Luke 11:5-13 "Prayer 2"
People can be weird about prayer. Some people really don’t like to pray out loud. Other people are way too eager—ask one of those people to give thanks at meal time and the food’s going to get cold. Sometimes people want to hold hands when they pray, then they give that little squeeze right after “AMEN.” I’m not judging you if you’re one of those people. I guess. It’s probably wrong to judge people based on how they pray, right? I don’t want to hold hands, though. Don’t judge me. Just pretend like I have leprosy, we’ll both be happy that way.
When people don’t want to pray out loud, I assume it’s because of how critical they are when other people pray. They don’t want people thinking those horrible things about them. I get nervous praying in front of people who won’t pray out loud. Ha
One time, in a prayer that was probably only a minute long, some guy said “Father God we just” 47 times. Not that I counted. I mean, I didn’t count the first few. We were in a circle holding hands, too. The person on my left was cold and clammy but the person on my right seemed to have a fever. Someone had bad breath.
I know, I think it’s funny that God called me to be a pastor, too.
Prayer’s very important. I actually try to pray all the time. I’m not bragging though, here’s why…
I found out recently that my kids do this thing with Facetime on their phones. I walked into Angel’s room one night to ask him a question and I could see that he was on a Facetime call with his girlfriend. I said, “oh, sorry I’ll come back later,” and he said, “no, it’s okay, what’s up?” I said, “I see that you’re on the phone.” He said, “Oh, she’s asleep. We just like to keep Facetime going sometimes—it’s like we’re hanging out.”
Later I found out Von does the same thing. I guess it's just what the kids do these days.
That wasn’t really an option when Kim and I were dating in the 80s. Ha. The only phone was the one in the kitchen and the cord didn’t stretch all the way upstairs.
Some of you look like you’re being so judgy about the Facetime thing. Ha. I thought it was weird at first, too. Then I realized it’s a lot like how I am with God. It’s like I just keep the prayer going in the background while I do everything else. I used to think of it as trying to be aware of God’s presence all the time—even when I’m sleeping—but it’s really just keeping the line open. It’s like the kids with Facetime.
So, I’m walking around and I’ll just say something to God out of the blue—when I’m alone and doing whatever. Driving, going to the store. I don’t start the prayer over, I just blurt whatever out. I don’t say AMEN. The cool thing these days is people just assume I’m on the phone. I used to just look crazy.
And that’s probably the biggest obstacle to prayer. Feeling crazy when you do it. I think that’s one of the devil’s favorite tricks. All those little doubts when we go to pray. “Who you talking to? Your invisible friend in the sky? What good do you think it’s going to do? Remember when you prayed for that one thing that one time and it didn’t happen? And that other time? If there’s really a God, don’t you think He has better things to do than listen to you explain the problems of the world to Him? If He wanted to do something about any of those things, why does He need you to remind Him? Like, “Wow, thanks, I hadn’t noticed the need for world peace. I’ll get right on that now that you’ve brought it to my attention.”
Doubt is a real punk. It’s always just looking for a fight. A way to shut us down. The only way to answer doubt is with doubt. “What if God doesn’t hear your prayer?” “Oh yeah? What if He does!” “What if God doesn’t answer your prayer?” “Well, what if He does!”
Prayer is important. God tells us to pray. “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)
“Be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.” (Ephesians 6:8)
“Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise.” (James 5:13),
“Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Matthew 26:41).
There’s a million verses where the Bible commands us to pray.
So, we have to build the discipline of prayer into our everyday lives.
It always seems like I should pray when I wake up and when I go to bed. But I don’t really want to talk to anyone when I first wake up—not even God. Does that make me a bad person? It probably does but I still don’t want to do it. So when I get out of bed I just say, “Morning, Lord.” After some coffee, we pick the conversation back up.
At night there’s two problems with prayer. One is I don’t want to break out the list of things to pray about and start thinking about all the depressing stuff going on in all our lives just before I go to sleep. The other is I don’t want to start a conversation I’m not willing to finish. “So, Lord, here’s all the things that are on my mind…” And then three seconds later I’m asleep. In the twilight between starting the prayer and blacking out—who knows what kind of nonsense I might talk about. So the nighttime prayer needs to be very brief and to the point.
Can you relate to any of this? I can’t be the only one who struggles with these things.
Last week one of the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray. Jesus taught them the words of the Lord’s Prayer. Father. Hallowed. Kingdom. Bread. Forgive. Temptation. He taught them the framework for the content of what to say when they pray. But He wasn’t done with His lesson. This week we’re going to look at the next part of His teaching on prayer—how to approach praying. Not the words so much as what it should look like. Feel like.
Luke 11, Verse 5…
And he said to them, “Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; and he will answer from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything’? I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs.
Luke likes to tell the stories Jesus told His disciples—he seems to be particularly fond of the ones that don’t make any sense. The people in the stories don’t do what normal people would do. These seem to be Luke’s favorites. The weird ones. He likes to show us how everything we think we understand about God we have wrong.
In this one, there’s a guy who was so poor at managing his household that he doesn't even have three slices of bread. He ate it all without making or buying more. That was as unlikely then as it would be now. And when it says “three loaves” it’s not talking about our modern, giant loaves of Nature’s Own Wonder bread. It’s more like three little single-serving pieces of pita bread. Three tortillas.
Some out-of-town company shows up on his doorstep and he has absolutely nothing to give them to eat. Not even a slice of bread. This would never happen but Jesus wants us to suspend our disbelief and go along with it for the sake of the story.
He goes to his next-door neighbor, at Midnight—we tend to go to bed a lot later than they did, they didn’t have any Netflix shows to catch up on—so think of this more like 3 AM.
It’s a small one or two-room stone house with a wooden door. Guy’s banging on the door in the middle of the night. Which would also never happen…and if it did, his friend certainly wouldn’t respond like this guy:
“Go away! I’m already in bed! The kids are in bed! The door is locked! Go away!”
No. Near-Eastern rules of hospitality wouldn’t even think about banging on the door while people were sleeping, and if they did, the neighbor wouldn’t even think of not giving their friend whatever they needed. Everyone in this story is acting strange. I’m pretty sure Jesus was being humorous. Everyone’s acting like punks.
It’s probably how selfish and silly we all look to God. But I think He’s having some fun with His lesson on prayer.
Most of the things we desperately need, the big problems that explode in our face—we probably caused them in one way or another. That’s okay, God still wants us to pray. He still wants us to come banging on His door even though it was our poor household management and laziness that got us in this position in the first place. We’d be like, “Why should I help you? You made the mess, you clean it up!”
He’s not like us. He wants us to come to Him. God is far more inclined to give us what we ask for than we are to help each other. Jesus wants us to understand that we can always, at any time, go to God and ask for what we need. What we want. Even if the reason we’re asking is because we were dumb enough to eat every crumb of bread in the house without making more. Even if we didn’t plan ahead for having company. Even if we’re embarrassed and don’t want to bother God.
I hear people say all the time, “Eh… I’m sure God has more important things to do than listen to me complain.”
That’s not how God sees it. He’s not like a guy who’s too lazy to get out of bed or scared to wake His kids. His door is always open.
Verse 9…
And I tell 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 the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Luke 11:9-10
That’s the punch-line of the story. Keep on asking. Keep on seeking. Keep on knocking. Be persistent. God will always answer. The door is always opening.
God wants you to be annoying with Him. Act like you can actually change His mind.
This is hard for a lot of people. Their theology gets in the way of their prayers.
They pray like, “Lord, I know You know what I need better than I do. You’re in control of everything. You are all wise. I pray that You’ll do this thing for me but… You know, not my will be done but Yours. You’re not going to do it if You don’t want to, and You already knew what I needed for I prayed, so I’m not sure why I would even bother to ask. In Jesus’ name. Nevermind.”
No. God wants us to pray like we can actually change His mind. Kind of have to throw our theology out the window a little while we pray. At least don’t let it get in the way.
The hidden things belong to the Lord. It’s best for us to not pretend like we understand all the mysteries of God and His secret purposes while we’re praying.
If He wanted us to be so careful and uptight when we pray, He wouldn’t have given us the Psalms as our blueprints—there’s a lot of complaining and frustration and emotions in those things. He wouldn’t have told us this crazy story about an irresponsible host and his grumpy neighbor. Or other stories like the annoying widow who went to a judge and just wore him down until he gave her what she wanted. Pray like you can change God’s mind.
Keep on asking. Keep on praying. Pray without ceasing. Relentlessly. For whatever you think you need.
But, you know, you better be careful what you pray for, right? Because God’s like a nasty little Genie in a bottle. He might eventually give you what you ask for but, oh man, then you’ll be sorry. Like, you pray for patience so God gives you a flat tire in rush-hour traffic. Ha! You want patience? Here. Have some patience!
No. That’s not what God does at all. You absolutely don’t have to be careful what you pray for. It’s the very next point Jesus makes.
Verse 11…
What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
Luke 11: 11-13
You don’t have to be careful what you pray for. I think Jesus is being playful with this whole bit, too. “Your kid asks for a happy meal with McNuggets, who would give them a snake in a box?” “You want an egg? Here’s a SCORPION!?” Haha! The kid gets bit by the snake and stung by the scorpion and starts crying. Somebody needs to call CPS.
Then Jesus gets a little jab in: “If you, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much better do you think your heavenly Father will treat you?”
They probably looked at each other like, “did He just call us evil? What the heck, bro!?”
Jesus is like, “I’m just saying, If you bunch of losers can figure out how to give good things to your children, don’t you think God can figure out what you need, too?”
And He doesn’t actually say God will just give us “something good” like whatever we asked for—bread or eggs. Of course He’ll give us bread and eggs. This is amazing. He also gives us what we actually need. Something we didn’t even know we needed. Something we didn’t even ask for. He says the Father will give us the Holy Spirit.
This goes back to Jesus giving His disciples the power to stomp on snakes and scorpions from chapter 10, remember? So, He’s saying God will answer our prayers with good things, not evil representations of the devil. He’s not a nasty genie. Our prayers are not like rubbing a lamp and making a wish to a reluctant demon who’s trying to trick us. We don’t have to be careful what we pray for.
If we ask for bread, He’s not going to give us moldy bread.
He might not even give us bread—maybe we’ve had enough bread. Maybe it’s time for a salad.
God always answers our prayers. Sometimes the answer is “yes” and we get what we want. Sometimes the answer is “no.” “No” is an answer. Sometimes it’s “not right now.”
Jesus says to keep asking. As if you can change God’s mind. Try to wear Him down.
If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
It’s interesting. When they ask Jesus to teach them to pray, it’s the only time the disciples ever ask Him to teach them anything. He gives them the words to say when they pray, then He shows them how to approach God and be persistent, and He ends by promising for the first time that they will receive the Holy Spirit. The same Holy Spirit that rested on Mary at the moment of His conception, the same Holy Spirit that descended on Him at His baptism, the same Holy Spirit that gives Him power and leads Him in His life and ministry—this is the same Holy Spirit they’ll receive after the resurrection.
So don’t miss this—in Jesus’ teaching on prayer, we see the Holy Trinity coming to the disciples as a gift. Through the Son, they are to call God “Father” and then they’re given the promise to receive the Holy Spirit. This is the greatest of all possible promises: that the good Heavenly Father gives the Holy Spirit through Jesus the Son—which assures a gracious answer to all of our prayers.
We pray to the Father, through the Son, by the power of the Spirit. Three persons. One God. The mysterious idea that we call the Trinity. We can only have direct access to God because of Jesus.
1 Timothy 2:5 says,
“There is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people.”
Hebrews 4:16 says,
“Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”
Sometimes I think we don’t realize how big a deal it is that the Creator of the universe has an open-door policy with us. “Drop by anytime, the door is always open.” And He means it.
But without what Jesus did for us on the cross it would be impossible—God’s holiness would just burn us up. Not because He’s mean but because we’re not holy.
God is light. Like the brightest of all lights. And we’re shadows. If we don’t stand behind Jesus, safely protected in the shade of His cross—well, you know what happens to shadows when they’re exposed to light.
Okay, this is the part the devil doesn’t want you to hear—try to listen: God, in His kindness, sent Jesus to make it possible for you to come into His presence without getting burned up. So you can approach His throne with boldness and confidence. Jesus is the only reason you’ll receive mercy. The only reason God will give you what you need. You just need to ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. This is the promise of Jesus, that if you ask you’ll receive, and if you seek you’ll find, and if you knock the door is open.
He is always more willing to listen than you are willing to pray. I don’t say that to make you feel guilty—I just want to encourage you to pray. Talk to God. It’s what He wants. You’re not intruding. Tell Him what’s on your heart. Pray like you can change His mind. Pray like He’s just waiting for you to ask before He does whatever you’re praying about. Like He’s waiting on you to pray before He heals that person, or opens a job opportunity, or sends resources, or moves in someone’s life to give them faith. It doesn’t have to make sense, pray like that anyway.
Give Him thanks. Give Him praise. Ask Him to forgive your sins and failures. Ask Him to lead you away from temptation. Bring all your cares and burdens to Him—just hand them over, ask Him to take them from you, carry them for you, heal you, give you strength to forgive other people, faith to forgive yourself, just sit with Him and listen, ask Him to make His Word come alive, His promises to come alive, the Gospel to fill you with hope and wonder.
And do all these things with boldness, as if it’s the most important thing in the world and someone gave their life just so you’d be able to. Because someone did and it is. AMEN.