It seems like each year I have the opportunity to minister God's word to you, his dear people here. And of course, my dear brother George, Pastor George Sinofontos has been a faithful friend and I just remember it was six years ago when Gary called about Pastor George and what a privilege it was to tell him at that time what a godly man your pastor is and after six years of ministry here I'm sure you have seen that in his life as well. I'm thankful for the opportunity to preach God's Word. As you know, I'm not a pastor anymore. I actually was ordained as a deacon in our church back in Lancaster County a couple months ago. That's something I had always desired, that the day when I was no longer a pastor, that I wanted to serve his church as a deacon. So I'm thankful for that, and I'm thankful for opportunities that I have to preach. Seems like almost once a month. I'm very thankful for that. I'm thankful for the opportunity to continue to teach for the Reformed Baptist Seminary. I teach a class on the Holy Spirit. I have since 2009, and though I've never preached a sermon on the text that I'm going to do today, and that is Luke chapter 11, verse 13. I'll ask you to turn to the Gospel of Luke. We'll read the entirety of Luke 11, 1 through 13, but I'd like to focus particularly on Luke 11, 13. As you're turning there, I'll just read that one verse, which says, 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? So the sermon this morning is about prayer in the Holy Spirit, particularly, why do we ask for that which we already have? And so I'd like to try to answer that question by the end of the message. So first we'll pray, and then we'll read, and also I'd like to start with a passage in Luke 10, and then we'll move on to our passage in Luke 11. So join me as we seek the Lord again in prayer. Our Father, God in Heaven, our Heavenly Father, to whom our Savior directed us to pray, we pray now in his name and ask that you will help us, Lord, to enter into this beautiful passage once again, which we call the Lord's Prayer. and all that surrounds it here in the gospel of Luke. And help us and fill us with your Holy Spirit each day. We ask this through Christ our Lord, amen. Well, I had never really seen the connection to Luke chapter 10 as much as I have recently. So in Luke chapter 10, we see the Lord praying, starting at verse 17. After he had begun his journey to Jerusalem, which started in Luke chapter 9 and verse 51, he began visiting the Samaritans. And then he sent out the 70. And when they came back, in verse 17 of Luke 10, we read that the 70 returned with joy. saying, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name. And he said, I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will injure you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven." Pause there for a second. That's something that we always want to remember. No matter what's going on in our lives, in Christ, our names are recorded in heaven. And Jesus said that is the most important thing to rejoice over. But then you see our Lord praying. At that very time, he rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit and said, I praise you, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this way was well-pleasing in your sight. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. and who the father is except the son, and anyone to whom the son wills to reveal him. And turning to the disciples, he said privately, blessed are the eyes which see the things you see. For I say to you that many prophets and kings wished to see the things which you see and did not see them, and to hear the things which you hear and did not hear them. Now here, of course, you see the Trinity here. There are passages, dozens of them, in the New Testament where you see the Trinity, where there is Trinitarian teaching. And this is one of them, Luke 10.21. You have the Son praying to the Father in heaven in the Holy Spirit. Now we come to our passage, Luke 11. And 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. And he said to them, when you pray, say, Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins. For we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us, and lead us not into temptation. Then he said to them, which of you has a friend, and will go to him at midnight and say to him, friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him. 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 rise up and give you anything. I tell you, even though he will not arise 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. 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. But what father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead of a fish? Or if his son asks for an egg, will give 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? And as you can see, the whole section here moves to verse 13 in regard to asking. It's all about asking. The man asking for bread for his friend who has come at midnight. The son asking the father for bread. and we asking for the Holy Spirit. Now Jesus is our greatest example in prayer. There are many examples of men and women of God throughout scripture which are very encouraging to us, challenging and convicting. But Jesus is our greatest example because, think of it, he is God. in human flesh. And to think of God in human flesh praying to his Father in heaven is truly an amazing thing to conceive of, and yet we see it here. And so we're inspired and we're encouraged, but Jesus also teaches us how to pray, and that's how our passage begins. Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples. It would be wonderful if we had some of the instruction that John gave to his disciples, but I'm sure that John taught his disciples to pray for the coming of the Messiah's work and the Lamb of God, whom he announced, and even the Holy Spirit, who is the subject of our message today. We have here the Lord's Prayer. And in Luke 10, we see the Lord praying. We have him as our example, and we have him as our instructor. It's a model prayer. There's nothing wrong with praying the Lord's Prayer as it is given to us. The record of the Lord's Prayer in Luke is almost exactly the same as the record of the Lord's Prayer in Matthew. There are just some slight differences there, which are of no consequence. And there is nothing wrong with, and it's good for us to pray the Lord's Prayer, but it's really an expandable pattern. It's a model, because it opens up themes. And the Lord's Prayer is all about a relationship with God. It begins with Father, our Father who is in heaven. So it's all about a relationship. And it's illustrated by the parables that are given alongside of it, that we have here, or that we have in Matthew. Those parables remind us that it's about a relationship. It's about us coming to our Heavenly Father to ask him for the things that we desire and need and to express our understanding of who he is. You see in Luke 10, the passage which I read, that Jesus praised his father for, on the one hand, hiding from the worldly wise who think they know everything, and who think that they can fashion a god according to their own designs, and revealing those things to the humble, to babes, to infants. And so it's all about a relationship. It's all about revelation. And it's all about God's kingdom. It sounds very much like the Gospel of John in Luke chapter 10, when you read in verse 22, all things have been handed over to me by my father. And no one knows the son except the father, and who the father is except the son, and anyone to whom the son wills to reveal him. And so there you go, we have a relationship to God through Christ and the Holy Spirit. So while this is not an exposition of the Lord's Prayer, it's just a reminder that the Lord's Prayer is basic. In that sense, it's basic. We often think that we need to go back to basics in our lives or in the culture, and that's true often. And so it's basic. But it's also broad because it's a pattern. It's something that you can expand in these areas, which Give praise to God, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, and Matthew adds, your will be done. So it's all about God, and it's all about what we need. Give us each day our daily bread, forgive us our sins or debts, and do not lead us into temptation. These are our needs. But when you come to the end of Luke 11, this section, you see that what we really need What we need is the Holy Spirit. And so we are to ask for the Holy Spirit. But again, this is the question that the text poses to us. Why do we ask for something that we already have? And we'll talk more about this as we go on. So in our passage, Luke 11, 1 through 13, we're looking, first of all, at prayer. It's the first point that I just covered briefly. Prayer and then persistence is the second point. And then provision is the third point, which I'm going to spend the most time on. So you have prayer, persistence, and provision. Now, the parable teaches persistence in prayer through a picture. It's a picture parable. You can picture it. You can see it. It's the illustration. A sermon should have an illustration. Well, here is a built-in illustration to the subject that we have at hand. Not only do we picture it, but Jesus then shows us how to practice it when he says in verse 9, ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock. and it will be open to you. So the parable teaches persistence in prayer through a picture. A man at midnight goes to his friend. People traveled at night, often in antiquity, because it was cooler. And so perhaps that's what's happening here in this picture, this parable. A man at midnight goes to his friend to ask for three loaves to give to someone who has traveled to his house, a friend also. who has come to his house from a journey. Now, even though you can be good friends with someone, if they knock on your door at midnight, the person may look a little different to you, even though it's your friend. But the man goes to his friend to ask for three loaves. He wants to borrow three loaves because a friend of his has come from a journey and has nothing to eat. And the man asking is persistent. That is to say, he's annoying. He's persistent. The word is translated shameless because of his shamelessness. He's shamelessly rude. He wants it so badly. He wants to take care of his friend who has come to visit him. And the man in the house is unwilling. He's bothered. He's sleeping. He gives reasons why he should not and cannot give to this request. But the persistence of the man knocking makes him willing. Now, Jesus develops the parable in verses 9 and 10 and shows us that there's a difference here. The parable is illustrating persistence, and that's all it's illustrating. It's not illustrating anything about the nature of God, because God is not bothered by our asking. In fact, the point is just the opposite. God is actually pleased with our persistence. Ask, seek, knock. God is not bothered, nor is he unwilling. He's very willing, but he wants us to persist in prayer. We speak about importunate prayer, the unfortunate prayer of the widow who came to the judge. And James reminds us in his letter, chapter four and verse two, this simple truth with regard to prayer, with regard to our relationship to God, with regard to the things that we need, and often the things that we want, which are righteous before him, you don't have because you do not ask. James four and verse two. And then James 4 and verse 3 goes on to say, or give the reason why you have but you do not ask. And if you do ask, he says in verse 3 of James 4, you ask and do not receive because you ask with wrong motives so that you may spend it on your own pleasures. So when you take James 4, 2, and 3 together, it reveals a person in his relationship to God, a believer, a believer who doesn't have, because he doesn't ask, obviously something wrong there spiritually, and if he does ask, he asks with the wrong motives, and therefore he doesn't receive, either because he doesn't ask, or when he does ask, he asks with the wrong motives. And so going back to Luke 11 and verse 13, you see the The helpfulness of that verse is that if we ask for the right things, he will hear us. And if we persist in asking, seeking, knocking, he will give us. And what is the thing that we need the most? According to Luke 11.13, it is his own spirit. So let's talk about that now in the main burden of our study this morning. It's Luke 11 and 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? Turn back for a moment to Matthew 7 and verse 11, the parallel passage here. Matthew 7 and verse 11. I'll read verses 7 through 11. 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. Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask him? So these passages, of course, are similar. There are 25 verses in between in Matthew and the Sermon on the Mount between the Lord's Prayer and the section that I just read, whereas Luke puts them together. Luke puts them together. Now, the gospel writers communicated, and they preserved the words of Christ as Christ delivered them. But they also crafted or edited their Gospels for their unique purposes evangelistically and for building up God's people. And so sometimes there are minor differences between the Gospels. You're aware of that. Synoptic Gospels have We harmonize them because there are different emphases in the Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Some passages miss some elements found in other passages, same events in the Synoptic Gospels. So there's no problem with this. It's just that the four gospel writers look at the glory of Christ from four different mountain peaks, if you will. But when it comes to our passage, Luke 11 and verse 13, there are two things that Luke is emphasizing here. And the first is that the Holy Spirit is a good gift of God. Matthew 7, 11 says, how much more will your heavenly father give what is good to those who ask him? And Luke says, how much more will your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? So therefore, The Holy Spirit is a good gift of God. It seems to me that Jesus just said it both ways. That's how I see the harmonization of these two passages, that Jesus said it both ways. But Luke Luke's account is specific on this point about gifts. He calls the good gift the Holy Spirit, and Matthew's is generic. So Matthew is saying, Matthew's version says, God gives all good gifts to his children, including the Holy Spirit, without mentioning the Holy Spirit. When Peter preached on the day of Pentecost, At the end of his sermon, in Acts chapter 2 and verse 38, he called upon the people to repent for the forgiveness of their sins. And he said to them, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Repent for the forgiveness of your sins. Psalm 32 talked about the blessedness of the man who has forgiveness of sins in Old Testament or New Testament. But when you repent, you receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. So the Holy Spirit is a good gift of God. But the second thing, obviously, that Luke is saying is that the Holy Spirit is the best gift of God. Matthew says, generically or generally, God gives good gifts. All good things come from above, James says from the father of lights. But in Luke's rendering of our Lord's words, the Holy Spirit is the best gift of God. So that's what we want to think about now, that the Holy Spirit is the best gift of God. And there are three things I wanted to show you under this point. The first one is that he is the first gospel promise made. The Holy Spirit is the first gospel promise or the first thing promised. Second thing I want to show you is that the Holy Spirit performs the first gospel operation or surgery on us in the new birth. And the third thing I want to show you is that the Holy Spirit is the primary need of the believer in the Christian life. The foremost issue or concern of Christian living is the Holy Spirit. So to consider our first sub-point here, we turn to John chapter 1 and the ministry of John the Baptist. John chapter 1, verses 31 through 34. Here's John the Baptist. And in John chapter 129, you remember that the people were coming out to John. They were interested. This was the voice crying out in the wilderness. There has been no word from God for 400 years. And now in the desert, this man, Elijah-like, comes preaching. They were attracted to his preaching. They were attracted to his clothing. They were attracted to his way of life. He had been nurtured in the desert, in the wilderness, and now he comes out. And in John 1 and verse 29, it says, Jesus coming and said, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. So John announces Jesus as the one who takes away the sin of the world. But now he introduces a promise, and notice what that promise is. Verse 30, this is he of whom I said, after me comes a man who has been ahead of me, for he existed before me. I did not know him, but so that he might be manifested to Israel, I came baptizing with water. And John bore witness, saying, I have beheld the spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and he abided on him. And I did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, the one on whom you see the Spirit descending and abiding on him, this is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. And I myself have seen and bore witness that this is the Son of God. So notice these two things. John is announcing that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. But then he's promising that this Jesus, upon whom the Spirit came at his baptism, this Jesus is going to baptize sinners in his Holy Spirit. So that's the promise. As you know, in the Gospels, Jesus didn't talk about the cross until near the end of his ministry. You have noticed that, I'm sure. And it's not so strange. Some people say, well, there's something wrong. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus doesn't talk about the cross. Well, of course he didn't talk about the cross. He didn't talk about the cross until it was a very near event. And the reason was because they couldn't bear it. They needed to see Jesus in his life, in his ministry. They needed to understand who he was in his person, that he's God in human flesh. And then they would understand the cross. Now, John refers to him as the Lamb of God, and that's it. And that's important. And they would have understood that, yes, he's going to be sacrificed, although their hearts withdrew from that. until the cross actually occurred. So the point I'm making is that John makes a promise that is beyond the cross, something that happens after the cross. It happens on the day of Pentecost. It happens after Jesus dies, after he is buried, after he is raised, after he is ascended, after he is exalted and pours out his Holy Spirit. That's when it happens. It's a promise made beyond the cross. Turn to Acts chapter two and verse 33. If you would, Acts chapter 2 and verse 33. Acts chapter two, verse 33. Therefore, having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this which you both see and hear. Acts 2.38, again, Peter said, repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. And so this is a promise beyond the cross. that Jesus will baptize with his own spirit those who repent of their sins, because he is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And again, the Holy Spirit is the best gift. Turn to 1 Thessalonians 4 and verse 8. I love this verse. I love this verse. 1 Thessalonians 4, 8. Paul is talking about problems here, sanctification issues, how God doesn't call us to impurity, but in sanctification. And it's really urgent that they get this teaching, and that they implement it, and they practice it, and they keep their lives pure and holy. But then he says that if you reject it, verse 8, if you set it aside, if you ignore it, You're not setting aside man, you're not setting aside Paul, but the God who gives his Holy Spirit to you. What a fascinating statement, just put in there, just a little phrase inserted in there, and that bigger issue of rejecting the instruction about purity and sanctification. If you reject this, You're rejecting the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you. You know, God has many attributes. We study His attributes. We love books on the attributes of God, A.W. Pink and all the others. But this is one of God's attributes. What is God like? Well, He's holy. He's omnipotent. He's omnipresent. He's omniscient. He's just. He's merciful. Yes, but He's also the God who gives us His Holy Spirit. And what it means practically is that He gives Himself. He gives Himself. Have you ever had anyone in your life that you've looked up to and you've said to yourself, boy, I'd like to be like that person? Maybe that person has something that we lack. Maybe that person can do something that we wish we could do, or has a certain temperament that we just struggle with, that we don't have. And we say, oh, I'd like to be like that person. What you're saying is you'd like to have the spirit of that person as your own. Remember, Elisha wanted a double portion of Elijah's spirit. He looked up to Elijah so much. that he didn't want to just be like Elijah. He wanted to be Elijah twice over. And that's what it means for God to give us his spirit. He gives us himself. We love giving gifts, and gifts are wonderful. Christmas time is wonderful, watching little children get their gifts, getting gifts ourselves, giving gifts. We enjoy the giving and the getting of gifts. But Still, in human life, in our own world, socially, in our relationships, really the best thing you can give someone is yourself, your time, your love, your interest, a listening ear, a helping hand. And that's what God does for us. He's the God who gives us His own spirit. So therefore, he is the best gift. Now, turn back to the Gospel of John. We looked at John chapter 1. Now we turn to John chapter 3. So the Holy Spirit is the best gift. He's the first gift promised. He also is the surgeon, if you will. He does the spiritual surgery that makes all this possible. John chapter 3, he performs the first gospel operation. John 3, verse 3, Jesus answered and said to Nicodemus, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to him, how can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? And Jesus answered, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God so verses 3 and verse 4 notice he can't he can't see the kingdom of God verse 3 he can't enter the kingdom of God verse 5 and here's the reason that which is born of the flesh is flesh we're born into this world we have a fleshly nature we're flesh we are we are dead and sin we are we are apart from God we are at enmity with God, as Romans teaches us. And that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. Notice the capital S there, and the small lowercase s is really important. Capital S, Holy Spirit. That which has been born of the Holy Spirit is lowercase s, Spirit. So now we are spiritual beings. Prior to that, we are dead in sin. We are fleshly. We are carnal. We are worldlings. Now we are spiritual. We are spiritually minded. To be spiritual in the New Testament means to partake of the Holy Spirit, to have the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Now, the third thing. First of all, we talked about the Holy Spirit as the first gospel promise. We talked about the Holy Spirit as performing the first gospel operation. And now I want to show you that the Holy Spirit is the foremost issue or concern in Christian living. And that's what Luke 11, verse 13, is talking about. Again, if you look at our text, And you read it and you say, well, I know I have the Holy Spirit because I'm converted. Why am I asking for him? Philippians chapter one sheds light on this passage. Paul in prison, turn there, please. Philippians one, Paul's in prison. It's an amazing letter. It's a favorite for many Christians, Book of Philippians. It's the letter of joy, contentment, and it has a very special place in our hearts. Because as hard as it was for Paul to be in prison, and he spent many of his years in prison, a man who liked to travel and serve the Lord and do great exploits for God in God's providence, spent many years in prison. And he was writing a letter from prison. Which is interesting. What kind of letter will this be? Will it be a complaining letter? No, he tells us not to complain. But starting at verse 12, Paul begins to talk about the benefits of his imprisonment in chapter one. Now I want you to know, brothers, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel, so that my chains or imprisonment in Christ have become well known through the whole praetorian guard and to everyone else. and that most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord because of my imprisonment, have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear." So here's a second benefit. They're hearing the gospel, and the brothers are more bold in preaching the gospel. Some, to be sure, are preaching Christ even from envy and strife. but some from goodwill. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition rather than from pure motives, thinking to cause me affliction in my chains." Hard to imagine why these people were doing that. It's just hard to imagine that they actually did that. Verse 18, what then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in this I rejoice. What a big heart Paul had, even toward his enemies. Verse 19, here's the verse that sheds light on our text, on Luke 11, 13. For I know that this will turn out for my salvation, it can also be deliverance, For I know that this will turn out for my salvation or deliverance, I think it's both. Paul is thinking about being delivered from prison here. He describes that in the next paragraph. So it's probably, the idea is both salvation and deliverance, whatever God's will and his deliverance is. But how's he gonna be delivered? Notice what he says, through your prayers and the provision of the spirit of Jesus Christ. Now, I'll just read a little bit of the next section. For me, Paul says, verse 21, to live is Christ and to die is gain. But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me and I don't know what to choose. But I am hard pressed between the two, having the desire to depart and be with Christ. for that is very much better. Yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake. And convinced of this, I know I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith, so that your reason for boasting may abound in Christ Jesus in me through my coming to you again." So here's Paul's view of the whole situation. He's in prison. He's thankful that The Roman house is hearing the gospel. He's thankful that most of his brothers are bold to preach the gospel. And he's there languishing in prison. But he's not languishing. He's encouraging believers. He's writing this letter. He's expectant. He's hopeful. But all through the prayers of God's people and the provision of the Holy Spirit. It's as if Paul is asking every day, Lord, give me your Holy Spirit, give me your Holy Spirit, give me more of your Holy Spirit, according to Luke 11 and verse 13. Paul needed the prayers of the people of God, and throughout his letters, he thanked them for all of their prayers, but he also needed the provision, the supply of the Holy Spirit. So now I'm gonna try to wrap this all up. Now, I'm gonna ask you this question as I try to wrap this all up. What is the connection then between asking for our daily bread, the first petition of the Lord's Prayer, what is the connection between asking for our daily bread to the story about the son asking his father for a loaf of bread? Number three. The parable about the friend asking for three loaves of bread to feed his friend who has come to him at midnight. And the assurance that God gives good gifts to his children, even the best gift, his Holy Spirit. Now that's the question when you look at this text. You have the petition for daily bread. You have the story of the son asking the father for some bread. You have the man asking for bread for his friend who has come. And in all of that, we have the assurance that our Heavenly Father gives good gifts to his children, even the best gift. So what's the connection between these four things? I say the connection is that the Holy Spirit is to be our daily bread. That is our daily provision. That's the connection. You remember where this originated from was Deuteronomy chapter eight. Deuteronomy eight, you don't need to turn there, but you remember that that's where this originated, in the wilderness, where God taught the people, man does not live by bread alone, but by everything, by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of God. And so the connection between these four things is that we are to ask for the Holy Spirit as we ask for our bread. But we don't live by bread alone. Oh, I love bread, and you love bread. But we don't live by bread alone, or more broadly, food. Food. Bread is food. sustenance. We don't live by our physical food, but by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of God. We also live, as this doctrine developed through the history of Revelation, we find that we live by the Holy Spirit. We need the Holy Spirit every day. He gives the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him. So what we are asking for is the Holy Spirit. But what exactly are we asking for when we ask God to give us His Holy Spirit every day in the same way that we ask Him to meet our needs every day? Well, two things. With this, I close. Two things. What are we asking for? Well, number one, we're asking for the nearness or the filling of the Spirit as the divine person who draws us to the Father and to the Son. We're asking to be near to Him. The nearness of God is my good. In a general way, the nearness of God is my good. You find that in the Psalms. But here specifically, now that Christ has come and He has sent His own Spirit, we find that the Spirit of God, the Son of God, the Father, dwell in our hearts. We speak about an indwelling. We speak about him indwelling, abiding on us. That was the word that was used for his baptism. The Spirit remained upon him. He abided in him. And so the Spirit indwells us. It's the same as filling. It says, be filled with the Spirit in Ephesians chapter 5. Be filled with the Spirit. Ephesians chapter 3.19 speaks about being filled to fullness, the Spirit filling us to fullness, so that as we grow and on in the Christian life, as we live the Christian life, we are transformed day by day. We are more holy. We are more and more sanctified. We are closer to God. We are filled with the Spirit for all of our circumstances. Paul was filled with the Spirit in prison when he wrote that letter to the Philippians. He was being filled with the Spirit, and he knew that that was the way God was providing for him through the prayers of the people and the provision of the Holy Spirit of God, filling him, sustaining him, making him content. letting his light shine in prison, keeping him from grumbling and complaining so that he could tell the people of God in their lesser circumstances not to grumble or complain, but to rejoice and to set their minds on the things that are excellent. That's how Paul did it. He was only super or a super saint in the sense that he had the superlative ministries of the Holy Spirit. So that's what we're asking for, we're asking the Father to give us the Holy Spirit. We already have the Spirit at conversion. Conversion is the sinner's Pentecost. Titus 3 verses 5 through 7 speaks about how we are renewed and we are restored and renewed at conversion when the Spirit is poured out upon us and we are justified in the sight of God. And so that's what we're praying for. We're praying for the daily nearness and the filling of the spirit, as the spirit is the person who draws us to the Father and the Son. In John chapter 15, I won't turn you to it, but Jesus talked about Father and Son coming to dwell and the believer in a mutual indwelling through the Holy Spirit. It's a beautiful thing. The Christian is the temple of God, the triune God. or more specifically, the Spirit of God. Don't you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit? But the Holy Spirit is the one who brings the Father and the Son into our hearts, changing our perspectives, changing our affections. I never read it, but I just recently got the little booklet published by Crossway with Thomas Chalmers, The Expulsive Power of a New Affection. And that's what that book is all about, the expulsive power of a new affection. Fill the heart with Christ and the Holy Spirit, and that person has a new affection, a bent, not towards sin, but toward righteousness. And if he ever does veer over into the path of sin, he will immediately confess his sin and repent and go back on the road, the path to sanctification. That's what we're praying for. And that's why we're told in Ephesians 4 in verse 30, don't grieve the Holy Spirit. by whom you were sealed in the day of redemption, for the day of redemption. Don't grieve the Holy Spirit. Did you ever grieve your mother or your father? Make your mother sad, your father sad, and you said something, you did something as a younger person, and you could just see it. They were crestfallen by what you said, by what you did. Sometimes we do that to our children. We exasperate them in that way. And fathers are warned about that. Don't exasperate your children. You can do that. You can grieve your own child. Men, have you ever brought grief to your wife? And you saw it on her face? Or a wife to her husband? In human life, these are dreadful situations. They are so against love in our horizontal relationships. Now think of it. You can do that to the indwelling Holy Spirit, vertically, if you will. Don't grieve the Holy Spirit. Why? Because he wants to dwell comfortably in your heart. He wants to be in your thoughts. Romans 8.16 speaks about the Spirit himself testifying with our spirit that we are the children of God. It's a joyful, it's to be an uninterrupted testimony time. The Spirit is in our hearts testifying that the love of God has been poured out within my heart. I love that verse, Romans 5.5. The love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. That's a great verse. It's one of the great Holy Spirit verses. Once I made a list of all the great Holy Spirit verses, that's one of them. Luke 11, 13 is also one of them. What are we asking for when we ask for the Holy Spirit? We're asking for his nearness and his filling. Secondly, we're also asking for the multiple ministries of the Spirit, which are set before us in the New Testament. You won't find them just in one place. Now, you have to do a little study. You have to know the scripture. You have to see that the Spirit does so many things, not just in the New Testament, but in the Old Testament as well. In fact, once I did a study, it showed that The ministries of the Spirit in the Old Testament are really the same as they are in the New Testament. The difference between the Old and the New Testament is that we have the Spirit of the risen and exalted Christ, which they didn't have yet, because Christ had not come. But the Spirit does so many things for us. He illumines the Scripture. He sheds light on the Scripture. This is a spiritual book. It's God breathed. It's God's revelation. God speaks in this book as a living, but it's living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword and pierces even to the dividing of soul and spirit to the joints and the marrow. God is in this book through his spirit, and the spirit has to shine light on it. And we have to be in a bright relationship to the spirit. So illumination, Romans 8, 26 and 27 speak about helping us in prayer. We don't know what to pray for. As Spurgeon said, we're like cranes. We're just making noise. We don't know what to pray for. But the Spirit intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. It's the Spirit who does the groaning. Although we do groan in prayer, it's not like speaking in tongues or anything like that. And Pentecostals have used that verse to justify their speaking in tongues. But that is foreign from the text. Romans 8.14, we are led by the Spirit. The Spirit leads us. He leads us in righteous living. He helps us to be wise. He helps us to make good decisions. He helps us to honor God in our choices and our plans. And then you have the big ones, the two big ones in the New Testament, the fruit of the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit. These are the things that the Spirit does for us. And that's what we're asking for. When Jesus said, 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? He understands there that those who ask already have the Spirit, but they're asking to be filled with the Spirit. They're asking that their lives will be transformed day by day. They're asking for a comfortable relationship with the Holy Spirit that's all love and no grief. And they're asking that the multiple ministries of the Holy Spirit will be operating in their lives. And to that end, the Bible says in 1 Thessalonians 5.19, don't quench the spirit. Don't grieve the spirit has to do with his person, the personal relationship that we have to God through his spirit. And quenching the spirit has to do with his work. his work in us. Don't quench the spirit. Don't be an obstacle to his work in your heart and in your life. And so I hope that I've, it's been a long way around, but I hope that I've helped you to answer the simple question, what are we asking for? Luke 11, 13. Now, the question has been raised, does this passage envision an unbeliever asking God for his Holy Spirit. Well, that's not the burden or the teaching of the text. But it's certainly within the view that a person who is an unbeliever would be, when he's repenting of his sins and come to the end of himself, He wants a new heart. He wants a new spirit. And he probably doesn't know a lot about the Holy Spirit at that point. So it's not really what the text is talking about. It's talking about believers who ask for more of the Holy Spirit each day. But the truth is that if you're an unbeliever, you need Christ and His Spirit to save you. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He's the one who baptizes sinners in His Holy Spirit. And that's what you need if you're still outside of Christ. And I pray that you'll come to Him today. Join me now as we commit ourselves to the Lord and His grace and to this teaching Father, we thank you and praise you, Lord God, for the wonderful gospel that we have, which has worked effectually in so many of us here, if not all, to take away our sins, to remove the debt, the burden, and the stain of sin, and to create within us new hearts by the Holy Spirit, so that that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. And now, Lord, being spirit, being spiritual, being spiritually minded, having the Holy Spirit, we pray that you will fill us more and more with your spirit each day. Help us to make this a main concern, just as we ask you to meet our daily needs. And help us, O Lord, to know the ministries of the Holy Spirit progressively more and more each day. Use us, Lord, gift us, fill us with good fruit, we ask in Christ's name, amen.