Teach Us To Pray | Confidence In Prayer | Luke 11:5-13 | Coleton Segars

Welcome, glad you're here.

My name is Colton.

I get the honor and the privilege of leading this church and really grateful that you're here with us today.

We are going to finish up a series that we titled Teach Us to Pray because the disciples basically went to Jesus and said, Hey, please teach us to pray the way that John taught his disciples to pray.

Teach us to do the thing that you do.

And uh so for nine weeks, we've kind of worked through ten years ago, I aimed at, like, I want to be good at prayer.

I want to be better at this, I want to understand this more.

And so I tried to condense 10 years worth of things that have meant a lot to me, things that I've learned, try to condense that down into a handful of weeks in order to share those things with us for the encouragement to uh allow the scriptures to teach you to pray and then for it to spur you on to be encouraged to pray.

And so we're gonna finish it up today looking at Luke 11, 5 through 13, and uh and then we'll move into the message.

But that's the teaching text for today.

Luke 11, 5 through 13.

This is what Luke writes.

He says, 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 door is already locked, and my children are in bed.

I can't get up and give you anything.

I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you bread because of friendship, yet because of his shamelessness, or to preserve his good name, he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.

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

Seek and you will find.

Knock and the door will be opened to you.

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

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

Or if he asks for an egg, we'll give him a scorpion.

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

This is the word of the Lord.

I'm closing out the series on this particular text, um, and I'm doing it strategically after last week, which was on unanswered prayer.

And so if you weren't here last week or you haven't listened to that, um listen to it if you want to understand a little bit more about unanswered prayer and just the reality of that.

Um I'm doing this one strategically after that one, because this text that Jesus gives us, this teaching that he gives us on prayer, can very easily sound too good to be true, can sound like prosperity preaching where it's like, just ask for whatever you want, you're gonna get it.

And so I wanted to address the reality of unanswered prayer first, and then move into this is some amazing stuff that Jesus is giving us in prayer.

Like this is an amazing thing that he's saying about prayer.

The reality of unanswered prayer is true, but there's no doubt, according to this text, Jesus believes three things about prayer, and we're gonna go through these one by one.

But there's unanswered prayer is real, but reading this text, there's no doubt that he believes that God will answer prayer.

The Father is ready, not reluctant to help.

He is ready to help you, not reluctant.

You don't have to get him, you know, awake to help you.

And then the one who asks will have a life defined by receiving.

And so we do need to remember that unanswered prayer is a reality that we will experience and face.

Jesus did, we will too.

But from this text, it's clear that what Jesus is trying to communicate is like he really believes that God will answer prayer.

He really believes that the Father is ready, not reluctant, and he really believes that the one who asks, seeks, knocks, will have a life that is defined by receiving, finding, and doors being opened.

Your life will be defined primarily by that rather than the other thing.

And so I want to take these one by one.

And then at the very end, I just want to give you, like, just very simply, here's a way that I'd like for you to begin praying.

Maybe you're already doing this, maybe you you uh uh haven't started this yet, maybe you have a great life of prayer, maybe you don't.

But just a very simple way to begin.

So the first, Jesus believes about prayer from this text that God will answer prayer.

That is the point of this story that Jesus tells.

That's the point of the story.

I'm gonna read it again.

Suppose you have a friend and you go to him at midnight, friend, lend me three loaves of bread.

Another friend of mine has come on a journey and I don't have any food to offer him.

And then suppose the one inside says, Don't bother me, the door is locked, we're all in bed.

I can't get up and give you anything.

He says, I tell you, even though he will not get up because of friendship, yet because of his shamelessness or to preserve his good name, he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.

So I say.

He tells that story to get to this.

So I'm telling you, ask and it will be given to you.

Now, scholars on this text, this word here, shamelessness, um, they're split and on how to translate it.

Uh, is it is it referring to the shamelessness of the man who's asking?

And like anybody who's beating down the door at 12 midnight, like you have no shame to be asking for this thing, like good for you or bad for you.

But they don't know if it's aimed at the asker or if it's aimed at the person inside the house that's trying to preserve his good name because of his shamelessness, because he doesn't want to be ashamed.

Because in that culture, if you did not show hospitality to guests, if that wasn't something that you practiced, you would bring shame on your house, you would bring shame on the neighborhood, or you would bring shame on your community.

Someone went to you for hospitable help and you you refused them, and it would bring shame on them.

And so they don't know which one it is.

Uh I tend to lean towards the latter, I tend to lean towards the second translation that because he's trying to preserve his good name, like, look, I'm tired, I don't actually care that we're friends, but honestly, I don't want to bring shame on my house, and so I will give you what you want.

Not because I like you, I actually don't like you a lot right now because you just woke me up in the middle of the night, which I super get that.

But I will do it because I'm trying to preserve my good name and the name of our community.

So I lean towards that translation.

But if you fall on the other one, like, no, I think it's the persistence or the shamelessness of the guy who's asking, if you feel that way, the truth is it doesn't really matter which one you align with because the answer is still the same.

The point of the story doesn't change.

Jesus is saying that friend who's being asked of a thing, that request is going to be answered.

Somebody's gonna answer that.

He is going to answer that particular request.

And so whether you think it's the guy who's asking in his shamelessness or the guy who's who's being asked and they're not wanting to bring shame on the family, again, the point remains.

Jesus is saying that friend is going to get up and give you what you ask for.

And he uses that story to describe how God responds to prayer.

He is saying that the Father will respond to prayer like the friend.

He will respond to prayer like that.

And what Jesus is trying to do is he's trying to give in our minds like this this image and give the disciples this image of like when you move into prayer, I want you to have this image in your mind because we all have an image of what God is like when we turn to him in prayer.

We all have this image of like what might happen if we begin to pray.

And what Jesus is trying to do is replace or reframe their image and go, use this one.

You know how in our culture that if someone doesn't, uh if someone goes to someone in their neighbor and asks for something and it'll bring shame on the house if they refuse it, you know how that's true in our culture?

He's like, great.

Think of that when you think of prayer.

Prayer works like that.

God will respond like that.

And that's the image that he wants.

He is trying to reframe us from I'm not super confident that my prayer is gonna make a difference to I'm incredibly confident in the same way that I know.

If I go to my friend who might hate me afterwards, I know he's gonna give me something.

He wants us to be confident that God's gonna do the exact same thing, that he's gonna respond the same way.

And honestly, this is true of all of Jesus' teachings on prayer.

If you just read the Gospels and look at what Jesus says about prayer, it is all, all very, very encouraging.

And all of it should be this thing that spurs us to reconsider how important and how good prayer actually is for us, and how much a gift that it actually is.

And so I just want to give you a handful of examples.

This isn't all of them, but just in the gospels, here's what Jesus has to say and teaches about prayer.

So in Matthew's gospel, he says, When you pray, go into your private room, shut the door, and pray to your father who's in secret, and then notice, and your father who sees in secret will reward you.

God will respond to your prayers that you're doing in secret.

He goes on to ask, this is the same text, just in a different in Matthew, uh, ask and it will be given to you, knock and door will be open.

Talks about a father giving good gifts to his kids, and it says, If you then, though you're evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him?

And so God is going to respond.

How much more?

If you will, how much more will he will?

Matthew 21, if you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.

God will respond.

Prayer will be effective.

In Matthew 26, Jesus says to Peter, watch and pray.

Pray so that you will not fall into temptation.

Prayer has an effect, it has this ability.

You can ask for something, it will strengthen you.

It's gonna cause something to happen.

You might fall into temptation, but if you pray, you will not fall into temptation.

There's something there that it will have this effect in your life.

Peter doesn't do this, but it was still true that Jesus is saying, prayer has an effect, and you want it to have this effect in your life.

Pray so that this will happen for you.

Luke 18, it's a longer passage.

I'm not gonna read the entire thing.

Uh, but he gives this parable on the need for them to pray always and not give up.

He literally gives a teaching so that they would always pray and not give up.

And he talks about this unjust judge and this woman that's just berating the man, like, please give me justice, give me justice, give me justice.

And the unjust judge says, like, look, I don't even fear God, I don't actually care about this woman, but honestly, she constantly keeps coming here and asking me for this, so I'm gonna grant her what she asks.

And down in verse 6 in the bold and highlighted part, it says, Listen to what the unjust judge says.

He's gonna give what she's asking, not because he's just and wants to give justice, like he's not like that.

And so, how much more?

Will will God, who is good and just, will not he grant justice to his chosen ones who cry out day and night?

Will he delay in helping them?

I tell you, he will see that they get justice and quickly.

And so he's talking about this idea, like just again saying God is going to respond to these prayers.

You have an unjust judge that will respond to a lady's nagging, and God is just.

He's much better than that.

And so we should think of him as somebody who's gonna respond.

Luke 22, he says, Simon, Simon, Satan is asked to sift you all as wheat.

All the disciples want to sift you as wheat, but I, being Jesus, have prayed for you so that your faith will not fail.

And so again, you see that prayer has had an effect, and it had an effect in Peter's life.

Mark 9, his disciples were trying to cast out a demon and they couldn't do it.

And they asked, why couldn't we drive it out?

And Jesus replies, That kind can only come out by prayer.

Like you would have experienced something different if you would have just prayed.

Prayer has an effect, it does something, it changes things.

Then John 14, he says, Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I've been doing, they will do even greater things than these because I'm going to the Father.

And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

God will respond to prayer.

And so all of Jesus' teachings, and it's important to see that, all of Jesus' teaching and communication, and talking about prayer and referencing prayer, are all about its effectiveness and the effect that it brings to the world and into our lives and how responsive God is to those things.

And honestly, if it were only just a few, like it was like 50-50, some of what Jesus talks about prayer is about as effect, and some of what Jesus talks about is like it really does nothing, it's really just for your benefit, don't really worry about it.

If that were true, then we should temper our expectations in prayer.

Because we'd have to take, we'd have to use the Bible to interpret the Bible and go, well, he says this about prayer, but we also really got to make sure he doesn't, he says it's not always effective.

He doesn't, but the truth is 100%, 100% of what he says about prayer, 100% is about God being responsive, about it causing an effect.

And so if it is true that he's saying, look, 100% of my teaching on prayer is that it does something, that God is responsive to it, that he hears it, that it causes an effect, it should lead us to go, maybe he's not lying.

Maybe there's something here.

And yes, maybe I am dealing with the reality of unanswered prayer from time to time, but it clearly seems to suggest that Jesus is saying, this thing is powerful.

This gift that God has given to us in prayer is something that is supposed to be something that excites us to pray because God is responsive.

And Jesus clearly believes that God answers prayer.

Now, it does not negate the fact that you will experience times of unanswered prayer.

Again, if Jesus did, Paul did, if the most righteous people in history did, we will experience those things as well.

You will experience unanswered prayer.

You you probably are still living in right now prayers that have not been answered.

But in this particular text, Jesus is not worried about that.

It's like, well, people will take this text and abuse it, and they have.

And I just name it and claim it, and they've come up with these prosperity things to make you feel like, well, the reason it didn't happen for you is because there's something wrong with you, and like that.

And they've abused it.

But Jesus probably knows that people are gonna take this text and abuse it, but he's not worried about that.

What he's worried about right now is he's trying to override the image that we have that prayer does nothing, and that it just has zero effect.

He is trying to push into the disciples, look, I don't know that y'all believe in this at all.

I can see that there's a lack of faith in this at all, and you see that through the gospels because they don't pray.

He's like, I'm trying to give you an image to push you and spur you to how responsive God is to prayer.

I love what Frederick Bruner says in his commentary on this.

He says, in this passage, Jesus almost begs us to pray and promises solemnly that simple asking receives, simple seeking finds, and that simple knocking opens.

He wants us to be competent so that when we go to pray, that God answers prayer.

And so he is almost getting to the point of like, I am begging you, do this thing.

There is power here.

I'm telling you, 100% of my teaching is on its effect of this.

Please know that God will answer prayer.

The second thing that Jesus believes about prayer that we see in this text is that the Father is ready.

He is ready to help and not reluctant.

You see this in verses 11 through 13.

Which of you fathers?

If your son asks for a fish, we'll give him a snake instead.

Or an egg, you'll give him a scorpion.

If you then, though you are evil, you deal with sin, you have sin in your life, you struggle with sin, if you know how to good give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?

Bruner again says this.

He says the goal of this teaching that Jesus has given us, the goal of this is to awaken a simple faith in the Father.

The emphasis in this text is on the Father's breathtaking readiness to give his asking children what is good for them.

Breathtaking readiness.

Look how ready he is to do this.

If you, though you are evil, know how to do this, if you, though you struggle with sin, know how to do this, if you have selfish motives in yourself and God doesn't have any selfishness in himself, if you, being selfish, can give selfless things to your kids, how much more will this selfless father give good gifts to his kids?

Matthew's version says, How much more will the Father in heaven give good gifts?

He changes from Holy Spirit to good gifts.

And the truth is, it's it's really one and the same.

The Holy Spirit is the greatest gift that God can give to anybody.

I'm gonna give you my literal presence, my literal power, and everything that I have, I'm gonna give you myself.

The greatest gift you can get is the Holy Spirit.

And so what Luke is trying to make the point is like, if he's gonna, if if God is willing to give you the greatest gift that's possible to be given, how much more is he gonna answer some of the other good things that you pray for as well?

If he's willing to give you this huge gift, all these other things, pale in comparison, they're still good.

But if he's willing to give you, he will bankrupt the kingdom, he will give you everything that you could possibly ask for by giving you the Holy Spirit.

The best thing he gives you, yes, consider how much more he will give you other good things that you ask for.

And so again, Jesus is using an image to try and reframe what they think about when they think about prayer, what comes into their minds.

And he's using the image of a father.

He goes from a friend who will definitely respond to a father that loves his kids and is willing to give out.

And so what you get from both of these is like he will respond and he's ready to do so as a father is ready to give good things to his kids.

He doesn't want us to see God, the father, as someone who is hard to get a hold of, someone who's not close, someone who doesn't care.

He doesn't want us to go into prayer and think I have to like wake him up or try and prove that I'm worthy of him responding to my prayer.

He doesn't want us to see him like that.

He wants us to see God as like he is close, he is near, he loves you more than anybody else loves you, and he is willing and ready to help you and to step in.

He wants to be your ever-present help in time of need.

That's what he wants to be.

He promises to do that so that we would hold him to that.

N.

T.

Wright, it's a long quote, but it's it's just wonderful.

N.

T.

Wright in his commentary on the about this passage says this.

He says, This is one of the most sparkling and generous sets of promises anywhere in the Bible.

Maybe it isn't selfish to ask for things.

Maybe it's just the natural thing that children are supposed to do with parents.

And maybe our refusal to do so actually makes God sad.

God is just as concerned about the things we need day by day as we are.

If he is a father, let's treat him as a father, not a bureaucrat or a dictator who wouldn't want to be bothered with our trivial and irrelevant concerns.

The fact that there may be a war going on in one country, a famine somewhere else, earthquakes, tragic accidents, murder, and pillage all over the place, that might be a problem for a high-ranking authority at the United Nations, but it is no problem for our loving Father.

When he says he's still got time, space, and love to spare for us, we should just take him at his word.

So, treat God as a father.

Let him know how things are with you.

Ask, search, and knock and see what happens.

Expect some surprises on the way, but don't expect that God will ever let you down.

I love that quote.

I think we all need that image in our minds.

Last night I was uh finishing, you know, slides up and stuff for today, and Rainey and Teddy are, you know, they're all going to bed.

And uh, you know, just to relax, I turn on who's the boss.

I wanted to watch Tony Danza.

And um I get a phone call, and it's Rainey calling me, which is you know, she's upstairs, it's not too far.

She's calling me, she's like, hey, uh, Teddy is sad about something, uh, he's worried about coming up in school this next year.

Will you come up here?

And like it's been a long day, right?

Like, I'm I was still working on my message a little bit, watching a little danza bonanza, doing the whole thing.

Like, just um, but I was like, of course, like I'm gonna get up, I'm gonna go and do that.

I'm gonna make me some tea and I'm gonna go and sit with him and sit with him until and until he's not afraid anymore of this thing.

Like, and like I'm incredibly selfish.

Rainey and I got in an argument earlier that day that I'm certain was all my fault because of how selfish I am.

And like, and yet my son called something, like wants me.

Don't focus on that, focus on the actual part of the story.

My goodness.

But then my son calls, and like, with all the selfishness and pride that I have to unwillingness to say I'm sorry, and all the different things.

Like, there's something that hit in my heart when my son called and wanted me to come and comfort him and to be there and to pray over him and do this thing, and it's like, you're such a good dad.

Like, no, I'm not.

Like, and maybe you're not even thinking that.

Like, it's not that's like you just respond.

There's something in us that responds to that.

And God is better than that.

And that's what Jesus is making the point.

Like, he is so far better than any of that.

You don't have to, you don't have to get him like, no, it's really important.

You really need like he is so responsive.

And he doesn't have that pride, and he doesn't hold a record of your wrongs up in your face and be like, I'd help you, but like, uh, look at this.

He's better than us.

And he is so, and that is the image that Jesus is trying to put in our minds.

And we all have one.

You have an image when you go to pray, when somebody tells you to pray, when somebody teaches you that you should pray, all of us have this image that dictates how often we pray, what we what we believe about prayer.

It just shapes us when however we think of God or however we think of whatever he's gonna respond to the thing that we're praying for.

It dictates our confidence in prayer and what we actually believe about prayer.

And if you're like me, years and years ago, even when I came to faith, like my here, my image was this.

I believe that you exist, God, but I don't think that you're gonna answer at all.

I believe you're real, I believe that Jesus died on the cross for my sins, I believe all of that stuff.

But I believe when I pray that you are kind of indifferent and apathetic.

I don't think this is gonna change anything.

And so when somebody would say, like, hey, you need to go and pray about that, I was kind of like, Yeah, I will.

But not really.

Because, like, what's he gonna say?

Nothing.

That's what I think he's gonna say.

And so it led me to a seasons, years of just not wanting to pray at all.

Like just tossing up a one-liner, like, yeah, help me if you want to.

But honestly, why waste my time doing something that's not gonna work?

I'm an efficient guy.

Let's just get to work, let's just do that thing.

Why would I waste my time with something that's not gonna change anything?

And so, because I felt that way, it led me not to pray.

And Jesus is trying with everything that he has to break that image and reframe our thinking in a different way so that what comes to our minds.

When we think about prayer, is he is just waiting to listen to us, waiting to respond, wanting to help, wanting to be there.

Jesus is trying to make us think of him like a father who's ready to do those things for his kids.

Now, again, simply because he's a father to you and wants to be that, he's ready to help and not reluctant doesn't mean that you're gonna get every single thing that you want.

I'm a father, Teddy does not get everything that he wants.

One of the roles of parents is to shape and develop and mature, help mature their kids, and that's also true of God as father.

If Teddy at the zoo at 11 years old wanted to be pushed around in the stroller, I would say no.

You were not gonna do that.

And it didn't matter how much he petitioned me and talked about a good father would respond, like, this is bad for you.

I'm not gonna let you do this.

This would handicap you, this would shape you negatively, I'm not gonna do this.

And so it doesn't matter how persistent you are, it doesn't matter any of those things.

I'm gonna say no because if I said yes to this, I would be a bad father to you, not a good one.

And in the same way, God is a good father and he loves you tremendously, but he loves you enough to tell you no from time to time.

And he loves you enough to take things from you that you're like, no, I really need that.

I think this would be better for me.

He's like, it's it's not, and I know you don't understand, but he loves you enough to say no.

It's not out of apathy, it's not because he doesn't care for you, it's because he does that he will say no.

Because he's also trying to seek to develop you and mature you and grow you in your faith.

And so he will, from time to time, like any good parent, say no to their kids.

But again, there's no doubt, Jesus wants us to have this image of him.

He is a father who is ready to help, not reluctant.

And then the last, the last thing that Jesus believes about prayer is that Jesus believes and really makes a promise that those who ask, seek, and knock will have lives defined by answers to prayer.

The people who will do this will have lives defined by answers to prayer.

Luke 10, 10.

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

If you practice this, your experience will be receiving, finding, and doors being opened.

And he is making that a promise.

Bruner again in his commentary says this passage is the most encouraging biblical passage on the subject of prayer with which I am acquainted.

It promises unconditionally that simple asking receives, simple seeking finds, and simple knocking gets in.

And if this were not enough, Jesus goes through the promises three more times because every person asking receives, and the seeker finds, and the person who knocks gets openings, as if to say, this is the law.

The way to receive from the Father is to talk to him.

And so this is what he's trying to, like, this will be a definition of your life.

What will happen if I believe what Jesus is saying and just pour into this and give my life to growing in the effort of prayer?

What will happen in Jesus' saying?

Your life will be primarily defined by encouragement in prayer rather than discouragement.

You're you will you will walk away from the time spent doing this over a period of your life where you go, this was the best thing I could have given my time to, and I'm glad I wish I had done it sooner.

That's what he's saying.

He's not saying that you will get every single thing that you ask for, but he is making a promise.

If you will press into this, ask and keep on asking.

Seek and keep on seeking, knock and keep on knocking.

If you're constant, and not just with like one request, but just consistently pursuing God in prayer and bringing everything to him.

What will take shape in your life, the defining quality as you look at your life with prayer will be like, it was a gift that I pressed into.

And I wish I had done it longer.

The person who asks, seeks, and knocks will be more encouraged.

The person who does this will become an evangelist of prayer.

Speaking from experience, if you will press into this, you will become someone who wants to talk to other people about prayer and the power of prayer, and then you'll have people look at you like you're an idiot, and you'll have to try and convince them that it actually really does matter because until you press in, you will not experience that.

And that's the implication behind this passage.

But if you don't ask and you don't seek and you don't knock, then doors won't be opened, you won't find and you won't receive, and you'll think prayer doesn't work.

And it's like, but have you ever actually leaned into the thing?

Have you ever actually gone forward?

Have you ever taken Jesus at his promise and going, I'm going to knock until doors open?

Because it seems to be that Jesus is not a liar.

And it seems to be that he's saying, Look, I want your lives to be defined by what my father wants to give you.

And the law is the way to receive from the Father is to talk to him.

And so those are the things that Jesus clearly believes about prayer given from this passage.

He believes that God will answer your prayer.

He believes that you have a father who is ready to help you and not reluctant to help you.

And he believes that you can have a life defined by answers to prayer if you will choose to ask, seek, and knock.

And so based on that, based on Jesus' teaching in this particular passage and really all of his, I think what Jesus is trying to encourage you to do and me to do, probably not a wild guess, but he is calling us and encouraging us, pray and pray a lot.

That's what he wants us to do.

He is teaching these passages and giving them.

They say, Would you teach us to pray?

And he doesn't go, Don't worry about it, it's not really that important.

He's like, Absolutely.

And I will teach you about it time and time and time again.

And the things that I teach you is that it is important, it's valuable, it's effective, and God wants to answer it.

And so I believe he wants us to pray and pray a lot.

He clearly believes it's so worth it.

Like Bruner said earlier, he is all but begging us to understand how important and how valuable prayer actually is.

And he doesn't just teach us on prayer.

Jesus wants us to pray so he does teach us, but Jesus wants us to pray so much that he was willing to give his life so that prayer could become this easy thing that we press into.

No longer do we have to go through a priest, no longer do we have to go through a pastor, no longer do we have to do whatever in order to get to God.

It's like Jesus has made a way to where now we can boldly enter before the throne of grace, come before God Himself, and have this interaction with Him.

And Jesus gave His life.

He didn't just teach about it.

He's like, I will literally lay down my life so that you can have access whenever you want it.

This is what the writer of Hebrews says.

He says, Since we now have a great high priest who ascended into heaven, this is Jesus the Son of God, let us, all of us, any of us, let us approach God's throne of grace with confidence.

Let us go with confidence that we're actually going before him and that we're gonna receive things that we ask for, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Mercy is not getting what you deserve.

And so when you come before God and you're like, I know I don't deserve any of this, but I'm asking anyways, he's like, it's great.

I love to give mercy.

I give you what you don't deserve.

Grace is unmerited favor.

Like he actually gives you things that you don't deserve.

He's like, I you come before me and you probably deserve nothing because of your sin and just your the nature and the difference of the holiness between me and you.

And it's like, but you will receive what you don't actually deserve.

You can ask for things you don't deserve because God likes to give things that you don't deserve.

He likes to give more than you deserve.

And you can find those things in your time of need, and that is because of what Jesus has done.

He has opened a door for us, he has taught us on prayer, and then he was like, I will bleed for this.

I will make sure you can actually press into this thing.

Richard Foster in his book on prayer says that the key to the heart of God is prayer.

The key to God's heart is prayer, and if the key is prayer, the door is Jesus.

Jesus lived a perfect life, died in our place, and rose victorious over all the dark powers.

No longer do you have to stand outside, barred from the nearness to God by your rebellion.

We may now enter through the door of God's grace and mercy found in Jesus.

Again, he doesn't just teach us to pray.

That would be one thing.

Like, you should do it, you should do it, you should do it.

But somebody to be like, I'm willing to bleed to make this available to you.

Like that person should be taken seriously, and prayer should too.

I'm willing to give my life so that you can actually step before God and have a relationship with him where he is your father and you are his son and you are his daughter.

Because the father likes to give good gifts, not to strangers, but to his sons and his daughters.

And I have made you sons and daughters.

You have this access now.

And so he wants us to press into those things.

It is true, and you will, and maybe you are, experiencing seasons and discouragements of unanswered prayer.

It is discouraging, and that is why Jesus says persevere in prayer.

Again, not just like praying one thing over and over and over again.

Heal him, heal him, heal him, heal him, heal him.

I think that's fine.

But when he's talking about persistence in prayer, he's talking about the act itself.

Never stop praying.

There will be seasons where you'll be so discouraged.

You'll be praying for 10 things and none of them came about the way that you want them to, or silence the entire time.

And it's like, does this even work?

And he's like, I know it will feel like that from time to time.

But persist in the act of prayer.

Continue coming before the Father.

It will be discouraging to experience unanswered prayer, but never let it discourage you enough to where you stop praying.

Never let it get you to the point of despair where you're like, I don't even think God hears me.

And he's like, Jesus is like, it is discouraged, but you need to press into this thing.

Persevere in prayer.

And so very simply, Jesus wants us to pray and pray a lot.

And so that's the encouragement to you to pray.

And if you need more encouragement, I preached on this nine times, nine different ways on how prayer works.

And I'd love to talk to you about some of the stories that we've seen of just people praying and things happening.

And it's it is encouraging to hear other people.

I mean, there's people in this church have been praying that they come to faith and praying they come to faith and praying they come to faith for like three years.

And like two weeks ago, someone came to faith.

And it took three years of just praying, of just asking for this thing and asking for this thing and asking for this thing and crying over this thing and going, God, please, conversations, conversations, and people in our church having conversations.

And God broke through.

And what she said, she was like, all of a sudden, she was like, I was sitting there one day and it was like the lights came on.

Those are her words.

And it was like, I I can flip on lights.

Like, why I was like, I why didn't it happen day one?

Why did I have to continue praying for this, praying for this thing?

God, why don't you move faster?

But then also, like, I'm so thankful.

Like, I'm so thankful.

Like that happened.

And like, he that is that story.

The idea that like if you will just ask, seek, and knock, if you will just keep doing that.

When I say that my life is defined in the last 11 years of it, the last 11 years of my life pressing into prayer, asking, seeking, knocking.

It has been defined by answers.

It has been defined by uh encouragement.

It has been defined by God speaking when I need a word, when I need his direction.

I heard somebody say the other day, God only answers three ways, yes, no, and maybe.

And I I understand where they're coming at with that.

I would just humbly push back and go, read, read the scriptures.

God does not just answer yes, no, and maybe.

God answers with full sentences.

He wants to speak, and he wants to talk to you because he's a father who likes to talk to his kids.

And so, like, there are just there's just so much in this practice in my life.

Um again, the last 11 years has been defined by answers, encouragement.

I want you to pray because I want you to experience what's there.

So, if you want to know how to begin, one helpful way to begin, um, I would encourage you just to pray about what you care about.

Pray about what you care about.

Um Brunner, again, I believe it's Brunner, uh no, excuse me, Dallas Willard, in his book Divine Conspiracy.

I love this.

He says, he says, while it's true that God is not a cosmic butler or a fix-it man, and while it's true that the aim of the universe is not to fulfill my every desire and need, I am to pray for what concerns me.

Many people have found prayer impossible because they thought they should only pray for wonderful but remote needs that they actually had no lint had little or no interest in.

I don't actually care about this, but I think I'm supposed to pray for the government.

Prayer simply dies from efforts to pray about good things.

Prayer dies from efforts to just pray about good things that honestly do not matter to us.

The way to get to meaningful prayer is to start by praying for what we truly are interested in.

And so just to begin with the selfish stuff, to begin with the stuff that like I know I'm supposed to care about famines overseas, but honestly, I just would like a reservation at this restaurant.

Like, that's really what's in my heart right now.

And so to begin where you're at and to begin with the things that you care about.

I know I'm supposed to care about the orphans over there, but honestly, I'd like for my kid not to be bullied at school anymore.

Like, that's really what I care about.

And so to begin in another space, it's like prayer will die from you trying to conjure this thing.

As many of your relational conversations would die if that's what you felt you had to talk about when you talk to them.

If I only felt like if I if some of you were like, well, when I hang out with that person, I have to talk about Bitcoin, or they're not gonna like it.

Like, I gotta talk about other, like I gotta read up on Bitcoin, I gotta act like I care about Bitcoin if I'm talking to them.

I'll be honest with you, we're not gonna hang out that much, all right?

I love you.

I'm your pastor, I'm supposed to be there for you.

But if we could talk about Bitcoin and like other things that are happening in your life, like then that is a relational dynamic that's enjoyable.

And so we know that if every time you got every time I go to my parents' house, I gotta talk about the president, I gotta talk about whatever, it's like, ugh.

You like gotta ready yourself to enter into these conversations.

And if we feel that way about God, of course you don't want to go there.

I gotta talk about the orphans and the famines, the earthquakes, the persecuted church, and all of those things are worthy of prayers.

But if your go-to is to, I have to talk about those things before I can actually talk about the things I'm interested in, you're just not gonna go to that space very often.

You're not gonna go to that person very often.

And so my encouragement to you, and I think Willard's is as well, is like, pray, begin with the things that interest you.

Begin with the needs that you actually have.

What do you actually want?

Begin there.

Just pray about what you care about.

And Willard goes on in this book, and he's like, eventually, God's love in your heart will eventually grow your prayers to be again praying for greater and bigger things out in the world, but we have to begin where we're at.

And so if you want to begin praying, my encouragement is like, man, what's in there?

C.S.

Lewis has that quote where he's like, you should, God wants us to pray what's in us, not what ought to be in us.

And so just pray what's in there.

Pray about what you care about.

All right, if you will, if you will do this, again, speaking from experience, if you will pray, ask, seek, and knock, I promise you.

Mainly because I'm not because of me or my life.

I promise you, based on what Jesus has promised to us, if you ask, seek, and knock, you will have a life defined by receiving.

You have a life defined by finding, you will have a life defined by doors being opened.

It does not mean you will get every single thing that you want, but your life will be primarily shaped the way that Jesus promises it will be shaped.

Because those who ask receive, those who seek, find, those who knock, the door will be opened.

And so my encouragement to you is to do that.

I have experienced all in wonder turning my life towards prayer and wanting to pray.

11 years ago, it's changed, dramatically changed my life.

I want you to experience that as well.

I'm not doing a series on prayer.

If I was doing like a nine-week series on giving money to the church, I'd be like, man, this guy, he's like trying to get something for himself here.

Uh, but I'm not doing that.

Like, prayer, I benefit from this in no way, but I want you to experience this thing.

I want you to press into this and find the beauty of it and actually to see that Jesus wasn't lying.

I want you to grow, like, I don't know if the Father sees me, loves me.

My life's been hard.

I'm like, and I want you to step into a relationship where you're like, I have found the one that loves me the most.

I am in the space of prayer that is the safest place I can go.

You have to enter into that space.

And so Jesus is almost begging you.

I'm begging you, pray.

And pray a lot.

And just begin where you're at.

Pray about the things that you care about.

All right, let me pray.