You'll notice that Jesus has been teaching us to pray, and he gives us a model that we can follow, and that model or that pattern is Lord's Prayer. You could say those are really the components of a conversation that we may have with the Lord, right? He outlines for us how we ought to bring about, pray for the holiness of God's name, His kingdom come, This will be done, and only after that, right? He says we can also bring our knees before him, right? With a view to his kingdom, for the coming of his kingdom, for the glory of his name. And now today we're gonna look at two parables. And in the middle of those parables is an encouragement to keep on asking, to keep on seeking, to keep on knocking. And what we're gonna see in these two parables is, Our God in heaven is so much greater than what we see in the parable in terms of the reluctant neighbor, first of all, and the sinful father, earthly father, in the last part of those verses. So let's read together verses, well, let's read one through 13, and we'll focus on five through 13 today. came to pass as he was praying in a certain place, but he ceased, that one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray as John also taught his disciples. So he said to them, when you pray, say, our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our sins for we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one." And then we focus on these words. And he said to them, which of you shall have a friend and go to him at midnight and say to him, friend, lend me three loaves. For a friend of mine has come to me on his journey and I have nothing to set before him. And he will answer from within and say, do not trouble me. The door is not closed or shut. And my children are with me in bed. I cannot rise and give to you. I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence, he will rise and give him as many as he needs. So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who seeks, receives. He who seeks, finds. And to him who knocks, it will be open. If a son asked for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asked for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? Or if he asked for an ape, will he offer him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him? So how much more, right? It's kind of the emphasis in these two parables. How much more? He's a greater friend, He is a greater Father. That's what we hope to see this morning from these words before us. You know, if you look at these two parables, the first one is about what? The reluctant neighbor, right? His heart is not really there. His love was not really there, but nonetheless, he continues to give. And then you have the parable towards the end of what we read, the parable of the father who gives what his child needs. Okay, in both, in both these parables, Jesus teaches us, How much more? He's one that you can trust. He's absolutely reliable. He's absolutely trustworthy. How much more God will answer prayer? How much more he will give you his children, all who believe in Jesus Christ that is, he will give to you whatever and everything you need. That's really what those two parables point out. And right in the middle, Right? There's this strong encouragement. You know, you come before your father in heaven, ask, seek, knock, knock on the door. He exhorts us. And that's really the very purpose of this, of these two parables is those, that encouragement right there, right? It's an encouragement to, to find our confidence, our trust, that we may trust in our heavenly father. And we can do, you know, in our prayers, what do we do? We bear, we bear our souls, we bear our hearts before him openly, boldly, everything that's in our hearts. The things that we wanna hide from one another, the things, even the things that we tend to not want God to, and want God to know about us, it's an encouragement to tell him everything. to tell God everything, right? He's the one that we can trust. He is so much greater. We tend to, I think, look at other people, or even ourselves, and we see how much we can sort of hide things, but that's not our Heavenly Father. We can't put that on our Heavenly Father. He's so much greater. So we're gonna see this morning, he is a greater friend. We hope the saying afterwards, what a friend we have in Jesus, right? We have a greater friend. He's a greater friend, and second, he's a greater father. You notice that in the first parable, the word friend is used four times, and that seems to be come with some emphasis that, of course, our father is a friend in Christ to us. But you notice it begins with a long question. Three verses. That question is a very long question that Jesus mentions, that Jesus asks here. Okay, which of you He says, which of you? And as you hear this parable, the sense is, you know, can you imagine going to a friend with this request and then getting this kind of response, right? Going to a friend with three loaves, asking for three loaves, and then getting the response that he gets. And really the expected answer is certainly not. So it's a negative answer as expected. But here's the parables Jesus tells it. Okay, so a friend arrives at midnight, so 12 o'clock midnight or even thereafter, and the host that he goes to, he's totally caught off guard. He didn't expect his friend to come. We don't know, perhaps, It's cooler in the nighttime, maybe that's why he drove, or traveled, I should say. But nonetheless, he gets to his friend's house, and his friend didn't even know about it. But you know, being a friend, he says, come on in. And then he realizes, if you come on in, then you also have to, you wanna provide shelter, you want a place for him to sleep, and you wanna provide food. To not do so, especially in the culture of that day, was to lose face. There would be a certain sense of shame. Come on in, but you don't provide for such a body? You don't even provide bread and drink? Well, in this case, his cupboards, his fridge is empty. It's bare. And really, there is no 24-hour food mart where he can run to and get some supplies. He's totally empty-handed. And of course, living in a small village, he knows someone would have baked bread that day, and he knows that there would be probably some leftovers from that day, and maybe he could go to that person. He could always go to that person, get leftover bread, and then loan it from him, And then when his wife makes bread the next day, he can pay him back. Anyway, so he goes to his neighbor at midnight, his friend being there in his home. He goes to his neighbor at midnight, making him or asking him to lend him three loaves, probably like little rolls, enough to feed one person. So three loaves of bread or three rolls. Okay, now the average Canadian would probably be too embarrassed to disturb a neighbor like this in the middle of the night, past midnight, unless if the house is on fire, then you bang on the door. But for something like this? You know, the average neighbor probably wouldn't do it. Although I know someone who one time, during the day, had a piece of apple pie, and there was no ice cream in the house, so then he went to the neighbor and asked the neighbor for a scoop of ice cream. Now we would be embarrassed to do that. But the point is, here, it's very embarrassing, right, to even go in the middle of the night just to ask for some bread. At least in Canadian culture. The average Canadian, if he does go there, he might say, I hate to bother you at this late hour, but I'm so sorry, but I need your help. But notice what this man says, let me three lows without even saying please, okay? Something about the culture of that day. In the culture of that day, one might say to us, you know, who kind of, you know, with all these formalities and please, and I'm sorry, and they might say, well, stop your formalities. We're friends, aren't we? I mean, that kind of presupposes there's some distance between us. So that's why he's so bold. He just says, let me three loaves of bread. And moreover, the host here is not asking for himself, right? He's asking for a friend who has come to his home. He's not simply his guest, but in the custom of the day, he's a guest of the entire village. Not just his guest, but everyone's guest. It is said that one might greet the guest saying, Thank you for honoring to come to our village. It was great to have you. Right, there's that sense of community. Okay, so that's sort of the sense there in the parable. And so from the perspective of the host, the neighbor ought to help him fulfill his duty as a guest of the village. Not just his guest, but he's the guest of the village. But here the sleepy neighbor gives lame excuses in verse seven. Don't trouble me now. He says, I already shut the door. It's already bolted. Oh, my children are in bed with me. It's probably a one room house. Maybe the children and him were, you know, sleeping on a raised platform. That was his excuse. My children are already in bed with me. I mean, can you imagine waking up, getting a key and unlocking the door and waking up your children? Oh, I can't get up now, he says. I can't give it to you. The person hearing that in that day would think, what silly excuses, what nonsense. You just don't respond like this. So what does a sleepy neighbor do? We read in verse eight, I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence, he will rise and give him as many as he needs. What's Jesus saying here? He's saying that the neighbor doesn't get up and give bread to those because he's a friend. That's not why he gets up, because he's a friend. No. What's the reason? Because of the host's persistence. That's what it says here. But again, there's a question about the word translated persistence. It can mean persistence or it can mean shamelessness. I don't mean to get so much into the details about this, but this is a very important point because this is really brings up the point of the parable. Does the word refer to the host, right, the one who comes to the house? Does it refer to his persistence? He keeps on asking and asking and asking? Or does it refer to the sleepy neighbor's shamelessness? And there's no indication here that this man kept on persisting. He asked once, and the man's already responding. So there's no indication that he here is persisting. I think it fits the context better to refer to the fact that this sleepy neighbor refers to as shamelessness. In other words, the neighbor will feel great shame if he does not get up and give to his friend. So it's not because he's his friend that he doesn't, but it's because of his sense of feeling of shame that he gets up and gives him all the lulls that he needs. If he doesn't do it, he will lose face and the village grapevine will spread the word quickly and bring shame upon him. How dare you? Right? So it's a sense of, you feel the shame, how dare you not respond by giving him bread? And so he gives, not because he's his friend, he doesn't give from his heart. He gives because he doesn't want to look bad. Right? That's often human nature. He wants a safe face. He wants to protect his reputation. He wants to look like a good man in the village. His honor is at stake. And that's why he gives him all the loaves that he needs. Not because he's his friend, though. What's Jesus' point in the parable? In Christ, God is a greater friend. He's always true. He's always faithful. He's always trustworthy. He's not busy trying to play games. That's not our God. He's not going to stain his honor. I mean, you see his love and you have his honor at the same time. He's our confident. He's the one with whom we can share our innermost thoughts, our innermost hearts, and he's not there to spread things around. He hears, he listens. He is that true confidant, that true friend that we can open ourselves up to without being afraid in any sense of the word, without being intimidated in any sense of the word. because he hears. He knows us better than we know ourselves. In Christ we may come before God with confidence to receive mercy, as Hebrews 4.16 says, and to find grace in time of need. We're needy people in the inside, eh? That's one we can go to. Sometimes friends break trust. Not this friend. He never breaks trust. You can trust him. He's a much greater friend. He doesn't work with mixed motives. He's pure, he's holy, he's true. And on top of that, he is faithful to his name. You know, the parable ties in with the first petition of Lord's Prayer. Hallowed be your name. If you look at, for example, 2 Samuel 7.23, it reminds us that God makes a name for himself by redeeming a people, by redeeming his people, and doing great and awesome things for us. That's our God. Think of this. He's the one who sacrificed his only begotten son, who endured the shame of the cross because he's calling us to trust on him, on the Lord, to come before him with all our needs, with all our things. He even gave up his son to cover our shame so that, and he endured the shame of the cross for our sins so that we can walk in fellowship with him. You know, we have a mediator in heaven who continually pleads our cause before the Father. He continually pleads. We have so many sins. We have so many mistakes. We have so many limitations. We don't sometimes know what to ask, but he brings our petitions before the Father. He intercedes, says Hebrews 7.25. He intercedes continually before our Father in heaven. That's Christ who does that for us. He brings him before the Father. Really, it's the love of God that stands out here, isn't it? He promises to hear the prayers of his people for the sake of his name. He doesn't get grumpy. He doesn't say, you've asked me 10 times already, will you please be quiet? I'm tired of hearing it. Remember Abraham calling on God? Will you destroy Sodom if There's this many righteous. He continued praying, praying. God doesn't get tired. He doesn't get moody. He never slumbers nor sleeps. There's never a midnight with him. Through Jesus, we have a greater friend in heaven. And that's the point of verses nine and 10, right? Having that confidence, having that, that knowing that in Christ we can come openly, fully, not being afraid to come into the presence of God, because where do we find our justification? We find our justification through faith in Christ. He's our justification. We stand before him, before the Father in Christ. And he's the one who exhorts us. So I say to you, ask. It's a real strong command here. Keep on asking. It doesn't necessarily mean for the same thing, but through your day-to-day life, for many things, whatever the concerns are, keep on asking. It can be one thing. The point here is not persistence in one thing, but just keep on asking. There's many things that come to mind. There's many concerns. It may be a stubborn child. It may be a hardship in your life. It may be a worry or an anxiety. bring it before him. He will listen. He will hear. And verse 10 really underlines the certainty of his promises. Everyone who asks, receives. He who seeks, finds. To him who knocks, it will be open. He's a gracious God. He's a good God. And that's why he commands, ask, seek. Knock. We can come before him and say, Lord, is there something wrong in my life? Is there a sin I need to confess? Lord, if there is, please make it plain. And he doesn't do it to punish us, but he brings it out into the open. We can trust him because he will speak truly. He will lead in a right way. He commands that we as followers come before him openly, with boldness, with confidence. Ask, seek, knock. Don't only ask, but seek him while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. And then knock, you know, fervency, right? That's there, no doubt. But don't doubt his goodness. Don't have these low thoughts of God, like we can sometimes have of our friends. You know, sometimes we have certain thoughts about our friends, we say, well, Does he really mean it? Or is there another side to this? We can't put that on God, on God the Father. No, he's totally trustworthy. Don't doubt his goodness, never doubt his grace. He's gracious to sinners. So gracious, he offered his son as a sacrifice, as a covering. for our sins. God is so good, so faithful, a friend. We can come to him any time, as often as we want, in any place. It's never midnight. He's never taken by surprise. He's never bothered when we approach him by faith in Christ. He's never saying, wait a minute, I'm listening to 10 other people, just wait for five minutes before I listen to you. No, he can listen to millions of people at the same time and understand everything because he knows us intimately. We can approach him by faith openly. One person puts it this way, prayer is not a spiritual crowbar that we try to pry open God's hands. That's not the kind of relationship God established with us. Okay, let me get a crowbar now and see if I can try to open God's stingy hands. That's not God. That's not the God of the covenant. That's not the God who has established a relationship with Jesus Christ. He is a friend, a great friend. No, the onus is not on how many words we use, how many words we pray, or how much time we pray, or how many people are praying with us, or the kind of flowery language we might use. He wants our hearts. Our hearts. In prayer, what do we do? We lay hold of God's willingness to give. He is willing to give. He is more than willing. If you look at Isaiah 65, one and two, it's really interesting. God says here, I was sought by whom? By those who did not ask for me. In other words, I was sought by people who never knew me, who never prayed to me. They probably prayed to other gods. He says, but I was sought by those who did not ask for me. I was found by those who did not seek me. And I said, what did God say? Here I am, here I am. He's right there before them, and he's ready to hear. Wow, he's a God who ends. He's so different from the gods, because the other gods are not real. They're false. You can't depend on them. But this God, anyone who turns to him, says, here I am, here I am. On the other hand, he says, he addresses Israel, who was not trusting in him, who was not believing in him, He says to his people, I've stretched out my arms to you all day long. I've stretched out my arms to a rebellious people, but they don't want me. He's talking about those who didn't want him. And it showed in the fact that they were not asking him. They were not talking with him. They were not serving him. We never need to fear that our unworthiness will limit his open hands. You know, sometimes people say, last week or two weeks ago, I had a person say to me, I'm just not good enough. You are. I said, excuse me? What do you mean you're not good enough? Who did Jesus die for? He died for the not good enoughs. If you're good enough, then you don't need him. If I'm good enough, then I don't need him. I says, no, you may come to him as you are, and you're called to trust him, right? So yes, we must ask. It says here, verse nine says, whoever, whoever, that means anybody, anyone, regardless of station, regardless of sins committed, regardless, anyone may come. We must ask. Keep on asking. It's a relationship, right? We don't just come to God, you know, for a minute in the morning, but it's kind of like throughout the day. It's a relationship. We're always living before the face of God. walking, talking with him, a newness of that relationship in Jesus Christ, adopted as his children, as we'll see in a moment, but a friend, have a friend, a confident that you can talk with. We must ask, not give up asking. It's interesting, James in chapter one, he uses that asking in terms of the context of wisdom. When we ask for wisdom, James tells us in that concept, what kind of God we have. What kind of God is he? He's a God who gives to all liberally. Liberally means with open heart, with open hands. He gives liberally and he gives without finding fault. He gives without finding fault. He's not there to try to say, yeah, but, okay, but he will work with us. right, bring us so that we may come closer and closer to him, whether that's a confession of a sin, whether that's a need that we need for the moment. No greater friend. That's the point of the first parable. He's so different from that reluctant neighbor, right, who was kind of two-faced. He didn't want to lose his shame, but he didn't have his But he didn't give out of his heart either, right? That's not God. God is not duplicious. God is not two-faced. God is honest. He's straight. He's there. We can perfectly trust on him because he's perfect. No greater friend. And there's no greater father. That leads us to verses 11 through 13. Jesus here illustrates how much more he will give to the children what they need, right? Now we have to differentiate between needs and wants, right? But he knows what we need. Concerning our basic needs, Jesus says in verses 11 and 12 of Luke 11, if a son asks for bread from any father among you, you think a father will give him a stone? Here son, here's a stone, you can eat it now. What father would do that? You expect to say, oh, thank you, Father. This is a really yummy stone. No, you don't expect that from a father. And Jesus goes on, he says, what if he asked for a fish? Here, son, here's a serpent instead of a fish. That's harmful. Father is not gonna do that. And then he goes on, what if he asked for an egg? Will he give him a scorpion? If you ever had a scorpion, I had a scorpion in my bag one time when I was in Mexico. These things sting. Now, I avoided it, but what father would give a scorpion to a son instead of an egg? Perhaps it could even be seen as a lookalike, right? A scorpion and an egg, serpent and a fish. But the point is, what father would do that? What father would give his child, what father would give his son harmful things when he asked for something to eat? it would be very deadly for that child. But here, the point of verse 13 is how much more your Heavenly Father would not do that. If you then being evil, says Jesus, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Heavenly Father Give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him. Really goes to show what's really on the priority list for God the Father, what we should ask, the Holy Spirit. That is the best and biggest gift we could ever ask. We'll get to that in a moment. But that is the best gift we could ask Him. But He's a far greater Father. Because not only has he adopted us as his children through faith in Jesus Christ, we're adopted children, right? Adopted sons and daughters. But we can also enjoy that privilege of that relationship as a child to the Father through Jesus Christ. And also know that the inheritance is ours, right? We are heirs and co-heirs, says Romans 8 verse 17. far greater than any earthly father to his children. You think of the image of father today. It's so broken, isn't it? The image of father is so broken today. And the role of father, think of the movies. He's just some sort of sap, some sort of dude. He's really not, the father that he should be in the movies. That's what we see in the culture all around us, right? The father is not what he should be. And that image that we see of fathers around us, the image that we see of a father in the movies and so on, that's not the image of a father from God's word. The father is far more noble than what you see around us. And knowing God as father, when we come to know him as father, that really shapes us in our being the kind of fathers we should be to our children. And all the more so. God is everything a father should be. And he's way more than what a father, an earthly father is. Jesus calls, and Jesus mentions that the best father on earth, even then, is sinful. When Jesus says that even though fathers are sinful, even then he says they still give good gifts. But the thing with earthly fathers is that we're still limited in our scope, aren't we? We're still limited in our vision. We don't always necessarily know what's exactly good for our children. We have God's word, but sometimes we get mixed up in what the needs are and what the wants are. And sometimes we pray, Lord, I need this and this and this, and Lord says no. And then we realize later, oh, good thing God never gave it to me because he knew that would harm me. Okay, but fathers don't always have that discretion, right? We're limited, we're still sinful, and yet by the grace of God, we come to know more and more what a father should be. But the beautiful thing here is, how much more your heavenly father. He's free from all evil and he's the source of every good gift. He gives the Holy Spirit to those who ask him. So as the Holy Spirit, as he gives the Holy Spirit, he also gives, the Holy Spirit is also the source of all the other good gifts. You have the Holy Spirit, and it opens up the treasure house of God, the inheritance. As a matter of fact, Matthew, in this parable, talks about good gifts, how God will give good gifts. Here, Luke talks about the Holy Spirit, but the two are connected, aren't they? The Holy Spirit, through Him, we receive many gifts from the Father. Being Father, God knows best what is good for his children. He always does. He's never unfair. Sometimes we think, why God that person, not me? He's never unfair. We can trust him that he has a good reason for whatever he does in every detail in our lives. Sometimes we ask for something, And God knows it is gonna be harmful for us. It will not be good for us. And God, as any good parent, though infinitely wiser than any good parent, he will not give those requests. He will not grant those requests. He hears, he answers, but the answer might not be what we expect. He will answer differently. He definitely hears, He definitely answers, but sometimes his answer is, no, wait. Or sometimes the answer is, no, because I have something better for you, right? It's never worse. It's never God is being unfair. He hears, he answers, but the answer might not always be what we expect. Remember the Apostle Paul? Something really bothered him. and he talks about this thorn in the flesh. We don't know what that thorn in the flesh was, but you get a thorn in your flesh, that's painful. And he doesn't say what it is, we don't know what that thorn was, but it bothered Paul immensely. He prayed again and again and again, Lord, remove it, take that thorn away from me. What's God say? No, no, Paul, I have something better for you. I'm not gonna remove that. He says, my grace is sufficient for you. My strength is made perfect in weakness. So it was God's way of growing Paul in his ways, in the way of his grace. We may be thankful that God does not always give us what we ask. Our Father knows best, always, and He always chooses what's perfect for every individual, for every family, for every detail whatsoever may come to pass in our life. Here, our loving Father does all things perfectly. He knows the end from the beginning. He's working in everybody's, I mean, think about the church. He's working in every child's life. And he's working in such a way that as he works with you, he's also working with somebody else, and it's all working together into a beautiful pattern, a beautiful purpose, a beautiful plan, God working that out for him. God does not assure us that he will give whatever we ask, but he assures us that he will give what we need. And what we need is always good, always good. But understand this too, His goodness does not limit us from asking. You can ask. You can't, you don't have to say, well, what should I ask now? No, you can ask, just ask Him. He hears, but He will work through those prayers and He will answer them in His own way and His time and what is best. There's no reason for us to keep our troubles to ourselves. There's no reason to keep our worries and our needs bottled up inside of us and bear needless pain. No, we go to Him in prayer. What a friend we have in Jesus. All our sins and griefs to bear. We're gonna sing that in a moment. He knows us. He adopted us as his children in Christ. He's the one who says, cast all your cares on him, for he cares for you. That's our God, a greater friend, a greater father. There's no one greater than him. No greater friend, no greater father. And that's where verse 13 ends with asking, And that brings us back to 9 and 10, verses 9 and 10. The best gift, the most needful gift any child of God can ask for is the Holy Spirit, is the Holy Spirit. He gives the Holy Spirit, it says here, to those who ask him. That's a promise. He's not gonna say, eh, I don't like you, I'm not gonna give you the Holy Spirit. I like you though. God is not a father who plays favorites. He gives the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him. When we complain that God does not give us exactly what we ask, He will give His Holy Spirit to those who ask. Do we ask for the Holy Spirit? Of course, we already have the Holy Spirit when we believe in Jesus. But what we're asking is, is that God will give us His Holy Spirit so that He may strengthen us Give us the joy, give us the contentment, even in the midst of all of our questions and our perplexities and our sadnesses and our joys in this life. The presence of the Spirit is the best gift, the greatest gift one could ever have. He's a channel of God's grace and blessing, enabling us to pray, Father, hallowed be your name. Father, may your kingdom come. Father, may your will be done. Lord, I trust you. I trust you in everything you do for my life. Help me to trust in you. Help me to, yeah, we need to ask, don't we? We should not be afraid to ask, but ask knowing that Father, our Father in heaven always knows best. We have all we need in God. We have all we need in Christ. He is good. He is gracious, no greater friend and no greater father than Him.