Luke The Orderly Account of Truth - God Answers His Children - Luke 11:1-13

All right. We've been in a series going through the

Book of Luke and it's called Luke The Orderly Account

of Truth. And we've been in the series for like

almost a year and a half now. It's been awesome. Yeah,

it's great. Woo. I promise we're going to be doing

some breaks here and there in the series eventually, but

we're gonna finish the Book of Luke because it's been amazing.

But Luke investigated and wrote an orderly account of everything

that happened when Jesus walked the earth, and the purpose

he did that was what he says, is for Theophilis.

But we also get the same benefit that Theophilis got, right,

we get to know the exact truth about who Jesus

is and what he taught. That's what's happening in the

Book of Luke. And last week Pastor Jordan showed us

how quickly our own priorities can get out of alignment.

We know that to be true right, our own priorities

can get out of whack in a split second. And

when that happens, when our focus shifts to the cares

of the world or the anxieties of life rather than

on God, then everything else in our life starts to

fall apart. I say, it's like trying to walk with

your spot out of alignment. He just doesn't work. Things

just don't work the way they're supposed to. When our

priorities are out of the order that God has set,

nothing works the way it's supposed to. It's only when

Jesus is central to everything in our lives, and then

we follow that we're following God's proper order and things

operate the way God intended. And we learned last week

that Mary understood that Jesus is the better thing to

focus on, that he is the one thing that can't

be and won't be taken away. Right. We saw that

from what Pastor Jordan was preaching last week. This week

we're gonna be starting in Luke chapter eleven, So you

guys can start turning there. If you don't have a Bible,

run out there to the resource desk a Bible sitting

on there. We want you to take that and keep

it if you don't have one. We're gonna be in

Luke chapter eleven, and it's gonna start with Jesus reminding

his disciples about the proper priority of things, even when

we're praying, it's not just things to be concerned about

or cared about or worried about. But even when when

we pray, there's a proper priority order. And one of

jesus disciples asks them to teach him how to pray.

So Jesus tells them the kinds of things to pray for.

He prays a shorter version of what we call the

Lord's prayer. But after telling them what kinds of things

to pray for, he tells them how they should pray,

or what I say is the posture they should take

when they pray. And then Jesus wraps it all up

by reminding the disciples that God is a good father

and he will answer as children. So the title today's

message is this God answers his children. God answers his children.

He does. We see it all throughout scripture. If you've

read any bit of the Old Testament, you've seen how

the children of Israel, we're constantly crying out to God

and he was answering them. They would get themselves into

trouble by forgetting who God was and turning to false idols,

and then they come crying to God to save them.

And you know what he did. Before you start thinking like, hey,

these Israelites, they screwed it up, but we're so much

better than they are. Before you start thinking that we're

any better, think about how many times you've cried out

to God for something, and some of those times, just

like the Israelites, it was our own fault that we

were in that situation. It was our own decisions and

choices that put us in that position. Not all of

the situations are like that. Some of them are outside

of our control, but some of them are our fault.

But even in those situations, the Lord still heard you.

He heard and because he hears you, and because he

hears his children, he answers them. He hears the cries

of his children, and he responds you, guys, ready to

read through the text? However, we're going to see what

Jesus is teaching his disciples and what he's teaching us today,

because it's the same message. It's not different. He's teaching

us what to pray for, how we should pray, and

the God will answer. Luke, chapter eleven, we're gonna be

in verses one through thirteen. One day, Jesus was praying

in a certain place when he finished, one of his

disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray, just

as John taught his disciples. 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 say, friend, lend me three loaves of bread.

Friend of mine is on a journey. Excuse me, 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 iron 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 knocking. The door will be open to you. For

everyone who asks receives. The one who seeks finds, and

the one who knocks, and to the one who knocks,

the door will be opened. Which of you, fathers, if

your son asks 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. It's a big chunk

of text, But you guys, see what Jesus is talking

about and teaching here. I mean, we're gonna break it

down so in case he didn't, we're still gonna dive

into all of it. But the big idea that I

want to that I think the text is arguing, and

that I would like to argue today. And if you're

taking notes, write this down. It's that God gives his

children what they truly need. So pray persistently and boldly.

God gives his children what they truly need, So pray

persistently and boldly. We can pray with boldness and persistent

tenacity as God's children because we know that He will

answer his children and he will give us what we

truly need. Caleb, can you keep your baby quiet. I'm

totally joking. That's a miracle baby over there, and I'm

so excited about it. Raise your hand. If you have kids, look,

this leads perfectly into our illustration here. Even if you

don't have kids, you've heard a kid who's just nagging

their parents for something. Right. You're walking through the grocery store.

Catty candy bar, cant candy bar? Can I have a

candy bar? Can have a candy bar? Or my personal favorite?

Please please, please, please please, over and over and over again.

There is zero shame when it comes to a child

asking their parents for something, right, There's no shame. They

don't have any shame. There's only persistence and shameless audacity.

They're not embarrassed to ask. They don't care if you're

busy or not right. They have no clue that fits

in the budget. They don't care if it's a healthy

decision for them or not. They don't even care for

to make him sick. They just want whatever it is.

That's just kids for you, and they're going to keep

asking for it. Low key. I kind of feel like

this is how Jesus is telling us to be with

God the Father in the text. So I want us

to go back and look and see. Let's see if

that's it. Let's see if that's what Jesus is saying.

Let's look at the first verse. 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. Jesus was praying. This

is something he would regularly. Do you read scripture any

of the Gospels, you will see Jesus is regularly praying.

We read back in Luke five sixteen that Jesus often

withdrew to lonely places and prayed. Or if you look

at Matthew fourteen twenty three, after sending the disciples on

ahead of him, he went up on a mountain side

to pray by himself. Or again in Mark chapter one,

verse thirty five, Jesus gets up super early in the

morning and goes off into a solitary place to pray.

Jesus regularly would be in prayer, constantly, be in prayer.

So the first thing I think we need to understand

from this, from the very beginning of this passage here

is this Christians are a praying people. Christians are a

praying people. We pray. That's what we do. The word

Christian literally means to be christ like. Whose example are

we following? Jesus? Whose model are we following? Jesus? We

do what Jesus did. We are to imitate him, follow

that model. You know what, he prayed, and he prayed

a lot. Jesus prayed, so we should pray too, well.

How much should we pray? First? Thessalonians five tells us

we should pray with out ceasing. Yeah, like constant, always

be in prayer, in constant connection and communication with God.

The Father always be in prayer. So Jesus doing what

he does all the time, praying to God. The Father

gets approached by one of his disciples. Here, can we

put that verse back up there? Verse number one. When

he finished praying, one of his disciples said to him, Lord,

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

So on this occasion his one of these disciples, at

least one of the disciples probably more was able to

see or hear Jesus when he's praying, and after seeing him,

he was driven to ask Jesus to teach them. He said,

teach us disciples to pray, and I wonder what did

he see or what did he hear that would have

him so intrigued. He's like, Jesus, teach us to do

what you just did. What did he see? Pible doesn't

give us that answer, but it's fun to speculate. But

they said tea or he said, teach us as John

taught his disciples, And that's John the Baptist. He's talking

about the one who was sent before Jesus to prepare

the way for him. And in the same way that

John taught his disciples, the followers, these followers of Jesus,

wanted him to teach them. So let's look at what

Jesus taught him. Let's go to verses two through four.

He said to them, when you pray, say Father, Halla

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 no

to temptation. This disciple wasn't asking what specific words should

I say to pray, And that's not what Jesus was

answering him. Jesus not telling them only say these words

in this succession. That's not what was going on here.

Is there anything wrong with reciting the Lord's prayer? Absolutely not.

There's nothing wrong with reciting the Lord's prayer. It's actually

a safe bet. If you don't know what to say,

I would say, pray it. But what we need to

do is we need to be mindful that it doesn't

turn into mindless recitation where our minds are now disengaged

and we're just praying these heartless prayers of repetition, things

that don't actually come from the heart. What's that dinner prayer?

Good food, good meat, good God, let's eat. It's quick

when you're hungry, and it works. But if you say

that every single day, does it start to lose its meaning?

Do you stop and to stop to consider what you're

actually saying. Isaiah prophesied the words of God when he said,

these people honor me with their lips, but their hearts

are far from me. The people would say the right things,

but their hearts just weren't in it. And Jesse and

I we talked to our boys about this. Basically every

single night at bedtime prayers and takes their turn praying,

and I remind them, I say, don't say the same

thing you say every night, pray from the heart. I

want you to pray from the heart. Don't just rush

through something mindlessly. I want you to actually think about

what you're saying, because you're praying to God, the creator

of the universe. And guess what, he's listening. He wants

to hear what you have to say. So he's actually listening.

I mean, do you find yourself repeating the same prayers

every day at some point? I definitely find myself repeating

some of those prayers sometimes. So it say, isn't just

a challenge for my boys, This is a challenge for me.

So it's fine to say the Lord's prayer, but I

want us to stop and consider what we're saying and

mean it. We need to mean it. Jesus isn't teaching

here that we should mindlessly and heartlessly repeat words. But

what he was teaching was the kinds of things to

pray for. And the first thing he says is Father,

how be your name? So what this tells us is

he's speaking to the children of God. He's speaking to

the people of Israel. And just to bring into our

current context he's speaking he would be speaking to Christians too,

write or believers. So what he's saying right here, is

this is a prayer for believers or followers of Jesus. Well,

he's Jesus, so be followers of God. But this is

a prayer for believers. The prayer for unbelievers would be

what the tax collector said in Luke eighteen. He said, God,

have mercy on me, a sinner. That's the prayer of

the unbeliever, not our father, because the unbeliever, it's not

his father yet to be adopted, fought, and to the

family is one who's a believer. So this prayer that

Jesus is talking about the things to pray for, he's

speaking to people who are followers of God, to the

children of God. But I love the contrast that he

starts with here. I don't know, I don't know if

you saw it or it just was hitting me in

the face, But the contrast between the word father and

the word hallowed. I think there's a huge contrast between

these words. He's showing the two sides of our interaction

that we have with God the Father. The first is

he's our father, which means we can have an intimate

personal relationship with him, a very close relationship with him.

He's a loving father. He cares for us, he provides

for us, He protects us, he teaches us, he blesses us,

He lifts us up, and we fall down and scrape

our knees. He is everything that a perfect, loving father is.

That's who God the Father is. That's one side. The

other side is that his name is hallowed. His name

is so what is hallowed me? And it means holy,

to be honored, shown great respect, to be revered. When

he speaks, you listen, You obey his commands. You seek

out his plans for things rather than ours. You do

the things that make him proud. You speak well of

him to others. He is holy to be revered. These

are the two sides that I see this contrast of

how we interact with God. He's our father, so we

can have this intimate, personal, awesome relationship with him, but

he's also holy, sovereign, and all powerful. It's both at

the same time, perfectly to love and to respect, to

worship and to fear, to stand in pure adoration, and

to revere. I rhymed, that was cool. It didn't mean

to do that. That's who we are praying to. That's

who God the Father is, and it's after that, after

understanding who it is we're praying to that Jesus switches

and tells us what to pray for. We acknowledge who

God is, and then we pray that verse two, your

kingdom come. That's what we're praying for. Father, hallow'd be

your name. Your kingdom come. Sometimes people to skip right

over verse two and go straight to verse three as

the first request. That's not the first request in this verse.

The first request is your kingdom come. That is the

very first thing that's being asked for. Whose kingdom his

God's kingdom, not our kingdom. We're asking for God's kingdom

to come. But what does it mean to pray that

God's kingdom would come? That your kingdom would come? Means

to pray that his rule, his reign, his plans, his purposes,

his will, his desires would all be fulfilled. That's what

praying that his kingdom would come would be, that all

those things would be fulfilled. And I think of like,

if you've read or think about any fantasy era story

with a king in it, You've ever seen a movie about,

read about or whatever, or listen to a podcast about

there we go think about any of those situations. Just

long live the king every time, no matter what happens. Right,

we're all in the court, the king's sitting on the throne.

He's like, I don't like your face off with your head?

What does everyone say? Long live the king? Hope you

like my face? Right? Long live the king. What you

say goes the whole kingdom lives to honor the king's

headship Weno. I mean, God's not a just lopping off heads.

By the way, I don't mean to make it sound

like that, but we acknowledge God's lordship in our lives.

And a way that we do that is we submit

to and pray that His will and his kingdom would

come always. Why won't you really stop for a second

think about it, stop and really evaluate, like, what are

the things you're asking God for? Whose kingdom and will

are they most concerned with? Are you more concerned with

asking for things for your kingdom or for God's kingdom?

Does what I want supersede what God wants? Do my

desires supersede God's desires? And we should be actively praying

for His kingdom and will to come, that His plans

would come to fulfillment over ours. Before asking God for

anything else in our lives. Our greatest desire as his

children should be for His will to be done here

on earth, that his kingdom would come. That's what must

supersede all of my prayers. That's the first thing Jesus

lists out here. The first request before any other request

is made of God is that his kingdom would come.

But why Well, it's because will is perfect, his plans

are perfect. But I think most importantly it's because he's God.

He is king, He's the king, and our desires should

match our kings. Our desires should match our fathers. Once

we recognize who God is, we should submit to his

will in all things. And after praying for that, this

is when Jesus shifts over and starts to talk about

our needs. And this is what I meant when I

was saying that Jesus is kind of correcting our priority

order even in our prayers. But let's look at verses

three and four. 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. And

I see kind of two major categories here. I see

our practical needs being prayed for and our spiritual needs.

Being prayed for give us each day is speaking to

the practical daily needs that we have. We're humans, we

need stuff to live and be alive. Right, Jesus is

telling us to ask the Father for these things. And

it's not like God doesn't know what we need. He

created us. He created the human body, so he knows

exactly what we need. He knows how the body works.

But look at the end of Matthew chapter six, verses

thirty one through thirty four, So do not worry saying

what shall we eat, or what shall we drink? Or

what shall we wear? For the pagans run after these

all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you

need them. But seek versus his kingdom and his righteousness,

and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore,

do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.

Each day has enough trouble of its own. And verse

thirty four is a message in and of itself that

we don't have time to preach today. But he knows

that we need air and food and water, and show

he knows that God the Father knows that he knows

it before we even ask for those things. And Jordan

and I actually were talking about it this past week

that if God already knows what we need before we pray,

then why do we need to pray at all? I mean,

it's a valid question. Why do we need to pray?

If God already knows. God is omniscient or all knowing.

That means he literally knows everything. He knows all and

he brings his will to pass by his own means.

So why would we pray and ask him? Then? We'll

simply put because he tells us to. He tells us

to ask. Look at Philippians, chapter four and verse six,

do not be anxious about anything. You see a theme

here about not being anxious or not worrying. We need

to be told that a lot. Do not be anxious

about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition,

with thanksgiving, present your requests to God, ask him. Ask

God for what you need. We're being told right here

to ask God for what we need. Even though he

knows what we need before he asks, before we ask,

he still wants us to come and ask him to

continually rely on him for everything, to rely on Him

for everything that we need. As a child, comes to

their parents for the things they need. We should come

to God for the things we need. We know that

our kids need to eat to live. We know that,

but they still come and ask for food when they're hungry.

We come to God daily for our needs. That's why

He says, give us each day our daily bread. Doesn't

say weekly, doesn't say monthly, doesn't say twice a year

on Christmas Eve and Easter. Daily every day. It's a

constant state of reliance and need on God the Father.

And I love how proverb thirty puts it, this is

I forget. This is in the Bible sometimes, so when

I rediscovered, I'm like, oh, yeah, this is so good.

Two things I ask of you, Lord, Do not refuse

me before I die. Keep falsehood and lies far from me.

Give me neither poverty nor riches. But give me only

my daily bread. Otherwise I may have too much and

disown you and say who is the Lord? Or I

may become poor and steal and so dishonor the name

of my God. I love those verses. Only give me

what I need for today, not too much, lest I

forget you and think I'm good on my own. I

don't need God but not too little, lest I sin

out of desperation. Give me just enough that I keep

coming back to the source of my provision and this God,

that is God our father. Right, this is these practical needs,

but it's not. We're not only asking God for the

practical needs. We're also going to ask him for our

spiritual needs too. Look at verse four again. Verse four

starts with forgive us our sins, for we also forgive

everyone who sins against us. The only way to receive

forgiveness is through faith in Jesus. That's the only way

to receive forgiveness from God is through faith or belief

in Jesus. He's Jehovah, Jirah. That's who God is. He's

our provider, not just for our physical needs, but he

provided for our spiritual needs. Here God is the one

who set up the whole plan to make it happen.

We go to God, our Father, for forgiveness nowhere else.

The reason we go to him is because he's the

one that we've transgressed against. Our transgressions are against him.

He's the one we sinned against. David understood this after

he slept with a married woman, got her pregnant, and

had her husband killed. David understood this because after he

did all that, he wrote Psalm fifty one. Well, he

got called up the prophet Nathan first, but he wrote

Psalm fifty one, and he said, in Psalm fifty one,

he says against you, you only have I sinned. I'm like,

wait a minute, you only, Dude, you sinned against Bathsheba, Uriah,

your entire country that you were a king over. You

sinned against a lot of other people. Well, what did

David say against you? You alone have I sinned. David

understood that anytime that we sin, we're sinning against God.

It's his laws that we broke. If God tells me

to love my wife a certain way and I don't

love her the way I should, Who's la died? I

break not hers. I broke God's way. Worse now, I'm

I for put up with the wrath of my wife

as well. But it's God's laws that I broke. He's

the one we've sinned against. He's the one who set

the standard for all of mankind to live by. The

only one who can forgive a debt is the one

that the sin and the dead is owed to the

one the sin is against and our dead of sin

is owed to God. That's why we go to him

for forgiveness. He provided the only way. Amen. But verse

four continues, and it makes a wild assumption. Look at

that verse four, for we also forgive everyone who sins

against us. Doesn't say we should. What does that say?

For we also forget it? We do it. This is

an assumptive part of the sentence forgive us our sins,

the request for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.

That is just an assumptive fact that's being said here.

It's an assumption that the children of God would forgive others,

that Christians forgive. But why is that assumed? Why is

it assumed that Christians would forgive? Because if there's anybody

on this earth who understands forgiveness, it's Christians. We've been

saved by grace through faith, not by works. There is

nothing we could have ever done to deserve forgiveness. It's

a free gift of God. The Lord has freely given

it to us as a gift. Therefore, how could we

ever withhold forgiveness of another? How could we ever withhold forgiveness?

But they didn't deserve it? Neither did you neither did I.

But they didn't apologize, They didn't ask for forgiveness. Well

before God revealed who Jesus is, you hated God and

you would never ask or you would never apologize. You

would never ask for forgiveness. But they might hurt me

again or sin against me again. Can you count the

times you've sinned against God? I can't forgive because we

understand the forgiveness that we've received. This is a hard

pill to swallow sometimes, but we understand forgiveness. That's why

we extend forgiveness. We understand grace, which is why we

extend grace and mercy. To not forgive is to show

that you don't actually understand the forgiveness that you claim

to have received. And I would argue that those who

withhold forgiveness should question their own sanctification or their own salvation.

Excuse me. In Matthew chapter six, after teaching the Lord's Prayer,

Jesus himself said, for if you forgive other people when

they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

But if you do not forgive others their sins, your

Father will not forgive your sins. Sounds like a condition

for salvation. But no, it's a result of salvation that

we forgive. It's because we have received forgiveness that we

freely give it out to others. How many times we forgive?

One of disciples asked that too, seventy times seven, which

is an illustration or a way to describe all the

times we always forgive, because those who received this undeserved

forgiveness from the Lord couldn't imagine a time, could not

imagine a time where they would withhold forgiveness of another.

The last part of verse four here says and lead

us not into temptation. And there's something I think we

need to clear up about this that God doesn't tempt us.

James Chapter one, verse thirteen to fourteen says God cannot

be tempted by evil, and he doesn't tempt anyone. Says

that our temptations come from our own evil desires within.

So if God isn't the one who's tempting us, then

what does this verse mean? And I think this is

a prayer of protection that as we go about our

way following the Lord's will and plan that means submitting

to his decisions right, that we would be protected from temptation,

that we would be protected from falling into sin. And

this is a prayer that I think we can take

confidence in praying because God has made us promises. And

I want us to look at First Corinthians, chapter ten.

We look at verse thirteen. No temptation has overtaken you

except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful.

He will not let you be tempted beyond what you

can bear. But when you are attempted, He will also

provide a way out so that you can endure it.

That's a beautiful promise that even when we're attempted, God

promises that it won't be more that we can bear,

and He always provides a way out. Say about us,

when we sin means we chose not to take the

way out that got provided. We are no longer slaves

to sin. That means we have the ability to say

no when tempted. And when I was reading through this

and thinking through this, I thought about you know, when

you're driving down the road and you're following your GPS,

I get lost going everywhere, so I always have my

GPS going and you see some traffic coming up, what

does your GPS do? Your GPS suggests another route, to

bypass the traffic. As anyone who's driven into California or

going towards LA, you get down there and it's like, oh,

would you like to go around LA because it's traffic

is just terrible going through there. It suggests another way,

gives you another route. So now instead of the one

path you had initially, the GPS has now given you

two paths. The question becomes which path do you take?

Which route do you follow? Do you continue to walk

toward the temptation or do you take the new route

the new way out that God has provided lead us

not into temptation. Is praying that God would protect us

as we're following him. We are following his directions and

his directives, and we're walking in his path and plans,

and we're praying that God will protect us along the way.

We deal with enough temptation as it is. Lord, So

I'm praying, please lead my path in a way that

doesn't add to it and protect me when it comes.

Does that manke sense you guys? Tracking with that? Okay?

So just to recap these verses two through four, and

it's going to start speeding up really fast, so put

on your seat belt, but just to recap verses two

through four. Our loving Father, who is holy and to

be revered, we pray and ask that your rule and

rain would come to earth, that you would give us

what we need for today, and forgive our sins as

we extend the same forgiveness to others, and please protect

us from the temptation to sin as we go about

our day following you. It's a pretty quick summary of

verses two through four. So we're gonna go through these

next two parts pretty quick because they're illustrations to help

Jesus make that he's giving to help him make his point.

And so he's going to start by telling us the

posture that we should take when we pray, told us

the kinds of things to pray for. Now he's going

to say the posture that we should take. Let's look

at verses five through eight. Then Jesus said to them,

suppose you have a friend and you go to him

at midnight and 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 doors already

locked and my children and iron 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. Life was different back then than it is now.

Living conditions and traveling. They didn't have cars, so there

wasn't a quick day trip somewhere and then drive back

home in the same day. You would go somewhere, it

would take a while to walk there, maybe ride on

an animal, and then you'd stay there for a little while.

And hospitality was a big deal for the Israelites. It

wasn't just a big deal. God commanded it right. So

if a friend showed up in the middle of the

night and you weren't ready for them, you might run

to your neighbor's house banging on the door asking for

three loaves of bread because they showed up and you

weren't ready. But the living conditions were also different back then.

Most of the houses were small and had one room,

so there might be a big mat that you just

lay out in the middle of the floor, and the

whole family sleeps on that mat at night. So it

makes sense if your neighbor came banging on the door

that you might send them away because you're literally if

your whole family's literally asleep around you, you're like, stop

banging on the door. You're gonna wake up my wife

and kids, Like go away, because we're all sleeping in

the same area. But what does verse eight say? Can

we go back and look at verse eight? I tell you,

even though he will not get up and give you

the bread, because of friendship, this is a friend here.

He's like, go away, friend, I'm not giving you anything. Yeah,

because of your shameless audacity, he will surely get up

and give you as much as you need. Because of

your shameless audacity, those words can be understood as persistent boldness,

your persistent boldness. This guy just won't give up. If

I don't get out of bed, he's gonna wake up

my whole family. So he finally will get out of bed.

Because of your persistence, he will get up and give

you as much as you need. And after giving this illustration,

what conclusion does Jesus come to after he gives us illustration?

What directive does he give? And we're gonna look at

the next two verses this persistent boldness. He says, so

I say to you, asking, it will be given to you. Seeking,

you will find. Knocking the door will be open to you.

For everyone who asks receives, the one who seeks finds,

and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

Jesus says, be the persistent neighbor when you're asking, Be

the persistent neighbor, ask, seek, and knock. He just finished

telling us the kinds of things we should be praying for,

right verses two through four, But now he tells us

how we should be asking. We should ask with persistence,

or persistently ask for these things, to boldly ask for

these things with shameless audacity. We should ask for these

things because those who ask will receive. Those who seek

they will find, and those who knock the door will

be opened. God answers his children. God answers his children.

That's funny because Jesus is basically saying, if you bother

someone enough, they'll eventually get sick of hearing from you,

and they'll give you what you want. This example, he's giving,

how many times have you given into your kids because

they wouldn't stop nagging you? Right? Fine, Yes, whatever, just

leave me alone. You can have it. Get out of

my face. Now, I don't think God responds like that,

even though we do. It's pretty much how Jesus is

telling us how to pray, to have that kind of

persistence with God the father, to have that shameless audacity

when praying to God, because he's not like an earthly father.

He doesn't say, fine, whatever, get on my face. He's

not like an earthly father. No, he's our perfect, heavenly father.

Look at the last three verses. What is Jesus talking

about here? Which of you fathers, if your son asked

for official, will give him a snake and said, or

if he asks you 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. Even an evil earthly father,

when they're asked with shameless audacity by their children, will

give good gifts. And evil there if you look at

the word, it actually means bad of bad nature or condition.

In an ethical sense, evil, wick and bad, which is

literally all humanity. So even us bad natured fathers will

still give good gifts to our children when they ask.

We know how to give good gifts, But how much

more will God, who is pure and holy, our heavenly Father,

give the Holy Spirit to those who ask. God gives

his children what they truly need. What's our greatest need?

What is our greatest need? Over all things that we need?

Someone's like we need to breathe? No, we need a

solution to our sin problem. Because if you bite the

dust and that isn't taken care of, eternity is a

long time. Our greatest problem, our greatest need is a

solution for our sin problem. And God is God. The

Holy Spirit is our seal. He's our guarantee that we

are forgiven that we will receive the promise eternal life.

The Holy Spirit is also the source of all good

things in our life. Life the source of everything we need.

And I read a really good quote from John MacArthur

this week that I want to read. It's kind of long.

To those who ask for a gift, he gives the

giver to those who ask for an effect. He gives

the cause to those who ask for a product. He

gives the source to those seeking comfort. He gives the

comforter to those seeking power. He gives the source of

power to those seeking help. He gives the helper to

those seeking truth. He gives the spirit of truth to

those seeking love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,

self control. He gives the producer of all those things,

the indwelling Holy Spirit is the source of every good

thing in the Christian's life. That's awesome, God, the Holy Spirit,

God himself is the source of every good thing in

the life of a Christian. And verse thirteen. Here is

reminding us that God is a good father and he

gives us what we need. He gives us the Holy

Spirit when we ask him, thank you God, that you

don't leave us spending for ourselves, trying to solve our

own problem. Thank you for not leaving us in our need.

But you are Jehovah Jireh, and you provided for us.

You meet our truest and deepest needs. Can I have

the team come up? God answers his children. God provides.

God provided the way for us to be forgiven of

our sins, made a new creature, and received eternal life.

He commands people everywhere to repent of their sin and

to believe in Jesus. And for those that do, we

receive the greatest gift of all, to be reconciled to

the creator of all things, and to be adopted into

the family of God and call his child. So for

those of us who have already been called out of

darkness into light, who have moved from spiritual death to

spiritual life, fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, what do

we do with today's text? What do we do with

what we just learned from today? And I think the

biggest encouragement I see from the text is to pray.

We should pray that him, what peace we often forfeit,

what needless pain we bear, all because we do not

carry everything to God in prayer, the source of all

good things, the Good Father, who always gives good gifts,

who gives the Holy Spirit to those who ask. We

can ask, we can actually have a conversation with Him.

We already read in Flippings four that we shouldn't be

anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition,

with thanksgiving, present your requests to God, we should bring

everything to God. Bring it all to God. But it

also says in Hebrews four verses fourteen through sixteen. Therefore,

since we have a great high priest who has ascended

into heaven, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold

firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not

have a high priest who is unable to empathize with

our weaknesses. But we have one who has been tempted

in every way just as we are. Yet he did

not sin. Then here's the kicker. Let us, then, because

of all this, let us then approach God's throne of

grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and

find grace to help us in our time of need.

We don't serve and follow a God who doesn't know

what we're going through. He entered into humanity to literally

walk in the shoes of mankind. He knows, and because

of that we can approach him with confidence and receive

mercy and grace to help us in our time of need. So,

if you're a believer, pray, pray all the time about everything.

Thank him for stuff, ask him for stuff I don't know,

wrestle with things you don't understand. The scripture with him

all the time. Just pray, Just pray without ceasing, in

constant communication and fellowship with God. But I do have

a question. What about when God says no? What about

when he says no? We're more specific to today's text,

because they were asking for stuff and God gave him

the Holy Spirit? What about when He answers your prayer

in a way you didn't expect, or with something you

weren't asking for. You ask for one thing and He

gave you another. What do you do then? Praise be

to God? Do you trust his answer? We've all prayed

to God and asked for things we didn't get. We

might have prayed God, please let me get that promotion.

Please help me find a new job, Please help me

find a spouse. Please heal my sickness, still sniffling, Please

help my brother out of his addiction. Please heal my

family member's cancer. Please save my dad, Please save my children.

Pray that every night. But what happens when God answers

our prayers in a way we didn't expect or weren't

hoping for. What if he straight up says no, do

you trust his answer? Think about your todd They're begging

you to eat an entire bag of cotton candy from

the fair. I did that and threw up in a

movie store. It was terrible. What's your answer? No, you

can't eat the whole bag of cotton candy, that's the

obvious answer, right, No, you can't eat the whole thing.

Maybe you can eat some of it, or how about

we eat some real food first, some real dinner food,

and then you can have some after dinner. But why

do you say no? Why don't you give them exactly

what they're asking for? Why don't you give them the

answer they want? It's because you know better. You know

better than what they're asking for. You know, it's not

good for them to eat the whole bag that they're

probably gonna throw up in a movie store. Do you

not think that God knows what's best? Do you not

think that God knows what he's doing? And I'm not

just talking about what's best for us, I mean what's

best for his plans. You know that God is here

and he's trying to accomplish something on earth. Right. God

has a plan that he's trying to accomplish, not trying,

he's going to accomplish it. He has a plan that

he's working out, and you and I not the center

of it. As valuable and loved by God as we are,

because He knows the hairs on your head. Right before

the foundations of the world. He knitted you together in

your mother's womb, prepared good works for you to do

in advance. We're valuable to God and as valuable and

as love as we are by God. We are not

the center. He is the center. He is the center

of everything. That means saying yes to every single one

of our prayer requests or answering our prayers in exactly

the way we want might not be in his plans

for what he is accomplishing. But I don't want you

to feel alone when it comes to God not answering

the prayers you want in the way you want them

to be answered, because there's actually two people that we

need to remember that God said no to. Paul asked

God more than once to remove the thorn in his flesh,

and God told him no. He said, my powers made

perfect in weakness. So God left that thorn in Paul's

flesh in his side so that he would rely on

the strength of God rather than on his own to

do the job that God called him to do. So

God says no to Paul. But God also said no

to Jesus. Think about when Jesus was praying in the

garden before he was crucified. He said, if it's your will,

take this cup from me, but not my will, but

yours be done well. Jesus was still crucified, which means

God said no to that prayer request. The cup didn't

not passed from Jesus. So if God tells you no

to hear to your prayer requests, or if it answers

them in a different way than you expected, you're among

good company Paul and Jesus. But we need to remember

a very very important promise from God. Scripture tells us

that all things work together for the good of those

who love Him and are called according to his purpose.

God not only ordains the end of things, but he

also ordains the means to that end, and all of

it culminates and ultimate good for us. How I don't know,

but I believe it when he says it. So do

I trust him on the journey? Do I trust that

his answer is best? Do I trust that he knows

what He's doing? Do I accept and submit to the

answer he gives me? He's my father? Do I accept

the answer? Do I submit to it. Do I believe

that when I pray for His kingdom to come and

His will to be done, that it's for my good?

Do I believe that? Can we put the big idea

back on the screen. God gives his children what they

truly need, So pray persistently and boldly. It's all about trust, though,

Do you trust him? Do you trust that what He's

giving you is truly what you need? That he said no,

you can't eat the whole bag of cotton candy. It's

a stupid example, but it makes sense when God says no,

you can't have the whole bag of cotton candy. Do

you trust that that's what you truly need? Trust? As

children of God, we come to the Father when we

need something. We come to God, our Father, like our children,

come to us with persistence, boldness and shameless audacity. Should

never be as shamed. Ask God for anything. He might

tell you no, and it's a good thing that he

tells you no. But with boldness and persistence we go

to God. He answers our prayers with what we truly need.

As high as as the heavens are higher than the earth,

God's weighs are higher than ours. His thoughts are higher

than ours. He knows what's best, and he knows what's better,

So when he answers us, we submit to him and

trust his answer is good. Amen. Can you guys stand

to your feet please,