There's a strange paradox happening right now within religion and the world, and that is there's never been more religious activity than there is right now. Perhaps it's because of social media, perhaps it's because of 24-7 cable news or 24-7 Christian television. It only appears to be more religious activity. Perhaps it's not. But I think it can be soundly argued that the activity level of religiosity has picked up. And it's a strange thing because faith has declined. Genuine saving faith has declined. I think that can be soundly argued as well, and tragically soundly argued. When Jesus, in Luke chapter 18, was teaching on his parable of persistence in prayer and not giving up, he ended that parable with this. He said, however, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth? However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth? Now, that is, of course, a rhetorical question. But it has an anticipated negative answer. In this parable, in Luke chapter 18, Jesus is making it clear that God is faithful to His elect. That they can depend on Him. when they cry out to him day and night, that he listens and that he responds quickly, speedily. God is not indifferent to our sufferings. God is not indifferent to our needs. God is not indifferent to you. He knows every hair on your head. He knows what your needs are mentally, emotionally, physically, relationally, spiritually. He knows the entirety of your humanity, and He cares. That's very important. And Jesus is encouraging us, therefore, not to faint when it comes to time to pray. Don't give up on prayer. Sometimes we give up on it by just not praying at all. It's not like we are praying, then we decide just to quit. Sometimes we never start. So I wanna encourage you on two points here. First of all, I wanna encourage you to pray. Pray consistently, pray fervently, and pray with a deep new trust that God hears you. God hears you and acts, and he acts quickly. Now, it may not be on your timing, And it may not be what you anticipated or what you had predetermined was the best response. But God always will act. Jesus said that in the parable. He says in verse 7, Now will not God bring about justice for his elect who cry to him day and night? And will he delay long over them? I tell you that he will bring about justice for them quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth? The other thing I want to encourage you about, beyond being consistent and persistent in your prayer life, is to realize that if you are in Christ, that you are among a remnant, a remnant of the remnant. there's going to be very little faith on the earth. Jesus even went so far in his rhetorical question to imply that there would be no faith on the earth. Earlier in Luke chapter 17, the chapter preceding this, he refers to the days of Noah. Verse 26 he says, and just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man. They were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage until the day that Noah entered the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all. It was as the same as happened in the days of Lot, Jesus goes on to say. They were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building. But on the day that Lot went out from Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. It will be just the same on the day of the Son of Man, when the Son of Man is revealed." Let me ask you, do you take that seriously? I don't know that I do. I mean, I do, but I don't know that it's guiding my daily life and I'm ashamed to say that. I have some work to do here, and perhaps you do too. You know, we live in America, most of us do. Not everyone hearing my voice. I know many of you live in different parts of the world. But we all have the same shared humanity, and we all tend to get distracted by shiny objects. And especially if we are in a survival mode, but we're just concerned about what we're going to eat or drink or wear, where we're going to live. Here in America, we have a lot more shiny objects, but it doesn't mean we're better off. In fact, we're sometimes worse off because we have so many shiny objects. We have so many distractions. I mean, there's a joke among counselors, and that is, when anybody comes into your office, the only real question is, is it pink or green? Is the problem pink or green? In other words, is it romance or finance? Those are the things that Americans obsess about. Money and romance. Money and relationships. I would suspect that that's pretty true for most people around the world. But the question before us is, are we prepared? Are we paying attention? Are we alert? Do we understand, quite frankly, that things are going to get worse before they get better on a societal level? If there's wars and rumors of wars now and floods and earthquakes and famine and pestilence, there will be more. If we're putting too much stock in this present and very temporal age, we are putting way too much of ourselves and time and energy and even our resources into a sinking ship. And it is sinking. I know that there are certain theologies that would tell you that that's a pessimistic view and disagree with me emphatically. There are those who, in a post-millennial type of theology, who insist that in the last days there will be a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit and all the world, as measured by numbers, will be converted. There'll be a grand millennium. Christ will return and reign for a thousand years. I don't know that the Bible teaches that. It's an interesting theology. It's an interesting speculation. But you really can't support that by Scripture. I wish you could. I mean, I'm all for being optimistic. So when I say that things are going to get worse before they get better, I'd love to be wrong. And when I say that if you are in Christ, you are a member of the remnant of a remnant. The late great John Gerstner, one of the probably the most profound and worthy theologians of the 20th century, he once told an audience that God had ordained that true religion would be minimal. And that evangelicalism in the 20th century had declined. And that true religion was going to continue to decline. Now, Dr. Gerstner was a Presbyterian and many of his Presbyterian colleagues disagreed with him emphatically. They had a post-millennial view. They were holding out for this great revival that would come at the end day and correct everything, make everything good and right. And even Dr. Gershner said he hoped he was wrong, but he didn't believe so. Regardless, isn't it important to be prepared? Isn't it important to be alert? Isn't it important to walk with eyes open, ears unplugged? To be sensitive to the work of the Spirit? To be spending time in prayer that's persistent and consistent and trusting? So I want to encourage you as the weekend is coming. Many of you will participate in various and sundry types of worship. Some will be in mega churches. Some will be in small churches. Some will be in home churches. Some will be in little flocks. Jesus also said that. He said, fear not, little flock, for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Even Jesus said his church would be a little flock. Now I know there's all kinds of arguments about the promise to Abraham and his seed being as the stars in the heavens and so on. We don't like, especially here in America, we don't like to take the negative. I mean, Joel Osteen is one example. Joel Osteen is one example of positive Christianity. Self-help Christianity. Optimistic Christianity. Listen, the only thing we can be optimistic about is that we are in Christ. That's the only cause for our optimism. And that the world is not, is a problem. We can be optimistic because we are in Christ. We are preserved. We are kept by the power of God, we're told. But Jesus did refer to his church as a little flock. That's Luke 12, 32, by the way. And once again, he speaks along these lines in the context of encouraging us to not worry about what we're going to eat and what we're going to drink and what we're going to wear. For all these things the nations of the world eagerly seek, but your Father knows that you need these things. But seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you. There's the recipe for financial security. Seek his kingdom. Do not be afraid, little flock, he says, for your father has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom. Well, there's just a little Friday afternoon exhortation for you. Continue in prayer. Be persistent in prayer. If you haven't started, begin. Remember that the the Lord is coming the Lord will return and he will return soon And for the majority he will return at a time that they did not expect him and it won't be pleasant So be alert be sober Keep your eyes open stay consistent in prayer and don't fret if You're not part of some big successful mega church atmosphere. In fact, you should anticipate that even if you're in that atmosphere that you're going to be truly found if your spiritual eyes could be opened. And you can look across that congregation of 1,500 or 2,000 people, or whatever it is, on Sunday morning, and your eyes could be opened so that you could see those who are truly in Christ. You would be shocked. I truly believe you would be shocked, dismayed even, at how few are truly in Christ. The whole world lies under the power of the evil one, 1 John 5, 19. And so, when the Lord returns, when the Son of Man returns, will He find faith in the earth? Well, He won't find it in the world, obviously. And to the degree that the Church is in the world, of the world, and behaving like the world, he won't find faith there either. So don't be surprised, don't be shocked, and don't be dismayed if you feel like the road is getting narrower. it is that's because it is getting there but that's okay we follow a single foot instead of footprints we're only following one footprints and that's the Lord Jesus Christ we don't have to follow the crowd in fact the Bible is very clear that Christianity Followers of Christ are part of the religion of the few, not the many. It's the many who are in trouble. If we're looking to follow the crowd, the Bible teaches emphatically, you're already in trouble. No, we're looking to follow that single set of footprints, the bloodstained footprints of Jesus. Be content, be comforted, and be awake. Amen.