Persistence

Hosea 1:2-10

Colossians 2:6-19

Luke 11:1-13

There is an episode from the early years of the Simpson’s where Bart and Lisa Simpson want to go to a place called Splash Mountain, a local water park.  Homer, their father, says no.  Bart and Lisa ask again, “Can we go to Splash Mountain?” and Homer again says no.  And this continues on and on without a break.  Bart and Lisa follow their dad everywhere asking the same question over and over again in rapid fire succession. 

“Can we go to Splash Mountain?”

“No.”

“Can we go to Splash Mountain?”

“No.”

“Can we go to Splash Mountain?”

“No.”

            And finally, after what appears to be an entire day of hearing this question asked over and over again, Homer says, “If I say yes, will stop asking me if we can go to Splash Mountain?”  For Bart and Lisa, their persistence paid off.

            According to Webster’s Dictionary, persistence is defined as: to continue steadily and firmly in some state, purpose, or course of action, in spite of opposition or criticism; to last or endure tenaciously.  Did you know God wants you and me to be persistent people?  In fact, God wants us to be persistent in: 1) seeking after Him, 2) seeking after the lost souls of this world, and 3) seeking after the truth, justice and freedom for all. 

            How can we be persistent people of God? 

            In Luke, Jesus tells a story about a persistent neighbor late at night trying to borrow three loaves of bread.  Back then, there were no Holiday Inns or Hiltons or Westin Hotels.  Travelers would seek shelter from strangers in their homes often late at night.  Hospitality was a sacred custom in this region.  It was customary for the host to provide the best of the best for their guests.  This one neighbor has a guest, but no food for him to eat.  So he runs to his neighbor asking for help.

            We must also know in this day and age people’s homes were very small and rustic.  Often there was only one room for the whole family.  The floor was compacted dirt or hard clay.  The whole family slept together around a stove to keep warm.  And it was not uncommon, in the colder weather, for the family’s livestock to come into the house, too.  For the neighbor to get up and answer the door would wake everybody else up from their sleep.  But because the first neighbor was persistent, steady and firm, the man finally satisfies his request.

            Like the neighbor, we need to be persistent in our prayers to God.  We can’t expect God to just hand us what we need at the snap of our fingers or in the blink of an eye.  God will always answer our prayers whether it’s the answer we are looking for or not.  God will always answer our prayers in his own time and in His own way which doesn’t always match up with our idea of time or with exactly what we want or need. 

            Many, many years ago there lived a devout Christian man named George McCluskey.  When George married and started a family, he decided to invest one hour a day in prayer, because he wanted his kids to follow Christ.  Over time, he expanded his prayers to include his grandchildren and great-grandchildren.  Every day between 11am and noon, he prayed for the next three generations of his family.

            As the years went by, his two daughters committed their lives to Christ and married men who went into full-time ministry.  These two couples had four girls and one boy.  Each of the girls married a minister, and the boy became one.

            The first two children born to this generation were both boys.  Upon graduation from high school, the two cousins chose the same college and became roommates.  During their sophomore year, one boy decided to go into the ministry.  The other didn’t.  He undoubtedly felt some pressure to continue the family legacy, but he chose instead to pursue his interest in psychology.

            He earned his doctorate and eventually wrote books for parents that became bestsellers.  He started a radio program heard on more than a thousand stations across the country.  The man’s name – Dr. James Dobson.  Through his prayers, George McCluskey affected far more than his one family.

I’ve seen this in my own life.  I’ve seen my persistence in prayer move the hand of God.  I’ve seen the fruits of a persistent, consistent prayer life, one that I have been continually developing for many years.  And it’s a passionate practice each and every day of my life.  For many years I prayed for that special someone who would love and care for me and be courageous enough to be a pastor’s wife.  There were women in my past who clearly told me that they couldn’t see themselves as a pastor’s wife.  So when I met D’Anna nine years ago and she was excited and intrigued by my calling, I knew that God answers our prayers!  She is a definite answer to my persistent prayers as well as our three children.

And I want you to know that I am in persistent prayer over this congregation.  I want this congregation to be a place of spiritual growth and renewal.  I want this congregation to be a place of learning, spirit-filled worship, and discovery.  I want this congregation to transform people’s lives, to heal people’s wounds, and be a living sacrifice for the Gospel of Jesus Christ here in Kilgore, Texas and beyond. 

And why? 

I believe with God persistence pays off.  The Bible says, “Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.  For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who seeks finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened for you.”(Luke 11:9-10)   Our God, the one who knows us better than we know ourselves, will provide us with exactly what we and the world need.  So we must pray, we must pray with boldness to our Lord and he will answer.  The Bible says, “Do not grow weary in doing good, for in due time you will reap the harvest of the seeds you have sown.”

 Not only must we be persistent in prayer in our relationship with God, but we must be persistent in our efforts to reach the lost souls of the world.  The prophet Hosea lived in a period of history when the people of God had turned away from the one true God to worship other gods from other peoples, including the Canaanite god Baal. 

The Israelites were lost.  They were lost spiritually.  They had lost their focus, their direction, and their love for God.  They were distracted and preoccupied with the pagan culture around them.  And Hosea is the one who God has chosen to represent, to symbolize the broken relationship between God and his people, a broken relationship like the infidelity of a spouse.  The people of Israel are the bride of God and they have not been faithful and committed to their groom.  The Israelites were lost.

Like the Israelites of Hosea’s time, people today are lost.  I’ve seen people lost living in chaos and confusion.  I’ve seen people lost walking through the mall spending money they don’t have on things they don’t need.  I’ve seen people lost hiding behind false facades of success.  I’ve seen people lost enslaved to their own fears and anxieties.  I’ve seen people lost who don’t have the joy of the Lord, whose spiritual fountain has dried up, and who pursue material and worldly things rather than the God of the Universe who created everyone and everything. 

There is a world out there that is hungry, hungry for direction, direction today, hope for tomorrow, and the everlasting truth.  The world is dying for something, someone to die for.  And we have it!  We have the direction, hope, and truth the world needs, the world craves, that someone worth dying for, we have so much to share and tell about Jesus Christ, so why is it so hard for us to get out there and share what we have in Christ with the whole world?  Why do we squander our time with meaningless talk and mundane tasks rather than focusing on reaching the lost souls of this world?  We must be persistent in finding ways to reach out to the lost souls around us with the truth of Jesus Christ.

It’s unfortunate, but there is lost people in the Christian church, too.  I’ve seen people lost in our churches trying to do worship, fellowship and teach in the same way they’ve always done it.  I’ve seen people lost who come to church for their one hour to worship God each Sunday and then forget about God the rest of the week.  I’ve seen people lost in our churches who see volunteering in the ministry of the church as a transaction of one thing for another rather than volunteering as a selfless servant to serve out of love and faith in Christ Jesus expecting nothing in return.  And I’ve seen people lost in our churches when the church attempts to copy and emulate the latest cultural trends in order to help people know Jesus, only to find the secular culture in the church with an even greater influence, strength and power than before.  I believe the enculturation and domestication of the Gospel in the mainline Protestant church in America is the main reason why it is losing members, influence and shrinking in size.

We must be persistent in prayer in our relationship with God, persistent in reaching the lost souls of the world, and we must be persistent in seeking truth, freedom and justice for all people.  Paul in his letter to the church in Colasse in Asia Minor warns of false teachers who are polluting the truth of the Gospel with philosophies and empty beliefs based on human tradition and the stars and moon of the sky.  These practices included circumcision for Gentiles, adhering to rules on food and drink, and astrology.  They are teaching that if one is to believe in Christ, one must adhere to additional practices.  Christ only is not enough. 

Paul describes to the Colossians that, “for in Christ the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have come to fullness in him,” (Colossians 2:9).  This is to say that Christ is the complete, final and perfect sacrifice for the salvation of humanity.  We don’t need these other additional practices.  There is nothing more we can do to earn or obtain God’s grace, love, mercy and truth.  We don’t need to be enslaved to these worldly-based practices anymore.  Christ came to free us from the slavery of our mind, so we could have true freedom in Him. 

In Christ we are connected to God completely and eternally.  And Paul in his writing wants to encourage the Colossians to be persistent in this belief, to stand up to the false teachers, and be persistent in seeking the truth and freedom from slavery. 

And we must do the same.

Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Injustice anywhere, is a threat to justice everywhere.”  We as a community of faith in Christ must be persistent.  We need to speak up for the oppressed and the outcast; for the downtrodden and the desperate.  We can not, we shall not and we will not stand idle watching the world pass us by.  There is too much at stake.  There is too much on the line to stand back and wait.  This is why I am so glad this congregation leads our community every Saturday making meals for the poor and the hungry of our town.

Because, my friends, we know the challenges of our times will not go away on their own.  We know we can’t simply throw money at them hoping they will go away either.  It’s gonna take our time and energy as well as our resources to minister in Kilgore, in Texas and throughout the world.  These are extraordinary times to serve Christ to bring hope to the hopeless, faith to the faithless and love to the unloved. 

But we can’t stop there.  It’s something we need to work at for years to come.  When we are persistent in prayer and seek after the Lord, I firmly believe the Lord can do mighty works and wonders.  God wants to use each of us in a mighty way to the glory of his kingdom.  We just need to seek him in persistent prayer.

President Abraham Lincoln once said, “I have been driven many times to my knees by overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go.  My wisdom, and that of all about me, seemed insufficient for the day”.  When we surrender to God in prayer, we will receive the wisdom we need.  In prayer, we can guarantee the reality and sincerity of our desire only by the passion and persistence with which we pray.  When we pray, we are not requesting gifts from an unwilling God, but going to the one who knows our needs better than we know them ourselves and whose heart extended towards us, is the heart of unconditional love, eternal wisdom and abundant mercy.