Prayer matters Part 2

Intro

You Version

Recap last week and series

Pray

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!”

Jesus is going to give the disciples a story or a parable to illustrate and describe prayer to them at a greater length

Now I don’t know about you but....prayer recital

I think that He wants to show them some deeper concepts of prayer but He’s also showing them that prayer isn’t just some formula for success.

We must remember that prayer isn’t about getting all the pieces into place so that God will answer your prayer the way you want Him to

Fishing (hold your mouth right)

Prayer is about conforming our will to His will so that ultimately, He gets the glory

And because of His love for us He meets our needs and cares for us

Don’t hesitate to ask

Jesus is going to begin to teach His disciples this concept through a parable.

When we pray, we must be consistent

Jesus tells this story of a friend who comes to another friends house at midnight and begins knocking on the door asking for food

Now remember, that during this time there was no electricity.

Most people had a trait and used that trait to barter or trade for whatever they were in need of

So people would rise as the sun did and settle as the sun set.

So, as odd as it may be for someone to bang on your door at midnight it was very peculiar during this time.

So the man is standing knocking on this door and the man inside refuses

Him and his family are asleep

I get it - ups man coming at night

And Jesus says if not even for this man’s friendship, then because of the mans shameless audacity he will surely get up and give him as much as he needs.

Because of this mans boldness. without shame. persistence.

And as Jesus is telling this story the disciples must have been thinking, “so this is how we should pray. With shameless audacity.”

This is the kind of heavenly father we have.

Not one who requires 3 prayers at a wall during certain times of the day

Not one who requires you to do it with a crowd of people around you

Not one who does it to perfection. looking and sounding a certain way

But a God who loves us enough that we can come to Him persistently. At any point.

If the man can come at midnight, the worst time he could have, then we can cry out and pray to God whenever and wherever because He loves us that much.

So don’t hesitate to ask.

Then Jesus continues by saying

Ask and it will be given

seek and you will find

knock and the door will open

And the way this is written in the greek it means to keep on asking, to keep seeking, and keep knocking.

Not a one and done type of thing.

I often wonder how much I have missed out on because I didn’t pray

Consider the riches our heavenly Father holds, and not earthly riches, but all of the goodness and power that He posses and yet I stumble through life thinking I can handle it all.

Essie - I do it my own self

Now we must remember that a big piece of prayer is conforming our will to His. And so if we come to Him asking for all these outlandish things that don’t aline with His will, He will patiently wait for us to consider what His will is

But I believe that God is like a fire hydrant and prayer is tool that releases the water. So when we pray according to His will God releases His goodness and glory in our lives. But it takes that persistent prayer to access it.

Then we see Jesus continue once again by saying

Look if your son was hungry and asked for a fish would you give him a snake?

If for an egg would you give him a scorpion?

And the point Jesus is making is if you, a fallen, earthly, impatient, selfish father would do anything for your child then how much more do you think our perfect, loving, kind, gracious Father wants to give us.

Every time I read this passage I just laugh because it sounds like something my dad would do.

Now let us not look over what Jesus says our heavenly Father will give us. What does it say?

The Holy Spirit

Last week we talked about how we must not be afraid to pray about prayer.

This week I would add that we must not be afraid to ask for the Holy Spirit

There seems to be a lot of fear of the Holy Spirit

Trust me I get it. I grew up pentecostal. I saw some good things of the Holy Spirit, some bad things of how people used the Holy Spirit, and have experienced some things that honestly are a little scary.

But we must understand that the Holy Spirit is part of the Trinity. On equal ground with the Father and the Son. So, if we dismiss the Spirit then we also dismiss the Father and Son.

The Holy Spirit is God’s designed helper. He is that part of the trinity that lives inside of us and guides us. That nudges us. That convicts us. That encourages us. That leads us. That helps us.

Look, I don’t pretend to understand all aspects of the Holy Spirit. I know it can be confusing at times and scary in others but that doesnt give us the authority to ignore something so prominent in His word and our lives.

If we are to become more like Christ then we must be people who pray for the Spirit.

I believe one of the biggest reasons we don’t like or pray for the Spirit is because of our fear of a lack of control

If we pray for the Spirit then there’s no telling what He will do right.

What if you begin to say things you wouldn't say?

Would that be such a bad thing?

What if you began to pray in ways that you wouldn’t normally pray?

Would that be such a bad thing?

What if I began to dance up and down the isles and speak and tongues and couldn't control myself?

Look I don’t know. But I will say that 1 Cor 14 teaches us that we serve a God of order and that God has designed the spirit to manifest itself in the church in an orderly fashion.

We don’t have time today to break that verse down but it’s pretty specific about how things are to be done according to the gifts of the Spirit.

So, all that to say, don’t allow your fear of control to lose out on the power and authority you have in the Spirit.

In fact, Jesus teaches his disciples and us to pray for it and allow it to move and work in our lives.

So, we’ve learned a model to prayer.

We’ve learned that praying about prayer is good

That praying for the Holy Spirit is good

And that we shouldn’t hesitate to ask

But here is what I want us to remember today

Not praying, isn’t an option