Prevailing Prayer

We're going to look at that passage. Let me pray, though.

Father, I thank you that we can come together now and we can look at one of these,

the essentials of those who are your disciples, looking at the issue of prayer.

And, Lord, we acknowledge that we don't always have your priorities in our prayers.

Father, we pray that as we come to a passage which is familiar to us,

there's certainly words which are familiar to us.

Lord, I pray that you help us to rediscover them afresh and anew

and challenge us, we pray, and we ask it for your sake. Amen.

One day out in the Canadian wilderness, an atheist was taking a walk,

admiring the amazing wilderness that was some sort of freak accident

had sort of brought together, the wildlife that was there by some random chance,

the pristine stream that flowed by because a bunch of molecules come out,

collided millions of years ago and ended up with this wonderful beauty,

when all of a sudden he was awoken from his godless daydreaming by a grizzly bear

which was coming straight at him down the track.

And before he knew it, he was flat on his back.

The bear was knelt down beside him, pushed down on his chest with one paw,

another paw raised, ready to strike him.

And when he cried out all of a sudden, God save me!

Then he realised the inconsistency of living a life as if God doesn't exist

and then in the moment of need, decided to call on God.

And so he had a bit of a moment of brainwave

and instead he called out, God make the bear a Christian.

He figured if the bear was a Christian, the bear's not going to eat him.

And lo and behold, he couldn't believe it.

His prayer was answered.

The bear pulled back its paw.

It pulled its paw off his chest.

It knelt down beside him, closed its eyes, bowed its head,

put its paws together and said,

for what I'm about to receive, may the Lord make me truly thankful.

When difficulty or danger strikes,

it's the immediate response of many people to pray.

It's not unusual for people to pray.

Prayer is one of those things which is, I would say, almost universal

in that I can't obviously answer for six odd billion people,

but I'm working on the assumption that most people,

nearly everyone at some point in their life will pray.

However, when we pray, we often don't give much thought to what we're praying.

Adults often struggle with prayer,

whereas kids tend to find prayer sort of simple and easy,

certainly in a way that we often don't.

I want to say that as a Christian though,

and hear me bearing some of my soul here,

I think that my own lack of prayerfulness exposes my ungodliness

in a way like nothing else does.

I want to say that there is nothing like a lack of prayer

to make me feel like a hypocrite.

Nothing else like it.

It exposes my true heart.

That is, if you understand ungodliness

as being going about our daily life as if God doesn't exist.

It's getting up in the morning,

going about our business,

and giving little or no regard to the God

who has control of this whole universe.

And so day by day,

I give little consideration for his glory,

for his will, for his purposes,

or even the fact that I am completely dependent upon this God

for my very breath,

let alone the gifts that I have to do the job that I do,

or the studies that I do,

or whatever it might be.

If that's what you consider ungodliness,

then that exposes my heart more than anything else.

And there are many good people,

many good people,

good, moral, upright, religious people

who live day by day in ungodliness

because they give little regard to this God

and his purposes, his will,

or even acknowledgement of our dependency upon him

moment by moment.

Yeah, we may get up and we might,

you know, pray a prayer as we get up in the morning

or read something from the Bible

or maybe close the day with a few words of prayer

before we sort of nod off to sleep.

But the bulk of the day in between

is lived in ungodliness.

And ungodliness is also revealed in the content of our prayers.

That is, do we pray for kingdom priorities in our prayers

or are they just the usual shopping list of things

that are concerning me at the moment?

Now, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with a shopping list.

I'm saying, what I am saying though,

if that is all that you pray,

then that is a significant problem.

That is, do your prayers reveal a human-centeredness

or a God-centeredness?

Because frankly, I've got a lot of non-Christian friends

who will pray

and their prayers are always human-centered.

You might remember that we are traveling with Jesus.

Jesus has resolutely set his face for Jerusalem.

And on the way there to Jerusalem,

he is clarifying with his disciples

some of their misconceptions of what it means to follow him.

And today we have his teaching,

one of the essentials of discipleship,

the life of prayer.

We are looking at the most famous of all prayers.

We know it.

We have said this prayer again and again and again

for centuries as a church.

We say it here in this church most weeks

and frankly, most services most weeks.

And so I think it's kind of ironic

that when Matthew records Jesus teaching on prayer,

this same kind of passage

that he's referring to here in Luke's gospel,

he does it in the context of telling his disciples

to not be like the pagans and the hypocrites

who go on with their mindless babbling when they pray.

And so we have taken Jesus teaching in the Lord's prayer

and mindlessly babbled it throughout the centuries.

What we have done then is we've forgotten

that Jesus is revealing to us a model of prayer

and instead we've taken his very words

and recited and recited and recited it

until it virtually has no meaning for us anymore.

I'm not really sure that's what Jesus had in mind.

When you look through Luke's gospel,

we see very clearly that Jesus is a man of prayer.

He was praying when the Holy Spirit descended on him

like a dove in Luke chapter 3 verse 21.

Luke 3:21

He began his ministry after a 40-day fast

in chapter 4 verses 1 to 15.

Other times he redrew into the wilderness to pray

in chapter 5, 16.

He prayed all night before choosing the 12 disciples

in chapter 6 verse 12.

He was praying alone just before he was asked by,

just before he asked Peter,

who do you say that I am?

In chapter 9 verse 18.

And just before he was transfigured,

he was praying with Peter, James and John

up on a mountain.

And he was praying here again

at the beginning of chapter 11.

As a man,

Jesus sought his strength and his guidance

from his father through prayer.

From this alone,

we should feel motivated

to make prayer more central to our lives.

Let me say that I want to be a man of prayer

more than anything else.

If there's one thing that I really,

truly want to desire to develop

in my Christian life,

it is prayerfulness.

I think I've kind of got the activity thing

kind of worked out,

you know, busy in ministry

and stuff like that.

But it's prayerfulness.

It's actually stop the doing

and start the being stuff more

that I want to be more than anything else.

And so Jesus has taught us to pray.

But he's also made some amazing promises

to us about prayer.

He lived a life of prayer

and he taught a life of prayer.

And let me say that it is

the will of the Lord Jesus

that St. Paul's be a church of prayer.

That this building that we're sitting in right now

be a house of prayer,

that you the people

be daily given to prayer,

prevailing prayer for our personal needs,

for the power of the Spirit,

for the progress of the gospel

and for the glory of God's name.

That we be given wholeheartedly to those things.

And so let's have a look at this.

Open up your Bibles, Luke chapter 11.

Luke 11 · chapter mention

The first thing that Jesus teaches us here

is to make our praying God-centered.

That's the first thing.

When the disciples ask Jesus

to teach them to pray,

which I think is an amazing thing in and of itself.

Here are guys, right?

These are Jewish dudes

who have grown up all their life praying

and then they go to Jesus.

Now they're following Jesus.

They teach us to pray.

Like as if you don't know.

It's pretty easy.

Close your eyes, shut your, you know,

pay your head, you know, whatever.

Pray, it's really easy.

But it's actually not.

What they're actually wanting Jesus to teach them

is their priorities.

What are the priorities in prayer?

And he says this to me in verse 2.

When you pray, say,

Father, hallowed be your name,

your kingdom come.

Notice that their requests.

In fact, if you look at all of the Lord's prayer,

it's actually all requests.

It's not thanks, it's not praise.

Jesus says our first desire,

our first request,

should be for God's name to be hallowed,

or that is for God's name to be glorified,

and that his kingdom be advanced,

that his kingdom would come.

That is what I mean when I say

about our prayers being God-centered.

The glory of God's name,

the advancement of his kingdom,

is to be the primary concern in our prayers.

The God-centeredness,

and this is what I'm meaning

when I talk about ungodliness.

The God-centeredness of our prayers,

or the lack of it,

has to be the difference between a mature prayer

and an immature prayer.

The God-centeredness,

or the lack of it,

is the difference between maturity and immaturity in prayer.

Or, you might call godliness and ungodliness in prayer.

The plea here is that we have Jesus' priorities in our praying,

namely that God's name,

the Father's name be hallowed,

and that the kingdom come.

If this feels foreign to you,

you think about your prayer life at the moment,

you think about your prayer life just for today,

if this feels foreign to you,

then please,

plead,

plead with God

for you not to be content with that.

That you may not stay here,

even tonight,

even as you move from here,

that you may not stay stuck

at an immature level of prayer.

Instead,

say in a fresh way,

in a new way to God,

tonight,

right now,

if you have to,

this coming week,

Father,

hallowed be your name

in my life,

in my praying

for this coming week,

for the rest of this year,

and as we launch into another one

in a couple of months.

It's amazing.

The reality of it is,

God's name will be hallowed.

God's kingdom will come.

He will be vindicated among all the nations

as true and glorious,

but He has decreed that we will have a hand

in His triumph

through our prayer.

It's an amazing thought.

So make the glory of God

the centre of your prayers.

Pray again and again and again

in as many words as you can possibly

muster in your vocabulary.

Father,

let your name be hallowed.

Let your kingdom come.

Let your name be hallowed.

Let your kingdom come.

Jesus also teaches in this prayer

to pray with a sense of security

in the Father's love.

Jesus doesn't want us

to feel insecure in our prayers.

He shows this mainly by teaching us

to call God our Father

when we pray to Him.

And so in verses 11 to 13,

He unpacks for us

some of the security implied

in this word Father.

Which of you fathers,

if your son asks you for a fish,

will give him a snake instead?

Or if he asks for an egg,

will 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 in heaven

give the Holy Spirit

to those who ask Him?

The words,

how much more,

mean that God

is much more inclined

to hear us

and help us

when we pray

than our earthly fathers are.

Jesus wants us

to feel secure

in the Father's love

when we come to Him

in prayer.

He does not want us

to feel precarious.

He does not want us

to feel unsure

of our acceptance

or fearful

that we will find

the Father

out of sorts

or just unconcerned

about our daily issues.

This sense of security

is utterly crucial

for us.

It is utterly crucial

for us

in a life of prayer

and a life of worship.

You cannot sustain

a life of prayer

if you think

that God is angry

with you

or you think

that He's neutral

to the circumstances

of your life.

Prayer is sustained

by the confidence

that God

is our Father

and that He

is concerned

and that His disposition

towards us

is,

as Jesus says it is,

that is,

He's more inclined

to give

what we need

than our best

human fathers.

That's the promise.

And so we are to pray

with a sense

of the Father's security,

the sense of the security,

the Father's love for us.

Jesus also teaches us

here to prevail

in prayer

without doubting

the Father's love

in this passage.

He teaches us

to hang in there,

to persevere,

to persist,

to keep on

and not giving up,

to keep on asking

and seeking

and knocking

until,

you know,

at heaven's door

until the answer comes

or until God

basically says

stop praying.

But,

isn't that a little bit

inconsistent

with what I just said?

I mean,

just a tad

little inconsistent.

I mean,

if God is more caring

than the best earthly father,

then why would He

be so slow

to respond

to my prayers

sometimes?

Why would He do that?

Jesus tells a story

in verses 5 to 8

of a bloke

who went to his mate's place

because he got this guest,

came into town

pretty late one night,

goes to his mate's place,

knocks on his door,

give me some bread,

I need some bread

to feed him

and his mate's upstairs,

you know,

lights are out,

kids are in bed,

he's sort of

starting to nod off,

here's his rat-a-tat

at the door

and he looks out the window

and says,

go away mate,

you know,

it's all shut up

for the night

and he goes,

no,

no,

I need some food

and then they go away,

just go away.

The man says,

the door's locked,

the children are asleep,

don't bother me,

but his friend keeps knocking

and he keeps asking

until the man gets up.

He doesn't get up

because of his friendship,

he doesn't have a moral conscience

all of a sudden

and go,

oh,

well,

he is my mate

and I did get some bread

from him,

you know,

last week.

It's because

the man's prevailing,

because of his boldness

as it says,

he's persisting,

he's persevering

in knocking,

he annoyed him

so much

that he went downstairs

and opened the door

and gave us a bread.

Take it!

But doesn't that seem

an unpleasant image

when we approach prayer?

But immediately

in verse 9,

Jesus says

that there is a lesson

to be learned here.

Ask

and it will be given you.

Seek

and you'll find.

Knock

and it will be open to you.

There are three things here

that stress

the importance

of prevailing,

not giving up prayer.

One

is

a little bit technical.

It's the tense

in the original language

which means

an ongoing activity.

It means

keep on asking,

keep on seeking,

keep on knocking.

The second

is the fact

that Jesus

commands this

continuous action

three times

in verse 9

and he repeats

the three words

again in verse 10.

And the third thing

that stress is prevailing

is that the three words

used

get an increasingly

close to the answer

and show a pressing

in on God

if you like.

So asking

as it were,

coming to the house,

give me some bread.

seeking

until we find it

and knocking

until the door

is opened.

Asking

is the simplest bit.

It requires

no movement

whatsoever.

Seeking

turns the activity

into a pursuit

and knocking

on the door

again

and again

and again

signifies

an earnestness

and even

a desperation

to get

an answer

to this

and I need it.

So Jesus

clearly wants us

to be like this

friend

at his mate's

door.

He wants us

to be like that.

He wants us

to prevail

in prayer

and yet

all of a sudden

he makes

this little

sudden turn

in verse 11

this little twist

and he shifts

from the grumpy

old friend

who's just

been woken up

to the image

of a caring

father.

The point

Jesus is getting

across

is the prevailing

prayer

persisting

persevering

in prayer

is utterly

important for us.

He stamps

the truth

of it

in our

memories

with a

shocking

image

of a

friend

who won't

get out

of his

bed

to help

someone

until he's

bothered

enough

to do

it.

But then

Jesus

qualifies

the point

in verses

11 to

13

and says

but God's

not like

that.

God's

not like

that.

He's

not like

that friend.

He is

like the

most caring

father

imaginable.

So yes

God

sometimes

gives us

what we

need

only after

a long

long

season

of

prevailing

and

persisting

in

prayer

but it's

not because

he's

uncaring

and it's

not because

he's

insensitive

to our

needs.

So why?

I think

verse 11

gives us

a few

clues

and that

is that

a good

father

will not

give his

son a

serpent

if he

asks

for a

fish.

In other

words

a good

father

will give

their

children

what is

good

for

them.

It's

like this

morning

I got

up

and

brought

Isabel

downstairs

as soon

as I

put her

feet on

the floor

she makes

a beeline

straight for

the cupboard

where she

knows where

the biscuits

are.

This is

like at

6.30

in the

morning.

This is

breakfast

in her

mind

and she

goes to

the cupboard

door.

She can't

quite reach

the handles

thank God

at this

stage.

But she

goes to

the cupboard

door and

goes

and then

you're like

what?

And then

she goes

which is

tiny teddies.

And if it

wasn't for the

fact that maybe

Nat was hot

on my heels

I might have

sort of

given her

that moment.

But she

persisted in

her asking

but she

got a no

because it's

not good

for her

to have

biscuits

for breakfast

not unless

you're camping

or something

like that.

See God

is giving

us what

is good

for us.

There is

something in

the prevailing

in the

asking the

seeking the

knocking that

we need.

It's something

in it that

is good for

us and he

knows best.

The promise

that will

encourage us

in prevailing

prayer is

verse 10.

And I'll

read it

with a

bit of

a twist

based on

the original

language.

Everyone

who goes

on asking

receives

and he

who goes

on seeking

will find

and to him

who goes

on knocking

it will be

opened.

God is

not

unresponsive

to our

prevailing

prayer.

The

difficulties

in prevailing

prayer is

that we

are in

the instant

generation.

We live

in a

culture

where

satisfaction

is now

where

30 seconds

on a

microwave

is just

I don't

know if

you notice

how slow

that is

nowadays.

Once upon

a time

you want

a steak

you know

you've

got to

go and

catch

the cow

nowadays

it's out

of the

freezer

into the

microwave

and even

then you

know five

minutes to

defrost the

thing for

goodness sake.

I mean is

there anything

faster than a

microwave?

I hope

someone's

working on

it.

And that's

what makes

prevailing

prayer so

difficult for

us because

we want the

answer we

want it

now but

it's not

good for

us.

The final

teaching that

God gives

on prayer

is if you

like a

circling back

to the

original point

and that is

the God

centredness

of prayer

and if I

understand

Jesus here

he means

for it to

be the

prevailing

heartbeat

of the

prayer life

of our

church.

This is

the main

point.

If I

understand

what Jesus

is saying

here he

means for

this prayer

to be the

prevailing

heartbeat

of the

life of

our

church.

Jesus

teaches

in verse

13 that

our prevailing

in prayer

should be a

prevailing

for the

Holy Spirit.

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.

He's

saying if

you know

how to

give good

gifts then

God the

gracious

Father

giver who

knows all

good things

will give

you

not your

new car

not your

health

he will

give you

the Holy

Spirit.

There is

nothing

greater than

that.

And so

it's no

accident that

Luke tells

us in

chapter 3

verse 21

that while

Jesus was

praying the

Holy Spirit

descended upon

him like a

dove or

that the

outpouring of

the Spirit

at Pentecost

came at the

climax of a

10 day prayer

vigil or in

Acts 4 31

that when the

church had

prayed the

place where

they were

gathered was

shaken and

was filled with

the Holy Spirit

prevailing

prayer is the

pathway to

the outpouring

of the

Holy Spirit.

And my

hope is for

us as a

church as

we've mentioned

and we've

been bleating

on about it

for a while

our vision

our next

stage of

ministry for

this church

launching into

2020 for the

next 11 years

is coming up

very soon and

that we might

be a church

that prevails

in prayer and

asking for God

to pour out

his spirit

amongst us.

And as I've

said before in

a previous

sermon to

pour out his

spirit amongst

us another my

way of saying

that is for God

to invade our

lives that we

might prevail in

that prayer that

there might be

truly a revival

amongst us here

because when we

prevail in prayer

for the outpouring

of the Holy Spirit

more is happening

in our life through

that prevailing

prayer than we

could ever imagine.

God waits because

our prevailing

is good for us.

May the Lord

prevent us from

losing heart

and failing in

the very thing

we need

mighty prevailing

prayer for the

outpouring of the

spirit.

So let's this

week as we

enter even

into this

evening and

enter this

week with

God

centred

prayer.

with a sense

of security

and the

fatherly care

of God

with a new

resolve to

prevail and

to persist

in prayer

without doubting

God's love

for us

and let us

prevail

specifically

in praying

for the

outpouring of

the Holy Spirit

amongst us

for his power

his gifts

his full

blessing

and get

this

all the

while

rejoicing

that the

prevailing

in itself

for that

prayer

is a great

work of

the indwelling

spirit of the

living God

in and of

itself.

So let's

pray the

Lord's

prayer.

I'm going

to pray the

Lord's

prayer for

us

as a

model

and picking

up the

intention

of Jesus'

words.

Let's bow

and let's

pray.

Our

gracious

God,

loving

Heavenly

Father,

we long

to see

you

honoured

more and

more in

our church

and in

our city.

Cause your

name to be

hallowed

among us.

Magnify

your worth

and your

glory

amongst us

and let

your kingdom

come.

Take up

your kingly

rule more

and more

fully over

our church,

over our

lives,

over our

families,

over

Chatswood,

over this

city,

over this

country

and speed

the day

of Christ's

final

appearing,

we pray.

Meet our

physical needs,

we pray,

Lord,

not for our

own comfort

but so that

we can

press on

with joy

in the

work you

called us

to do

for your

namesake.

Forgive us,

O Lord,

where we

have sinned,

where we

have fallen

short of

your glory,

where we

have lived

each day

in ungodliness

revealed in

the lack

of prayerfulness

or in the

human

centredness

of our

prayer.

And

Father,

we ask

that you

might keep

us from

the entangling

temptations

that would

want to

trip us

up as

your people

and bring

criticism

to your

name

and to

your

church.

And we

ask it

through Jesus

Christ,

our Lord.

Amen.