Asking For Bread

Father God I pray this morning. Lord you see our hearts you hear our cry. Let us know in the depths of our hearts that you see us, you know us you love us. Father I pray that you be moving through this place throughout the sermon and throughout the rest of service God that you move with us and through us as we leave here into our week.

God continue to lead continue to God continue to be Lord. God lord. God of our hearts.

The name we pray amen. Well, if you have your Bibles you can turn to Luke chapter 11, we will be.

Looking at mostly verses 5 through 12. Before we Dive Into the Storm and I want to say that preparing the sermon was just a challenge. I feel like I stared at an empty Word document for four days and days and days because we're talking about the concept of prayer today and prayer is is difficult to talk about because on the Surface Pro where is pretty simple mean? We've all prayed we all know about prayer. We all know how to pray. But when you really start talking about prayer prayer has just so many levels and complexities and so many people argue about how to pray and why we pray in and when should we pray and Inns and you know, even what should we pray about? There's an endless amount of of back-and-forth and and squabbling and arguing and debating. But I find that there is there's the biggest question.

I think I'm most Christians have had really came up. As I was reading these versus one of the biggest questions people have when they talk about prayer. We get down to the nitty-gritty about about freres one that came up as I Was preparing a sermon one that kept coming over my mind is that was trying to write a completely different sermon that never came to be because of this question just kept coming back to me before I get to that question the big main question. I think we all go through. Let's read the verses that prompted this this question. So Luke 11 verses 5 through 13. 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 a friend of mine on a journey has come to me and I have no food to offer him 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. I tell you even though he will not give 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. So I say to you ask and it will be given to you seek and you will find knock and the door will be open to you for everyone who asks receives the one who seeks finds and the one who knocks the door will be opened. Which of you fathers if your son asks for a fish will give him a snake instead or if he asks for an egg. We eat will give him a scorpion. If you then though you are evil know how to give good gifts to your children. How much more we Our Father in heaven. Give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him. Tried to break down the parable. Jesus says suppose a friend came to visit another friend late at night after a long journey suppose a friend came to visit you late at night after a long journey and you found yourself without any food in your house. I'm in a sentence worst nightmare. You quickly leave your home and you go to another friend's house to ask for food. That's for bread. But again, it's late. And so this friend who you go to tells you to go away because their family is sleeping and they want to go to bed themselves. Jesus said this friend who you Pastor and they'll be compelled to go and get you bread because of your Shameless audacity and I think I'm just a little hot in the house when I turn myself down real quick.

That better know that's where it's wrong way. How is that? There we go. All right. I'll be compelled to give you bread because of your Shameless audacity. So the phrase Shameless audacity here is a is a Greek word. Anahi de Daya anahi Daya fun to say 5 times fast and which means Shameless or persistent almost to the point of greedy. So when it says Shameless audacity is not talking about a boldness to to to knock on someone's door late at night and demand bread. You you you you have to get this bread. You know, it's saying it's more of a it's more of a desperate persistent need you. You humble yourself you're Shameless because you need this bread your Shameless in your need for you. You knock on her door persistently cuz you're so in Need You have no shame in your need.

That that is this this idea that I did the Shameless need is such so great that you just says your friend will have no choice but to give you bread because your need is clearly so evidence. Then Jesus tells us ask and you shall receive seek and you will find knock and the door will be open to you for everyone who asks receives the one who seeks finds and the one who knocks the door will be opened. So these are really great words because I like being told that if I see if I asked if I knock all will be given to me because I seek and I asked and I knock a lot. I am what I am the friend who has no shame and persistently asking for things from his friends at midnight. So this verse what it seems to be saying is Christianity is going to work really great for me because I can ask and I can seek and I can knock and then Jesus goes on to say which of you fathers if your son asks for fish will give him a snake or if he asks for an egg. You'll give him a scorpion. If you then though you are evil know how to give good gifts to your children. How much more will your father? Heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him essentially. Jesus says if you're a father and for the sake of the sermon, let's add Mother's into the air. If you're a parent and your child asks you for something they need fish and egg food something that is vital if if they ask you cuz I'm not his vital who will give them a snake or a scorpion or something harmful. You know today is if you are so evil, if you are falling in your broken and you are corrupt and you are sinful as all of humankind is and yet you still seek to to care for your child. How much better will God care for us since we are God's children. So just what these versus layout on again on the surface. It's pretty simple. There's not a whole lot to say here. Ask God and God will give to my two questions. I have upon reading this this verse but I want to look at today is one what exactly does this have to do with prayer and two if all I have to do is ask and seek and knock and all is going to be given to me then why hasn't all been given to me. So the first question what does it have to do with prayer? This has to do with prayer because Jesus has been talking about prayer. If we rewrite before this parallel begins and in chapter 11 verse 1 of Luke we read that Jesus was praying in a certain place when he's finished one of his disciples said to him Lord teach us to pray just as John the Baptist taught his disciples. And so Jesus said to them when you pray say this Our Father Hallowed Be Your Name Your Kingdom Come your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven. Give us each day our daily bread forgive us our sins. But we also forgive everyone who sends against us and lead us not into temptation, but Deliver Us from the evil one. I normally after that she just goes into the parable about the man asking for bread. So the friend asking the other friend for bread is exactly like how we pray is what Jesus is telling us, which means you just said that we should pray with a Shameless persistent audacity again, not with this mindset of boldness not going to God saying give us give us what we want. Give me what I want. I demand this from you do as I say. Again, the word audacity here. I think can make us confused. We're not being demanding or not being bold. We're bold in our shamefulness of this and our shamelessness of this this need this question is asking for God, we're bold in the humbleness that we have. And our persistence, you know, it's not. Give me what I want. It's please please please I need this. I really need this. Oh God, I'm desperate. This is how we should think of prayer when we asked when we seek when we knock is just says it should be with this mindset. We should be in this state as our souls come to Jesus this desperate need for relief, but on to my second question, and this one is the Big E. If Jesus says ask and you shall receive seek and you shall find knock and the door will be opened if that is how prayer is supposed to work. How come this world is so broken? How come I have prayed and prayed and still I struggle with so much. How come I pray and sometimes it feels like God is silent. Because it's about Shameless audacious persistence. I have that down. Like I said, I have so little shame when it comes to asking for help. You can ask my parents. They know that I have come to them multiple times throughout my life shamelessly being like I need help. I don't know what to do. I have so little shame that over a year ago before Justin and I were even engaged before we were even dating I going to ask her for 40 bucks because I couldn't pay rent Christmas. It happened. I was I'd not calculating my money well enough and I was getting all things kalpana was like, oh I'm short $40 for rent. And so I went to my friend who I had a crush on Justine. I was like, hey, I'm broke. Can I have $40? Do you want to go out sometime? It works? No, I didn't say it was not the same sentence. But but yeah, it's my crush was like you the only person I know what concerns you please give me $40. I was Shameless in my need that does not make me look good. That's how Shameless I can be. So in my logical mind if I have the attitude of a Shameless audacious persistence to ask for what I want and what I need then God should give that to me. That's how this verse seems to be saying and yet and yet you're how many beggars in the street corner of Jesus day trade to God God. I need a miracle God. I am blind God. I can't walk. I've been alone my whole life. I've been home with my whole life. I need a miracle. I need you to do something for me because I can't take much more of this and I never met Jesus, you know, they didn't make it long enough to meet Jesus know what about today? How many people have cried out Jesus and I think I'm going to lose my job. If I do lose my job. Jesus, going to pay my mortgage. How am I going to feed my kids? I'm going to take care of the people. I love. How many people has prayed Jesus help me? I'm in a bad situation and I need to get out of it and no help has come how many farmers have been struck by Framing and and frayed for relief, but no relief has how many families have been torn apart and pray to God Lord. Let us come back together as a family but this families never United know how many people in refugee camps in God, Please give me out of this find me a place. I can call home and yet they're going to stay in that camp for the foreseeable future if not the rest of their lives. How many people have prayed without ceasing have trade with a Shameless audacious persistent heart for some sort of answer to the prayer and yet no answer has come. How many of us throughout the years have gone through hurt and hard times and prayed to God let this happen God help me get out of this. God save me and yet no voice spoke. No action took place. There were no Miracles. You know, how many of us have gone through hardships and heartbreaks and struggled and yet it just didn't seem like there was any answer from God. Nothing came down from on high. No answer no relief. No help. And the fact of the matter is that this verse has been one of the most harmful and hurtful versus one of the most abused and used to abuse verses in the Bible does how many mega churches have been formed on this basis of ask and you will receive whatever you want. You give it to you how many Prosperity Gospel churches have started because of this verse how many pastors have used this verse to explain why they're buying another private plane for themselves know how many Prosperity Gospel pastors have used this verse to explain why people in my congregation are suffering. You haven't prayed enough you haven't done enough if you just simply keep asking it has to happen.

You know, the the pseudo-religious intellectual ideology of the secret actually talks about this very verse saying that's all look all religions have this idea of if you simply put out a need into the universe the universe will enact and and give it to you. You just have to keep asking there's this idea of if you keep asking for something it should be answered. And if it hasn't happened yet, you just haven't wished hard enough. Now how many of us began to assume that? The reason God doesn't answer our prayers is because we're not close enough to God. We're not good enough Christians. So we have to pray even more we have to we have to give even more we have to fast even more we have to sacrifice even more. How many of us married and it's ever been to think that Christianity isn't about a relationship with God but it's about doing these rituals and if we do the ritual then we get what we want if we say the right words if we do the right things if we don't then we're in the wrong, you know, we turned God into nothing more than a a morality Genie and if we do the simple things if we follow these steps if we do this ritual we on lock Sam secret power and God has to do what we say. You know, how often do we think these things in our own lives? Maybe not intentionally, maybe not in our on our brains, but in our hearts deep down somewhere inside. We think God must not love me. I must not be right with God cuz why am I hurting? No, what sin have I committed?

It makes me think of the book of Jobe in that area and I talk about when I preach on the book of Jobe how how jocasta's question of God. No God what is going on? If I send have I not done something, right? Why am I hurting and I talked about in that sermon how how Joe the misconception that people say is that, you know, if you're wondering why you why we suffer turn to the book of Jobe but that in truth. When is Joe does not talk about why we suffer because jogos God, why is this happening? God says who are you to ask? I think I made a comment even at and Joe but no maybe one day we would talk about a sermon about why we suffer and maybe this is a sermon and it's not about Jobe. But how often do we have that Joe mines that we're going through something my God, why is this happening?

What do I need to do to receive your power to receive your grace to receive your answer? What can I do to make you love me? I think it's on that word love that we have to focus on it's on the word love that we read right in the beginning of Genesis right at the beginning of the creation story about Adam and Eve know God created man and God created woman and he he put them in paradise and allowed them to rule over the earth. And the only thing they couldn't do was from this one tree. And offered Generations people have asked and people have question and people have talked about. Why did God put that tree in the Garden of Eden? You know, what would have been better for God's purposes to not have this tree that if eaten would have caused Humanity to fall.

And we talked about creating a tree that allows Adam and Eve the phone to send it. Also brings forth the question. Why doesn't God just make us not send or why doesn't God just forced everyone to love him. Why are there anyone who is allowed to not follow God? If God can do everything why don't we all just be created by God to follow God have to love him would be no pain. There be no suffering to be no hurting would be no evil. If God would just make sure none of us allowed to disobey him. But that brings forth the question of love because I love that is forced upon. Someone is not love, you know, there's this old adage and it's cliche because overuse but if you love something you set them free and if they never returned to you, they were never yours to begin with forcing us to follow God to obey God wouldn't be love. It would be robbing us of our chance to love cuz love has to be a choice.

We would be nothing more than robots programmed to follow God. We would not be loving God when I set my alarm clock to wake me up in the morning. Do you think it wakes me up because it loves me or do you think it wakes me up because I have programmed it to wake me up and sometimes when it doesn't go off, I do think it doesn't love me but but doesn't the idea that my my phone doesn't ring because it loves me it rings because it's program to ring it. It did the machines don't do what machines do cuz they love us cuz I have to cuz they've been program that way love is a choice. So God gave Adam and Eve. God gives us the freedom to not follow him so that when we do follow him, it's because we love him. Likewise because of this phone is because of this choice to not follow God. We do a lot of bad things we are following is because we don't love God and we don't love each other perfectly cuz we are not perfect.

So God loves us perfectly, but we do not love him perfectly. So why do we suffer? Why do bad things happen so much of it is because we've been given to the freedom to do bad things. We've been given the freedom to not follow God so that when we do follow got it as an actual real deep personal love. Yeah, we are free to hurt to abuse to steal to lie to be greedy to do all the sins in the book simply cuz we have the freedom to choose to follow or not. Follow. How many systems how many? Firings how many hurt do we do upon each other how much of the world's evil is because a man against man because we have this choice of of freedom of of doing what we actually want to do, That is what we want to do not what God wants us to do. So the answer to a lot of these questions that I've been asking you is what we live in a broken faulty corrupt hurtful World filled with broken faulty corrupted hurtful sinful people. But then there are also these verses in the Bible that talk about angels being held in captivity by the enemy. They're these verses in the Bible talk about Paul not being able to enter a country because Satan would not allow it there these verses in the Bible that talk about a spiritual warfare and sometimes how often do things not go right in this world because not because we are able to each other but because there is a real and and persistent war going on around us being fought by the Spiritual Beings beyond our own senses.

you know, the Apostle Paul could be halted on his journey to to do God's will why should we think that we can't And finally, I think a lot of the reasons that we don't hear from God is simply because God allows us to live with our mistakes. So as to learn and to grow and to not make those mistakes again. For example, I have this scar on my hand. I got it when I was probably in like elementary school. And what was what was happening as I was riding my bike and I was not holding onto the handlebars cuz that's how cool kids rode their bikes and my parents always told me hold on to the handlebars. That's how you drive. And I was not and I hit a rock and I fell and I hurt my hand. I got this Scar and I never didn't hold on to the handlebars ever again. I had to live with my mistake. I had to I spent I don't know how many weeks with my hand all wrapped in bandages and bleeding and it was gross and was bad and I have a scar now, but that starts tells me every time I see it to ya be safer in my life cuz I can get hurt I learned from my mistakes. So how often do we turn from God do we disobey God and then we would we run into trouble and we pray God goes. Well. Yeah, this is what's happening. You do what I said to do you went that way.

If it's if it's God is our heavenly father and sometimes as a parent God has to allow us to make our own mistakes. Play we might be able to grow from them learn from them trust in God's wisdom more. It's funny that everyone was talking about the older you get the more and more you relate to your parents in the more you're like home and they were smart. That's the same thing with Christianity the older I get the more I'm also going with my parents with a normal to be like Topman. God is so wise why do not see this before you know with every mistake I make I go. Yeah, man, I should just listen to God trust in God more. So our mistakes can on occasion Propel us forward in life. We grow Wiser from it. We become stronger from it would hurt and pain comes into our lives recently have two choices. We can close ourselves up for new experiences, or we can learn from that experience and be better from it. You know, I could have fallen off my bike and gone. I'm never riding my bike again. I hurt myself. It's not worth it. But instead I was I pick myself up and I went. All right. Now I know better for next time.

So I think that there are a lot of reasons why prayers aren't answered. Why do we why we seek and we don't find why we asked and we are not given why we knock and the door is not opened, but I don't think any of it and I don't believe in the heart of hearts in the depth of my being that any of it has to do with God not being all-powerful. God not being all-knowing and God not being all good. I didn't have a lot to do with us. We're not asking the right thing. You know, we're going to the friends house at midnight and we're asking for a nicer car when we should be asking for bread. I think we live in a broken corrupt sinful world and we do broken corrupt sinful things to each other. I think there is a spiritual war going on all around us. And I think that allows the mistakes we make to be felt right here right now that we might know to never make them again. I think they're even more reasons why sometimes we pray and God does not answer.

But I do believe that we serve a good God. We serve a God that has no end of mercy and Grace and forgiveness and love for us. You know. It was so much bigger than the moment. We are currently in when we can't see any light at the end of the tunnel. God sees the entire tunnel and sees past the tunnel. A guy who wants nothing, but the best for us and understands that that means sometimes giving us the freedom to make our own choices. Even if they can be the wrong ones, I believe we serve a God who is powerful enough to correct the mistakes we make if we can't if we're so far in them that we can't ever possibly hope to get out of them. I believe in a God who never gives up on us never runs from us never ignores us and never fails us despite what it might seem in the moment if I would have might seem in the actual deaths of being in the valley. So my benediction for you to church today, is that as we go from this place into our weeks that we pray to God lord use me to be an answer to prayer. I know we spent a long time talking about why God doesn't answer us when we pray, but why don't we try to be answers to other people's prayers? That's something I love about the parable of Jesus tells tells us about how how this friend goes to another friend because someone else is in need to know the the main person goes to his friend at midnight because someone he knows need something. Hey, I have a friend who needs bread. The person in the parable doesn't say I need read for me. He says I need bread for my friend. My friend has needs I want to be an answer to that. Can you give me what I need to help him? Can you give me bread so I can give him bread? Can you bless me so I can bless him.

Bless me give to me God use me, but I might be a blessing to others that I might give to others that I might be of use to others. Answer my benediction is praying to God God. There are so many lonely people out there lead me that I might be a friend for them God there. So many needy people show me how I might help them God. There's so much Brokenness. Show me how I can bring your healing touch to it. Just pray Lord use me to be an answer to prayer of Father God. Father God I pray he was me and use everyone in this room. God use us to be an answer to prayer. What were there is hurting where there is heartbreak and there is Brokenness? God use us got in our own lives when we are down when we are hurting when we are crying out and it seems you are silent God. I pray that that is a chance for someone to hear. Be used by you to help us. Father God move through this place move through us to do your will each and every day, but I'm not in fear. God let us let us growing us growing us a helpful Spirit a spirit that looks and seeks to find those who need you.

Thank you. God that you never give up on us. Thank you. God that you never abandon us. God sent you that even when we are so hurting that we think you don't love us. When we get angry at you when we yell at you God you are still there.

You take our abuse and then when we're done.

You say I forgive you and I love you.

Or God. Thank you for loving us. Thank you for loving. Your name we pray amen. Ask for the worship team to come forward. We'll sing our our final song.