Jesus Calls us to Persistent Prayer

Intro

Open with being a Cowboys fan upon moving to Dallas

*Texas Stadium had a hole so God could watch his favourite team play*

Turns out God isn’t too interested in sports, or me praying for teams to win...

What does God care about in our prayer life? That is EXACTLY what Jesus teaches us in Luke 11.

He begins by teaching His disciples the Lord’s prayer

*Have everyone stand and pray the Lord’s prayer together*

He continues to teach using parables

Read Luke 11:5-13.

God Wants you to Ask

The first parable lets us all know that God wants you to ask for things in prayer

A friend comes knocking on the door at midnight asking for a favour (3 loaves for someone he is hosting)

Not a time when it is acceptable to be disturbed!

Code of hospitality would have demanded this friend give the traveller something to eat; but that wasn’t the problem of the person trying to sleep

The initial answer from the man inside was “no.”

The door is shut! My children are with me in bed (co-sleeping is a bad idea)

Most likely a 1 room house; family slept together on a raised platform at the end of the room; animals likely inside

What changes his mind? Not friendship, but the “impudence” of the one making the request

He doesn’t want to be shamed (honour/shame culture)

But the brashness of the request, the fact he won’t go away, wins the day

Pray shamelessly (Don’t say yet)

“Impudence” = only used here in the NT, literally means “shamelessness;” we can also use the word “audacity”

The friend NEEDED 3 loaves, and he was unafraid to ask in the middle of the night. Shameless, audacious request… which led to an answer

Jesus invites His followers to pray in the same manner; to pray shamelessly

We do not have to be timid as we approach God’s throne. We don’t have to worry about waking Him in the middle of the night. We don’t have to worry about offending Him with our request

All possible through Jesus Christ interceding for us (Cf. Rom. 8:34)

The veil is torn, and we can approach God with big, open, honest, audacious requests

This should not turn our prayer life into us trying to get what we want out of God

The man in the parable was seeking bread for a traveller; in the Lord’s prayer we are called to ask for God’s kingdom to come, for daily bread, for forgiveness, and the ability to overcome temptation

Not for the Cowboys to win, or a new convertible, or passing the test we “forgot” to study for… whatever selfish desires we may have

Pray in-line with the teaching in Scripture, and then pray shamelessly

Great example = Abraham praying for Sodom in Gen. 18.

50 righteous people -> 45 -> 40 -> 30 -> 20 -> 10. That took some guts (even though it didn’t change the outcome)

Pray persistently

Part of the “impudence” in the parable was the persistence of the friend

He wasn’t going anywhere until he got what he wanted! Reminds me of some truckers...

Jesus invites His followers to pray persistently for the requests that are on their heart

Made even more clear by another parable in Luke 18 (the persistent widow).

You will not “wear God out” with your prayers; keep them coming. You are invited to ask, and ask, and ask

In both parables, imperfect people needed to be worn down by persistence, but your perfect Heavenly Father does not

Then why does Jesus teach about the importance of persistant prayer? Because it serves to test our own resolve in what we are asking for. Its for our benefit

This is one way to avoid all the selfishly motivated requests we talked about

Do you REALLY want something? Like, REALLY want it? Then you will have no problem asking for it over and over again

*Share about Eli asking to play NHL 22 over and over again*

What does your prayer life reveal about what you really want? What prayer has dropped away that you need to pick up again because it is truly important?

God Wants to Give you Good Gifts

The “how much more” principle:

Jesus uses a well-known rabbinic teaching tool to tell us about God’s desire to give good gifts.

If the lesser is true, “how much more” will the greater be true?

His examples focus on imperfect earthly fathers and our perfect Heavenly Father

Fish -> serpent; egg -> scorpion

Serpents and scorpions are unclean, unkosher, and just used by Jesus to symbolize evil supernatural powers!

*Tell story of translating this text*

Even “evil” earthly fathers would not give these sort of bad gifts!

*Share conversation about giving Malachi room and board for his birthday*

How much more will his Heavenly Father desire to bless him!

We all know that Jesus isn’t teaching that we will receive whatever we want (this isn’t how life works)

We are promised by God to be heard; we are promised to receive an answer, and we are promised God’s presence

Re-read v. 9 - 10.

God cannot be reduced to a cosmic vending machine, where we put our prayer in and exactly what we want is dispensed to us.

*Share about lesson God taught during my prayer for Mom: ask, and accept*

God will give us what is best, even when we can’t make sense of it

Yet we do so often see God answer with beautiful gifts:

*Use example of Hilda’s testimony and Robert Bordun’s recovery*

Of course, the best gift is the gift of the Holy Spirit (v. 13)

Luke’s account is specific; Jesus is promising the Holy Spirit to those who ask

You can take this one to the bank: God will always answer this honest prayer with a resounding, “yes!”

Again made possible by the death and resurrection of Jesus

If you haven’t asked to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit yet, you merely have to ask

If you desire the Spirit in fuller measure, you merely have to ask

Not a guarantee of a charismatic spiritual gift. The promise is more of God’s presence abiding in you

The best gift ever.

Take it Home

Write down your top audacious prayer request to God.

Pray persistently. Daily. Always.

Pray