Prayer Changes Things

Scripture Reading

Luke 11:1–13 NIV

1 One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” 2 He said to them, “When you pray, say: “ ‘Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. 3 Give us each day our daily bread. 4 Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation.’ ” 5 Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; 6 a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’ 7 And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ 8 I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need. 9 “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. 11 “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

Now, these passages are obviously all about prayer.

They can be divided up into three separate sections, and that is what we are going to do today.

Prayer is a basic spiritual discipline of our faith.

It is also a means of grace.

We all know that prayer is important. But why?

Why is prayer so important to us as Christians?

Let’s take a look at the first set of verses:

Prayer Teaches Us to Surrender

The first four verses are like an abbreviated version of the Lord’s Prayer that we say today.

What we can glean from these passages is that praying to God in this way teaches us surrender.

Luke 11:1–4 “1 One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” 2 He said to them, “When you pray, say: “ ‘Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. 3 Give us each day our daily bread. 4 Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation.’ ””

Why did the disciples ask Jesus to teach them how to pray?

Did they not know how?

What was prayer like in Jesus’ time?

We must remember that before Jesus’ birth, Israel had gone through 400 years of silence from God.

No prophets, no holy people, no messages.

They probably were not very familiar with praying to God individually.

They probably prayed corporately together in the synagogues.

They genuinely wanted to learn and imitate what Jesus was doing.

When Jesus’ disciples asked him to teach them to pray, they meant what should be the subject of our prayers?

What words should we use? How are we to address God?

Jesus frequently went off alone to pray. His disciples noticed that he did this.

They must have wondered what he was up to and what he was saying.

They associated the power he had and the miracles he performed with his prayer life.

They wanted to do the things he was doing too!

Let’s look at the Lord’s Prayer in Luke piece by piece:

Luke 11:2 “2 He said to them, “When you pray, say: “ ‘Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come.”

“Father”

God is Jesus’ father, and Jesus says to us, he is your father as well.

This is the relationship we are to have with him!

We are God’s children and he is our father!

This is significant!

We aren’t calling him, ‘master,’ ‘owner,’ ‘boss’ No! He is our Father.

“hallowed be your name”

This line shows us that we are to acknowledge the person of God as holy.

He is without sin, unblemished, completely righteous.

Revelation 4:8 “8 Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under its wings. Day and night they never stop saying: “ ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty,’ who was, and is, and is to come.””

The angels continually sing “Holy is the Lord” in heaven!

How much more should we address God is holy each time we pray.

“Your Kingdom Come”

This is where we start to see surrender come in.

We are not praying for our own kingdom to come!

We are saying to God, your kingdom is better than anything we could come up with.

We are telling God, we surrender our ways for your ways.

“Give us each day our daily bread”

This line also reinforces our surrender to God.

We ask for our physical and spiritual needs to be met, recognizing that we cannot meet them on our own.

Our food comes from God’s hand, and not anywhere else!

“Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. “

This line acknowledges that we are still sinners, and we know we are not perfect!

Only God can forgive our sins!

We can forgive people, but we cannot forgive their sins.

We admit that we need God for forgiveness!

“And lead us not into temptation”

Lead us implies that God is in charge of where we are going.

God decides the direction of our life, we do not.

When we pray this, we are not saying that we believe God will tempt us to do evil.

We are asking God to keep us out of situations where we might sin and break fellowship with him.

The Lord’s prayer reminds us that we belong to our Father.

We can do nothing in our own strength.

Each time we say it, let us remember that we are telling God, we surrender to you and your will!

Now let’s look at what Jesus says about prayer in the next set of verses.

Prayer Changes Things!

The second reason prayer is important is that prayer changes things!

Luke 11:5–10 “5 Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; 6 a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’ 7 And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ 8 I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need. 9 “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”

At first glance, this story is not very flattering for us, is it?!

Friendship will not get someone out of bed to help you, but if you annoy them it will?!

Jesus says your “shameless audacity” will actually get the friend to do what you’re asking!

Does God find us annoying when we pray about the same thing over and over again?

I don’t think that God finds us annoying.

He does want us to approach the throne with shameless audacity!

He wants us to keep praying over and over!

Why? Because prayer changes things!

Prayer can actually change God’s mind!

Genesis 18:22–33 “22 The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the Lord. 23 Then Abraham approached him and said: “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? 24 What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? 25 Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?” 26 The Lord said, “If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.” 27 Then Abraham spoke up again: “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes, 28 what if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five people?” “If I find forty-five there,” he said, “I will not destroy it.” 29 Once again he spoke to…”

Abraham is so bold that he keeps asking God to reduce the number of righteous people required to stay his hand.

God does not get angry with Abraham for his persistence!

God in the end rescues Abraham’s nephew Lot and his family because he remembered the conversation with Abraham.

Let’s look at another example:

This time it is Moses who changes the mind of God.

This takes place right after the spies have returned from their 40 day explorations.

All but two of them tell how big the people who live in the promised land are.

Most of the spies do not think Israel can overcome the ‘giants’ that live there.

The people completely lose faith in Moses and in God.

They want to stone Joshua and Caleb for their positive report!

Let’s read what happens:

Numbers 14:11–19 “11 The Lord said to Moses, “How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the signs I have performed among them? 12 I will strike them down with a plague and destroy them, but I will make you into a nation greater and stronger than they.” 13 Moses said to the Lord, “Then the Egyptians will hear about it! By your power you brought these people up from among them. 14 And they will tell the inhabitants of this land about it. They have already heard that you, Lord, are with these people and that you, Lord, have been seen face to face, that your cloud stays over them, and that you go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. 15 If you put all these people to death, leaving none alive, the nations who have heard this report about you will say, 16 ‘The Lord was not able to bring these people into the land he promised them on oath, so he slaughtered them in the wilderness.’ 17 “Now may the Lord’s…”

Moses goes to bat for these people!

Moses actually uses God’s characteristics to make his argument for mercy on the people!

Moses had no reason to save them, he had nothing to gain, and he would lose the promise of God to make him into a great nation!

But because Moses loved these people, God listened to Moses and he did not just destroy them all.

What we have learned is that the righteous have influence over the God of heaven!

James says this: James 5:16 “16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”

God would not have taught us to pray if it had no impact.

So remember that when you are praying, you are asking God to think about your request, and to make a decision about it!

It’s not that we have power over God, it’s that God is inviting us in to what he is doing!

If we don’t find that amazing, then we don’t fully understand it!

Lastly, let’s look at Luke 11:11-13

Prayer is Relational

Luke 11:11–13 “11 “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!””

God wants to give us good gifts!

He delights in us, just like we do our children.

Tell the story of Travis and the Hexclad scavenger hunt.

We all have stories like that, don’t we?

Whether we have been on the giving end or the receiving end, gifts are a representation of how much someone loves us.

It is the same with God!

He wants us to come to him, to ask, seek, to knock.

He longs to be the source of our needs!

Like a parent and a child, only He can see what is best for us,

And he desires to give it to us.

Bringing to God our problems, our difficulties, our relationships, our circumstances, builds faith.

We are letting go of what we consider ours and laying it into the hands of God.

But he is trustworthy. He will take it, care for it, and mend it.

Then he will give it back to us, restored and better than it was.

I believe wholeheartedly we will never be disappointed with the goodness of God.

Conclusion

Prayer is a beautiful gift from God.

Jesus has laid out how he wants us to come before the Father.

We must come in surrender, acknowledging God’s sovereignty over all things.

We are told to come with shameless audacity before the throne of grace!

Is there something you are too proud to bring before the Lord?

Do you find it difficult to imagine yourself crawling on your knees before God and begging him to give you what you need?

It’s not easy for any of us.

But that is exactly the way Jesus tells us to approach God in our prayers.

I am confident we will receive the good gifts that God is eager to shower on us, if only we would ask him.