then the Lord said, learn a lesson from this unjust judge. Even he rendered a just decision in the end.

So you don’t think God will surely give justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? God is not like this crooked judge and some of you have fallen for the lie that he is. This is why theology matters. This is why prayer matters. What I love about our youth group that is doing really well on Sundays, our youth leaders, I talk to all of ’em.

They all care so much about theology because look at a youth age, but also to our old age theology, thinking the right things about God and saying, and praying to this God that you’ve learned through the scriptures is essential to the Christian life. So if God is not like this crooked judge, then what does justice actually look like?

What does it look like? What if you, ’cause this is where I felt dissonance. What if I feel like he’s putting me off? I still struggle with this idea. He says he’s gonna give it to him. Speedily, speedily. Speedily means right now, many of us go decades without God giving us an answer. What do you mean speedily?

And of course, commentators say in light of eternity. All of this has just put a moment. Amen. All of this really is speedily when we look at it in the rear view mirror. But the library of scripture shows us what justice sometimes look like. This is so important. We talked about this in our fasting practice as well as our prayer practice.

📍 But number one, some ways that justice is shown in our life is that he rescues us. These are the ones where we come up and we say, yeah, I pray for this thing and God did it. Is it God? So good? And we all clap. Yes. He rescued me and he will rescue you. Praise God. And that’s incredible. The problem is, is when we act like that’s the only way justice happens.

It means many. It leads many to be disheartened in the room. That’s cool that you got rescued, bro. But I haven’t. That’s cool that you got a baby. We still don’t. What do we do now? We tend to just say, well, uh, let’s sing a song, you know, and we move on. But it’s so important, this theology, it’s so important to bring this pain before God because 📍 number two, another way justice happens in our life is he refines us.

This is hard, but sometimes he’s forming our character, he’s creating us. Some of us have pains and struggles that honestly God sees as a. For Paul, it was a thorn in the flesh that actually enabled him to stay humble and to stay weak and to depend on the strength of God. I know for me, I’ve had a lot of prayers in my life, especially in pastoral ministry, and now I praise God he didn’t answer it because I know that I needed to learn what it meant to have peace that passes understanding.

I need to know what it means to have joy that is not dependent on circumstance, but even that isn’t always the best answer. Is it cool? I’m a better person now. God, can you just give me the right answer? Can you just rescue me and I think it’s okay in prayer to be honest with God and say that, God, thank you for refining me.

Can we stop now? Can you just like gimme the thing like, oh, I did all the things you wanted me to, right? I again, read the Psalms. God is so honored when we’re, when we’re honest that way, 📍 but ultimately he resurrects us. This is our ultimate hope. Friends, there is a reality where many of us, we have sad things in this life that will stay sad, but I love the line from JRR Tolkien in the New Heaven and the new Earth.

He says, all that is sad. Will one day become untrue? Guys, our ultimate hope lies in that empty tomb, and that is a first fruit for those who trust in him. We too will have resurrected bodies and all that was sad. Will one day become untrue? It says, the scripture says every tear will be wiped away. That is our ultimate hope.

But that doesn’t mean we ask. Well, of course today, we still ask for rescue. We still pray and receive refinement, but our ultimate hope is in him and knowing we will be resurrected with him. And so our confidence, our endurance is rooted in his character. We tap into that confidence and endurance through persistent prayer.

Eugene Peterson, pastor. Writer, author. He put it this way in commenting on Luke 18. He says, 📍 that is why we keep praying and do not lose heart. We do it because we know that God is everything that the evil judge is not. We know that neither silence nor absence is evidence of contempt or indifference. So keep on praying and don’t lose heart.

Friends don’t give up on God. There’s still another way you and I can lose heart. Maybe you’re in the room and you know enough good theology. You’ve understand what God has delivered you from, and you said, I will never give up on God. But watch out for the second temptation 📍 without prayer. We begin to lose heart by giving in to the enemy.

That brings us to the second person in this parable. The widow, widows and orphans in this time are the most helpless and defenseless groups in all of society. Widows have no position of power, no provision, no protection, and this is why in verse three, we see an enemy take advantage of her, and she has no family to help her out.

She has nothing. There’s nothing she can do in her own power to save herself. Again, no power, no provision, no protection. But you know what she does have? She has persistence. The judge goes into his horse carriage. I don’t know what they drive back then at the end of the day, and where is the widow? Right there next to his carriage saying, will you please give me justice?

He gets home, wakes up the next morning, goes to breakfast, and look who’s across the table, the widow. Yet again, will you please give me justice? He leaves and goes to the courthouse and she is sitting on the steps, will you please give me justice? The widow’s not giving up. What I love about her story is the widow’s also not giving in.

We already asked if God is like this crooked judge, but are you like the persistent widow, pastor, HB Charles? He asked this question to his congregation and he gave three answers. 📍 The first answer’s yes, like the widow, hear me. You two are wrestling with an enemy you cannot handle on your own. You have no power, no protection, no provision within yourself to win.

Pastor Caleb said it during our communion, the scripture says we have an enemy and it sins Satan and death on your own power, there is no conquering all three. Sin. Sin is those desires, the cravings that promise satisfaction, but only deliver death. Sin is done by us, done to us, done around us. Satan, he is the diabolical liar who deceives, he accuses and attempts you and all of society.

There is no winning against him in our own power and death. I checked the newspaper this morning. 10 outta 10 still die. We all die. There’s no winning. I’ve seen there’s this guy on YouTube, he’s gonna try to like beat the system and live to at least 150. Good luck. Death will come. How do we win? And in your own power, you will lose every single time like this widow, you are helpless.

Some of us are losing heart because we’ve been told to lie. If we just believe in ourselves, we’ll win this battle. It’s not true. I love Colossians two. It says, you are dead because of your sins and because of your sinful nature. That was not yet cut away, but then God made you alive with Christ. For he forgave all of our sins.

He canceled the record of the charges against us, and he took it away by nailing it to the cross. And in this way, Jesus disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross. Friends, we are like the widow, helpless on our own, but with Jesus, we have the victory.

📍 That’s why number two, are you like this persistent widow? No. This widow has no family. This widow has no advocate. But if you today put your faith and trust in Christ Jesus, you have been adopted into God’s family. You have been forgiven. You have been set free. You have an advocate, king Jesus, who intercedes for you daily.

You are not alone. You have a good shepherd. You have a good father. You are not left to your own power. Jesus is there for you and has taken your place. 📍 Are you like this persistent widow? Yes. No. And I don’t know. I love how HB said, I don’t know, because the reality of this story, the widow never gave up and never gave in.

She fought, she persisted. And the question we all have to wrestle with, well, you persist. We can’t answer that until we all get to heaven. What a day. Rejoicing that will be, right. Thank you. They’re much better, right? I don’t know. Will you give into the temptations of the flesh? I was talking to a brother this week who is doing great things for ministry and he, he had such a great line.

He’s like, but then I warned this guy because you’re taking these steps. Get ready for a tough week. So true. The more God is using us and we’re leaning into a season of righteousness, the more we will have to resist the inclinations, the indulgences of the flesh for burdens, our burdens. Multiply. Will we give those burdens to God or will we begin to bury them in our bitterness?

Will we cry out to God day and night, or will we quietly drift away? In which shocking about verse eight, Jesus isn’t sure either about your answer. He says, verse eight, I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the son of man comes, will he find faith on earth? Will he find Passion Creek in the fourth quarter, truly cultivating a fourth soil?

Or will he find people who lost heart, who said, I tried enough’s enough. I believed in you, but I’m giving up on you. Or, I wanted to do it, but I gave into the flesh. I began to entertain sin, and it began to warp my soul. I think that’s the pivotal point our church is at, and I know the enemy’s gonna throw everything he has at us.

So I do want you to pray for our leaders. I know for me, I felt resistance. And this isn’t a pity party. This isn’t anything like that. All, it’s just reality. And, and, and we’re, and we have the right systems in place. But just know, like resistance is ramping. That’s what happens with revival And pray for yourselves.

He will try to tempt you to give into gossip and bitterness, or to lust and to envy. He will try to deceive you to prioritize comfort over his calling to, to warp reality. He, he’s gonna try to condemn you. Many of us. I think it’s the biggest thing that we are wrestling with. And I love our church’s honesty.

We struggle, we, we say things like, we don’t feel like we’re worthy of God’s love. That’s the life from the evil one. We feel like our sin is too great to be forgiven. That is from hell itself. People here feel forgotten and ignored. We love you and care for you. And he will do, the enemy will do whatever it takes to get you to lose heart.

Because if you lose heart, you’ll either lose your faith or you’ll lose your fight. He’s pleased with either one. So Jesus says, I don’t want that for you. So pray, persistent prayer. It’s the only way through. So actually I want us to stand, to respond. I want this, um, to be a moment where we minister to each other.

Um,

and as the music starts to come up, um,

if it helps you focus, uh, for me, I actually like looking at the ceiling. If I’m closing my eyes, I’m thinking about me not closing my eyes and I open them. So just look at the ceiling if you want, or close your eyes, but we want you to have a moment with God where you can get really honest,

because I think the Holy Spirit wants to minister to two types of people in this room.

So Holy Spirit, we, we submit ourselves to you. Speak to us in these moments. God tell us what to do.

I feel like some of you are on the verge of losing your faith.

Maybe you’re here in the room and you’re just fed up because this world isn’t fair and you’re finding it so hard not to blame. God, you, you found it hard to even come to church today. You’re just fed up and I just want you to know the Father loves your honesty.

The father is inviting you to get even more brutally honest with him. He’ll care for you.

I just wanna tell you, don’t give up on God. Saint Corinthians four 16 says, so we don’t lose heart, though our outer self is wasting away. Our inner self is being renewed day by day. Jesus, for those who feel like they’re losing their faith, they’re giving up on you. God, may you renew their inner self today and tomorrow and the next day from one degree of glory to the next.

Father, would you minister to their souls?

God, we often want an answer. We went, okay, I’m gonna feel better if you explain to me why I am here. Explain to me how much longer I have to endure. And God, may we see the point is your presence Job didn’t need those answers. He realized, oh, I am unworthy. I, I, I just need you. God, would you fill us with your presence?

But some of you, that’s not you. And that’s awesome. Some of us are, we’re losing our faith, but, but maybe the rest of us, we’re on the verge of losing our fight.

When you analyze yourself in the last month or so, you, you’re giving in a temptation more often than you used to. Maybe you’ve just grown really weary of doing the right things and not being acknowledged or doing the right things, and yet it doesn’t lead to the right result. And so you’re giving in, you say that harsh thing.

You used to restrict yourself from saying you, you avoid the scriptures and give in to sleeping in or tv. God is calling after you today. Don’t lose heart,

don’t give in to the lies of the enemy. Galatians six, nine. I wanna declare this over you. If this is, if you’re somebody who’s losing your fight, you’re losing you. You wanna give in to the lies of the enemy, Galatians six, nine says, and let us not grow weary of doing good for at the proper time we will reap if we do not lose heart.