Harvest Pointe Christian Church, Milford Ohio is a non-denominational Christian Church (Church of Christ) on the Eastside of Cincinnati OH

The Hearer of Our Prayers | Series: Who is Jesus?| 09-07-08

The Hearer of Our Prayers
Luke 11:1-13
Series: Who Is Jesus?

  I. Pray, wanting something more.

 II. Pray, boldly asking for anything.

III. Pray, expecting something great.

Full Text 

Newsweek Magazine conducted a poll
asking Americans what subject
they wanted to hear about the most
when they went to church.
The number one request was,
"How to make prayer more effective."

How many of you feel like
you could have a deeper more meaningful prayer life?
Let me see your hands.
That's most of us.

Luke 11:1 tells us, "One day Jesus was praying in a
certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, 'Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.'"

Jesus' disciples were no different than we are.
They felt they needed to
grow closer to God through prayer.

Remember. 
They had watched Jesus pray for over 2 years.

We saw Jesus praying at His baptism in Luke 3:21.
And the Holy Spirit descended on Him
in the form of a dove and
God spoke from Heaven of His pleasure.

When the crowds grew and pressed Him,
Luke 5:16, says,
"But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed."

Before selecting His 12 Disciples
Luke 6:12, informs us, "One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God."

Before prompting Peter and the disciples to
admit their belief that He is the Son of God,
Jesus was praying.
Luke 9:18 states,
"Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, 'Who do the crowds say I am?'"

When Jesus was transfigured,
when He was changed and spoke to
Moses and Elijah, 2 dead prophets,
we read in Luke 9:28-29, "28… Jesus … took Peter, John and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray. 29As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. "

No one walked closer to God than Jesus did.
And no one did the things Jesus did.

And Jesus' disciples wanted what Jesus had.

In comparison to what Jesus had,
they felt totally inadequate.

It wasn't that the disciples didn't pray.
They Jews prayed several times a day.
They even had memorized prayers for each time.

But the disciples saw a closeness, a relationship
between Jesus and God.
They saw a direct correlation between
the prayer life of Jesus and
His power and leadership.
And they wanted it.
And they asked for it.

So, since we are all in the same boat as Jesus' disciples,
let's take prayer 101 from the master of prayer.

I. Pray, wanting something more.

What is to follow is often called "The Lord's Prayer."
It is a model, a pattern for prayer.
It is not to be memorized as a replacement
for personal communication with God.
It is an illustration of what effective prayer can look like.

Last week Tyler received a lot of cards.
What will he read 1st?
What will he read again through the years?

Hallmark may have spent millions on
those catchy verses, but
Tyler will pass over those and read what you wrote.
It comes from the heart.

And that's what God wants.
What's from your heart.

Even so, this is not a memorized prayer
to be repeated 6 times a day. 
This is a guideline to express our love and needs to God.

A strong evidence that this is a guideline is that
Luke gives us an abbreviated version of
what Matthew recorded.
It was not intended to be THE prayer, but
a guide for our prayers.

Luke 11:2
"He said to them, 'When you pray, say:  'Father, …''"

Father is a relationship word.
We are His children.
We can be comfortable going to God.

Of course, some people try to change that.
Bob Russell said, " Now if somebody gives a prayer and they say, "Our Mother who is in heaven" or "Sophia" or "Eternal Well" or "Great Spirit," I take it that Jesus Christ is not the Lord of their life, because Jesus said, "Now when you pray, here is how to begin: 'Our Father.'"

As Christians, we pray directly to God.
We do not pray through
a saint or the Mother of Jesus or anyone else.
We pray directly to God.

I Timothy 2:5 tells us, "For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus."

We do not pray TO Jesus.
We pray TO God THROUGH Jesus.

That's why we end our prayers, "In Jesus' name."

Verse 2 continues, "Father, hallowed be your name."

Now, how many of you teenagers
walked up to your dad last week and said,
"Hallowed father, can I borrow $100 for gas?"

We just don't use the word, "Hallowed" anymore.

It simply means reverence or respect.

I got to thinking that we are not a respectful nation.
We elevate disrespect.
That is not good.

When we go to God,
even though He is our Father,
we need to say, "I respect your name."
I am in awe of all that is wrapped up in your name.

You are the Creator.
That means when I watch the sun rise,
I say, "God, you are an awesome artist."

You are the God of Love.
That means when I blow it,
I say, "Thank you for loving me, in spite of me."

You are a powerful God.
That means when I see someone hurting, I pray,
"God, please give this person what they need.

I respect your name.

Verse 2 concludes, "Your kingdom come."

When we think of a "kingdom",
we think of geography 1st, and
subjects later.

When we think of the U.S.A.
we 1st think of Maine to Hawaii.
Then, when we go to another country,
we still think of ourselves as U.S. citizens.
Even though we might be within the boundaries
of a foreign country,
we are still United States citizens.

But long ago, when people heard the word, "kingdom,"
they thought 1st of the people, and
2ndly of the geography.

So when Jesus prayed, "Your kingdom come"
He was praying for God's people.
God's subjects who obey Him.

Since God already owns the world,
Jesus was obviously not talking geography.
He was thinking, "people."

This is months before the beginning of the Church.
Jesus was praying for the beginning of the Church.
The Church is God's people who serve Him.

We, too, need to pray for the Church.

Years ago studies showed it takes 40 days
to create a habit. 

That's why there are all kinds of 40 days campaigns.
I want to begin one here today.

I want to begin 40 days of prayer for Harvest Pointe.
I want us to tap into the love and power of God
as we quickly approach our Grand Opening.

It will be simple, but powerful.
Each day I will email you a few things to pray for.
As you go throughout the day,
pause for a few moments and
pray for the items.

At the end of the service we will give you an opportunity to select an accountability partner.

This will be someone that you keep tabs on and
they will keep tabs on you to make certain
we do not forget to pray every day.

As we join together in prayer,
God will bless.

Verse 3, "Give us each day our daily bread."

Some people think it is selfish to pray for yourself.
Jesus teaches us here to pray for ourselves.

Ask Him to help you through the day.
If you have something coming up,
ask God to help you through it.
He will guide, lead, and enable you.

Verse 4.  "Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us."

Yes, Jesus washed all my sins away.
But do you know what?
After that, I have sinned some more.

I John 1:9-10 declares, "9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives."

I still need to ask forgiveness along the way.

I'm like Dennis the Menace kneeling at his bedside, hands folded, and he says, "I'm here to turn myself in."

"God, I blew it. 
Please forgive me. 
Help me to do better."

But here's the hard part.
We are to ask God to forgive us
because we forgive others.

There is a connection.
Jesus even dedicated a parable to it.

Not holding a grudge can be tough,
especially if you're from Ky!

Jesus closes with "And lead us not into temptation."

It is important to point out here that
God will not tempt you.

James 1:13 informs us, "When tempted, no one should say, 'God is tempting me.'  For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone."

If we are seeking to walk with God and
allow Him to lead us,
we are asking God to lead us where we won't be tempted.

We all have a weak spot where Satan can tempt us.
You know it and God knows it.

Jesus is teaching us to ask God
to lead us in a way that will avoid temptation.

Sometimes we are tested by Satan.
We need God's help.

But we are promised in I Corinthians 10:13,
"No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it."

You will be able to resist the temptation
if you are prayerfully walking with God.

You would be amazed to realize how
hard it is to sin while you are praying.

I'd like to point our here that
the length of the prayer is not what's important.

What is important is that it comes from the heart.

This prayer can be read in 20 seconds.

Some people are true prayer warriors.
God has given them the gift of intercession.
They pray for hours every day.

Others walk with God with
short prayers throughout the day.

The important thing is that
you walk with God.

II. Pray, wanting something badly.

Verses 5-6.  "5Then he said to them, 'Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, 6because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.'"

Especially during hot times,
the Mid-eastern people often traveled at night.
They didn't have air conditioned cars.
They walked.
So it was cooler at night.

Someone is traveling at night.
They come to someone's house.

The man in this parable is desperate.

Now notice that effective prayer begins with this feeling of inadequacy. This man said to his neighbor, "I'm desperate. I've got a guest and I've got nothing to feed him." And we humbly admit to God, "My cupboard is bare, Lord. I need more energy. I need more patience. I need more understanding. I need more wisdom. I need more strength." And that kind of prayer flies in the face of a prideful person who pretends to be self-sufficient. But prayer is going to God and saying, "I have a need." Charles Spurgeon once said, "Asking is the rule of the kingdom."

But this man's neighbor did not respond favorably. Verse 7 says, "Then the one inside answers, 'Don't bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can't get up and give you anything.'"

Now we need to understand that some of the houses in those days would have just two rooms, and all the little animals would be brought into one of the rooms and spend the night for protection, and all the family would sleep in the other room, including children. They might be in two beds with four or five people in each bed. I've also read that many of the houses in those days had bars, wooden bars, that they would put over the door with latches and press them down for security. For a person to get up and open the door would require the hammering of that bar, being noisy, and everybody would wake up. So this guy was whispering through the window saying, "I can't get up. Everybody is settled down. If I get up, the chickens will start clucking, the dogs will start barking and the kids will want a glass of water. We'll never get back to sleep. Go away! Don't bother me."

You know what? Prayer can sometimes be a disappointing experience. You pray and you don't get the answer you want immediately. I've prayed for a church building to sell and it didn't. I've prayed for children to be healed and they weren't. I've prayed for people to respond at the invitation and you just stood there. I've prayed for people to lose elections and they won. (Laughter) Someone said that God answers prayer four ways: yes, no, wait, and you've got to be kidding me! (More laughter) And this neighbor said, "You've got to be kidding me! I'm not going to get up and give you something to eat. It's midnight. Come back in the morning."

Verse 8 says, "I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man's boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs." Now underscore the word boldness. It was bold to go next door to a neighbor at midnight when you know he's in bed and ask for three loaves of bread. He wasn't starving; it was no emergency. He just didn't want to look bad to his guest. It was bold to keep on knocking after the friend told him to go away. Most of us would've quietly slipped away lest we risk angering the neighbor even more. But this guy would not be denied. He just courageously kept on knocking. And that's the point of Jesus' teaching: God wants us to be persistently bold in our prayers.

Now Jesus is not comparing God to a grouchy neighbor. What he is saying is, "Look, if a reluctant neighbor will grant an unreasonable request, how much more will a loving Father respond to sincere petitions?" Ephesians 3:20 says, "Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us." You see, God is able to do more than we're asking him to do. And he wants us to ask boldly.

Remember when Jesus went to Nazareth, his hometown, the Bible says that he did no great works in Nazareth. Why? Because they did not believe in him. Jesus had all this power to heal and to help people. He wanted to help them, and these people had needs. But nobody believed in him enough to make the requests, so he did no mighty work in Nazareth. I wonder how many times God wants to do a spectacular work in our life, but he doesn't do it because we don't make the request. James 4:2 says, "You do not have because you do not ask God."

I remember in Bible College looking out the window with my roommate, and we saw a beautiful freshman girl walk by. She was not only very pretty; she was rich. She owned a Chevrolet Impala Convertible. That was very rare on the Bible College campus. And my roommate said, "Wow! I'm going to ask her out." And I said, "Who do you think you are? You better get ready to get shot down." About a year later they were married, and I thought to myself, "You know, there is a lesson to be learned here. You never know how desperate a girl may be." (Laughter) And you do not have because you do not ask.

Now God has unlimited resources and he wants to respond favorably, but we are to ask in boldness. Years ago, January 1st was on a Sunday and I got an idea. I said, "I'd like for us to have one hundred additions in the church to begin this New Year. I prayed for one hundred additions on decision day. That was pretty bold, but God answered affirmatively. Twelve years ago, doctors told one of our ministers, Mike Graham, that he had six months to live because of cancer. We laid hands on him and prayed, and we prayed for him every day…and today he is still ministering in this church. Remember a few years back we prayed for $26 million to be committed by this congregation over and above their regular offering? Dave Stone was told by a professional fundraiser that that would never happen. He analyzed our budget. He analyzed our attendance and said, "It would be a stretch for you to get $18 million." But we prayed hard and you pledged $31 million…and you gave it. I've prayed that God would provide loving Christian wives for my sons, and he's done more than I asked or imagined. I've prayed that he would restore the health of my wife following a stroke. That prayer has been answered in a wonderful way. I've prayed that as a church we would make a significant difference in our city. God has expanded that influence in a sense nationwide. A group of young men in our church prayed that they would get the movie rights to the Christian book, Left Behind, that has to do with the second coming of Christ. And although they had almost no experience in making movies, they got the movie rights and this month the filming is taking place in Toronto, Canada. The poet said:

Thou art coming to a king
Large petitions with thee bring
For his strength and power are such
Thou canst never ask for too much

Jesus said, "You pray personally and you pray boldly." Then in verses 9-13 he gave a promise about prayer to teach the disciples to pray expectantly:

So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

You see, Jesus was teaching his disciples when you pray you pray in a spirit of anticipation that there will be a positive response. No request will go ignored. No search will come up empty. No knock will be unanswered. And the Greek is in the aorist tense, which means, "You keep knocking. You keep on seeking. You keep on asking." In other words, don't come to God only in midnight emergencies, but you keep in constant communication with him. Paul talked about praying with ceasing, and Jesus talked about "abiding in me." In fact, in John 15:7 Jesus said, "If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you." Now that does not mean that God is going to answer every prayer request that we have just exactly the way we pray it. Wouldn't that be an awesome burden to bear? But God will answer the prayer according to his will. Now in verses 11-13 Jesus makes a helpful analogy about that:

Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will 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!

Now Jesus was reasoning here from the lesser to the greater. If an earthly father who is imperfect loves to give good gifts to his kids, surely your father in heaven who is perfect will do much more for you. The key word is good gifts…GOOD. What if the child asks for something that is harmful? What if you have a little girl who says, "Daddy, I'd like a boa constrictor for my birthday?" Are you going to give her a snake? No, you're probably going to give her a goldfish or some kind of pet that is going to be better. Maybe if she didn't make the request at all, you wouldn't have given what you're going to give. Or if your fourteen-year-old son says, "I'd like a Harley Davidson for my birthday." You're probably going to give a Schwinn. (Laughter)

Now we're to ask believing that God is going to give us what is best and we don't have to be afraid of his answer. Back in 1990 Wayne Smith of Lexington failed a stress test. There was obvious blockage in the arteries leading to his heart. As he was going for more tests, fifty-two members of his church gathered together to have a prayer. They prayed that God would heal Wayne through medication, that no surgery would be necessary. If that wouldn't do it, they prayed that Wayne would be healed by angioplasty, balloon surgery. Then they prayed, "But, Lord, if it is necessary…bypass surgery…please let it take care of his problem." Well, it ended up that Wayne had to have triple bypass surgery. But during the surgery the doctors found a hole in the pericardial sac around his heart and they were able to repair it. Prior to the surgery they said that there had been only 363 known cases like his, and all were fatal. They were discovered by autopsy. Had the doctors treated Wayne with medication rather than surgery they said he would have died within a year-not from the blockage but from the hole. Had they tried the balloon surgery, Wayne would've died on the table probably.

You see, when we pray we don't see the future. We don't know what's in the heart of other people or the body of other people, so we pray, "God, your will be done." And he says, "You pray and I'll give you the good gifts." The important lesson here, though, is we ask in faith believing that God is going to do what is best. James 1 says, "When you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord."

Now I want to close by sharing with you three examples of prayer: one normal affecting just a few people, one questionable affecting our church, and one historical kind of affecting the world. Elaine Cook of our church owns a beauty salon and she recently took a course that was really meaningful to her called Excellent Wives. It was so biblical, so helpful that she came back into her salon and she began to tell the other young women about how helpful this course was. One of the young women said, "You know what, Elaine? You ought to teach that course to us." And Elaine's first reaction was, "Oh, no, not me. I'm not a teacher." But she said, "Well, I'll tell you what. I'll pray about it." Because she was concerned about marriages. She prayed, "Lord, if you want me to teach that class, you give me a sign. You open the door so obvious that I can't miss it." The next time she came to church she ran into Debbie Knight, her friend who had taken the course with her. She said, "Debbie, would you be willing to teach a group of women…kind of co-teach with me?" Debbie said, "That's a great idea! Let's do it." So Elaine took that as an open door and they began teaching several weeks ago. Fifteen young women are taking this course on Excellent Wives, and their husbands believe in answered prayer. (Laughter) But that's the way prayer normally works-not something super dramatic. We say, "Lord, I have a need here for guidance. Would you open the door?" And something happens and it becomes clear to us.

Do you remember a couple of months ago we started the morning service about seven or eight minutes late? Now that rarely happens around here. I have this thing about starting on time for a lot of different reasons I won't go into. But about fifteen minutes before this service several weeks ago was to start, the sound technician says, "We've just lost all power. We've blown out a whole section of our soundboard and we have no sound." So I asked the facilities people, "Bring in the backup sound system." We scrambled to set it up. But just before we were to begin, the sound technician said, "Well, we've got the power back and it will be just a few minutes." So we decided to wait and we started seven or eight minutes late. The next morning Teresa Dillon, who has been a member here for over thirty years, called and said, "You know why the service began late yesterday?" "Oh, ya, the sound went out." "No," she said, "My sister-in-law was visiting in town. She's able to come very rarely. But the highlight of her trip every time she comes is to come to Southeast Christian Church. She loves Southeast. However, that morning, for reasons she couldn't control, she got away from the house late. She was so exasperated that as she was driving to church she said, 'Oh, Lord, I'm going to be late! Don't let them start until I get there. (Laughter) I don't want to miss one minute of that service.'" She walked in seven minutes late, sat down and we started. (More laughter) Now I don't know about that one. I don't want to give anybody any ideas who's coming in late. But, you know, Archbishop William Temple once said, "When I pray, coincidences happen. When I don't pray, coincidences don't happen."

The Focus on the Family Newsletter this last month related this dramatic answer to prayer during World War II. In May of 1940 Hitler had just stormed across Europe. Most were hoping that the forces of France would be able to stop him, but France fell in forty days. And there were a half million soldiers-British soldiers, French soldiers-who were trapped in a little coastal enclave called Dunkirk. Hitler's forces, armored forces, were just fifteen miles away. They were already being bombed from the air, and they faced certain annihilation, probably imprisonment or death. It was a dark day. Some British leaders began talking about cutting a deal with Hitler. But on May 24, 1940, the churches of Great Britain called for a National Day of Prayer and it was endorsed by editorial writers, politicians and King George IV. So May 26 was a National Day of Prayer, and church attendance skyrocketed as people in Great Britain pleaded for God somehow to spare their husbands their sons, their fathers trapped at Dunkirk. Former Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain wrote in his diary, "May 26, the blackest day of all." This was the National Day of Prayer. But in reality, that day turned out to be the turning point of the war, because at 7:00 that evening a critical order was issued for all private citizens, for anybody to take any vessel they had-large or small, yacht or fishing boat-and brave the treacherous English Channel to see if they could pick up some of the soldiers trapped at Dunkirk. Two significant things happened. One was the waters of the English Channel remained calm enough that even the smallest vessels were able to make it even though there was a lot of gunfire and bombing. But the second was even more inexplicable. For some unknown reason Hitler did not order an attack even though he was urged to do so by his generals. He kept them at bay for weeks even though victory was in the palm of his hand. He later just scoffed and said he was trying to give Churchill a sporting chance. But you have to believe that the God who stopped the mouths of the lions in Daniel's day was somehow stopping Adolf Hitler. The Bible says the heart of a king is in the Lord's hands"-even a stubborn, rebellious, defiant ruler like Hitler. Meanwhile, a large number of Allied troops were scrambling aboard little boats and yachts. On May 29, 47,000 were rescued; May 30, 53,000; May 31, 68,000; June 1, 64,000. In all, 336,000 men found their way to safety in the British Aisles and Britain regrouped and prepared to defeat Hitler. Everybody in Britain was jubilant and many of the secular writers termed it a miracle. If you being evil know how to give good gifts to your kids, how much more does the Heavenly Father want to give good gifts to those who ask?