Luke 11:1-13 7-24-2022 (As built, Amite #504)
A. Perseverance… perseverance…
B. My brothers and sisters in Christ it’s probably the late eighteen hundreds… probably around nineteen hundred... his name is John Roebling… John Roebling… truly… this is his name… he’s at a meeting and can I tell you… at the meeting… they are going up one side him and down the other… I mean if you and I had been there… I think we would have just said John why don’t you just cut your losses and call it good… I mean… you should have heard him… I mean John there is no way you’re going to build a bridge over this vast river… you just can’t build it that way… John… you are the village idiot… next guy stands up and says John we never built a bridge that way… we got to build it the way we know how… you go on one side of the river… you put some pilings down… you build a foundation… you make sure it’s secure… you go on the other side of the river… you do the exact same thing… and then you build a structure over the middle… and he says… and that’s how we secure it… he said gentleman what you do not understand is we do not have the space… to build this massive structure on one end and one on the other end and then build this massive thing in the middle… it will take up all the land that we have… he says I’m telling you… the way to do it is the way I proposed… they said John we’re not going to do it that way… you’re wrong… it’s just not the way to do it… Man I got to tell you… John’s gift is perseverance… he said I tell you what… price out what you’re doing… look what you got left remaining... and then tell me that what I’m doing is wrong…if we build cables across it and then we suspend cables down… to support it… and then put the structure inside the cables… we can tie it off on either side… and it will still do what we need… without taking up the land… and half the money… like a suspension bridge… a rope bridge if you will… as a result of it… John gets started… this is a twenty something year project… about halfway through an accident happens… John dies… and I got to tell you… you know what’s amazing… the only person that had the greater gift of perseverance was his son names Washington Roebling… man can I tell you… he gets hurt in the same accident that killed his dad… the only thing that he has operational on him… his finger… for thirteen years… grammar school… high school that you and I go through… thirteen years… he draws out where the suspensions need to go… they literally bring him out there to point where the things need to be suspended and tied off from… thirteen years… they built the first suspension bridge in the united states… it’s still today being used… from New York to long island… from New York to Long Island… oaky please tell me you’ve heard of the Brooklyn bridge my brothers and sisters in Christ… really… okay hang on… talk amongst yourselves for a minute I’ll be back… look it ain’t going to take but a second so I don’t make this mistake again… okay I won’t use that story ever again… I promise you… next to black Bart wow…
C. My brothers and sisters in Christ it’s about perseverance… that is that gospel… the good Lord is telling the story… he will knock on your door until you come and open it… until you give him what he wants regardless of the hour of the day…because you just got to do it to get rid of the person… now stop… lets make sure you understand you’re a first century Jew… these are the things that you know… first of all… Jesus went off to pray… if Christ goes off to pray… then you
and I need to go off to pray… more so then him…secondly and equally important… did you notice who they said… if I said John the Baptist… what’s the first thing that comes to your mind… well there’s that locust and wild honey thing… oh wait wait he wore camel skin… oh yeah he kind of had a little bit of a temper… nobody ever said how well John the Baptist prayed… but the fact that the apostles brought it up… must mean that it’s pretty obvious that he did it quite, often he’s an Essen jew… which means they don’t believe in shaving which is why you always see John the Baptist with a beard… or maybe if you will St. Joseph at times as well… my brothers and sisters in Christ what I’m trying to tell you is prayer was dominant in Johns life… this is what they realize… and as a result of it that’s all they have to go by… now my brothers and sisters in Christ… there’s two types of Our Fathers… there’s one in Matthews Gospel… and there’s one here in Luke’s… the truth of the matter is… is they are a little different… when I go to speak to other faiths or in particular people who are paganistic… the first thing they say is man y’all got two different versions of the Our Father… therefore it can’t be divinely inspired… stop a minute… absolutely it’s divinely inspired make no mistake about it… just because one’s a shorter version then the other doesn’t make the one less fulfilling… you have the apostles creed… you have now the Nicaean creed my brothers and sisters in Christ if you and I had lived with the jews... some people would pray the Shema which is I believe in one God and he is the one true God and I’ll love him with my whole heart mind and soul… some of them would pray the eighteen petitions before the Shema… it doesn’t make the Shema less than if you don’t… my brothers and sisters in Christ how well were you listening when he was talking… just so you understand… if you and I lived in the Jewish world… chances are you and I may not have a lot of money… a lot of means… and this is what it means… at night… you would bring in all your cattle and sheep… maybe one or two… you might only have two head of cattle and maybe a handful of sheep… you would actually bring them into your house because you don’t have a grotto… you got nowhere to store them… so you bring them into your house and you and your family live in a loft… you know why you don’t want to go down at night… why is it… that y’all can get that part but you couldn’t get the Brooklyn bridge… where is your mind… as somebody who was in that business… in my prior life… he ain’t coming down because he ain’t walking through it… to get you a loaf of bread… and he ain’t going to go back and clean himself off before he goes back up… that’s why he’s not coming down… my brothers in Christ he doesn’t want to deal with just the problems… my brothers and sisters in Christ do you understand that in other words he’s going to knock on the door until he comes down… that’s how you got to persevere… were you listening close… unfortunately sometimes we read this part of the gospel and we just think… oh okay what father would give his son a snake if he asks for a fish… or man an egg and give him a scorpion… or man turn these stones to bread… my brothers in Christ listen carefully to what he’s saying… what father… I thought he said call no man Father… I digress on that issue… a hundred and thirty times in scripture the word father is used… my brothers and sisters in Christ… he’s saying what father would give his son a scorpion…if he asks for an egg… at your birth to be baptized in Christ and not follow the evil one… later in life what parent… what father… would give his son a snake if he asks for a fish… the fish is the symbol of Christus… the snake is the symbol of the evil one… what father would lead his son astray towards the evil one… more importantly… what father would give him stones that were turned to bread… that would maybe last you this life… but not the bread of everlasting life… he’s walking them through the whole life…
D. Look at all of our best players are those that persevere… look go back in scripture… think about all our best players… man how many times have you and I beat up Peter incessantly… just because man… he just doesn’t get it… he just says the wrong words at the wrong time… I mean he just seems to open his mouth… the thought hit his head… and out comes the jaw… ad man he’s all in it all over again… but give the man his due… thirty-three years later he is crucified upside down… and according to tradition for three hours he proclaims the gospel… and don’t forget about his wife Porphyria… who probably gave up her life… either that day or earlier in the week… so that he could become a follower of Jesus Christ… yeah Peter made his mistakes… yeah he denied our savior three times… that’s true… he cut off the ear of Malchus that’s true too… as a matter of fact he’s the one that said Lord do you care that we are about to perish here in the boat… when the winds got too high… he’s the one that thought he could walk on water… but he does… my brothers and sisters in Christ Peter is absolutely the posterchild for perseverance… what about Paul… I mean… if anybody had the right to walk away… surly it’s Paul… I mean one minute you’re Saul with wine women and dame and fortune… three days later you’re blinded… next thing you know you’re fighting with the same people you thought you should be crucifying… my brothers in Christ do you know he’s the only apostles… he’s the thirteenth apostle if you want to call it that… he’s the only one that kept his day job… as a tent maker… can you imagine… being thrown in jail… writing a letter to the Colossians… if that ain’t enough… they will persecute you… and ultimately they will chop his head off… for being a follower of Jesus Christ… oh that’s right you’re a roman citizen… so here’s your options Paul… you can be tied to an animal in a sack… you could be brought to the colosseum… you could be crucified… you could be drowned in water… or you could be beheaded… my brothers and sisters in Christ did you know that when they beheaded you they rarely got it right on the first cut… not that it matters… my brothers and sisters in Christ what I’m trying to tell you is all of our best players persevered… and all those that don’t… don’t… take Pilate… Pilate could have easily said… look He’s Jewish… that’s y’all’s God… but I’m not killing him… he’s done nothing to prove sedition to me… my brothers and sisters in Christ the height of irony… everybody who judged Christ took their own life… Herod… Herod Antipas his son… Pilate… and Judas… my brothers and sisters in Christ I’m saying today that you and I need to persevere… I don’t care what’s going on in your world… you got to finish what you started… you got to begin and end with prayer… if you do not do this… you will not finish this race… listen to me… you do not have to win it… but you dang sure better finish it… you better get up and finish what you started… you begin with prayer and you end in prayer… you got something big coming up in your life… well you stay after it and you finish it… if it doesn’t work out… well that’s between him and them… you did your job… you prayed and you got up and did what you had to do… my brothers in Christ you are quitting too quick… you’re saying man to heck with it I’m done… I don’t care if you got a test coming up… you plow through it… I don’t care if you got a job interview… you go through it… you got something to do with your work… you endure it and make sure you finish it… I don’t care if it has something to do with school… or relationship… your work… or the world… the problem is you’re not finishing what you started… I’m telling you my friends in Christ… you hang on to it like it’s death… may the devil pull it out of your dead hands when you’re through... because the only thing that matters is did you finish what you started… the game is already been won… I just want to know… he wants to know… will you continue to pray… when everybody else has cut their losses… when everybody else is getting mad… and look I get it… you want to have a pity
party… great… have at it… you want to be in a drunken stupor go do it… finish it up… you through now… get back in the race and finish what you started… my brothers in Christ you want to go home and kick your neighbors dog… more or less… go kick it… now you finished… get back in the game… because at the end of the day it’s all about you and your relationship to Christ… the day you stop praying is the day the devil wins the fight… Father you don’t understand I’m tired of praying… I’m tired of doing this… I’m tired of doing that… look at my results… I never get answers… the day you stop… was the day that the prayer was going to win the day… now is the time for you and I to double down… now is the time for you and I to finish what we started… you’re tired of praying… if you pray one more time you could spit… spit… now finish that prayer… and you double down on it… and may they pull it out of your dead hands… because at the end of the day you finish what we started… my brothers in Christ look at the world that we are in right now… I’m telling you… if you do not buckle down… and you and I do not learn to bend a knee… this world will consume you and I and we will fracture and fall… the only thing that you and I have is prayer… it’s all we ever had… so you knock on that door until somebody comes to answer it… and if they don’t answer it… well they can live all night with the noise… you must insist in your prayers… I’m begging you… finish what they started… nobody else has anything to say about it… it’s between you and him…
E. And I leave you with the words of Ben Franklin… Perseverance is the amount of work you do… after your tired from doing the work you just finished… persevere…
F. Amen.
