Keep on praying not because God does not listen, but because He does. This message was given on November 6, 2016 at New City Church in Calgary by Pastor John Ferguson. For more info, please visit: www.newcitychurch.ca

1. Prayer & the Coming
Revolution of God
The Gospel of Luke 18:1-8

2. God Gives Us His Words of Eternal Life
Luke 18:1-8
Found on page 877 in our guest Bibles.
Today’s Scripture:

3. Are you
satisfied with
the kind of
world we live in
?

4. “I HAVE A DREAM….”
August 28, 1963

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. “NO, NO, WE ARE NOT
SATISFIED, AND WE WILL
NOT BE SATISFIED UNTIL
JUSTICE ROLLS DOWN
LIKE WATERS AND
RIGHTEOUSNESS LIKE A
MIGHTY STREAM.”

9. Your kingdom come,
Your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
~ Jesus of Nazareth
in Matthew 6
“

10. Prayer & the Coming
Revolution of God
The Gospel of Luke 18:1-8

11. 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….

12. When will the kingdom
of God come?
~ The Pharisees
in Luke 17:20
“

13. The Kingdom of God
The Revolution of God

14. The kingdom of God
is in the midst of you.
~ Jesus of Nazareth
Luke 17:21
“

15. Where the corpse is, there
the vultures / eagles will gather.
~ Jesus of Nazareth
Luke 17:37
“

16. 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 fears
God nor respected people….

17. 3 And there was a widow in that city who
The Gospel of Luke 18:1-8
kept coming to him and saying, “Give me
justice against my adversary….”

18. “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

19. 4 For a while he refused, but afterward
The Gospel of Luke 18:1-8
he said to himself, “Though I neither fear
God nor respect man, 5 yet because this
widow keeps bothering me, I will give her
justice, so that she will not beat me down
by her continual coming….”

20. “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.’”

21. 6 And the Lord said, “Hear what the un-
The Gospel of Luke 18:1-8
righteous judge says. 7 And will not God
give justice to his elect, who cry to him
day and night…?

22. “He loves righteousness
and justice; the earth is
full of the steadfast love
of the Lord.”
~ Psalm 33:5

23. ~ Jeremiah 9:24
“I am the Lord who
practices kindness,
justice and righteousness
in the earth. For in these
things I delight.”

24. 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 grudgingly
to vindicate her.

25. 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 grudgingly
to 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.
<

26. “Will he delay long over them? 8 I tell
The Gospel of Luke 18:1-8
you, he will give justice to them speedily.”

27. “Umm… you lost
me there, Jesus.”

28. “The Already / Not-Yet”

29. “The Already / Not-Yet”
Part 1: The Already

31. “The God on whom
we rely knows what
suffering is all about,
not merely in the
way the God knows
everything, but by
experience.”

32. “Christianity is the only religion
whose God bears the scars of evil.”
~ Os Guinness

33. “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.”

34. “The Already / Not-Yet”
Part 2: The Not-Yet

35. “How long, O Lord?”

36. ~ 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?”

37. 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

38. “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.”

39. 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

40. What kind of
me is Jesus
calling me to be ?

41. 8 “Nevertheless, when the Son of man
The Gospel of Luke 18:1-8
comes, will he find faith on earth?”

42. ‘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

43. 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

44. Keep on praying not because
God does not listen,
but because He does.

45. NCC, keep on praying for
the coming kingdom
not because God does not listen,
but because he does.
And He will answer your prayers.

46. flickr images courtesy of: about
other images used for educational purpose
http://old.seattletimes.com/special/mlk/
Image Credit: PublicDomainPiactures
https://pixabay.com/en/bored-female-girl-people-school-16811/
Pixaby Images
Image Credit: Christopher Brown
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7853490@N07/3531948937/
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