Petition (Part One)

Happy Father’s Day! We are thankful for all the dads that are here. Justin shared with me a wise word from a friend of TWC, I know that this day is celebratory for some, and for some it is bittersweet or difficult. And today TWC, according to Romans 12:5... will rejoice with those rejoice, and we will weep with those who weep. (Romans 12:5). Whatever your feeling may be, you are both welcome here.

We are thankful that you are here worshipping with us. Because it is on this day that we are reminded of the love of the greatest Father of all, our Lord in Heaven. Who has adopted us into his family. And today we get to worship him together as one. What a blessing.

Introduction

We are going to continue our 4 weeks series on the Disciples Prayer in Luke Chapter 11 as we break down this passage where Jesus is teaching the disciples how to pray.

-We see the two initial ideas presented that prayers are to exalt the Father, and secondly, prayers are to seek the will of God.

We also see that God gives us different requests to pray for as we await his kingdom to be fulfilled, we are can pray for provision, pray for pardon, and pray for protection. And it leads us to the second half of this section.

When was the last time you prayed a bold prayer? A betting the farm kind of prayer? It is the kind where you lay everything on the line, knowing that God and God alone is the one who can fulfill this prayer, and you give everything to him.

Believe it or not, bold prayers are not something the church today often tends to delve into. Well why is that? Robby Gallaty said it well...”We often do not pray because we don’t believe prayer works.”

See, in our journey of learning how to pray, one of the things that you will begin to see is that indeed God answers prayers. You do not experience the faithfulness of God in answering prayers if you do not pray. And for htose that partake in this, are blessed in due time as they see he indeed is faithful to answer and response well to prayer. To those that align with his kingdom.

I want you to see today that whether large or small, God desires you to pray boldly to him. And that you would move to all your requests being made known to God, even the ones you think are impossible or inconvenient to him.

MBL: Pray boldly.

Body

Verse by Verse Analysis

Verse 5 - A friend goes to someone at midnight. This is not normal and says much about the relationship.

Verse 6 - Why? Because a friend has arrived and I have no food.

Honor is an essential part of middle-eastern culture. To have honor, is up the highest value. If you have no honor, you have nothing. And to incur shame, is to be avoided at all costs. That is shameful if you do not feed your friend.

Verse 7 - His response? Don’t bother me. My kids are asleep. I can’t do anything. Illustration: Accidentally waking up your kids.

I feel that. If someone came to my house at midnight, Heidi’s asleep (explain the process of getting a baby to sleep). And someone rings the bell and wakes her up, I can already feel the blood pressure rise.

But here the dynamic changes. Look at verse 8.

Verse 8 - Because of his impudence, he will get up and get him what he needs.

Cross the bridge to prayer.

Explanation of impudence. ἀναίδεια Hapax Legomena - occurs only once in the NT

anaideia impudence; shamelessness

Its a shameless, no restraint, bold prayer

Illustration: Illustrations of no shame: I do not care what it is, I’m going to ask you for it. So we run to God, no restraints, nothing held back, praying boldly. I don’t care what time it is. I don’t care what size of the prayer it is. I am asking and fully expecting God to deliver.

How to Pray Boldly

In Your Life

What is God asking you to do that seems like too much? Pray.

Where is God asking you to go next? Pray. Who do you want to see come to faith? Pray.

What addiction do you have that is crippling you? Pray.

What anxiety do you have possess that is worrisome to you? Pray.

Who in this life do you fear? Pray to him.

Whatever it is. Give to him.

For a broken marriage, for a wayward child, for a hopeless situation...pray.

The darkest depths of your soul that you need deliverance from....pray.

In Your Church Pray that we could reach 100 college students with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Pray that we could reach 100 in the city.

There are children, families, singles, seniors, countless opportunities to reach those far from Jesus.

Pray that we could be a sending church that in the years to come we could send people nationally and internationally.

Conclusion