Title: “Praying with Persistence” Scripture: Luke 11:5-10
Type: Expository series Where: GNBC 10-13-21
Intro: For more than 40 years, a shy Welshman went to his neighbor’s door each week and slipped a love letter underneath. Because of an argument they’d had decades before, she refused to speak to him through the years. Finally, after writing 2,184 love letters with no response of any kind, the 74-year-old man went to the door, knocked on it, and asked the 74-year-old woman to marry him. Much to his surprise, she said yes and they soon tied the knot. His persistence paid off! (Richard Armstrong, “Make Your Life Worthwhile”) Persistence usually does pay off. One area in which we may not think about persistence is in the area of prayer in our lives. Are you and I persistent in praying for the needs we face?
Prop: Studying Lk. 11:5-10 will teach us 3 important principles about being persistent in prayer.
BG: 1. Read a recent Barna poll that stated 90% of all American believe in prayer. 86% believe in God.
2. Are you persistent in prayer? Do you get easily discouraged when God doesn’t seem to answer immediately? If so this parable is for you (And me!).
3. Jesus loved to tell parables, because He loved stories and the way they helped people understand big truths about the kingdom of God. Today, we’re going to look at a parable about prayer. It’s called the Parable of the Persistent Friend.
Prop: Let’s examine Lk. 11:5-10 so as to realize 3 important principles about being persistent in prayer.
I. 1st Principle: Persistency in Prayer is Applauded by our Lord. Vv.5-8
A. Jesus tells this wonderful story to illustrate this Important Principle.
1. Most scholars refer to this as the “Parable of the Persistent Friend”.
a. The story begins vividly and appealingly. A man goes to his friend’s house at midnight to ask for food because a travelers has come to his own house. “Lend me 3 loaves of bread.” Is the request. “Lend” is not the common word in the NT which means allow to borrow with the expectation of interest. Rather, here, the only time in the NT, the word means “grant the use of as a friendly act”. We understand the difference. Illust: You go to the bank and they “lend” you money to purchase a car or home. They expect repayment with interest. Your neighbor’s lawn mower is broken and in the shop. He asks if you would mind “lending” him yours. You do it as a friendly act because you are a neighbor. Not going to calculate interest!
b. So the unsuspecting host has no food and rushes to his neighbor to ask a small request, “Three loaves of bread.” Think more of glorified pancakes. Two for the guest and one to eat with him as a sign of hospitality. Illust: Some have asked before, “Why midnight?” Come to travel at nighttime due to the intense heat.
2. Let’s look at the persistence of this man.
a. Notice the neighbor’s response: v.7 “Don’t bother me!” The hour is late. The door is bolted shut. The kids are in bed. “Come on, what’s your problem?!” This is a poor family. Sharing of a bed. Illust: I once new a man who was one of 14 children, lived in a 2 br. Row House. Packed in like sardines! Now Jesus says that the man will not help you because you are his friend, but rather, because you are persistent!
b. The Greek word for “persistence” (anaideian) literally means, “shamelessness”. The NIV translates this: “utter shamelessness”. Illust: We’ve all seen homeless people begging money before. Many are tragic figures with Spiritual/mental health problems. Some chemical addiction. Some, life has been terribly difficult. Some PSTDs. There is, also, however, a minority of those who “utterly shameless” and have told you their story with a straight face and what was our response? Gave them money. Why? They were bold! Got in your face. Asked for money. Jesus is telling us that when there is a matter for prayer we need to be just as utterly shameless in making our requests known.
B. The Parable Sets up the Obvious Point: Be Persistent in Prayer.
1. Be Persistent in Prayer when Interceding on Behalf of Others.
a. Illust – I love the OT story of Abraham in Gen. 18. God reveals to the patriarch that the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah is great and that He is about to destroy them for their perversion. One problem, Abraham’s nephew and family are there. Abraham begins to pray to the Lord and intercede and ask if God would relent if 50 righteous people were found in S&G. If you know the story, God says that He would relent. Abraham comes back by asking if there are 45, then 40, until goes down to 10. Why? Because his relatives are living in this vile community and Abraham wants them to be spared from God’s wrath.
b. Do you and I pray for others? Are you burdened by the sinful lost condition of a loved one? A son? A daughter? A father? A mother? Brother or sister? We need to be persistent in praying for our lost loved ones. Don’t give up. Friends serving on the mission field? Pray for them! Pastor? Pray for him! Illust: “Moses prayed 40 days and nights seeking to stay the wrath of God against Israel, and his example serves as a stimulus to present day faith in the darkest of hours.” (EM Bounds, Complete Works, p. 40)
2. Be Persistent in Prayer When Seeking God for yourself.
a. IN Gen. 32:22-32 we read one of the defining stories of the OT. Jacob is terrified at the approach of his powerful brother, Esau, whom he swindled years ago. Jacob has always been a deceiver, a heel grabber. He’s always been able to talk his way out of problems or deceive or trick or outsmart others. Now, however, his back is against a wall. Jacob is now all alone and a man comes along and begins to wrestle with the patriarch until daybreak. Clearly, the other man is stronger, by simply touching his hip Jacob’s thigh is dislocated. However, Jacob doggedly holds on for dear life, refusing to let go until the man blesses him. This event is life-changing for Jacob, right down to his very name: From “heel grabber” or “supplanter” to “Wrestle with God” or “Prince with God”. Israel’s shocked response: “I have seen God face to face and survived.”
b. Wrestling with God in prayer doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t rest in him. As we give our burdens to Jesus, he gives us rest. We can cease striving and find rest for our souls (Matthew 11:28–29). We can find peace and contentment when we are fully satisfied in him, trusting in his care (Isaiah 26:3). Yet sometimes resting can be a cover for resignation because we’ve given up hope. Sometimes saying we are trusting is a way of protecting ourselves from disappointment. Sometimes not asking is a sign of drifting from God, unwilling to actively engage him. We need to understand where our rest is coming from. Resting begins with wrestling. So pray bold, daring prayers. Expect God to move. Talk to the Lord constantly. Ask, seek, and knock. And when your wrestling is over, you’ll find an intimacy sweeter than you have ever known. (V. Rendall Risner, “Grab Hold of God”)
c. Application: Although idle or vain repetition in prayer is forbidden, persistent shamelessness in prayer is praised!
II. 2nd Principle: Keep Asking, Seeking, and Knocking When There Doesn’t Seem to be an Answer to Your Prayer. Vv. 9-10
A. Jesus is telling us here that we should not be afraid to ramp up the intensity of our Prayer Life.
1. Christ Gives us 3 Words to Suggest an increased Intensity in our Prayer Life.
a. “Ask” – This is kind of a general request. Sort of an initial starting point in prayer. All of us who are Christians have struggled with the problem of unanswered prayer. In fact, that problem can discourage us so much that we start thinking, “What’s the use?” and we even quit praying. We hear stories of how God answered prayer for others, but for us it just doesn’t seem to work for me. Illust: When we were kids we would sometime ring doorbells and then run away. (It was before video games!) Thrill was not hanging around long enough to get caught. Unfortunately, our “asking” in prayer can kind of be like this too. We don’t stick around long enough to find out if God is home and if He is going to open the door and answer our request.
b. The second word Jesus uses is: “seek”. Seeking implies more effort. Maybe more earnest, more engaged. In Luke 15 we see 3 of the most memorable of all of Christ’s parables. First there is the shepherd who seeks after the 1 lost sheep of the 99 safely in the fold. Then we see the widow earnestly seeking to find the 1 coin she has lost out of her 10. The chapter culminates in a distraught father, seeking his one lost son. These parables demonstrate the Father’s searching for the lost sinner. Effort is implied.
c. The third word Christ uses is “knock”. If there is still no answer and desperation sets in, then KNOCK! Pound on the door. This is earnest, definite, and desperate prayer, and every Christian, must, at times, do this. It implies a holy boldness! You have the right motives you have a need and you must hear from God! We need saints today who are going to knock on the very gates of heaven for revival. Illust: 50 yrs ago I was a little boy with my dad at a stranger’s house. Standing outside looking at a motorcycle he was considering buying. Weather changed very rapidly and to our shock, coming across the newly planted field of Indiana was a tornado! My father, grabbed my arm, and skipped the asking and seeking stage, and ran straight into the people’s home and to the basement w/o even asking. He was desperate.
2. The Growing Christian is one who prays with persistence.
a. Illust: Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones once said: “The importance of this element of persistence cannot be exaggerated. You find it not only in biblical teaching, but also in the lives of all the saints. The most fatal thing in the Christian life is to be content with passing desires. If we really want to be men of God, if we really want to know Him, and walk with Him, and experience those boundless blessings which He has to offer us, we must persist in asking Him for them day by day. We have to feel this hunger and thirst for righteousness, and then we shall be filled. And that does not mean that we are filled once and for ever. We go on hungering and thirsting.” (The Sermon on the Mount [Eerdmans], 2:201))
b. This passage closely parallels Mt. 7:7-11. Jesus says those who ask will receive. Seek, will find. Knock will discover the door opened. In other words, He guarantees you and me success, if we will only get down to the business of praying.
B. Are you and I persisting in Prayer?
1. May I ask you, friend, do our prayers lack urgency before God?
a. Illust: In Luke 18:1-8, there is another parable our Lord teaches on prayer. A troublesome widow goes to an unrighteous judge, requesting justice. She persistently pleads her case before magistrate who ultimately honors her request. The lesson in the parable is like in everything else in the spiritual life, lukewarmness is nauseating to the Lord. Do we lack urgency in our prayers? Do we really desire change? John Knox’s famous prayer: “”Oh God, give me Scotland, or I die!”
b. Illust: Adoniram Judson was a great American missionary to Burma. He was a man or prayer. “God loves persistent prayer so much, that He will not give much blessing without it. And the reason He loves such prayer is that He loves us, and knows that it is a necessary preparation for our receiving the richest blessing Hs is waiting and longing to bestow.”
2. Are there items for which you are asking, seeking, or knocking in prayer? The great danger in the Christian life, one for which we must all be on guard, is the longer we are a believer, the less we pray. We tell ourselves we believe in God’s sovereignty, and predestination, and all of those other great theological truths. Illust: Its great to believe like a Calvinist. But friend, upon occasion, you and I had better pray like we are Arminians.
C. Applic: If we come to realize that our request is not in accord with God’s will or if we get a distinct sense from God that we should cease praying, then we should not continue to pray for that need. But otherwise, we should keep asking, keep seeking, and keep knocking until God answers
III. 3rd Principle: Trust in God’s Character to Provide for His Children. Vv. 11-13
A. Christ Instructs Persistence Based on the Character of our Heavenly Father.
1. We can Approach God with Trust as His child.
a. “There are 3 persons in this parable. The one spoken for, the one who speaks, and the one appealed to. The Lord vividly contrasts the reluctance and selfishness of the friend appealed to with the openhanded and open hearted generosity of our Heavenly Father. The man appealed to was not concerned about his friend’s distress. But this is the point of the parable: “If even a self-centered and ungenerous human being to whom sleep was more important than his friend’s distress and need will reluctantly arise at midnight and supply the need because of the shameless persistence of the man, how much more will God be moved by our persistence and meet the needs of His children? “(J Oswald Sanders, Prayer Power Unlimited, pg.70)
b. Jesus seems to be answering a silent objection: “If God is like the groggy, unwilling neighbor at midnight, then I’m not sure that I want to bug Him.” Jesus changes the picture to a loving father who meets the needs of his children and then concludes how much more the heavenly Father will meet the needs of His children. His aim is to encourage us to come to God as our loving Father, being assured that He cares for us and that He will meet our needs. As in 11:5-10, Jesus gives an illustration followed by direct application.
2. Let’s Examine both the Illustration and the Application.
a. 1st: The Illustration: The illustration is effective because it is so ludicrous. No earthly father would be so cruel as to give his hungry child something deceptive and harmful in place of the food the child asked for. A snake with its silvery scales could be mistaken for a fish and a coiled up scorpion could look like a small egg to a child. But when he takes these trustingly from his father, they harm him rather than feed him and meet his need. Even though we are evil by nature, we would never treat our children in this manner. The argument is from the lesser to the greater. As Calvin (p. 353) expresses it, “If the little drops produce such an amount of beneficence, what ought we to expect from the inexhaustible ocean?” If sinful men give good things to their kids, how much more will God!
b. 2nd: The Application: Jesus drives home the application: “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?” In the parallel in Matthew 7:11, Jesus is more general in saying that God will give what is good to those who ask Him. But here He specifies the Holy Spirit who, being God, is the greatest good we could imagine. Although every Christian receives the HS at the moment of salvation (Rom. 8:9), we all need to know more and more of the Spirit’s fullness in our daily walk. Whatever our needs, our greatest need is to continually be in fellowship with the Holy Spirit. Jesus is instructing us to come as needy children to our Heavenly Father to pour out His blessed Spirit upon us!
B. The Neighbor Gave Because the Other Was Persistent. God gives Because He is Good.
1. Remember that truth! God answers prayer and gives because He is good.
a. V. 13 Now brings us back to where we started. Again, quoting Lloyd Jones “This is one of our main troubles, is it not? If you should ask me to state in one phrase what I regard as the greatest defect in most Christian lives I would say that it is our failure to know God as our Father as we should know Him.… Ah yes, we say; we do know that and believe it. But do we know it in our daily life and living? Is it something of which we are always conscious? If only we got hold of this, we could smile in the face of every possibility and eventuality that lies ahead of us.” (p. 202)
b. Satan’s original plant was to get Eve to doubt that God is good. His commandment was keeping something good from her. Satan still uses that lie today. Why is God withholding this from me? I know my life would be better if only God allowed… Another line of attack can be: “If your God is good, why does He allow such pain and suffering in the world? Why does a good God allow women and children to… Why does a good God allow a sweet little toddler to die a slow, painful death from cancer? Why does a good God allow His servants who are dedicated to doing His work to be killed by evil men? The difficult questions could go on forever, and I certainly won’t deny they exist. But here's the bottom line. In a fallen world, you can trust in the character of God.
2. Persistently seek your Loving Heavenly Father in Prayer. Illust: Our son Joseph was about three-years-old when we had gone through the bedtime routine of reading a story, praying, and answering a dozen questions, hugged him, said good-night and slipped out of his room. Finally, after a long, hard day, RELAX! In about 5 minutes before I heard, “Daddy, can I have a drink of water?” , “No, Joseph, be quiet and go to sleep.” It was quiet for a couple of minutes before, I heard, louder than before: “Daddy, can I have a drink of water?” “Son, I said to be quiet and go to sleep!” There was silence again, but it didn’t last long. “Daddy, please can I have a drink of water?” “Joseph Christopher, if I hear one more sound out of that room, I’m going to spank you!” Silence for a few moments. Then I heard, “Daddy, when you come in here to spank me, would you bring me a drink of water?” Now that’s when I knew he was really thirsty! He was boldly persistent in his request. (Adapted from Steven Cole sermon.)
C. Applic: Eric Alexander once said: “Left to our selves, there are many things of which we are capable: we can persuade people intellectually; we can arouse and inspire them emotionally; and we can win them to ourselves psychologically. But the one thing we cannot do is to regenerate them spiritually. That task is exclusively God's. When one of my friends, who had been in the pastorate for many fruitful years, was asked by some seminary students, "What, in your experience, is the best and most effective evangelistic method?" he replied, after some thought, "Prayer—persistent, believing prayer." That response doesn’t come from some profound theological insight. Rather, it comes from a foundational truth. If only God can save, then to whom do we turn to see our friends brought to salvation? By praying to God!
