Luke chapter 11, and I'll be reading verses 1 through verse 13. Let's listen now to the reading of God's holy word. 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. And 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 it 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? Let's seek the Lord's blessing on this His Word. Gracious God in Heaven, we do rejoice and give thanks again for this opportunity that we have to consider the truth of Your Word. And we pray that as we come to this passage, as we consider these little parables about prayer, that you would instruct our hearts, that you would inform our minds and draw us closer to yourself. We pray that your truth would go forth into our hearts and that we would truly glorify and magnify your name. We ask for your blessing upon your word. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen. Well, here in our passage this afternoon, Jesus teaches his disciples about prayer. We know that prayer is an effective means of grace, which the Lord gives to us in order to build us up and to encourage us in our walk of faith. Jesus here, after first giving an example of prayer, what is often called the Lord's Prayer, he challenges the disciples with some important truths about prayer through several short parables. But before we get to those parables, a few key points that we should keep in mind about prayer as we see from Jesus' instruction and his example here. Jesus sets an example by regularly taking time to seek communion with the Heavenly Father through prayer. Now, what's interesting here, it appears as though the disciples had no such habit as they asked Jesus in verse one, Lord, teach us to pray. And again, to us, this seems like a curious question. Weren't they praying before? Well, there may be many reasons why they ask. But the key takeaway here is that they see Jesus' example and they are desirous to learn. They want to learn how to pray even as the master prays. And so they too want to make prayer a habit in their lives. Now that prayer is certainly a spiritual discipline. It isn't something that comes naturally to us. And so we must discipline ourselves in order to do it, just as we would discipline ourselves in order to develop any kind of good, positive habit. If we're going to have a habit of prayer, we need to discipline ourselves and make the time to do it. We have to work at both having a qualitative as well as a quantitative time of prayer. Qualitative meaning that we're not just, oh Lord, give me this, give me that. That we're actually talking and having this conversation with the Lord and then quantitative making sure that we have some dedicated time that we're actually spending talking to the Lord so that we might grow in our faith. We need to commit ourselves to regularly talking with God. Secondly, we need to acknowledge the intimacy that prayer brings. Prayer isn't just a common conversation. Now, it certainly is a conversation, but it's much more than that. It is for us, for us who believe, it is a means of grace. That is, it nourishes our spiritual growth and development. It's through prayer, along with the Word and the sacraments, which God strengthens us for the work that he's called us to do. And so prayer builds us up, it encourages us, it challenges us, and it stretches us to grow in Christ. And one of the key ways that we're strengthened through prayer is that it reminds us of the intimate relationship we have with God the Father. This intimacy is seen in how Jesus teaches the disciples to address God when they pray, calling Him Father. Because of what Christ has done for us on the cross, we are In a very special and intimate way, we are able to call God our Father. Because it's through Christ that we become God's blessed children. We're adopted into His family because of the work of Christ. And so we can, even as we approach Him in prayer, calling Him Father, That already should be an encouragement to us, even before we make our prayers and our petitions known. Just knowing that we're going to speak with our Heavenly Father should give us great encouragement. Well, finally, Jesus goes on to teach the disciples this pattern of prayer to follow to the Heavenly Father, the Lord's Prayer. Now, Jesus doesn't necessarily intend that this pattern be used in the exact wording, although there's nothing wrong with reciting the Lord's Prayer as it is, word for word. But it's more the idea that Jesus is giving his disciples, here's an example of how you pray. Here are the things that you should include. And certainly we should guard against the temptation to simply recite the Lord's Prayer as if it were some kind of magical cantation that's going to do some great wonders as we just recite it without thinking about it. Obviously, if we recite it, we need to be thinking about what it actually is saying, what the words are saying. And so, but again, it's more important to consider the Lord's Prayer as an example of what we are to pray for. And so I'm just going to sum this up quickly. The different parts of prayer that we find here, obviously adoration. Adoration is simply giving praise, glory and honor to God because of who he is. Right. When the prayer begins, hallowed be your name. To hallow means to set something apart, to make it holy, to acknowledge it. And that's adoring God and the adoration that he deserves, the worship. that he deserves because he is the one true living God. Next is our confession of sin. When we come to God in prayer, we should confess to Him the sins which we've committed against Him. And the confession of sin is implied here in verse four with the petition, forgive us of our sins. Well, if we're going to be asking God to forgive us of our sins, we must first then confess those sins to him. And so our prayer should include confession of sin. The third component of prayer is thanksgiving. And now thanksgiving is actually closely tied often to adoration. because we're to give thanks to God for who he is and what he has done. And though there is no clear petition of thanksgiving in the Lord's Prayer, we do humbly acknowledge that every good and perfect gift, including our food, comes to us from God's gracious hands. And so we should have an attitude of gratitude, giving thanks to God in our prayers. And then this petition for daily bread also indicates the final component of prayer, which is the supplications or the petitions. These are the specific requests that we make to God for our needs. And those needs can be spiritual needs. They can also be temporal needs. The temporal needs are represented here with the request for daily bread. And the spiritual needs can be found, for example, in praying to the Lord to lead us not into temptation. So adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplications, these are to mark the form or the content of our prayers. And this is the pattern that Jesus gives to his disciples. But then, Jesus continues to teach his disciples about the practice of prayer using these short parables. And so first, in verses 5 through 8, Jesus tells the story of a man who goes to his neighbor at midnight and asks for some bread because a friend of his has arrived from a journey and the man realizes he has nothing in his house, no food to give to this visitor. Now, we may think the man is rude for going to his neighbor so late, banging on the door and waking everyone up. But remember there's no stripes at this time. There's no 7-elevens where you can run to the store real quick and grab some food and provide nourishment for these visitors. But the real impetus here was that it was actually a disgrace to common standard of hospitality if someone stopped by and you did not have anything to offer. And so the guy here is truly in a bind. And so he goes and he asks his neighbor, even though it's late at night. Well, Jesus is telling this story not to teach about hospitality. There certainly is an important lesson there about hospitality, even always being prepared for visitors who may just happen to pop in. But he's teaching specifically about being persistent in prayer. And note what he says here, especially in verse eight. 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 otherwise, the guy's going to be there knocking all night and no one's going to be getting any sleep. So he's not going to be very friendly toward his friend. Maybe he's going to be a little bit irritated, but it's not the friendship that's going to win out. It's ultimately the persistence of his neighbor, which is why the man then rises. And the only reason the neighbor finally gets out of bed then is to give this man bread, is because he knows that the man's not going to go away until he's satisfied. Well, Jesus wants his disciples, and he wants us to learn that they must persist our prayers. Too often, if you think about it, when we pray, maybe we're praying for even some of the things we mentioned this morning for prayer, other things people, somebody asks you to pray, or you offer, oh I'll keep you in prayer, that's a good thing to do. But how often do you offer up a prayer once, if you even remember to do it once, but how often do you just do it once and then that's it? Well, to do that, to just pray once and leave it at that, reveals that we're not only half-hearted in what we desire, but it may also reveal that we don't really believe that God will hear or even answer our prayers. And certainly if that's the case, well then our prayer is defeated even before it leaves our lips. And so the lesson that Jesus has here is that God wants us to persist in prayer. Now, this may mean we have to repeat our request daily, maybe for several days, maybe weeks, months, or even years, depending on what we're asking for. But don't misunderstand. You see, the persistence in prayer isn't for God to hear us. No, he hears us the first time. In fact, he knows what we need even before we ask him. But he still calls us to be persistent in prayer. Because it's when we're persistent in prayer, it's when we show him our commitment, not only to the cause for which we're praying, But we also show our commitment to fully trust and rely upon Him for the answer. And so we must persist in our prayers. Next, in verses 9 and 10, Jesus shows that we're to be bold in our prayers as we actively pursue God's answer. First, we're to be bold and ask. We're to ask God about our concerns. Now, this may not seem bold until we consider, who is it that we're asking? We're asking the Lord God, the creator of heaven and earth. That's who we're asking. And so how is it that we can approach God Almighty with such boldness? Is it because of our own worth? Is it because of our own righteousness? Can we come to him with pride and arrogance? No. We come boldly to the throne of grace for the same reason that we can address God as father. Because of what Jesus Christ has graciously done for us. The only reason we can come boldly to God with our prayers is because Jesus Christ has reconciled us to God through his shed blood. But when we pray, we should be prepared to actually pursue God's answer. Notice Jesus doesn't say, ask, and then sit back, do nothing, and wait for God to move the mountains. No, he says, ask, and then seek, and then knock. He says, he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks, it will be opened. These are all action words, ask, seek and knock. They all involve doing something. You see, God wants us to pursue an answer and we should seek and consider every available option. We should knock on every door, even if it appears to be closed, we should knock on it to see if God will open it or keep it shut. You see, by being active, Again, we're showing God our commitment to truly discerning His will, as well as our faith that He will have an answer for us somewhere along the way. And so we are to be active and bold as we persist in our prayers. And thirdly, in verses 11 and 13, Jesus is simply teaching that after we have prayed and made our requests known to God, we must trust in his goodness so that whatever answer we receive, we know is the best answer for us. To illustrate this, Jesus uses the appropriate picture of a child who asks his father for a fish and then an egg. The child can be assured, unless he knows his father to be cruel, The child can be assured that his father will give him what is good, and that his father is not going to give him something evil, like a snake or a scorpion. And Jesus then applies this to prayer by saying that if you are evil, that is sinful, and you know how to do good for your children, well then how much more will God, your heavenly father, who is perfectly righteous and good, how much more will he know how to do good for the children that he so loved that he sent his only begotten son to die for them? God in his infinite wisdom knows our needs. He knows them better than we do. On the one hand, this is a great encouragement because we know God will always get it right. But on the other hand, we must confess that it can be really hard for us as we may think our needs are one thing, but then God knows that we need something else. And such a discrepancy can be a real challenge to us. Yes, we can be assured God has something good for us, but until he reveals it, The uncertainty can be grueling. And even when He does reveal it, we may still struggle to understand. You see, it's when we don't fully understand what God is doing in our lives that we then must fully and completely trust in His perfect goodness. And there are many things that happen in our lives and we pray and we pray and we pray and we don't get the answer that we want. And God keeps giving us a different answer. And it's hard to know what the Lord is doing, what His plan and purpose in all this is. It's at those times that we continue to pray, seeking the Lord's mercy and grace and trusting in Him, trusting in His goodness, that He will work those things out for our good and His glory. Brothers and sisters, we know that this isn't easy. It's not easy to give up any claim to control that we think we have over a situation. It's not easy venturing forth into the unknown. It's not easy trusting when we can't see clearly. But isn't this exactly what faith is all about? Isn't this why God wants us to pray? So that our faith can be nourished and grown and stretched beyond what we could ever possibly imagine? Indeed it is. This is the good plan our Heavenly Father has in store for us. We're His beloved children through Jesus Christ. Pray then. Make a habit to pray regularly. Pray with understanding. Pray according to Jesus' pattern here. Pray with persistence. Pray with active boldness and faith. Trusting in God's good and perfect plan for you. Pray this way. and He will be most gracious in answering you according to His most holy and perfect will. And truly may God alone be glorified in our prayers and through the answers that we receive from His gracious hand. Let's pray. Gracious God and Heavenly Father, we do praise you and thank you as we're reminded of these important truths about prayer that we would first just have a good habit of prayer coming to you, having a time that is separated in which we devote to just having a conversation with you and expressing to you our needs, our concerns, our praises, confessing our sin, seeking your will, that we would be diligent to have that time, that we would be bold, that we would be bold in asking Even as we would be so bold to say, Lord, this is what I desire. And yet following the example of our Savior, not what we will, but you will. As we persist in prayer that you will help us to conform our will to your will. And even at those times when we pray and we pray and we Don't see the answer that we're looking for, but we pray that you would give us the eyes of faith to see the answer that you desire for us that is good and perfect and right. That is even better than what we could have ever imagined for ourselves. That can be hard, and we acknowledge that. But we pray that we would be committed to praying in this way. that in us and through us, your name would be lifted up and glorified. We again thank you, Lord, for these reminders and this instruction. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.