“Going to God in Prayer”

This morning we have come to the final message in a series where our aim has been to understand the how and the what and the why of prayer as Jesus taught his disciples to pray. The series has been called When You Pray, borrowing from the words of Jesus as he began to respond to the request of a person who walked with him. That request was, Luke 11:1 “Lord, teach us to pray…” And in studying what follows, we’ve come to see that what we say when we pray matters to the Lord. It matters so much that God the Father doesn’t want us saying things for the sake of saying things. The Father wants to hear our hearts.

That’s important for us to grasp on to right now concerning prayer and God’s desire for us with it. Whether we are praying to God in this way is a sign of whether God knows us and whether we know him by his grace through faith in Jesus Christ. And I could just stop there, a minute into this message, but even though I hope it’s clear that meaningful prayer time with the Father should be present in the life of a follower of Jesus, that doesn’t make meaningful prayer any less difficult for any of us to actually practice, right?

I mean, maybe someone’s wondering when I say “meaningful prayer,” am I talking about the length of time in prayer? The fancy prayers that use expressions like asking for anointings and hedges of protection? And, just asking for a friend, have you ever wanted to know more what it is to truly pray?

If that’s true for any of us this morning, then we wouldn’t be alone because apparently some of John the Baptist’s disciples wanted to know this and as it’s plain from Luke 11:1, so did Jesus’s disciples. The people who walked with Jesus must’ve marveled at the prayer life of Jesus. He’d wake with prayer and he’d stay up all night with the Father in prayer. And maybe all of the times Jesus prayed made them wonder about how anyone could pray for that long. I mean, have you ever thought about praying all night? What would you even say? Many of us are probably convinced we couldn’t say enough to pray all night, let alone stay awake for it.

Yet, what seems odd to me, and this is just an observation of mine, is that when any of us has reason to complain or has the opportunity to talk about how we feel about politics or what truck or firearm someone should consider purchasing, there seems to be no limit to how much we can talk about that stuff. Cowboys fans could talk a minute about 29 years of futility thanks to Jerry Jones, right?

When it comes to prayer, where do all the words go? I’ve found myself wondering now, what would it look like if we spent the majority of our breath talking to God? Might we see God’s presence and movement in our personal lives and the life of our church more clearly if so?

I think there’s something here that Jesus is inviting us to realize about communicating with the Father via prayer. He’s provided us with a model of prayer, which we can pray exactly like it is or can serve to inspire our the prayer we lift to the Father. And then following the Model Prayer, we have a parable of sorts here that contains an illustration that spans Luke 11:5-8, an application that comes in Luke 11:9-10, and then Jesus leaves us with something to chew on in Luke 11:11-13. That’s how I want to move through this passage this morning, first observing that

We Have a Heavenly Father and Friend

Now, let’s set our attention in on Luke 11:5-8. You can imagine Jesus really leaning in after giving his disciples the Model Prayer so as to get their attention to what comes next. And as we scan what’s there, as modern people, we might not really appreciate what is being told to us. I mean, how many of you have been awakened by a friend asking for some bread at midnight? If we’re honest, if that actually happened to any of us, the person knocking at the door at midnight might be unfriended. Why we may not appreciate this fully is that you and I are not aware of the cultural particularities that existed among the people to whom Jesus is speaking.

Asian culture has a strong call for hospitality. We talk about hospitality as Western people, but our sense of hospitality isn’t quite like Asian people in the Middle East or South Asia. Yvette and I have been exposed to some of the hospitality codes of Asian people over the years, particularly Indian people. I remember that there was one occasion that we were invited to the home of an Indian family and the purpose of that visit was to discuss a particular matter. Now, for most of us here, when you hear that and play that out in your mind about how you think something like how I’ve described should go, you’d expect there to be a gracious welcome at the door, an invitation into the living room to have a seat, an offer of a glass of water or tea or a cup of coffee, and away we go to discussing things. Not so with Asian culture. We went there, were invited to sit down, and as guests in the home, we were served two different rounds of finger foods. The first round was sort of appetizer-ish stuff, Indian cheeses and crackers, if I’m remembering correctly. Then the second round was Indian desserts. They were each served on the family’s finest china and we were made to feel like royalty. We didn’t get to talking about why we went there until 90 minutes into the visit. Hospitality is not just a show of civility like it is for us…for the culture of people that Jesus is speaking to, it is a sacred honor.

To give you a sense of how sacred this is, in my ignorance, I asked why the china and the foods and if we had put out that Indian family because the whole experience was first class even if the tastes and smells were different for us. And they told us that they actually keep plenty of that stuff on hand because their culture wouldn’t permit them to not be prepared to offer the same to any of their guests, whether those guests were planned or unexpected. Think about this in the same way that you may have been told things like, “Don’t show up to that party without a gift.” So we cannot be surprised that one person in the parable awakened at midnight has some loaves of bread ready to offer and another is so motivated to seek some out in his need.

Also, for us to get a sense for how life worked for people and their homes in the day of our text, when it was daylight, doors were open and so was the homestead. People flowed freely from one homestead to another and privacy as you and I know it wasn’t a thing during the daytime hours, but at night, the doors shuttered and that acted like the ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign we hang on our hotel room doors. When night fell in ancient times, privacy in the home came with it. That would allow for everyone in the one-room home to settle in to bed and get some sleep. Everything inside the home was close-knit in a way that I’ve only experienced when I tent camp with my family. And I can tell you that there are some nights when we’re camping that I’m much more ready for lights out than my girls. The giggles can go on for hours. So when things finally settle down and we’ve all finally nodded off, the very last thing I want is something or someone interrupting by calling to us from outside the tent. I wouldn’t ever want that because it’s not just going to wake one of us up, it’s gonna wake us all up! And that’s the sense of life that Jesus is drawing from when he speaks this illustration. On one hand, there’s the expectation of hospitality and on the other hand, there’s the reality of everything being a community event, even a nighttime knock at the door.

So, that’s a proper background to what we have presented to us as a man who knocks on his friend’s door looking for help because the man has welcomed another friend unexpectedly. And the way that Jesus introduces this parable is in such a way that you and I might re-tell it this way: “Which one of you has the nerve to wake up your friend and his entire family at midnight?” But the point is that as the disciples place themselves in the parable, it’s clear that even if that understood ’Do Not Disturb’ is up, we still knock on the door because of who is behind it - our friend. That’s why Jesus tells the story with the disciple addressing the homeowner at midnight with Luke 11:5 “Friend, lend me three loaves…”

Now, that friend in the parable is in bed. So is his whole family. It’s like me with my family in our camping tent. I’ve run through my mind that if someone came knocking and awakens me asking for something, and whatever it is they’re asking for, it’s clear that it’s not an emergency where a life is on the line or something, you can bet on a couple of natural responses from me. Maybe they’re coming to ask if I have a spare flashlight. My responses might include me asking, “Who is it?” “Are you serious? It’s midnight.” “Why aren’t you asleep?” “Be quiet, my kids are asleep.” And what I won’t say is that I don’t want to get up because we do kinda cheat at camping because we’re on inflatable mattresses and by midnight, the thing’s leaked some, so if I get up, my poor wife is rolling to the middle of the bed and then it’s a mess getting everything back in order again. But the person outside the tent sticks with it because that flashlight is something they really need and eventually, even I will set all my frustration and irritation aside and get my friend the flashlight. The point that Jesus is making is that when push comes to shove, we go to our human friends with our need and in the boldness of sharing our need with our friends, their irritation gives way to our boldness and our friend comes to help meet that need.

So then, what does this tell us about God? What does Jesus want us to know about prayer and the Father in Heaven? Well, in light of the Model Prayer that Jesus has taught us, our Lord is now calling us to recognize that if we can be bold with our friends, how much more boldly can we go before the throne of grace to raise our need to the Gracious One who is our Creator and friend? Jesus isn’t inviting you and I to go to the Lord in prayer with expectation that we can tell him to jump and get determine how high the jump is, but he is working to form our hearts in a way that we can go before the Lord with confidence because of the friendship we have with God that is assured from the promises of God found in Christ. This parable isn’t about asking God over and over and over and over again, but it’s teaching us about the heart of God. If an earthly friend can put aside inconvenience to lend a hand, how much more so will the Lord hear the sincere prayer and supplication of his children who are really in need? As an aside, there’s no midnight for God, so he cannot be inconvenienced!

This brings us to the next few verses, which I intend to address more quickly than I did the first few.

We Should Ask Our Heavenly Friend

If you will, in light of what Jesus has taught his disciples in Luke 11:5-8, in Luke 11:9-10 the Lord is giving us application. He’s made the point that God the Father will hear and act upon the prayer of his children in need and since he will, they should ask him. And in the Greek that this was originally written in, the way that Jesus said this communicated that God’s children should be asking with urgency and consistency and clarity when they pray. The way that this is written, to ask and to seek and to knock are active actions. In other words, when we pray, we should ask and continue asking. We should seek and continue seeking. We should knock and continue knocking.

Now, in saying that, you and I know that there’s nothing worse than being in a conversation with someone who just doesn’t get to the point. Don’t beat around the bush with God. A prayer that goes something like, “Father, this matter is heavy on my heart.” Or, “this matter involves my spouse or my children or your church. I need to ask you for…” We can get right to it in our prayer because our Heavenly Friend and Father already knows our need and he understands! The psalmist said, Psalm 139:4 “Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.” He already knows what we’re going to say and ask, so we can cut to the chase and say it!

Ask and seek. In seeking, we had better get after seeking. In thinking about seeking, I’ve observed that there are two different styles of shopping. Sometimes we go to a store or the mall and when the clerk asks us if there’s anything they can get for us, we respond with, “No thank you, I’m just browsing.” Browsing is just another way of saying that we’re actually just wandering around, not really interested in anything. Often when we buy something when we’re browsing, it’s not addressing a need. There are other times when we go into the store and we know exactly what we’re after. So we head in there with the goal of getting what we need and though that may involve searching up and down the aisles until we find it, it’s a very intentional pursuit. This is exactly the way Jesus is inviting us to pray.

Brothers and sisters, what would happen if each one of us took God at his word and in boldness, asked and sought after kingdom things? Or the issues that most concern Devine? Or for doors to open for the gospel to advance? Luke 11:9–10a “…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…” says Jesus.

And the last bit is where people stretch the word of God to places it cannot go. “Everyone who asks receives.” Are there limits to this? Can our students ask God to make them valedictorian of the class or the starting quarterback on the football team and expect God to deliver that? Can we seek God and expect healing for every affliction and disease? The answer is no and the reason is that our expectations cannot go beyond what God has promised in his word. God has not promised to be a vending machine nor genie in a bottle where we just dial up our wishes and he meets our demands. We can read the Bible and see that it says that the Christian should Romans 12:1 “… present your bodies as a living sacrifice…” So we can ask and seek God’s face that he build us up to make our witness to Christ more effective. For the non-believer, God will answer one prayer from you, and that is your cry for him to save you from your sin and be healed spiritually. But none of us are promised physical healing or wealth or fame in the Bible and so we cannot do as some others may teach, and that is “name” and “claim” anything that is not promised to us by God in the Bible.

I’m sure this will make sense to the parents in the room, but just imagine the world of hurt that would come if you gave your children everything they asked for. Our heavenly Father knows what’s best for us and in fact, he’s a far better judge of what we need than we are of ourselves. And because of this, I can say

We Have A Good Father

Luke 11:11 “What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent.” In other words, if any of us dads in the room, who are dreadfully sinful and fall short of God’s glory regularly, when our kids ask any of us for Whataburger, who among us would swap out the hamburger patty we’d give our child with a snake?

What’s the point? If our earthly fathers do their best to give what their children request, we do not have to fear what the Father in Heaven provides for us. Don’t think that God is going to give us less than the best. We approach him by asking and seeking, like the guy at knocking at the door saying, “Here I am!” And the Bible says that the Lord’s Psalm 34:15 “ ears [are] toward [our] cry.”

God promises to give us what we need. Do you know what we need? Good gifts. Do you know what the greatest gift God can give to us is? The gift of the Holy Spirit. And with the Spirit comes all the good, Christ-honoring gifts we desire. That’s how good our Father in Heaven is, my friends. When we ask, he’s never going to give anything but the best!

There are some things I need to say as a takeaway for us this morning to wrap up this study on prayer.

1. God is more willing to bless than we are to ask.

Think about that. Another thing:

2. Prayer must be central to our walk with Christ.

Perhaps some of us have been falling short on this. Prayer should be the first thing we do in every circumstance, not the thing we do when we have exhausted all other resources.

3. The Father loves when we ask and when we give Him what we cannot handle.

On this matter, there are some of us this morning who are unnecessarily carrying around problems and there’s only one reason that we fall to that - pride. We think we’re strong enough or smart enough to figure the problem out and therefore we won’t bow before the Lord and say something to the effect of, “Lord, I can’t, but you can. Please do.”