The Lord’s Prayer

The passage today comes from the Gospel of Luke, chapter 11, verse 1 to 13.

Luke 11:1–13

Please follow along in your bulletin.

It happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place,

after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him,

Lord, teach us to pray, just as John also taught his disciples.

And he said to them, when you pray, say,

Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come.

Give us each day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins,

for we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.

And lead us not into temptation.

Then he said to them, suppose one of you has a friend,

and goes to him at midnight and says to him,

Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey,

and I have nothing to set before him.

And from inside he answers and says,

Do not bother me. The door has already been shut, and my children are in bed.

I cannot get up and give you anything.

I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend,

yet because of his persistence, he will get up and give him as much as he needs.

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

Seek, and you will find.

Knock, and it will be opened to you.

For everyone who asks, receives, and he who seeks, finds.

And to him who knocks, it will be opened.

Now suppose one of you fathers is asked by his son for a fish.

He will not give him a snake instead of a fish, will he?

Or if he is asked for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion, will he?

If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children,

how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?

This is the reading of God's words.

Please be seated.

How you guys doing?

Okay, I want to get the S at one time, so.

Half the people are good, half the people are so-so.

Hey, we are, uh, it's interesting as we've gone on this journey as a church,

we're looking at the Gospel of Luke.

We are in chapter 11, which means we're not halfway through yet,

and we've gone over almost a year and a half,

so we're just kind of taking our time.

And today we're looking at this passage, I think is, uh, is, uh,

I think it's very challenging to me because it conflicts with my upbringing.

It conflicts with my past.

It conflicts with things that I thought of as I thought of God before I came to know him.

And we're talking about this idea of prayer today.

And, uh, I think there's been nothing more amazing and beautiful

and encouraging in my life as the idea of prayer.

But in the same way, I think there's been nothing more, uh, conflicting and tension

and wondering, am I doing it right?

And what does it look like?

And is God really listening to me?

Is he, is he really there because these things keep happening?

And so what I want to do is I wanted to try and just, uh,

because we're a family and we, we, we trust each other.

Um, and at my family at dinnertime, we have our high points and our low points

and we ask questions.

And so I thought we'd just start off with a Q&A time.

Uh, and just, I wanted to hear from you guys as you've heard this passage,

and I'm sure you've read it and listened to it a billion times.

Um, what are some questions that you would have about prayer?

We just listened to this passage.

It's quite very interesting.

It's called the Lord's Prayer, but Jesus could never have prayed this prayer, right?

Because he, he never sinned.

He wasn't sinful.

He was perfect.

But, so we call it the Disciples Prayer, really.

But for 2,000 years, we've been calling it the Lord's Prayer.

So, um, what, what, what are some questions about prayer?

I mean, should you think about the idea of prayer in our life?

And you can just yell them out and I'll repeat them just to make sure I got it right.

I don't know if I'll be able to answer all of them, but we're going to, we're going to,

because in about a month we're going to look at prayer again

and we're going to do a three or four part sermon series on that.

No one has any questions on prayer.

That's amazing.

Why doesn't God always answer prayer?

That's a great, that's, that's, I think that's one of the top ones, right?

Especially when we're hurting and we need help.

Why isn't God listening to me?

Why doesn't he answer what I'm yelling out?

Is there a wrong way to pray?

Yeah, that's good.

You know, am I, is it a code?

Maybe because he's not answering me because I don't, I'm not following the sequence right.

It's like programming, right?

If you follow the sequence right, then you, it spits out and you got whatever you were making.

So, am I not following the code right?

Wow, that's great.

How do we know when he's saying no or not yet?

Because some people would say he answers every prayer.

It's yes, no, or not yet.

We know when he says yes because it happens, right?

But how do we know when he says no or not yet?

What else?

That's a great, yeah.

I think that's one of my tensions as a pastor and just as a Christ follower.

I really, we had this discussion in a guy's time Saturday at the community center.

I really wrestle with the idea of my free will and we're able to do certain things.

We're called to be responsible.

But then God's sovereignty and he's crafting and he's shaping the world and everything around us.

And if he's sovereign, does it really matter what I pray?

Because he's just going to get it done anyway, right?

Is that really that important?

What other questions?

Joseph.

Okay.

How do we teach kids to pray?

Okay.

Right.

Okay.

So is the mechanism, the posture, the method that we come before the Lord, is that important?

We're going to talk about that a little today in the passage.

The passage today talks a little bit about how we come before the Lord.

But if it is, what do we expect from our kids, right?

If we're trying to teach them.

One of the things Christina's always getting on me like, okay, your kid's only five years old and you're asking him to drive the car, right?

And so sometimes I just forget he's five years old or they're four years old.

And what is it proper to expect from a kid in that idea?

That's good.

What else?

Jiffrey.

That's great.

Yeah.

Jiffrey asked, what is the right balance between thanking God for everything and praise and worship and adoration and asking him for our needs, presenting the needs before us?

Is there a balance?

Is there a proportion?

What does that look like for us?

One other question.

These will get answered, I hope.

Okay.

Okay.

Yep.

Joyce.

Okay.

Did God, is that the question?

Did God institute prayer because it benefits not only the person that we're praying for, but it benefits us, right?

Yeah.

I think it was Martin Luther or Calvin said that, you know, when I pray, I'm not changing God, but God is changing me, right?

And so that's a huge part was what is the benefit for us?

Why should we do that, right?

That's good.

Okay.

So I want you to think about these things because we're going to talk about these things.

We're going to cover a little of these things today, and we're going to continue in April.

We're going to talk about these things.

We'll probably have a website up and have you be able to post some questions and interact with each other in that sense.

But what I want to do now is in your chair, you have a blank piece of paper.

Do not write your name on it.

Do not write your name on it.

And this is what I'd like for us to try.

If God came to you right now and he said, ask anything that you want of me, any prayer that's on your heart, any burden that's given to you, ask anything.

And within this next month to two months, I'm going to answer it.

If God came to you and said that to you, what would be the prayer that you would ask for?

I want you to write that prayer on that piece of paper.

Don't put your name on it.

I'm going to give you two, five seconds.

Two, five seconds.

God came to you and he said, I'm going to give you whatever you want.

It's going to happen within a month, two months.

Just tell me what you want.

What would you pray for?

I would pray for ten more prayers.

Someone said, only one?

Yeah, it's like the genie in the model.

I want a hundred more prayers.

That's my one prayer.

Just one.

Just one.

Don't write your name on it.

And what we're going to do is at the end, I want you to put these in the offering boxes.

And the prayer team is going to gather these things, and the elders, and the staff, and we're going to be praying for these things.

We're going to be praying for you as a church.

We believe that we need to be praying for each other.

We need to do that more often.

And so just write it out.

And when everything is over, I want you to put it in the box.

And we're going to pray for those things.

Okay?

Is that good?

Everybody got their one prayer?

Okay.

So we're in Luke chapter 11.

Luke 11 · chapter mention

And Jesus is heading towards Jerusalem.

And whenever you think of him heading towards Jerusalem, you should think about what?

We said it over and over.

Whenever we think about Jesus heading to Jerusalem, we think about what?

It's ascending.

He's going uphill.

But we think about the cross.

Whenever it says he's heading towards Jerusalem, what it means theologically is he's heading towards the cross.

He's heading towards separation from God the Father.

He's heading towards unimaginable pain for us.

And in chapters 9 to 18, we have this dialogue.

It's called the traveling dialogues.

And Jesus is traveling towards Jerusalem.

And as he travels, he's talking to his disciples.

He's teaching us.

He's teaching us what it means to follow him, what it means to be his disciples.

And as he teaches, he goes along.

And today, he's going to talk about prayer.

Now, last time we got together, he talked at Bethany.

And he talked about service and serving God.

And how do we balance serving and listening?

And what does it look like to use our spiritual gifts?

And so now, we don't know exactly where he is.

He's probably still in Bethany, which is to the east of Jerusalem, about seven miles.

And so, he's there.

And he's talking.

And his disciples are asking.

And they're looking at him.

And they're saying, what does it mean to be a disciple?

And they're looking at Jesus' life.

And they realize that one of the things it means to be a disciple is that the longer you walk with Christ,

the longer they've been on this journey, the more personal things get.

The longer you walk with God, the more intimate your relationship becomes.

And the disciples are realizing that.

And they're seeing him pray.

And there's something very unusual and different about the way Jesus prayed.

Now, we have a list of prayers over and over again in Scripture of rabbis and guys through the Talmud.

And we realize that they're very varied.

Often, a rabbi would have a special prayer.

And so, if you heard a guy praying, you would know who he was following.

And so, each group of people had their own prayer.

And all of a sudden, his disciples see him.

It says in verse 1, it happened that Jesus was praying in a certain place.

And there must have been something incredibly different about the way he prayed.

Remember, they're living in a culture where it's all about prayer.

It's all about walking with God.

It's all about saying the right words.

It's all about doing the right sequence.

It's all about making it happen by doing the right mechanisms.

And for some reason, they're drawn to him.

And they're drawn to his relationship to God.

And as far as I know, this is the only time in Scripture they ever ask him for something.

They never ask him, can you teach us how to be a good preacher?

They never ask him, can you teach us how to share your faith?

They never ask him, hey, can you teach me how to be a good community group leader?

They never ask him any of those things.

They ask him for the first time ever in the passage, they say, can you teach us how to pray?

And it's interesting because you don't really see the disciples praying at all in the Gospels.

I mean, there's not a time when they all get together and pray.

That happens in Acts after Jesus is gone.

But they don't really, they're not known for prayer.

Like most of us are as Christians.

We're really not known for prayer.

It's something we do occasionally.

And we see that in the disciples' lives.

And so in this passage, I divide it up into three sections.

And I want to talk about three things about prayer today.

I want to talk about the whom, who are we talking to.

I want to talk about how.

How do we approach God, verses 5 through 8.

And then I want to talk about why.

Why do we come to him?

Last summer, we went home.

We go home almost every other summer as a family.

And Kip and I woke up early because we wanted to go to a friend's church.

Because it was about an hour and a half away.

So we drove down there.

And in the service, the guy shared this story.

I'm sure that it was false.

But it was so funny.

And Kip just kept repeating it over and over and over again.

And it was kind of cute and it was funny.

But the story went that one day, the ushers were inviting people into church.

And they were seating them in the rows in front of the pastor.

And the deacon, the usher, was sitting there.

And he watched this little old gray-haired lady come walking in.

And she walked very deliberately down to the front of the service where the seats were like five feet away from the pastor.

Just like what you guys are.

And the deacon walked over there and said, ma'am, you don't want to sit here.

I want you to sit over here.

And the little lady became kind of disturbed.

And she goes, well, why?

And the guy goes, well, you just don't know our pastor.

I mean, sometimes he's really loud.

And it just hurts your ears.

And sometimes he spits.

And if you're sitting right there, you're going to get spit on.

And sometimes his breath is really bad.

And sometimes when he gets really excited, he passes gas.

And if you're right there, it's going to be really bad.

You don't want to be right there.

Let me move you over here.

And that lady looked at him and she goes, young man, do you know who I am?

And the deacon goes, no, ma'am.

And she goes, I am the mother of that boring, stinky, spitting, far-passing pastor.

And there was silence.

And the usher looked at her and he goes, ma'am, do you know who I am?

And she goes, no.

And he says, have a nice service.

Did I tell it right?

The reason I told that is because I think that's about prayer.

I mean, there's sometimes in prayer you've got to know who you're talking to.

That sometimes we do things and we don't realize at all who we're talking to

and what's going on in our world.

And so we look at Luke 11, verse 1 through 4, and it says this.

Luke 11:1–4

It happened what Jesus was praying in a certain place.

After he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciples.

And Jesus said to them, when you pray, say, Father, Abba.

Now, Jesus is speaking in Aramaic.

We read Greek.

We read Hebrew in our Bibles.

But he's speaking in Aramaic.

And the word in Greek, in Latin, is pater.

But in Aramaic, it's Abba.

Abba, hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come.

Give us each day our daily bread.

And forgive us our sins.

For we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.

And lead us not into temptation.

Now, you don't realize that when Jesus did this, when he said, Father, everybody around him would have been freaking out.

No Jewish rabbi up until that time ever addressed God, the creator, the container, the maintainer, the sovereign Lord as Father.

They always wanted to keep God out there at arm's distance.

They always wanted to keep God holy.

They always wanted to keep God perfect.

And when Jesus said, Abba, can you repeat that for me?

Just say, Abba.

It's like the music group in Sweden or something like that, right?

Abba.

Those are the exact words that Jesus would have said.

And when Jesus said, Abba, what he did is instead of keeping God out here, he brought God right here.

He brought God to their face.

Now, I don't know how you feel about that, but when he said that, everyone would have been shocked and freaked out because Abba was a word that a little baby learned.

It was the first word that a Hebrew child learned when they called their dad.

It was a word of intimacy.

It was a word of respect.

It didn't mean like, hey, dude, or pops, but it was like reverent dad.

Something that parents and fathers wish that their kids would call them sometime, right?

Instead of, dude, can I have some money?

But Jesus says this, and when he says it, he says it over 60 times.

He always addressed God as Father, Abba.

And what he was doing is he's bringing that relationship close.

How close is your relationship with God?

Now, all his disciples, when they heard that, freaked out.

They would have felt extremely uncomfortable.

Remember, I was taking seminary classes in Dallas, and Christine and I were dating.

We hadn't gotten engaged yet.

We were trying to decide, should we get engaged?

And she would drive up from Austin, Texas, and occasionally she would sit in my seminary classes.

And one day in front of all the students, there was like 70 of us, with one of my mentors, a guy we incredibly respected.

And we just, was just incredibly, and in the middle of all this class, as he was dismissing, Christina, the professor, Dr. Hannah, spoke to her.

And she says, well, John, I think da-da-da-da-da-da.

And when she said John, instead of Dr. Hannah, all the students in the room turned around and go, wow, she must have some amazing relationship with this professor, the head of the theological department.

I mean, none of us would even dare say his first name because it meant this intimacy with him that we didn't want to fake.

But Christina comes there and just says, John, and we all turned and they all looked at me.

And I'm like, don't look at me.

She has a relationship with him too.

It's not through me.

But when he said that, his disciples would have been shocked.

They would have understood right away that what he meant was that God had adopted us as his children.

They would have understood right away that God, as our father, has promised to guide us.

They would have understood right away that God, who is our father, knows how to handle us.

He knows how to deal with us.

He knows what is best for us.

They would have understood right away that God, as Abba, keeps his promises.

And that he provides and he nurtures and he takes care.

They would have understood that there's this confidence, this closeness in this relationship.

And they would have thought, that is amazing.

I mean, there's something about the relationship that a dad or a mom has with a five or six or their small children.

I mean, it's unlike anything else in the world.

You know what I'm talking about, right?

I mean, if I'm laying in bed and Christina turns around and she looks at me and she goes,

Hey, can you get me a glass of water?

What do you think I'm going to say?

I'm like, what's wrong with you?

Get the water yourself.

You're a grown person.

You could do that.

Now, guys, don't copy that.

But I'm just being real and honest here.

But if my five-year-old comes into my room at night and wakes me up and she says,

Daddy, can you get me a glass of water?

What do you think I'm going to do?

I'm going to get up.

And I'm going to go into the room.

I'm going to grab the water.

I'm going to get it for her.

I'm going to take it to her, and I'm going to lead her back into her bed.

And Jesus is trying to tell his disciples, and he's trying to tell us,

is that's the type of relationship God has with us.

And that's what God wants with us.

In fact, there's only one time in all of Scripture that Jesus doesn't use the word Abba.

And you know when that is?

It's when he's on the cross.

And when he's on the cross, and he's about to get kicked out of God's family,

he's about to be crucified.

He's about to have God turn his back on him.

He's about to be alienated from the family that he'd been a part of for all eternity.

At that time, he doesn't use the word Abba.

He goes, my God, my God, my Lord, my Lord, why have you forsaken me?

And we know the answer.

Because of Tobin.

Because of John.

Because of Paul.

Because of Shannon.

Because of Mike.

That's why.

But every time in Scripture, God says, Jesus says, God is our Father.

And the question we have to ask ourselves is, do we see him as our Father?

Can we say Abba?

Or is that too difficult?

Is that too strange?

Next, we talk about how we approach God.

And I've got to be honest with you guys.

This is one of those things I have this amazing tension for.

I kind of vacillate back and forth on how to approach God.

And we find it in verses 5 through 8.

5 through 8 is a parable.

It's actually a contrasting parable.

1 through 4 is a prayer.

5 through 8 is a parable.

9 through 13 is a poem.

They're different dialogues.

Luke, when he compiled these things, he heard all these stories.

And he put them together.

Because the Holy Spirit said, this is the way I want you to put it.

And so in 5 through 8, we hear this contrasting parable of how we approach God.

And I think for me, I look at it like this slide.

We have a slide up here.

Can we show this slide?

I think it's like this.

Sometimes I feel like I'm on this tightrope.

And I'm walking down this path.

And there's this relationship.

And the relationship is me talking to God.

And on one side of the tightrope, my flesh tends to make me act selfishly.

And I become demanding of God.

And it's really instead of God being honored and glorified, it's Tobin being honored and glorified.

And so the focus and the arrow goes from me to God.

And I'm basically saying, boy, I need this.

I need you to come through for me.

And what we see there is when I start to act selfishly, I lose my focus of who God is.

Now, on the other side of the tightrope, I can step off.

And that's what I normally do.

I just don't ask.

Because I realize that God is sovereign.

And he's out there.

He's separated from me.

He's not near me.

He's going to do what he's going to do.

He's in control of everything.

And so often I just say, well, why should I even ask?

Why should I even ask?

Because he's going to do it.

I can trust him.

And we see this tension in our life.

And I put for you in your bulletin a passage where Jesus had that same tension.

Jesus on the cross, he's about to go there, and he's praying in the Garden of Gethsemane.

And he's saying, God, I don't want to do this.

Can you take this away from me?

The separation, being an orphan.

But at the same time, after he prays his feelings in his heart, he says, but not my will, but your will be done.

Not what Tobin wants, but what you want.

You ever felt like that?

Kind of on a tightrope as you're going back and forth.

How do I pray?

Does God care?

Is he there?

Should I pray this way?

Do I pray this way?

Am I being selfish?

Am I not being selfish enough?

What does it look like in my life?

Verses 5 through 8 go on, and Jesus tells this parable of how we come to him.

And he says this.

Now, he said to them, suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says to him, friend, lend me three loaves.

For a friend of mine has come to me for a journey, and I have nothing to set before him.

And inside, he answers.

He says, Mortimer, don't bother me.

That's my best attempt at a Jewish accent.

The door's already been shut.

The children, they're in bed.

I can't get up.

I can't give you anything.

I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence, he will get up and he will give him as much as he needs.

Now, when Jesus told this parable, he told these types of parables often.

In Aramaic, it would have started like this.

Can you imagine such a thing as having a neighbor who would offer ridiculous excuses when I went to him for help instead of helping me?

And everybody in Jesus' culture would have said, no way.

No way.

Never happened.

I mean, Jesus talked about this often.

He uses this phrase, and it always expects a negative answer.

And if we don't understand it, as we read this parable, we miss the whole point of this passage.

It always expects a negative answer.

It will never happen that way.

In Luke 14, 5, Jesus says, can you imagine if any of you have a kid and that kid falls into the well?

And even on the Sabbath, you don't go and pick that kid up out of that well?

And people would go, no.

It would never happen.

A good dad would do that.

Luke 15, 4, again, can any of you imagine?

You have 100 sheep, and one of them gets lost.

And you leave the 99 in the wilderness, and you go searching for that one to find them because you rejoice over them.

Can you imagine not doing that?

And in Jesus' culture, and the people listening to him would say in their hearts, no.

It would never happen.

Can you imagine being an old lady, and she has 10 coins in her house?

And she loses one coin, so she only has nine, and she tears up the house to find that one lost coin?

Can you imagine not doing that?

And Jesus and everyone in his culture would have listened to that story and would have said, no way.

It would never happen.

You would always go searching.

You would always go doing that.

You see, in this passage, hospitality was the key and the core of all of Jesus' culture.

I mean, it was massive.

I mean, everyone would know that you have to be hospitable.

The reader and the listener in Jesus' day, when they read this passage, they would have all listened to these excuses and would have said,

that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

Stupid.

No one would ever give that excuse.

No one would ever say, I can't do this.

I can't help you.

Because it was a huge responsibility because a guest had come into this small town,

and how this town treated this guest reflected on everybody.

Everybody would have been responsible.

And everybody would have wanted this guest to have a great experience,

and everybody would have wanted this guest to be fed,

because when that guest left that town, he would have said, that's an amazing town.

They're great people.

And so when Jesus' followers listened to this, they couldn't even imagine the excuses that he gave them.

I mean, we all know that baking is a communal thing.

You baked together.

You made your food together.

Everyone would have known who went to the bakery that day and made bread.

And everybody would have known who had bread left over.

And everybody would have known that you never give a guest, an honored guest,

you never give an honored guest half of a loaf of bread.

That's disgraceful.

No one would ever, ever do that.

And so the sleeper, as he's behind his door, he listens and he understands,

and he hears this guest.

And the guest doesn't knock, because that's in the next paragraph.

But the guest is yelling out,

Hey, I have a guest.

I need your help.

Well, the minute he said that, everyone in the village would have known what was going on.

Everyone would have known that I have this need, and I'm going to the sleeper,

and the sleeper has to help me, because if he doesn't help me, the whole village is disgraced.

And so he yells out, Hey, leave me alone.

My kids are away.

And again, everybody who listened to that would have said, That's foolishness.

The passage says here that as he looks at this guy and he prays out to this guy,

he doesn't knock.

He speaks.

He's persistent.

That word, you've got to circle that.

There's a lot of problem with that word.

The word actually in Greek and Aramaic means because of his character.

It means because he doesn't want to be shamed.

And so sometimes when we read this passage, we read verse 8, and we say,

Well, I tell you, he will not get up and give him anything because of his friend,

yet because of his persistence.

But it's not because of the friend's persistence.

But it's because the guy's in the house.

And the guy's in the house, he's worried about how everybody's going to think about him.

Because if he doesn't get up and give his friend bread, everyone's going to think he's terrible.

He's a terrible guest.

And everybody would know in his culture that everyone is always expected to meet the minimal needs.

And bread was a minimal need.

I mean, bread isn't even the meal.

You know, in Jesus' day, when they ate, bread wasn't even the meal.

Bread was the fork and the spoon and the knife.

And so when this guy came and he knocked and the sleeper woke up,

the host is giving him the most humblest of requests.

And what he's basically saying is,

Hey, I have this really important person who's come over and I'm desperate.

I don't have anything to give him.

I have nothing to give him.

And when Jesus' culture heard this story,

they would have realized a couple things.

They would have realized first,

that not only does a host have no bread,

but he has nothing.

He has nothing.

Or he has nothing worthy enough for his guest.

Now we read this and we think,

Well, it's all about bread, but it's not about bread.

It's kind of like if you're a parent.

Okay, yet you have kids that are coming back from college.

And your kids come to you after dinner and say,

Hey, let's go to a movie.

What are they asking?

Are they asking to go to a movie?

Well, they're asking to go to a movie,

but what else are they asking?

Can you pay for it?

And that's what they're asking, right?

And my kids go, Let's go to Toys R Us.

I want to get a gift.

Well, in my mind as a parent,

what are they asking me?

They're saying, Hey, I have no money.

I can't buy this.

I need you to come with me to buy this gift.

And so when people heard this guy,

this host yell out to his friend,

they would have realized that he has nothing

and that his needs are massive.

Massive.

It's interesting in this passage,

you read the passage,

I know this because you look at what it says.

He says this,

He will get up

and give him as much as he needs.

It's not just about bread,

but it's about the massive needs this guy has.

He needs everything.

His life is out of control.

He has nothing worthy to put up.

He has nothing to do.

He can't do anything.

And so he goes to the sleeper

and he yells out to the sleeper

and the sleeper in embarrassment says,

Okay, here, take whatever you need.

And the sleeper does that

because he doesn't want to be shamed.

He doesn't want people to look at him as a bad man,

as a bad guest,

a bad host.

But the guy needs everything

and so he goes to the house.

And Jesus asks this question to us

and he says,

What do you need?

Why do you pray?

How do you come to God?

I mean, do we come to God

and pray because

we just need a little boost up?

We just need a little help

to get over this next hump?

We just need a little help

to get over this last layoff?

We just need a little help.

Or do we come to God

like the host in the passage

and he says,

I'm desperate.

I have nothing.

I need everything.

The parable is one of desperation.

The parable is one of the person

who's going,

who has great needs.

And the Bible says of you and me

that we both,

all of us,

are just like that host.

That you and I sitting in here right now

have as much needs as we had

when we first met Christ.

Now we might not feel that way,

we might not think that way.

We might be thinking,

well, I got salvation

so I can just work things out on my own

and everything else

is going to work out good.

But Jesus is telling his audience

and he's telling us,

no.

You need everything.

You don't just need the fork.

You need the spoon.

You need a meal.

You need the drink.

You need everything.

But I think sometimes

in our self-reliance

we become lost.

And when we pray

and we approach God

we don't realize how empty

and how hopeless

things are.

But the parable is really clear

that the man comes

and he needs everything.

And the host,

the sleeper who's sleeping in the house

gets up

not because he cares for his friend

but because he doesn't want to seem

selfish

in everyone else's eyes.

and he gives everything

to his friend.

The key to this passage

is that the host,

he realized that he had nothing

but he knew where to go

to get what he needed.

The host had nothing

but he knew where to go

to get what he needed.

And that's the question

that Christ asked of us today.

Do we realize

how desperate we are?

Do we realize

we need everything?

Do we realize

where to go

to get it?

Can you imagine

a good God

not wanting

to meet

all of our true needs?

What's your response?

Come on!

In Jesus' day,

he would tell this story.

And this story

always ends

with a negative response.

And the people would say,

no way.

Can you imagine

a good God

coming to him

with all of our true needs

and him

not meeting

those needs?

No way.

No way.

And Jesus says

if we don't understand that,

we've missed

the whole idea

of prayer.

We've missed everything.

Which leads me

to the final point

and it's found

in verse 9 through 13.

why?

Why do we approach God?

It's found in 9 through 13.

It's actually really

just found in verse 13.

If you then,

being evil,

know how to give good gifts

to your children,

how much more

will your heavenly Father

give the Holy Spirit

to those who seek him?

You see,

Luke bracketed

this passage

with Father

Father

and Father.

Pray our Father,

Abba,

our good Father.

And what he's trying

to show us

and try to show people

here in this passage

in us as a church

is that God is good.

That God knows

our needs.

That God cares for us.

That God wants

to provide for us

and the question is

do we see God as good?

Do we trust him?

Do we kind of trust him?

I mean,

we know that

scripture says he's good

but do I,

do I really,

do I really trust him?

Can I trust him?

Or should I hold back

just a little?

And trust myself?

The passage is meant

to point us

to a couple things.

The first thing

it shows us

is that our condition

is hopeless.

And that we need everything.

But more importantly

it's meant to point us

to God's character

and to show us

that God is good

and by his very nature

that he's going to

take care of us

on his spiritual journey

if we trust him.

I mean,

the passage shows us

and hopefully

this shows all of us

wherever you are

on this journey

if you're not

a Christ follower yet

or you've been

walking with God

for a long time.

But Christ

wrote this

and he spoke this

to show us

that we have

a true good neighbor.

That we have a neighbor

that we can go to

and we can trust him

and it doesn't have

to do with his fear

of how people

are going to respond

to him.

But the passage

says that God

is our true good neighbor.

That his door

is always open

that he's always good

he's always ready

to meet our true needs

he's always there

to listen to us

not because he has to

but because it's

his character.

Can we trust him?

Do we understand

that he's there

and that he's a true friend

and he's ready

to meet everything?

The passage also shows us

that we have

a true good father.

I mean

do we realize

how crazy God

is about us?

And I step

very carefully here

because I realize

that all of us

struggle with our fathers

in some way

or another.

All of us deal

with certain issues.

Some of us have

amazing fathers.

Some of us have fathers

that weren't there.

The divorce statistics

are correct.

Half of us

don't have fathers now

or they're gone

somewhere.

They're not living

with our parents

not living with our wife

or mom.

But the passage

says that we have

a true good father

who gives us

everything we need.

In fact he gives us

the most greatest thing

which is his son

in the Holy Spirit.

You know I don't know

what you wrote

on that piece of card

but what God

is giving you

right now

and what he wants

to give you

is far greater

than that.

And the question is

can we trust him?

Do we believe

that he's good?

God is so good

that sometimes

we ask for a scorpion

and he says no.

God is so good

that in the deceptiveness

of my heart

sometimes I say

I really need

this snake

and God knows

that's going to bring death

and God says no.

God is so good

that he wants

perfect things

for his children

and the question is

can we trust him?

who do we go to?

Abba Father.

How do we go to him?

In expectation

that he would give us

everything we need

if we knew

everything that he knows.

Why do we go to him?

Because he's good

and he wants

the best for us.

Let's pray.

Father we thank you

for this day.

we thank you

for your goodness

in our life.

Father we thank you

for your word

which is living

and active

and true

and we pray

as your children

that we come before you

and we cry out

I think maybe

some of us

are crying out

for the first time

Abba Father.

Father we pray

as your children

that we would trust you

that we could come

before you

and realize

that you've withheld

nothing good

for us.

You've withheld

scorpions

you've withheld

snakes

you've withheld

things that I've

asked for

for 20 years

that if I had

gotten them

the way I wanted them

they would have

brought death

and destruction.

for your good

and so we come

before you

as your children

and we just lay

our lives

before you.

We thank you

that you are not

at arm's length

but that you are

in our face.

We thank you

that there's a place

that we can go

where all of our needs

will be met

that there's a door

that's always open

there's a person

always there

to answer

and to provide

not just bread

but everything

we need.

Father most importantly

we thank you

that you're good

and that we can

trust you

and so we come

before you

our good father

and we worship you

and we pray

all these things

in your son

Jesus Christ

holy name

amen.

Amen.