Luke 11:1-13   Lord Teach us to Pray!

1 It happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place, after He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, "Lord, teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciples."

2 And He said to them, "When you pray, say: 'Father, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come.

3 'Give us each day our daily bread.

4 'And forgive us our sins, For we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.'"

5 Then He said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend, and goes to him at midnight and says to him, 'Friend, lend me three loaves;

6 for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him';

7 and from inside he answers and says, 'Do not bother me; the door has already been shut and my children and I are in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.'

8 "I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs.

9 "So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.

10 "For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it will be opened.

11 "Now suppose one of you fathers is asked by his son for a fish; he will not give him a snake instead of a fish, will he?

12 "Or if he is asked for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion, will he?

13 "If you then, being evil, 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?"

Prayer is difficult. It is the most spiritual of activities that you can do. It is the most revealing of our own hearts.

It is the thing Satan hates most in a believer's life.

Richard Sibbes wrote long ago: "When we go to God by prayer, the devil knows we go to fetch strength against him, and therefore he opposes us all he can." But, clearly, it isn't only because of the devil's wiles that we find such difficulty in prayer. There is something inside of us still, something powerful and deeply rooted that renders us indisposed to prayer. We have an aversion to it that is contrary to all that we know to be true, even to the deepest and purest desires of our lives. The finest Christians have always admitted this.

"Everything we do in the Christian life is easier than prayer." Lloyd Jones

"There is nothing that we are so bad at all our days as prayer." Alexander Whyte

"I find in my own case an unaccountable backwardness to pray. I can read, I can write, I can converse with a ready will, but secret prayer is far more spiritual than any of these. And the more spiritual a duty is the more my carnal heart is apt to start away from it." John Newton

"There are times in my life when I would rather die than pray." Thomas Shepard

Richard Hooker, the celebrated "judicious Hooker," the 16th century Anglican divine, in his immortal sermon on justification by faith uses the misery of the prayer life of Christians as the crowning argument against the Roman Catholic idea that justification means actually becoming righteous in heart and behavior. If so, Hooker argues, "why do justified people do so poorly at holy living. And he uses prayer as his chief illustration of that fact.

"Let the holiest and best thing we do be considered. We are never better affected unto God than when we pray; yet when we pray, how are our affections many times distracted! How little reverence do we shew to the grand majesty of that God, unto whom we speak! How little remorse of our own miseries! How little taste of that sweet influence of his tender mercy do we feel! Are we not as unwilling many times to begin, and as glad to make an end, as if God in saying 'Call upon me,' had set us a very burdensome task?" [WORKS, vol. 2, 302 col. 1]

A.C. Dixon said, "When we rely upon organization, we get what organization can do; when we rely upon education, we get what education can do; when we rely upon eloquence, we get what eloquence can do, and so on. Nor am I disposed to undervalue any of these things in their proper place, but when we rely upon prayer, we get what God can do." (Evangelism, A Biblical Approach, M. Cocoris, Moody, 1984, p. 108).

1. You Have A Promise to Claim

The Lord promises that if we will ask, seek, and knock, it shall be given to us. There is no substitute for prayer. You can't substitute eloquence, intellect, energy, intention or enthusiasm for prayer. Nothing can take the place of direct communication with God. Prayer is the greatest untapped resource in the universe. What fools we are to neglect it! Many Christians are powerless and in poverty because of their lack of prayer. I don't have a failure in my life but that it is a failure to pray. I don't have a sin but that prayer would have avoided it. I don't have a need that cannot be met through prayer. Christ promises power through prayer, and we ought not neglect it. Have you ever wondered why God wants us to pray?

After all He already knows our needs. Why ask God to do something He already wants to do? The reason is that prayer is an invitation. We don't inform God through our prayers, for He already knows. We don't instruct God through prayer, for He already has a will. But we invite God through our prayers, obediently surrendering ourselves to Him. He invites us to pray. He invites us to a relationship with Himself. And prayer is you talking to God in that relationship.

God wants us to pray because of the fellowship factor.

Janis Joplin lyrics: Lord won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz

Oh Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz ? My friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends.
Worked hard all my lifetime, no help from my friends, So Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz ?
Oh Lord, won't you buy me a color TV ? Dialing For Dollars is trying to find me.

I wait for delivery each day until three, So oh Lord, won't you buy me a color TV ?
Oh Lord, won't you buy me a night on the town ? I'm counting on you, Lord, please don't let me down.
Prove that you love me and buy the next round, Oh Lord, won't you buy me a night on the town ?
Oh Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz ? My friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends,
Worked hard all my lifetime, no help from my friends, So oh Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz ?

The name it and claim it, prosperity gospel is not in Jesus' mind.

God doesn't want just to give us things; He wants us to have fellowship with Him. John 15:4 says that He wants us to abide in Him. Prayer is the way to abide in God and allow Him to abide in you. You can't succeed in this life without the Lord. The Lord can succeed without you, but He chooses not to because He desires your fellowship. When you pray and God answers, you become a labourer together with Him. That's the fellowship factor. He works through you to accomplish His will.

God wants us to pray because of the development factor.

Nothing will help your spiritual life grow more than praying. The reason the Lord doesn't answer your prayers immediately is that He wants you to grow some more. Sometimes we'll make a request of the Lord, but there is something He wants to have happen in our lives first. You can ask the Lord for something, and He won't answer because there is sin in your life. Until you deal with the sin, He won't deal with your prayer. Prayer is a means of developing your spiritual walk.  John Knox defined prayer, "earnest and familiar talking with God."

God wants us to pray because of the dependency factor.

We have to learn to rely on God's power. "Without me ye can do nothing," Jesus tells us in John 15:5. If He were to answer our prayers automatically, we would experience no growth. And if we never had to pray, there would be no dependency. Prayer is God's way of bonding us to Himself. So Jesus said to ask, seek, and knock, and offered us a wonderful promise to claim.

2. You Have A Process to Follow

Asking, seeking, and knocking form a process.

Each is a bit more intensive than the previous word. If you ask, you will receive. If you seek, you will find. If you knock, it shall be opened to you. That's the process Christ wants us to use. They are all present

imperatives, meaning, "Go on asking, go on seeking, go on knocking, and don't quit." God doesn't answer perfunctory prayers. He's not a perfunctory person. He will not be drawn into something so far below his glory that it simply can't connect with why he made us and what he's doing in the world today.

ASK Ask

When you ask, you simply express your desire. If there is something you want God to do, ask Him for it. I think the greatest problem in the spiritual life of most folks is not unanswered prayer, but unasked prayer. Many never get to the asking part. James tells us that we have not because we ask not. Samuel once said, "God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you" (1 Samuel 12:23). Over and over the Bible invites us to pray and ask God. Jesus said that men "ought always to pray" (Luke 18:1). "Watch ye and pray," we are told in Mark 14:38, "lest ye enter into temptation." Every time you sin, it's because you fail to pray as you ought. If you are full of cares and worries right now, it's because you have not truly learned to pray. That's why in Philippians 4:6 the apostle Paul instructs us "in everything by prayer and supplication" to ask God for the things we need. A good test for the appropriateness of something you desire is if you feel comfortable asking God for it. We are to pray about everything. Don't divide your life into the sacred and the secular, praying about some things and neglecting the others. Jesus didn't live that way. To the Christian, all things are sacred. Every day is a holy day, every activity a sacred act. Pray about everything. Some people seem to think we should only pray about the big things, but nothing is too small to escape God's attention.

The Lord is Lord over all, both big and small. He knows your needs, whether it be a huge business deal or finding a parking space. Pray about everything. You can even pray about wrong things, since He already knows you want it. Admit to Him that you want it, and ask Him to change your desires.

John 16:24 says: Until now you have asked for nothing in My name. Ask and you will receive, that your joy may be complete

aSk Seek.

Sometimes we seek the wrong thing. The facts may be lost or unknown to us, so we have to ask first, then seek. It is the will of God that we seek Him. James warned of asking for the wrong thing, and that happens because the individual has not sought the will of God. Sometimes we need to say, "Lord, is this Your will? I'm seeking Your will." We need to seek the presence of God when we pray. Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Don't allow all of your prayers to be the little rote prayers at mealtime or bedtime. Pray with intention to know how God wants you to pray on a matter.

1 John 5:14, "This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us."

Now this is the confidence we have before Him: whenever we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears whatever we ask, we know that we have what we have asked Him for.

We Must Have Priorities in Prayer (vv.2-4). These verses are known as The Model Prayer. They serve as an outline, a framework or a blueprint upon which our personal prayers can be directed to heaven.

1. We are to pray in WORSHIP. Jesus prayed to "Our Father in heaven." We are addressing Almighty God, the Ancient of Days, the First and the Last, the omnipotent, omniscient, transcendent, radiant God of the universe. Yet, He is our loving "Father." His name is to be "hallowed" or made holy in our eyes. We are to long for His "kingdom" and His "will" to be done. Jonathan Edwards explains:

       God is glorified not only when his glory is seen but when his glory is rejoiced in.

      When those that see his glory delight in it, God is more glorified than if they only

      see it. His glory is then received by the whole soul, both by the understanding

      and by the heart. God made the world, that he might communicate and we might

      receive his glory, and that his glory might be received both by the mind and

      heart.

2. We are to pray for our NEEDS. We to ask for "daily bread" our daily necessities. We are to bring everything, even the simplest needs to God. A pastor friend told me about how his mother used to stop in the store to pray over which shirt to buy! (Phil.4:19).

3. We are to pray with CONFESSION. We are to ask God to "forgive us our sins" as we at the same time "forgive everyone who is indebted to us."

4. We are to pray for GUIDANCE. We are to pray that we will be lead "in the paths of righteousness" not "into temptation." We are to bring God all our decisions.

5. We are to pray for DELIVERANCE. but that God will "deliver us from evil." In Eph.6, after putting on the whole armor of God, Paul tells us to be "praying always with all power and supplication in the Spirit."

 Seek the purpose of God.  We need to pray like JESUS in the garden who said, "Not My will, but Yours, be done" (Lk.22:42).

Seek the presence of God.

Seek the power of God.

asK Knock.

Here's a man comfortably asleep in bed.  It's midnight.  There's a knock at the door, a persistent knock. "Who on earth – at this hour?"  The man rolls over in bed and tries to ignore it and get back to sleep.  Knock, knock, knock. The unwanted visitor pushes the button on the intercom: "Hey neighbor, I know you're in there."  Mr. Neighbor thinks, "The nerve of this guy!  I can outlast him," and he pulls his pillow over his head and tries to tamp down the rising exasperation.  But Mr. Nervy outside isn't going away: "Neighbor, some out-of-town guests have just shown up, they're starving and we have nothing for them and all the stores are closed.  I don't need much.  Just be a good neighbor and help me out here."  Knock, knock, knock.  Finally Mr. Neighbor gets up and he hits the intercom: "Do you know what time it is? Do you realize how hard it was to get the kids to sleep?  And you show up at this ungodly hour and ruin my good night's sleep with your need?" Mr. Nervy outside: "I know, I know. And I don't blame you for being ticked off. But you've always been so nice to me.  I just had to believe you wouldn't mind."  Mr. Neighbor thinks, "So now he's trying the 'you've always been so nice' tactic. Would physics allow me to reach through the front door and punch him out?" KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK! "Honey, can you believe this guy?  He's right out of a cartoon." And his wife says, "He's always been a little off. He's not going away, and you know it. Just give him what he wants, and we'll be rid of him."  So Mr. Neighbor goes downstairs, grumbling every step of the way, opens the door and says to Mr. Nervy, "Come on, let's go to the kitchen, get whatever you need, but just LEAVE US ALONE." Jesus says, "Have you ever thought of prayer like that?  Have you ever thought of prayer as a clueless impudence with your heavenly Neighbor?"

But of course, God ISN'T asleep, God ISN'T grumpy and reluctant, God ISN'T like Mr. Neighbor in the parable. What then is the message?  Jesus tips us off when he begins verse 5 with the words, "Which of you . . .?"  He does the same thing in verse 11: "What father among you . . . ?"  The parable draws a comparison between our horizontal relationships with one another and our vertical relationship with God.  We know about friendship and neighborliness here at our level.  We know that friendship is worth a lot.  But it has limits.  We also know about a father's love for his children.  That love has no limits.  Earthly fathers enjoy giving to their children.  So look at verse 13: ". . . how much more." What wonderful words those are!  If impudence can get results when friendship is stretched beyond its limits, if fatherly love gives without limit, HOW MUCH MORE does our heavenly Father give, HOW MUCH MORE does prayer get results with God, who is a generous Neighbor, and not asleep in bed but sitting up waiting for us to drop by.  Jesus wants us to know that God is not put off by persistence and boldness and nerve.  He loves to give to those who ask.

Throughout the Gospels you find Jesus teaching prayer and persistence. Paul prayed three times for the thorn in his flesh to be removed. Christ prayed several times in the Garden of Gethsemane that the bitter cup would be taken from Him. The Syro-Phonecian woman, who had a daughter that was demon possessed, came asking Jesus to help. Jesus said it was not fitting to do so, but that woman pleaded with Him. She admitted that she came from an evil people but reminded Christ that even the mangy dogs occasionally catch a crumb from the king's plate. Jesus, admiring her faith, gave the woman what she asked. Had she not kept knocking, her daughter would not have been healed.

The prophet Elijah knew about persistence in prayer. He prayed for rain, and none came. So he prayed some more, and he kept on praying until the rain came. In faith, Elijah kept sending a servant to check on the rain clouds, though the land had not had rain in seven years. But Elijah pressed his hand against heaven, because he had learned the value of knocking.

"The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much" (James 5:16).

Jesus said to ask, seek, and knock. So when do we stop asking? When do we know it is time to stop knocking? Well, of course you can stop when you get what you asked for. Sometimes God directly answers prayer requests, and we need to rejoice, thank Him, and stop asking. But other times God's answers are different from what we expect. Some answers are delayed, and some requests are denied.

3. You Have A Provision to Enjoy

Luke 11 I think the Lord Jesus went over the really important stuff with His disciples a few times in different ways, to make the message stick. 9 And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. 10 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. 11 If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? 12 Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? 13 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?

Matthew 7:13 reads "How much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him" (verse 13). God loves it when we ask him for the Holy Spirit. It's okay to pray for little things, like a place to park. But God has more for us than that. He gives his best gift, his very lifeblood, the Holy Spirit, to those who ask him. How dignifying. We're no longer consumed with what we're going to eat and drink and our bodily health and what we're going to wear. Life is more (Matthew 6:25). God dignifies us with deeper desires. He arouses in our hearts a yearning for the Holy Spirit. The best prayer to God is a prayer for God. The Bible gets us focused on him: "One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life; to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple" (Psalm 27:4). "O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land, where there is no water" (Psalm 63:1). "Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth I desire besides you" (Psalm 73:25). Now there's an agenda for prayer – the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, the conquest of sin and unbelief and self-righteousness and lukewarmness, more enjoyment of the Bible, more tenderness toward God, more love for others, the cleansing of our hearts from anger and envy and payback, more gentleness, more wisdom and knowledge, more power, more clarity, more real church growth, more of God. What would be the greatest answer to prayer that you could receive? What would be the greatest blessing you could ever have? Would it not be to have the nearness of the Lord Himself in each days activities?

Then the Lord tells us why He answers prayer. It's because He loves us. What loving father, when his hungry son comes to ask for bread, offers the boy a stone? I mean, be reasonable! Even an unsaved father won't act in an evil way toward his own son, so why would our heavenly Father do so? Your prayers will be answered because God is good. He loves you and delights in answering your prayers.

Not only is He good, but God is wise. He won't give you the wrong thing, for the Lord knows exactly what you need. He is good, He is wise, and He is able. He can do anything, and that means He has the power to answer my prayers. We are fools not to pray. The best thing we can do is take our needs and desires to the Almighty God who loves us and allow Him to deal with our requests.

"God must not be thought of as a reluctant stranger who can be cajoled or bullied into bestowing his gifts, as a malicious tyrant who takes vicious glee in the tricks he plays, or even as an indulgent grandfather who provides everything requested of him. He is the heavenly Father, the God of the kingdom, who graciously and willingly bestows the good gifts of the kingdom in answer to prayer."

The Greatest Power In This World Is God's People On their knees!

In the Bible, we see where prayer changes the world's values. Egypt was the greatest nation on the Earth.. But they couldn't hold their slaves. Why? Because God heard the "cries of His people.." (Ex. 3:7)

Haman had power. He was the King's right hand.. He wanted to destroy Israel.. But Esther knew the power of prayer.. R.A. Torrey said, "When the Church learns the power of prayer.. They will shake the world."

R. A. Torrey once wrote ten reasons that we should pray like Paul exhorts us to pray. We should pray in this way because:

there is a devil and prayer is the God appointed means of resisting him;

prayer is God's way for us to obtain what we need from him;

the apostles considered prayer to be the priority business in their lives;

prayer occupied a prominent place and played a very important part in the earthly life of our Lord;

prayer is the present ministry of our Lord, since He is now interceding for us;

prayer is the means God has appointed for our receiving mercy from Him and help in time of need;

prayer is the means of obtaining the fullness of God's joy;

prayer with thanksgiving is the means of obtaining freedom from anxiety and peace which passes understanding;

prayer is the means by which we are to keep watchful and be alert;

prayer is used by God to promote our spiritual growth, bring power into our work, lead others to faith in Christ, and bring all other blessings to Christ's church.

After reading a list like this, the question is not, "Should we pray?" but, "How can we afford not to?"!

J. Sidlow Baxter once wrote, "Men may spurn our appeals, reject our message, oppose our arguments, despise our persons - but they are helpless against our prayers."

If we are to be an evangelistic church, we must be a prayerful church. E.M. Bounds who wrote so much about prayer said, "What the Church needs today is not more machinery or better, not new organizations or more novel methods, but men whom the Holy Ghost can use--men of prayer, men mighty in prayer." Oh to be a church whose prayers shake the foundations of hell. I want to have the reputation of John Knox of whom Mary, Queen of Scotland said, "I fear John Knox's prayers more than an army of ten thousand men."

No wonder Lloyd Jones should say that "The ultimate test of the Christian life is the amount of time we give to prayer." That is to say, prayer is the ultimate test because it is in the Bible the grand method of Christian living and of true godliness and yet, we are averse to it, so the faithful Christian is the one who overcomes that aversion, in the strength of the Lord, and lives the Christian life as it must be lived, as a walking and talking with God.

"Seven encouragements to prayer" that are found in John Bradford's "Meditation on Prayer [1562]." [The English martyr]. 

1. Our need (do you not have need of what God alone can give you? do not your children, your loved ones, your church, your friends, your country?) Hebrews 4:16: "...grace to help in time of need."

2. God's commandments. Pray without ceasing. Pray and do not give up. Etc. In the keeping of God's commandments there is a great reward!

3. God's goodness. If the mercy of the Lord is over all his works, if he provides for the lilies and the birds, will he not richly supply the needs of those who call upon him, those for whom he did not spare his own Son...?

4. The promise of God. How many and how extraordinary the promises are that God has made to prayer. Ask and you will receive. Whatever you ask in my name it shall be given to you. Call upon me and I will answer and show you great and mighty things that you know not. If you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will God give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him. And on and on.

5. Examples of how God was rich toward those who called upon him. How many examples there are in the Bible (Abraham; Moses; Hannah; David; Jeremiah; Paul; etc.) and how many since.

6. The benefits that prayer has brought them in the past. Any Christian who has lived the Christian life for any length of time knows the power and virtue and blessing and reality of prayer. His faithfulness to your prayers before is a powerful reason to come confidently to him again.

7. The prayers of Scripture themselves which show them true prayer and the right way of prayer, and encourage them by this demonstration of how right and good and necessary such praying is for anyone who believes to be true what a Christian does.