If you're about the business of building your Christian library, one of the books that you would probably want to consider as an essential in that library would be A. W. Tozer's classic on the attributes of God. And he kind of begins that classic with this statement. The history of mankind will probably show that no people has ever risen above its religion. And man's spiritual history will positively demonstrate that no religion has ever been greater than its idea of God. Worship is pure or base as the worshiper entertains high or low thoughts of God. And so one of the things that Tozer connects here is something that we're going to see in our text this morning in Luke chapter 11 verses 5 through 13. And that is what we believe about prayer. is a direct reflection on what we believe about God Himself. And you recall prior to this text, a couple of weeks ago, we preached on the Lord's Prayer, verses 1 through 4 of this chapter, where the Lord taught us a form to use, a pattern for appropriate prayers, beginning with, My Father. which again was radical in the mind of the Jews. The Jews would not have called God my father. He was the general father of Israel, but not my own. But even in that text, he uses the term Abba, which we could translate dearest father. So there is an intimacy with the prayer that you're going to see even more as he continues in this teaching on prayer through the use of some short parables and explanations of their meaning. In particular, he's going to provide a motivation to prayer for providing us with some loving insight into prayer. So my hope is that you, after learning and understanding more about this text, will be motivated to pray to your father who loves you. Let's go to the Lord in prayer now and ask him to bless our time. Father in faith, we turn to you and we pray, God, that you would show us truth in this text. And, Lord, there are statements made in this text and, in a sense, unqualified promises made by God that at times of despair we might come to doubt. So I pray, God, through the ministry of the Holy Spirit who inspired the Bible, who lives within us, that we would be able to look at the truths of these texts and hold them to our hearts, no matter what our experience might tell us. Help us to be champions of prayer, and in so doing, let us show how much we trust you, love you, and adore you in our prayers. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen. Again, please do turn to Luke chapter 11, and we've been in Luke for about a year, a little over a year now, and we will probably continue to be at least another year as we go through this wonderful gospel. Remember that Jesus is now on the road towards Jerusalem. He is performing fewer miracles now, choosing actually to spend the time and concentrate on teaching his disciples. And we come to the text here beginning in verse 5. God says, Luke writes, And he said to them, which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, friend, lend me three loaves. For a friend of mine has arrived on a journey and I have nothing to set before him. he will answer him from within, do not bother me the door is now shut and my children are with me in bed and I cannot get up and give you anything. I tell you though he will not get up and give him anything because he's a friend yet because of his imprudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs. And I tell you, ask and it will be given you. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. And the one who seeks, finds. And the one who knocks, it will be opened. What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead give him a serpent? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?" I think you'll find your Home Group help, insert of assistance to you this morning as we look at the three components of this text. First of all, in verses 5 through 8, we see that God desires to hear your prayers. In verses 9 through 10, we see that God desires to answer your prayers. In verses 11 through 13, that God desires to give you the best. And that's one of those texts that I think you're going to want to hold on to now and years. the future so first of all God desires to hear our prayers so he gives something of a short parable here on what it might have been something of a common occurrence at the time you've got this unexpected guest showing up in the middle of the night knocking on the door and saying, you know, Saul, we're here. You know, we've made it on our journey. Come in. And they're friends and they're reunited and this kind of thing. And then to his horror, the host of the house where the visitors are coming have realized his cupboard is bare. He meant to go out and get something that day, but he didn't get anything. They didn't make anything. They have no food to offer these poor people who've been on this difficult journey at night. The three loaves that he is specifically mentioning here are probably these three big flatbreads that they would use to both eat, but also use as utensil to sop up the meal. So it was an essential item in every meal for them. And again, it might not have been uncommon. It's hot in the ancient Near East. It's hot in Israel. And often, caravans would actually travel, especially in the summertime, in the nighttime to be able to avoid the heat. So they've come. This guest is traveling. They have great expectation that they will be able to wash up a little bit, get a nice place to sleep, and be able to fill their tummies because they haven't been able to eat much on the road. So there is an expectation here. And basically, again, the stores weren't open at the time. They were very dependent upon their neighbors. And Middle Eastern hospitality is legendary. There's almost a sacred holy duty amongst these people to be able to provide good hospitality for them. a major faux pas within that culture. It would be the talk of the town the next day for this family not to offer the basic hospitality to these traveling people. So, he decides he's going to go over to the neighbor's house. He doesn't have any bread, but he bets his neighbor has a bunch. So he goes in the middle of the night and starts knocking on the door. Starts knocking on the door. Starts knocking on the door. Hey, some people showed up. We need some bread. Give me three loaves. We don't have any bread. So you can kind of see the situation here and the awkwardness of it, right? Of this situation here. And of course, the neighbor rejects his plea with four different points. Do not bother me. And I bet he didn't say, do not bother me. Ciao. Peace, brother. Do not bother me. The door is now shut and my children are in bed with me and I cannot get up and get you anything. And again, it helps to understand the context of what we speak. The houses were often just one large room and the whole family would sleep on a pallet or on a raised platform in the middle of the bed. So you got mom and dad and then all bunches of children scattered all over the place like little dachshunds. They're just everywhere. And there's some over here, and there's some over there. And the dad's thinking, I can't get up. I'll knock over three children on the way to get you your bread. The door's probably got this big bar on it. It's very noisy. They'd have to light a lamp to find it. He'd have to rummage through the cupboard. You're kind of sympathetic to this guy, right? I mean, what jerk knocks on your door and says, give me some bread? I didn't plan. And if you've done that, I apologize for offending you. My children came, I can't get up and get anything, but the friend keeps knocking. The friend keeps knocking. Because, again, the level of hospitality that was expected at this time would push through the awkwardness of waking up your friend and causing his children not to sleep and that kind of thing. We would have said, oh, don't worry about it, we're fine, and we would be willing to go to bed hungry, but not them. And Jesus understood that. So this parable makes a lot of sense to them. But they were hungry travelers wanting some food. So in my research, I came across an important, I think, illustration of this in an account with Winnie the Pooh. So, Pooh is walking by. He's walking through the woods, the hundred acre woods. He sees rabbit's holes. You know, rabbit's the real grumpy one, right? And he sees rabbit's hole there. And he wondered if he maybe could stop by for a little snack at Rabbit's house. So, he calls out. I really practiced my Winnie the Pooh accent. But it came out like Elon Musk, and it just, it didn't work. So I'll try it, but you know, is anyone at home? And then suddenly Pooh hears a scuffling noise from inside the hole, and he said, what I said, and he says it louder, is anyone at home? And from inside, Rabbit says, no, said a voice, and then added, and you don't need to shout so loud, I heard you quite well the first time. Pooh, of course, says, bother. Isn't there anyone here at all? And Rabbit says, nobody. And Pooh keeps going on. All right, note to self, don't use Pooh illustrations from future sermons. So you got this relentless. So Rabbit wouldn't give in, but this man actually gave in. Notice, and this is fascinating. Notice what the text says here. Because of his imprudence, He will rise and give him whatever he needs. The man just wouldn't go away. He just keeps knocking at the door. And the children are starting to stir anyway. And he said, I'll get up. I'll give you whatever you need. But that word imprudence. Now, if you have a new American standard or NIV, they're very gracious. Those must have been Southern interpreters or something like that, because they translate that word persistence because of his persistence. the man got up again. That's not what that word means. What it means actually, the Greek word means one who acts without any sensibility to shame or disgrace. You actually could translate the word imprudence Shamelessly. He shamelessly keeps knocking on the door. So we think that's kind of a bad thing, right? That's not a good thing. But basically the demands of the hospitality were greater than the demands of not waking up your neighbor. So even though shamelessly doesn't generally describe a good quality, in this situation it's praised. Now you need to get that because Jesus is going to make the connection to prayer. He just shamelessly keeps going and keeps knocking or, as we'll see in a moment, keeps praying. He continues to move forward. I was reminded of Monica, Augusta's mother. Augustine was a cohabitating, he didn't know the Lord and ended up being the father in a Western civilization and a great theologian. But Monica was talking to the bishop and in tears was talking about how she consistently prayed constantly for her son's salvation. And the bishop said, surely with tears like that, God would not refuse to answer your prayer. Your son will be saved. And he was. And he was just that that shameless, just keep knocking, keep praying, keep hoping, in a sense, almost violently present your petitions and express your need. Reminds me of Matthew, chapter 11, verse 12, from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence and violent men take it by force. Bunyan has a great description of that, of people lining up to get into heaven and there's guards at the doors and some people are hesitant and this one man says, write my name down and goes in with sword and storms the gates of heaven and takes it by force. Riken says this, this then is how we should pray, not timidly dropping God hints about what is needed, but boldly, even shamelessly presenting our petitions before God and then continuing to pray about them until we get an answer. Then we see here next that God desires to answer our prayers in verses nine through 10. He's kind of explaining the meaning of the parable here with these three different imperatives. Ask and it will be given you. That implies requesting assistance and that you have a conscious need. But it also implies humility, right? You recognize that there's things that you can't accomplish without God. Ask and it will be given you. Seek it and you will find. That continues with the thought of asking, but it has an action. It involves some effort, right? Seeking. And then knock and it will be open to you. So that includes the asking and the seeking, but then the idea of persevering. You're continuing to pound on the door of heaven. And essentially these commands are increasing in intensity and they're in the present imperative. And you were thinking, I thought they might be in the present imperative. So you could, this is one of your home group helps questions. You could actually interpret this. Keep on asking and it will be given to you. Keep on seeking and you will find. Keep on knocking and it will be open to you. This is what faith looks like to God. It's what faith looks like to God. And if we were honest, we don't have this kind of faith. Our culture trains us in the lack of perseverance. And we have to take this to mind. This is a call to persevere in prayer. Again, I was thinking about illustrations in Scripture of Jacob. You know, Jacob, he's coming back into the lands of Abraham and he's terrified of meeting his brother Esau. And he's there by himself. He sent his family ahead to kind of try to... Well, I wasn't sure what his motives were. You know, maybe after wiping them out, Esau would be so exhausted, he won't wipe him out. But I think it was just to kind of satisfy Esau's wrath and anger. And he's there alone in the tent. And God shows up. He's in prayer. He's anxious about the next day. He's in turmoil about what's going to happen. All these promises of God. But here I am, my angry brother, who I ripped off years ago, is showing up on the scene here. And I love that in Genesis chapter 32 says, and a man wrestled with him. The man is God, the pre-incarnate Christ. The man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. And when the man saw he could not prevail against Jacob, he touched the hip and his socket. And he says, your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and men and have prevailed. He wrestled with God in prayer. And it's so, in a sense, impressed God that God changed his name from deceiver to one who wrestles and prevails with God. And he's our spiritual father in many, many ways. You ever wrestled? You know, we would have PE. Is PE still required? I hated P.E., but anyway, so he had to go to P.E. We would wrestle in P.E. and the coach didn't like me that much. I don't know why. And he would always put this guy, I'm not going to tell you his name, he's actually dead. All right, that just got weird. But anyway, he would always get this one guy to go against me. And he was at least 30 to 40 pounds heavier than me. Now, when you're wrestling, that makes a big deal. So I paid attention to the raffle wrestling. It's kind of cool. So I paid attention to how you do the half Nelson, and the full Nelson, and the half nook, and all that stuff. And so I'm doing all. And I'm winning. I'm just scoring points. I'm just flipping around. And I'm going around and thinking. And Dave, I think I lost to this guy three times. He had no points, but about 30 seconds before the end of the match, he just laid on top of me. And I was so exhausted from all my point-getting that I couldn't get up. And he won. And he won. Y'all, I remember, I can still remember, I'm scarred. I have PTSD from PE and wrestling. How exhausted I was in having this man laying on top of me. That's kind of how your prayer ought to be. That's what God's calling us to do. Sweat in our prayers. We need to shamelessly present our prayers before the Lord and we need to keep asking, keep finding, keep seeking, keep knocking. And I love these promises. If you do this, it will be given to you, you will find, and it will be opened to you. Now, you know what's interesting is Jesus doesn't hesitate. He doesn't qualify these things. We kind of tend to qualify them, but He doesn't qualify these things. Now, there's other qualifiers in Scripture. We understand that you can't ask for evil. that and we'll see that he's you know you need to ask for good things and that he will cause all things to work together for good and that sort of thing but he can't encourage you there's nothing evil about praying for someone's salvation there's nothing evil about praying for someone's health there's nothing evil about praying for your children to rise up to bless the lord so he's encouraging to this and you know as parents we're hesitant to make promises to our children you know Daddy, we'll be able to go to the beach. We'll say something like, we sure hope we can if we can get a beach house in May. You know, we qualify. Jesus just says, ask, seek, knock. You know why? Because we don't necessarily have the power to get the beach house. Something may come up. Work may come up. We may not be able to get it. Jesus got all the power he needs. He didn't have a problem with us doing this. Really remarkable, isn't it? But when we pray, you know, God doesn't need more information. He's not surprised by our circumstances. He's omniscient. He does not lack insight into our needs, but he commands us to ask that he would be honored and that we would be blessed because it's God intends to bless you. He intends to give you good, but he may not do it until you pray. because your prayers are the vehicle for how he's going to bring this about. He's the great first cause of everything, but then there's a million little second causes that bring about that will. And I give you an example of that. One of our favorite verses in Jeremiah, right? Everybody thinks about Jeremiah being the depressed, weeping prophet, but Jeremiah also had hope. Listen to this text, and you're probably familiar with it, Jeremiah 29, 11. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for wholeness and not for evil to give you a future and a hope. That's some of your life verse, right? That's a great verse. Pay attention to the verses that follow immediately that promise. You will then you will call upon me prayer and come and pray to me and I will hear you and you will seek me and find me when you see with all your heart and I will be found by you, declares the Lord. So he plans to give you a future and a hope and he's waiting for your prayers. He's waiting for you, but I have prayed. Keep praying, but I'm exhausted. Keep praying. Keep praying. James 5 says this, the effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. So we we need to believe what God says about this. He wants to do us good and he wants to do us good by answering our prayers. And he gives us this promise for everyone who asks, receives and the one who seeks finds and the one who knocks, it will be opened to you. And then we see here, God desires to give you the best. And this might be the most challenging part of this text, verses 11 through 13. He kind of raises the level of discussion from this friend who has this need for this bread in the middle of the night to fatherhood. And again, this kind of loops back to the fact that we start off the Lord's Prayer by saying, our Father. So our Father in heaven is going to give us what we need. He says, what father among you, if a son asks for a fish, will instead give him a serpent? Or if he asks for an egg, we'll give him a scorpion. Now, in a similar lesson during the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus also added, which one of you, when his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? So those are the three examples, right? That's basic food in Palestine 2,000 years ago, right? You got bread and fish. and an egg. I mean, it's basic food there. So which one would you... And notice he says, you fathers know how to do the good things even though you're evil. This is a great verse to teach total depravity. The fallen nature of man. Even a good father is at his core actually a sinful man. Now, I don't have to convince some of you that fathers can be evil. But most fathers really do delight and enjoy giving good things for their children. Most fathers do do that. I mean, I was kind of the household Santa. I love finding out what the children wanted and just would spend a long time getting the perfect gift for them and wrapping it and we'd all wait for each other to open up their own particular gift and we would all celebrate with everybody. I mean, that's what fathers love to do. They love to, in a sense, spoil their children and the wives have to fix them after we've done that. But we love that. We just love delighting our children. That's one of the fun things about being the father. And one of the cool things about being a father is you get to be a kid all over again. given these great toys that you wanted when you were a kid. So anyway, you get that picture, right? Fathers love, by and large, giving their children good gifts. And he makes a comparison. He argues here from the lesser to the greater. If a worldly fallen father of a son of Adam, with all of his sin, knows how to do something good, how much more does God, with no sin, with complete understanding, How much more does he love to give things to his children? Y'all, you need to let that sink home. Because we kind of get this. We kind of get this. OK, Jesus, he's approachable, but the father in heaven, I don't know. But, you know, he's he's full of wrath and fire and all that kind of this is the father who loves to give you good gifts. That's what Jesus is saying here. So again, our prayer is never going to elevate beyond our opinion of God. And if we see God as a miser, as a trickster, as a liar. We're not gonna go to Him and ask for these good gifts, which He's waiting for in order to give us these good gifts. So He says, how much more? And then He says this, how much more would the Heavenly Father give you the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him? There is no greater gift on the planet than the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit brings about conversion. The Holy Spirit reveals mysteries hidden to most people. The Holy Spirit explains the word of God. The Holy Spirit causes you to love fellowship with one another. I mean, the Holy Spirit is the great paraclete, the great comforter. The Holy Spirit is the one who gives you hope. You could literally be eating gruel in a concentration camp and be filled with joy because of the Holy Spirit. Because of the Holy Spirit. So we need to know that the father loves us, he cares for us, and he wants to be he is both approachable and he wants to be generous. Now, let me level with you. Some of you are thinking about all these prayers that I've prayed that haven't been answered. Or God said no. You prayed someone would live and they died. You prayed someone wouldn't get sick. You pray you'd do well on a test. You pray you'd get a new job. You pray for the conversion of your children. You pray for the conversion of your grandchildren. And you haven't seen that. I understand that. I've been a little afraid of this text. Because I have told God. And some of y'all know the trials that Nancy and I have gone through over the last few years. I've told God at times in the flesh, God asked for bread. And you gave me a rock. I asked for fish and you gave me a serpent. This is not what we asked for. But let me tell you, despite your experiences, despite my experiences, God's word is true and God is good. And we can't see we cannot see we are not God. We have to submit to his understanding. We cannot see the millions of little lines of light that go into each one of us. Some stretching to other people in this room, some stretching to people maybe 60 generations from now, where God is working his purposes out. And sometimes the absolute best way for God to make his purposes out is for that loved one to die. or you to get cancer, or for your child to be gay. And I don't know why. I don't know why. But God is good and his word is true. I love what Kent Hughes said. I love Kent Hughes anyway, just a great guy. How much more is this true of our perfectly father in heaven? If this is true of a failed father, he loves giving good gifts. He would never give his child a scorpion or a serpent or a rock. He has never given any of his children anything but the best. And I highlighted that and I just ponder that and I just pray through that, and I've always believed it, but it's just so good to be reminded of it. Let me let me rephrase that. God has only ever always given you the best. And I want to say that to every one of you. God has only ever always given you the best. God has only ever always given you the best. God has only ever always given you the best. Take that struggle and just throw it away. Take that voice that caused doubt, take the temptations of Satan and just ignore them and just rest in the fact that God loves you and God has only ever always given you the best. And if you lose your health and none of your children rise up to be in the church, And you get the cancer that you so dread and your house falls apart and everything. Remember what he taught the disciples when they marveled at the fact that the demons were subject to them. Rejoice that your name is written in the book of life. There's not a soul there. I don't know how many people are in heaven. Millions, millions, billions. There's not a soul up there that begrudges what God did while he was alive. Not a one. Learn their lesson today. God has only ever always given you the best, even though it may look like a scorpion or may look like a serpent or may look like a rock. It's not. God is working his purposes out in a remarkable way. Father, I pray that you would help us help our lack of faith. Help us to remember this passage and so many others. Help the Holy Spirit within us to shout, this is true, amen. Even when it looks like everything's falling apart. We are weak, we are selfish, we are so much like Israel. In this whole journey, this life, all we've done is whined and complained. And yet you've kept us on manna, none of us are starving. You have blessed us in incredible ways and our names are written in heaven. And we have the Holy Spirit. So help us, Lord. To stop being anxious, stop being coveting, stop being bitter. And remember that God has only ever always given us the best. In Christ's name, amen.