Sermon Transcript
We come to the last parable in our series for the summer today. Summer’s over after this. Doesn’t feel like it outside, but this is the end of summer. And next week we’ll launch into our fall series. Or Dave will kick us off next week, starting something new.
So we come to our last parable. Of the summer, at a time when some of us may be wondering, does prayer really do anything?
Maybe we’re not brave enough to ask that question out loud. Maybe we only kind of silently wonder it. But maybe we’re wondering, does, does it make a difference at all? Many of us have been praying like Tim just did, for safety of the people in Houston. We’re praying for waters to recede.
We’re praying for aid to arrive. We’re praying for people to help their neighbors instead of using this chaos as an opportunity to steal or destroy or harm someone. Do those prayers do anything? Will they change anything? Does God hear them?
Will God move into action because of them? It’s, it’s especially a question, um, when we also consider that we believe as Christians— if you didn’t know we believe this, we believe this— we must have action coupled with our prayers. Jesus’ brother, James 2:16 reminds us, if we only have faith and wish people well, that’s useless unless we also actually go and meet their physical needs. Which makes me so proud of our church. This is just a side note, but I’m so proud of us that we so quickly mobilized into action to help people in Houston.
You received some emails about that this week. We’ll tell you a little bit more at the end of the service how you can be involved. And in months to come, we hope to put a team together to actually go down there. So I’m proud of that. We need to do that.
That’s part of it. But that just brings us right back to our question, right? If we need to have action with faith and prayer, then does prayer really do that much?
You may have your own crisis in life right now. Not as many people know about it. As people know about Houston. It’s not making the news. No one’s been posting about it in social media.
But maybe you’ve been begging God for something, and you might be beginning to wonder if he’s still listening. And then, even if it does do something, we can question, uh, is there a right way to pray? Is there a wrong way to pray? Apparently, Jesus’ disciples were wondering some of the same things, because they asked Him, Teach us, Lord, how to pray. Now, the interesting thing is, these are Jewish men, right, who grew up in a very religious context, had teaching on prayer their entire lives, and somehow, something, apparently, was still a mystery to them.
Maybe they were wondering if prayer made any difference, like some of us might be wondering. Maybe they were having some kind of existential crisis. I don’t know if they knew that word or not, but they were wondering if a finite creature could even communicate with an infinite Creator. Like an ant can’t talk with a human, so how could a human talk with God? Maybe that’s what they were wondering.
Maybe they just wanted to get Jesus’ take on how to pray. I mean, may as well, right? God is standing right there. You may as well ask him how to talk with him. We can’t know what all of their motives might have been, and hey, there were 12 of them, right?
So maybe all of those questions were represented, maybe none of those questions were represented and they had a whole different set that we can’t really anticipate, but whatever the reason, they ask Jesus, how do we do this? So Jesus responds, first by saying what must be the most repeated prayer in all of history, what our Catholic friends call the Our Father, what we might call the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus says, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation, deliver us from evil, which most of us probably have heard at some point in our lives. But then Jesus keeps going. And this is where we will join the conversation in Scripture today. So, Luke 11:5, it’ll be up on the screen, or you can find it in the Bible in front of you, or flip there on your app. Luke 11:5, Jesus tells His disciples a parable to help them understand prayer.
Luke 11:5, Jesus says to them, suppose you have a friend and you go to him at midnight and say, friend, lend me 3 loaves of bread. A friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him. And suppose the one inside answers, don’t bother me. The door’s already locked. My children are in bed.
I can’t get up and give you anything. 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. 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 the one who knocks the door will be opened. 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! I’m sure there is a bottomless wealth to learn about prayer through Jesus’ response, but today we’re just going to mention 3 observations on prayer that we can learn through this passage. We’ll see the frequency with which we should pray, the audacity by which we should pray, and the expectancy in which we should pray. The frequency, the audacity, and the expectancy.
So first, the frequency. When Jesus says in verse 9, ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened, those verbs, ask, seek, knock, I’m sure some of you have heard this before, those are present imperatives, which actually mean keep on asking, continue in seeking, don’t stop knocking. Knocking. It’s an ongoing, continual action, which I know, that’s grammar and that’s boring. You didn’t think you were in English class.
So here’s how this applies to your life. If you’ve prayed for something 100 times and nothing has moved, the door hasn’t been opened, nothing has been given to you, Everything appears exactly the same as if you had not prayed at all.
Been there?
There now?
Jesus’ first teaching is keep going. Keep on asking. Keep on seeking. Don’t stop knocking. Now, if we’re honest, this first observation is both encouraging and a little discouraging.
Encouraging because Jesus says it’s totally okay to be a little bit of a pest. He says, it’s great with me if you keep asking me. Now, we may ask, Jesus, aren’t you going to get a little sick of me if I ask you the same thing 1,000 times? And he says, No! And in fact, that’s exactly what I want you to do.
Ask me 1,000 times. Keep asking me. That relationship that’s broken that you want healed, but it’s not healed, and you’ve asked me 100 million times to heal it, keep asking me.
That illness That problem, that addiction that you talk to me about every day, keep talking to me about it.
Even our closest friends and family members will eventually get sick of us talking about the same problem every day. If we’ve had the same difficulty or hurt or pain for 10 years, and we’ve talked about it with our friend every day for 10 years, eventually, our friend is going to stop picking up the phone when we call. Our friend, at some point, is going to say, I just can’t listen to that guy complain one more time. But Jesus doesn’t say that.
Jesus says, keep on bringing it. Jesus will never tire of our prayers. He says, I’m here every step of the way to walk with you until there is a solution.
That’s the encouraging part. Here’s the part that could be a little discouraging.
It may take a while for anything to change.
It may take a long while, because inherent within the invitation to keep asking is the reality that you will need to keep asking. You wouldn’t need to keep asking if you got an answer immediately. You don’t need to keep knocking once the door opens. That would be silly. By saying keep on knocking, Jesus is simultaneously saying the door is not going to open right away.
By saying keep on seeking, that must mean that we won’t find right away. There would be no reason to keep seeking unless it was still lost.
There are some things— this is from Dave a couple weeks ago when we were chatting about this, so here’s your Dave Gudgel quote for the day. There are some things God has ordained to grant through persistent, continual prayer. It’s kind of like this image up here. We have a picture of what prayer can be like. Sometimes you may have prayed for that breakthrough 100,000 times.
Don’t stop. Keep going. Don’t let the fact that you haven’t arrived make you believe digging is pointless.
Digging isn’t pointless. The guy on the bottom thought digging was pointless and he gave up.
Don’t give up. Keep at it. Keep praying. Maybe you only have one more swing of that axe before you arrive.
So, our first observation is frequency. Never stop. Second observation is audacity by which we should pray. Jesus tells this story, verses 5 through 8, of someone who goes to a friend’s house, in the middle of the night, banging on the door, asking for a favor. Originally, the friend inside says, go away.
Figure something else out. I’m already asleep. But Jesus says, because the guy outside banging on the door asks with such, verse 8, shameless audacity, if you’re reading the newest NIV, because he asks with such shameless audacity, the friend inside says, yeah, I’ll get up. And help you. You may have a version that says, because the person asked with such persistence, but that’s actually not the best translation here.
And the translators who chose to use the word persistence were probably somehow trying to capture the tense of the verb of keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking that we just mentioned a second ago. They were trying to get the frequency aspect into this word somehow, so they used Persistence. But with this particular word, Jesus is not trying to convey persistence or frequency. The literal word he used is a compound word of 2 words meaning without shame. Asking without shame, without honor, or even without regard for others.
To ask like that, it’s banging on the door in the middle of the night when you know that you will bother the person inside. But you don’t have regard for that. You need something, and the person inside needs to get up and give it to you. You’re asking with shameless audacity. You know who is great at asking for things with shameless audacity?
And I don’t just mean great. I mean fabulous. Tremendously wonderful. You know who that is?
Children, somebody said. That’s awesome. Children. Children come pre-wired with no regard for others and just an unmatched boldness. Little kids.
As you get bigger, this grows out of you. Jesus actually uses children as his example later on down in verses 11 through 13, and I’m sure that’s on purpose, right? I’m sure when Jesus said, which of you, when your child asks for something, and all the parents are like, yeah, I know what that’s like, because when a child asks for something, it’s a whole lot different than when an adult asks for something. A child— you could have picked up your favorite son and tossed him in the air 157 times in a row. Your back may be aching, your vision may be blurry.
You can explain these things to the child, how you are exhausted, how you can’t possibly do that one more time. You can explain medical bills and vertebrae and back and chiropractors and disability insurance, and they will still look at you with no regard for you and with shameless audacity say, do it again, Daddy.
A child could have just eaten an entire gallon of ice cream, turn to you and say, with no hesitation, can I have some ice cream? Children can tell you that you really aren’t their favorite. Mommy is their favorite. They’ll just say that without any awareness or regard for your feelings whatsoever. They’ll just boldly tell you what they really think and what they really want.
They can wake you up in the middle of the night for no reason other than they wanted to wake you up in the middle of the night. Do you need water? No. You need to go potty? No.
Are you sick? No. Do you have a bad dream? No. Why’d you come in here?
Because I wanted to wake you up. Children know how to do this. They are not limited by what is possible, by what is right, by what is fair. They’ll just ask and tell without the slightest bit of filter. Jesus says, ask God like that.
Talk to God like that. By the way, Jesus isn’t saying God will give in because you are so bold. This isn’t some God will be annoyed enough that He’ll just surrender. Not at all. He’s saying, even you will get out of bed when you don’t want to.
So how much more will God do for you? God is far more compassionate, far more tenderhearted than we will ever be. So if we’ll get out of bed in the middle of the night because someone is crassly banging on the door, of course God will. His parable probably ties into how he concludes down in verse 13: You, even though you are evil, You still get out of bed to help, so how much more will God grant help? Jesus invites us to be unfiltered with God.
God is not like us. We don’t want anyone to be completely unfiltered, not even our own children. We, we don’t want to be woken up in the middle of the night just because. We don’t want people telling us everything they’re thinking all the time. That would bother us.
We’d say, please have some sort of filter sometimes to those around us. But God says, not me. He says, it doesn’t bother me. He says, give me the real you. Give me the unfiltered, no makeup, true, You.
Tell me all the desires of your heart with complete boldness and confidence. Even if you think it’s something that’ll make Him mad, tell Him anyway. He won’t be mad that you told Him, because He knows about it already, for one thing. It’s not like it’s a surprise. Oh, I didn’t know that.
But the bigger picture is He doesn’t want any pretense or show or fakery. He just wants you.
That prayer might sound like— have you ever prayed like this? It’s like, hey! Jesus is inviting us to pray this way, like kicking in the door in the middle of the night. Hey! I’m sick!
Fix it!
Look, I’m lonely. What’s the deal, man? Over and over again, just like a little kid. Can I have some ice cream? Can I have some ice cream?
Can I have some ice cream? Can I have some ice cream? Can I have some ice cream?
Audacious. Audacious. Unfiltered. Frequent. Give Him the real you.
Third observation. The expectancy in which we should pray.
God will respond to our requests with goodness.
Jesus says, keep asking and it will be given. Continue seeking and you will find. Go on knocking and the door will be opened. There will be a response. If you’ve been praying for something for year after year, and you feel like God isn’t listening or doesn’t care, that’s false.
He is listening, and He will respond. And it won’t be like when a kid is on repeat loop on a road trip, asking the dad in the front seat, are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?
Are we there yet? And the blood pressure of the dad in the front seat is increasing until he finally bursts out in a rage, like, no, we’re not there yet! Are we getting out of the car? If we were there, we’d be getting out of the car. Does it look like that’s what we’re doing?
It’s not that.
It’s not some pressure buildup, angry response because we’ve asked so many times. God will respond with goodness. Verse 11 and 12, which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? If he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? No one would.
God never answers with a scorpion or a snake. God never gives us something that is ultimately harmful. We always get goodness from God.
Always. We always get the fish. We always get the egg. When we’ve been banging on the door waiting for it to open, we don’t need to worry if there’s a snake on the other side of the door. There’s only goodness on the other side of the door.
This was one of the biggest aha moments for me when I became a father. As a parent, you have to do all sorts of things for your child, especially a new baby. You try to get the baby to eat, you try to get the baby to sleep, you try to get the baby to wake up, you change the baby, you take the baby to go get shots. All of those things are good for the child, all of them, um, but the child doesn’t like some of them very much. Very soon after we brought our first son home, I was trying to give him a bottle, and he was frustrated and fussy and didn’t want the bottle.
But I knew the reason he was frustrated and fussy was because he was hungry, so he needed the bottle. And we’re like battling with each other, me knowing what he needs, him upset and rejecting it. And eventually I’m so frustrated trying to give him what he needs that I said out loud to a child who’s just a few weeks old, I’ll I was like, listen, I’m your dad. I will always only work for your good.
And as those words came out of my mouth, I thought, oh, God will always only work for my good.
Always. Now, I would have signed that theological statement before that moment. But when I said that to my son, there was an entirely different emotional understanding that landed a whole lot deeper. We, though we are evil, know how to do that. How much more will God?
God has never given you a scorpion.
He has never given you a snake.
Well, I’m sure there have been things in all of our lives that we have not liked, just like a baby doesn’t like shots or a bottle sometimes. Our good Father in heaven is always only working for our good.
Tim Keller says it like this, God will always give you what you would have asked for if you knew everything that he knows.
God will always give you what you would have asked for if you knew everything that he knows. Which brings us to this little twist Jesus throws in here at the end. Jesus says, verse 13, if you then, though you are evil, know how to give good good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give? And we may expect him to say, good gifts to you. You know how to give good gifts, how much more will God give good gifts?
But he doesn’t. He says something better than that. He ups the ante to the best gift possible. He says, how much more will God give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him? The best possible gift God can give you is more of Himself.
God is the most wonderful, the most beautiful, the most glorious being in all of existence. So, if God wants to give you the highest gift of all, He will give you himself.
This giving the Holy Spirit that Jesus mentions, this could be a lot of things. It might be more of God’s characteristics growing in our lives, like the fruit of the Spirit kind of thing. We have more love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control in our lives. It might be that. It might be giving us a particular understanding of how something tragic in our past was turned for good, so then we kind of stand in awe of the wisdom of God and have a greater sense of God in our lives.
It might be giving us the Holy Spirit in a special outpouring into our lives. I don’t want to get tied down in the specifics of what exactly this giving us the Holy Spirit is, because I think it could actually be many different things. The overarching umbrella which incorporates all of them is if God wants to give you His greatest gift, He will give you more of Himself in some way. 2 examples in Scripture we see where this— we see this principle at work, and then we’re done. In 2 Corinthians 12, Paul writes, writes that he was given a thorn in his flesh, something that bothered him terribly.
It might have been a physical illness. It might have been a relationship difficulty, maybe even an addiction. We have no idea other than it made life really uncomfortable for him. And he writes, 3 times I I pleaded with the Lord to take it away. So, let’s go through Jesus’ instruction on prayer and see if Paul did what Jesus taught.
Remember, Jesus taught to pray with frequency, with audacity, and with expectancy of God’s good answer. So, frequency. Did Paul pray with frequency?
Yes. He prayed 3 times, he tells us.
Audacity. Did he pray with boldness? From what we can tell, it sounds like it, right? He pleaded with God to take it away. Pleaded.
Doesn’t sound like he politely submitted his request for review. He’s begging here. Take away the thorn, Lord. So finally, did God respond in goodness?
Yes, but God didn’t take away the thorn.
God’s answer was, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Then Paul reasons, therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness so that Christ’s power can rest on me. God answers Paul’s frequent bold request with something better than taking away Paul’s thorn. Christ’s power comes to Paul. God is giving Paul more of Himself because He doesn’t take away the thorn.
And Paul is glad about it. He’s happy his thorn isn’t taken away because he has something better. He has more of Christ.
Second example, Jesus Himself, when He is praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, before he is arrested and executed. 3 times he pleads with God in anguish. Father, he says, let this cup pass from me. Father, I know what you want me to do, but come on, if there’s another way, can we do it another way?
Jesus knows the plan is for him to get arrested and executed. For him to bear the punishment of sin for the whole world, for him to stand in our place and take the wrath of God that we deserve. Jesus knows that’s the plan. That’s why he came to earth, and he’s minutes away from the worst of it beginning. And he asks God in desperation 3 times, please, Lord, Can we do it another way?
Is he praying with frequency? Yes. Is he praying with audacity?
Yes. Even kind of sounds like a little kid, right? Dad, I know what you want me to do. I don’t want to do that, Dad. Can we please do it another way?
Does he get a good outcome from God? Did He get the fish?
Yes, but He still goes to the cross. He is still executed. He still bears the weight of the full fury of the wrath of God. He still stands in our place and takes the punishment that we deserve.
So, what was the good outcome? What was the promised fish?
It’s the salvation of the entire world.
Sending Jesus to the cross is the best thing that ever happened on this planet.
Sinners can be reconciled to God because of what Jesus did.
When we have prayed with frequency, when we have prayed with audacity, and yet the thorn remains, maybe God has something better in mind that requires the thorn.
No matter how big our thorn is, no matter even if we are about to get executed, And we are praying, please let this pass, please let this pass, please let this pass.
Our assurance in that moment is God only gives good gifts.
He’s up to something bigger and better than we can possibly imagine in the limited scope of the moment.
As we pray this week for Houston, for our own crises, let us remember to pray with frequency, with audacity, and with expectancy of God’s good answer. Let’s pray together.
Father, you are always good. To us.
Help us to believe that.
Increase our faith that you are a good Father who will never give a snake or a scorpion, but always gives a fish, always gives help, is always looking to give us the best possible.
We ask those things in Jesus’ name. Amen.
