INTRODUCTION
I’ve said on the front cover of this weeks bulletin that prayer is the highest use of the gift of speech.
Words are a powerful tool. For example apparently for every word in Hitler’s book Mein Kampf, 125 people lost their lives in World War 2 (W. Wiersbe "Be Complete" p135).
So words are powerful and today I want us to look at the most powerful and effective use of words and speech – prayer.
Again on the front of the bulletin I’ve quoted Paul who says,
Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too (Colossians 4:2-3a)
But how do we pray, and can we be more effective in our prayer? Does God always hear us? Why does he seem to take his time in answering sometimes?
The disciples asked Jesus these exact same questions. One day when they were alone with him and Jesus was praying, when he finished they said, "Teach us to pray." You can read about it in Luke 11 – In fact why not turn there now. When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray, he proceeded to outline the Lord’s prayer for them. This gave them a pattern for prayer. But after that Jesus went on to tell a story about a friend who went and knocked on his neighbors door at midnight. Let’s read it together.
(LUKE 11:5-13)
In the Lord’s prayer, just before this, we have a pattern for prayer, but then Jesus tells this story about a friend who disturbs his neighbor in the middle of the night for some bread to serve a guest. You see, in this story Jesus is still teaching us about prayer – and in it he outlines some principles we can apply if we want to be more effective in our praying.
And the first is simply this – like this friend knocking on his neighbors door at midnight, we are to be bold in our prayer.
I.BOLDNESS (vv 5-8)
(Illus.: Taken from Ronald Dunn, "Don’t just stand there, pray something." pg48-50)
-Ronald Dunn tells the story of a trip he and his family took to a local fair. At the time he had three kids and he also had his brothers child, which made four. The tickets for the rides were ten cents a piece so they bought a roll of tickets and Ron would stand atthe entry way of each ride and hand the tickets to the kids as they got on. At one ride in particular, he took his post and began handing out tickets. He handed out the fourth ticket to his son, Stephan and he wacthed him limb on the ride. He then noticed a fifth child standing before him with hand held out waiting for a ticket. "Who is this kid?" he thought to himself. He got a little angery thinking that this boy was trying to get a free ticket that was meant for his children. He was just about to tell this kid that he would get no tickets when his son, Stephan called back, "It’s okay, dad, he’s my friend and I told him that you would give him a ticket." Long story short, Ron Dunn gave the boy a ticket, not because he wanted to or that the boy deserved it but because of his sons word
He realized, as a result of this that this boy was asking for a ticket "in Stephan’s name," and he gave this boy a ticket, "in Stephan’s name." This illustrated our praying in Jesus’ name for him.
If we are Believers, then we can ask God for anything we need with the same boldness of that boy, because Jesus is right there with our heavenly Father saying, "It’s all right, he’s with me." This is exactly what Jesus is talking about in the story of the neighbor at midnight. He says:
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
(Luke 11:8)
Like a child expects the necessities of life from a loving father, and seeks them boldly, unashamedly from him, so we can go to God boldly expect him to meet all our needs.
When a soldier is in battle, he goes to his commanding officer to request the tools or weapons he needs to get the job done – to win the battle – and he expects to get them. In the same way we can go to the Lord with boldness and confidence knowing he will give us everything we need to get the job done.
The point is this if we want to have an effective and powerful prayer life we must cultivate an attitude of boldness. The disciples asked Jesus, "Teach us how to pray." And Jesus said, "Be bold."
Jesus is saying here in Luke 11:8 that we are to be like this neighbor at midnight, we are to boldly approach God and ask him to meet our needs. And the verse says that God is like the neighbor who gives the bread – he gets up and "gives as much as is needed."
Now, you might be thinking if God knows everything, why do I need to ask him to meet even my simplest needs (Like "Give us each day our daily bread" v3). V9 instructs us to "Ask and it will be given to you." The reason we must ask is that even though God knows our needs before we do, is not to remind God, but to show him the attitude of our heart – that we are humbly relying on him to meet our needs. By asking we are showing the Lord that our faith is in him to meet our needs, and no-one else.
So what does all this mean to us today? Well if we believe – if we are followers of Jesus Christ – it means that just like the boy at the fair, Jesus is vouching for us and so we can go to the Lord with confidence and boldly ask him to meet our needs because we know he will do it ("Ask and it will be given to you" v9).
We can ask him to meet our needs in our marriage; as parents; in our work/employment; to meet our needs financially; to meet our needs when we’re sharing our faith with others; to meet our needs in becoming more like Jesus – we can ask him these things because we know they are what he wants too.
As a church we can be bold in asking God to meet our needs. He has left us here for a reason, and that reason is to reach lost people for Jesus Christ – we can boldly ask God to give us everything we need to fulfill that purpose.
What if today you would not call yourself a Christian? A Believer? A follower of Jesus? What is Jesus saying to you in this passage? Well, you are in a position, again, like the boy at the fair. Only this time there is no-one to vouch for you. You are not yet a friend of Jesus. You can ask God to meet your needs all you like but he’s there – like the father in the story - saying, "I don’t know you, who are you? You’re not one of mine."
You might say, "Well I don’t need the Lord to meet my needs anyway, if I want something I just go out and buy it." And that’s fine – but the one thing you need most can’t be bought – and that’s God’s forgiveness. And the Lord’s forgiveness is the one thing you need most for the best life in the next life!
But the good news is – Jesus is also saying to you in this story, that you too can approach God with boldness with your greatest need, this need for his forgiveness. And when you take that need to the Lord he will meet it immediately, and he will give you a new start in life as a child in his family.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).
So if we want to have an effective and powerful prayer life we must cultivate an attitude of boldness. And we are to also grow in passionate persistence.
II. PASSION (vv9-10)
The story goes that some of the first African converts to Christianity were diligent and regular in private prayer and meditation. Each one reportedly had a separate spot in the thicket where he would pour out his heart to God. Over time the paths to these places became well worn. As a result, if one of these believers began to neglect prayer, it was soon apparent to the others. They would kindly remind the negligent one, "Brother, the grass grows on your path." (Today in the Word, June 29, 1992)
What’s the grass like on your path?
Can your prayer life be described as passionate and persistent? This is the second principle of powerful prayer, passionate persistence.
Jesus continues in this parable saying,
"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. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened
(Luke 11:9-10).
a. Passion
I hope you can see the increasing intensity in these verses – asking means making a simple request – seeking implies a stronger desire and a more definate kind of request, it’s something that takes time – and knocking shows determination to get an answer.
It’s as simple as this. The passion and persistence with which we pray reveals our true heart. Passion and persistence in our prayer shows the sincerity of our desire – if it’s not very important to us it doesn’t get much air time during prayer time. It’s a sad truth.
But the Lord is telling us here that he wants us to pray boldly and with passion and persistence. We’re not to neglect our privilege of prayer. The first point I want you to get here is this – God wants to know your real heart. You see, God will not put something in our hands until he has first prepared our hearts.
Someone once put it this way. The greatest blessing of prayer is not getting an answer, but being the kind of person God can trust with the answer.
b. Persistance
The second thing I want you to see here is that the friend at midnight took the initiative to go to his neighbor and persist until he got an answer – and we are to see that he was inspired by the need of a weary traveler. He was there knocking on the door of his neighbor in the middle of the night because he had a selfless concern for someone who was far from home.
What an incredible picture of the Believers duty to prayer!
Believers are to take the initiative to go to the Lord in passionate and persistant prayer until we get the answer – and we go to prayer because of the needs of the weary travelers we meet in life. We go to prayer boldly, unashamedly, passionately and persistently – even if it is in the middle of the night - because of a selfless concern for someone who is far from their spiritual home.
Is this the kind of prayer that characterizes you? Is it the kind of prayer that we see in our own church? You know, prayer is the powerhouse of our mission as a church and it’s a key indicator of our spiritual health. And I am so encouraged when I think about all the praying that happens each week. There’s the Sunday morning and Tuesday night prayer meetings. There’s the prayer chain where we can feed requests and needs; and our home groups where we gather not only to study the word, but to pray. Soon we will be holding another half day of prayer. So there’s plenty of opportunities to get together with other people and be active in prayer – aside from the time you spend alone in prayer.
And the model we have been given to follow is this – we are to passionately, shamelessly, persistently put ourselves out in prayer for those with whom we interact and who are in need. Jesus said, "I have not come to be served but to serve," and we are to have that same attitude in our prayer.
And we are to expect an answer.
III. EXPECTANCY (vv11-13)
What’s our vision statement for this year? "Expecting God to achieve marvelous and wonderful things in people’s lives."
Listen to the closing verses of Jesus teaching on prayer.
"Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 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!" (Luke 11:11-13)
These verses teach us that we can expect marvelous and wonderful things from God’s hand. We learn here that God’s answers to prayer are always good ones. Because God is a good God, a loving heavenly Father, he can be expected, not only to answer prayers, but to answer them in such a way that is for our highest good.
If this is true, and the bible here tells us that it is, then why do we so often not expect much from God?
Brian Harris, principle of the Baptist College of Western Australia tells the story of a young boy who went to the store with his mum. At the counter they looked over the jars of candy. The shop owner took the lid off a jar and offered it to the boy, but way out of character the boy held back. So the shop owner pulled out a handful for him and put them in a bag. Later his mum asked him why he had held back when the shop owner offered the candy. And the boy replied, "because his hand is much bigger than mine."
We serve a God with big hands don’t we?
The arguement that Jesus puts forward here for this is one of contrast. He says "Suppose one of you has a friend etc .....(v5) and "Which of you fathers ...." (v11). And the expected reply is that we couldn’t concieve of a neighbor who would refuse to help a friend at night. And we couldn’t concieve of a father who would give his children a snake instead of a fish or a scorpion instead of an egg.
The point is, this God with big hands is a loving and generous God from whom we can expect to receive all the very best things in life. And even if a mere human father can do good things for his children, then how much more can we confidently expect God in heaven to hear our prayers, know our every need – and help us in our need.
Listen again to God’s promise to you in v9....
"Ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you" (v9)
Do you hear the certainty in that. We can expect God to hear our prayer and to respond.
So again what does all this mean for us today? Well, if we want a powerful prayer life we must have an attitude of expectancy. We can knock expectantly on God’s door in prayer. But there’s more to it than that - in all of this we see a generous God who is ready to answer us and meet our needs. And we are to have the same attitude. When a needy neighbor comes to us with a need, what are their expectations of us? Like our father in heaven we should also be ready to meet the need of a neighbor in need.
CONCLUSION
So here’s the final challenge for us today. If we simply want to see good things happen in our marriages, our families, at work, at church or in our children and friends - then we don’t need to pray – because you and I can achieve good things on our own.
But if you want to see God things happen in your life – the very best things – then we must pray with boldness, with passion and with expectancy. Will you do that?
