Pray Without Inhibition Series

Pray Without Inhibition

Series: Encountering Jesus (through the Gospel of Luke)

Brad Bailey - July 21, 2019

#31 in series

Luke 11:5-13

Intro

I want to invite you to use your imagination with me for a moment.

Imagine you are going up to the front door of a home.

Now I am going to give you two contexts… to allow you to feel the difference in feelings inside you.

First…imagine you are approaching a neighbor’s home. These are people you have waved to as neighbors…but you don’t really know. It’s about 8pm at night…and you are finally going door to door inviting people to the first neighborhood holiday party you are going to host. (Some of us may be able to imagine this well…because we have done this as part of our host a holiday party challenge. And like when Leah and I did this… you come to the door of someone you don’t really know… and there’s no sign of anyone awake in the front of the house. There is no sense that these people will want to hear about such a social event…and a good sense that you may wake them up. Consider what feelings you may have in this context. Perhaps you wonder: We shouldn’t interrupt them. Should we even ring the doorbell? Maybe just a light tap on the door? Maybe just leave the flyer on the doorknob?

Now imagine a very different scenario…

After years of not seeing your parents… you are an adult now with kids…they have been reaching out …hoping… and finally the day has come…you’ve been driving all day…got an early evening note about their excitement for your visit… and you arrive at their doorstep. Consider what feelings you may have in this context. What are you feeling as you walk up to the door… kids in arms? Perhaps you give a knock and it doesn’t sound like anyone is coming to the door yet? No problem…you just knock and ring away. You know the desires that are inside. (OR could change this scenario to: Your house in on fire… and your cell phones are inside it… and you rush to your neighbors… …desperate to call the fire department. You rush to the door… ringing… ringing… ready to break it down.)

Today… Jesus wants to change how we come to prayer. We don’t understand our life with God in prayer if we are coming like we might come to the neighbor… hesitant… reluctant…inhibited…not sure we really should or need to. Today Jesus challenges us to overcome our tendency to engage prayer with that kind of reluctance.

Last week… we heard how the first disciples ask Jesus to teach them to pray… and he responds with the type of prayer that is so different than the small and tangential ideas so common associated with prayer today. And with that way of reorienting what it is about….he wants to reorient HOW we come to it.

Luke 11:5-13 (NIV) ?5  Then he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, 6  because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.' 7  "Then the one inside answers, 'Don't bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can't get up and give you anything.' 8  I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man's boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs. 9  "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. 10  For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. 11  "Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12  Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13  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!"

Jesus sees something that needs to change in his followers…in all of us.

And so, he tells a story to impart change.

He says a man is at his house one night, a friend shows up unexpectedly in the middle of the night, and the man has absolutely nothing to put in front of this friend. And when Jesus says those words, everybody who's listening to him would gasp because of the high social value for hospitality, and it had to do with very famous near-eastern hospitality. In the near-east, when someone showed up at your home, the idea of not putting before them something was unthinkable. In fact, when a visitor showed up in your home, you were to provide them not with just what you would normally provide your own family, you were to provide them with a generous show of blessings.