Most of you have probably heard that God answers our prayers in one of three ways: Yes, No, or wait. I believe that this is a wise way of looking at prayer but today we’re going to look only at the first answer. Honestly, when you say that God answered your prayers you mean that he said “Yes!” You don’t mean he said “No!” And so it is when Jesus taught about prayer in the Gospels. He encouraged his followers to pray expecting a “yes” answer.
If I was to take a survey in our congregation to find out how much of a percentage of your prayers were “yes”, how much “no” and how much “wait” I wouldn’t be surprised if the smallest percentage would be “yes” answers. But in our text this morning Jesus teaches ways we can pray in order to turn many of our “no” prayers into “yes” prayers.
I. First God says “yes” to bold prayers (5-8)
The way Jesus teaches this is through a parable. A man is visited unexpectedly by a friend at his home in the middle of the night. This is an incredible challenge for this man since he must set something before the guest and he must eat. In the middle east, a guest in the home is like having God in the home. Lack of provision is unthinkable.
Now he isn’t going to just feed his guest bread. He’s going to place a variety of dishes before him and the guest will use his bread as his knife, fork, and spoon. As he eats he will break off bite-sized pieces and dip them in the dishes. That’s the way they ate – so bread is essential!
But he doesn’t have bread. Even if he has all the other dishes, how can one eat without bread? It’s like not having utensils to eat with. So he goes over to his neighbor’s house to ask for help.
Now as he seeks his neighbor’s help, his neighbor refuses to help even if it is a friend. It’s late. His children are in bed. But eventually he will help his neighbor feed his guest. Why? Let’s read verse 8 “I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs.” It appears that he will help his friend because of his persistence – that he won’t go away – he won’t stop asking. But actually the real reason behind him helping his friend is his reputation.
You see the word here in the original language means “shamelessness.” There is an aspect to the culture of that time that we need to understand. A guest in one man’s home is considered a guest of the village. If he is mistreated by one man, he is mistreated by the whole village. And so there is the sense of shared guilt. If this man doesn’t take care of his friend, the man who refused to help would be met with cries of “shame” all over the village. So he will gladly provide all that is needed.
And so the point is that when we pray, we come boldly to the Lord. We don’t need to be afraid of bothering him or thinking that he won’t want to hear about our problems or petitions. There are needs to be met in your family or in our church or in your life and the only one who can meet those needs is the Lord. The survival and reputation of his children are on the line. So he encourages us to boldly go before the throne and make your supplications known to him. He won’t refuse!
II. Secondly, God says “yes” to persistent prayers. (9-10)
Notice the growing intensity of these prayers as Jesus presents them. Imagine you are looking for someone – let’s say it’s your long lost friend from high school. The first step is to ask around from people who might know him and where he lives, what he’s doing, how you might locate him. Now that might satisfy your curiosity but if you are really interested in finding that friend, you take that address that you were able to get, look on a map, get in the car and start driving to that town and that street address. You finally found his house and you might be satisfied with that, you might have seen him driving into the garage, and walking into the house after work. But if you want to complete your goal, you walk up to the front door and knock. You hear the TV on. You saw him come home. No one answers. You keep on knocking. Still no one. Do you go home? Do you leave? No! You keep on knocking until your friend comes to the door and then the great reunion begins.
You see, Jesus could have just said, “ask once” or “seek once.” But in the Scripture you should know that he purposely intensifies the process and makes it something that is continuous. The intention of this saying is “keep on asking” “keep on seeking” “keep on knocking” until you get the answer. You simply are not to give up. Those who give up would be like walking away from the friend’s house after knocking three times.
III. God says “yes” to prayers that are his will.
What should you ask for? what should you seek after? What door should you knock on? This is absolutely key to our prayers because so many times we might ask, seek, and knock but we’re not asking, seeking, or knocking according to the thinking of God but according to our own selfish thoughts or our own logic or our own mindset.
As James 4:3 tells us: “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.”
Like I said last week, God has purposely limited many of his actions to the prayers of his people. If we DON’T pray, certain things will be left undone. So we need to pray God’s will into effect.
Where do we find God’s will? In the Scripture! Many of our prayers are completely confirmed in the Bible and so certain prayers we can KNOW are God’s will. What are some of those prayers?
Salvation of the lost!
1 Timothy 2:4 God “desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” Every one of us ought to keep on praying and seeking and knocking for each person we know who is lost. Never give up! God won’t force someone to repent but through your prayers he certainly will cause things to happen that will lead in that direction. To the day you die you should never stop praying for the lost.
Pray that you will not give into temptation.
In the Lord’s prayer we are to ask for that: “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Are you daily seeking God’s deliverance from the temptations of the flesh, the world, and the devil? If you don’t you are not taking advantage of one of the key weapons God has given us. It’s essentially saying, “I don’t need God’s help to fight spiritual battles – I’m strong enough on my own.” Nobody on earth can say that! We are all vulnerable.
Pray that God would provide you with what you need to serve him, your family, and your neighbor.
Again, let’s go back to the Lord’s Prayer: “Give us this day our daily bread.” It’s God’s will to provide for our daily needs. It doesn’t matter how poor we are, we can know that God somehow will provide. It doesn’t mean that you’ll be eating steaks and sitting by the pool but God gives just what we need. Do you ask for God’s provision for yourself and your family? If not, how can you expect him to provide. He says, “Keep asking!”
Pray for God’s leading in your life.
Psalm 31:3 “For you are my rock and my fortress; and for your name's sake you lead me and guide me; Psalm 23 “He leads me besides still waters.” Psalm 143:10 Teach me to do your will, for you are my God! Let your good Spirit lead me on level ground!” As you pray this prayer, do you think God will refuse? Will he not gladly lead and direct you to the place that is best for you? Whether it’s a job, a home, a spouse, or anything else – God will direct. Will you listen, that’s the big question. When we pray, do we also listen to God?
Our daily prayer ought to be for wisdom.
Pray that God would give us wisdom to make godly decisions – those which are pleasing in his sight, that will bring him glory, that will bless others. Wisdom comes from above and this is a prayer that will always be answered by God. James 1:5 “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.” We ALL lack wisdom but we can guarantee that we can acquire it through prayer.
IV. God says “yes” to prayers for the Holy Spirit. (11-13)
As we read further in our text we see a second illustration – a father who is giving a gift to his son. Verse 11-12 “What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; 12 or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?”
Notice the two requests. First the boy asks for a fish – this isn’t a fish for your fish tank like ours at home. This is certainly a fish to eat. The son is hungry and is asking his Daddy for food. The same applies to the egg. It’s nothing unusual.
We’re not talking about Christmas or Birthday gifts but simply providing food on the table. Now even the worst fathers are going to feed their own kids. We can’t even imagine a father putting a poisonous serpent on his son’s plate and then a scorpion right next to it. Basically, he would be trying to kill him. It’s unthinkable!
And so also, the Lord God our heavenly Father is never going to give to us as his children things that are going to be bad for us. He only wants our best. But he wants us to simply ask him. Will you give me a fish? Will you give me an egg? Will you provide what I need Lord? He will gladly do so.
The thing is, we often do accuse God of giving us bad things. We accuse him of serpents and of scorpions on our plate. But not every trial we encounter is an answer to prayer – many of the horrible things we encounter in life are a result of sin, of evil in the world, of rebellion against God. Do we blame God? No! God can turn evil circumstances and events into something good – he can bless us despite the hardships. But never should we blame God for evil.
Instead of blaming him, we ought to seek from him the number one request that is most needed by every one of us, the best gift, the best thing that God can give us. He tells us in verse 13: the Holy Spirit.
It is through the Holy Spirit that we have faith and trust in God. It is through the Holy Spirit that we are convicted of our sin and repent turning to God. It is through the Holy Spirit that we grow in our faith and produce spiritual fruit. Yes, as believers we have the Holy Spirit – he dwells in each of us from the moment of our conversion. And yet Jesus tells us to pray for the Holy Spirit. What does that mean?
Pray for the filling of the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 5:18b “be filled with the Spirit,” this is like prayer – it’s not understood as a one time action. This is a repeated action. Be filled over and over and over again so that the Spirit will lead, inspire, strengthen, protect, teach, bless you. Pray that the Holy Spirit would fill you every day! Start the day off with this request. God’s answer will always be “YES!” He won’t refuse to come to you unless you refuse him and rebel against him.
There is nothing any one of us need more in life than the power of the Holy Spirit. It’s the number one key in living the life God has called you. It’s supernatural ability, peace, patience, guidance, and love. Pray for it. Pray daily!
