I don’t know if any of you here have noticed, but I’m a talker. I enjoy sitting down and having conversations with people. Now a good conversationalist (not saying that I am) is able to maintain a balance between talking and listening. It’s a two way street.
The life of a Christian is one big spiritual conversation, our conversation with God. Last week we talked about spiritual priorities and how important it is to sit down at our Savior’s feet to listen to him speak. That is by far the most important part of our spiritual conversation. What we have to say never is quite as important as what our Savior has to tell us in his Word. But it is a conversation. God also wants us to speak to him. We do that through prayer.
Prayer is the language of a Christian. Dogs bark. Cats meow. Christians pray. In our text for this morning, Jesus is going to teach us about prayer. And I want you to pay close attention as we listen to Jesus’ words. He is going to give us a model of what to ask for in our prayers and then through the use of two illustrations he will show us how we can pray to him boldly and with confidence. So we read from Luke chapter 11...
I. Lord, teach us to pray for the right things
Our text begins with the words, “One day Jesus was praying in a certain place.” The time and place aren’t that important. The fact that Jesus was praying, however, is. Jesus sets a great example for us. Throughout his ministry, he would often go off to the wilderness, to a mountain, to a solitary place to pray. Jesus was in a constant conversation with his Father in heaven.
Last week we talked about priorities. We saw that what we do during the day reflects the priorities that we have in our life. And if that is true, where does it leave God? How much time every day do we spend in prayer?
Well, Martin Luther, the Reformer, was a full time seminary professor, a prolific author, a full time pastor of the church in Wittenberg, as well as helping many churches in Germany find the truth of the Gospel. He was a man that worked 24/7. Now, Martin Luther once remarked that if he didn’t spend at least three hours a day in prayer, he wouldn’t have time for anything.
Sounds illogical, doesn’t it? But God promises us that whatever we dedicate to him – be it our time, our talents, our treasure – he promises to bless us and give us much more. There really is no excuse for our lack of prayer. How much time does it take to say, “Thank you Lord.” “Help me Lord. “Forgive me Lord.”
So, anyway, Jesus gets done praying and one of his disciples says to him, “Lord teach us to pray.” And so Jesus gave them and us the model prayer which we call today the Lord’s Prayer. As you can see here in the text, the whole prayer isn’t even included in Luke’s account. For the entire prayer, take a look at Matthew chapter six.
Sadly it would be impossible to cover in detail each part of the Lord’s Prayer this morning. The truth is that we could spend a bunch of Sundays talking about Jesus’ model prayer. So this morning we are going to make just a couple of observations.
First of all a footnote about the Lord’s Prayer. As we see here, this was an example, a model, a teaching tool for the disciples. The Lord’s Prayer is not more powerful than any other prayer spoken by a Christian. It does not have magical powers to fend off ghosts and vampires. The simple repetition of it’s words does not bring us special blessings from God.
But how often don’t we just repeat the words of the Lord’s Prayer without even thinking about what we are saying? If I’m having a conversation with you and it appears that I’m not even paying attention to what I’m saying or what you’re saying, how would that make you feel? How do you think it makes God feel?
The Lord’s Prayer, however, is a very special prayer, because it teaches us what God wants us to ask for. The Lord’s Prayer in it’s entirety is made up of seven petitions, i.e., seven requests, seven parts. And out of those seven petitions, six are for spiritual things: asking God to forgive us; to protect us from temptation; to help us keep his name holy, and so on. Only one of the petitions deals with our physical needs. “Give us today our daily bread.”
Now, what are the things we normally pray for? When we are sick we ask that God heal us. We ask him for a good job, a new car, the money to make it through the week. But how often do we ask for more faith? How often do we ask for forgiveness? How often do we ask for help to forgive others? How often do we ask that God use us to spread his Word?
Don’t get me wrong. God wants us to ask for physical blessings. He wants us to ask when we want a new car and a better job. But again, it’s a question of priorities. He also wants us to focus on what is more important, our spiritual welfare. He wants us to be spiritually minded. And the great thing is that when we ask in our prayers “forgive us our sins”, even when it is for our lack of priorities in prayer, we know the answer. We read in 1 John that if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
So when we pray, let’s learn from the master, from Jesus. Let prayer be a priority in your life. When you pray, ask God to help you in all your needs, physically and even more importantly, spiritually. Oh yeah, and don’t let your prayers be completely “give me, give me, give me.” Let’s also include requests for others. And don’t forget to include two very important words, “thank you.”
II. Teach us the attitude to have when we pray.
Now after giving his disciples the “model prayer”, Jesus continued to teach them about prayer with two parables, two illustrations. The first is about a man whose friend comes in the middle of the night to borrow some food. The man is tired. The house is locked up. His kids are in bed. When the friend comes, he tells him: “Not now, it’s three in the morning, leave me alone.” But because of the friend’s persistence, his boldness (the Greek word here implies that the man had no shame), he gave him what he asked for.
In the same way, God wants us to be bold and persistent in our prayers. He wants us to take every measly little thing that we want or need to him in prayer. You know there’s a story about a fisherman who at best was a weak Christian. Caught in a terrible storm at sea, he prayed to God, “Lord, I know I haven’t prayed to you in 15 years, but if you only will save me right now, I won’t bother you again for at least another 15 years.”
The story’s kind of funny, isn’t it? But it reflects an attitude that is prevalent today. God is busy. God has a lot of important things to take care of. Why bother him with our measly little problems?
Because he wants us to.
In fact he promises us in verses 9 and 10, “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; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.” And that leads us to Jesus’ other illustration. Talking to earthly Father’s he says: If your kid asks you for food, your not going to give him a poison. How much more God, your Father in heaven, who loves you, will give you whatever you ask for. The Apostle Paul tells us in Romans 8, “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all – how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?”
But wait a minute, hold on. I could ask God, right here and right now, for a new Mercedes but he doesn’t give it to me. Is God lying?
Well, of course not. Like a good Father he is only going to give us what is good for us. Father knows best. God does often say “yes” to our prayers; but sometimes he says “no”; and sometimes he even says “Wait. Hold your horses! In the future.” But he always answers us for our good. There really is no such thing as an unanswered prayer.
That reminds me of a country song by Garth Brooks, called precisely that: “Unanswered Prayers.” Really the song doesn’t talk about unanswered prayers, but rather when God says “no.” You see in that song Brooks thanks God for unanswered prayers. He tells the story of how he went back to his old High School for a football game and there saw his old high school flame. He remembered how he prayed to God every night that she would be his wife. And as he talked to his old flame, he turned and looked at his wife, and thanked God for unanswered prayers. Really it wasn’t an unanswered prayer, was it? It was that God said “No, I’ve got somebody better waiting for you.”
The point of Jesus’ two illustrations on prayer is that God wants us to ask him boldly in our prayers for whatever we want. And we can do that because we are his dear children. Through Jesus we have the right to call God “daddy”. Through Jesus we have the right to ask for anything and everything. But I would advise you to say at the end: “Not what I want Lord, rather what you want.” Because like Garth Brooks, we don’t always know what’s best for us, what will make us happiest, but God does.
So to end this morning, I want to tell you a little story that I just heard recently. In fact, I couldn’t help but put it in the monthly newsletter as well: A man’s daughter had asked her pastor to come and visit her sick father. When the pastor arrived, he found the man lying in bed with his head propped up on two pillows and an empty chair beside his bed. The pastor assumed that the elderly gentleman had been informed of his visit. “I guess you were expecting me,” he said.
“No, who are you?”
“I’m the new pastor at your church. When I saw the empty chair, I figured you knew I was going to show up.”
“Oh yeah, the chair,” said the man, “Pastor, would you mind closing the door?”
Puzzled, the pastor shut the door.
“I’ve never told anyone this, not even my daughter,” said the man. “But all of my life I have never known how to pray. At church I used to hear the pastor talk about prayer, but it always went right over my head.”
“I abandoned any attempt at prayer until one day about four years ago my best friend said to me, ‘Joe, prayer is just a simple matter of having a conversation with Jesus. Here’s what I suggest. Sit down on a chair, place an empty chair in front of you, and in faith, see Jesus on the chair. It’s not spooky, because he promised, ‘I will be with you always.’ Then just speak to him in the same way you’re doing with me right now.’”
“So, I tried it and I’ve liked it so much that I do it a couple of hours every day. I’m careful though. If my daughter saw me talking to an empty chair, she’d either have a nervous breakdown or ship me off to the funny farm.”
The pastor was deeply moved by the story and encouraged the man to continue to pray in that way. They then had a brief devotion and the pastor returned to church.
Two nights later, the daughter called to tell the pastor that her father had passed away that afternoon.
“When I left the house around two o’clock,” she said, “he called me over to his bedside, told me one of his corny jokes and kissed me on the cheek. When I got back from the store and hour later, I found him dead. But there was something strange. Apparently just before dad died, he leaned over and rested his head on the chair that was beside his bed.”
My friends, be good conversationalists. Take all your requests, all your hopes, all your problems to God in prayer. Your prayers don’t have to be oratorical masterpieces in Shakespearean English. Just pour out your heart to God. Follow the example that Jesus gave us. Make sure that you’re not only asking for physical blessings, but also spiritual blessings. Always say “thank you.” And most importantly don’t forget to do what we learned last week. Be good listeners as well. Sit at your Savior’s feet to hear his response. Because we talk to God in our prayers and he talks to us through his Word. So, go out and be good conversationalists. Amen.
