The Parable and Promise of Prayer, Part 1

Let's pray together. Father, we are grateful for today, one more day that Lord we can spend glorifying your name this side of eternity. We know that one day you're going to return and take us home to be with you. Until that time, Lord, we need to be faithful stewards of the gospel. We need to be faithful to you personally and pray that Lord the things we learned today will enable us to live in the light of your glorious word. Thank you for the opportunity we have to study you one more time. In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen. Gave your Bible, turn with me to Luke chapter 11. Luke chapter 11, we find ourselves in verse number five, down through verse number 13 this week and next week. We're talking still about prayer. We have spent many weeks looking at the disciples' prayer. They had asked the Lord to teach them how to pray. And so the Lord taught them. And so we have spent several weeks looking at what it means to pray the way God has designed us to communicate with him. And I hope that you have listened and that you have learned in your prayer life has changed drastically because of what the Bible says concerning prayer.

Yet I also know that for the most part, when you talk about prayer, most people just don't listen because we're not really good at at praying. It seems almost sometimes trite or even boring. We sit down to pray and we can't even keep our attention on what we're talking about for a good minute or two because our mind begins to wander. Of course, that's none of you. That's just the people in the second service whose minds wander when they pray.

We know that you're the spiritual ones. You're here early on Sundays and you love the Lord. But our minds tend to wander. And so therefore, we begin to think about the events of the day. We begin to think about all of our problems. And next thing we know, we are not talking and communicating with God. We're thinking about all the problems we have in our lives. And the Bible says that we're to cast all of our cares upon him because he cares for us.

But prayer seems to be one of the key missing ingredients in our own personal lives as well as our family lives and even our church life. We tend to take God for granted and to look at prayer as something that, well, it's trivial.

It really doesn't work anyway. I mean, after all, God is sovereign. He's got it all under control. So what difference does it make if I ever communicate with him anyway, even though he's told me, commanded me to pray specifically without ceasing? It was one author who said this about prayer. Prayer is like a foreign land. When we go there, we go as tourists. Like most tourists, we feel uncomfortable and out of place. Like most tourists, we therefore move on before too long and go somewhere else. He's right.

We feel very uncomfortable on our knees. We feel very uncomfortable approaching the throne of grace, even though the Bible says that we are to go boldly before that throne.

We tend to almost seem like tourists when we go there. We're like foreigners when it comes to prayer. I don't want that to be the case for me. And I would hope that you don't want that to be the case for you either. Jesus is concerned about how it is we pray. So he's taught us how to pray. He teaches us how to pray because he knows our minds begin to wander. He teaches us how to pray because we know that we don't know how to pray as we ought to pray. So he tells us how to pray. With that, he attaches the most significant promise to those who pray his way.

And so many times we forget about the promise that God gives to us. And in verses 5 to 13, he gives us a parable with a promise. And with that promise comes the foundational element of how it is he wants to work in your life and mine when it comes to prayer. Let me read it to you.

Luke 11 verses 5 down through verse number 13. And he said to them, suppose one of you shall have a friend and shall go to him at midnight and say to him, friend lend me three loaves for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey and I have nothing to set before him. And from inside, he shall answer and say, do not bother me. The door has already been shut and my children and I are in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything. I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend yet because of his persistence, he will get up and give him as much as he needs.

And I say to you, ask and it shall be given to you seek and you shall find knock and it shall be open to you for everyone who asks receives. He who seeks finds and to him who knocks, it shall be opened. Now suppose one of you fathers is asked by his own son for a fish. He will not give him a snake instead of a fish Willie. Or if he is asked for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion Willie. If you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly father give the Holy spirit to those who ask him nestled in this little paragraph comes the great promise of answered prayer and how God wants to work in your life.

And in it, there's even a little bit of humor, believe it or not. We see another side of our God and, and, and the humor he offers in the parable to, it almost makes us laugh at what he's saying. But there is a particular point he wants us to come to grips with because he wants us to know that he answers prayer and he wants to answer it more than you ever know. And so we're going to talk about that. It's imperative that we understand God in order to be a mature believer, you must come to grips with the character and nature of God.

You must understand who he is and what he does. Mature believers, they rest in the reality of their redeemer. They know who he is. They know that he exists and they begin to understand more and more of his character. We know that God's incomprehensible. We understand that. But, but one of the greatest studies we've ever done as a church is exploring the essence of God, studying the attributes of God. We need to know about how powerful our God is, how much he knows he knows everything. We need to understand his sovereign control over all of life's events.

He's a forgiving God, a loving God, a just God, a merciful God, a compassionate God. He's a God, unlike no other God, because he is the only God and the God of the Bible is the true God. And believers, mature believers, want to understand God according to his word. And when you come to understand him, you begin to realize that our God is completely in control of everything that happens. He is perfectly, completely in control of all things. Job, one of the great mature saints of the Old Testament said these words, Job 42 verse number one, I know that thou canst do all things and that no purpose of thine can be thwarted.

That's the mature man. I know that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can ever be thwarted. The mature man understands that God is in perfect control of all of life's events. He rests in that. The sovereignty of God is the most freeing attribute of God known to man. It frees you unlike any other attribute of God. And it causes you, listen, to sleep really, really well at night, to rest in the fact that there's someone in control who knows what they're doing because you're not in control and you have no idea of what's happening.

But God does. And so you rest in that reality. Psalm 33 verse 11 says this, Psalm 33 11. The counsel of the Lord stands forever. The plans of his heart from generation to generation. The counsel of the Lord stands. No purpose of thine can be thwarted. Why? Because God is in control. He is sovereign. We began 2010, this year, in January, looking at the fact that God's plans are unalterable and that his power to run those plans is unfathomable. That's how we began this year, 2010 in January. I know that's a long time ago for most of you.

It's hard for you to remember last week, let alone several months ago. But it's unique how God uses Wednesdays and Sundays to be intertwined together to teach us some of the most important lessons we can ever learn. I don't plan it that way. It just happens that way because God's in control and God wants us to understand him. The counsel of the Lord stands. It contrasts that with Proverbs chapter 29. I'm sorry, Proverbs chapter 19 verse number 21, which says, many are the plans in a man's heart, but the counsel of the Lord, it will stand.

In other words, we have all kinds of plans, don't we? And we go through those plans and those plans, they're always changing. Our plans change based on the weather. If it's sunny, we go to the beach. If it's raining, we go someplace else. But we have to wait to see what the day is going to be like. Well, with God, it's not that way because God doesn't have to wait for knowledge concerning specific events or days. He knows. He's omniscient. So God's counsel stands forever. Our plans, man's plans change.

They change based on my salary. They change based on the weather. They change based on my health, but they always change. They're not fixed. They don't stand forever. The counsel of the Lord stands forever. His plans are fixed. No purpose of thine can be thwarted. God never has to receive more information. He knows everything perfectly. In fact, over in Isaiah chapter 14, verse number 24, it says these words, Isaiah 14, 24, the Lord of hosts has sworn saying, surely just as I have intended, so it has happened.

And just as I have planned, so it will stand. Verse 27, for the Lord of hosts has planned and who can frustrate it? And as for his stretched out hand, who can turn it back? It emphasizes the fact that God has a plan. It is a fixed plan. It stands forever. Isaiah 46, verse number nine or verse number eight. Remember this and be assured. Recall it to mind you transgressors. Remember the former things long past for I am God and there is no other. I am God and there is no one like me declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times, things which have not been done, saying my purpose will be established and I will accomplish all my good pleasure.

I mean, if he knows the end from the beginning, he knows how it all begins. He knows how it all ends because he has it all mapped out. Everything is fixed. Everything stands. No purpose of God can be thwarted. That is our God and the mature man rests in the reality that his Redeemer is absolutely sovereign over all things. In fact, in Acts 1 7, it was the Lord who said to his men these words, he says, it is not for you to know times or epics which the father has fixed by his own authority. So the clock time as well as the events that take place in chronological time have all been fixed.

The counsel of the Lord stands forever. No purpose of God's can ever be thwarted. It runs as God has designed it to run, so much so that in Acts chapter 4 verse number 27, these words are spoken by the believers when they say, for truly in the city there were gathered together against thy holy servant Jesus, whom thou didst anoint both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever thy hand and thy purpose predestined to occur. The early church knew that what Pilate did, what Herod did, they accomplished because the predetermined plan of God made it happen.

That's what made them as mature as they were. They could rest in the reality that their Redeemer was absolutely sovereign over all things. He planned it all. He's in control. He's omnipotent. He's omniscient. He is sovereign. He rules overall. So you say, okay, we get that. We understand that. Why are you telling us that again? For the simple reason that if God has a purpose and it can't be thwarted, He has a counsel and stands forever. The times and ethics the Father has fixed are by His own authority, then really what difference does it make if I ever go to Him and pray about anything because I'm not going to change His mind?

Make sense? Do you actually think that your prayer is going to change the mind of God? If everything's fixed, the counsel of the Lord stands forever, do you think that you going to Him and praying is going to change anything about what's going to happen? Answer, no, not at all. So why am I praying? Why does God even command me to pray? Well, why would I even do that? Why even bother? Well, why would I even, even, even bother? Lord, you know, you're running the universe and you've got a lot of things going on.

Why do I even go bother throwing the little things, the little petty problems that I have at the throne of God? It's like the lady who came to G. Campbell Morgan and said, do you think God cares about the little things in our lives? And G. Campbell Morgan responded, well, do you think there's really anything big to God at all? Answer, no, there's nothing in our lives that's big at all compared to who God is and how big God is. So the question comes, if God is running everything, He's got it all under control, His counsel stands forever, why would I even bother bringing to Him any need that I could possibly have?

Because my prayer is not going to change His mind, it's not going to change His plan, nothing I do will ever change what God has determined to happen. That's a good question. What do I do? Why would God even tell me to go to Him in prayer? Well, let me give you a few examples that the Bible gives us about people.

Way back in the book of Nehemiah, Nehemiah tells us something unique about a man who was a great instrument in the hand of God. Nehemiah knew about the ruins in Jerusalem. He knew that God knew about Jerusalem lying in ruins and Judah in Babylonian captivity. He knew about the difficulties that the nation of Israel was having. He knew that God knew it. He knew that God had even ordained the Babylonian captivity, that God had orchestrated all of that. He knew that. Yet Nehemiah would say these words in Nehemiah chapter one, verse number four.

Now, it came about when I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven. So here's Nehemiah, a great man of God, knowing that his God orchestrated the Babylonian captivity, that Jerusalem was in ruins, all prescribed by a purpose of God that cannot be thwarted, and yet he begins to sit down and mourn and fast and pray to his God. This is this. And I said, I beseech thee, O Lord, God of heaven, the great and awesome God who preserves the covenant of loving kindness for those who love him and keep his commandments.

He knows about God. He knows about the character of God. Let thine ear now be attentive and thine eyes open to hear the prayer of thy servant, which I am praying before thee now day and night on behalf of the sons of Israel. Lord, I want you to open your eyes. Lord, I want your ears to hear my prayer on behalf of the people of Israel. Here is Nehemiah going to his God who has orchestrated all that's taken place in the land of Israel up to this point because God is sovereign. Nehemiah understands that.

He says, Lord, I want you to hear my prayer. I want you to open your eyes and I want you to see the condition of your people. Kind of a bold thing to go to God that way. Would you not agree? But that's what he did. In fact, if you go to Psalm 17, Psalm 17, verse number one, it says this.

Hear a just cause, O Lord. Give heed to my cry. Give ear to my prayer, which is not from deceitful lips. Lord, I want you to hear me. Lord, I want you to listen to me, says the psalmist. Psalm 27, verse number seven, says it this way. Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice and be gracious to me. The psalmist says, I want you to hear me. I want you to be gracious to me. And Lord, I want you to answer me. How many times have you gone to prayer and say, Lord, hear what I'm going to say. And Lord, I want you to answer my prayer.

We don't do that. We kind of sheepishly go before God and kind of say, well, Lord, I know you're busy. You're running the universe and all. And I know that you got a lot of things on your plate. And I know you're trying to keep the universe, you know, together. And, and yet, if you, if you got a moment, I just want to say a few things and, and I hope you hear me. We don't go to God and say, Lord, hear me. And I want you to answer my prayer. And then it says over in Psalm 55, verse number one, these words, Psalm 55, verse number one, give ear to my prayer, O God, and do not hide thyself from my supplication.

Give heed to me and answer me. Answer me, God. Hear me, God. Give heed to my prayer. Psalm 102, verse number one, states it this way.

Psalm 102, verse number one, hear my prayer, O Lord, and let my cry for help come to thee. Do not hide thy face from me in the day of my distress. Incline thine ear to me in the day when I call. Answer me quickly. And when's the last time you said that? And we, we don't want to impose upon God and have him answer quickly because that, I mean, we don't want to tell God what to do. But the psalmist would go to his God in prayer, and there's this, there's this boldness in their prayers, which seems to be lacking in your prayer and in my prayer.

That, that kind of, of boldness, that, that kind of passion, that almost, that relentless kind of asking and pleading upon God to do something now.

We tend not to do that. And yet, that's what the psalmist did. That's what Nehemiah did. So, how does that all fit into the fact, if God has a plan, it runs according to his schedule, not yours. It's fixed. It stands forever. In fact, he says in Psalm 33, from generation to generation, it stands forever. It can never be thwarted. Why am I going to go to God and even begin to communicate with him? Simply because God has not only ordained the end, but he has ordained the means to that end. That's important for us to understand.

And to be involved, listen to the opportunity to experience the blessing. Let me say it to you this way.

We know that the prophet Micah told us that the Messiah would be, would be born in Bethlehem. Micah 5, verse number two.

We, we know what the Bible says. We also know that Mary and Joseph lived in Nazareth, not Bethlehem. But God ordains the end, as well as the means to accomplish his end. And so, there is Caesar Augustus, who is a pagan, who decides to send forth a decree that a census be taken in Israel. For that to happen, that would require Mary and Joseph, in the ninth month of her pregnancy, to get on the back side of a donkey and make a journey down to Bethlehem, to register. God ordains the end, as well as the means to that end.

So much so that he'll use a pagan emperor to accomplish his purposes, so that the prophecy of Micah 5, verse number two, will be accomplished.

God ordains the means, as well as the end. Caesar Augustus knew nothing about Micah the prophet, and certainly knew nothing about the coming of a Messiah. Another example is in Acts chapter two. God determined, predetermined in eternity past, that Christ would be the sacrifice for our salvation. But the means to accomplish that was the Roman government. He ordained the end, as well as the means. Oh, by the way, your salvation is the same. Your salvation was predetermined in eternity past. Your name was written in the Lamb's book of life in eternity past.

But the means to your salvation comes by grace through faith. God ordains the end, as well as the means. God ordains the fact that you will be sanctified, that you will be set apart, and you will grow in the likeness of his image. The means by which that happens is through prayer and the ministry of the Spirit of God through the Word of God. He ordains the end, as well as the means. That's why the Bible says to pray, because prayer is the means by which God accomplishes His plans.

That means that God is wanting to use you to orchestrate His plans, and that in using you to orchestrate His plans, you get the opportunity to experience the richest blessing this side of eternity. That's why you pray. Now, that doesn't transform your prayer life. God have mercy on your cold, cold soul, because God is doing something unique. In fact, He says in verse number 8 of Luke 11, because of His persistence, He will get up and give him as much as He needs. That word persistence is a word translated shamelessness.

You can translate it brashness. You can translate it boldness. The old English word importunity is a word that speaks of an annoying relentlessness. Our prayers should be characterized by annoying relentlessness, a shamelessness, a persistence, a boldness, a brashness. That should be the characteristic of our prayers. This man got out of bed to help his friend because his friend was driving him absolutely out of his mind. And that becomes the perfect illustration that the Lord God uses for us to understand how it is we are to, with boldness, with brashness, with persistence, and annoying relentlessness, we are to go before the throne of God.

Because prayer is the means by which God accomplishes His ends. Think about it this way. God has allowed us to be involved in the process of His predetermined will. What a kind and generous and thoughtful and loving God we serve. He wants us to experience the blessing of the perfect orchestration of His providence. He wants us to be involved in the process. Two points I want to cover with you this morning. Number one, the parable.

Number two, the promise. First of all, the parable. Because the Lord knew this question would come. I mean, for thine is the kingdom and thine is the power and thine is the glory. God has a kingdom. God has a will. God has a plan. God has the power to accomplish all that. Okay? So if that's the case, then how is it my prayer works in conjunction with His kingdom, His power, His glory that is forever? How does my prayer life work in conjunction with all that? The Lord knows that. So the Lord immediately goes into this parable to help His men understand, look, you want me to teach you how to pray?

Won't you pray my way? And that, by the way, is the prerequisite. You got to pray His way. If you pray His way, you can ask and you will receive. You'll seek and you will find. You knock, door's open if you pray His way. If you don't pray His way, it won't happen. But if you do it His way, whatever you ask, you receive. That's a promise that God Himself gives. And when you ask, you do it with boldness. You do it with brashness. You do it with a persistence. And you come before the throne of grace, boldly before the throne of grace, because you can say, Lord, hear me and answer me when I cry, because you're praying as He has designed you to pray.

See that? God is so good to us. He says, look, here's how you pray. You want to know how to pray? Here's how you pray. You pray His way, whatever you ask, you receive. Would you seek for? You'll find. Would you not? Door's open. So it all goes back to not whether God's going to answer, because He will. How is it I am approaching His throne and am I praying the way He wants me to pray? That's why we spent weeks, literally months, looking at Luke 11, verses 1 to 4, with along Matthew 6, 9 to 13, because you need to know how to pray God's way.

So Jesus jumps right in. Before the question's even asked, He jumps right in and gives this parable. Suppose one of you shall have a friend. It shall go to him at midnight and say to him, friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey, and I had nothing to set before him. Now, you must understand the ancient times and realize that, you know, if someone comes to your house in the middle of the night, you don't have anything to do, anything to eat, what do you do? You go to the store.

You go 7-Eleven. It's open 24 hours, a.m., p.m., right? They're always open. I mean, this guy couldn't get on the back of his camel, go down to the local a.m., p.m. store in Jerusalem. It doesn't work that way. There were no all-night stores. There was no refrigeration. There was no active preservation, so you could keep food from one day to the next day. You had to bake every day. And so, this friend, whoever he is, has a friend who comes to him in the middle of the night from a long journey. Well, he doesn't have anything to eat, nothing to give him.

So, he goes to his friend, knocks on the door, and says, a friend of mine has come from a long journey. Do you have anything to eat? Do you have some bread? I've got to give him something to eat. Now, remember that in Jewish culture, hospitality was of the highest virtue. Hospitality was part of the religious system. He would choose to be, listen, a bad neighbor in order to be a generous host because hospitality was unique. So, he goes to his friend. He knocks on the door. Hey, I have a friend that's coming, and I need to feed him something.

Do you have any bread? And the friend inside the house says, I'm asleep. My family's asleep. I'm not going to give you any bread. You've got to be kidding me. It's the middle of the night. Tell him to go to bed and give him something to eat in the morning. Don't come to me in the middle of the night. Now, you've got to remember that these are one-room homes, right? I mean, they're not like two and three-story houses where your kids are sleeping upstairs and you're downstairs or something like that.

You're one room. They're over here. In one corner is the sleeping corner. In this corner over here is the cooking corner. In this corner over here is the living room corner. In this corner over here is the doorway. You have one room. Everybody eats and sleeps in the same room. And this guy comes and knocks on your door in a persistent, annoying kind of way and keeps on knocking saying, I need you to give me something to eat because I have a friend of mine that's come from a long journey, and I have nothing to feed him.

And his friend in the house says, do not bother me. The door's already been shut. My cannot get up and give you anything. Would you go away? Would you leave me alone? I'm busy. I'm busy sleeping. And I don't want to get up to give you anything. Tell your friend to go to bed. Feed him in the morning. Verse 8. Jesus says, I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything, because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence, he will get up and give him, listen, as much as he needs.

He's not going to get up because of their friendship. It's not their friendship that dictates his willingness to get out of bed, inconvenience himself, and by this time, everybody in the house is probably awake anyway, to give his friend some food. It's because his friend is annoying him. His friend is persistent. His friend is driving him out of his mind. And if he can just give him something to shut him up and get him away, he'll do that. And this becomes the perfect illustration of what Christ wants to teach us about prayer.

Because Christ is in contrast to the friend in the house. Christ is a complete contrast to the friend in the house. Christ is a loving, generous, kind, compassionate, loving God. And therefore, you go to God, you can go to him and say, Lord, I know you're busy, you got so much on your mind, and I don't want to wake the angels because they might be sleeping in the middle of the night because I have a need. You're not going to wake the angels. Our God never sleeps, nor does he slumber, right? He's not like the friend in the house.

The friend in the house needs his sleep. God, he doesn't need any sleep. He doesn't sleep, nor does he slumber. God is completely different than him. The man in the house responds because he's absolutely irritated with his other friend's persistence. God, who never sleeps, who never slumbers, who loves perfectly, responds to obedient prayer. That's why he says the promise in verse number nine, and I say to you, this is Christ speaking, with divine authority, I'm going to say to you this, ask, and it should be given to you.

Seek, you shall find. Knock, and it should be open to you. Jesus says, I want to let you know something.

I'm going to say to you something that you need to understand. I am not like the friend in the house. You come and you ask, you receive. Zeta'o, seek, long for. Great passion behind the word Zeta'o. You're not going to come and you're not going to interrupt me, God says.

I'm not so busy sleeping, not so busy eating, not so busy taking care of the angels. I'm not going to say, you know what, I'm sorry, the cherubim, the seraphim, they're involved in praise and worship, and it's all about me right now, so don't come and ask me what you want to ask me, because I'm too busy being praised and glorified in heaven. I'm not going to say that, because God says it's not that way.

He says, you come and you ask. I'm completely different than the neighbor. You're not going to irritate me. You're not going to bother me. You're not going to wake me up. I am the sovereign, omnipotent God of the universe who knows everything. He doesn't even say, listen, I know that I said earlier in Matthew 6 that I know what you need before you even ask me, I know I said that, so no sense in even coming to me, because I know what you need anyway, so don't even ask. I know what you need. Don't bother me.

Leave me alone. I know what your needs are. Don't even ask. He didn't say that. He says, the reason I said that is because I want you to know that I know everything, so when you come and ask, I already know, because I want you to ask. I want you to seek. I want you to knock. I want you to be persistent. I want you to be shameless. I want you to come to me with boldness. I want you to come to me with such persistence that you don't get off your knees until you get the answer. That's how I want you to come.

For the most part, you know, we don't spend a lot of time in prayer, because we think that, you know, what's God have to do with my little petty problems, but God is concerned. He tells us to ask, to seek, and to knock. He wants us to come in a manner which is really foreign to us as Christians today. We don't come persistently. We don't come with that boldness and brashness. Hear me, God, when I call. Answer me when I cry, Lord God, but that's His promise. James says you don't have because you don't ask, and when you do ask, you ask to consume it upon your own lusts, he says.

So there is a caveat, and you must pray God's way. That's why he gives us verses two to four. It's not a blank check. He qualifies everything. You must come in God's name, according to God's will, and in essence, with His kingdom. You must come His way, and when you come His way, whatever you ask, you shall receive. Whatever you seek, you'll find, and whatever you knock on, shall be opened unto you, if you come His way. That's His promise. It's a glorious promise. In fact, it's so glorious, He repeats it in verse 10.

For everyone who asks, receives, and he who seeks, finds, and to him who knocks, it shall be open. So just in case you didn't get it the first time, let me come back to you and repeat it this way, because He wants you to know that this is crucial to your spiritual life.

It's crucial to your walk with God. It's crucial to understand how God so desperately wants to respond to you. Remember that very familiar verse way, way back in the book of Jeremiah? The Lord said in verse number 10, for thus says the Lord, when 70 years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill my good word to you, to bring you back to this place. In other words, He designed the 70-year Babylonian captivity. It was all orchestrated by God Himself. He says, and I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord.

God knows the plans. God has plans for you. Every plan that God has for you has been designed specifically for you by Him. I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for your welfare, not for your calamity to give you a future and hope. The plans I have for you are not for your distress, but they are for your desire. They're for your, for your welfare, for your well-being. And then He says, then you will call upon me and come to me and pray to me, and I will listen to you. I will listen.

And you will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart, and I will be found by you, declares the Lord. And I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I've driven you, declares the Lord. And I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile. I brought you to a place in order to put you on your knees so that when you seek me, you're seeking me, you're asking me, you're knocking unto me, is going to be the means by which I will accomplish your ends that I've already predetermined.

But your prayers work in conjunction with my sovereign control of all things because I have designed you to be a man or woman of prayer, and I want you on your knees. And when you seek me, you'll find me. I'll be found by you. You'll have what you want in me. I will restore your fortunes. You will be back where you want to be because you would have sought me in my way. And God just simply says, look, I want to tell you something. I'm in charge of everything. There's nothing I'm not in charge of. And yet I know that that's going to affect how you pray.

So I want you to be like this man in this parable because you're not going to interrupt me. You're not going to annoy me. You're not going to cause a problem for me. You're not going to wake me up. You're not going to be an irritant to me, but you must come persistently. And when you do, when you come with that relentless pursuit of my name and my kingdom, my will, because you know, I'm the God who provides for you, who protects you, who watches over you. And mine is the kingdom and mine is the glory.

It's forever and ever. Amen. It's all mine. And when you persistently come and you ask in my name, according to my will, about my kingdom, I let you know that when you ask, you will receive. When you seek, you'll find. And when you knock and you bang on the door and you keep banging on the door with persistence, it will be open unto you and you will experience the blessings of heaven. That's a promise that God gives to his people. So you got to ask yourself this question. What are you praying about persistently, passionately, brashly?

What are the biggest concerns that you have? Do they fall in line with the divine pattern of prayer that God has already designed for you? And are you on your knees persistently seeking, asking, and knocking? They're in a present imperative. And so it's, I keep on asking, I keep on seeking, I keep on knocking. It's a relentless pursuit of God, his plan for your life. God says, I want to let you know there's a promise here.

You pray my way and you come persistently. I'll answer. I always will. That's a promise that God gives. Question is, do you believe that? Do you really believe that? He goes on and gives a story about, you know, and when you ask for something, you think I'm going to give something you don't like? What father is there that you know that when a son asks for an egg, his father gives him a snake? I mean, are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? If your father who is evil knows how to give good gifts to you, his children, how much more do you think your heavenly father, the most loving, most kind, most compassionate God in the universe, because he's the only God, how much more would he give to you who ask?

Most of us, when we pray, we pray with many doubts. We don't think that God's going to answer. We pray unbelieving, not believing. If someone in your family is not saved, do you just chalk it off to, well, God's sovereign. He's going to save who he wants to save. It's all about his elective purposes anyway. Really? Well, that's true. The great blessing comes in the fact that faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God and how should they hear without a preacher? And God has designed you to be the means to reach the end.

Do you want to be the mean to reach the end? Or you just want to sit back on your duff and do nothing? Just chalk it up to God's sovereign. It's not what the mature Christian does. Oh, by no means. The mature Christian says, I know, Lord, that you're not willing for any to perish, but that all should come to repentance and that you desire all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. So therefore, with persistence, with brashness, with boldness, I will come before your throne and I will ask and I will seek and I will knock until my husband is saved, until my daughter is saved, until my family comes to saving faith.

Because Lord, I know about your kingdom. I know about your name. I know about your will. And I know that you're the sovereign rule of this universe. And I know what you want. And Lord, I want what you want. And I'm not getting off my knees till I get it. That's the mature Christian. It's not the arrogant, that's not an arrogant person saying that. That's the person who knows Luke's 11 verses 5 to 13. He wants to be obedient to God. He wants to pray the way God has designed him to pray and then stay on his knees asking God to do what God promises he's going to do.

And by the way, he'll say it, Lord, do it quickly. Because that's what the psalmist said. Do it quickly, Lord. Can you imagine how many of our prayers go unanswered? Number one, because we haven't prayed God's way or number two, because we haven't been persistent in our prayers.

And all the while God says, I want to use you as the means to accomplish my end. What a privilege. What a God we serve. Let's pray. Father God, thank you for your word. Forgive us, Lord, for in our prayers we come with so much unbelief and doubt. And yet you've called us to come and ask and seek and knock. You've come to show us how to pray. Once we learn how to pray your way, then we can pursue you your way. We can ask the right things and seek the right things and knock on the right things. Lord God, please go before us this day and may we live in the light of what your glorious word says, because you are a great God, a compassionate God, who unlike the friend who was irritated, you're never irritated with us.

You're never too busy. You're never taking a nap. You're never asleep. You're never involved in something that is bigger than us. And we thank you for that. And may we go boldly before the throne of grace that we might receive the grace that we need during our time of need. In Jesus name. Amen.