Luke chapter 11 this evening,
Luke chapter 11 verse nine. Actually, let's start with verse
one in Luke chapter 11. I want us to see the context
of what our Lord said in verses
nine through 13. So Luke 11 verse one. Came to pass that as he was praying,
In a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto
him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. And he said unto them, when you
pray, say, our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. Give us day by day our daily
bread and forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone
that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. And he said unto them, which
of you shall have a friend and shall go unto him at midnight
and say unto him, friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend
of mine in his journey has come to me and I have nothing to set
before him. And he from within shall answer
and say, trouble me not, the door is now shut and my children
are with me in bed. I cannot rise and give thee.
I say unto you, though he will not rise and give him because
he is his friend, yet because of his importunity, he will rise
and give him as many as he need, needeth. And I say unto you,
I want you to see the three parts here. Teaches to pray All right
pray like this And he's not saying pray that he said pray this way
in another account of this that's what he said pray this way like
this And then he tells the story of the importunate friend And
then he says in verse nine I say unto you This is not a parable
now. This is not a model An example
this is the Lord speaking directly to us Ask And it shall be given you Seek
and you shall find Knock and it shall be opened unto you for
everyone that asketh receiveth and he that seeketh findeth and
and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. If a son shall ask
bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? Or
if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or
if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If ye
then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children,
how much more shall your heavenly father? Give the Holy Spirit
to them. Ask Him. May the Lord teach us
to pray. Teach us to pray. I've told you many times, perhaps
the most humbling and encouraging and greatest blessing that y'all are to me, and in
so many ways you are, but to know that you pray for me, that
you take the time. It's not just what we call an
attitude of prayer, but you take the time to come before the Lord
and call on him to bless me, to lift me up, to keep me, to
give me wisdom, all the things that I lack, everything. And we see here in this passage
three separate parts. In verses five through eight,
the Lord's not teaching us regarding our relationship to him. It's
not like that, is it? That we would have to bug him,
that we would have to just, you know, that the only reason he
would do anything for us is because, just to shut us up. This man
didn't give him, the man, what he needed because he was his
friend. That's not talking about our relationship with the Lord,
but the next part is, a father giving to his children. You see, he's arguing from the
lesser to the greater. That was a way that a common
thing, and it's all through the scripture, and our Lord is doing
that here. We have many examples of that. He did it three times
in Luke 12, 24. Turn over there with me. I want
to show you this principle in the pursuit of looking to the Lord to teach
us to pray, teach us to pray, to not neglect the privilege, the
great honor Of being able to pray to him, but also teach us
how to pray They heard him pray apparently there at the beginning
he prayed and then they said lord teach us to do that Teach
us to pray Luke 12 24 consider the ravens
for they neither sow nor reap Which neither have storehouse
nor barn and god feedeth them How much more? Are you better
than fowls? You see how he's arguing from
the lesser to the greater. God doesn't even let the birds
go hungry, much less you, you see? And which of you taking thought
can add to his stature one cubit? If you then be not able to do
that thing which is least, see, arguing from the lesser, to the
greater, what makes you think that you can do anything about
the rest? We need him. We need him to do
for us. Consider the lilies how they
grow. They toil not, they spin not, and yet I say unto you that
Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
Who could argue with that? Beauty of God's creation. If God so clothed the grass,
which is the lesser, which is today in the field and tomorrow
is cast into the oven, how much more will he clothe you? O ye of little faith. So you see what he's saying.
I heard somebody preach one time on the importunity of prayer
and he made it sound like God needed to be bugged about it
in order to do anything for anybody. That's not the lesson here. That's
an example of the manner of our prayer. You see, the Lord gave
us a model prayer. When you pray, honor him, hallowed
be thy name. You're praying to God in heaven,
and we're on the earth. So as he said that same thing
about, let thy words be select. Let thy words be few. And pray
to him from the right place. How many hit their faces before
Him and cried unto Him, Lord have mercy, that leper. It says
he fell into the dirt and prayed, Lord, if you will, you can make
me whole. That's what he's saying. The
model prayer, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will
be done on earth like it is in heaven. We don't know to what
extent that'll happen, but we sure would like to see some of
it, wouldn't we? Lord, your will ought to be done
everywhere. And we acknowledge that. And
then ask him for what you need. Give me my daily bread and forgive
my sins. You see what he's doing? How
to pray, what to pray, and then in what manner to pray. It's
urgent, it's not just having a little talk with Jesus. It's
coming to the door and knocking. And when the friend that is the
example of the lesser says, I'm already in bed, go ask somebody
else. But he can't, there's nowhere
else to go. I've got to have what I need
from you. We pray that way to God, don't
we? Importunately, desperately in other words. And then in the argument from
the lesser to the greater, even that friend, even that man, even
though the friendship is out the window, it might be true
of me too, if you come and I'm already in bed, you know, our
friendship might, you know, not be a factor at that moment. But
you see what he's doing. He said, just ask me. and I'll give it to you. Because
what father would not do that for his children? You see the
lesson here? The importunity teaches us there,
that importunity, that section of our text teaches us what so
many other scriptures do, blind Bartimaeus, they couldn't shut
him up. That's importunity. That's desperation. That's a need that can only be
met one way. There's nowhere to go. Where
are we gonna go if God won't have us? You remember that poem?
To the gracious King approach, whose scepter mercy gives. Perhaps
he will receive my touch. And then this sinner lives. I
can but perish if I go. I am resolved to try. For if
I stay away, I know I shall forever die. I'm going, aren't you? I'm gonna find out if he'll do
something for me, because if he doesn't, I'm a goner. That's
prayer, that's prayer. Not having a little talk, you
know, with the man upstairs, that's blasphemy. The whole idea
of that is dishonoring to the Lord. Blind boredom, there's
Jacob at Pineal. I can't let you go. The Lord
of glory said to Jacob, let me go. And he said, I can't, I can't
do it until you bless me. There's a man that would rather
be dead than not have the Savior. He would rather God kill him
than not bless him. Got to have your blessing, got
to have your favor. Let's just get it over with.
If you're not gonna bless me, let's just get it over with. Desperation. The Canaanite woman
whose daughter was vexed with the devil, she took her place
as a dog under the master's table and said, Lord, if a crumb falls,
I'm gonna be all over it. I'm a dog, I'm your dog. No question
about that. But you see that, that's the
importunity of prayer. But the relationship in five,
verses five through eight, is a contrast to what our Lord says
in the part that we're gonna look at by His grace tonight,
which teaches us regarding our relationship to Him and how that
informs our prayers. We're crying to him as our father
who would never fail to give his child what they need, never. He wouldn't be reluctant in any
way like the friend in the first part was. The reluctant neighbor gives
because of the opportunity, but he doesn't really give for the
right reason. Why do you give to your children though, your
children? because they're your children,
because you love them. And that's the greater. That
is how God gives to us. And God, you know, you give to
your children, but you're evil, he said, but you still know how
to give good things to your children. God is not, he gives selflessly,
he gives freely in spite of our sin against him. What if in the
case of the reluctant neighbor, what if you had done him some
terrible wrong at some time or another? Would he give you anything
then? No matter how many times you
knocked? What if you'd insulted him? But our Lord gives to us
all things freely, though we despised and rejected him. and killed him, killed the Prince
of Life. Notice what the children are
asking for. Bread, fish, and an egg. And the Lord says if he asks
for an egg, will you give him a scorpion? Of course not. You see the compelling
teaching here concerning our relationship with the Lord and
how that affects and defines our prayers unto him, always
must, our father, which art in heaven, our father. That's what
he taught in the first part. And then he tells us, you're
my children, just ask me, just ask me and you'll receive. Let
me ask you this, what if your child asked for a scorpion? If
they're young enough, they might do that, wouldn't they? Ask for
a serpent, not realizing the harm that it might cause, would
you give it to them? Of course not. And so we have
this added blessing from our heavenly father, we're not wise
like he is, he's omniscient. When he says, ask and you shall
receive, That's better than us getting everything we ask for,
a lot better. When your children were babies
until the time they were able to talk or even let their desires
be known before they could even talk until now, what would be
better? What you did for them and gave
them or if you'd have given them everything they asked for, what
would be better? Our heavenly father's a lot smarter
than we are. Our heavenly father's omniscient
and he's holy and he loves better than we do. We have here a beautiful promise
from the one who gives everything. In verse nine, he said, I say
unto you, You might think that little phrase is unnecessary,
but that is so vital. That is so vital. If it's our
Lord speaking to us, if anybody else said to you, just ask, anything
you need. And we do say that, don't we?
Anything you need, just let me know. And we might well be able
to make good on much of that. But you'd have to take into consideration
their limitation. If you need a million dollars
or somebody's gonna kill you, and they say, anything you need,
all I can do, and you know they don't have a million dollars,
then it's a kind gesture. But you've got to take that into
consideration. Our Lord has no limitations whatsoever. Now unto him that is able to
do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according
to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the
church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end,
amen. That'd be a good one to read
again tonight before you go to bed, Ephesians 3.20. Now unto
him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we
ask or think, according to the power that worketh
in us. He's not only able to do that
which we need out, he's able to do a work in here, beyond what we can ever even
imagine. Unto him be glory in the church
in here not this building Among us unto him be glory By Christ
Jesus throughout all ages there's a saying if you're in any kind
of business or sales They used to tell us in sales training
Don't promise the moon and then deliver a flashlight Promise
a flashlight and deliver the moon The truth is that whatever we
promise, we're limited in what we can deliver. And at times
we're gonna fail to deliver at all. But our Lord doesn't fail. And he doesn't need to play games
with our expectations. He delivers exactly what he promises
every time. And you know what he promises?
With him, all things. He spared not his son. And with
Him, He freely gives us all things. There's a relationship in all
of this of need and grace. When our need meets His grace,
it's a happy union. It's a glorious thing. When we
first met the Lord Jesus, what did we do? Ask. We asked for mercy. And what
have we already done today? What do we do continually every
day, many times a day? We ask of Him for all that we
need. And it's a good relationship
because He is the giver of every good and perfect gift. Every good gift and every perfect
gift is from above and cometh down from the father of lights
with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turn. Notice how he said in verse 13,
good gifts. If you know how to give good
gifts, how much more? Shall your heavenly father that's
all he gives is good gifts even when he gives a trial Even when
he gives a thorn in the flesh It's a good gift for us Paul
asked that the Lord remove his thorn in the flesh, but the Lord
had given Paul a Good thing and he wasn't going to take it away
from him He said my grace is sufficient What are some good
gifts that we ask the Lord for? Well, it starts with mercy. God, be merciful to me, the sinner. Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And we ask
that pretty much every day. Have mercy. Bread, he taught
us to ask for our bread. In the model prayer, there's
a request for daily bread. And in the example of the father
and the son, the son asks for bread. What a picture of our
relationship to our Savior it is to realize and to think that
everything we eat and drink, we ask him for it and he gives
it. What a constant reminder. That's
something that's continual. I'll eat and I'll eat. Vicki
does a pretty good job, y'all know that, right? About her.
And I'll eat and I'll say, I'm never gonna eat again. I'm so
full, I'm so good, I'm never gonna eat again. And then a few
hours later, I'm like, what's for dinner? And you see that? He constantly reminds, give me
my daily bread. We have to ask him all the time. And he answers our prayer all
the time. And how we ought to see that
and to know that he's ever present, that it reminds us of the things
that he gives us that we don't even ask for. Have you ever asked
the Lord, Lord, give me my next breath? That's not something,
you know, that we would normally pray about, right? Well, if you
don't do it, you're not gonna have it. You're not gonna have
one. It reminds us of that. Give us
our daily bread. We literally need him every hour.
We need his mercy every hour, and we have it if we're his children. Bread reminds us. You can't see
mercy, really, but you can see bread, and that's a reminder
of his mercy. Every time you raise a fork or
a spoon to your mouth, you're looking at mercy. You're looking at the provision
of God for you, for you. He openeth his hand and satisfies
the desire of every living thing. It all comes from his hand. We
need forgiveness of sin. Again, he taught us in this model
prayer to ask for that. Lord, forgive my sins. If you're here tonight and you
don't know the Lord, ask. Ask. God, be merciful to me. Lord,
if you will, you can make me clean. Seek. We read this verse
this morning, Jeremiah 29, 11. The Lord said, I know the thoughts
that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and
not of evil to give you an expected end. Because of his thoughts toward
me, he said, you're gonna call upon me, and you're gonna go
and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you, and you shall
seek me and find me. Because of his thoughts toward
us, not because of our thoughts toward him, he looked to see
if any did understand or seek God, and there weren't any. But because his thoughts toward
us were peace made by the blood of his cross, we ask and he hearkens. He says, knock. This is a reference
to the parable that he just told, knock. That man kept knocking
and had to knock, knock, knock until he drove that guy crazy.
And he realized he wasn't gonna get any sleep until he gave him
what he needed, so he just did it. He said, you knock, and the
door will be opened to you, just like that. Everyone that asketh, receiveth. Everyone that understands by
grace that what they need, they cannot produce, they cannot provide
for themselves, they must receive from him what he had that you
didn't receive. Now, if you did receive it, why
do you glory as though you had gotten it on your own? You ask when all else fails,
don't you? That's just our nature. When
everything else fails, when I've tried everywhere and every route
and gotten nowhere, I'm going in circles, then I might ask
for directions, maybe. Even in earthly matters, this
is true. It's hard to ask somebody else for something, isn't it?
It's hard for us to ask somebody. Most people will exhaust every
other option before they'll just simply ask.
It's even more that way with spiritual things. I'm going to turn over a new
leaf. I'm going to resolve. I'm going to rededicate my life.
I'm going to make a resolution. I'm going to make a decision
for Jesus. Stop. Stop. You're like the woman with
the issue of blood who went to many doctors and spent all she
had and only grew worse. And then she came to the Lord.
Ask. Salvation is not a decision.
Not yours anyway. It's a gift. Ask. God doesn't make deals. God doesn't
bargain. We need, we ask, and he gives. Seek. We don't know how to get
to God. We can't find our way to God.
We're fallen. We're by nature banished from
God's presence in favor. How are we going to get back?
Seek him. He told us to seek him. He said,
when you seek with all of your heart, you'll find me. Why? Because we're so good at
it. We're so good at seeking. No, because he already found
us and he puts it in our hearts to seek him. to seek him. The parable of the sheep, where
our Lord left the 90 and nine and went after that one sheep
and laid it on his shoulders and carried it home. If you look
at that parable, that's in the context of that parable, he's
teaching us to seek him. How does that happen? He goes
after us and finds us and picks us up and carries us and brings
us home and rejoices over us. And we seek Him. We love Him
because He first loved us, John said. We seek Him because He
first sought us. We know Him because He first
knew us. All that the Father giveth me,
he said, shall come to me. All of them shall come. And him
that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. If you seek God and find him,
it's because he found you first. He brought you to himself through
the means of seeking. He says to some, ask with the
same power with which he said, let there be light. If he says
ask in that way, that's what we're gonna do. There's nothing about the sovereignty
of God in salvation that discourages the seeker. You say, well, God's
sovereign. He's going to do as he pleases.
He saves who he wants to save. He passes by who he wants to
pass by. I'll just, you know, sit here
and do nothing. No, he says, seek and you'll
find. Seek and you'll find. The one
who ordained the end, ordains the means. And that means is
the gospel that says, come to me. We mentioned that woman in Matthew
15 a while ago. The Lord told her, she said,
Lord, have mercy on me. My daughter is grievously vexed
with the devil. And he said to her, I'm not coming,
but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And you know
what her response to that was? Oh, well, I guess what will be
will be then. No. She said, Lord, help me,
help me. That was her response to the
doctrine of election. What about you? You say, well,
that don't say that. That's not fair. How about this? Lord, if you have mercy on people,
on sinners, would you have mercy on me? Have mercy on me. Help me. And then after she said
that, he said, it wouldn't be right to take the children's
bread and give it to dogs. He called her a dog. And she said, truth, Lord, truth. But even the dogs eat the crumbs
that fall from their master's table. And the Lord had mercy
on her. The Lord had mercy on her. Part of the definition of
this word seek is to crave, to crave. That's what he taught
us there in verses five through eight. Ask, not nonchalantly,
ask with hunger, ask with desperation. Ask as if your soul depended
on it. Because it does. Everyone that knocketh, it shall
be opened. That's what a door is for. If
you don't want somebody coming in, you build a wall. If you
put a door in it, that's access. That's potential access. A door
is for coming in, coming out. We need access to God. And so
we seek that. And how does that happen? Listen,
Jesus said unto them again in John 10, seven, verily, verily,
I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. All that ever came before me
are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.
I am the door. By me, if any man enter in, in
case you're wondering what that represents, the door and what
the sheep coming into the pasture. Listen, I am the door. By me,
if any man enter in, he shall be saved. Is that clear enough? Christ is access to God, to the
favor of God, the blessing of God, communion with God. Do you need anything? Are you
looking for anything? Do you need access to anywhere?
What is it that we really need? What is it that we need to know? What is it that we need to find
when we're seeking? Where do we need to be? One thing
is needful. Our Lord taught us that just
a few verses before in Luke chapter 10, one thing is needful. And notice in the text that the
good thing that the Lord gives to us The one that has everything to
give, what does he give us? Himself. His Holy Spirit. Spirit of Christ in us. He said, if you then being evil
know how to give good gifts, how much more? What do evil people
need? He said we're evil. What does
an evil person need? The Holy Spirit. The spirit gives life, the spirit
regenerates or gives life. The Holy Spirit births us from
above. He said to Nicodemus, you must
be born again. That means born from above. If you look up the original language
there. And spirit, born of the spirit,
that which is born of the flesh is flesh, sinful, depraved, carnal
flesh, but that which is born of the spirit is spirit. You must be born of the spirit.
You must be born again, or you can't see or enter the kingdom
of God. The Spirit takes the things of
Christ, as we saw, I believe, this morning, and reveals them
to us. I don't even know what to ask
for when I pray to you. He's teaching us to pray to you.
How to pray, what to pray, the manner in which to pray. To pray
as a child to a father. To pray in an understanding of,
and in the context of, a relationship of eternal love. But listen, I don't know how
to pray. Even when the Lord teaches us
and shows us, when it comes right down to it, listen to the remedy
for that. Romans 8, 26, likewise, the spirit
also helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what we should
pray for as we ought. Well, why not? The Lord told
us how to pray. You know, the Lord's told me
a lot, but as Paul said, how to perform
it, I find not. But the Spirit helpeth and earneth
for me. I'm going to give you the Holy
Spirit. He's going to teach you how to pray. He's going to pray.
He's going to intercede for you. For we know not what we should
pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession
for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Romans 8, 9, but you are not
in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God
dwell in you. Now, if any man have not the
Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. You see why he said,
you ask? And I'll give you the Holy Spirit. Christ in you is the hope of
glory. Now, if any man have not the
Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you,
the body is dead because of sin. That doesn't change. But the
Spirit is life because of righteousness, his righteousness. But if the
spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in
you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken
your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you. God is the giver and God is the
gift. Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable.