Luke 11:1-13 - Wills and Requests

Well, church, we're in Luke 11, and we are in Christmas season.

And what better time to think about the gifts that God has given to us than this time?

We often rightfully think about Christ coming, being a gift of the Messiah, Emmanuel, God with us.

This morning we're going to take a little bit of time and look at the gift of the Holy Spirit and prayer.

You know, prayer is probably the single best indicator of our spiritual health.

And it's not just if you pray, right?

Because there's a lot of people who can spend time doing this, but it's how you pray and what you pray for.

It's obviously one of the most personal elements of our spiritual walk.

It's the one that I think most Christians just struggle with, feel the most defeated about, is their prayer time.

Always wish there was more prayer time in our lives.

We wish our prayer time felt more joyful and lively.

We felt like it wasn't, we feel like sometimes we wish it wasn't a burden.

But prayer is a discipline, nonetheless, just like scripture reading.

We're called to pray.

And here Jesus is praying, and he finishes praying, and his disciples ask him this question.

Can you teach us to pray?

John has taught his disciples how to pray.

Can you teach us how to pray?

If you're familiar with the Lord's prayer and familiar with this passage and a similar passage in Matthew, you know there's a slight difference.

And commentators talk about why and different things, but it's clear that the Holy Spirit, through Luke, wants us to look at this prayer.

And some people actually call this the disciples' prayer.

The disciples are learning how to pray.

The thing is, in our day and age, and I think this isn't new to us or unique to us, but we can often view prayer as this transaction.

And even the most holy and godly of us and well studied, we would know there's a lot more to that, but it's kind of a transaction.

I have a need, I'm going to go to the Lord in prayer.

I have a desire, someone else has a need, I'm going to go to the Lord in prayer.

And there's something that's really true about that.

We're taking our burdens to the King of Kings, to the Lord of Lords, to the sovereign creator of the universe for a reason.

We're not taking our prayers to Mary or Saint Peter or anyone else, right?

Because they're people.

We're taking our prayers right to God.

We're asking him to do something for us.

But I believe that prayer is actually more about God changing us into his image than it is about us getting what we're asking for.

I'm not saying God doesn't answer prayers according like our prayers specifically.

He does all the time.

But I'm saying is it's actually more about God changing you more into his image than it is about you getting what you're asking for.

Having said that, God loves to answer prayers.

And he uses our prayers.

It's a mystery, but he uses our prayers to accomplish his plans.

I think prayer is one of those categories in the Christian faith that you have to be okay with some mystery.

Right?

One sense, prayer is simple.

It is really simple.

It's you talking to God.

It's you communicating, talking to God.

And we know that prayer is required as Christians.

Like, how are we to repent if not through prayer?

How are we to ask for the Lord to forgive us?

How are we going to ask for the Lord to grant us salvation?

All these things.

It's through prayer.

We're talking to God.

But prayer is also mysterious.

How does he hear me?

Does he always hear me?

Does sometimes it that he doesn't hear me because of my sin?

How is it that you can have two people praying for the opposite thing, two godly people praying for the opposite thing, and yet the Lord somehow works all those things out?

Or how is it that the Lord's plans are tied to my prayers?

So what if I don't pray?

Does that change God's plan?

And one of the kindnesses of the Lord in the Christian faith is he doesn't just spell everything out, right?

But rather, he invites us into a relationship.

Where as we get to know who he is and we get to trust him, some of our big questions and the big tensions in our lives or our theology or these mysteries that might feel so confusing and so um befuddling that we just we can't get past it.

But as we get to know who God is, his nature, his character, those begin to melt away.

Because all of a sudden, or not so all of a sudden, but over time you realize I don't know, but God is good and he's sovereign and he said so.

You know, in parenting, there's this idea that you should never tell your kids to obey because I said so.

You shouldn't do that.

Because their kids, you should tell them, you should have a good reason.

If you're gonna say no to your child, you should have a good reason for saying that.

And I think I mostly agree with that.

At the same time, my kids need to obey because I said so.

I'm the dad, they're the kid, and they need to listen.

As they get older, I need to help them understand why.

If I never help them understand why they need to obey, then they're not gonna trust me as an authority.

And they're eventually they will not listen to me as an authority.

There are times, especially when they're younger, when it's just, this is just what I said.

And similarly, the Lord does things, and it's because he said so.

And we will find out eventually, if we need to.

And if we don't, the Lord said so.

That's good.

And that should not push us into apathy.

That shouldn't just push us kind of back on our heels and be like, well, I don't know.

God just said so.

As if that's our defense against the arguments of the world or things that are difficult for us.

This morning I want to talk first and foremost about how our wills are transformed through prayer.

That's the first point.

Our wills are transformed through prayer.

Jesus is with his disciples, and he teaches them when you pray, Father, hallowed or holy or sacred be your name.

Your kingdom come, give us each day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us, and lead us not into temptation.

So Jesus begins with telling them, learning to pray, write theology.

He doesn't say, when you come, just kind of speak out to the universe.

Right?

And maybe that sounds silly, but I think that's a common thing.

How many movies you see, someone's in trouble, and they start, God, if you're out there.

No, that's not how it works.

Father, first and foremost, we're to pray to God the Father.

This brings up questions.

Do we ever pray to Jesus?

We pray to the Holy Spirit?

Well, there could be room and opportunity for that.

However, predominantly, primarily, our prayers are to the Father.

And what kind of Father are we praying to?

An absent father?

A reckless father?

A father who's caught up in running the universe and too busy for us?

No, we're calling upon a holy father.

So our holiness comes out of our prayers.

And this doesn't mean that we have to have really eloquent words and all the right theology every single time we pray.

Hopefully, if you're a Christian, you pray a lot just as you're going about life, as you're going from work or going to get the kids, or you're just going to different things, you're taking out the trash, whatever.

You're praying.

However, hopefully, in that, even in the casualness, if you will, the regularity of it, there is a holiness to it.

There is a sacredness in your mind that I'm praying to God, the creator of the universe, who is holy, holy, holy.

And the next thing that we're called to pray for is that his kingdom would come, which is a reality that will happen.

If you've heard the phrase, we're in the already, in the not yet, the already and the not yet of the kingdom of heaven.

Christ is come, he's established his kingdom.

There's elements that are elements of those things that are at play already.

Regenerated souls.

The Lord working to make things new.

So it's already starting, but it hasn't fully come to pass yet.

It's not yet fully consummated.

So our prayer is not, Lord, let my will or my kingdom be established.

First and foremost, this requires humility.

So we come to the Lord honoring him as Father, as holy, and that it's his kingdom.

I think we all know this intuitively.

If you take a moment and step back and you think, imagine if you were the king and what your kingdom would be like.

Everyone probably has a pretty good imagination, you know, it's probably pretty decent.

It's comfortable, everyone's fed, like there's no war, things are nice.

But whatever kind of kingdom you can conjure up in your mind, it's nothing compared to the kingdom of God.

It's nothing at all compared to the kingdom of God.

So this idea that we should come to the Lord petitioning for our own kingdom, it's ridiculous.

It's insane.

Our prayers, Lord, your kingdom come.

Because my kingdom, I'm a nice guy.

I like people, I like getting along with people, but I have my limits as far as my what I'm willing to sacrifice.

I have my limits on how much I want to forgive someone or who I want to bring into my kingdom.

But Jesus Christ, his kingdom, as he's reigning.

We're praying for that kingdom to come, to be established first and foremost in our own hearts, in our own lives, the way that we live, the way that we talk.

It's easy to say, we want the kingdom of heaven to come, we want all the good things to be blessings here, we want all the bad things taken away.

But we've got to understand that first and foremost, that begins with our own hearts.

Is that what you desire in your heart?

That King Jesus would rule?

The way that you talk, the way that you seek out entertainment and find comfort.

What your identity is in.

That kingdom, first and foremost, is established in our hearts.

We're sort of praying for that.

And we're trusting the Lord for these things, right?

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

Each day, Lord, provide for us our needs.

David would say in Proverbs, give us what, or Solomon, give me what I need for the day, that I might be satisfied in you.

We see this with the Israelites.

Manna would come from heaven, and the Lord says, take what you need for the day.

And what would they do?

Not listen, right?

Surprise, surprise.

And they go and they just gather as much as they could, and by the end, by the next day it was rotten.

They couldn't use it.

God's not saying, like, in 2025, don't go to the grocery store and buy milk or don't use a refrigerator.

But you and I know when we're trusting in ourselves and when we're trusting in the Lord.

And even if we go and we go to Costco and we stock up for a month, whatever, our hope is in Jesus.

That he's gonna still take care of us.

That all that goes away, material goods go away, he will provide for us.

But more than that, that he will sustain our spirit, that he will nourish us, that God will feed us what we need.

And because of that, because we're being nourished by him, we're then able to forgive others.

But Jesus doesn't say, now listen, begin by praying that you would forgive others.

Isn't that interesting?

I think that's my like intuition.

I need to forgive others, right?

But Jesus is saying, no, make sure that you're asking the Lord to forgive you.

All through this prayer, there's immense, immense humility.

Our thinking is beginning to change, our desires are being changed.

The way that we're seeing others around us is beginning to change.

We are asking the Lord to forgive us, and because we're asking Him to forgive us, we're gonna forgive others who've wronged us, who've sinned against us.

How could we ask the Lord to forgive us when we're not forgiving others?

And then he says, and lead us not into temptation.

How often we make excuses for our own sin.

And if you're a more mature Christian, you don't do this outright.

Like, well, God did this, you know, he caused me to sin.

You know, I was just doing my thing, and there was a bar, or there was a woman, or there was this opportunity.

It wasn't my fault.

We live in a day and age completely shot through with this victim mentality.

And there are a lot of wrong things that have happened to a lot of people, almost everyone.

And for some, it's significantly worse.

And I'm not trying to undermine any of those things.

But there can be this mentality, just kind of through the day and age, that man, it's not really my fault.

And what Jesus is teaching his disciples here is to begin to take responsibility.

If you're falling into sin regularly, are you genuinely praying for the Lord to help you?

It's one thing to sit by and say, I just wish I wasn't so sinful.

I wish I wasn't doing these things.

But are you asking the Lord?

Are you praying that the Lord might deliver you?

Is that what you really want?

So we have this right theology with this right priority, praying for the things of the kingdom, we're glorifying the Lord.

It's not really about us anymore, and that begins to change us.

Changes the way that we think, the way that we begin to serve and to minister to one another.

It changes our theology.

If we approach God as the guy in the sky and he's good, but but I'm just kind of here to get some trans, I need some help.

You got a situation, Lord?

Can you help me out?

That's one kind of theology.

And theology is just what you think about God.

Every single being on the planet has thoughts about God.

So we all have theology.

Okay.

Right theology is, well, he's Father God and He's holy, and He's coming and established through Christ his kingdom.

He's a provider, he's a forgivering, forgiving God.

So we get our theology right, and it changes us.

The very end of the Bible in Revelation 22, the last verses.

Because Jesus has told his disciples what to pray for.

To a holy God, that his kingdom would be established, and through his kingdom there'd be provision and forgiveness, deliverance.

And that's our prayer, Christian.

That's always been our prayer.

In the end of Revelation 22, John is writing, he says, he testifies to these things.

They say, Jesus says, Surely I am coming soon.

End quote.

John says, Amen.

Come, Lord Jesus.

The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you all.

Amen.

There is an echo in our hearts, even when we're going to the Lord in prayer over legitimate needs and concerns.

We're wanting the Lord to change our thinking, to reorient our heart to Him, to what He's doing.

That His kingdom would come, that He, King Jesus, would come again.

That He would establish His throne.

That we would be completely and fully rid of sin.

That we would know fully and completely His grace and His mercy and His love and His holiness.

So Jesus teaching His disciples how to praise and teaching them how to be transformed more into the image of God through prayer.

I just want to encourage you, Christian.

Again, I think a lot of us are struggle at times with prayer, can feel dry.

I'd encourage you to find someone and talk with them about that.

You're not gonna find anyone in here who's just like, I crush prayer.

I'm so good at it.

They're just not here.

Right?

And if they are, I promise you, they don't crush prayer, okay?

They're not that good.

So going to someone, someone you trust, and this isn't like, hey, here's me and here's my semi-load of dirty laundry, right?

Could be that.

But it could just be, hey, I'm struggling with prayer in my life.

Could you pray with me about that?

And can we maybe talk about that and encourage one another?

And I would imagine there's a really good chance the person might be, yeah, me too, let's do that.

Or they might say, you know, I I'm finally feeling some encouragement in that, and I know exactly where you're.

I would love to do that with you.

But if we acknowledge that we struggle with prayer, that we should do it more, but yet we don't do anything about that.

We just kind of keep it in our own head, in our own mind.

How concerned are we?

Like we're concerned enough, like we know we should be doing it, but uh clearly we're not concerned enough, we're not troubled enough to go and talk to someone else about it.

And there's a couple reasons for that.

It could be many, but one of those could be that you just don't take prayer that seriously.

Like you know you should do it, and you do pray, but you just don't take your prayer life that seriously.

That could be one.

Another one could be that, you know, we are, we tend to be private people.

And you might feel some kind of shame or some kind of negative emotion with this idea of going to someone else and saying, Hey, by the way, I want to let you know I'm a human.

Because that's what you're doing.

Because we are all humans, we all share 99.9% of the same struggles.

Right?

They might manifest slightly in different ways, but for the most part, they're all the same.

But yet we have this idea that everyone else is like crushing it.

Like they're doing great.

Like, yeah, have you heard them pray?

They must love Jesus so much.

It can cause us to be timid and shy.

And I just want to encourage you to go and talk to someone.

Talk to me, talk to Jimmy.

If you're not a CG, talk to your CG leader, their spouse, talk to someone about these things.

Don't just kind of keep to yourself and think that there's no hope in growing and maturing in your prayer life.

This really is so powerful in your sanctification, in your growing and maturing in Christ.

It's easy to think, well, I'll read the Bible, I'll pray, I'll go to church, and I'll keep growing.

But you'll hit a ceiling.

And oftentimes you're hitting a ceiling in your sanctification because your prayer life is not much.

It's fledgling, struggling tremendously.

There's no life there.

But when you're regularly praying, your desires do change, your hunger for righteousness changes.

The Lord transforms us through our prayers.

The Lord loves to answer our prayers.

Look at verse 5.

And he said to them, Which of you as a friend will give him at go will go to him at midnight and say to him, Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him.

And he will answer from within, Do not bother me at the door.

The door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed.

I just want to say, I don't think the Bible's proof texting, co-sleeping.

Alright?

Just in case you're wondering, you can do that too.

I cannot get up and give you anything.

I tell you, though, he will not get up and give him anything.

Will he not get up and give him anything because he is a friend?

Yet because of his impotence, he will rise and give him whatever he needs.

And I tell you, ask and it will be given to you.

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

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

Then what father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will give instead will instead of a fish give him a serpent?

Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion.

If you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?

There's a lot packed in here.

First, Jesus is just saying, like, trust the process.

Be persistent in your prayer.

If you read this and you think, well, that must be like God who just doesn't want to answer my prayers, but if I just keep banging on his door, he's gonna get kind of annoyed, and he doesn't want to stir up the whole house, so he'll go and answer my prayers.

No.

That's not you're missing the text.

What he is saying is there is something to the persistence.

Praying with persistence again and again, asking the Lord to answer this prayer.

And there's all kinds of things we should think about.

Is our prayer a good thing?

Is this honoring the Lord?

Is this glorifying?

Do we think this would fit within his will?

We don't know if it does, but do we think it could?

Right?

Like there's some really clear answers, like if we're praying for sinful things, right?

Um, if the Lord answers your sinful prayers, that's judgment.

It's not the Lord necessarily answering them, by the way.

It's the Lord allowing you to face the repercussions of your sinful ways.

But as far as the Lord actually answering your prayers, he delights to answer the prayers of his children who are persistently asking him for prayers that line up with what we would understand his will to be, for things that honor him, glorify him, and are a blessing to others.

And we know there are also times when we pray for things and the Lord doesn't answer.

Right?

Jesus is not giving this wholesale promise.

Well, whatever you pray for, it's yours.

Right?

That's a terrible theology.

It's a terrible theology, and it leads to many, many, many false beliefs and confusion and discouragement.

God is not beholden to you.

You can't tie his hands with your prayers.

Like, well, I prayed a lot, God, and now you must grant me my request.

He's not a genie.

He's not some kind of thing that just grants our prayers.

Having said that, he does delight.

Right?

So he says, if you seek, you'll find.

If you knock, it will be opened.

As a general rule, throughout life, you go to God the Father and you're asking for good and right things, he's going to answer that.

Now here's the part that's the mystery.

Sometimes, it's just like you pray for it, and boom, the Lord answered it.

There it is.

Just cut and dry.

But oftentimes, the Lord, you're praying for this thing, and you think it's right and good, and you think this is God's will for your life, and all these things.

And the Lord just over time graciously changes your heart, changes your desires.

And although that might have very well been a good and right thing, it wasn't what the Lord had for you.

It wasn't what he had for you to mature you and to grow you and to sanctify you.

Sure, the Lord could have given it to you.

I mean, how many of us, like, we could just pray, Lord, can you take every trial out of our life?

Yeah, that's a good thing.

Like, who doesn't want that prayer?

Answer that the Lord would just take all the trials and difficulties out of our life.

But what does the Lord use to mature and grow us?

What does the Lord do to help us stir our affections for you, for him?

The Lord uses these difficulties.

And what he does through all these hardships, things that we would adamantly pray that the Lord would take away, is he makes us more and more pure worshippers of him.

I think all of us can stand up and for a Christian say, we love the Lord, we want to follow the Lord faithfully, and that would be a true statement.

But I'm going to tell you, it is through suffering and difficulty that the Lord pulls back to strips things away from us.

And our affections for the Lord, our love for the Lord becomes more and more pure and focused.

And that's the Lord, He does those things.

So the Lord does delight to answer our prayers, and oftentimes He does answer them, and oftentimes He answers them in ways that we don't see coming, but on the back side of it, afterward, we're like, wow, Lord, you did know what you were doing.

Praise the Lord.

But then there are other times when it just doesn't make sense.

And we're just left with that.

Why did this person die?

Why did they suffer that way?

Why is it that they did not come to faith?

We're left with that tension, that mystery.

Why is it that the Lord didn't?

This is a good thing.

This is a good person.

This is a Christian.

Why did they have to die of cancer or suffer this way?

Why was it that their childhood was this way?

Why?

We can have those prayers and we should take them to the Lord.

But when those prayers are not answered the way that we want, and we're not given this satisfactory answer, we still rest that he is a holy God, that he is our Father, that he is good, that he is establishing his kingdom.

He's a father who gives good gifts.

He gives himself, gives the Spirit to us.

So we trust in him.

I think this is one of the things that makes prayer hard.

It's because we're called to take our requests, our burdens, our difficulties to the Lord and lay them before him, and then just be persistent in that.

Keep asking the Lord, persisting.

And then what happens when we do that?

Well, it feels like he's not answering our prayers.

And we don't mean that from like a selfish, entitled child perspective.

We just mean genuinely from the heart.

It feels like he's not answering our prayers.

And so what do we do with that?

Well, our natural response is to pull back.

Lord, you didn't answer.

Where were you?

I brought this request.

Can you see the suffering?

Couldn't you see the need?

And yet we're called to press in.

And this is why having a theology of heaven in eternity is so important.

If your theological perspective, what you think about the Christian faith is predominantly just the here and the now.

And I can see why your hope would be so little, why you would feel so much despair.

But when you believe that there is a day coming when Jesus will return and fully establish his kingdom, that he will right the wrongs and make all things right, and how we don't know completely, but we trust him for that, and that our hope is in that.

And for those who trust in Jesus Christ as their Lord and their Savior, and they walk in his ways, that they will have eternal peace, an eternal joy, and eternal hope.

If that is what you're fixing your mind on, if you're renewing your mind on these truths, then yes, there are difficulties and there is tremendous suffering.

But that is not the end of the story.

That is not the conclusion for us as Christians.

Our hope is in Christ, that He is coming again.

What a hope that is, and what a peace that brings to our souls.

So, church, I want to encourage you to bring your requests to God, expecting him to hear you, and understanding that he is changing you and shaping you.

Bring your request to the Holy God, knowing that he hears you.

I mean he hears you.

Holy Spirit prays for you in ways that you don't even understand.

God hears your prayers, and he's changing you, and he's shaping you.

Do not neglect to come to our good Father and bear our hearts to him.

Let's pray.