Luke 11:1-13 - Prayer: Answering When, How, and Why to Pray
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Introduction:
Why is prayer so hard for believers? And why don’t Americans see prayer as important in their lives?
According to Barna research from 2020, the percentage of Americans that had prayed during the past 7 days (mind you this was only one time in the past week!) was 83% in 1996. By 2020, this number had fallen to 69%. And this trend really didn’t start falling until 2011.
(https://www.barna.com/research/changing-state-of-the-church/)
Church leaders are recognizing this epidemic of prayerlessness as well.
Francis Chan when speaking at a Passion 2015 Conference focused on college students and young adults stated:
“My biggest concern for this generation is your inability to focus, especially in prayer.”
Francis Chan
So why is prayer so hard for Americans - even Bible-believing Americans? I think there are many reasons that we could cite. Busyness, many false converts within Christianity, godlessness, among others. Yet I think another reason is because prayer has not been taught clearly in our churches.
Many Pastors have told their church members that they need to pray… Yet they have not taught them:
When to pray
How to pray
Why to pray
We know that people do what they think works. Part of my job as a preacher and pastor is encourage and admonish you in the faith. The power of the preached Word is much more than most of us realize. The Lord takes the words of His Scripture and makes them come alive as His Holy Spirit illuminates the words and helps us understand it and apply it.
My prayer today is that as we go through this beautiful section of Scripture on prayer, we leave this place changed. Changed and charged to go into 2024 with a renewed vigor in our prayer life and relationship with the Father. And this change is not going to happen by my words - but it will only happen by His Word. May His Word be living and active in our minds and hearts this New Year’s Eve.
Prayer
Today we will see Jesus teach us three aspects of praying to our Heavenly Father. The first is…
I. As We Pray to the Father, We Should Seek the Perfect in Prayer (1-4)
I. As We Pray to the Father, We Should Seek the Perfect in Prayer (1-4)
Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.”
Verse 1 here is an anomaly in the lives of the disciples of Jesus. At least as far as the Scriptures teach, this is the only place we see the disciples request a specific teaching from Jesus. Jesus obviously taught them about many things, yet here is the only time we see them approach Him asking for teaching.
Why did the disciples ask Jesus how to pray? For one, we see that they saw that John the Baptist had taught his disciples how to pray. But the most likely reason was because He was the greatest example of prayer that has ever been. He was asked because He did it and they saw the power in His prayers!
We see Jesus going off by Himself to pray many times in the Scriptures. This is a regular thing that He did. He modeled what it looked like to have a relationship with the Father. But He also prayed publically and in many different ways and at many different times. Since Jesus is the greatest Person of prayer to ever live, we should follow His example in prayer.
So I want to answer our first two questions that we went through at the beginning of today’s message through the life of Christ. Namely, when to pray and how to pray.
1. When to Pray:
We can start answering this question by 1 Thessalonians 5:17:
pray without ceasing,
So in essence, we should always have an attitude and heart of prayer - meaning that we should be keenly aware that God is always with us. We might not be actively conversing with God, but we should always know that He is with us.
So our overarching answer to our first question is always!
Continuing our answer to the question of when to pray, we see that…
Jesus clearly models a continual attitude of prayer by praying in all sorts of ways. Time would fail to exhaust all of these but here are a few high points:
Praying in the morning and by Himself (Mark 1:35-36) [Before Preaching in Galilee]
Praying at night (Matthew 26:36-46) [At Gethsemene]
Praying before ministering to someone or a group (Luke 9:16) [Before the Feeding of the 5,000]
Praying at a high point in His life (Luke 9:28-29) [The Transfiguration]
Praying at a low point in His life (Luke 23:46) [On the Cross]
Praying for intercession for someone else (Luke 22:31-32) [Interceding for Peter]
Praying before a meal (Luke 22:19) [The Lord’s Supper]
Praying during trials and pain (Luke 22:34) [Considering Peter’s Denial]
Praying during difficult conversations (Matthew 11:25-26) [Prayer in Front of Wicked Religious Leaders]
As we can see, prayer matters in the midst of any and every circumstance in our lives. We should pray without ceasing.
Jesus then moves on to tell us…
2. How to Pray
Jesus answers this question in verses 2-4…
And he said to them, “When you pray, say: “Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.”
Now we have entered what is so fondly called the Lord’s Prayer. Sadly, many churches have turned this beautiful example of prayer into a mindless repetition of words. It is clear by the fact that Luke and Matthew’s recording of the prayers have some minor differences that this prayer was meant to be an outline that we could follow and not a series of magic words that we should pray verbatim (Matthew 6:9-13). Although it is not sinful to repeat this prayer verbatim, we are warned in Scripture by Jesus with the following teaching:
“And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.
Note that this warning comes 2 verses before Jesus teaches the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew’s Gospel. We should be praying from the heart and from the mind - not in a mindless type of way with repetitive words. One can pray the Lord’s Prayer verbatim and pray from the heart and mind - however, it can quickly become mindless if one does not guard one’s self.
Getting back to our verses in Luke…
And he said to them, “When you pray, say: “Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.”
… we should note first and foremost, that Jesus said when you pray - not if you pray. Prayer is expected in the lives of a believers. We must be a people of prayer. Our lives and our churches lack any power without prayer.
David Mathis, in his book Habits of Grace states:
“Those with a genuinely lived relationship with God as Father, however, will inwardly want to pray and therefore will pray even though nothing on the outside is pressing them to do so.”
That is a tough quote. However, we must repent for not valuing time with the Lord enough. We must ask Him to help us love Him more.
We then see Jesus start off by calling God Father. This is a beautiful beginning for us learning how to pray to God. You see the Old Testament only referred to God as Father 15 times, and yet none of these were ever used to address God in prayer.
Once we get to the four Gospels, we see God referred to as Father some 165 different times. Jesus opens the door for intimacy with God. He has opened up the ability for us to have a close and personal relationship with our Heavenly Father. What an amazing blessing to be able to call God our Father.
Moving into the prayer, we see Jesus provide for us an outline for how to pray to our Heavenly Father by giving us the Lord’s Prayer.
He starts off with…
1. Hollowed Be Your Name
Here we see that we should exalt the Lord. We are to treat God as holy and set apart and revere Him. Our prayers should start with praises to our Heavenly Father. He is majestic and magnificent. He is perfect and worthy of all honor and praise. He is Creator and Sustainer.
Next we see…
2. Your Kingdom Come
Jesus asserts that we should pray that God’s kingdom comes. As we have spoken of before, the kingdom of God is already but not yet. It came with Jesus Christ but will be fully consummated at His second coming. But in the meantime we should long to see His kingdom come more and more each day. We should want to see people saved. We should want to see His will carried out. And we should look forward to the day He comes back for His church!
3. Give Us Each Day Our Daily Bread
Now we come to a section of prayer that is called supplication - meaning asking for our needs from God - literally a humble petition or request from God. This likely refers not only to food but also to other daily necessities that are needed to sustain our lives. This is not to be a selfishly motivated prayer for luxuries. This is a prayer for needs to be met. The author of Proverbs warns us against excessive blessings and models this part of prayer very well:
Two things I ask of you; deny them not to me before I die: Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, “Who is the Lord?” or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.
We should not be lovers of pleasure and things as it will cause a stumbling block in our lives. Yet, we can confidently ask God for our needs.
4. Forgive Us Our Sins as We Forgive Everyone Who Is Indebted to Us
Repentance is one of the most important sections of our prayer to the Lord. We are sinners and that sin has created a barrier between us and God. For believers, through the shed blood of Jesus Christ on the cross we have been forgiven and the dividing wall of sin has been removed as taught in Ephesians 2:13-14. However, we must continually repent and turn from our sinful flesh and turn toward our Savior in order to stay in a right relationship with Him. Although we cannot lose our salvation, the Bible is clear that our unrepentant sin creates a chasm in our relationship with God. The Scriptures even go so far as to warn us that while we are in unrepentant sin our prayers may not be heard. Consider 1 Peter 3:7, Psalms 66:18, John 9:31.
We also must be willing to forgive others. If we do not forgive others, we are not forgiven - consider Jesus’ teaching right after He teaches the Lord’s prayer in Matthew 6:15:
but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
The great Puritan Thomas Watson issued a stinging warning when he said:
“A man can as well go to hell for not forgiving as for not believing.”
Thomas Watson
That is quite a difficult quote, but it has Biblical truth behind it. When we refuse to forgive others, we are inevitably failing to see how great our own sin is. Without truly seeing our sin as grievous as it is, we cannot truly repent and be saved.
Now we come to the last section of this great prayer.
5. And Lead Us Not Into Temptation
This can be confusing for some. God does not tempt anyone as we see so clearly stated in James 1:13:
Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.
However, God does allow testing. This prayer does not ask that all testing be removed. Testing develops believers into mature Christians. Testing helps remove the chaff. Like gold in a furnace, testing exposes and helps remove the impurities. Yet, temptation comes from the evil one. God allows Satan to tempt us at times. We are told by Jesus here to ask our Good Shepherd to lead us away from the temptations dangled in front of us by Satan. We are weak in our flesh and need His supernatural power to resist the desires of the flesh. The Scriptures are clear that He will answer this prayer.
No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
Our Good Shepherd will supernaturally help us fight temptation through the power of His Holy Spirit. We just need to pray for strength, perseverance, and wisdom from Him.
Jesus has now given us a great outline on how to pray. One other point that causes many people to struggle in how to pray is very practical in nature. It has to do with what posture to have during prayer. We need not be overly concerned with this. We should pray with a posture that reflects our heart at the time.
The Scriptures show people praying in many various ways. Here is a quick, yet not exhaustive, list of examples of postures of prayer in the Bible:
Postures of Prayer in the Scriptures:
1. Standing (Genesis 24:12-14, 2 Chronicles 34:31)
2. Lifting the hands (1 Timothy 2:8, 1 Kings 8:54, Psalms 141:2)
3. Sitting (Judges 20:26, 2 Samuel 7:18)
4. Kneeling (Mark 1:40, Daniel 6:10, 1 Kings 8:54, Luke 22:41-42)
5. Looking upward (John 17:1, John 11:41, Luke 9:16)
6. Bowing down (Exodus 34:8, Psalm 5:7, 1 Kings 1:47)
7. Prostrate on the ground (Genesis 24:52, Joshua 5:14, Job 1:20, Luke 5:12, Matthew 26:39, Revelation 1:17)
8. Praying silently (1 Samuel 1:13, Psalm 46:10)
9. Crying out (Psalms 34:6, Psalms 77:1, Hebrews 5:7, Psalms 55:17)
As we have mentioned, we are to pray continually. Because of this, our postures of prayer may look different depending on circumstance. We should always be humble before the Lord, but we also should be authentic with Him in our prayers. We see David - the man after God’s own heart - cry out often to the Lord.
Moving to our second point we see that…
Scripture References: (See above for other Scripture references already given in handout), 1 Thessalonians 5:17, Matthew 6:9-13, Matthew 6:7, Proverbs 30:7-9, Ephesians 2:13, 1 Peter 3:7, Psalms 66:18, John 9:31, Matthew 6:15, James 1:13, 1 Corinthians 10:13
II. As We Pray to the Father, We Should Practice Persistence in Prayer (5-8)
II. As We Pray to the Father, We Should Practice Persistence in Prayer (5-8)
And he said to them, “Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’;
and he will answer from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything’? I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs.
Our second point begins to answer the third question we asked in the introduction.
3. Why to Pray, or Why We Should Pray
After giving the beautiful example of how to pray, Jesus gives them a parable. He mentions a man who has visitors who have arrived. It is midnight and it is apparent that he does not have enough bread to feed his guests. He then goes to his friend’s house to ask for bread.
The friend is obviously annoyed by the request as it is in the middle of the night. The friend knows that if he gets up to open the door, his wife and kids are going to wake up and this is going to become very inconvenient. One understands the inconvenience of trying to get kids back to bed if you have young ones!
Yet, because of the persistence of the friend, the man finally will rise and give the bread to the friend.
The word imprudence used here actually means shameless persistence. It is usually used in a negative way. Yet, it is seen here in a good way. Shamelessness because of sin is obviously not a good thing. However, here the man’s shameless persistence is on the part of a good thing. He desires to show hospitality to his guests.
This can be a confusing parable at first glance. It is important to see the comparisons given here.
1. We are to relate to the man who pleads with shameless persistence.
We are the ones in need. And we are urged to persist in prayer to our Heavenly Father.
2. God is not to be viewed as the man who is asleep. Instead, God stands in contrast to this man.
If this man who desires not to get up and help his friend will do so only because of the shameless persistence of the friend, then how much more will God mercifully listen to and grant requests from His children?
We should not see God as annoyed by us in prayer! God encourages persistence in prayer throughout the Bible.
Another parable that speaks to persistence in prayer that we will eventually get to in our study through Luke is seen in Luke 18:1-8. Here we see a persistent widow bothering an unrighteous judge time and time again until he finally gives her justice. We see in verse 1 before this parable that Jesus tells this parable so that they will not lose heart and will continue praying. God is then again contrasted with the unrighteous judge and shown to be a God who gives justice to His elect who cry out to Him.
We have seen that we should pray because there are results from our prayers. As we persist in prayer, God chooses to bless this persistence. It is not that we twist His arm by persisting in prayer. Instead, He has chosen persistence in prayer as a means of grace for us. Our persistence helps us grow in faith as we see Him answer our prayers over time that are according to His will as we will see in a moment. Which brings us to our final point for today…
Scripture References: Luke 18:1-8
III. As We Pray to the Father, We Should Understand the Power of Prayer (9-13)
III. As We Pray to the Father, We Should Understand the Power of Prayer (9-13)
And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.
What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
Matthew gives a parallel passage to this section in Matthew 7:7-11. Sadly, this section of Scripture has been mishandled and misinterpreted by the prosperity name it and claim it type of preaching.
Jesus is asserting that there is great power in prayer in this section. Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be opened to you.
Jesus is teaching on the kindness and provision of our Heavenly Father. If earthly parents who are evil (ouch Jesus - that one hurts!) - Jesus is asserting that our human nature is evil. But even if sinful parents would give their children what they needed, how much more will God do so!
Luke ends this section of Scripture with the giving of the Holy Spirit while Matthew ends by saying “how much more will your Father who is heaven give good things to those who ask Him.”
These are both congruent. Not only does God give us what we need, but He gives us the Giver! When we repent of our sins and place our trust in Jesus Christ, the Lord gives us His Holy Spirit to indwell us and through His Holy Spirit, He blesses us. This is such a beautiful promise from God.
Why should we pray?
We have seen that we should pray because there is power in our prayers! God promises the Holy Spirit who will give us what we need and provide guidance and sustaining grace unto us.
But if we want to have a powerful prayer life we must understand the requirements God has in order for our prayers to have power.
In Order for Us to Have Powerful Prayers, We Must Meet the Following Biblical Criteria:
First, as we just have asserted…
1. We must pray according to His will (1 John 5:14-15).
And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.
We must not pray that our will is ultimately done. We can express our will to God but we must specifically ask for the will of God to ultimately be done. His ways are higher than our ways (Isaiah 55:9). As we saw in the Lord’s Prayer, we are to pray for God’s kingdom to come. Matthew writes in his Gospel that we are to also pray for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10).
2. We must pray in faith (Matthew 21:22).
And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.”
God chooses to bless prayers that are given in faith. We should have faith and not doubt God’s power to answer prayer. We need to hold fast to the fact that He is sovereign and that there is nothing that our God cannot do. We hold this in tension with praying in the will of God. We believe that He will answer our prayer no matter what. It may be yes, or no, or not now - but He will answer it in His timing.
3. We must not pray selfishly (James 4:3).
You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.
We must pray not for things that feed our own sinful passions. We are to pray for our needs, but we are not to pray for excessive luxuries. We must value God’s will more than our own lusts of the flesh. Our prayers are powerless if lifted up with selfishness in our hearts.
This does not mean that we cannot lift up non-sinful desired wants at times. See James 1:17:
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
James 4:3 (ESV)
You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.
However, it is clear that we should never pray for things that cause us to sin. The word passions that James used in James 4:3 (highlighted on the slide) is commonly used in Scripture to define sinful lusts and desires. They are things that are selfishly motivated and ungodly. The Greek word for passions is hēdonē (hey-doe-nay) which is where we get our word hedonistic in English which refers to someone who is devoted to pleasure or enslaved to earthly pleasures. We must not be marked by this as followers of Christ. These types of prayers are powerless and will not be blessed by our holy God.
Yet, when we pray in righteousness - meaning praying with a clean heart that has actively repented of sin - and praying in the Name and power of our Lord Jesus Christ, there is great power in our prayers as shown in James 5:16b:
James 5:16b (ESV)
The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
We can confidently pray and see that there is great power behind these prayers. This great power is because of the great power that our sovereign and mighty God has and not because of how great we are. He chooses to magnify His power in the lives of those who actively repent and confess their sins, pray in faith, and pray according to His will.
Scripture References: Matthew 7:7-11, 1 John 5:14-15, Isaiah 55:9, Matthew 6:10, Matthew 21:22 James 4:3, James 5:16b
Conclusion:
As we come to a close, I pray that the Word of God has convicted you and encouraged you. The Christian life is a marathon not a sprint. We are to continually press on following the Lord day after day.
As we consider the answers to our three questions today - When, How, and Why to Pray - my hope is that this spurs you to a greater hunger and thirst for the Lord in prayer and through His Word.
Closing
You should have been given a series of handouts along with your outline of today’s sermon. Please do not be overwhelmed by this. I have tried to give multiple ideas and options for you for 2024 for prayer and for reading the Word. There are multiple Bible reading plans. One is NT only, some are the whole Bible in a year, and one is just a checklist of all of the chapters of the Bible that you can go at your own pace. There are some really good prayer ideas as well to help you grow in your prayer life. Praying the Bible is a pivotal step to having more powerful prayers. When you pray the Bible, it gives power to your prayers because you become more theologically aligned with the Father. It also keeps your prayers from becoming sterile - saying the same old things about the same old things as Donald Whitney likes to say in his book Praying the Bible. Spend time this afternoon and pray over what plan will work well for you. Pick a plan that you will keep. Don’t over-commit but also don’t under-commit. Find the pace that you can keep for the entire year.
The ladies will be going through a Bible reading of their choosing individually but meeting together to discuss what they are learning about God once a month - the first Saturday each month from 9:30-11AM. Ladies - do you best to get involved in this. This is a great option. (I have my wife’s notebook over at the table that you can look at to see how she is doing it. Your’s doesn’t have to look like hers but it may be helpful to see an example).
Men - we would love to have you at prayer time on Tuesday mornings at 6:30 each week. We would love to have you share what the Lord is teaching you in your Bible reading and we can practice praying the Bible during that time as well!
Consider asking someone to be an accountability partner for you as well to keep you following hard after the Lord in 2024. We don’t want to start strong and fizzle out. We want to make 2024 a year where we continually grow in our faith.
Time of reflection.