By REV. TIMOTHY L. MELTON, PASTOR
(Transcribed by Myra D. Colgate)
Cherokee Pentecostal Holiness Church
Continued…
Read Luke 18:1-8, James 1:27, 1Timothy 5:3
“Father, I pray You would just open the Scriptures up to us in our hearing, that You, Holy Spirit, would open up our understanding to every person to receive a download from You today.
“Father, that those in Your House, those hearing or reading this, would walk away with a greater understanding and a realization of what kind of Judge You really are, what You have made available, and what it takes to “get” it. Father, we give You the Praise, the Glory, and the Honor, in the Name of Jesus Christ. Amen.”
Let’s go back to Verse 1. “Men ought always to pray and not to faint.” In other words here’s what He said, “One ought to believe in something so greatly that they refuse to ever let it go, that they never quit praying for it; or fall out; that they don’t stop, but hang on. Why? Because there is a Righteous Judge now. Today, I want to work on this because we need to see.
First, Jesus told the parable and the woman kept coming, and coming, and coming. “I have an enemy and I need You to deal with them.”
The judge did not care about this woman. She came to him, and came to him and came to him, but finally when she walked in again…He would have rolled his eyes and said to himself, “Not this woman again, whatever she wants, she’s going to get because I want her to go away.”
Isn’t that an amazing statement? Why would Jesus say that here, when He’s talking about “men ought to pray and not faint?” It’s because He’s drawing the distinction between the world and the spiritual realm. He’s showing us the difference between those who have declared and those who have not.
All of this is a picture of the Church. He’s not talking about the Courthouse in Sylva or in Bryson City. He’s talking about the House of God. There are some who don’t even care about others, but then there are others who are trying to bless the others. The others who may not be trying to give or to love anyone, they can just be wanting what they can get.
But God isn’t like that. Many of you know that in the Kingdom of God, when the Kingdom has entered on the inside and a person has begun to operate, but just because they are selfish people, that doesn’t go well in the Kingdom of God, but it can still be the Truth, because we can see what we are like and what they are like on the inside of that person. Does it mean that you are powerful? Does it mean that one can have the things of God?
It can mean that the folks that make pastoring not so fun on your Sundays, I can say this to you, because you are our Sunday night people. Look at your neighbor and say, “Talking about you.” Don’t get all upset, I’m not talking about you. I’m talking about those who’ve tasted enough of the God that they thought they wanted, they want something, but they don’t want it to cost them anything. Jesus is talking about those who don’t fear God. They didn’t regard man. Do you see this in Verse 4? However, they will do what they have to do when they get troubled enough. (I’m trying to help you.)
Come on, they don’t fear God enough to spend any time during the week. They don’t regard man enough to see a need and deal with it, but when enough trouble comes, they’ll make us a picture of a lot of different Christians stuck at a lot of differing levels of understanding, and they will understand they too need more than they have thus far…
As we are to live by faith, we must persist in prayer. Surely each person can begin to help the most vulnerable and needy of God’s people—widows, especially those who have no family, and orphans. They will have needs and distresses, that we could choose to be able to help in their being properly cared for, not letting the world corrupt us by seeking gains only for ourselves. In truly serving them by helping meet their needs, the Lord calls this pure and genuine religion being practiced in His Sight.
We need to consider never allowing ourselves to give up on ourselves or them. Constant prayer continually, as we live day by day, while believing Him for the answers helps them and us, too. God may delay His answering, but His delays always have good reasons. As we persist in prayer, we will develop in our character, faith and hope. We can know we are living the way we each should be, gaining much more for now, and for later, as well.
