"Parables on prayer"

This has been automatically generated, and therefore may contain some unintended inaccuracies.

1 day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, 1 of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples, He said to them, when you pray, say, father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us, and lead us not into temptation.

Then Jesus said to them, Suppose you have a friend and you go to him at midnight and say, friend, lend me 3 loaves of bread. A friend of mine on a journey has come to me and I have no food to offer him. And suppose the 1 inside answers, don't bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can't get up and give you anything.

I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship. Yet because of your shameless audacity, He will surely get up and give you as much as you need. So I said, so I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be open to you.

For everyone who asks, receives, the 1 who seeks finds, and the 1 who knocks, the door will be opened. Which of your fathers, if your son ask for a fish, would give him a snake instead? Please keep the passage open in front of you. So page 1 0 4 2, and we're gonna be thinking about that passage. So, let me lead us in prayer together.

Hemily father, thank you that, there is this teaching that Jesus gives on prayer. And we pray, please, that this morning, you'd help us to be alert, help us to be ready to listen, to listen to what you have to say to us, what Jesus teaches us. And father, please, would you help us not just to hear it? But to be doers of your word, to be those who put it into practice. And therefore, father, we pray that, the end of this sermon, end of this service, we would be fired up to go and pray.

Armand. Well, this morning, we continue in our series. We're in a series called Stories on the Road lessons in following Jesus. Have I not got oh, yes. I have got secrets.

There we go. That's the 1. Stories on the road, lessons in following Jesus. And we're looking at, stories that Jesus told in this section in Luke's gospel from Luke 9 to Luke 19. And, we're thinking about what does it mean to be a follower of Jesus?

What difference does it make day by day? We saw last week. Jesus doesn't just say, well, just do what you like. No. There are things that we need to do as followers of Jesus.

It should make a difference to our everyday life, and should make a big difference to our everyday life. But also Jesus doesn't just give a list of rules just a list of commands. But rather what we began to see last week and what we'll see throughout the stories is that Jesus teaches us that being his follower means living in the light of god's grace to us, living in relationship with god, and that will make a big difference to us, to our every day. And we thought last week about our neighbors, how we relate to other people, And this week, we think about prayer and Jesus's teaching on prayer. And prayer is essential in living out this relationship with God.

It is vital. You could say it's right at the center of it. For there to be a Christian who doesn't pray would be like a couple who get married and then don't live together. Don't have intimate times together. Be very odd.

A Christian must pray. And the overarching message in Jesus' teaching on prayer is that prayer is about us relating to our heavenly father, not just in this passage, but elsewhere in the sermon on the mount as well. He emphasizes over and over again. It is us relating to our heavenly father. I don't forget that is the relationship that Jesus died to achieve for us.

He died for us so that we could be forgiven so that we could be free from our sin, not like you might let a wild animal go off into into into the wild, sort of set it free like that. Just free to go. But free to come. Free to come into god's presence. To know him as our father.

Jesus achieves that relationship for us through his death and resurrection, and so we must come in, into the presence of god. But we might wanna know, well, yep, but how? What have we gotta do? How do we pray to God? Jesus' followers at the start of this passage asked Jesus.

To teach them to pray. And Jesus does. And therefore, we can learn to pray, and we can grow in our praying. We can get better at it. And when Jesus' followers come to him and say teach us to pray, Jesus then says, when you pray, verse 2, say.

This is what you're to say to god. And we're gonna think about 2 things this morning. We're gonna think about what to pray and how to pray. What should we pray? How should we pray?

So first, what to pray? It's like Jesus takes his disciples by the hand and says, let me lead you into the presence of God, and let me whisper to you what to say, and you repeat after me. And he tells them what to say. Now this lord's prayer, this is a shorter version. There's a longer version in Matthew's gospel.

It's not that we have to only use these words. It's not that it's just a set prayer where you go, well, this is all we can pray to god. And it isn't, as you pray it that that you just necessarily have to read it or that you can just read it through just as it is, but you can use it as a pattern to pray. And I thought, Kanita showed us brilliantly how to do that in our prayers. Oh, great praying.

The the and she did it exactly as though I was gonna suggest that you do. That you could use it a bit people talk about it as being a bit like a Christmas tree. That you hang ornaments on, that you you might read a line, and then hang ornaments on it of things along the lines of that thing that you want to pray for, which is exactly what Canada did. And so as we're gonna go through the prayer and go through it fairly quickly and see the things that Jesus tells us to say. And what we'll see is that there are 2 parts to it.

Jesus says first look up, and then look down. Look up, then look down. First, look up. First thing we're to do in prayer is to look up to god. Remember who we're praying to.

Have a look first to. He said to them. When you pray, say, Father. That is how we're to begin our prayers by praying to God the father. That's how we're to address him.

It is a term of intimacy and respect. Now it's not wrong to use other names in the bible for for God to call him lord or call him almighty god, but Jesus encourages us to call God father. And therefore, that is what we should customarily do. That's what we should normally do. Call God our father.

Of course, it's not wrong as well to pray to Jesus or pray to the Holy Spirit. But actually, Jesus says, talk to your father. And therefore, I think that's what we should normally do. And what we should encourage children to do as well to talk to their father? He goes on, hallowed be your name.

God's name is not just a name or word, but as we've heard before, it's his character. And for god's name and character to be hallowed is for his name to be honored, to be revered. And the request is that this would happen, of course, that this would happen in our own lives, that we would revere the name of the lord, that we would revere him, but that this would be a global thing. May your name be hallowed in my life, in this area, throughout the world, that more and more people would revere the name of the lord, not use his name as a swear word, but honor him. And therefore, this is a prayer for a massive transformation in the world, isn't it?

It's a prayer right at the start of the lord's prayer. It's a prayer for the evangelization of the world that people would hear of the name of the lord and revere his name, honor him worship him. Your kingdom come is the next line. God's kingdom has Jesus as king. And so for god's kingdom to come, he's going to mean in my life that it would be god's purposes and plans that would happen, that I would submit to him as my lord and live under his rule.

But again, it's that more and more people would bow before Jesus and his kingdom. So again, it's about conversion, isn't it? Conversion of more and more people. So for God Jake god's kingdom to come is god's kingdom in my life, further afield, but also it's looking to the future. It's about Jesus' return as well.

When he will come back to rule and reign on earth. He rules and reigns now in heaven, but 1 day will come and rule and reign on earth. And he will bring in the new heavens and the new earth when there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, and this line has a yearning in it for that future day. Now that is quite a prayer already. We've looked up.

And it's a prayer which reminds us of our relationship with God, he's our father, and it changes the way you see the world. May god's name be honored? May his kingdom come? It's like it resets us. Like, if your phone's on the blink, and you reset it, you turn it off, turn it on again.

Hopefully, it all works again. The start of this prayer does that for us. It kind of resets us, doesn't it? We might come with a whole load of things that we want to bring to god, and yet at the start of the prayer, it says hang on first look to the lord. He's your father.

May his name be honored? May his kingdom come? And then we're to look down. Look down to ourselves. And there are 3 requests, and each of them reminds us that we are totally dependent on god.

That he is our lifeline. He is our life support machine. We need him for everything and anything. For our daily needs, our present needs. That's where it begins in the second half.

First 3, give us each day our daily bread. It's the practical necessities of life, isn't it? The everyday things, food, money, housing, clothes, jobs, what our children need, what our parents need. It's saying our everyday needs are provided by god, so lord, please would you provide? And then, from present needs to past sins.

First 4, forgive us our sins as we also forgive everyone who sins against us. So we've gotta remember every time we're praying that we come to God on the basis of his grace, on the basis of forgiveness of our sins, and so we bring to him our sin, laying it out before the lord, our anger, our envy, the lust of our hearts. The many ways that we disobey god, we bring them to him and say, Lord, here are my sins. And it's connected then to us forgiving others. And that's an important connection.

We ask for forgiveness and then pour out forgiveness to others, and it's good in our praying to think, actually take seriously to think Who are the people who maybe have wronged me? Who are the people that I'm bearing a grudge against and to wipe out that debt and to forgive them? Present needs, past, things, future temptations, last line of the prayer, and lead us not into temptation. This is a prayer saying, lord, please please prevent me from being seduced into thin. Lord, I don't wanna drift away from you.

I don't wanna fall away from you. And do you see how This reveals what our heart's desire is for the future. Because it's not a prayer of saying, lord, do my will, do what I want for the future. It's not about my kingdom, and my name being revered. No.

We've already prayed your kingdom come. Your your name be hallowed. No. This is saying actually the thing that I want for the future above all else, lord, is that I don't wanna fall away from you. And I'm totally dependent on you keeping hold of me.

Lead me not into temptation. So that is the pattern of prayer. Jesus says, when you pray, say this, look up. Thank you. In the prayer, look up and look down.

And then Jesus says, not just what to pray, but how to pray. How should we pray? How should we approach god? Do we approach god? Formally?

Dressed smart? Do you get dressed up for your praying times? I doubted. But do do we come nevertheless with a kind of formality? Do we come with fear?

Do we come infrequently? How should we approach god? Well, you may have been wondering where the stories are. We're supposed to be thinking about stories on the right stories that Jesus told, well, now is where we come to the stories about prayer. And in the first 1, we learn that we are to come with bold persistence or persistent boldness, whichever way around you like.

Jesus gives a story, and I love it as a story. It's a it's a slightly strange story, though, isn't it? That Jesus gives. He gives it in verse, starting in verse 5. He says, suppose you have a friend, don't think that's a pointed thing that he's saying, I suppose you have a friend.

Not looking at anyone in particular. But he says, suppose you have a friend and you go to him at midnight and say, friend lend me 3 loaves of bread. A friend of mine has come on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him. So the question is, in this scenario, someone comes and visits you late at night, you've got no food. Would you go to another friend, to a neighbor and wake up the whole household to ask for food.

Would you do that? I mean, don't forget it in their culture in those time. You don't have 24 hour shops. And there probably would be a cultural expectation that the community would help out in such situations. But at midnight, would you go and do that?

And he's lovely in that Jesus paints the picture of this guy standing outside the house asking for this and hearing the voice from inside, verse 7, Suppose the 1 inside answers, don't bother me. The door is already locked. My children and I are in bed, and I can't get up and give you anything. The neighbors saying get lost. Day is over.

And my kids are asleep. We're in bed. The door is locked. Go away. And yet, Jesus says verse 8, I tell you even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity, nice choice of words, he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.

It sounds like the the assumption in the story is that the guy doesn't go away. He just stays there, say, no. No. I need food. Get me food.

And you can imagine the guy coming to the door really annoyed, opening the door, giving him bread. And in the background, the kids are up now. And bouncing around, and they're not gonna go to sleep for hours. Why does he give him the food? And Jesus says, well, it's not because of the friendship.

It's because the guy was bold because he was there was shameless audacity. Other translation say impudence. It's it's rudeness. And Jesus is saying that's why he gives it. Now what's Jesus saying?

What's he saying about prayer? He's saying, you should have that same boldness impudence almost when it comes to praying. He's saying Hassel God, This is unlike other religions, which might say, well, god, the the God that they worship is at a distance, far off distant god. No. Jesus is saying it's not like that.

Come to god. It in in such a way that that almost if it was a friend, if it was anyone else, you would you would think it was rude because you're just persistent keeping coming back. And so the application there is in verse 9. He says, so I say to you, asking it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock then the door will be open to you. For everyone who asks, receives the 1 who seeks finds, and to the 1 who knocks, the door will be opened.

He says, ask, seek, knock, and each of those commands is in the present continuous. In other words, it's, ask and keep on asking, seek, and keep on seeking, knock, and keep on knocking. Keep at it, he's saying. And is there a difference between ask, seek, and knock, and there may be slight difference? I was helped 1 commentary said, of course, ask, what are you to ask for?

Well, the things in the lord's prayer? Seek? What are you to seek? God's kingdom? I'm loving the fact that there are loads of smiles over here.

Look like you're smiling at me, but I know you're smiling at cora. Sorry. Just slightly distracting, but it's lovely over there. They're having a great time. Anyway, ask seek and knock.

What's the difference? What do you ask for? Ask for the things in the lord's prayer. Seek seek god's kingdom and knock. And this is the 1 that that struck me.

He says, knock. Why are you knocking? You're knocking so that you can come in so that you can be in the presence of god. I thought that was lovely to say, actually, yeah, you ask, keep asking, seek keep seeking and not keep knocking because part of prayer is you want to come in. And be with your father.

And the promise there is that those who ask do receive, those who seek do find, and those who knock the door will be open. It's a absolute promise there, isn't it? So keep doing it. Now, Tim Keller, in his sermon on this passage, quite rightly then says, this, this assumption, this way of relating to god, only you're only gonna do it if you're in this father child relationship with god. If that is the basis on which you're coming to god.

Because he says, well, if let's say, if you did treat God as a a friend, like this friend, you may have the boldness once at midnight to go and ask for food, but you're not gonna do it the next day, are you? And then the next day, there's gonna come a point where it's gonna be too much. But if it's a child with their parent, child with a father, children are perfectly happy to pester, aren't they? If you're not sure, just watch them when they come back in after hope kids. Some of them won't bother with their parents' talk.

But but others others will come to their parents and pester them with, and they don't care who that parent is talking to. No. They don't care because what they've gotta say is more important. And they will pester. They will pull on shirt or trousers or whatever it is to get attention.

I'm not saying parents shouldn't say, now come on. I'm, you know, be respectful. I'm talking to someone. But Jesus is saying, you don't need to worry about that. And children don't really worry about it, do they?

And Jesus is the same become more childlike. And children can pester parents. I love this point in color make. Children can pester parents at times when no 1 else can. A child can pester their parents, even at 2 or 3 in the morning, that they can call for things which are nothings because they're cuddly toys fallen out of bed.

Or because they had a bad dream or because they just want to say they love you. And even the spouse can't do that in the middle of the night. Only the child can do that. And Jesus is saying, have that persistence and that boldness to come to God anytime. Anywhere and repeatedly over and over again.

Keep coming to god. So Jesus is saying, this is how you and I are to approach god. Because prayer is the living out of this parent child relationship. If we viewed God primarily as a judge, we'd be frightened of him never come in, or not unless we felt we had to. If we view him as our boss, We'll only approach him if we need to, and we'll be wary of annoying.

But if he's your father, you are to approach persistently boldly, almost rudely. Last point, how to pray, trusting his goodness. That's where we have the last bit, the last story, verse 11. Would you have a look at that? Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, we'll give him a snake instead.

Or if he asks for an egg, we'll give him a scorpion. If you, then, though you are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? Of course, it's lovely story and it and it's a ridiculous idea that, a parent would give their child knowingly give their child something that is dangerous. Imagine after the service sometimes, some of the children being fed at the back can imagine 1 of the parents sort of bringing out a Python to give to their child or bringing out a scorpion to have that? Of course not.

No. We take extra care to make sure that children's food is safe, that it is the right temperature, it is the right thing for them to have. We are very careful on now. Jesus is saying, you do that, and we're evil. But God is perfect.

He knows how to give good things to his children. He knows how to do that, which means we can trust god. He always gives good gifts to his children, He never gives his children rubbish, and he never gives his children things that are harmful. And we need to remember that, particularly when we don't get the things we ask for, and we don't understand why we don't get them. Because this is saying the only reason why God doesn't give you the things that you ask for.

The only reason is because in his wisdom and love, he knows it wouldn't be good for you. And there are times where we're gonna go, I don't get that. But we have to trust it. As children have to trust their parents, because children don't always understand why they won't be given something. They wanna play with the knife.

You're gonna know? You can't have it, and they don't understand. But you gotta do it for their good. Now this idea of trusting God is your father at it it can be difficult. It sounds easy.

You just trips off it, you know, just say it. Trust God as your father trusts that he's good, but some will find this hard, and some may find this harder than others. Because all this talk of God being our father, Maybe difficult for some because maybe your earthly father wasn't a good father. Maybe for some you learnt right from the start that you couldn't trust your father. He didn't give you good things.

Didn't show your love. And therefore, that's meant you find it very difficult to trust, and you find it hard to see God as a totally reliable trustworthy father. And it can be hard. And that has long term impact. Yet I hope for you, even though your own father maybe wasn't loving.

I hope you have in your mind what a good father would be. Maybe you saw it in other fathers. A father you don't who didn't need to be feared. A father who, when you come in the room, looks at you with love, and wants you with him. A father that you can trust to do what is best, even if it isn't what you want.

And there is help for you, and there is help for all of us in this. Because actually many of us live our lives day by day, as if we're orphans, as if we don't have a heavenly father, which is why many of us struggle with fear and anxiety, and we'll think more about fear and anxiety in future weeks. But there is help for all of us. Did you notice at the end of the passage, I'm sure you would have done, as I read it, where Jesus says, If you then know you are evil, know how to give g give good gifts to your children. How much more will your father in heaven give the holy spirit to those who ask him?

He specifically says the holy spirit. Now in Matthew's Gospel, it says give good things. It's perfectly right to say, you know, God gives good things. It doesn't just give the holy spirit. He gives us good things.

But Jesus specifically mentions the Holy Spirit here. And that's significant. What is the work of the Holy Spirit in us? Well, in the book of Romans, we're told 2 things, we're told many more things, but I'm gonna pick on 2 things that it says about the work of the Holy Spirit. 1 is in Romans 5, verse 5, where it says this.

God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. What does the Holy Spirit do there? He pours God's love into our hearts. Which isn't just an objective knowing, yeah, I know God loves me, but it's more subjective than that. It's saying I, it's it poured into our hearts that we know and experience that God loves us.

And the other thing from Romans is in chapter 8, where it says that the spirit brought about your adoption to sonship, and by him, we cry, Abba Father. The spirit works in our hearts to make us call out to God as our father with intimate terms in an intimate way of calling out to God as your dad. So the work of the spirit, those 2 things together, is that he pours god's love into our heart so that we don't just know about it, but we experience it, and he makes us cry out to God as our father. In other words, part of the spirit's work, I think is it, obviously, his work is far more than this, but part of his work is to take these truths of the gospel to say, okay, yes, Jesus died from you so that you could come into god's presence, say that you can know him as your father. He takes that truth and he works it into your heart into experience so that you go, yes, I I know god's love for me.

I know he loves me, and I cry out to him father. Where we struggle to trust God and to call out to him, his spirit is at work in us, to mend that brokenness, and to help us to cry out to him. Whatever our experience of our earthly fathers has been. So this request for the Holy Spirit is at least this. A request for more of god's presence and intimacy in our lives.

Like the knocking on the door so that we might come in. So do you pray for the Holy Spirit? Yes. He is in all who trust in Christ. But I think God is encouraging us to ask for more.

So this is how we're to pray. Boldly, well, bold persistence. And trusting his goodness. Now what difference will this make to you today? What difference will this make to you this week?

Maybe if you're new to prayer, maybe you need to begin. And if you are new to prayer, can I encourage you maybe today, set aside 5 minutes? You may think, well, that doesn't sound like persistent boldness. No. But you gotta start somewhere.

Start maybe with 5 minutes today. 5 minutes twice a day, maybe. Use the lord's prayer. Don't start don't have over ambitious, you know, goals to begin with of going, well, I'll send aside an hour to start with. You don't you don't do that with children if they're teaching them to read.

You don't start with your favorite novel. You start small. So to in prayer, start with 5 minutes, and it will soon grow. And that is a good thing. And can I encourage you as well to come to our prayer meetings?

Because 1 of the ways that we learn to pray and grow in praying is to hear others praying as well. So I just wanna encourage you to come to them as well, not just for that, but also so that we learn to grow and pray. So there we go. We've thought about what to pray, look up, look down, and how to pray, bold persistence, and trusting in his goodness. Let me lead us in prayer before we sing together.

Our father, we lift our eyes to you, and pray please that you would help us in our praying to lift our eyes to you. To know you as our father. Father help us that we would honor you and glorify you we long to see your kingdom come. And father help us as well to look to ourselves, to look down, and see our needs and bring them before you. Our present daily needs.

Our need for forgiveness for past sins, and our need for you to protect us from temptation in the future. Help us to keep coming back to you boldly. With persistence, and help us father to trust you as our heavenly father. Father, please, would we be people who enter into your presence? Back glorious.

Thing that Jesus won for us at the cross that we might come to you as our father, help us, father to come into that reality and enjoy it, to enjoy being in your presence. Day by day, and as we gather together as a church as well.