In Jesus name, Amen. Chapter 11, beginning at verse one. Hear now the word of the Lord. Now it came to pass as he was praying in a certain place when he ceased that one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray as John also taught his disciples. So he said to them, when you pray, say our father in heaven. Hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us day by day our daily bread and forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. And he said to them, which of you shall have a friend and go to him at midnight and say to him, friend, lend me three loaves. For a friend of mine has come to me on his journey, and I have nothing to set before him. And he will answer from within and say, Do not trouble me. The door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot rise and give to you. I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, Yet because of his persistence, he will rise and give him as many as he needs. 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. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks, it will be opened. If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? 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? Thus far the reading of God's holy word, and may he add his blessing to it. Our sermon is entitled Persistent Prayer. I trust most of us here are familiar with the Lord's Prayer. I believe, in fact, with communion we're going to be reciting that in just a moment. Our focus in our sermon today is really going to be on verses 5 through 13, but in some ways that's an application of, or telling us in what manner, in what way, how frequently, and so on, should we be praying the content of the Lord's Prayer. and the things in there that it calls us to pray for. Our daily bread, our daily bodily provisions, our daily spiritual provisions to be delivered from evil for the kingdom to come, and so on and so forth. And what we need to see from this text is that when God desires that we pray to him continually, persistently, and wholeheartedly, and to do that at all times, but especially when we are in great need, as we'll see in these verses in just a moment. Only when we do so in faith, in the God who answers prayer, should we expect Him to answer our prayers. So we're praying with all of our being, going to the God who has reconciled us through His Son, the Father, of all of His people who delights to hear our requests and answer them. As our sermon theme, then, is persisting in righteous prayer leads to God granting our prayers. Persisting in righteous prayer leads to God granting our prayers. And we have two points from that, verses five through eight. The first point, the illustration of persisting with a friend in a time of need. we see there that Jesus gives this example to us. And then secondly, verses 9 through 13, the command to persist with God in our times of need. So let's go to that first point, the illustration of persisting with a friend in a time of need. Now remember the context there in verses 1 through 4. The disciples, they go to Christ and they see him praying they want to be taught how to pray properly as well as John the Baptist or the baptizer had taught his disciples and so Jesus in his kindness answers that request gives them the Lord's prayer and then he sort of gives this illustration flowing out from that in verses five and following he says which of you shall have a friend and you go to him at midnight and say to him friend lend me three loaves So you go to him at an inconvenient hour, asking for some bread, and he explains why he's doing that in verse 6. Now, whether this was an oversight on your part, it was an unexpected a visit by your friend. Uh we don't know the exact details there, but regardless, a friend has come on a long journey. He's famished. You know, there's a lot of rough traveling back then at that time and so on and so you have the gall and the audacity in the middle of the night to go to your other friend to go to his house and to basically do what verse nine will say to seek not and ask for help for things that you need in this case for In a way, we could say some daily bread to provide for your own friend who's come to your house. But notice in verse seven, the response of the friend that you go to in the middle of the night. It says, and he will answer from within and say, do not trouble me. The door is now shut and my children are with me in bed. I cannot rise and give to you. Now we may ask, how can he shout that out without waking up his children? And my understanding is at that time, they often had one larger room in which they all slept. And so perhaps he's saying, I can't get up and rummage through stuff and get some bread out for you. That would wake up my family for sure. Please be quiet, quit knocking and go away. Well, look at verse eight. It says, I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence, He will rise and give him as many as he needs. And so notice that not even the friendship in this situation prevailed. That alone did not prevail to get what was asked for, to get what was needed, the daily bread there. That should teach us about our relationship to God and Christ. We have that covenant relationship through Jesus, but that alone is not and have itself sufficient to receive all the things that we need. We must pray for those things. And of course, God calls us to pray for these things. These are things that we do within our relationship, that covenant bond that we have. Christ. So, we're being taught here that we must pray and indeed persist in praying with the Lord to have what is both should be the desires of our heart and our heart should be set on serving God seeking first his kingdom and his righteousness as defined by the Lord's Prayer here in the above verses in verses two through four. So, none of this makes sense unless we have a relationship to Christ. For those outside of the church, outside of the covenant, They cannot come to God on friendly terms. They cannot come to God and expect their prayers to be answered because they have no standing. They have no friendship with the Lord. And for us who are God's people in the church, in the covenant, we should not expect on that basis alone, minus prayer, minus pleading with God. He calls us to pursue that, to pray to Him for that. He delights in us when we do that. It's glorifying to Him because it's showing a reliance upon Him to pray and to persist in this way. Now in verse 7, they're hearing the new King James, the friend within the doors that's asleep with his family, but he says, do not trouble me. That word really does have the idea of do not inconvenience me. This is an annoyance, a pest, and so on. But notice verse 8, it says, the man on the door knocking, he persists. In prayer. Well, not in prayer. He's just asking. The application is in prayer. He keeps asking. He keeps seeking. He keeps knocking. That word in the Greek for persistence is only used here in the New Testament. And in fact, one commentator noted that some 250 times That word is used outside of the New Testament. It's always with a negative connotation. It always has a negative, like this person's a nag. This is a persistent beggar, a freeloader, that kind of idea. And yet, Christ uses this in the context of Lord's Prayer, in the context of persisting with God, and basically saying, you cannot nag me. You cannot nag the Father. He delights to hear our prayers. Do not think, though you may weary man, you will not weary God with your righteous, persistent requests, prayers, and so on." And so, it's sort of turning that word and the meaning, the connotations of that word on its head when it comes to God. And perhaps we have to use some discretion Maybe we should have had bread ready. Maybe, like the lynch's here, they just had a baby and going in the middle of the night to their house asking for bread really wouldn't be the most appropriate thing to do. But with God, the inexhaustible God, the infinite God, even if We had some oversight, some missteps that leads to a situation where we need to pray for his help, for his strength, for his guidance, for his wisdom, whatever it may be. We're being taught here, do not think you're bothering God with your prayers, because you do have that friendship, you do have that relationship to God, and you cannot annoy him with righteous prayers if you continue in them with God. In fact, he commands us to do that very thing. Well, some may ask, what about the sovereignty of God? Does God's prayer change things? How does this work with the sovereignty of God over all things? Well, of course, we know God ordains the means as well as the ends, and we have the means of grace, word, prayer, sacrament, and so on. God has ordained that even through our persistence in prayer with God that we would prevail as it were upon him as we pray righteously according to his will and so on that God has foreordained such prayers so that God would then answer those prayers and pour out his blessings upon us. We think about that when we're preaching and proclaiming the gospel to others as well. How shall they hear without a preacher? We should pray that sinners would be converted, and we should also go take the Word of God to them. The two work together, and God ordains all of this. Sometimes we're not sure what we ought to pray for. There's some very basic, obvious things. Pray that sinners would be converted to this, that, and the other. But even there, when we look at the Scriptures at times, Jesus says, when they reject you, when they persecute you, flee from this city, he says that to the apostles, go to the next city, and so on. And we know the nitty gritty details of life, things get complicated. We go to the scriptures to understand what we ought to do, but then we have to take the word of God and bring it to bear on the realities of life and our present predicaments and circumstances. We need wisdom from others, we need wisdom from sound godly counselors, but we also have to know our particular situations and apply God's word to them. But what if we don't know? What if we lack wisdom? Well, we have an answer to that as well. We're gonna pray for that. Jesus, well, God's word in James chapter one, verses five through eight, it says, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting. For he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double-minded man. unstable in all his ways. And so we should go to God asking him, help me, Lord, help me to understand what I ought to do in this situation. I see what your word commands, but I also see this difficult, complex situation in my life, Lord, give me wisdom, give me discretion, give me understanding here. And I can speak personally, We were just talking about that before the sermon, how difficult it is to pray persistently, and righteously, and faithfully. I find myself, when I do go to God in prayer, as I ought, I'm praying to God, help me with this, and at the same time trying to resolve it myself, in my mind. So I'm halfway praying to God, and halfway trying to figure out how to fix it, even in the midst of the prayer. Maybe at times, that's appropriate, but when we're taking it to God in prayer, it should be single-minded, wholehearted, giving it to the Lord. No, not turning our brains off. but truly giving it to God. And oftentimes I have found, and I'm sure you have as well, that when we do that, when we're truly perplexed or not sure, and we plead with God and we sort of say, well, here's why I don't know what to do in this situation, suddenly it strikes us what we ought to do. No, not a new revelation or something like that, but God, His Spirit works in our hearts and our minds, brings His word to bear, gives that clarity, and we praise Him for it. He answers the prayer even in the midst of are praying. I, and I'm sure some of you as well, have what I've heard sometimes called paralysis by analysis, right? We're over-analyzing things, we're digging through it so much, we're stuck with indecision, with uncertainty of what to do. It's true, we must reflect and analyze, but we also must go to God in prayer to know what we ought to do. In the context here of James chapter 1, the few verses that I read to you, James there is speaking about your faith being tested by various trials and temptations, and patiently enduring them, going through them, trusting God, bearing your cross, knowing He's overcome the world, and so on already. So that would slide into the Lord's Prayer, obviously in the section of, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one, and really praying for wisdom in anything. You know, what job I should take, Should I pursue this career, that career, whatever it may be, we can go to God in prayer about that, knowing that He will provide for our daily bread and the needs that we, in fact, do have. And so God answers our persistent prayers, because such prayers ultimately are for His glory, right? Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name. And as it says in Matthew, For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen. The kingdom of God, seeking first his kingdom and righteousness, that brackets, that bookends our prayers and everything that we're doing when we come to the Lord for our needs. Every reformation, every revival in the church and history, it begins with fervent, faithful, prayer. That is what we need, really, all the time, right? Pray without ceasing, but we always need to be continuing prayer privately, in small groups, and corporately in worship as well. And as we saw in James, going to God Believing he will actually answer those prayers not being a double-minded man, right? If you don't believe God's actually going to give to you what you're praying for Why should he give it when we're doubting him? We're not talking about a name it and claim it sort of gospel here. We're talking about praying again According to his word and God and his mercy and grace as pray for these things and he will grant these things for his glory and for our good commanded to pray this way it's a privilege and It's also a command, so let us do that. And that leads us to our second point here, the command to persist with God in our times of need. We saw this illustration of this persistent, what, humanly speaking, would seem like a person nagging for bread and finally says, okay, I'll give it to you, I'll give you as much as you need, don't wake up my family, that kind of thing. Now Jesus applies that to his disciples here in verse nine and following. And he says, 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. For everyone who asks, receives. And he who seeks, finds. And to him who knocks, it will be opened." And so he gives that great comfort in that, what we should have, that confidence in going to God in prayer before the throne of grace, he's saying, you will receive, as you pray persistently and faithfully, what you ask for, as you ask according to my will. And when we say my will, we're not obviously talking about the secret will of God, that no name can know, but what he's revealed in his word to us. Again, the Lord's Prayer and its contents. A Puritan named Christopher Love, who was actually martyred at the age of 33, he wrote much on prayer, and he gives a five-volume qualification for prayer to be answered if we would expect that God would accept and answer our prayers. One, he says, the heart must be prepared to pray righteously. Two, sin must be removed from the conscience, thoughts, actions, and so on. Thirdly, the affections must be raised. The love of our souls must be set upon God. Fourthly, the mind must be composed in prayer, not full of distraction. Now how often have we done that to get our minds and hearts quieted and ready to focus on praying to the Lord? Christopher Love, he says, do you think God will hear that prayer which you do not hear yourself? You ever found yourself praying, and you realize, I don't even remember what I'm praying about, what I'm asking for. Well, we have to confess that, repent of that. God, help me to be more focused. And if we set our sights on the majesty of God, of who He is, of what He's done, of what we've been forgiven of, of what we deserve, soon enough, the Spirit's gonna stoke our hearts and minds to focus on prayer. When we think about His loftiness, His glory, right? Hallowed be Your name. And we see our sin, that's gonna reset and reframe our minds so that our affections and minds are raised to pray to Him as we ought to. And then fifthly and finally, Christopher Love says, the desires must be enlarged after God and prayer, and he uses that language there, we must pray wholeheartedly, single-mindedly, and determinedly. And that's how we are called to pray to the Lord, and that's the kind of prayer that the Lord is pleased to answer and to grant. Well, now notice the illustration there in verses 11 through 13 that Jesus gives to us. If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? And so we have the argument for the lesser to the greater. You human fathers who are sinful, who are evil, when your child, when your son comes to you asking for good things, you do not hate him, you do not mock him and give him a stone instead, or as it says, a serpent instead of a fish or a scorpion instead of an egg. No, you give him what is asked for. Now, children, you probably also know that when you ask with sincerity, when you ask lovingly and respectfully, you're more likely to receive what is asked for, even if it's not a daily bread thing, you know, it's kind of like a nice treat, right? Your father, your parents are delighted oftentimes to give that to you when you ask in a kind and focused way. Sometimes our children may come to us, they're looking around, they're not really focused, they're not really even serious about what they're asking for, and we say, hey, Son, daughter, please look at me in the eye and let me know what it is you're asking for. And when they do that in sincerity, that itself moves our heart to be more inclined to grant to them whatever it is they're asking for, even if it's an inconvenience for us. Well, there's a similarity there. When we come to God, our father, our heavenly father, in true sincerity. So verse 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? And so we see that chief among the things that we should be asking for is the Holy Spirit or the blessings to walk in the Spirit, to keep in step with the Spirit, to live by the Spirit, to grow in godliness and holiness and so on. But this does not preclude all good blessings, right? Every good gift comes down from the Father above, from the Father of lights. The Lord's Prayer, again, speaks of the daily bodily needs as well, so we're praying for every true, genuine need that we have. And we should not think, well, you know, my needs compared to others out there are so small, so I should not even bother the Lord with it. Our example is a man eating three loaves of bread to feed his friend, a relatively speaking small need. No, the Lord says, keep persisting and asking for every true need, and the Lord is pleased to grant them to us, to provide and help us. There's, of course, several other examples in Scripture. that we can think of of the early church itself going into Acts chapter 2 after the Spirit is poured out in full measure at Pentecost there we read the unity that creates in the church Acts 2 42 it says and they the church continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. They're there together, fellowshiping together as families commuting together, and prayer is a regular, steady diet of what the early New Testament, New Covenant Church was doing. We can think, then, drawing from all this, that if we pray fervently about something one time, and the Lord does not immediately answer it, we should not therefore assume that it's an automatic no from God. Now, perhaps you're looking for work, you need to provide for your family, you want this job, you go there, you prayed about it, you interviewed, and they just slam the door in your face, and they say, no, it's not gonna work here, take a hike. That's a pretty clear sign from the Lord that perhaps that's not the job for you, at least anytime soon. But of course, that doesn't mean that the Lord isn't going to provide the work for you. He will provide a job for you. So you keep praying, Lord, lead me to the place that I ought to go to. I can speak personally about looking at various churches and various denominations and seeking to minister and be ordained. I'm sure James can relate that, your pastor, well and you see an opportunity and it comes up and then something falls through the last minute and you wonder God why is this happening, but you keep praying you keep trusting the Lord and Sure enough. He opens the door eventually and you realize I would not want to be anywhere else Where I am right now with these people ministering to this flock or whatever your calling in life May be the Lord answers prayer Better than we even think to ask for prayer. He gives us better than what we ask for, and that's also the kind of language that Christopher Love uses in some of his books as well. So we should not give up in prayer. We should keep on asking. Charles Spurgeon, the Baptist minister, he was asked the secret to his pastoral ministry, and he said simply, my people, pray for me. Pray for your minister. Pray for your elders. They need those prayers, even as they persist in praying for you. We know the apostle Paul asked the church, the people, to pray for him, but he would preach the word of God with all boldness. Indeed, I can confess, as a minister, our boldness, it too, can ebb and flow, and we have to go to our knees to God in prayer to be strengthened and revived. Once again, the prayers of the church together uplifts one another. The United Presbyterian Church in 1870, in a document written for students, licentiates, and young men training for the gospel ministry, said, as prayer meetings decline in a congregation, so will religion. As prayer meetings fail in a congregation, so will the administrations of a pastor become unfruitful. The prayer meeting is the pulse of a church. So we should be checking our pulse as a church, and we've been talking about that a lot in our church as well. And it is difficult to get people to come out at times for a prayer meeting. Prayer, as we've been talking about, is a difficult thing. There's no eye candy, so to speak, behind it. At least when there's a minister, hopefully, I'm keeping everybody awake here. There's something to look at in prayer. It's just you and God and the people around you. It's difficult, but the Lord blesses it greatly and rewards it abundantly as we pray to him because it shows our need. It shows our absolute dependence upon God when we go to him in prayer. We can't do it ourselves. He must do it. JC Rowell, the Anglican minister and bishop, he notes that We often pray well as children when instructed, and as adults when we receive great mercy or suffer a terrible affliction from the Lord. But we are not persistent and diligent at all times in prayer. We have to always be praying, always be thankful, and keep on praying. We get an answer to prayer, and then we slack off. What are we doing? Keep going. Keep persisting in prayer. Many have their prayers answered after many, many years. In Scripture, we can think of just a couple examples, Hannah in 1 Samuel 1, Zacharias in Luke 1. Both cases, praying for children and blessings there, seeing the importance of having children. And I see many here with young families. Perhaps some of you are seeking to be married. Perhaps some of you are desiring to be pregnant and have a child. Keep praying for those blessings and trust the Lord in due time, He will provide. So we see the Lord and the way that he answers, interacts, these prayers, all these good things, the Holy Spirit, good things, everything. One more example to give here from the scriptures in Luke 18, you probably know the parable of the persistent widow. Jesus there, we're told in Luke, it explicitly says that Jesus gives this parable to his disciples so that men, or God's people, would always pray and not lose heart. He knows we need that comfort, that command to keep persisting in prayer. And I trust you remember the parable there. The widow wants to get justice from her adversary. She goes to this unjust judge and finally wears him down and gets justice from her adversary. Again, God is not an unjust judge. He's saying, God who is perfect in justice, and we who are his children, born of his spirit, bought with his blood. Again, how much more as we persist in prayer with him, will he answer, will he grant those prayers to deliver us from evil, to give us our daily bread, and so on. So Christopher Love said, well, he says, persisting in prayer, proceeds from the largeness and greatness of God's power. His power is unlimited. The riches and freeness of his grace toward us, it's fast and deep. But herein appears the power, the ability, the goodness, and the bounty of God. If we ask him once or twice, he's a God that is able to give, not according to our asking only, but above what we ask. And not only above what we can ask, but above what we can ask or think. God has not only a fullness of abundance, but of redundancy. Not only of plenty, but bounty. He is better than our prayers. He answers them better than even we know how to ask for them. And it's been mentioned already as well about the elections, and in many ways what a great blessing that has been to see the results of them, even as we may have some disappointments with state elections in North Carolina, but just the same, we need to keep praying that God would turn the hearts of our president to him in true faith and true repentance, that he would turn the hearts of the kings and all the rulers to rule justly, to rule righteously. Yes, all made in God's image, all with the light of nature, but even in explicitly according to the scriptures themselves to follow God and to seek his kingdom and to establish justice for everybody in our nation. and in our society. So let's, I believe the Lord has answered prayers that we have made for our rulers. Let's keep praying for them and keep pushing them toward God's word, God's law and righteousness as we go and pray. And do so expectantly. He can answer better than what we can think or imagine. And may the Lord do that and raise up godly Christian rulers in our land and in our churches. Well, Christ himself, persist in prayer for us, even now, at the right hand of the Father. We can think, before he went back to glory in John 17, that great high priesthood prayer that he was making for all the saints, for all the people, the disciples, and all who would believe in him through the apostolic word, the preaching of the gospel, and so on. We think about how He prayed diligently in His life on earth, groaning Himself under the curse of sin, yet He knew no sin. He was frequent in prayer. He departed and went alone in private to pray. Even while His disciples slept, He prayed. Even as He was facing the cross, He cried out to the Father. And even though He had to endure the cross, He did it with strength in the Lord and His Father because He prayed to Him and was strengthened. by the Spirit of God Himself that was working in Christ in His humanity. Well, Christ prays, and Christ is now glorified, and He prays for us. He prays for His people. He does not grow weary in doing so. He continually makes intercession for us. We sinners who deserve none of this, yet He prays for us. And still, like the disciples sleeping in the garden, how often Do we grow weary in praying to our risen Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ? Something that smites us, that should convict us and lead us to prayers of repentance and confession and gratefulness for all that God in Christ has done for us, continues to do for us, and shall do for us at his return when he makes all things new. And so this is really the context of persistent prayer. We have the command, we have the example of Christ himself, the illustrations that he gives here in scripture. We should extol the glory of God, confess and feel our own unworthiness, but then through Christ have no shame when we come to him because he receives us through the blood of his Son gladly. And so we should come gladly and boldly to the throne of of grace as well. As we know and learn and ask for wisdom of what to pray for, let us pray for that and let us expect the Lord to indeed answer those prayers, seeking first his kingdom and righteousness. And when he answers those prayers, thank him, praise him, but then keep on asking and seeking and knocking for more blessings and fruitful service to him, his people, minister to unbelieving friends and family and neighbors around you and so on. The Lord will answer these prayers for your good and for his glory. Thanks be to God. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your holy word and we thank you that indeed you are the God who answers prayer that you never grow weary of our prayers and your son never grows weary of praying for us. Lord, make us like your son. Yes, we still groan at the curse of sin, yet we're redeemed in you. Let us wear ourselves out in fervent, fruitful prayer, storming the throne of grace, believing you shall answer these prayers. Bring real reformation and revival in our churches, in our homes, in our families, in our land, in our government, for your glory, for your namesake. Lord, bring the church here, our church, and so many other churches to pray in this way for your glory and for our good, that your kingdom would come and your will would be done on earth as it is in heaven. We pray through our risen, ruling, and returning Lord Jesus Christ. In him we pray. Amen.