Prayer & the Coming Revolution of God

The Gospel of Luke 18:1-8

God Gives Us His Words of Eternal LifeLuke 18:1-8

Found on page 877 in our guest Bibles.

Today’s Scripture:

Are you satisfied with the kind of

world we live in ?

“I HAVE A DREAM….”August 28, 1963

We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the

devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as

long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality.

We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel,

cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We

cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is

from a smaller ghetto to a larger one.

We can never be satisfied as long as our children are

stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "For Whites

Only.” We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in

Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York

believes he has nothing for which to vote.

“NO, NO, WE ARE NOT SATISFIED, AND WE WILL NOT BE SATISFIED UNTIL JUSTICE ROLLS DOWN

LIKE WATERS AND RIGHTEOUSNESS LIKE A

MIGHTY STREAM.”

Your kingdom come, Your will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

”~ Jesus of Nazareth

in Matthew 6

“

Prayer & the Coming Revolution of God

The Gospel of Luke 18:1-8

1 And he told them a parable to the effect

The Gospel of Luke 18:1-8

that they ought always to pray and not lose heart….

When will the kingdom of God come?

”~ The Pharisees

in Luke 17:20

“

The Kingdom of God

The Revolution of God

The kingdom of God is in the midst of you.

”~ Jesus of Nazareth

Luke 17:21

“

Where the corpse is, there the vultures / eagles will gather.

”~ Jesus of Nazareth

Luke 17:37

“

1 And he told them a parable to the effect

The Gospel of Luke 18:1-8

that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. 2 He said, “In a certain city city there was a judge who neither fearsGod nor respected people….

3 And there was a widow in that city who

The Gospel of Luke 18:1-8

kept coming to him and saying, “Give mejustice against my adversary….”

“Woe to those enacting crooked statutes and writing oppressive

laws to keep the poor from getting a fair trial and to deprive the afflicted among my people of justice, so that widows can be their spoil and they

can plunder the fatherless.”~ Isaiah 10:1-2, HCSB

4 For a while he refused, but afterward

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he said to himself, “Though I neither fear God nor respect man, 5 yet because thiswidow keeps bothering me, I will give herjustice, so that she will not beat me downby her continual coming….”

“He never gave her the time of day. But after this went on and on he said to himself, 'I

care nothing what God thinks, even less what

people think. But because this widow won't quit

badgering me, I'd better do something and see that she gets justice—otherwise I'm

going to end up beaten black and blue by her pounding.’”

6 And the Lord said, “Hear what the un-

The Gospel of Luke 18:1-8

righteous judge says. 7 And will not Godgive justice to his elect, who cry to himday and night…?

“He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love

of the Lord.”

~ Psalm 33:5

~ Jeremiah 9:24

“I am the Lord who practices kindness,

justice and righteousness in the earth. For in these

things I delight.”

The unjust judge who could not care less

about justice

when faced with the persistent cry of a widow whom he

cares nothing about

responds reluctantly and grudginglyto vindicate her.

The unjust judge who could not care less

about justice

when faced with the persistent cry of a widow whom he

cares nothing about

responds reluctantly and grudginglyto vindicate her.

The just God who could not care more

about justice

when faced with the persistent

cry of his chosen ones whom

he cares deeply for

will respond willingly and eagerly

to vindicate them.

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“Will he delay long over them? 8 I tell

The Gospel of Luke 18:1-8

you, he will give justice to them speedily.”

“Umm… you lost me there, Jesus.”

“The Already / Not-Yet”

“The Already / Not-Yet”

Part 1: The Already

“The God on whom we rely knows what suffering is all about,

not merely in the way the God knows everything, but by

experience.”

“Christianity is the only religion whose God bears the scars of evil.”

~ Os Guinness

“Without the suffering of Jesus, evil wins. It results in the destruction of the human race. It is only Jesus’ suffering that

makes it possible to end suffering—to judge and

renew the world—without having to destroy us.”

“The Already / Not-Yet”

Part 2: The Not-Yet

“How long, O Lord?”

~ Revelation 6:9-11

When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and

true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”

Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow

servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.

~ Revelation 6:9-11

“But how patient should God be? The day of reckoning must

come, not because God is eager to pull the trigger, but because

every day of patience in a world of violence means more violence

and every postponement of vindication means letting insult accompany injury…. …God’s

patience is costly, not simply for God, but for the innocent.”

The God who loves justice and righteousness himself will not be satisfied until justice rolls down

like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream. So Jesus says, “You ought always to pray, and

do not lose heart.”

Key Point

What kind of me is Jesus

calling me to be ?

8 “Nevertheless, when the Son of man

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comes, will he find faith on earth?”

‘You also must be ready, for the Son

of Man is coming at an hour you do not

expect.”

~ Jesus of Nazareth in the Gospel of Luke 12:40

He has shown you, O man, what is good, and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justice,

to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?

~ Micah 6:8

Keep on praying not because God does not listen,

but because He does.

NCC, keep on praying for the coming kingdom

not because God does not listen, but because he does.

And He will answer your prayers.

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