Luke 11:1-13

We are going to be in Luke chapter 11, verses 1 through 13.

Luke 11:1–13

We've been going through the book of Luke since Christmas.

We're in the middle of a section where Jesus is taking his disciples up to Jerusalem.

So if you're new to the Bible, Luke is in the New Testament.

It's one of four what we call gospels.

The word gospel doesn't come necessarily from music, although it's used in that way as well.

But the gospels are the story of Jesus, and you can find it kind of three-quarters or a third, two-thirds of the way through your Bible on the right hand side.

And so we're looking at the book of Luke, verse 11, verses 1 through 13.

We're going chapter by chapter through the Bible, right?

Because we believe that God wants to speak to us through his word.

So last week, can you imagine where we were at?

Where were we?

Chapter 10, right?

This week we're in chapter 11.

Chapter 11.

All right, so let's look at 11 verse 1.

One day Jesus was praying in a certain place.

When he finished, one of the disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray.

Just as John taught his disciples to pray.

He said to them, When you pray, say, Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come.

Give us each day our daily bread.

Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us, and lead us not into temptation.

Then Jesus said to them, Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight, and you say, Friend, lend me three loaves of bread.

A friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.

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.

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.

So I say to you, Ask and it will be given to you.

Seek and you will find, knock and the door will be open to you.

For every one who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

Which of your fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give you a snake instead?

Or if you ask for an egg, we'll 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?

That's our text for today.

Let's pray.

God, we um take this text, these 13 verses, and we want to listen for what you have to say to us.

We're gonna go through it, we're gonna study it, Lord.

Uh there's some things that I've got here in my notes, but Lord, I pray that you would speak into our lives.

God, you know what we came through the door with this morning.

And I pray that you would speak to each person here.

Lord, you know the difficult things of our life.

And your word says in Matthew chapter 6, 7, 5, 6, and 7, that you care for us.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

Just like you know when a bird falls to the ground, you know the hairs of our head, God, you care for us and you've instructed us to not worry, not to take thought for our own life, but to trust in you.

So I pray for all of us collectively that God, we would place our faith in you and be able to trust you with our life.

Lord, I pray that you would bind up the works of the devil.

I pray that Jesus, as Satan tries to oppose each person here in their walk with you and from knowing you, God, I pray that you would set free the captives.

And Jesus, that you would make yourself known.

There are people that struggle with addiction, or there are people that are struggling in relationships, and and Satan has a hand in that.

And I pray that in the name of Jesus you would set people free and that you would demonstrate your power in our lives.

We ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

So let's look at this text.

We have four parts to the text.

The first part is this model prayer.

How many of you are familiar with what we call the Lord's Prayer?

Our Father who is out in heaven.

Yeah, we most people know this.

I think this is probably one of the most familiar passages in our culture when it comes to Scripture.

This in Psalm 23, people know the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

He makes me lie down in green pastures, right?

He leads me beside still waters.

People know those verses.

And this is the first part.

These first four verses is the Lord's prayer.

The second part that we look at is a parable of a reluctant neighbor.

Did you catch the story?

Jesus is teaching his disciples about prayer, and he tells a story to illustrate the principle that he's teaching.

What was the story that Jesus told?

Jesus says that there is a man who has a surprise visitor come to his house.

He doesn't have food to feed the surprise visitor at night, so he goes to his next door neighbor and he starts pounding on the door.

Culturally, the way that it would work if you were in Jesus' day, you would take all your animals, you'd take your whole household, you'd lock yourself in your house.

Everything is put inside the house at night to protect it.

And so in this story that Jesus tells, one neighbor goes to the next and is knocking on the door.

I need some food to help feed my friend.

And the reply that comes from inside the house is, go away.

I'm in, I'm sleeping.

You ever get one of those calls?

You ever get a call in the middle of the night, or you had somebody who's like an inconvenient visitor who's like, hey, I need help.

And the response is, I, you know, I can't.

I cannot help you.

But it says, did you see that?

Let's go back here.

Let's see what it says here in the text.

It says that there's a reason why this neighbor got what he needed.

Where is it?

Do you see this word?

What does it say?

Shameless audacity.

In the King James Version, this is pertinence, right?

It's persistence in the New King James Version.

Shameless audacity.

The neighbors knocking and knocking and knocking, saying, I need help.

And ultimately the guy comes.

Why does Jesus tell this story?

Why is he telling the story?

Because he wants to encourage his disciples to pray.

He gave the model prayer, but now he's saying, I want to encourage you to pray.

That's the second part of our text.

The third part here is the parable of the father who gives the child what he needs.

Great for Father's Day, huh?

Isn't that ironic?

Great for Father's Day, because he says, you have a heavenly father.

You have a heavenly father that cares for you.

And he says, if you know how to give good gifts, if you know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more does your father in heaven know how to give you good gifts if you ask?

One other thing I want to just point out is we call that statement, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be our name, we call that the Lord's Prayer.

But it's really not the Lord's prayer.

Do you know why?

In that verse, he prays, forgive us of our sins as we forgive our debtors.

Jesus, did he sin?

No, he didn't need to pray that.

In fact, the Lord's prayer is in John 17, and we see what he prays to the Father.

This is the model prayer that we are to pray as we are talking to God.

Now, what does that mean?

What does it mean when the disciples ask Jesus, how should we pray?

And Jesus gives this model prayer, does that mean we just say this over and over again?

Does it mean that we just kind of brain-numb just recite these things?

What does it mean?

Here's what it means The Lord's prayer, as you and I know it, is a bullet point list.

It's a framework that's a jumping-off point for us to pray.

So when we say, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, the first thing is our Father, right?

The second thing is, hallowed be thy name.

The third thing is, your kingdom come.

The fourth thing is, your will be done, right?

That's what God wants to do in your life.

God wants his kingdom to be known and recognized in your life.

Do you notice that we're not praying for our needs first?

Do you see that?

We're not praying for our daily bread, our relationships, our forgiveness of others, or even our protection from Satan.

What we're praying for is that God's name, God's kingdom, and God's will would be done.

So you may have a friend that you're interceding on behalf of.

Let's say they're going through cancer treatment.

And what you're praying for them is you're saying, God, I want to pray that your name would be made known in the midst of this cancer treatment that they're going through.

Make your name known.

The word hallowed is renown, famous.

Like, God, make your name famous through this circumstance that's going on.

And then the second part is this kingdom, your kingdom, Lord, the the evidence that you're king, that you have a kingdom, make that known, make that known in their life.

The third part is your name, right?

Your name or your name, your kingdom, your will, right?

Make your will.

Um, let it be done in their life.

As they're going through this cancer treatment, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Does that make sense?

So it's a model prayer.

So if you're ever wondering, like, somebody's like, hey, I'm going through this thing at work, what should I pray?

So Jesus has taught us a framework.

Just spend some time.

What does it mean for God's kingdom to invade this person's life?

What does it mean for God's kingdom to invade your life?

What does it mean for Jesus to be king in your life?

All of that is the idea of taking the model prayer, this framework for prayer, and jumping off in our own life.

I'll pray that I pray this every day for people around me, right?

For my five by five, right?

Um, who I almost named, but I won't, because I think they're starting to listen to the podcast.

So I am praying for them.

They, you know, they've never been to church here yet, but I'm praying for them that they would um, that their salvation would make Jesus famous, right?

I'm praying that they would know Jesus as their king, that their kingdom, that God's kingdom would come into their life and that Jesus would be established as the king.

Okay.

So it is not just a thing to be repeated over and over again to make God happy.

No, it is actually a really, there's some just nuggets in there.

But imagine, like when somebody gives you an outline and you've got to fill in the blanks.

That's what the model prayer is for us.

But I want to do this.

I want to um, I want to spend some time just challenging the idea of prayer.

You're gonna think that I'm a heretic for about the next seven minutes while we go through this, but I I want to deal with some of the biggest issues that people have with prayer.

Many people doubt that prayer matters or is of any value.

That prayer doesn't change things and that it doesn't really factor into God's economy.

I'm gonna give you two theological and one anecdotal reason why people believe this.

The first is the sovereignty of God.

This is what it means that God is sovereign, the fact that God is free and able to do that all that he wills, that he reigns over all creation, and that his will is the final cause of all things.

This is often expressed in the language, in the language of kingship.

Can you see that?

So the sovereignty of God is the idea that God is completely in charge of everything.

Let me give you a verse that states this idea.

Isaiah 46, 9 through 10 says, Remember the former things, those of long ago.

I am God, there is no other.

I am God, there is none like me.

I make make the known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come.

I say, my purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.

That's a God who's in control.

God is absolutely sovereign.

But people take the sovereignty of God and they say that the sovereignty of God gets in the way.

Don't go to this slide yet.

What the sovereignty of God seems to interfere with is the idea that God, that our prayers factor in to God's governance.

If God's completely into control, then why would we pray?

The second theological issue that people have is this idea of God's omniscience, or the idea that God's knowledge is infinite.

He understands the things of past, present, and future.

Here's a verse for that.

Right?

It goes back to Psalm 147.

He determines the number of the stars and he calls them each by name.

So he knows the heavens.

Let me give you one other verse.

Matthew 6, 8.

For your father knows what you have need of before you ask him.

God knows everything.

God knows everything.

So if God knows everything, why are we talking to him?

Why are we asking him anything?

Right?

What's the purpose, right?

So you have the sovereignty of God where God's absolutely in control of everything.

You have the fact that God knows everything.

So why are we praying again?

Let's go to the third one.

This is the third reason why people struggle with prayer.

It's this personal experience or anecdotal.

I've prayed and nothing has happened for years.

I've prayed and nothing has happened for years.

I have um some people that are close to me who right now they not only don't pray, but they're struggling in their relationship with God because they feel like um they prayed long ago and God didn't listen to them.

God didn't answer their prayer requests.

It's a difficult place to be in.

It's a painful place to be in, and and I understand it, people get discouraged.

But let's go back, right?

The disciples in our text, you're looking at it, Luke 11, the disciples ask Jesus, teach us to pray, and Jesus doesn't say, forget about that.

You don't need to worry about prayer.

No, right?

He doesn't say that.

What does he say?

He he goes right and he teaches them, he teaches them to pray.

Here's something important to realize.

If any prayer worked, then there would be no need for learning to pray.

Do you see that?

If all prayer worked, then there would have been no need for the disciples to come to Jesus and say, Teach us to pray.

You and I first have to understand that, especially when we look at our own experience and we're like, hey, I prayed and God didn't answer.

If all prayer worked, then there would be no space or need for learning to pray.

The disciples looked at Jesus and they felt like we need to be taught how to pray.

So let's go in and let's try to resolve these three issues a little bit better.

First of all, prayer is built into God's sovereign plan.

So, yes, God is absolutely in control and he governs over the world.

But the way in which God works in our world is through praying humans.

You see, there are times where God does not work in the world because people are not willing to pray.

Let me show you just a couple of examples of how God has built prayer into the world.

First of all, we see that Jesus prayed often.

Jesus prayed often.

We see in Luke 5, 16, Jesus often withdrew to a lonely place and prayed.

Look at Luke 6, 12.

One of those days Jesus went out to the mountainside to pray, and he spent the night praying to God.

Luke 9, 18.

Once when Jesus was praying in private, his disciples were with him, and he asked, Who do the crowds say that I am?

Excuse me.

See, this is the deal.

God has built it, God has built it into our framework, into the framework of the world that prayer matters.

You see that?

God has built it into the world for prayer to take place.

So don't be deterred from praying because God is in control.

Instead, realize you play an important part role in God's ruling and power in the world.

Second, look at this.

Jesus repeatedly told his disciples to pray.

So far be it from us to run away from prayer, because Jesus taught the disciples to pray.

Look at Matthew 5.44.

He says, Pray for those who persecute you.

Matthew 6.5, when you pray.

In Matthew 6, 9, this is how you should pray, right?

That's a corollary passage to what we're looking at today.

So, and then Luke 11, 19.

So I say to you, ask and it will be given to you.

Seek and you will find knock and it will be opened unto you.

Here's the point.

We may look at how, look at God's greatness, that God knows everything, that he's absolutely in control, and we may feel discouraged in our own lives because we may feel like God doesn't hear me.

But Jesus prayed often, and he taught his disciples to pray often.

So does that mean that we should not pray or that we should pray?

We should pray.

We should be a people that pray.

One other point here that we see as we go through scripture is this prayer is ubiquitous or it is prevalent.

It's all throughout Scripture and is stored in containers in heaven.

What?

What is he saying?

So look at Genesis 4.26.

Early on in Scripture, it says that at that time people began to call on the name of the Lord, right?

Prayer started early on in the book of Genesis, which is the first book of the Bible.

You go to the last book of the Bible, check out this verse.

Revelation 5.8.

Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls of incense.

This is the angels.

The angels in heaven have harps.

They're holding golden bowls full of incense, which are what?

They are the prayers of God's people.

When we pray, our prayer is so real in heaven that it is stored in containers in heaven.

Your prayers matter.

I know sometimes in your life it may feel like you're praying to an ironclad ceiling.

You may feel like the clouds are blocking your prayers.

In fact, when I was nine years old, I was on a hike with my uncle and a bunch of other kids my age.

And we were up in the mountains and we got separated from my uncle, and we started to try to descend and find my uncle.

And pretty soon, after about seven or eight minutes, panic set in.

We're freaking out.

We were paranoid.

What are we going to do?

Especially as a nine-year-old, I was the youngest kid.

What are we going to do?

We were really desperate.

And you know we are desperate because as nine-year-olds, we decided we need to pray.

But the problem was that the place where we decided we needed to pray, we were under a bush and we were covered by this dense um coating of bushes.

And we were like, well, God can't hear us here.

We better get out into a clearing, right?

Sometimes people think that that's how prayer works.

And so we got up into the clearing, and actually, just as we started to pray, my uncle and his dog came right around the corner.

But God hears your prayers.

God cares for you, he loves you, and he wants to hear you pray.

I have a few things that I want to go through just really quickly in closing about why your prayers may be hindered.

Maybe you've been a person that's prayed, but you feel like you pray like you feel like God's not listening to you.

And there's three reasons why that could be the case.

The first is wrong motives, the second is a wrong attitude, and the third is self-willed.

Let me show you a couple scriptures about this when the Bible teaches about prayer.

The first one is this in James.

Let's see if we can go back to it.

The clicker is breaking my heart today.

Derek, if you could just help me go backwards two slides.

Thank you.

This is the first one.

When you ask, ask is another word for praying, right?

When you ask, you do not receive because you ask with wrong motives that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

So sometimes we pray and we ask God for something in our lives, but we're asking it just so that we can use it for our own pleasure, and we have the wrong motives.

So God doesn't answer that prayer.

The second thing that it says in Matthew chapter, go to the next slide, or James.

James chapter 5, 13 is just the need for faith.

James 5 · chapter mention

Or actually, I want to look at Matthew 6, 5.

Matthew 6, 5, it talks about how the Pharisees would pray.

Do you see what it says?

They stand on the sin in the synagogues in the street corners to be seen by others.

These people are praying as a showboat to show off their religion, right?

They're really not praying to God.

They're just show-offs.

They're just show-offs.

God's not going to hear that prayer.

He says, look, they've got their reward.

Their reward is that people are listening.

Okay.

Last one here.

Praying, and it's not offered in faith, right?

The prayer of faith.

Sometimes people pray, but they're just not really trusting in God, right?

They're just kind of tossing it up there.

Instead, our prayer ought to be an expression of our dependence upon God.

Our dependence upon God.

I want to close with this.

There are, there is this idea that prayer is something that just pastors do.

But really, do you talk to do you have conversations with people throughout the week?

Yeah, then you're qualified to pray.

Actually, 55% of um people in America pray on a daily basis.

We're gonna skip ahead.

Derek, if you would help me go forward, I'll I'll stop clicking and I'll let you take over.

Keep going.

Keep going.

This is the key.

Jesus inaugurated our prayer life.

We can pray because Jesus, because of Jesus, he has championed our ability to pray.

Do you know that God right now will listen to you and me?

God will listen to you and me because of what Jesus did on the cross.

Jesus cares about you and what you have to say because he died on the cross for your sins.

Let's go to the next slide.

Let me show you this verse in Hebrews 10.

It says that as brothers and sisters, that's you and I, we have confidence to enter the most holy place by the blood of Jesus.

He goes on into verse 22 saying, Let us draw near to God.

You and I can come close to God today.

We can come into God's presence with boldness and ask for his help.

You can talk to God today because of what Jesus did.

He paid for your guilt.

He did everything that needs to be done so that you can talk to God openly.

Have you read through the Psalms?

The Psalms are honest expressions.

So David prays, he says, God, I feel like you've left me.

I feel like you've abandoned me.

I mean, David is so honest with God.

And yet, here's the thing: God allows us to pray like that because of what Jesus did on the cross.

You can talk to God in an honest way and express your need.

He wants you to tell him what you need.

If you're frustrated, you can tell him you're frustrated.

If you're afraid, you can tell him that you're afraid.

If you feel like you're lost, you can tell him that you're lost.

We don't need to put on a show before God.

He knows it already.

He knows exactly where we're at.

And he wants to have a relationship with you and I.

That's why he has built in this whole idea of prayer into his sovereign plan.

He cares for you and I and wants to have a relationship with you and I.

Let's go to the next slide.

Just want to, some final thoughts here, experiencing the gospel.

The most important prayer that you and I can pray is, Lord, I entrust myself to you.

Save me from my sin.

That's the most important thing that you can pray.

Is God, save me, save me, save me.

That's why Jesus came into the world is to save us, to rescue us.

Does anybody need a rescue?

I know every week I need a rescue.

I'm good at screwing things up.

I'm good at screwing up.

Are you good at screwing things up?

Yeah.

Amen.

That is the most important thing that you can pray is God save me.

Second, even when we are unfaithful to pray and we are filled with doubt, the gospel reminds us that we are forgiven.

Space.

Don't condemn yourself or let Satan condemn you for your lack of prayer.

Don't feel defeated.

Amen?

The gospel message that Jesus died on the cross, here's what it says: it says that you and I are loved.

We may fail to pray, but you're still loved.

Go to the next slide.

Prayer is communication with God.

And the gospel informs us that we are deeply loved.

We're deeply loved.

The point of this text, the text that we just went through, Luke 11, is to draw you out and encourage your prayer life.

How much more will your heavenly Father, who gives the Holy Spirit, give to those who ask?

Let this passage encourage you, not condemn you.

Have you ever bought a car or bought something where you had to sign a contract?

You know what a contract is?

Do you know what the fine print of a small of a contract is?

Right?

It's the stuff you don't want to read, but it's fine print.

It's small, right?

We like to take and attach fine print to God's promises to prayer.

Jesus says, ask and it will be given to you.

Seek and you will find.

Knock and the door will be open to you.

So then we come along and we attach all these exceptions, all these rules of like, here's well, well, I can't really pray.

I can't really pray because I've done this in my life, or I can't pray because this has happened in my life.

But here's the truth God extends himself to you and I, and he says that he wants to answer prayer.

He wants to work in your life.

You and I need to stop putting in um cynicism, and instead we need to let the Bible encourage us to be a people of prayer.

Amen.

Amen.

These things are written so that we would pray more.

Let's pray.

God, we just we we take this passage and Lord, may we be a people.

May we be a people that persist in asking you for help.

Maybe be a people that faithfully pray.

May we be a people that faithfully knock and ask and seek.

Lord, you know each one of our stories.

You know what's going on in our life.

And Lord, as we as we pray, Lord, I pray that you would answer the prayers of those that are here this morning.

Lord, as we bear our heart before you, as we cry out for your help, I ask that, Lord, you would answer and that you would work.