Amen. It's always nice when you preach on a Sunday morning for at least somebody to come back on the evening service. I'm always amazed in my church that they come back after I preach. I don't feel like I'm the greatest preacher in the world, but we have the Word of God tonight, and we're looking forward to it. And I do appreciate being here and the opportunity to preach. I appreciate this church. Brother Rogers has been a good friend of me since I moved up here. And Brother Schmidt has been a real close friend to me these last, I think, nine years. I've been here 10 years. I think I met Brother Schmidt one year into it, being here, and he's been a real encouragement and help to me. And the two-minute warning, appreciate it. It's always a blessing. And one thing that happens here, I don't, you know, some of you might know about this, some maybe not, but once a month here, We gather right here, we put some chairs in a circle, and we have a pastor's prayer meeting once a month with some local pastors. And Tim will tell you, I'll rearrange my schedule and do whatever to come to that meeting, because it is a huge blessing to me. and to pray with other pastors here. So I appreciate this church and in prayer for you. And actually you're on my prayer list. I've been praying for Brother Rogers every day and then praying for you guys to find a pastor. I've been praying for that every day. And I won't say I've done it every day for so long because You know, sometimes you say that and you might have missed a day here or something, but it's on my prayer list. I try to remember to pray for it every day that I can, that God would guide and direct you and looking forward to what God is going to do here in this place. And then we praise the Lord for it. And we want to we want to talk about that tonight. We want to talk about prayer tonight and prayer. I'm a huge believer in prayer. In fact, when I first came to pastor my church, my first Sunday morning series, I taught for six months on prayer. And I believe a church that prays together will stay together, they'll be guided by God, and they'll get direction and wisdom. When you're talking to God, you're inviting Him into the whole thing, you'll be blessed. And so we're gonna talk about prayer tonight. So if you'd open your Bibles to Luke chapter 11, and we're gonna start reading in verse one, and we'll read down through verse 13, So you can get the context of the passage we will look at. And so, Luke 11, starting in verse 1, in Luke 11, in verse 1, and then we'll read through verse 13 tonight. Luke 11, verse 1, the Bible says, And it came to pass that as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray. As John also taught his disciples. And he said to them, when you pray, say, our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth. Give us day by day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. And he said to them, which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, friend, lend me three loaves. For a friend of mine in his journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him. And he from within shall answer and say, trouble me not, the door is now shut, my children are with me in bed, I cannot rise and give thee. I say unto you, though he will not rise and give him because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity, he will rise and give him as many as he needeth. And I say unto you, ask, and it shall be given you. Seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and him that knocketh, it shall be opened. If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? Here we see Jesus' lesson on prayer. Jesus was praying, his disciples were listening to him pray, and there Jesus praying, and they say, Lord, teach us to pray. And Jesus is the master teacher when it comes to prayer. Of course, he's the master teacher when it comes to anything, but when it comes to prayer, he is the master teacher. And if you want to really learn about prayer, study the prayer life of Jesus. and get in the prayer closet with Jesus and look at his prayer life, and it will really help you. We're only gonna focus on a couple verses, but I wanted to read that whole passage so you understand the context of what we're gonna look at tonight. We're gonna talk about this thing of importunity. Importunity. It's not a very common word. In fact, it is a word that is used once in the scriptures, but is a very important word when we consider prayer in portunity. It's there and mentioned in this illustration on prayer. Jesus taught his disciples, when you pray, say, and there's this model prayer that you could use, and it teaches us much about prayer. We don't have time to go there and take each of those and show you how each of those things Jesus said, our Father which art in heaven, what all those things teach us about prayer. We don't have time for that, but it teaches us about prayer. And then he comes and he gives this illustration of this friend who comes to another friend. And he says his friend at midnight, he will give and answer this guy's request because of his importunity. The word importunity, it's a pressing solicitation or a request urged with troublesome frequency or shameless persistence. And if you look up in the Webster's 1828 Dictionary, that's real close to what you'll find there. that this word, it's a pressing solicitation, it's an urgent request that is just delivered with frequency and there is a shamelessness in it. You're just gonna be persistent and shameless and say, I need this. It is a very important word when it comes to prayer though. It is very important. And so tonight, let's look at this word. And I believe there are six principles we can learn from this word. We're only gonna look at three of them tonight. Usually I preach this in two parts, but we'll just look at the first part tonight. So we'll get you out of here at a decent time. But number one, the thing that you need to understand about importunity and prayer is that importunity is there's an urgency about it. There's an urgency. A good word to remember tonight, what does importunity mean? You might just say urgent as part of it. It's urgent, urgent prayer. Look in Luke 11 verse five, and he said unto them, which of you shall have a friend and shall go unto him at when? Midnight. Look, you're not gonna go to your friend's house at midnight and ask for something unless it's what? Urgent. You know, if anyone came and they, you know, they knocked on my door at midnight and they banged on my door and, I got up and maybe it was a church member, and I looked out the window, and I'd be a little concerned. A church member here at midnight? What terrible thing happened? And so I go out and open the door, and I say, you know, someone from my church, what's wrong? How can I help you? And they just say, oh, I just wanted to say hi. I'd be like, what would I say? It's midnight. I mean, come on. It's not urgent. This man, it was urgent. He decided this could not wait until the morning. My friend's gonna show up in the morning and I need some bread for a friend. And it couldn't wait, it was urgent. It was late, but he needed it now. His request was given with urgency. So he came to his friend with urgency. When I think about this, an illustration of this is when Jacob had some urgency in Genesis 32. Jacob is, he has to go back to where he came from. He's going back to face his twin brother Esau, the brother that he had bought the birthright from for a bowl of pottage, the Bible says, for just a bowl of stew or soup. the brother that he had dressed up like and impersonated to take the blessing from Esau. Jacob had to flee, remember, because Esau, he's like, I'm gonna take care of this guy, I'm gonna take him out. And so Jacob had to go and they had to send him away. And now Jacob has to come back and he has to face Esau. And Esau, we know in scripture, the Bible in Hebrews, it says that Esau was bitter, he was profane and a fornicator. The Bible doesn't have a lot to good to say about Esau. Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. I mean, Jacob has to face Esau. And so what does Jacob do? Well, he's there and he gets alone. He's there alone, he's contemplating, he had his plan. Remember, he lined up his family and I don't know how well this went over with his family. Well, let's put this wife and her kids up front and the ones I like better in the back so they can be safe. I mean, interesting situation. But he has his plan and scheme, but then he's sitting there alone And it says that in verse 24 of Genesis 32, and Jacob was left alone and there wrestled a man with him into the breaking of the day. We know that this ends up being the Lord that he's wrestling with, but he got alone with God. In verse 25, it says, and when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint as he wrestled with him. And he said, let me go for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go except thou bless me. Jacob had some urgency. He said, God, I can't let you go. I need you to bless me right now. I'm meeting Esau tomorrow. In the morning, I need now. It was a midnight prayer of urgency. God, I need your blessing and favor. I need your help now, not later, now. And it says that they wrestled there. And I find it interesting that as the Lord is wrestling with Jacob, he says that he prevailed not against them. You know, God can, you know, break our hold anytime he wants. We're not very strong. Right? You know, you read in Psalm 18, you read about the time it says that it's a picture of what was going on in the throne room of God during the crucifixion. And it talks about that God was there and it says that he bowed the heavens. God, you know, during the crucifixion, God stretched one arm to the other side of the universe in one, and he just, and he bowed the heavens. Thankfully, God, restrained in his wrath, because he is merciful, didn't just squash us then. God is powerful. God could have break Jacob's hold any time. But he didn't. He wrestled with them and he realized that what was God doing? God was testing his urgency. Does he really think he needs me? Does he really think he needs me? And so God didn't answer right away. God said, I want to see if this man really believes what he's saying, if this man really understands his need for me. And so they wrestled through the night. And then imagine this, God touches the hollow of his thigh and puts it out of joint. Imagine the pain that he's feeling, yet he still hung on and said, no, God, I need you to bless me. Even through the cries of his flesh, Your hip is out of joint. You're in pain. Jacob's still hanging on and said, I need that blessing. Isn't that way some of our life? Oh, we really need God. And as we get down on our knees to pray, but then our knees started to hurt, our back starts to hurt. Well, that's enough. Well, God, I don't want to have to pray more than once. God will test your urgency. He'll want to see, do you really understand your need for him? Jacob passed the test. And God told him that he will bless him. It says in Genesis 32, 27, he said unto him, what is thy name? And he said, Jacob. And he said, thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel. For as a prince thou has power with God and man and has prevailed. And Jacob asked him and said, tell me, I pray thee thy name. And he said, wherefore it is that thou dost ask after thy name? And he blessed them there. And Jacob called the name of that place Peniel, for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved. Wow. Jacob was urgent. There was importunity to his prayers. Is there any importunity to your prayers? Are you going to keep praying until you secure the blessing of God? I'm talking about vain repetitions or just because you think because of how many times you say it, God's going to answer it. That's not going to work. But will there be an urgency that you'll say, God, we need you? In praying for a pastor, God, we need a pastor. Give us a pastor, give us the, and keep praying and praying until God blesses. But have some urgency at the throne of God. And so importunity is the idea of urgency. And then number two, is this the idea of helplessness? Helplessness. Luke 11, six says, for a friend of mine in his journey has come to me and I have what? Nothing to set before him. So you go back to our text. You have this friend, he goes to a friend at midnight. There's an urgency. And he comes and he says, I need some bread for a friend. He comes to him. He says, what? Because I have nothing to set before him. I have nothing. He had nothing. He was completely dependent on this friend for bread. And he wasn't afraid to say so. He wasn't afraid to say, look, I have nothing and I'm looking to you to give me something. Because I need your help. He wasn't afraid to admit it. In Luke 11, 9, it says, and I say to you, ask and it shall be given you. Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you. Have we gotten to the place in our prayer life where we're coming to God with some urgency and we're saying this, God, there's nothing I can do without you. I need you. God, this situation, I can't do anything. I have no power. I need you. I need your help. I need your power. I need your strength. I need your hand where you can come to God and you say, God, I'm asking because I can't do it. I'm seeking because I need you. I'm knocking because I need you to open the door. I don't have the power to do it. Importunity is when we ask, completely dependent on God. It is when we seek understanding that God is the only answer. It's when we knock, acknowledging that He is the only way out. That's importunity. That without God, we can do nothing. I need God. I think of, in 2 Chronicles, when King Asa, who was a good king, and he did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, he was attacked. And he realized when this army came upon him, the Ethiopian army, that there was nothing he could do. He needed God. And he prayed with some importunity. 2nd Chronicles 14 9 it says and there came out against him Zerah the Ethiopian with a host of a thousand thousand and three hundred chariots and came unto Moreshah. Then Asa went out unto him and they set the battle array in the valley of Zarephath and Moreshah and Asa cried unto the Lord his God and said Lord it is nothing with thee to help, whether with many or with them that have no power. Help us, O Lord our God, for we rest in thee. And in thy name we go against this multitude, O Lord. Thou art our God. Let not man prevail against thee. He was helpless before God. He understood God. If we could have a multitude out here, it doesn't matter. We have no power, it doesn't matter. We need you. We need your power. I need you to move against this multitude. There's this hundred thousand men, you know, a thousand thousands. And there's this huge army coming, these 300 chariots, and they are helpless against this group. They just don't have the numbers to meet and the equipment and the army to go against this group. So he said, God, we rest in you. What does it say in 2 Chronicles 14, 12? So the Lord smote the Ethiopians before Asa and before Judah, and the Ethiopians fled. And Asa and the people that were with him pursued them under Gerar, and the Ethiopians were overthrown, that they could not recover themselves, for they were destroyed before the Lord and before his host, and they carried away very much spoil. See, Asa, why did God move in a powerful way? Because Asa came helpless. God, I need you. He had some urgency, but he also came with a helplessness. God, we're resting on you. There's nothing we can do. We're trusting in your power and your hand. Help us. Psalms 34, six is a verse I can relate to. It says this, this poor man cried. And the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. There's an attitude that we need to have when it comes to this word, importunity. We can say this poor man cried. God, I'm poor, I'm needy, I'm helpless. Help me, I need you. And it says, and the Lord will hear and save us out of all our troubles. Do you realize that without God, you can do nothing? That if we try to do anything in this life, in the flesh, in our own strength, we're gonna make a mess of it. We're gonna make it worse and make life more difficult. We need God. Our prayers should be ones of importunity. God, we need you. We are helpless without you. We can't do this without you. God, we need you. for our prayers to be one of importunity. We must get to the place where we realize without God, we can do nothing. John 15, five, I am the vine, you are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. Without me, you can do nothing. We need the Lord. We need the Lord. In our prayer closet should be a place of urgency and a place of helplessness. Lord, without you, without you, it's not, God, I'm here, and if you'll help me, great, but if not, I got plan B. No, it's God, your plan A, B, and C. And I don't have any other plans after that. I need you. Urgent, helpless, and one more word, persistent, persistent. back in our text in verse 11, I mean chapter 11, Luke 11, verse 7. And he from within shall answer and say, trouble me not, the door is thou shut, and my children are with me in bed, I cannot rise and give thee. I say unto you, though he will not rise and give him because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity, he will rise and give him as many as he needeth. See, Here's what this friend, not the one that's asking for help, but the one whose house is being, the door's knocked on at midnight. He's not gonna get up and give that man bread because he's his friend. He'll just, you know, he'll just stay in bed and act like he doesn't hear it. His kids are in bed, everyone's asleep. He said, but, He understood something, this man understood something. If I don't get up and give this guy bread, he's not going away. Because of his importunity, he's not going away. Do you know Christ wants us to be persistent and consistent in our prayers? He wants us to be persistent and consistent in our prayers. And I don't think here it's the idea of, well, if you bug God enough, he'll do what you want. I don't think that's the idea. The idea is, if you have a friend who would do this, how much more will your heavenly father in heaven do it for you? Because we have a father that loves us. How much more will he do for us? If some friend that doesn't seem like he's the greatest friend, because you don't really care, he wasn't going to come to the door, but because of importunity, he wouldn't go away, I'll go ahead and give him this. If someone would do that for this friend at midnight, how much more should your heavenly father give to them than ask? And so our father will bless us, but he wants us to be consistent and persistent in our prayers. A great illustration of this is Matthew 15, 21 through 28. In Matthew 15, 21, it says, then Jesus went thence and departed in the coast of Tyre and Sidon. This is the only record we have of Jesus leaving the immediate area of Israel during his ministry, which tells us something that I believe the Lord will go anywhere to answer prayers of importunity. You come to verse 22, And behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coast and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David. My daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and applauded him, saying, Send her away, for she crieth after us. This story is always amazing to me when I look at it. This lady is asking for mercy in the Lord. to cast out this devil that's grievously vexing her daughter, and she comes and she asks for it, and Jesus just ignores her. He ignores her. Doesn't say anything to her. And she just keeps asking, and the disciples get so annoyed at it, they say, you know, just send her away. Get her out of here. And then you come to verse 24. But he answered and said, I am not sent but under the lost sheep of Israel. Well, imagine this. She says, Lord, have mercy on me. My daughter's grievously vexed. And Jesus ignores her, so she's persistent. Lord, have mercy on me. My daughter's sore vexed. And finally, when the disciples say, Lord, just send her away. Get her out of here. He says, I am but sent to the lost sheep of Israel. She's not one of the lost sheep of Israel. She's a Gentile woman. She's a Canaanite woman. Jesus essentially says to her, I'm not sent to help you. I am but sent unto the lost sheep. I am sent to the lost sheep of Israel. But verse 25, then she came and worshiped him saying, Lord, help me. You see, she had urgency and she had helplessness. Jesus didn't seem, Jesus ignored her. And then he basically said, I'm only sent to the last sheep of Israel. But that didn't stop her. She knew he's Lord. She went down and she worshiped at his feet saying, Lord. She went and bowed down before him and said, Lord, help me. Wow. Then it gets more amazing to me. But he answered and said, it is not meat. You take the children's bread and cast it to dogs. I don't know about you, but if I ever said that in someone, they would not be back at my church probably. Because, I mean, what did Jesus just insinuate? That she was a dog. Wow. It is not me to take the children's bread and cast it The dogs. She did not get the answer that she was looking for. But I love verse 27. And she said, truth, Lord, yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master's table. Wow. See, we see that. If anyone ever called me a dog, I'd give them a piece of my mind. This lady hears that from Jesus, and she said, yeah, that's true. I am a dog. But Lord, the dogs get the crumbs. Lord, I just take a crumb from you, that's all I'm asking. Just give me a crumb. If it's from you, that's what I'll take. I'll take whatever you'll give me. The dogs eat the crumbs. And I will take a crumb. I mean, this is, she accepts, The rebuke of the Lord, and she says it's true, and says, I'll just take a crumb. She was ignored. She was told, I'm sent to the only but to the last sheep of Israel. She was called a dog, yet she persisted. And here's what Jesus said. In verse 28, then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith. Be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour. See, it wasn't bugging Jesus that got his attention. It was her persistent faith. It's not bugging God that gets his attention, it's persistent faith. A faith that doesn't doubt. A faith that doesn't give up. A faith that says, we have a need, and there's nothing we can do about this need, and so God, help us. And then God is silent, and he doesn't seem to answer your prayer right away. Lord, I know, I know you're there, and I know you can help us. And then you get an answer that you didn't necessarily expect. Would you say, God, I submit to that, but I still need your help. Persistent faith. And I don't think necessarily, the Lord, I think the Lord knew that this faith was in that woman. And he used this situation to show all those around what real faith was. He says, I'm gonna show you, there's a woman who is humble enough to submit, I'm gonna show everyone what real faith looks like. How many times have we given up on our prayers because we felt ignored, because we didn't get the exact answer right when we wanted it? We need to be persistent in our prayers. I think about my grandmother who, I prayed for 30 years. As long as I could, you know, 30 years we pray, I pray that she would get saved. My grandmother got saved at 93 years of age. That is highly unusual. But I remember my dad, he prayed longer than me, and we were consistent, and we prayed, and we prayed, and we said, Lord, give opportunity, soften her heart. And we know people have to choose to get saved, and so we can't make her get saved. But one day, her heart was soft, and she received Christ. I think about two and a half years before I moved to Wheatland and became the pastor there, and I was praying. I prayed for a year by myself. I said, Lord, I just feel like maybe you want me to be a senior pastor, but I'm pretty comfortable here. I've been here 14 and a half years as the assistant pastor, and my family's here, and my parents are there, my brother and sister, their families. and I grew up in this church, but I just felt, and I prayed for a year, and then I told my wife, and we prayed for another year, and then, you know, it was about two and a half years of praying, and saying, God, show us what you want us to do, guide us, direct us, and after two and a half years, and God working in my life, and worked in the life of my pastor, and showed us that this was what he had, but it took two and a half years, and at times, it was frustrating. Times I felt like, God, you're moving me, but I don't know where or what or even how to tell my pastor about this. And then God, but God opened doors and he helped as I prayed consistently. I think about, I've told many young people this. I heard a message when I was a teenager and it said, you need to pray right now that you'll find a good wife. Remember, so I put it on my prayer list. I prayed, God, give me a good wife. Give me a wife that wants to be in ministry and be a blessing. And I prayed for 10 years, and God gave me one. There are things that I've prayed for for years. I think here in recent history, when Roe versus Wade got overturned. Roe v. Wade made abortion illegal in all 50 states. And I remember that when I was probably in my late 20s, I said, you know, I need to put that on my prayer list. And I prayed about it, and I prayed about it, and I prayed about it. And you say, well, you think your prayers got it overturned? Not necessarily my prayers, but I know that I was invited to the prayer meeting, and I was persistent and stayed there, and I got to be part of what God did in seeing it overturned. And there's still prayers that I'm praying about that haven't been answered yet. He asked me about some things that are going on in California. There's a long list. I'm saying, God, you need to do this in California, and I'm praying. And I keep praying. And I'm not trying to bug God, but I believe that God is the one who has the answers, and God is the one who will help, and God is the one who will guide. So I'm going to keep praying, and I'm going to keep praying. And I want to encourage you, as you seek a pastor, Make sure your prayers are prayers of importunity. Keep praying. Have some urgency. Come to God, help us. God, we don't know, but we just want your will, and we want you to show us that we need your wisdom and power, and be persistent. Just keep praying. Say, well, this guy didn't work out, or that guy didn't work out, or this plan didn't happen. Just keep praying. You don't get the answer right away that you're looking for. Just keep praying. Have some prayers of importunity. Amen. And so importunity. God is looking for importunity in our prayers. That's urgent, helpless, and persistent. Amen.