#89 Lu. 11:5-10  A MORE ADVANCED LESSON IN PRAYER

Introduction:

    In our previous text one of the disciples asked Jesus to teach
them how to pray.  Jesus responded by giving them the very basic
instructions how to pray.  He gave them a model prayer after which
to pattern their prayers.  In today's text He goes beyond the
basics to a more advanced lesson in prayer.  He taught them to be
persistent in prayer.  The word, importunity, means "persistence."

I.  A review of the basics

    Before we get into the more advanced lesson, I want to briefly
review the basics which Jesus gave them in the model prayer.
    First, Jesus taught that the Christian is to pray to God in
heaven as to his Father, V. 2.  God in heaven is our Heavenly
Father.
    Second, Jesus taught that the Christian is to desire that
God's name should be honored, V. 2.  He should pray with that
purpose in mind.
    Third, the Christian is desire for Christ to return and set up
His millenniel kingdom, V. 2.  He is to pray to that purpose.  He
is to pray for Christ to soon return.
    Fourth, the Christian is to desire that God's will be done
here on earth as it is in heaven, V. 2.  He is to pray to that
end.
    Fifth, he is to recognize that his daily bread and all of his
daily supplies come from God, V. 3.  He is to pray that God would
supply his need on a daily basis.
    Sixth, he is to recognize that even though he is saved yet he
sins and he is to ask God to forgive him his sins, V. 4.
    Seventh, he is to recognize that God wants him to forgive
others their wrong doings toward him and he is to forgive whatever
wrongs others have done to him, V. 4.
    Eighth, he is to recognize that he is powerless to resist
temptation without the help of God and he is to pray for God to
strengthen him and deliver him from the power of the tempter, V.
4.
    Now keep in mind that as Jesus carries His disciples on to
this more advanced lesson in prayer that whatever He says in the
new lesson must be interpreted in harmony with what He has already
said.  He is not going to contradict what He has already said in
the basics.  Rather He is going to expand on what He has already
said.  He will bring in some new thoughts and put emphasis in new
places, but He will not contradict the basics that He has already
given.

II. An illustration and a lesson from the illustration

    Now let us get down to the text.  V. 5-8, "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 is 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 needeth."
    What Jesus is doing here is that He is using an illustration
from every-day life to give His disciples another lesson in
prayer.  This lesson would go beyond the basics in teaching about
prayer.  It would set forth two truths about prayer.
    For one thing, Jesus here teaches that God does not always
immediately grant what the Christian asks for.  Even God fully
intends to grant the request, God does not always grant it
immediately.  Jesus does not tell us why God would deliberately
delay in answering the request, but He does make it clear that
sometimes God delays in answering the prayer.
    We can think of some possible reasons why this is so.  For one
thing, God may want us to have some time to think over the request
that we have made to make sure that we are really serious.  Sis.
Davis tells me that she learned as a child not to buy anything on
impulse.  She always waits until the next day or next week or next
month and if she still wants it then she may buy it.  That same
principle applies in our prayer life.  If we still want it the
next day or next week or next month or next year then we will
repeat our request to God.  If we do not still want it enough to
keep on praying for it then we did not want it very much and God
will not give it.
    Furthermore, God may delay in answering our prayer in order to
give us time to re-examine our motives.  We may earnestly want it
but want it for the wrong reasons.  The delay gives us a chance to
re-evaluate our motives.  For instance, in the basics we are
taught to desire that God's name to be honored.  We are also
taught that we are to desire that God's will to be done.  However,
to be perfectly honest, we will all have to admit that there are
times when we ask out of our own selfish motives and we are not at
all concerned with the honor of God nor the will of God.  If after
examination we see that our motives are wrong, we can discontinue
that prayer and God will never grant that request.  The fact is,
that even if we continue to ask out of the wrong motive that God
will not likely answer that prayer.  He has never promised to
grant a request that is not in keeping the very basic instructions
that Jesus gave.
    Another reason why God may delay is in order that we may to
come to accept God's better way.  The Apostle Paul suffered from
what he called "a thorn in the flesh."  It was a problem of some
kind.  Paul prayed and asked God to remove that thorn in the
flesh, but God did not grant his request.  Paul prayed the second
time and this time he prayed a little more earnestly and asked God
to remove that thorn in the flesh.  But God did not remove the
thorn.  For the third time Paul went back to God in prayer and
this time he was most serious.  He was just about as much in
earnest as any man could be.  But God still did not remove the
thorn in the flesh.  Instead God had a better way of dealing with
that thorn.  God said, "Paul, my grace is sufficient for thee."
Sometimes in our own lives, we may pray and ask God to do a
certain thing but nothing happens because God wants us to come to
accept His better way of taking care of the need.
    Still another reason that God may delay in answering prayer is
in order to test and strengthen our faith.  If we ask and our
request is completely within God's will it is still sometimes to
our advantage for God to wait in answering our prayer.  The delay
puts our faith to the test.  It causes us to exercise our faith in
God to a greater degree.  The end result is not only that we get
what we ask for, but by the delay our faith in God is greatly
strengthened.
    But for whatever the reason, God does sometimes delay in
answering our prayers.  That is, we pray and nothing happens.  At
least nothing happens for the time being.  We should have
understood this principle from the model prayer.  We were taught
to pray for God's kingdom to come and for God's will to be done in
earth as it is in heaven.  For hundreds of years Christians have
been making those requests, but neither of them have taken place
yet.  We should recognize from this that God sometimes delays in
answering our prayers.  Those prayers will yet be answered.
    A second thing which Jesus here is teaching is that if the
request is a legitimate request and if it comes from the right
motive, then the Christian should persist in asking.  Jesus
illustrates His point.  Jesus asked:  Which of you if you should
go to the house of a friend at the hour of midnight and ask him
for some food to feed a guest who just arrived would have your
request quickly answered by your neighbor.  That neighbor is not
going to bounce out of bed at midnight eager to give you what you
have asked for.  He is at first going to make every flimsy excuse
under the sun.  In the illustration that Jesus used the neighbor
said, "My children are all in bed." This was just a flimsy excuse.
However, Jesus went on to point out that if you keep on knocking
on his door and asking for bread he is going give him the bread.
He is going to finally decide that the only way he is going to get
any rest is to give you what you asked for.  He is not granting
your request because your are his friend, but because he wants to
get rid of you.  But the point that Jesus is making is that
because you kept on asking, he did finally grant your request.

III.   A modern Application to the illustration

    Let me bring this illustration down to our modern day.  It's
11:30 at night.  You hear a knock on your door.  It is your mother
and father who on impulse just jumped in the car late that evening
and drove to your house.  They did not take time to eat supper
before leaving home and they did not take the time to stop
anywhere and get something to eat.  Now they are hungry and all of
the eating joints are closed up at this hour.  Your refrigerator
has gone out and you do not have a thing to feed them.  You are
reluctant to call on anybody at this hour of the night, but you
finally decide to call on one particular friend.  After all, what
are friends far? And this person has been a very close friend.
    So off you go to your friend's house and right at midnight you
knock on your friend's door.  Bang!  Bang!  Bang!  Bang!  Bang!
Finally your friend answers from inside.  Now ordinarily this
friend is as sweet as can be, but this in midnight.  When he
speaks you discover that he has turned into a grisly bear.  He
says, "What in the world do you want?"
    You say as nicely as you can, "I need a loaf of bread and some
turkey ham or bologna or anything to make a couple of sandwiches.
My refrigerator went out and I don't have a thing and my mother
and daddy have come in and they have not had a bite to eat."  Your
friend says, "I'm sorry.  I can't help you.  My brats ate
everything up last night.  I just don't think I have a thing."
    He is just about to close the door when you say, "Oh, I'm not
choicy.  Just anything will do.  But I have just got to have
something.  I can't let my poor mother and daddy go to bed hungry.
I have just got to have a little something.  And by the way, I am
going to need a little coffee and toast for breakfast.
    By this time your friend has decided that you are just going
to keep on standing there insisting until he gives you something.
So the best way that he can get any sleep at all is to give you
what you asked for.
    Now what Jesus is doing here is that He is trying to make a
point.  The point that He is making is that when you know that
your request is legitimate and that you are asking out of the
right motive and what you are asking is within the will of God,
they what you need to do is to keep on asking.
    Jesus is most certainly not trying to compare the disgruntled
friend to God our Heavenly Father.  The friend in the illustration
is bothered by your request at this unseemly hour of midnight.
But God the Heavenly Father is never bothered by our request.  We
can knock at His door at any hour of the day or night.  We never
inconvenience God with our prayers.  Like the friend, He may delay
in answering your prayer.  He may not respond at all right now.
But it is never because He is unconcerned, it is never because He
is bothered, and it is never because He is inconvenienced.
    If God delays to answer your prayer then God has a good
reason.  You may never know what His reason is, but God always has
a good reason.  The point that Jesus is making is that if your
prayer is legitimate---if it is not made out of selfish reasons---
if it is entirely for the honor and glory of God---if it is the
kind of request that you know is in keeping with His will---then
keep on asking.  What God wants you to do is to keep on asking.

IV.  Our Lord's application of this illustration

    V. 9, "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 am told that the idea expressed in the original language here
is, "Ask and keep on asking.  Seek and keep on seeking.  Knock and
keep on knocking and it shall be opened unto you."
    V. 10, "For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that
seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened."
God wants to answer our prayers.  He wants to grant our requests.
It honors God for us to depend on Him.  But God does want us to
make requests that are not in keeping with the basic instructions
that Jesus gave.  God has never promised to answer prayers that
are not in keeping with those instructions.  God has never
promised to answer prayers that are made without regard to His
honor and glory.  God has never promised to answer prayers that
are not in keeping with His will.  But when our prayers are for
the purpose of His honor and in keeping with His will then God
will answer.  He may delay in answering but He will answer.  That
is, He will answer if we do not give up and stop asking.  He will
answer if we ask and keep on asking.  He will answer if we seek
and keep on seeking.  He will answer if we knock and keep on
knocking.  Just don't give up.  God loves us.  Have faith in Him
and keep on asking.

Conclusion:

    Now if you are unsaved, I have especially good news for you.
You do not have to ask and keep on asking in order to be saved.
All you have to do is to ask one time--that is---if you really
mean it.  If you want to be saved, you can call on the Lord right
here right now and get saved right now.  The moment that you put
your faith in Him to save your soul and you ask Him to save you He
will do it right then and there.  Call on Jesus now and be saved.
    But if you are saved and you want to become a real powerhouse
with God in prayer then you are going to have to learn not to stop
asking just because God has not already answered your prayer.
Search your heart and see if you are asking out of the right
motive.  Search the Scriptures and see if you are asking in
keeping with the will of God.  If you are then never stop asking.
    Let me suggest some things that you should never stop asking
for.  Never stop praying for God's kingdom to come.  Never stop
praying for God's will to be done on ear as it is in heaven.
Never stop praying for me as your pastor.  Never stop praying for
this church.  Never stop praying for the members of your family.
Never stop praying for your neighbors.  Never stop praying for our
country.  Never stop praying for all the Lord's true churches
throughout this whole world.