A ship was caught in the midst of a raging storm. Water was breaking over the bow. The pumps were not able to pump enough water out to keep up with the water pouring in. One hundred men worked together with buckets in an attempt to save their ship.
Soon it became evident to the captain that they would need to abandon ship. He cried out above the howling wind, "Does anyone here know how to pray?"
One young man boldly stepped forward and said, "Yes sir. I have been a Christian for all of my life. In my church, I was well known for my passionate prayers. People would line the aisles for the privilege of me praying for them. And 99% of the time God granted my requests.”
The captain said, "Wonderful, you pray while the rest of us put on life jackets--we're one short."
Not many of us are like that young man. Most of the times I don’t think my prayers go beyond the ceiling. And often they seem to go unanswered. I must admit that sometimes it is difficult for me to be a man of prayer.
Jesus never had that problem. He was in constant communication with his Father. His disciples had the privilege of hearing his prayers to God. In fact, they were fascinated with the relationship He had with God. Their culture taught that such a personal relationship was not possible. Everything had to go through the priest to reach God. However, Jesus did not chant or sing but rather had actual conversations with God. And this prompted a request from one of them.
The Model Luke 11:1-4
“Once Jesus was in a certain place praying. As he finished, one of his disciples came to him and said, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.’
Jesus said, ‘This is how you should pray:
‘Father, may your name be kept holy.
May your Kingdom come soon.
Give us each day the food we need,
and forgive us our sins,
as we forgive those who sin against us.
And don’t let us yield to temptation.’”
We know this as the Lord’s Prayer. You probably recognize it from the King James Version. “Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.
Give us day by day our daily bread.
And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.” Many denominations repeat this prayer quite often and there is nothing wrong with that. But Jesus said, “This is how you should pray.” Not “This is what you should pray.” This was a model for prayer. Now, I could do an entire series on these passages but this is not where my teaching is taking us today. However, I do want to hit 7 points of effective prayer.
1) Relationship Insure your relationship with God is on solid ground.
2) Praise Spend a vast majority of your prayer praising his holiness and worthiness to be praised.
3) Surrender Give God permission to do in your life and with your life whatever He wishes.
4) Provision Allow your requests to be known but make a daily need so you will be prompted to pray each day.
5) Forgiveness Ask God to forgive you of your sins.
6) Compassion Ask God to give you compassion even for your enemies.
7) Protection Ask God to keep his hands upon you so that you will be kept safe from the schemes of the enemy.
This is usually the end of the teaching for prayer. However, his teaching continued beyond these passages. He knew there would times in life when this model prayer would not be enough. In other words, this would not be a magic chant that obligated God’s response. He knew there would be times when it would seem God did not hear. This also needed to be addressed. So He continued with his teaching on prayer with a parable that has three plots.
The first plot- The Request
Luke 11:5-6 “Then, teaching them more about prayer, he used this story: ‘Suppose you went to a friend’s house at midnight, wanting to borrow three loaves of bread. You say to him, “A friend of mine has just arrived for a visit, and I have nothing for him to eat.””
In this parable, He places the listener as the central character. He presents a very real problem centered on hospitality, which was central to the Jewish culture. The Old Testament is filled with examples of hospitality being offered often at great expense. One extreme example was Lot. He lived in the very wicked city of Sodom. God sent angels to warn Lot of the upcoming destruction of Sodom. When a crowd of men stormed Lot’s doors so they could rape his guests, Lot offered them his daughters. He perceived his obligation toward his guests to be even greater than his responsibility for the welfare of his own daughters.
So Jesus sets the stage. You have a friend that has traveled a long distance. He arrived the day before your regular shopping day. You and your family have polished off all the food in the house and nothing is left, not even a loaf of bread. However, you saw another friend that afternoon come in with a weeks worth of groceries. You know he has some bread. Its way past bedtime but your friend is hungry and you are obligated to feed him. There isn’t a 24-hour convenient store around so you rely on your friend next door.
The listener understands this guys dilemma. He has someone with a need and someone with the means to answer that need. And they are both friends.
We need to once again understand the culture of the day. Right now, I have 248 friends on Facebook. That is probably a small number for most of you. But less than 10 % of those are really friends. The rest are acquaintances. An acquaintance is someone you know in a personal or social way. But a friend is someone you are attached to by affection or esteem. The lead character was attached by affection to both his guest and his neighbor. He held both in high esteem. It was because of this friendship that he was obligated to feed his one friend and his other friend was obligated to help him out. Now comes the twist.
The second plot- The Refusal.
Luke 11:7 “And suppose he calls out from his bedroom, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is locked for the night, and my family and I are all in bed. I can’t help you.’”
This was the ultimate insult for this culture. A friend denying a friend in need. He will not even go to the door much less open it. He does not want to be bothered. He does not want his family bothered. He does not care to help. The listeners are shocked.
In the neighbor’s defense, we must realize what the living conditions may have been like. Unlike our houses, this may have been a one-room house. The entire family would have slept in that one room resting on a platform about 18 inches high. Their mattress would have been straw mats that would have been rolled up and stored during the day. Also, it was not uncommon to bring into the house the farm animals at night to protect them. The door would have been bolted from the inside for protection with the man sleeping near the door.
In order to assist his friend he would have found it necessary to crawl over his entire family to get to the bread. Then he would have run the risk of disturbing the farm animals in the house. Next, he would have to struggle to unbolt the door. Friend or no friend, it wasn’t worth the hassle. But the story doesn’t end there.
The third plot- The Persistence
Luke 11:8 “But I tell you this—though he won’t do it for friendship’s sake, if you keep knocking long enough, he will get up and give you whatever you need because of your shameless persistence.”
A rather lonely guy decided life would be more fun if he had a pet. So he went to the pet store and told the owner that he wanted to buy an unusual pet. The storeowner sold him on a talking centipede, which came in a little white box to use for its house. He took the centipede home, found a good location for the box, and then decided he would start by taking his new pet to a restaurant to have dinner.
So he asked the centipede in the box, "Would you like to go to Wendy’s with me to have dinner?" But there was no answer from his new pet. This bothered him a bit, but he waited a few minutes and then asked him again, "How about going to Wendy’s with me?" But again, there was no answer from his new friend and pet.
So he waited a few minutes more, thinking about the situation. He decided to ask him one more time; this time putting his face up against the centipede’s house and shouting, "Hey, in there! Would you like to go to Wendy’s with me to have dinner?" A little voice came out of the box from the centipede: "I heard you the first time! I’m putting on my shoes!”
Although that was a silly little story, it pictured the persistence of the man in need. This was his friend that had an obligation to help him. He would not allow his friend to reject him because that’s not what friends do. He bangs and keeps banging. He yells and keeps yelling. The animals are stirring but he bangs on. The children are waking but he continues to yell. He will not accept rejection. It’s not a choice. So his friend gives in, not because of friendship, but rather to get rid of him.
Thus ended the story but not the teaching. Remember, Jesus is teaching on prayer. Was the one with the petition us? Was the friend behind the locked door God? Was Jesus teaching us that God insisted on us hounding him to get answered prayers? Perhaps He was.
Let’s look at The Proof.
Luke 11:9-10 “And so I tell you, keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.”
As Jesus was teaching his disciples to pray, He knew there would be times in their life when it would seem that God wasn’t listening. He knew there would be times in our life when it would seem that God wasn’t listening. But He teaches us to be persistent.
When my kids were little and Christmas or birthdays drew near, they would let their desires be known. If they mentioned some toy but never mentioned it again, I was rather sure that it wasn’t at the top of their list. But it was the toys they kept asking for repeatedly that I knew they wanted. Perhaps God desires to see how bad we really want an answered prayer. If we mention something as part of some ritual prayer but never pray for it again, how bad did we really want it answered?
I will say one thing for my kids. They were persistent. They would ask and keep asking for something. If I tried to hide, they would seek me out so they could keep asking. If I locked myself behind a door, they would knock and keep knocking until I opened the door for their request.
Going back to the story Jesus told. The man was prepared to ask his friend for bread. He was prepared to seek his friend out. He was prepared to knock on his door until his request was granted. God desires the same from us; persistent prayer. We may ask, “Why? Why can‘t He just answer my prayer?” I know I have. Well, in my prayer time I believe the Holy Spirit helped me understand a little better.
It is when prayers are not being answered that we must prove that we believe in the blessed assurance of God’s hand on our lives and by doing so please him.
You have to have Faith.
Hebrews 11:1 “Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.”
It is faith that gives us the confidence to ask and keep asking with the assurance that our prayer will be answered. It is faith that gives us the confidence to seek God and keep seeking God with the assurance that our prayer will be answered. It is faith that gives us the confidence to knock on heavens gates and keep knocking with the assurance that our prayer will be answered. Jesus says be persistent in prayer to show your faith because as stated in Hebrews 11:6 “And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.”
It is our confidence in God and our assurance that he will answer our prayers that pleases him. God answers all prayers. It may be with a “Yes”, a “Wait”, or a “No.” but He will answer. So we must continue asking, seeking, and knocking until we get the answer.
Lastly, Jesus highlights the Real Need
Luke 11:11-13 “You fathers—if your children ask for a fish, do you give them a snake instead? Or if they ask for an egg, do you give them a scorpion? Of course not! So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.”
The inclination here is that the children are unable to distinguish between a fish and a snake, or an egg and a scorpion.
Their father’s wisdom makes the difference. Jesus is telling his disciples and us that what may seem like a necessity make actually be a danger. Only God has the wisdom to distinguish what is best for us. And He does so through the Holy Spirit. That is our real need. The guidance of the Holy Spirit more and more each day.
So pray daily. Be persistent in you prayer until you get an answer. Keep asking. Keep seeking. Keep knocking. And show your faith by doing so.
