The Prayer Series - P.R.A.Y - Ask Luke 11:1-13

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Mountainside UMCJanuary 24, 2016

The Prayer Series - P.R.A.Y - Ask Luke 11:1-13

One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”He said to them, “When you pray, say: “‘Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Luke 11:1-2

Give us each day our daily bread.Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation.’” Luke 11: 3-4

Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’ Luke 11:5-6

And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ Luke 11:7

I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need. Luke 11:8

“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; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Luke 11:9-10

“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?

Luke 11:11-12

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 11:13

This morning we are continuing our series on prayer and during this series I challenged everyone to not end the day until you take time to pray. I challenged everyone to either an hour, a half an hour or a minimum of 15 minutes sometime during the day to prayer. The final result will hopefully have Mountainside family actually praying every day and raise the level of prayer across the congregation and see what fruit might come of our prayers.

We are in a sub-series on the topic of prayer based on an acronym on P.R.A.Y. which stands for Praise, Repent & Rejoice, Ask and Yield. This morning we are looking at the subject of the simple and short but not always easy word of “Ask.” Related to “Asking” we are going to look at a couple of things Jesus spoke about on this topic of asking God for things in prayer.

Needless to say Jesus not only taught about prayer but also modeled it in such a way that it caused the disciples to say to him one day not, “Teach us to do those miracles or teach us to cast out demons or teach us how to do that fish and loaves trick” but instead the disciples specifically asked Jesus…. “Teach us how to pray.” Why this curiosity about Jesus praying?

It’s also worth noting that when Jesus answered their question, he didn’t say, “Don’t worry about the “how to’s” just give it a go, you’ll figure it out as you go along.” You don't need to be taught how to pray; you just pray. Just talk to God. You can't get it wrong. Instead, first Jesus gave a specific direction and focus points on prayer which we call “The Lord’s Prayer” of which we will be spending six weeks on that starting in February,

Secondly he gives a specific command related to our attitude on prayer. In doing so, Jesus is going to tackle one of our biggest frustrations with prayer, and that is: Why is that I declare his greatness, surrender my will, ask him for stuff—and I don't get it, it doesn't happen? I pray and pray and pray and nothing.

In fact, some of the stuff we’ve asked for is stuff that surely is God's will or what we would think he would want to have happen, and sometimes it doesn't happen. It is so frustrating.

Which might be one of the reasons we quit praying, or why some give up on church or abandoned God, because you prayed a prayer that you thought anybody would know this is something God ought to do, and he didn't do it. And it's frustrating. Here's the great news. Jesus addresses that frustration you've experienced, and I've experienced. And the reason he addresses it is because he knew we would have that experience. This is good news: if you've ever had that frustration in prayer, God knows about it.

There's not something wrong with you. There's not something necessarily wrong with God. No, it's a common occurrence. It's a common experience, and I want to tell us what to do about it.

Ref. "When he finished praying one of his disciples said to him, 'Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples.'" Jesus, we've been watching you and we've all grown up praying and saying prayers. We're good Jewish boys. We've memorized some prayers. We know the whole deal. But when we watch you pray, it's different. When we hear you pray, it's different. And we've noticed you go off by yourself, and it's like you're there for hours.

Sometimes you're there all night, and we're thinking: What's he doing out there? What's he saying? How long can you talk to God? We pray and we're done. Obviously you know something about prayer we don't know. Would you teach us to pray? Okay, I will teach you how to pray and the point being, you can be taught how to pray. First lesson the Lord’s Prayer – Feels like a Review.

He references this prayer but then he immediately goes into talking about a major issue that many of us wrestle with concerning prayer which is what do we do when the prayer is not getting answered. How do we respond when nothing is happening? We are asking and asking and asking and it feels like no reply? Jesus could have gone on and on about all kinds of stuff. But when they said, "Teach us how to pray," he gave them that synopsis. And then He launches into the discussion about what happens when you don't get what you want from God. You know why that's so significant? Because he could have said anything about prayer and this is the topic he chose to focus on—not what to say, but this specific frustration that all of us have with prayer. Here’s the POINT

Persistent prayer moves the heart of God.

Right after he gives the Lord’s prayer he then says, While we're on the subject of prayer... I've told you how to pray, let me give you this scenario. You're in bed and a friend comes to you in the middle of the night and says another friend has come to their house. They don't have anything to serve them. So one rude friend has awoken that person. So then this person becomes a rude friend to wake you up at midnight because they need to be a good host or hostess and serve bread in the middle of the night, and they come banging on your door. Imagine that.

Of course they're thinking, like you're thinking,Weren't we talking about prayer? This guy's in his bed saying: Don't bother me. Okay, if I get up I'm going to wake up everyone. Just go away. Don't bother me. I can't get up and give you anything. Now Jesus is talking. He says: "I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is a friend"—or he was until this point in the story—"he won't get up because he's a friend; yet because of the man's Shame Aud, he will get up&give him as much as he needs."

And the little Greek word translated "shameless audacity" is translated "persistence" in other English translations. Even though this guy wouldn't get up and give him some bread because he's a friend, the fact that he's going to stand there and knock on the door and bother him... finally, out of pure frustration, he's going to get out of bed and get the bread and give it to him.

Jesus says: Even if he's not going to do it out of friendship, just because he's irritated and the guy won't go away, he will finally get up and give the guy some bread. Now, just for a reminder. In parables, you're listening and you're going, Okay now, somebody in this parable is me. And somebody in this parable is God.

This one's a little confusing. The disciples are going: Who do you think is us? I think us is the guy knocking on the door, because this is about prayer, and knocking on the door trying to get something. And that would make God... the grumpy old guy inside going, "Don't bother me!" Surely that is not who God is. Later Luke 18

Jesus tells another parable another time similar to this. And this parable actually starts off with, "And Jesus told this parable so they would know to pray and not quit praying." And he tells the story about this judge. Jesus says he's an unrighteous judge who doesn't fear God. That's how he starts it off. And there's a widow who needs this unrighteous judge to come to her defense. And she comes to him and says,"Help me." And he says, "Get out of here."

And she comes to him again, and he says, "Get out of here." She comes to him and says, "Help me. Plead my case." And he says, "Get out of here." And the unrighteous, un-God-fearing judge finally says: Okay. To get this lady off my case I'll do what she wants me to do, not because I care about her and not because I fear God, but just to get her out of here and get her to leave me alone."

You listen to those two parables and you think, Okay, I think I know who I am. I'm the widow. I'm the guy banging on the door who wants or needs something. But, Jesus, you're not making God look too good. He's like an unrighteous, un-God-fearing judge, and now he's like this grumpy guy who's going to get out of bed and give the guy the bread just to get him to leave him alone."

The disciples listening to this story, and the moral's kind of clear about persistence but these are two weird parables or are they?

About 15 years ago our family at the moment dog-less. For about 13 years we had Toby a wonderful Australian shepherd who we grew from a pup and after he died we tried to adopt a couple of dogs from PetSmart. Neither worked out as they all had “issues” and one was an Alaskan Eskimo mix and when that dog started eating my outdoor wooden bench swing,…“Outta there.”

I was fine without a dog for a while but my son Michael was not and one day he was, “Can we get a dog. I’ll take care of it I promise.” No this isn’t a good time to have a dog.But Dad…No, maybe later but not now. Michael wouldn’t let this go and for about two months he kept asking and asking. Finally I said, “If you want a dog you are going to have to go over my head and ask God to change my mind because I don’t want a dog right now.

I’m sure he did that and he kept asking me and finally one day I said, “Get in the truck, I’ll take you to the pound and we’ll see what we can find.” So we found this(PICTURE- Jed & Michael) This is Jed and Michael. Jed is a Collie, German Shepherd, Border Collie and 54 other dog mix. He was a great dog and had only one “issue” We called him the PDA Officer. Anytime someone showed and Personal Display of Affection like when I would give Lindy a kiss or a hug, he would get upset and get in between us and try and break it up. Candice-DATE-Take Jed w/ you-Chapr

But the big question is, what is that in me that led me to respond to constant requests for a dog? Where did that come from? What is that in me? Where did that come from? Is it any accident or coincidence that Jesus says, when you pray, you say our— what?—Father? Could it be that thing in me that loves them but allows them to talk me into stuff; could it be that thing in me that causes me to change my mind when I said no; could that be in some way a reflection of the thumbprint of God in me as a father? You read this parable and you go, Well, it could be. So…

Persistent prayer moves the heart of God.

Here's what Jesus is saying. In a minute he interprets it for us in case we miss it. He's saying God is not bothered by your persistence, and sometimes he's moved by it. That God is not irritated by the fact that you keep asking and asking and asking and asking and asking—nothing happens, nothing happens, nothing happens,and you ask and ask and ask and ask and ask. It looks like it's going to be impossible for it to happen. And you keep coming back, coming back, coming back, coming back. God's not bothered by that. God's honored by that.

Persistent prayer is honoring to God.

Jesus' parable could not be any clearer. When you pray, tell God he's great, tell him you're surrendered, tell him what you need and what you want, and oh yeah, don't quit asking. Don't quit because your persistent prayer has the potential to move the heart of God.

Listen as Jesus interprets this. 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; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened Luke 11:9-10 And the significance of this verse isn't that there's some mysterious thing about asking versus seeking versus knocking. No. The point is, he says it three different ways for emphasis. He wants you to ask and seek and knock and ask and seek and knock and ask and seek and knock, and don't give up. Jesus is saying: Because you asked me how to pray, I'm telling you how to pray. You just keep coming on strong. And sometimes your Father will give in, and sometimes he'll respond, because God is moved by persistent, consistent prayer. And then, if we didn't understand that, verse 10: "For everyone"—that would be us—"For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks the door will be opened."

Persistent prayer will change the world around us

Finally,….Persistent prayer will change us.

So I thought of three ways persistent prayer changes us.

1. Pray long enough we realize we had the wrong prayer. Thank you God for saying “No” – Time realize error of a request. Object – thing – We are praying for the wrong thing for the wrong reason. God has something better for a better reason.

2. “No” is time to change and prepare for a eventual yes. Sometimes while in persistent prayer we discover we need to change first. I may desire this but my character is not equipped to handle that responsibility and God needs to make some changes in me so that when the prayer is answered out there it doesn’t lead to an overwhelming load that I wasn’t prepared for.

3. Sometimes “No” is a test to see if I am serious or not.

So here's my question for you: What are you that diligent about in your prayers? Be honest with yourself. Is there anything you are so locked in on, that you are so burdened by, that you're so concerned with, that every single time you pray there's, God, God, God, I know it seems impossible. Is there anything you are that consumed about in your prayers?

But is there anything you are honoring God with because of the magnitude of your request? And is there anything you are so passionately concerned about that you refuse not to pray about it and you refuse not to knock on the doors of heaven? Is there anything that big going on in your life?

Again. Jesus could have talked about a dozen different things as it concerns prayer. He said: Let me focus on this one because this is huge. When you pray, don't give up, and when you ask, you keep asking. And just because heaven is silent means nothing. You keep asking. And just because nobody has come to the door, you keep knocking. And just because you haven't found it yet you keep seeking, because God honors persistent prayer, and something's going to happen every single time. And you never know, God might just show up and do the very thing you've asked him to do.