The Parable of Prayer ~ Luke 18:1-8 (NASB)

The transcription is a sermon by Pastor Anderson from Overflow Outreach Ministries. He emphasizes the importance of prayer and encourages listeners to continue praying and believing in God's promises. He also discusses the parable of the persistent widow and the unjust judge, highlighting the need to have faith and not lose heart while praying. The pastor also mentions the significance of repentance and baptism in the name of Jesus for salvation. He concludes by offering his contact information for those in need of prayer or baptism. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, praise the Lord. It's through him all blessings flow. This is Pastor Anderson, Overflow Outreach Ministry. Man, we are reaching out to you. You have tapped in the encouragement corner once again. You know, God is a good God. He's a wonderful God. He's a faithful God. One thing about the Lord that we serve, He's going to do what He said He's going to do. He's a man that will never lie. Listen, I have a dynamic word today. We're going to close out our series of the Book of Luke. I'm going to talk about the parables of prayer. Amen. If you've been following us on our audio podcast, we talked about the rich young ruler. We talked about the rich man and Lazarus. We talked about the ten leopards that was cleansed. And now we're going to go into the parable of prayer. Now you should know by now if you're a seasoned saint, and you may not even be a seasoned saint, praise the Lord. You may be someone who's just now coming into the kingdom, or you may be even seeking God. But the whole thing we need to understand is that we have to always pray. No matter what level we are on in our walk with the Lord, we must always pray. We have to pray. Even when you're coming into contact with the things of God, the first thing you have to do is repent. Amen. Repentance is always in order. And then once we repent and we turn, God begins to deal with us at that moment. And so it's very, very important that we have to develop a prayer life when it comes to our walk with the Lord. Let's go into prayer right now. Father, in the name of Jesus, Lord, we just thank you for you being God. For you sit up high and you look down low and you judge the affairs of men and you are the perfect judge. And for that, Lord, we say thank you, Lord. We ask you to forgive us for all our sins, Lord, seen and unseen. Lord, we just ask you to continue to help us. Give us the mind to want to serve and pray and praise you so that we can have a life of worship, O God. Lord, we just thank you. We magnify your name, Lord. We just ask you, Lord, to watch over our children, watch over our grandkids, O God, Lord. We just ask you those private prayers. We ask you to grant our requests, Lord, even our public prayers, Lord. We just ask you to continue to watch over us going out and coming in, Lord. There are supernatural forces that are against us, O God, Lord. So we just ask you through the power of the blood of Jesus to continue to help us in all of our endeavors, Lord. We give not only a public prayer, but a prayer for the nations, O God. Watch over the leaders of this nation so that they can rightfully guide this nation, this godly nation that should be godly, Lord. We just ask you, Lord, to touch them, touch their hearts and make them decisions that doesn't affect us in the spirit, O God. Turn this nation back to you while we're here because we know that it's the church that is congelling you by the power of the Holy Ghost and keeping that standard going, O God. Lord, we just ask you, Lord, the people all around the world, there's so much going on. People are dying for nothing, Lord. Kids and schools are being gunned down. People in other nations, O God, are going through horrific things. So we know that we're in the last days, O God, but we just ask you right now to continue to raise up a standard with the church so that we can cry out and cry loud and spread this gospel like never before before. It's everlasting too late. So Lord, we just ask you to bring revival where we are at. In the name of Jesus, Lord, we need revival. Lord, we need a Holy Ghost revival. Lord, we need a revival of baptism in your name. We need a revival of baptism in the spirit. Lord, we need a supernatural thrust so that we can call others out of darkness into his marvelous light. And Lord, for all these things we're praying about, Lord, we say thank you because we know it's already done. And we'll fill up with praise and magnify and glorify your name. This is in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Once again, this is Pastor Anderson, Overflow Outreach Ministries. We are reaching out to you right now. Bring in the word wherever you're at. You can play this audio podcast in your car. You can play it in the restroom. You can play it amongst your family and your friends. But get this word out because it is a word from the Lord. It has power in it. It has anointing in it and will help you in your Christian journey. Now today, we're going to come from Luke chapter 18, verses 1 through 8. I'm reading from the New American Standard Bible. I like this Bible because it's, I don't want to say simple like a simpleton, but it's easy for a child to understand. And so we just ask the Holy Spirit to enlighten us and give us some nuggets that will help us to understand what God is saying. And so we're going to talk about the parables of prayer. So if I had to put a title on this, I would tell you today, above all else, don't stop praying. Do not stop praying. You know what you are praying about and you need to pray in faith and know and understand that you will see a supernatural manifestation in God's own time. Now the first verse says, now he was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart. Listen, the Lord is saying at all times, in season, out of season, when we're up, when we're down, we are to always pray and stay encouraged. Don't lose heart. You got to have a lot of heart out here to believe God because we live in a world right now where everything is anti-Christ. Did you catch that? If you really pay attention to the music that these young people are listening to, if you really pay attention to what Hollywood is bringing forth on that television, everything that you see in the spirit is anti-Christ. The Bible lets us know that any spirit that confesses not that Jesus has manifested himself in the flesh, which is God, that is the spirit of anti-Christ. And so there's an anti-Christ agenda out in the world right now. So we have to always pray and not lose heart. And the Bible says, saying in a certain city, there was a judge who did not fear God and did not respect man. Now listen, I'm going to pause right here to let you know that you have to be careful when you're around godless individuals. You know, this judge was godless. Yes, he was. He had no respect for anything that is right. Now doesn't that ring a bell with you? There are some people right now in your life that are godless. They have no respect for anything that is right. And let me tell you something about godless individuals. Godless people are heartless people. Amen. They are heartless people. They don't have a heart. Godless, heartless, despisers of those that desire to do good. You have to watch people who are godless. One of the things that keep us from reaching our God-given destiny are our inappropriate relationships that tie us to ungodly people. There are some people you've got to separate from. Did you catch that? Now when we were coming up in the hood, our parents said birds of a feather flock together. Grandma said if you hang around trash, you'll get it in your eye. Amen. And so the Bible says evil communication corrupt good manners. And so godless people are heartless people. Sometimes God will allow things to get so ugly in your life, then he brings you out. But you don't want to get to that point. You want to go ahead and pray at all times and not lose heart. But these godless people are heartless people. How are they heartless? They fail to help the poor. They fail to have compassion for the misfortune of others. Godless people criticize and magnify the mistakes and defects of others. You got the picture now? See this is why we need to pray. We have to pray like never before because people in this world, whether you want to accept it or not, whether you want to see it or not, are demonic possessed. And the church has to start standing up and pray. Godless people are selfish individuals. And so the Bible says that this judge, he did not fear God and he did not respect man. And the Bible lets us know there was a widow in that city and she kept coming to him saying, give me legal protection from my opponent. Now that's a terrible thing when you need the help of a godless person. But watch this, keep praying, keep believing, keep fasting, keep going, keep sharing the word because it doesn't matter how heartless they are. God can turn your situation around. You know I'm just talking about prayer today. Don't stop praying. Don't stop praying. And so the scripture says for a while he was unwilling, heartless people, godless people, they are unwilling to do anything for anybody else. They hoard all the resources to themselves. You know we talked about that on another podcast about the rich young ruler. He loved his money. Don't allow your status and your economic status and your worldly status to stop you from being a blessing to those who are less fortunate. The Bible says the poor you're going to always have with you. Amen. We have to keep serving the Lord with all that we have. The Bible says thou shall have no other gods before me. And Jesus put it like this, love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbor like you love yourself. For a while this judge was unwilling but afterward he said to himself, even though I do not fear God, no respect man. He's admitting it. He knows how he is. He knows he's godless. He knows he's heartless. He knows he's selfish. Yet because this widow bothers me, he don't want to be bothered. You got somebody in your life right now that is in a position to help you and they don't want to be bothered with you. But keep praying. God knows how to deliver the ungodly. You see what I'm trying to get at? God loves the people that you don't like. The people you want to see go to hell and the people you want to see God to punish, God has a way to change their mind. But these selfish people, I get it, they take it to another level. They hoard all the earth's resources for themselves. They also have an enormous greed, watch this, for real estate. And we're watching that in the inner city all around the country. Regentrification. They want it all. They want your grandmother's property. My God, they want your parents' property. They want every piece of real estate that they can find, kind of like in the Old Testament with Jabaz and Jezebel, excuse me, Ahab, Hallelujah and Jezebel, when they wanted Nabal's vineyard. They had every piece of property pretty much in that region around the kingdom and they just wanted this man's vineyard because it was in proximity to where they lived at. And that's how it is now. They take selfishness to the next level. These heartless individuals have a total disregard for the rights of others. Have no morals. They feel because they are in a position to have it, they should take it. They feel like God gave it to them. Heartless. They neglect the needy and the needy people who are suffering. Godless individuals also have an indifference, watch this, towards the salvation of sinners. Don't stop praying. God is going to save those children. God is going to save your cousins. God is going to save your, if you have an ungodly parent, God is going to touch their heart but being a child of God, this is part of it. You have to pray for everybody. Watch this, pray for the godless as well in your life. So the Bible says, he said, because this will bothers me, I will give her legal protection otherwise by continually coming she will wear me out. He's admitting it. I'm tired of seeing this poor woman in my presence. She kept coming. See you have to keep coming to God about everything that you're going through. You can't stop. You got to have heart. You got to know that God is willing and able to do everything that he promised in his word. She's wearing me out. Are you wearing God out? God can't be wore out. But what I'm saying is, are you praying so much that your knees are cracking when you get on your knees? Do you have a prayer closet where you actually get on your knees or were you one of those people that feel like I could just pray at any time? I'm praying in my mind. I'm praying when I'm walking. That's fine. But do you set out a special moment to pray during the day? Otherwise by her continual coming she will wear me out. And the Lord said, hear what the unrighteous judge, you know, basically just said. He's saying because she keep coming, I'm going to grant her request. Now this heartless individual didn't make him no difference whether she got justice or not. But because she kept coming, he gave her what she wanted. Now will not God bring about justice for his elect who cry to him day and night? And he will delay long over them. In other words, even though it seems as if it's taken a while for God to give you what you pray for, are you going to keep going to God? I heard Peter said after you suffer a while, that's the issue. People don't like to go through nothing. And I heard Jesus said this way comes with much persecution. You know, I know we love the part of the Bible where, you know, we're jumping around and God has given us everything that we want. When praises go up, blessings come down. So we'll see, you know, all these type of praises are fine, but we don't like that part where we have to go through something. Hallelujah. And so Jesus says, I tell you that he will bring about justice for them quickly. Now, this is what the Lord is saying. When we keep going to God in prayer, it's going to be in the moment of a twinkling of an eye, God is going to bring about justice quickly. But I like this part. Jesus says, however, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth? In other words, when the Lord comes to see about your situation, will he find faith? Not only that. Either God do it or you're going to keep living for him and still pray with the same intensity that you had when you wanted God to do it for you. See, God is coming back for people who have faith. It's faith that moves God. So listen, don't stop praying. Hallelujah. Don't stop praying for your salvation. Some people are not saved. Some of you are not saved. Some of you are not saved today. Some of you need the new birth, according to John chapter 3. The Bible says there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said, Rabbi, we know that you come from God as a teacher, for no man can do these signs unless they come and are in his with God. And Jesus said to him, unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. And Nicodemus said to him, how can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter the second time in his mother's womb and be born. And Jesus said to him, unless a man is born of the water and of the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Now I know that goes over people's heads and I know you pastor, your preacher man, your denomination told you that you already saved, but listen, you have to have the Holy Ghost. There must be a spiritual baptism, a line of demarcation in your life where you know without a shadow of a doubt, you are saved. And Jesus said, which is born, that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. But do not be amazed. I say to you, you must be born again. Don't stop praying for your salvation. Don't just pray for material things. You have to pray to be saved. Amen. Chapter two, verse 37 through 39. Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, brother, what shall we do? Peter said to them, repent and be baptized. Every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Listen, don't let nobody fool you. You have to repent. You have to confess God with your mouth. You have to, like the book of Romans says, but you also have to repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. And the word of God said, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Ghost for the promises for you and your children, for all who will fall off as many as the Lord our God will call. Watch this. Don't stop praying for your salvation. It's not enough just to follow God. If you want to overcome the sin in your life, you have to have a spiritual baptism. Once again, this is Pastor Anderson. I'm here to encourage you. You tapped into the encouragement corner once again. Again, don't stop praying. Man ought to always pray and not faint. Stop getting so easily discouraged and pray for the people that you don't like. Because watch this, God loves the people that you do not like. Amen. So continue to do the right thing because it is the right thing to do. Keep pressing towards the mark. That standard is high, but God is going to give you his spirit so that you can walk with him in spirit and in truth. I love you all in Jesus name. You can contact me at 813-770-9610. You know, our ministry is always open to those who want prayer. Amen. Some of you have not been baptized in Jesus name. Listen, contact me and I will set up baptism for you. So we can take you down in Jesus name. So that your sins can be remitted from you. That's what the scripture says. If you want your sins forgiven, you have to be baptized in Jesus name. So listen, I love you all in Jesus name. Keep walking by faith and not by sight. And I promise you God has a blessing with your name on it. Amen.