Luke 11:5-13

I want us to take a look at our prayer life and how we pray today.

Most of us here today know how to pray, what I hope to do is show you how to supper charge you prayer life.

Let us take a look at Luke 11:5

I. Luke 11:5-8, 5 And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves; 6 For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him? 7 And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee. 8 I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth.

A. Here we have a friend who does not want to get up in the middle of the night to help, but will help in the morning

1. Final after a lot of door knocking he helps his friend.

2. In Judges 16: we have Samson and Delilah and in verse 16 it says “And it came to pass, when she pressed him daily with her words, and urged him, so that his soul was vexed unto death”

B. How much more will God help us who loves us more than any one here on earth?

1. Judges 14:17, And she wept before him the seven days, while their feast lasted: and it came to pass on the seventh day, that he told her, because she lay sore upon him: and she told the riddle to the children of her people.

2. Genesis 32:24, And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.

3. How serious are we about something you want?

4. James 4:2-3,2 Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. 3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.

C. Someone had just told me that they read that the average person prays less than 8 minutes a day!!

1. If we are going to get our prayers answered we need to pray as hard as possible. Unless you don’t really want it.

2. When you shoots a bow and arrow.

a) How far will the arrow go if one only pull back the bow 25% of the pull.

b) Only when one pulls back the bow 100% does one get the full effect of its power.

c) How much do you work? Just enough to pay half your bills?

D. God waits to answer prays at times for our best interest.

1. How long will we knock at the door waiting for God to answer the prayer in His time the way He wants to answer it?

E. We also see here that this might be something that need attention right away

1. How many problems appear suddenly without warring?

2. These verses are talking about a problem that happened at a moments notices.

F. The man in this verse believes that he can get this and just keeps on knocking at the door till he gets it.

a) He believes that he can get it.

b) Matthew 8:5-10,5 And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him, 6 And saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. 7 And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him. 8 The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. 9 For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it. 10 When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.

c) A very worldly man was an object of prayers with his wife. Their little daughter became a Christian; at once she entered into her mother’s desires, and joined her in the prayer that her father might be converted. Her faith was remarkably simple. She read the direction to us to believe that when we ask for the Holy Spirit we shall receive. She believed; she said to her mother, “Father will be converted.” One evening he did not return home at his usual hour. An hour passed, two hours. His wife became anxious, then alarmed. The little girl said, “Why, mother, he’s going to come home a Christian to-night. I prayed that he might.” The mother smiled sadly at what she looked upon as the child’s ignorant simplicity. The hour grew late, still he came not. The mother said, “I must sit up for him.” The child replied, “Why, he’s all safe, mother; we ought to trust God and go to bed.” She went to bed. When the father, at midnight, came, and told his wife how he had found Christ, and, later, they stood in tearful joy looking upon the sleeping face of their little daughter, the child waked and seeing them, before either could speak, with a glad cry exclaimed, “There, mamma, didn’t he come home a Christian?

G. The secret to prayer is giving your whole heart to it.

Look at the next verses

II. Luke 11:9-10, 9 And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. 10 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

A. Notice some words here in these verses

1. Ask, Seek, Knock

a) These words are verbs, which are action words.

b) Things we must be doing

2. So for those who actively asking, seeking and knocking unto God, will have doors opened unto them.

a) One Preacher has said “much prayer, much blessing; little prayer, little blessing; no prayer, no blessing.”

b) What this preacher is telling us is what I have been trying to teach you about prayer

(1) What you put in is what you get out

c) Luke 18:1-7,1 And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint; 2 Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man: 3 And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. 4 And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; 5 Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. 6 And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith. 7 And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?

3. These three methods of prayer exercise a variety of our graces. Faith asks, hope seeks, love knocks.

B. Let me read this in the Amplified version. Luke 11:9-10, 9 So I say to you, Ask and keep on asking and it shall be given you; seek and keep on seeking and you shall find; knock and keep on knocking and the door shall be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks and keeps on asking receives; and he who seeks and keeps on seeking finds; and to him who knocks and keeps on knocking, the door shall be opened.

1. Persevere: what a neat word for us to learn

a) We are to persevere

III. Luke 11:11-13 If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? 12 Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? 13 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?

A. If we as parents would take care of our children, how much more will God take care of us if we keep on asking and believe that He can answer prayers.

B. Please always remember that the things prayed for must be in the will of God

C. Matthew 7:11, If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?

Conclusion:

I want you to remember what started this study, back in verse
Luke 11:1-2,1 And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. 2 And he said unto them, When ye pray, say.

The disciples ask Christ to teach them to pray
Then in verse 2 Christ starts to teach them
This is not something I made up or interpret wrong, it is pretty simple and straight forwarded.

The Wind and the Sail

A sailor was telling a small boy about the sea. He mentioned the wind. “What’s wind?” asked the little boy. “I don’t know what wind is,” replied the sailor, “but I know what it does when I raise a sail.”

We now know a lot about how to chart the wind’s course, but we still can’t see it; we can only see what it does. So it is with God’s Spirit. We can’t see it; we can only see what it does in the lives of those who put their trust in God.

The winds of God’s grace are always blowing, but we must raise the sail of faith if we want them to propel us toward deeper peace and joy.

Prayer is lifting our sails to the winds of God’s wisdom and power. We do not tell the wind which way to blow. We learn how to adjust our sail to the wind so it can propel us in the right direction. In prayer we do not tell God how to act. Instead, we lift our praise and concerns so God can fill us with a deeper sense of God’s presence and help us steer toward the answer God has in store for us.

[1]

God is telling us not only to pray and pray a lot, (Christ is a good example of that) He also tells us to keep on asking for the same thing over and over again.

Sunday morning Biker Service 1/28/07

----

[1]Cranford, C. W. (1988). Cups of Light : And other illustrations. Willow Grove, PA: Woodlawn Electronic Publishing.

Luke 11 5-13