In this sermon, the speaker focuses on a passage from the Bible where Jesus speaks to his disciples about the importance of faith and prayer. Jesus tells a parable about an unrighteous judge to illustrate his point. He assures his disciples that God will bring about justice for his elect who cry out to him day and night. However, Jesus questions whether he will find faith on earth when he returns. The speaker emphasizes the need for believers to commune with God and have unwavering faith in his promises.

For more media content from Grace Community Church in San Antonio, Texas, go to gccsatx.com. Let's open up our Bibles, first of all, to 1 Corinthians 16. It's kind of an admonition before we get started on talking about what I feel like the Lord's laid on my heart. 1 Corinthians 16.13. Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, I come before you in the name of your Son. And I pray that you would guide us, that you would grant us wisdom. Lord, not only the wisdom to understand your will, but the power and the courage to carry it out. Guide us in all things, Father, in Jesus' name, Amen. The church in Corinth seems to have been something of a mess. We look through there and although they were a very, very gifted people, Paul acknowledged that, it was a mess. Now, in that context, we can understand this. Things needed to be changed. The course of the church needed to be changed. The theology of some of the church needed to be changed. A lot needed to be changed. And whenever a man works for a biblical reformation to change things as they ought to be changed, he's going to suffer. He's going to be attacked. He's going to have to bear the slander of many people. And that is why Paul here says, be on the alert, stand firm in the faith. And then a very unusual statement, act like men. If there has ever been a lack of anything, it's been a lack of men. A lack of men. We have a saying in the United States, well, it's more like a kind of an illustration. That if you take a frog, this is true, and you throw him, a live frog, in a pot of boiling water, he will jump out. He will. With good reason. But if you put that frog in the same bucket of temperate water, just room temperature water, and then you put that bucket on the stove, and you gradually heat it up, that frog will stay there. He'll get acclimated to the temperature until he boils to death. That is what is happening to the men in the West. Slowly they have been domesticated. Slowly they have been pressured into conformity. Where they'll complain in secret little groups, but rise up and do something? No. Too much pressure. Too dangerous. What will my family say? What will this church group say? That's not acting like a man. And it's definitely not acting like a man of God. The zeal for the Lord's house ought to consume you. It ought to be more important to you than relationships with people in an apostate church. It ought to be more important to you than relationships with your mother and your father and your sister and your brother. Because Jesus said, if you do not hate them, you do not follow me. He does not mean, of course, that you should show hatred or disrespect towards your mother and your father and your siblings. But what he is saying is, you must follow me even though you must bear their wrath. Now from everything that I've heard from everybody here, there is little going on in Denmark. Everybody complains, where is a biblical church? Where is a biblical church? Well, my question is, where are the men to start a biblical church? To rise up and do what needs to be done. That doesn't mean you run out here tomorrow and just carelessly begin something. But it means that you come to a point where you say, look, I have got to risk it all. I've got to risk it all. And I've got to do what's right. There needs to be a church in this place. There's not. Spurgeon said, if there's not a biblical church, should we not plant one? There are things that need to be done. Last night, just counseling with some of the people, it was amazing some of the things they told me. The things that I've heard about what's taught in churches here and what's practiced. It seems like it goes from one side, it's nothing more than just dead liberalism. To the other side, it's a wild circus of flesh. It needs to be a biblical church. You say, well, man, it'll cost. Well, let me just share something with you. Join the club. It costs everybody to follow Christ. It does. Well, what will people think? What will they think? What does it matter? Now, I was reading today in Ezra. And it was an amazing statement. It says that God stirs up the heart of the king of Persia to bring the people of of Israel back into the promised land. But he says he does it to fulfill the word. Spoken through the prophet Jeremiah. Now, he didn't have to say that. I mean, he could have just said to fulfill the word of God, but he didn't say that. He said, fulfill the word of God as spoken through the prophet Jeremiah. Why is that? Go back to Isaiah and you'll find out God vindicates his prophets. He vindicates his servants. So for all those years, all throughout his ministry, Jeremiah was slandered. People thought bad about him. They hated him. They threw him down in a well, everything else. And then after they went into captivity, they still slandered him and they mocked him. But when God stirred up the king of Persia, they didn't mock him anymore. God vindicated his servant. What do you care what people think about you? If you do God's will, God will vindicate you. Either here or in heaven. And I would rather be falsely accused by men than to stand before God one day and be accused. Listen, it is not enough to just have your good theology and your good doctrine and kind of try to get your family into the kingdom. You are called to take this to the world. Starting with your own people. There's a great thing to be done here. The question is, where are the men? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened and do not be dismayed. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. That's an amazing thing. Over the last few months, just praying, Oh God, what are you going to do with me? What are you going to do? Where should I go? What should I do? All these things that have happened around me. Lord, where do you want me to go? And God gave me that promise in Joshua 1.9. You know what's amazing about that promise? It goes, Paul, it doesn't matter so much where you go. What matters is I'm going to be with you. I'm going to be with you wherever you go. That's all you need. That is all you need. You've got a limited window to do something here. Your country as well as Europe are much closer, much closer to death than mine. Mine's right behind you. But you're closer to the fire, to the edge of the cliff than we are. Your people would not serve the one true God. They chose to serve the God of money and metal and hedonism and pleasure and sex and everything else. So God's going to turn them over to serve the God of Allah, along with the rest of the world. You want to find out what bondage is then? You will know what it's like. And up until that point, we have a window. To do what? To preach the gospel. I can only think of one day. Just think for a moment of what's going on. Christianity. Exploded. In part because of the Gutenberg press. Now, the Gutenberg press was a thing that God in his sovereignty raised up. The fact that you could publish things. You actually had a printer. Well, the same thing has happened in the last few decades. A new Gutenberg press called the Internet. Where so much can be done. There's so much technology to be able to travel by plane. To be able to do all sorts of things. Here's what I don't want to happen to me. I don't want to miss this opportunity. And then when persecution comes and I can no longer even preach openly. I sit there and weep over the great opportunities I had when there was still freedom. And I didn't take them. A friend of mine one time got up in church in Peru in the middle of the war. And he said, if not now, when? If not you, who? And what he was talking about. How long will you delay before you decide something's got to be done? Now again, I don't want anyone running out of here and say. Yeah, get all excited about this. This has to be led of the Lord. But men, rise up. Something has to be done. If not here, then go somewhere else. But something has to be done. Now, I want to talk to you. Today for for a moment about something that is very, very important. And I want us to go to the book of Mark. Chapter one, verse 32. When evening came after the sun had set, they began bringing to him all who were ill and those who were demon possessed. And the whole city had gathered at the door. And he healed many who were ill with various diseases and cast out many demons. And he was not permitting the demons to speak because they knew who he was. In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went away to a secluded place and was praying there. Simon and his companion searched for him. They found him and said to him, everyone is looking for you. Now. I want you just to think for a moment about what's going on here. This is preceded by the calling of the fishermen and then on down from there, the casting out of a demon. And then in verse twenty nine, it says, and immediately after they came out of the synagogue, they came into the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John. Now, Simon's mother in law was lying sick with a fever and immediately they spoke to Jesus about her and he came to her and raised her up, taking her by the hand and the fever left her and she waited on them. What we see in the book of Mark, literally, and I tell I tell young ministers this, if you read the book of Mark correctly, you will be wore out. You will be breathing hard. I mean, literally, I found myself one day doing that. I was reading the book of Mark. This was years ago. And I was like, why? Because Mark uses the word immediately so many times. And what he's doing is he's giving you snapshots of Jesus. I mean, Jesus is over here teaching. He's here casting out a demon in the synagogue. He's here healing. He's here teaching. He's here feeding. I mean, it just goes on just constantly. And in a sense, that was the life of Christ during his three year ministry. It's just like when you finish preaching like last night and a person comes up to you and says, I know you're probably wore out, but I've got a question. And then they talk to you for 15 minutes. And then as soon as you get ready to get up out of the seat, another person comes because I know you're really tired, but I got a question. And then and then it just goes on and on and on and on. And then you realize I got to get up in the morning. OK, I got to get up. I got to go teach. You need to teach. We're going to come here. You see it just. Everything pulling at him and then he goes into the house. You know, I've been OK, I'm in the house now. And then someone sick. Well, would you take care of this, too? I mean, he goes on and on and then we get to 32. And when evening came after the sun had set, they began bringing to him all who were ill and those who were demon possessed. And the whole city had gathered at the door and he healed many who were ill with various diseases and cast out many demons. And he was not permitting the demons to speak because they knew who he was. Now, I want you to understand something. Jesus Christ was God in the flesh, but Jesus Christ. Was man and he did these things as a man, the perfect man in the power of the Holy Spirit. And when he did things, the Bible said virtue went out from him. Strength went out from him. I don't know if you've ever done this, but but it's true. A man who ministers according to his gifts in the power of the Holy Spirit, when he is finished, his body is absolutely exhausted. Virtue goes out from him, strength goes out from him. It's like a woman who's in a car and she's driving and the car turns completely over. We've all heard these stories. The car turns completely over. The baby's trapped inside. The car's on fire and a little woman about this big runs over to the car door. Her baby's inside and she rips the door off the hinges. But the next day, her arms, the muscles are almost tore apart. That adrenaline flowing through her gave her such strength. She just rips the door off the hinges. It's the same way when a man of God or a woman of God is ministering in the power of the Holy Spirit. There is something like that that happens to the body. It can wear you out. And I can see here with the person of the Christ Jesus, the man ministering in the power of the Holy Spirit, constantly people coming upon him and he is wore out. You see, you can't understand these things if you only think of him as God. And you don't realize he was God who became man and ministered and walked on this earth as a man filled with the Holy Spirit. Now, it says here that when evening came after sun had set. Now, the sun in Israel doesn't set at the same time it does here. It didn't set at midnight. It sets sometime probably around six. So right after around six o'clock, after a full day of ministry, people start coming in. They start coming in. They start coming in. Now, we have the, you know, a lot of people's perception or concept, their idea of the Exodus doesn't come from the Bible, but from Cecil B. DeMille's Ten Commandments movie. Most of us, our ideas of the ministry of Jesus comes from films about Jesus, you know, television, Hollywood, make-believe things. You know, we picture Jesus just kind of slowly walking through and touching people and everything just kind of blessed, you know. Listen, I've got a good idea of what's going on here. Living in Peru, we were one time up in the mountains and there were over a thousand people gathered. Mountain men, mountain women, suffering in many, many ways. No doctor anywhere. None of them ever have an opportunity to see a doctor or get medicine or anything else. And I had brought with me a dear friend of mine who was a medical doctor. Now, he didn't have surgery facilities. He didn't have a lot of medicine. He just had some ointments and some antibiotics and other things. When they discovered that there was a doctor in the vicinity, they went wild. Now, these were good people. People love the Lord. But they stood in line all day and all night. They didn't think the doctor needs to sleep because they had a child that was sick. And this was their one opportunity to maybe see a doctor. Day and night for three days, they clamored at the door. My brother, Mike Martin, he couldn't even get sleep. He was wore out and he kept telling them, I don't have anything but some ointment and some antibiotics. I can't heal you. They didn't care. They didn't listen. It wasn't because they were bad. They were driven by need. Pray to God that you're never driven that way. So when Christ was here, they were at the door and they weren't satisfied. Many of them were demanding and yelling because they were desperate, because they had only one hope. And here he is. And I can guarantee you that what started at around 6 o'clock in the evening didn't come to an end at 10 or 11 or 12. As a matter of fact, when you get down here and it says in verse 35, And early in the morning while it was still dark. What does that mean? It seems like Jesus didn't sleep. Because he ministered to these people all throughout the night. And now while it is still dark, he makes his way out. And to me it almost has to seem supernatural that he was able to do that. How did he get through all those people? Now, you and I, no human being can sustain a life of everyday ministering this way. So I'm not trying to tell you, you need to minister day and night. What I am telling you is this. In this instance, Christ ministered day and night. Was totally wore out. And when he finished ministering early in the morning or at midnight or whenever it occurred. There were still people who were needy. Still people who were not healed. Still people clamoring. But look what he did. Look what he did. In the early morning while it was still dark. Jesus got up. Left the house. Went away to a secluded place. And was praying there. There is one thing Jesus Christ never told his disciples in frustration. He never told them. Man, I'm just so busy and there's so many needs. I don't have time to pray. There's just so many things clamoring at me. That I don't have time to pray. He never said that. Because he knew. Even though he was the Son of God. He submitted himself to the will of the Father. And he only did what he saw his Father doing. And he did what he did in the power of the Holy Spirit. And in that way we can surely identify. Because he identified with us. You can do nothing except what you see the Father doing. And you can do nothing except by the power of the Holy Spirit. And your relationship. Intimate relationship with God. Is absolutely vital. Absolutely essential. To any type of ministry you may think about doing. The Son of God. It seems could not live without. Communion. Secret prayer. Being alone with God. But those of us who are much stronger of course. Can get away without such things. Just look at this. His life of prayer. And it's amazing. He goes, in the early morning while it was still dark. Jesus got up. Left the house. And went away to a secluded place. And was praying there. When I was first called into the ministry. The pastor that was over me in Austin, Texas. Who I to this day. Admire and respect. He called me into his office. Till today I've hardly met a man with such the power of God on his life. He called me into his office and he said. So God's called you into the ministry. Trembling I said. Yes Pastor Weaver. And he goes. He turned around and looked at me. And he said. Boy. Can you be alone? That's all he said to me. And I was like. I didn't really understand. I thought he meant. If I preach the truth. I'm going to be alone. Because everybody hates me. Then I came to understand. This is what he meant. Can you be alone with God? One of the problems I see. Especially with young men. Is they run in bachelor groups. They run in groups. They're always hanging out together. Now there's nothing wrong with that. Wonderful fellowship. Unity. Go out together. Preach. Whatever. But the problem is. They're always together. But they're never alone with God. Can you be alone? Can you be alone with God? My wife knows. That although I love her. And we have. A wonderful relationship. She knows she can't go with me. To the place I have to go. And where I have to go daily. She does not go with me. Now I pray with my wife. Study the Bible with my wife. But she cannot go with me. Where I have to go. I have to go. And be with the Lord. Alone. When her husband gets that. Far away look in his eye. She knows he's going to leave. He's got to go. People in Peru used to call my wife. The cherubim. Or the seraphim. In Spanish. Cherubino. Because they said she would stand in front of my door. Where I prayed with a flaming sword. And if anyone tried to get through that door. She would cut their head off. They would call. We need to talk to. Necesitamos hablar con hermano Pablo. We need to talk to brother Paul. Sorry you can't. Why not? He's alone. Everything you are in public. Is formed by what you are in private. You can stand before any man. If you stand before God. And to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit. Not like these silly little evangelists. That come in and have their healing lines. And people falling down. And all the other circus. And blasphemy that goes on. I'm talking about really. The power of the Holy Spirit. Not some kind of circus show for money. Like I've said so many people. The Spirit of God is here. No He's not. Because if He was. You'd be dead. We must be men. Filled with the Holy Spirit. We must be men. Who seek God. And let me tell you something. There is a big difference. And I want to point it out to you. And it will probably get me in trouble. If this goes on the YouTube. But it's this. There is a sense. In which we look at Ephesians 5. We look at Colossians 3. 16 and 17. And we do understand. That there is a direct relationship. Between the Word of God. And it dwelling in our heart. And the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Working through us. But there is another sense. That if you're just a man. Who's sitting there. Meditating upon Scripture. And thinking that because you're doing that. You're going to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And have everything you need for the ministry. You are wrong. You must go to God. And cry out. For greater and greater. Manifestations of His power. In your life. To carry out the task. That He has given you. You must have that. You must go to Him. It's an encounter with God. Yes, founded upon His Word. Yes, everything God does with you in prayer. Must be conformed to His Word. But seeking God. Is more than just simply having a good Bible study. It's crying out to meet. With the living God. It is waiting at His doorstep. And rising up. And not just simply believing by faith. That He's done something to you. It's rising up and knowing that He's done something to you. We have to be men. But not men like John Wayne. Or John Claude Van Damme. Not men strong in the flesh. And strong in personality. And strong in their presence. And strong in their words. No, men strong, strengthened in the Holy Spirit. The battle is horrifying. To think that you are going to oppose. Principalities and powers and mights and dominions. You are going to oppose the ancient serpent. You are going to go down into the well and fight hell itself. You're not going to do that in your physical strength. You're going to do that. In the power of the Holy Spirit. You know what's so sad today? What's so sad? Is that it's so hard to speak about these things. Do you know why? Because of all the corruption. And that ludicrous activity. Of many, many groups that consider themselves groups filled with the Spirit. When they're not filled with the Spirit at all. They may be filled with the Spirit, but it's not holy. Because whatever they're filled with causes them to do things. That contradict everything we know about Scripture and the fruit of the Spirit. I'm talking about power. Not to fall down on the ground and shake like a worm. Not power to claim a Mercedes Benz. Not power to say you healed somebody when in fact he didn't get healed. I'm talking about the power to live the Christian life. The power to walk in sacrificial love. The power to pray down strongholds. The power to preach the gospel. That's what I'm talking about. That's what we need. We can be men and women transformed. Transformed. Now, there is a sense in when we talk about the work of the Holy Spirit. There is a sense in which we need to see that in two categories. There is the idea of the fruit of the Holy Spirit in a believer's life. Dealing with character. There is also in the same venue. There's also this idea of progressive sanctification. That we grow more and more in Christ likeness. And we submit more and more to the word of God. And we walk more and more in step with the Holy Spirit. All that is true. It's progressive. It grows. It's something that happens every day that we work at. But there is also another sense in the power of the Holy Spirit for ministry. That the ministry you have to do. You cannot do. Except in the power of the Holy Spirit. And you need to be crying out. Oh God. Clothe me from on high. Clothe me. Fill me. Look at for a moment. Just look at the book of Luke. Look at the last chapter. Again, he says in the book of Luke 24 verse 49. Behold, I am sending forth the promise of my father upon you. But you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high. Now. Many people simply relegate that to a one time event. The day of Pentecost that the spirit came. Well, in the day of Pentecost, the spirit did come. But he said whenever this thing happened to you. When this happens to you, disciples, you will be clothed with power from on high. Now. Let me ask you a question. In your ministry. Is there ever a sense as you minister. That you are clothed with power from on high. That you sense in which I'm not even the same man. That I'm not talking about emotion. I'm not talking about anger. I'm talking about simply this. You recognize that you have been clothed with power from on high. It's not proud to say that it's something that's promised to us. It is. Listen, Spurgeon believed this. Martin Lloyd-Jones believed this. The saints down through the ages have believed this. What? Yes, if we have been converted. If we are truly Christians, we are indwelt with the Holy Spirit. And no, at our conversion, we don't get part of him or half of him. And no, we don't need a second blessing or this or that. That's not what I'm talking about. We, at the moment of our conversion, we are regenerated by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit indwells in us. But the same Bible says we should be asking constantly for greater and greater manifestations of his power in our life. Less and less of us. More and more of him. And there can be times, my dear friend, when you are crying out to God. There can be times in ministry according to the sovereign providence of God. But when God can endure you with power for ministry. That's what you need. We have so many scribes running around. Brilliant men. And God bless the Lord for them. But clothed with power from on high. Just because you can cross every T and dot every I theologically. Doesn't mean you are clothed with power from on high. Or you are ministering in the power of the Holy Spirit. And just because you talk about the Spirit. Or claim things from the Spirit. Doesn't mean that you are empowered with the Holy Spirit. To dwell with God. We talk about planting churches. You can't plant churches in this country. The devil has an iron wall around this country. 20 miles thick with no doors. You think you are going to knock that down? You are going to knock yourself out. That is what you are going to do. I don't care how long you beat up against that wall. It is not coming down. But in the power of the Holy Spirit. It would be like some dry grass being put over a blazing fire. This is so important. And yet it is so disdained today. People are afraid. Why? Because of the abuses. Because of the abuses. Those of you who really enjoy theology. Those of you who really want to know the truth. Be careful about this one thing. That just because in the name of the Spirit. So many wrong, very wrong men. Are doing all sorts of horrible things in the name of the Spirit. Don't you reject the work of the Spirit. Because you don't want to be like them. The true work of the Spirit has nothing to do with what those men do. But there is a work of the Spirit. There is a tarrying and being alone with God. Young men. You get caught up in so many things. Theology. Caught up in evangelism. Caught up in street preaching. Caught up in doing all these things. I wish you'd get caught up in your closet. I wish you'd go into your closet. And dwell there. Cry out to God. Meet with Him. He is a living God. I am so tired. I actually hear people. I've heard this. Oh, I wish I lived. I've heard believers say this. Oh, I wish I lived back in the times of the old covenant. When God really manifested Himself. What? The end of the ages has come upon us. We live in the days of the Messiah. These are the last days when the Spirit of God is poured out on all flesh. And yet, God doesn't move. God doesn't speak. But we do have this book. No living God. No guidance. No power. A book. Now, please. Do not think I am trying to say anything against the Word of God. The Word of God is our standard. Without the Word of God we have nothing. Everything that happens in our lives must conform to the Word of God. But if you take Christianity and you simply reduce it down to propositional truth and a book. You have missed the point. You have done just what the Pharisees have done. They did not understand the power of God. He is a living God and you must know Him. You must seek Him out. Isn't it so amazing? You talk about the work in China. And the work in different places in Asia where God seems to be really, really moving. My desire for them is that they would become more theologically correct. That they would become sound and strong in theology. Because it is an immature church who doesn't have a strong theology. But at the same time, isn't it amazing? Some little Chinese woman. Who practically doesn't even have the scriptures. But cries out to God for hours a day. And then rises up. And God uses her. More than 25 theologians. Now I'm not saying it's good. That she be here without the scripture. Or that she not have a sound theology. Or that she at least not have a mature theology. But what I am saying is. She's got God. And God has her. She's depending upon Him. She's crying out to Him. Just look at even the reformers. Look at Luther. Read about his praying. He was a man of prayer. Was it not Luther who said. I've got so much to do today. I will never get done unless I pray at least three hours. Jonathan Edwards. Possibly the greatest theologian. That at least our country has ever produced. Some say in the world. Theologian, philosopher. Hardly a more brilliant man. Was a man of prayer. David Brainerd. The great missionary among the Indians. We don't hear about him being the greatest of all preachers. We don't hear about him being the greatest of all theologians. But read his diary and find out how he prayed. We have not because we ask not. What is this mountain? Jesus said if you had faith. It cast the thing into the sea. What is this wall that's standing in front of you? Some Jericho that can't be brought down by the power of God. But you have not because you ask not. Many of you. You try to start something here. You're just going to get exhausted. And God's going to exhaust you. Until you give up. And you go to him. You run to him. You cry out to him. I want us to look. For a minute at the book of Luke. Chapter 18. In order to do something here in Denmark. You think you need more knowledge. You've already got more knowledge than you'll be able to live out in a lifetime. Now you do need knowledge. And you do need theology. You do need scripture. But you need to be empowered. You need to pray. Look at Matthew 18. 1. Now he was telling them a parable to show. That at all times they ought to pray. And not to lose heart. You know what? No one has a problem. With some aspects of prayer. No one has a problem beginning. To pray. Or praying once. For anything. It's a rather easy thing to do. The difficult thing to do. Is to endure in prayer without losing heart. Now. Whenever I use the word like lose heart. You have possibly this picture of a person. Who's just crying out to God faithfully. And God doesn't answer their prayers. And they just lose heart. Like a victim. No they're rebellious is what they are. They're not believing their God. Lose heart. Because God didn't do something. Is God not sovereign? Is God not all wise? Keep praying. You say well how long? Well I can just tell you the way I do it. Pray until God answers. Until. He either answers the thing. Or begins to take the desire away. You pray. You endure in prayer. You do not let him go. God delights. In people. Who are so bold. As to take him at his promises. He delights in that. Someone grabs a hold. Cries out. Son of David have mercy on us. Be quiet. They wouldn't be quiet. Those blind men. You grab a hold of the horns of the altar. And a thousand men. Can't pull you away. Get out of here. I will not. Let go of me. I won't let go of you. Until you bless me. There's nothing that can't be tore down. Through prayer. Nothing. Nothing. There's nothing that can't be built up. Through prayer. Nothing. You want to learn to be an. Accurate useful minister for God. Then learn to pray. Learn to pray. Now. He says. In verse 2 saying in a certain city. There was a judge who did not fear God. And did not respect man. It's pretty common. There was a widow in that city. And she kept coming to him saying. Give me legal protection for my opponent. Now she's a widow. That does not. See when we hear she was a widow. We think. Well being a widow. That would cause the. You know judge to be more likely. To have pity on her. Because she's a widow. Just the opposite. She's a widow. She has no economic. Political or social power. She has nothing. Be like a dog coming to his door. Says give me legal protection for my opponent. Isn't it amazing that he would. At least use this example. He doesn't say that the widow says. Help me get. Money from someone who owes me money. No he says. Give me legal protection. From my opponent. Do you have an opponent? Do you have someone fighting against you? You do. Principalities and powers. And mights and dominions. Fighting against the entrance. Of the gospel into this place. Fighting against. The beginning of a church. Fighting against everything. That is good and godly. And wise and holy. And virtuous and excellent. You have an opponent. You go to God. And you say this. Give me legal protection from my opponent. 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. I wish some of you would set it upon yourself. To wear God out. To grab a hold of God. And wear him out. You say that speech. I don't like that kind of speech. I know you don't. You are so proper. You can't pray. Learn to love this kind of speech. Bold man. We are going to go to God. And believe him. Because God delights in such things. He is the one saying this here. I had. I remember one time up in the mountains. I will never forget this. You talk about a teaching on prayer. I had taken several. I had written. It is a workbook. And it is just. It is a workbook for new believers. And I had taken a whole bunch of them up. Into the mountains. But I was going to give several. To each pastor. They were for the pastors. The pastors needed them. And then the pastors would take them. And distribute them. Well this. When I got up there. And was handing out these books. I had one left. That I was kind of teaching from. And this new believer. Young guy. He was probably about 17 or 18. Kind of tall. For a Peruvian. I will never forget. And he said. Brother Paul. Is that your last book? I said yes. He goes. Can I have it? It was like the first day. First morning. And I said. I said no. I said I am going to teach. After you are through teaching. With that book. Can I have it? I said no. This is for the pastors. I am sorry. But I brought these for the pastors. And I will give this last one. To one of the pastors. But the pastors already have books. Yes. And I am going to give them one more. Well can I have the book? I mean. Every time I walked outside. Of that adobe hut. To go teach. He followed me. And finally. Before even the conference was over. I just gave him the book. And asked the pastor. Give me one of the books. I gave you to teach from. Because I can't stand this. In my life. I am going to punch him. And lose my testimony. Something is going to happen. Take the book. He literally wore me out. I am not kidding. I am not making this up. It really happened. And then the Lord used it. To teach me about prayer. He literally followed me. If I went to the bathroom. I felt like he was behind me. He went everywhere I went. It was unbelievable. I have never seen. Such tenacity. You know. I read this. Jim Ellef said this. I think he said he was quoting a friend. But it is going to be one of those things. That stick with me. The rest of my life. God delights. In vindicating. The confidence of his children. God delights. In vindicating the confidence of his children. And I like to say. God delights. In vindicating even the smallest confidence. Of his children. So. No, we have this evil judge. Now, God is not giving us this parable to somehow identify Himself with this evil judge. Not at all. It's basically the same thing as this. If you being evil give good gifts to your children, then how much more will God, the Father, give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him, give good things to those who ask Him? OK, so what he's saying here, he's not saying that he's like an evil judge, he's saying if an evil judge who neither fears God nor cares about people will answer someone who continues on and continues on, how much more will your heavenly father listen to your prayers? People ask me sometimes they go, well, why does God, why doesn't God just answer the prayer? I mean, instead of maybe you having to endure in prayer. Now, I don't want to seem trite or rude, but a person who asked that question has never prayed very long and had an answer, had a prayer answered. I don't know exactly why God does it. I know it changes us. I know that he has his time, but there's one thing that will sustain me in prayer. And that's if you've ever endured in prayer over a person's soul or over something that needed to be advanced in the kingdom and you endured, when it finally came to completion, when God finally answered, the joy was joy unspeakable because you knew. He had answered prayer, I mean, you knew you had dialogued with God. You knew this is not just some vain religious exercise, I was before him daily. And he has responded, you have joy not only because of that, because it confirms once again that he is a God who speaks and a God who hears, a God who acts. So he says, yet because this widow bothers me, I will give her legal protection. Otherwise, by continually coming, she will wear me out. And the Lord said here what the unrighteous judge said. Now, will not God bring about justice for his elect to cry to him day and night? Look at day and night. I mean. The idea here, the language is not they pray in the morning and they pray at night for the matter. That's not what he's saying, day and night is a summary of all day just crying out to God. Now, let me. Let me stop here for just a second and talk to you about prayer, true prayer and true fasting, I have many times sat down and made prayer lists and prayer lists are good. I have a real general prayer list that just brings things to mind. But I have tried to make lists of things, you know, these are things that need to be done or must be done, or I just know that it's right to ask for these things. And I've tried to endure in it and I haven't been able to do it. Prayer doesn't exist apart from first fellowship with God. Being in his word and just communing with him. OK, prayer is a is impossible apart from a right heart. Now, what do I mean by that in communing with God through his word? And can you just communing with him and conversation in his word becoming more and more conformed, his desires becoming yours, his passion becoming your passion now. So that the things of God. Become very important to you. And then as the things of God become very, very important to you, specific things will start being given to you, let's say. And here's kind of how it works. I use this illustration the other day. Let's say that I'm going to go on a hunting trip now, remember, I'm from America, I'm uncivilized, I do those kind of things. All right, I'm going to go on a hunting trip that I have literally been thinking about going on for a year. Man, I'm going on this hunt trip, going to hunt a bear, going to get me a bear. All right. I'm just all excited about it, I'm going to Canada and I am going to kill me a big old bear. And we're going to have bear meat for an entire year. All right. I'm going to Canada. I'm excited. Talk about it every day. My wife built a little room and lives outside the house because she can't stand me talking about it. I talk about it so much. I'm going to Canada to hunt a bear. Now, the day that I'm leaving, I'm packing my car. Got the car packed, getting ready to get in, I turn around to say goodbye to my family, my wife and my three children. And right then my oldest boy, Ian, goes, Daddy, my head, my head, and he falls over in the yard. Now, at that moment. Am I going to do this? Dang, now I can't go to Canada. I mean, I've been waiting all year to go to Canada and now I can't go because he's fallen over in the grass unconscious. Is that what I'm going to do? No, here's what's going to happen. Everything I had thought for a year about going to Canada, what I've been dreaming about is going to totally disappear. I'm not even going to think about Canada any longer. I'm not even going to think about going hunting. It is so far removed from me. All I can think about is whatever's got to be done. My little boy is laying in the grass unconscious. The passion I have for the well-being of my little boy. Totally eclipsed every other passion that I had, especially the passion for going to Canada and hunting. It consumed everything else, everything else disappeared from my view, and the only thing I could think about was that. Now, in a way, that has a lot to do with prayer and fasting, especially fasting. You don't say, well, I'm going to fast four days because, well, I just need to fast for four days. It's when you're communing with God. And the matters that are important to God become important to you. And as you're communing and praying with him, sometimes God is going to lay certain things upon your heart, certain burdens and passions upon your heart, and you're going to come to the point where you're going to say to yourself, I can't breathe unless this happens. Now, if while my boy was laying on the ground unconscious. Someone came up to me and said, hey, Paul, don't don't worry about that, we'll take care of him, you just go to Canada and go hunting. My response would be, are you sick? What's I'm not going to Canada, what's wrong with you? I don't want Canada or someone drives by and go, hey, Paul, look, we're going to go out to go eat this new pizza place. It's really good. You want to come get away from me? I don't want pizza. I don't want to go to Canada. I don't want to eat. I don't want to drink. I don't want to watch television. I got to get my boy to the hospital. You see that everything's been eclipsed, hasn't it? By this passion, you say, well, that that never happens to me. Maybe you're not communing with God as you ought to be communing with God, and it goes on and he says now I'm going to read verse eight and I'm going to read it again. He says, I tell you that he will bring about justice for them quickly. However, when the son of man comes, will he find faith on the earth? Now. Let me read it the way I think. The way I think it'll communicate the most truth to you. Now, it says in verse six, and the Lord said, so the Lord Jesus Christ is speaking and he's speaking to his disciples. OK, now I want you to just look up here. Just just look. Jesus says that after giving them this illustration, this parable, he goes like this. Now, listen, hey, listen, listen to me. Listen, what the unrighteous judge says now will not God now listen to me. This is a promise will not God bring about justice for his elect to cry to him day and night. Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will bring about justice for them quickly. Really? Really, he will, but then again, who among you is even going to believe what I'm saying when the son of man returns, will he find anybody believing this stuff? Believing what I'm telling you, do you see that look, look at that, however, I mean, this glorious promise and then he comes, however, when the son of man comes, will he find faith on the earth? Yeah. Will he find anybody taking me at this, you know, it's amazing. You know, you hear about Spurgeon, you know, he's the prince of preachers and and I have to say above all the preachers in the world, I love to read Spurgeon right up there. Well, right up there beside him is my beloved Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones. But they're they're both there. But did you know that Spurgeon, if you read enough of his sermons? He was a man of prayer. He prayed, he really was a man of prayer. Hudson Taylor, man, the great missionary Hudson Taylor, did you know he was a man of prayer? George Mueller? Well, we don't even have to talk about that, do we? He was a man of prayer. Here. I have looked down through the ages. As much as my limited ability, I can. I'm not a. Great reader, I can't consume books, but just the little that I've looked at. I've seen men of God and women of God that have been mightily used of God, but I have I'm hard pressed to find a common denominator, really, because I can tell you this, they're not all reformed, they're not all in one certain camp. They're very, very different, some of them are different, some in their theology now, not from the basic historical doctrines of Christianity, they weren't heretics at all, but they were very, very and very, very different camps theologically. Also, they were very, very different in their personality. Some of them were rather bold to the point of even just being sometimes kind of rude. Others were so humble you'd think they were a church mouse. Some of them lived. By by their own will, they lived basically in poverty, giving everything away, some of the others rode around in nice carriages, so what's the common denominator in their usefulness? I have found one common denominator. Prayer, or maybe it would be better to say a devotion to Christ manifested in prayer. Prayer, Albert Schweitzer came to a group of young seminary students one time, and yes, he was he was very liberal, very, very liberal, doubted. Many of the historic doctrines of the faith, and I don't have much to say for him spiritually, but. He came to a group of seminary students and he said one time, I don't know what you will become, but I know that the the happiest among you will be the greatest servant. He was right there. I could use the same statement, I don't know what you will become and I do not know what your giftings are, but I can tell you this, the most useful servant. Will be the one who is devoted to Christ in prayer, to Christ in prayer. I mean, and I want to encourage you if you can to be very, very careful, some of you need to get into some systematic theology books and you need to study theology, you do. Some of you need to read books like. George Mueller's autobiography. You need to read Hudson Taylor's spiritual secret, you need to read the secret life of prayer, you need to read about praying Hyde of India and it will encourage you to pray more. To pray more, not by the strength of your arm. Not by the power of your intellect. But by his spirit. By his spirit, you know, that's the whole purpose of trials, it is conformity to the image of Christ, but the purpose of trials. To exhaust your strength. To bring things in your life that it is it is humanly impossible to overcome. So that you will draw on his strength, he's. He cannot be exhausted, do you realize that his bounty? His treasury. His power, his virtue, his excellency, his glory, it can not be exalted, what are you a mountain before me? Be cast into the sea. You say, all right, well, let's pray, father, please help us, please, Lord, throw up on us your yoke. And the joyful burden of communion with God, in Jesus name, amen. Let me say one other thing that came to mind for you, you guys. Ministers and things I make a distinction between and I know other people don't some people think this is trite, but. I make a distinction between studying with my boots on reading the Bible with my boots on and reading the Bible with my boots off, and I want you to think about this at least. When we study the scriptures, when you study the scriptures, don't kid yourself, if you think it's hard work, it's because it is hard work. There are some things that you must wrestle with, you must look at the grammar, you must look at commentaries and you must figure out what this is saying. You must pray, you must figure out what it's saying, that's hard work, and if that's all your relationship is to the scriptures, you're going to die on the vine. You're going to die, but there is once you've come to grips with something of the meaning of the text and you've worked through it. You've got basically the answers of how this thing lines up and you're in agreement with other godly men and women. Yes, this is what this text means. You've only done a little part of what you need to be doing. You need to enjoy the text. George Mueller talked about reading through scripture until his heart was warmed. You say that's subjective, well, a lot of things are. Until his heart was warm, one of the things that that you have to be so careful of losing is our meditation upon scripture. To meditate upon it, to think upon it, to draw from it, to to to read it maybe on your knees over and over, to read it as a prayer, to cry out to God, use this to transform me, show me something, illuminate. It's more than grammar. It's more than a series of truths, but just to commune in silence. You know, very few people can sit still, but just to commune, to listen, to listen. There's a poem that I really, really like. Talks about Jesus coming in from the wilderness and going to the temple. And it says, hungry to worship, to join in the praise, that's what it talks about. It says, well, let me start at the beginning. I'm. Well, hungry to worship and join in the praise, so he's marching himself to Jerusalem and he comes into the temple and it says shock met with anger that burned on his face as he entered the wasteland of that barren place. And then it goes on to talk about how he formed chords. And he went and beat out the money changers, and then it says this in his favorite part of the point for me, it says the noise and confusion gave way to his word at last, sacred silence so God could be heard. Do you know that sacred silence in the morning, just simply sitting there or kneeling there with that text. And just pondering it. Thinking about it, chewing upon it. And doing so as though Christ were sitting across the table from you, doing it in communion with him, talking to him about it. Asking him to teach you. And then and then what happens eventually is that attitude at that table becomes sort of a living reality through the day. I find it amazing, young man, that the Bible. Talks about studying to show yourself approved. But, you know, it doesn't talk about studying a lot. I don't mean it doesn't talk a lot about studying. You should study a lot, but it doesn't talk a lot about it. You know what it talks more about? Memorization and meditation, memorization and meditation. You look up how many times it says guarding the word in your heart, the word of Christ dwell in you richly about meditating, but his delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law, he meditates day and night. He will be like a tree planted by streams of water that yield its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither and all that he does, he prospers to have that word in you. Are you memorizing scripture and are you carrying that scripture with you? Meditating upon it, it's almost like a cow that has four stomachs, I know it's kind of gross, but he chooses the grass up, swallows it down and regurgitates it up again. Choose it again, swallows it down, regurgitates it up again. That's well, it's a kind of a gross, but a really good illustration of meditation. You're taking it down, you're feeding upon it, you're chewing on it, you're. Getting to know, but it's to do it in communion with him, not independently of him, but in communion, and then you'll begin to see that you'll have desires that are his desires and your prayer will be more of things you've gained from communion with him. And then you can even get to the point where you're sort of strange in the sense that someone will look you in the eye and realize, man, that guy is a million miles from here right now. But you're farther than that, you're in communion with God. Now, in the heavenlies, that's where you. I would like for you to think of it this way, that you live your life now in the courts of God, that you are always in his presence, you live your life in the courts of God, like the prophet said, the God before whom I stand, you may be in this room. But you're in communion with God. You may be in this room, but this room isn't the big reality for you. The big reality for you is God and his presence being with him. All right, well, we're finished.