Amen. The Bible says He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. And the chastisement of our peace was laid upon Him. And by His stripes we are healed. He took our place. Well, if you've got your Bibles, let's go to Luke chapter 11 tonight. Luke chapter number 11. And I want to preach to you tonight a message on prayer. And I heard several years ago a preacher make this statement. He said, I've never heard a message on prayer that I did not need. And when he said that, I had to say, Amen. That is a true statement. And so I trust that will be the case for you as well tonight. And this is an encouraging message, you say, Brother Taylor. I didn't know evangelists had encouraging messages. I have one, and this is it. I'm glad you came to hear it tonight, and so thank you for being here. Here we are, Wednesday night, and more than halfway through, and it sure has been a good couple of days. I believe that God has been at work in this place, and many have given testimony already of how God has worked in your life, and boy, that's been our prayer since before we ever got here, that God work in our lives. This week, sure enjoyed spending some time with your pastor today, and we fellowshiped and shot some guns, amen, and just had us a time. And pastors and evangelists don't do that every day, but usually during a week of meetings, the pastor and evangelist will spend some time together at least one day a week. And boy, he needs that and I need that. And so we had a good time. In fact, my wife went out there and she shot a revolver and did a pretty good job. In fact, I'm kind of ashamed to say this. She was the last one in our family to kill a deer. Kind of embarrassed to say that, but she took a .22-250 and carried her coach purse. Ladies, can you believe that? Her coach purse, not even to a deer stand, but to a grain buggy. And she shot a doe about 40 yards out and with a heart shot, dropped it immediately. And so she puts meat on our table. So that's embarrassing, but at least it's not chicken nuggets. Amen. And that was last night. Well, let's jump in to Luke chapter 11. And let me say this. I know some of you are out tomorrow night for graduation. Some of you are out on Friday night. Be out both nights and so appreciate those of you that have been here this week and to the services that you're able To make and you show my wife and I sure preach your kindness to us And so if you don't get to see you the rest of the week think it's been a blessing to meet you salute chapter 11 tonight And let's read just verse number one then we'll jump into the passage The Bible says and it came to pass that is he that was Jesus was praying in a certain place One of his disciples said unto him, to pray. Father, that is our request tonight as well. Lord, I pray that you bless the preaching of your word tonight. Lord, I pray, I imagine there's folks that have come in tonight with some, carrying some burdens, or some distractions in their mind. And Lord, I pray that you'd help them to set all those things aside tonight, and they give your word and undivided attention. And Lord, I pray that you would speak to their hearts. Lord, most importantly, I pray that you encourage them Lord, I pray that you would not only inspire us, but instruct us in the matter of our prayer lives. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Several years ago, we were preaching in Roswell, New Mexico. That's where the aliens are. Just kidding. And we were in between service. It was a Sunday afternoon, and I was looking to kill some time. So I went to a local coffee shop, and I took a little book with me. And this little book was a biography about a woman whose name was Oma. And Oma was a prayer warrior. This woman knew how to get a hold of the ear of God. It seemed like everything she prayed for answered for her in her life. She was a prayer warrior. And so this short little biography, just a very little book, will contain really story after story of answer to prayer that she had received in her life. And one of those stories I still remember to this day was when her two grandsons were born. She got such a burden to see them called to the ministry that every day she began to pray, God call them to the ministry, God call them to the ministry. And by the way, she was praying according to the will and the word of God. Jesus only had one prayer request and he said, pray ye therefore that the Lord would send forth laborers into his harvest fields. We ought to be praying that same prayer as well. She prayed every day for the boys. God called them boys to the ministry. Well, when those blue boys became teenagers, God finally answered that prayer. And he normally called them into the ministry. He called them into the ministry of full-time evangelism. And today, Jim and John Van Gildren have crisscrossed our country preaching revivals, preaching evangelism, and I'm telling you, Right there at Starbucks, I started reading story after story of those answers to prayer, and my heart started to get stirred up. I started to have revival right then and there. Because I don't know about you, but when I hear stories like that, it makes me want to have stories like that. And my heart was stirred up, and I was comforted by that, to be reminded that even in today's day and age, in 2017, the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man or woman still availeth much. Then my heart was convicted when I had this thought. If someone had to write a biography about my own prayer life and record all the stories of answer to prayer that I had personally received in my life, I thought to myself, I wonder how many pages that book would be. And at that point I was convicted and I was embarrassed and I bowed my head right there in Starbucks and I prayed, God, I pray by your grace I would have some stories of my own. Isn't that your heartbeat tonight? Don't you want to have some stories of your own? Tonight I want to preach on this subject, prevailing in prayer. Prevailing in prayer. But you notice number one from our text tonight, simple outline, simple message once again tonight. Number one, I see this, a private moment. a private moment in verse number one. The Bible says, and it came to pass that as he was praying in a certain place, here Jesus was praying, and we find as the disciples did in verse number one, Jesus prayed. And I can just imagine, maybe they walked up on him, or maybe they waited until he was done. Either way, I don't think this is the first time that this event right here in verse number one took place. If you study the life of Jesus, particularly the book of Luke, that emphasizes his humanity and records more of his prayers than any other gospel, I think you'll agree with me, this is not the first time this has happened. This is probably not the second time this has happened. Because all throughout the gospels, you'll find Jesus breaking away from the crowd, getting in a private place, and spending time in prayer. In fact, Mark 1.35 puts it this way, and in the morning, rising up a great while before day, Jesus departed, went to a solitary place, and there prayed. That was his pattern. That was his testimony. And I'll say by way of application tonight, that ought to be your pattern, and that ought to be your testimony as well. Every day of your Christian life, you ought to break away from everything else and get in a private place and spend time with God in prayer. Boy, I get stirred up when I read about the Old Testament saints like Hannah, like Elijah, like Daniel. I come to the New Testament and read about the prayer life of the early church, and it encourages me to read about people in the Bible who had a personal desire to spend time with God. Their desire to spend time with God encourages me. But I want to say this. When I come to the Bible, I find something that encourages me a whole lot more than that, and that is this truth right here. God has a desire to spend time with me. Do you realize in Revelation chapter 3, the Bible says, Behold, I stand at the door and knock. You say, Brother Taylor, I thought that was a verse used for salvation. And if a preacher wanted to use it in that way, that's fine with me. But you study up the context, and the context is Jesus is knocking on the door of a church. saved people. He said, I want to come in and sup with you. I want to come in and fellowship with you. I want to share a meal with you. I just want to spend time with you. Hey friend, God wants to spend time with you. The question is, do you want to spend time with him? Do you realize tonight that you're as close to God as you want to be? James 4, 8 says, draw nigh unto God, and he will draw nigh unto you. You say, well, preacher, I'm not as close to God as I used to be. I'm not as close to God as I'd like to be. Well, I've come to tell you tonight, God wasn't the one that moved. You're as close to God. as you want to be. Boy, every day of our life, we ought to break away from everything else and have a private moment with God. We ought to spend time in prayer. And I'm going to say this tonight, if you're going to have a private moment with God every day, you need a place. I see from our text, you need a place. Notice he says in Luke 11, 1, the Bible says he went to a certain place. Mark 1.35 puts it this way, he went to a solitary place. Here's the point, Jesus had a special place that he went to in order to pray. I'm not saying it's the same place every time. You study the life of Jesus, he prays in the garden, he prays in the mountain, he prays in the desert, he prays on the cross. There was different places that Jesus prayed from, but the point is this. He sought out a secluded place, a private place, a place from everything else, away from all the distractions, and he got along so he could spend time with his heavenly father. A preacher out of Tennessee was preaching on prayer one time. The hardest thing about prayer, the Bible says, when you enter into the prayer closet shut, He said the hardest thing about prayer is removing yourself from all the distractions. Have you found that to be true in your life? I've found that to be true. Friend, you need a place that you can go to where you can turn the television off, you can turn the video games off, you can turn the Facebook off, you can turn this device off right here, you can turn them kids off, somebody say amen right there, and get in a private place and spend time with God. Let me ask you a question tonight. Do you have a place like that? Friend, we can go to the Old Testament. There were folks who had special places to pray. Hey, I think about Daniel. The Bible says in Daniel chapter 6, and in the morning, rising up a great while before day, excuse me, and Daniel, knowing that the writing was signed, went up the stairs into his chamber and opened up the windows and knelt upon his knees and prayed and gave thanks before his God as he did Four time Daniel had a place to pray. I think about Elijah a first Kings chapter 17 there the widow's son dies and the Bible says that he scooped that boy up He went upstairs to his loft where he abode and he laid the boy on the bed and two times in that passage It says he cried unto the Lord. He cried unto the Lord a Daniel had a place Elijah had a place Jesus had a place. Where's your place at? You say, Brother Taylor, I don't have a place like that. Then can I encourage you tonight, why don't you find a place like that? And say, this is my secret place. This is my sacred place. This is the place that I meet with God. Boy, every fall we go down to Southern Louisiana, down to Cajun country, specifically New Iberia. And I love going down there, not just to the crawfish and the boudin, amen. And you say, what is that? Nevermind. And just some Cajun food and Cajun folks down there. And we go there every year, the Sunday, the Saturday before Thanksgiving, and we preach before a youth rally. And I love going down there. I love the culture. I love the people. But one of the things I love most about going down there is that out behind the church, there's an old abandoned school. And out behind that school, there's an old abandoned track, and they don't use it anymore, but there's an old track from years gone by. And one of my favorite things, and when you study Bible, there's lots of different postures when it comes to prayer, isn't there? Some people lay prostrate on the ground. I mean, some people kneel down. You can pray all different kinds of ways. One of my favorite ways to pray is to literally walk with God. Walk with God. And one of my favorite things to do when I go down to that church is get up behind that old school, and I get to walking on that track early in the morning, and I just spend time talking with God. You know what concerns me tonight? Is many of you have never got past a surface level of prayer. When you wake up in the morning, before you head out the door, you say, Lord, bless my day today, bless the kids, help me with this, in Jesus' name, amen. And that's about as far as some of you have ever gotten in your prayer life. I'm talking about when you get into prayer and it's a deep prayer, all of a sudden you start getting into the zone of prayer. All of a sudden you get caught up and it's like time doesn't matter and the words begin to flow freely and you can, like the psalmist says, you can pour your heart out before God. I'm afraid some of you don't even know what I'm talking about tonight. But if you get there one time, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. And if you get there just one time, you'll wanna get back there again and again and enjoy that sweet fellowship and communion with God. Friend, I'm telling you, you gotta have a place to pray. You gotta have a private moment with God every day. Some of you used to have a private moment. Some of you used to spend time with God. Some of you used to spend time in prayer. And maybe God would just speak to your heart tonight and say, you need to get back to that place. You need to get back to spending time. with me. Number one, I see a private moment for our text tonight, but notice number two, I see a powerful motivation. A powerful motivation. Notice what happens when these disciples find Jesus praying. One of the disciples speaks up on the rest of them, and he makes a request, and that request is this. He says, Lord, teach us to pray. Would you notice he did not say, Lord, teach us how to pray? You can read it. He didn't say, Lord, teach us how to pray. He said, Lord, teach us to pray. The fact of the matter is, he knew how to pray. I know how to pray. You know how to pray. He didn't say, Lord, teach us how to pray. He said, Lord, teach us to pray. Can I say this tonight very humbly? I was saved at the age of eight years old. I was born and raised in church. I was called to preach when I was 17. I went off to a Bible college. I took an entire semester class on prayer. I've heard preaching on prayer. I've read the books by E.M. Bounds and Leonard Ravenhill and John R. Rice and all the rest of them. And I've come to say very humbly that this preacher does not struggle with how to pray. This preacher struggles to pray. And if you get off with yourself, that's where you're at as well tonight. He didn't say, Lord, teach us how to pray. He said, Lord, teach us to pray. You say, how do you pray? If you can talk, would you raise your hand? Amen. Ladies ought to raise both hands. Thank you very much. Just kidding. If you can talk, then you can pray because prayer is talking to God. He didn't say, Lord, teach us how to pray. He said, Lord, teach us to. pray. I like this disciple. I mean, think about it. Here's a disciple, a close follower of Jesus Christ. In other words, we can say it this way. Here's a man who had a front row seat when it came to the effect of public, powerful ministry of Jesus Christ. I mean, with his own eyes, He saw the miracles of Jesus. He saw people be saved. He saw all the great things that took place in the public ministry of Jesus. And when I believe, when he walked in on that private moment, I believe he began to connect the dots between the public and the private. And I've come to tell you tonight, if you ever expect to be much for God in public, then you better learn to be much with God in private, because that's where the power is. I love my iPhone 7 Plus. Praise God for free upgrades. Amen. I love this thing. On the road, it's my lifeline. I call, text, email, everything on this phone. But come 3 or 4 o'clock in the afternoon, you'll find me frantically searching for an outlet, a charger. You say, why? Because if it doesn't get connected every once in a while to the power source, it's not very effective. And if you and I are going to be effective servants for the Lord Jesus Christ, we got to get connected to the power source. And that is through prayer. Well, I've read books by, and your preacher can attest to this, I've read books by great missionaries and every single one of those great missionaries or preachers or whoever it was that was greatly used of God, mark it down, had a deep, intimate prayer life with the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you want to be used by God like that, you're going to have to have one too. It's amazing, we understand, somehow we can apply that to the pulpit. If your preacher stood up and studied for his message, Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, but he never spent time praying over the message and praying for the services, how many would agree there may be a lack of power in his preaching? Why is that we can understand that when it comes to those in the pew, but somehow there's a disconnection for those that sit in the pews? I say this, you need his power just as much as he does. You wanna be an effective witness? Then you better spend time in prayer. You wanna be an effective Sunday school teacher? It's gonna take more prayer than just your walk from the pickup to Sunday morning classroom. We gotta spend time in prayer, get connected to the power source. Would you notice this last observation as well tonight? Would you notice he goes on to say again, teach us to pray. I think this old boy started to get stirred up about something. I think he had come to the place in his life, this disciple, where he had sat around in testimony services and he had heard those other disciples get up and tell their testimonies of answer to prayer. I think he was close enough to Jesus where he heard Jesus pray and then saw the very answers to his prayer. But I think he finally got to the place in his life where he said, you know what? I'm tired of hearing everybody else tell their stories, answer to prayer. And I want to have some stories of my own. And friend, can I say this tonight? You've got to get to that place in your life. I said, you've got to get to that place in your life. You've got to come to the place where you say, look, I appreciate my pastor and his stories of answer to prayer. I appreciate the missionaries that come through and tell us their stories of answer to prayer. I appreciate the crazy evangelists that come through and tell us their stories of answer to prayer. But it's high time that I have some stories of my own. Can I ask you tonight, do you have any? Look, I'll be the first one to stand up and tell stories about God, answer the prayers of Hudson Taylor, D.L. Moody, George Mueller, and all the rest of them, but I'm telling you tonight, the burden of my heart is to have some stories of my own. Do you have any? I would never do this as your friend, but I wonder tonight if I were to call you onto the carpet right here in front of everyone and put a microphone in front of your face and say, would you please stand up in front of your entire church and please tell all the rest of us the last time that God answered a specific prayer in your life. What would you say? What would you say? You know what concerns me is a lot of us would stand up here and there would be a long, awkward, silent pause because some of us cannot remember the last time that God answered a specific prayer in our life. Can I ask you a question this morning, this evening? Does that bother you? Because it ought to. We all wake up from time to time in our life, preacher included. We all wake up from time to time and we say, you know what? I really can't remember the last time that God answered a specific prayer for me. And friend, when that day comes in your life and that day comes in my life, it ought to bother us enough to drop us back to the prayer closet and back to our knees and say, Lord, teach us to pray. Look, if all you want out of the Christian life is to show up and sit in the pew three times a week, if that's all you want, then help yourself. But if you want to know God's provision, you want to know God's power, you want God to be real in your life, then friend, you better learn to pray. I'm not trying to be unkind tonight, but I'm looking around and see some folks that are in the sunset of your life. And at this point in your life when you've got grandkids, some of you great grandkids, you ought to be able to get those young people around and say, listen, let me tell you some stories. Let me tell you some stories about God. Let me tell you about this time when we had our back up against the wall and we were in a bind and we didn't have any other choice but to get on our hands and knees and cry out to God. And God came through and God provided and God protected and God built us out. I'm saying at this point in your Christian life, you gotta have some stories like that. We wonder why our kids don't want anything to do with God and God hadn't been real in our life. Boy, I want to make my kids hungry for God. I hope my kids grow up by the grace of God saying, boy, if God can do that for him, I want God to do that for me. Do you have any stories tonight? Boy, I want to have some stories in 2017, don't you? Can I give you the last part of my message? This is the heartbeat of my message tonight. We see, number one, a private moment. We see, number two, a powerful motivation. But lastly, number three, we find a prevailing method. A prevailing method. Drop down to verse number five, and Jesus is going to explain something to these disciples. Essentially, they said, Lord, teach us to pray. What's the secret to getting our prayers answered? How do we get our prayers answered? And Jesus in verse number five is going to tell them. Now, here's how it's going to go down. Jesus is going to tell a story to make a point. Now, if you missed the story, you'll miss the point. So listen to verse number five. And he said unto them, which of you shall have a friend and shall go unto him at midnight and say unto him, Lend me three loaves for a friend of mine in his journey is to me and I have nothing to set before him and he from then That's the neighbor shall answer and say oh trouble me not the doors now shut much with me in bed I cannot rise and give thee verse 8 I say unto you, though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity, that's the key to the passage there, you gotta circle that word if you're marking your Bible. Because of his importunity, he will rise and give him as many as he needeth. Here's the instant replay, some of you zoned out, I knew. This man, it's at midnight, and the Bible says this man is sound asleep in his bed, when all of a sudden he hears this on the front door. He gets up out of bed. He stumbles down the hallway. He turns on the porch light. That's in the Greek, but it's there. And he sees a friend that he hadn't seen in a long time. He opens the door. He says, what are you doing? The man says, I need a place to stay. And by the way, that wasn't unusual in Bible times because of the heat during the day, they would travel in the nighttime. So this man shows up on his doorstep in the middle of the night. And so the host says, come on in here, friend. Let me put you up for the night. Let me get you something to eat. And so this man goes to his cabinets, his cupboards, and opens them up and realizes there's not one stitch of food in that entire house. I mean, there's no outdated ramen. There's no can with the label falling off in the back of the pantry. I mean, there's no food in this entire house. All of a sudden, he begins to panic. In Bible times, hospitality was a big deal. And if you were not a good host to a guest that came to your home or your city, you could bring disgrace into your entire village and onto your entire city. It was a big deal in that day. All of a sudden, he begins to panic. Can we safely say, just for application's sake tonight, that this man had a crisis on his hand? Did not the text say that it took place at midnight? So can we say tonight that this man had a crisis in the midnight hour of his life? You live long enough and you're going to have one too. In February we preached a revival meeting down in South Louisiana, the other side of Louisiana. And each night, just like we've done here, you've been gracious to provide meals for us this week. And that's what they did down there. One night, an older couple had come, and they had gotten married later in life. And this man and woman came, and they provided a meal for us, and we ate together and fellowshiped, and it was time to clean up. So that dear lady began to collect all the things and take them to the kitchen and put all the things up. And I sat there with her husband, and he turned to me and said, this is a rough five months for my wife. I said, why is that? He says, about five months ago, she had a grandson. He was a very organized young man, a very neat young man. And without any type of warning, five months ago, he walked into this bathroom, he sat down in the bathtub and he took his life. No notes, no reason, nothing. And he said it's taken five months for her to finally emotionally begin to just move on from that. You live long enough, friend, and you're gonna have a crisis in the midnight hour of your life. But I got good news. You know what you'll find when you find yourself in that place? Is that God is not just the God of the daytime, he's also a God of the nighttime. All of a sudden, this man had a crisis on his hands, and he thinks, what am I going to do? All of a sudden, the light bulb goes off, and he thinks, my neighbor has food. So in the middle of the night, I'm not making this up. You can read it for yourself. In the middle of the night, he goes across the street, and he's rattling his neighbor's screen door. The neighbor wakes up, says, what do you need? The man goes to his spiel, says, I need to borrow some bread. I cannot help you." And he gives him two reasons why. He says, number one, the door is locked. The locks in those days were complicated to do and undo. They were time-consuming. He says, He says, number two, that children are with me in bed. In Bible times, everybody slept in the same room. How would you like that, mom and dad? What a blessing. He says, if I get up, I'll wake the whole house up. So for those two reasons, I can't get up and give you the breath. The answer is no. Watch it now. The first answer was a no. John Phillips, the commentator, said this about prayer. He says, God's delays are not God's denials. In other words, the first time that you come to God and ask Him for something, and He doesn't answer the first or second time that you ask, it does not mean that God does not want to answer your prayer. But the Bible says, this man had importunity. You say, what does that mean? Here's what it doesn't mean. It doesn't mean that he gave up. It doesn't mean that he threw the towel in. It doesn't mean that he went back home. But he was relentless like a bulldog. And with urgency and with desperation, he went right back to that man's screen door again. And he started knocking over and over. He said, oh, sir, I got to have some bread tonight. Oh, sir, I gotta have some bread. I know it's in the middle of the night. The door's locked. The kids are in bed. But, sir, it's an emergency. I gotta have some bread. In fact, I'm not gonna leave until I get what I came for. I gotta have some bread tonight." And he knocked over and over and over until finally the man on the inside couldn't take it anymore. And he said, here, take as much bread as you need. Here's what I'm trying to say tonight. The secret to getting your prayers answered is to pray until you get your prayers answered. You say, well I was expecting something a little bit deeper than that. I know. It's the simple secret to answered prayer. You say, oh brother, that can't be what it means. Notice the next verse, verse number nine. And I say unto you, ask and it shall be given you. Seek and ye shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you. I said earlier this week, I am not a Greek scholar, but the Greek scholars tell me that the tense of those verbs mean to ask and keep on asking. Knock and keep on asking. Seek and keep on seeking, and that man's prayer is going to get answered. You say, oh, Brother Taylor, you sound like that TV preacher I watch on television. No, I'm not preaching that. There's one phrase in this passage that does away with all that name-it-and-claim-it nonsense. It's the last phrase in verse number eight. The Bible says, He will rise and give him as many as he needeth. God promised to provide your needs, not your greeds. The boy, he's giving me a whole lot of greed. You say, brother, are you telling me that the way to get your prayers answered is you just keep on knocking and just keep on pray? I didn't say it, Jesus said it. You say, is there any other passage in the Bible that teaches this truth that you're trying to tell us tonight? Look at Luke chapter 18. Just a few pages over, Luke chapter 18, verse number one. I'll read it for you in your hearing. The Bible says, And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray and not to faint, saying, There was in a city a judge who feared not God, neither regard man. And there was a widow in that city, and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of my adversary. And he would not for a while, but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man, yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me." Someone came to D.O. Moody one day and said, doesn't it bother God that we continually come to Him? D.O. Moody replied and said, no, the way to bother God is not to come at all. Some of you tonight are bothering God. Matthew Henry said on Luke chapter 11, he said, we prevail with men through opportunity because they are displeased with it. We prevail with God through opportunity because he is pleased with it. Charles Spurgeon said, I answered a prayer, maybe all the longer on its voyage because it's carrying a heavier freight of blessing. You know what I found in my life? The things that are most precious to me are the things that I prayed the longest for. And when God finally answered those prayers, those are the ones and things in my life that are most precious to me. I was 16 years, 16, 17 years old. I was sitting at a teen Sunday school class. Our youth pastor walked in and he made a statement morning. He said, young people, you ought to begin praying for your spouse right now. I mean, I was 16 years old, I couldn't even shave. I'm 29, I still can't shave, come on. But anyways, I didn't have any more sense to just do what he told me to do. So when I was 16, 17 years old, every day I started praying for my spouse. I said, Lord, I don't know where she's at. I just pray that she's safe, she's holy, she walks with you, and at your divine appointment, you would bring us together. I prayed that all through high school. I prayed that all through college, graduated college, still wasn't married, thought I was doomed. But boy, I was traveling for the college for a short time. And I went to a little church in Batesville, Arkansas. I was introduced to a brown-eyed girl. And before I left that weekend, I got her number. Amen. And exactly 365 days later, she came walking down the aisle. Boy, God's people are so gracious. As we travel to churches across America, folks will come to us, God's people, and say things like this, How in the world did you get her? And I say, Amen, I want her that myself. I mean, come on, it wasn't this, my soul. But you know what I think? She's well out of my league. Obviously, I think God honors some praying. See, the things that I prayed the longest for when God finally answered for those, those are the things that are most precious to me. Say, Brother Taylor, I've read this passage a couple of times and it seems to me that Jesus is conveying that God's a grouchy, reluctant neighbor that does not want to answer my prayer requests. No, you missed it. He's comparing the lesser to the greater. He's saying if a grouchy, reluctant neighbor is willing to meet the needs of a neighbor who knocks with importunity, how much more will a loving Heavenly Father meet the needs of those who pray with importunity? So let me ask you tonight, what's your need? You know what our problem is as God's people? You've done it and I've done it too. We come to God and ask Him for something and we pray once or twice and He doesn't answer the first or second time that we ask. So we throw our hands up and say, well, I guess it's not the will of God. It may have been His will if you weren't so lazy in your prayer life. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Lazy was in 100 miles of that verse. You say, well, Taylor, if you had to put it in a nutshell sentence what this truth is all about so I could go home and put it on Facebook tonight, what would you say? I would say this, those who persist in prayer prevail in prayer. Those who persist in prayer prevail in prayer. Two years ago, I was preaching in Marietta, Ohio. On a Sunday night, a woman came to me in the lobby and said, Brother Taylor, I just want you to know that I prayed for 25 years before my husband ever got saved. Those who persist in prayer prevail in prayer. See, you need to understand this and get this in your crawl. Not every prayer is going to be answered the first time that you pray it. Anybody can pray for something on Monday. If the answer doesn't come on Monday, we can pray again on Tuesday. Well, come Wednesday, we can muster up enough faith to pray again. But boy, come Thursday, and this answer still hasn't come, all of a sudden, we start getting discouraged. Come Friday, the faith has seeped out, the discouragement has filled our heart, we throw the towel in, and we give up. How many times has that happened in our life? I've come to just encourage you tonight that if you're gonna get your prayers answered, you've gotta keep on knocking. We've got to pray with importunity. So let me ask you, what's your need tonight? For some of you have a lost loved one in your life right now, someone in your family, who if they were to die right now, they're gonna split hell wide open. You say, Brother Taylor, I prayed for them for weeks and months and even years and they haven't got saved yet. I've come to tell you tonight, you better not give up on those loved ones. Some of you grown folks in here have grown kids that are out of the will of God tonight. They're living in sin. It breaks your heart just to think about it. I've come to tell you tonight that you better not give up on those kids. The prodigal still come home. For some of you, it's a marriage need tonight. See, it's easier for us church folks to come to church and put a little plastic smile on our face, but for some of you, your marriage is cold as ice. One of you two better start praying with importunity. What's your need tonight? Can I give you one more story? I'll let you go. My wife and I were married in her hometown of Batesville, Arkansas, the redneck capital of the world. I told you last night when we were there, we were serving as interns. So once we got married, we had about two months left before we moved to California, became rats for the Bible college. So for the two months that we had left there, her pastor was generous to us, the church was generous to us, and they rented us an apartment for the two, three months we had left there. And after that, the church members are generous to let us borrow furniture. So we'd have to go buy all that and let us borrow that for the time that we were there. Well, the two or three months they came and went, we gave the keys back to the apartment owner and we gave the furniture back to the church members. And we packed everything that we owned into our Chevy Impala. Folks, that's sad, everything you owned to your name fits in a Chevy Impala. Well, we did. We moved to California. We were there for one week. At the end of that week, we picked up a singing tour group, and we traveled all over the country that summer. Well, since I was gonna be on the road all summer, there was no need for us to rent a house or rent an apartment, and so we just took off. About halfway through the summer, my wife says, we need a place to live when we get back. And so I got on the phone, and I found an apartment that worked for us there in that city, and I signed the lease over the phone that an apartment was waiting for us in August when we got back. After that, she said, now we need furniture. And so I got on the phone. I called the secretary at the college. Her name's Nicole. I said, Nicole, we're new on staff here. If you know of anybody on staff from the church that has any furniture they can sell us for cheap, we'd be glad to buy it. She said, OK. I look around. The next day, the phone rang. It was Nicole. She said, hey, I found another secretary here in the office. She has a bed she'll sell you for $100. I said, sold. We'll take it. We got back to Lancaster there. I got the keys to our apartment. I opened it up. It was as bare and as empty as could be. I said, at least I have to have somewhere to sleep tonight. I said, let me call the secretary up. I said, hey, we're back in town. We'd like to come pick up and pay for that bed. At that point, she informed me that she had sold that bed right out from under us, sold it to somebody else. I said, well, praise the Lord. I didn't say that. I said, okay. At that point, we had two friends there in Lancaster, and they had two air mattresses at their house. Anybody ever slept on an air mattress, you know the story. Went across town, picked them up, brought them back. They were identical. Same size, same shape, same color. They were identical, except for one thing. One of them had a leak in it. All of a sudden, that led to the next big question. Who's going to have to sleep on the buston mattress? And that night, my wife and I didn't have a fight. We just had some heated fellowship. It was back and forth. You're going to sleep. You're going to sleep. I tried to get the Bible out and say, why submit yourselves to your husbands? That went over like a ham sandwich in a synagogue. Well, you can imagine hooding up on the bus to the mattress that night. I'm sorry that thing lasted half a night. I ended up flat on my back. Didn't get any sleep that night. Well, the next morning I woke up. I was just mad in the flesh. Didn't know what to do. We'd only been married just a handful of months, and we didn't have any more sense than to do this. I said, Lord, we need a bed. I said these exact words. I said, Lord, I'm not asking for a fancy bed. I said, Lord, we just got to have a bed. One week went by, back was hurting, prayer life was reviving. Two weeks went by every day, God we need a bed, Lord we need a bed. The next day, a lady walked into the college office. She walked into Nicole's office. No one had ever seen this lady before. She said, hello, I live here in Lancaster. And she says, I have this bed in my house. She had a picture of it in her hand. She has this bed in my house. And if someone will come and pick it up, I will give it to them for free. The picture she had on that piece of paper was the picture of a $4,000 California King sleigh bed with a pillow top mattress. Nicole called me. She told me what had happened. She said, would you like to have it? I said, let me pray about it. Yes, I'll take it. Found two strapping boys at the college. They went across town. They picked it up. They brought it over to the apartment. They carried it up to the second story. I sat back and supervised. And I'm telling you, they got that bed set up. And I'm telling you, it's the biggest bed you've ever seen in your life. My little wife has to get a running start to get on top. It is massive. Well, it's not often we get to pillow our heads in that bed at night, but whenever we do, I can't help but to think unto him that is able to do exceedingly and abundantly above all that we ask or think. And I've just simply come to tell you on a Wednesday night that if you're gonna get your prayers answered, we've got to learn to pray with importunity. Thank you, Lord, for being a prayer-answering God. With heads bowed and eyes closed tonight, I wonder if there's somebody here who would say, preacher, there's been a name on my heart and a burden, a name on my prayer list, a burden on my heart for a long time. And I've been praying and praying and God hasn't answered that prayer request yet. And just to be transparent, I'm starting to get discouraged. Preacher, would you pray for me that I would keep on being faithful to pray? If that's you tonight, would you raise your hand? Praise the Lord. Friend, the Bible says, be not weary in well-doing. You keep knocking. I wonder if there's somebody here tonight who would say, boy, at one time in my life, I had that private moment with God every day. I spoke with him. I spent time with him. Brother Taylor, the Lord spoke to my heart tonight. I need to get back to that. Would you pray for me? Anyone like that tonight, pray for me. Yes, see those hands. I wonder if there's one among us tonight who would say, Brother Taylor, I appreciate that story you told tonight. I enjoyed that. I appreciate the stories that my pastor tells. But I'll be honest, preacher, the burden in my heart is that in 2017, this year, I'd have some stories of my own. Boy, I want God to be real in my life this year. If that's you, would you raise your hand? My hand's lifted up. I want some stories. I need God to move in my life. Boy, I wonder if there's one among us tonight who would say, you know what, I don't know Christ as my savior. Friend, prayer's a privilege for the child of God, for saved people. Is there one among us tonight who would say, preacher, pray for me. I don't know Christ as my savior tonight. Pray for me. If that's you, would you lift your hand up? I don't know that I'm a child of God. Would you lift your hand up tonight? I'll pray for you. Preacher, pray for me. Father, I pray that you bless this invitation in Jesus' name. With heads bowed and eyes closed tonight, as the piano begins to play, if God spoke to your heart, you know what you need to do. Let's go ahead and stand to our feet. And with heads bowed and eyes closed, the invitation's open, altar's yours. If God spoke to you, won't you come speak to him tonight?