Becoming Bold before your God

Intro

Luke 11: verse 5-8

Title - Becoming Bold before your God

Joke-

my wife has been complaining that I am starting to act too childish.

She says that since we had our first son all I keep doing is playing kids game

she really gave it to me the other night and slammed the bedroom door

as she walked into the living room.

I thought it was brave of her considering the floor was still lava.....

Q. What is boldness?

boldness is confidence and fearlessness to act

we needed to borrow eggs from our neighbor on Christmas..

took a little boldness...

then My wife and I needed a certain sized pan

and thats where I drew the line....

“Im not asking my neighbor for their cooking pans!

I was not bold enough to do that

Were going to read of another example similar to these from the scripture

And Jesus is going to teach us a valubale lesson

that will help us to become bold before His throne.

Luke 11:5–8 NKJV

And He said to them, “Which of you shall have a friend, and go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine has come to me on his journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; and he will answer from within and say, ‘Do not trouble me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give to you’? I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will rise and give him as many as he needs.

Teach

Prior to this , Jesus taught his disciples how to pray.

Now Jesus gives His disciples a parable

In this parable or story ,,,we hear about a man

who needs to borrow bread from a friend in the middle of the night

He needs the bread to feed another friend who has just come from a long journey

cultural context- very embarrasing to have nothing to feed your guest.

So embarassing that He went to another friends home

at midnight

and woke him up to ask for some food.

Q. If your buddy came and knocked on your door at midnight and asked for a couple of frozen pizzas,,,,, Are you giving them to him...

Probably not

Give him the same reaction.

No way man…scram.

The man in the parable has children sleeping in the same bed.

You can especially feel this if you have young kids.

I have a 2 year old at home and if he wakes up in the middle of the night im in trouble....

He is not going to give his friend bread because they are friends

but...

because His friend is persistent and shameless in His request

The greek word used for persistance is more accurately translated

as impudance---this reflects a unashamed and bold action

Because the man was bold and willing to

go to his friend at midnight…

He was heard and blessed

Q. If this neighbor responded well

to the bold request of his friend in need

How much more will our heavenly father

be gracious to you when you approach His throne with boldness.

As we approach His throne

we must remember 3 things.

the 1st

We must Identify our need for Jesus

The man in this parable had a need for bread

This led Him to boldly and unashamedly

knock on his neighbors door at midnight

Q. What are your needs right now?

Many of you dont bring your needs to God

because you dont think He cares.

But im here to tell you He does.

He cares more about your needs than you realize.

Matthew 6:26–27 NKJV

Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?

Nothing is too big, nothing is to small.

God cares about every detail of your life

and He wants to talk with you about it

Even if its in the middle of the night.

especially if its the middle of the night

Do any of you have trouble sleeping at night.

Its probably because your worried about something....

this is a perfect example of Identifying your need for Jesus

and bringing it to Him boldly in prayer.

our 2nd point to approaching Gods throne with boldness is

Come to Him with confidence

In order to be bold before God in prayer

we need to have confidence in Him

Hebrews 4:16 NKJV

Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Why can we come boldly before God with great confidence?

Because we have a God who

understands us

He took on flesh

He never sinned

and He went to the cross to restore our relationship with God.

Were not just bothering a friend at midnight

Were going to our father in heaven who sent His son to die for us

because of His great love.

Many times we doubt God.

but more often what keeps us from prayer

is that our confidence is not in Him

but in our self.

When my confidence is in Him

I can come boldly to His throne

Because I know ----HE is for me

I Know He is my provider

I know Ephesians 3:20

Ephesians 3:20 NKJV

Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,

Exceedingly, Abundantly, and above

thats a trifecta of amazing adjectives

and what does it say

He is able to do even more than what we ask.

STORY

I remember boldy asking God to put me in the church He wanted me in

I remember telling Him I need you to show me clearly.

The first day I went to this church The preacher was preaching from the same chapter I was reading that morning

And the song that they closed with was the same song that was randomly stuck in my head

And then a short while after I found myself in the midst of this thing called school of ministry

And God is doing more than I could have imagined.

If we believe this, we can stop relying on ourselves

and approach the throne with confidence

This leads us to our last point in approaching the throne with boldness

Expect results

The man in this parable was bold and persistent

His friend finally decided to give Him what he asked for

How much more will God respond to you

in Gods response

you will always get one of 3 answers to your prayers

yes, no, and wait.

Regardless of what answer we get ...

We should expect God to move in mighty ways

and trust Him even when He says no.

you can have mighty faith that God is going to move on your behalf

And you should have great faith that He will

but dear friends, if He does not answer the way had hoped for it does not jeopardize

His goodness, His ability, or His Love

in the same way it does not mean your faith was weak

many people believe that they cant expect mighty results

its because if you did have faith

and God answered no

then God didnt hear me....or didnt care

Brothers, sisters

He hears you and He cares

even when You get called to suffer

Dont let your fear of Him not answering your prayer

keep you from believing He will.

so how do we pray in a way that expects results

We should echo the heart of meeshach, shadderach, and abendego.

Daniel 3:17–18 NKJV

If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.”

They believed He was able

Believed He would

Believed He was for them

even if His answer was no

We need this confidence and boldness

to come to God in prayer

we first need to recognize our need for Jesus

We must then come to Him with confidence

and finally we need to expect results.

maybe you have been very vanilla in your prayer life

Will you be willing to come before God with boldness

And expect Him to move mightily in your life.

Lets pray

Lord maybe there is someone here who is going to become bold enough to start a relationship with you