Expect God to Hear and Answer

Luke 11:5–13 NKJV

5 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; 6 for a friend of mine has come to me on his journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; 7 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’? 8 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. 9 “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. 11 If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? 13 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”

Last week we considered Jesus answer to the question “teach us to pray”. And one of the things that we saw in that amazing and powerful prayer that Jesus gave them was that before we ever ask God to meet our needs, wether that be financial, physical, health, spiritual, because all of these things fall under “give us day by day our daily bread” - but before we come to that we must position ourselves align our mind and soul with the absolute holiness of God with the establishment of His kingdom and submit to His will, his authority above anything else that we ask. Do not dare to barge into the throne room of God and start making demands acourding to your will. that is not how Jesus taught us to pray. Your kingdom come. Your will be done” is saying “Lord, I’m coming to you with my request, my ideas, my hopes, but above all else I just want your will to be done.

Luke 22:41–42 NKJV

41 And He was withdrawn from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and prayed, 42 saying, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.”

Some people think and teach that we have to come boldly with our prayers and request, and if we qualify it with something like “if it is your will” then we are showing a lack of faith. I say those people know nothing of faith. Who had greater faith than the Son of God? And yet Jesus taught us in the Lord’s prayer and by example in the garden that regardless of what we ask God for we must first and foremost surrender to His will and accept His answer.

In our 2 parables today Jesus expands on His teaching on prayer with 2 tremendous truths about prayer that give us confidence when we pray.

The first is that God is ready to answer your prayers.

The Shameless Friend

Luke 11:5–8 NKJV

5 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; 6 for a friend of mine has come to me on his journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; 7 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’? 8 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.

It is a blessing of God to have friends. When you are really in a jam a good friend will rise to the occasion and help you when no one else will. Hopefully you have a friend like this that even if you call them up in the middle of the night and ask them help that they would do what they can to help you. One of the reasons that you have a friend like, that if you do, is because they know that you would never abuse that. They know that if you are calling in the middle of the night for help it because you really need help. If you are the sort of person who takes advantage of your friends and you are always asking them to do things for you then eventually you may find that you start getting their voice mail a lot. But they probably also know that you would do that same if they were in a pinch.

Verse 8

Luke 11:8 NKJV

8 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.

In Luke 18 Jesus teaches us that we should be persistent in prayer and not lose heart, however, here the word persistence in the original Greek seems to have more of the meaning of shamelessness. Because his friend was unashamed to come and ask for bread he will give it to him.

I believe that the application is simply this. If your friend would hear your request in an inopportune time how much more is your Heavenly Father who never sleeps, ready to hear your prayer and help you. The point God is ready always and desires to answer our prayer so we can come boldly to the throne of grace, day or night, regardless of our need because He is also able to help us no matter what the problem is.

Hebrews 4:14–16 NKJV

14 Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

back in our text Jesus says

Luke 11:9–10 NKJV

9 “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.

We can pray with great confidence then that our Father in Heaven wants us to ask to seek and to knock. He is always ready to hear our prayer and answer them speedily.

The Good Father

Luke 11:11–13 NKJV

11 If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? 13 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”

Here the issue is regarding what the fathers give when their children ask. What father among you would give your son a stone if what he ask for was bread?

He goes from bread to fish to egg. Bread is the most basic of needs. The staple part of the diet. Fish is bit nicer. Protein but more expensive. And an egg is a bit more of a luxury.

Now you notice that Jesus doesn’t say if he ask for bread or fish or and egg that he will give him exactly what he ask for, he just wouldn’t give him something bad instead. Rock serpent, scorpion. But rather even ungodly fathers know to give good things to the children. They also know when not to give them something that they have asked for. Like the child who ask for lollies at the supermarket or for an new toy when that have a 100 at home that they don’t use.

So this does not teach us that our Heavenly Father will give us everything we ask for. Not at all. What He will do is give the Holy Spirit to those who ask.

When you pray for God to heal or to provide or restore a relationship. He may do those things but He will alway answer and He will always give us what is good for us. He always gives us the Holy Spirit if we ask and fills us with the Spirit more every time we ask for anything, helps us to surrender to the Holy Spirit more every time we pray. The more we surrender to the Holy Spirit the more we will know His will.

You see we begin your kingdom come your will be done. And whatever our request we say nevertheless you will be done. Which is to say “God regardless of what I ask just give me what is good. Pray is not to try and change the will of God to bend to our will but rather it is the process of bending our will to His.

His promise is that He will always hear and answer our prayers and He will always give us what is good because He is a Good Father.