you. Thank you for listening to our Emanuel Baptist Church podcast sermon series by Pastor Sean Cole. Emanuel exists to display God's glory, declare God's gospel, and to disciple for God's great commission. If you have any questions about this message or would like more information about our church, you can visit our website at www.ebc-online.org. Now here's Pastor Sean. Well, I remember back in 2005 when we first moved to Sterling from Colorado Springs. And we're used to living in a bigger city where things were open more often. And you could go to stores late at night. And banks were even open on Saturdays and Sundays. And we moved to Sterling and realized that not everything's open late, and especially on holidays. And so I remember it was Christmas Eve. And Dawn was cooking and getting things ready to bake. And I think we were out of chicken broth. And so it was getting late and so I told Don, well, I'll just go next door to our neighbor Betty. Betty's a widow. We love Betty. She's our next door neighbor. I said, I'll just go next door to Betty and I'll ask her for some chicken broth. And Don said, no, you will not. She was adamant that I would not go next door and bug my neighbor for chicken broth. And so She said no for a couple of reasons. Number one, she said, we're brand new neighbors and we don't know her that well. And it's just, it's kind of awkward for you to go over there. Number two, Sean, it's just embarrassing. It's embarrassing for us to run out of something and for you to go over there and to. ask her. Now this was before Walgreens came to town and Walmart was already closed and so I'm like what am I going to do in a panic to go get chicken broth in Sterling? So I drove down Main Street and sure enough 7-Eleven was open. So I go into 7-Eleven and there's that can of generic chicken broth that was there and so I was able to help my wife get the meal ready. But I wonder if that's ever happened to you. You're in the middle of baking something and it's the proverbial you run out of sugar, you run out of flour, and you got to go next door and ask your neighbor Hey, can I borrow some sugar? Can I borrow some flour? Can I borrow some chicken broth? And you're like, no, I don't think I'm gonna go bug my neighbor, especially late at night, especially on a holiday. I don't know if that's ever happened to you before where you ran out of something and you had to go next door and bug your neighbor for an ingredient. Well, Jesus tells a parable that illustrates this reality for us. Over the past few weeks, we've been looking at the Lord's Prayer in Luke chapter 11. And I want us just to kind of go through and remember that there's an importance to the order of how Jesus lays out the prayer. So let's just go back and read verse 1, Luke chapter 11. Now Jesus was praying in a certain place. And when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray as John taught his disciples. Teach us to pray. We need to learn how to pray. And then Jesus said to them, when you pray, say. And he gives us a template. He gives us an order. He gives us a model. And notice that it begins with the glory of God, the worship of God. Thoroughly God-centered. Father, hallowed be your name. Focus on the glory of God, the majesty of God, that God's name would be renowned. And then, secondly, your kingdom come. It's all about the kingdom of God, the glory of God, the name of God. That comes first in the praying, and then we get to our daily bread. Give us each day our daily bread. We pray for our daily needs. Lord, we're asking for you to give us what we need, not necessarily what we desperately or selfishly want, but what we need. And then it goes into forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone who's indebted to us. It's keeping short accounts with God. It's confessing sin. It's going quickly to God when we sin and asking for forgiveness. And then last week we talked about resisting temptation. Lead us not into temptation. It's asking God to give us strength to stand in that day. So all along in this prayer, we are cultivating intimacy and fellowship with our Heavenly Father. And he knows what we need before we pray, so we're not giving him any information that he doesn't already have. We're being with God in prayer as a way to grow closer to him. And so the entire prayer, the entire Lord's Prayer, is really what Pastor Andrew gave us earlier. It's about seeking the kingdom and the glory and the righteousness of God. Matthew 6, 33. but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you. Seek first the kingdom of God, the name of God, the glory of God, the majesty of God. And so, we need to remember this, the order, the glory of God, the name of God, As we get to this next section, because many have misinterpreted or misapplied what Jesus says next about prayer to say something that I don't think the Bible teaches about prayer. So Jesus gave us the model prayer, how we should pray, what we should be praying for. And he's not done. He's not done teaching them about prayer. He goes on with some more teaching after giving us the Lord's Prayer. And so let me give you the main theme of our passage this morning. Here's the main theme. Here's the big thing that we want to take away this morning related to what comes next in this passage of scripture. It's simply this. We can pray with persistence because God is generous. We can pray with persistence. Why? Because God is generous. So let's read this together, how Jesus goes on and continues to teach his disciples about prayer. So let's pick up in verse five. 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. And he will answer from within, do not bother me. The door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything. I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence, he will rise and give him whatever he needs. And I tell 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 receives, I mean, for everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish 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? So I want to kind of tackle this in three parts this morning, this passage of scripture. Let's just first look in verses five through eight. Let's look at this parable, this story that Jesus tells about these two neighbors. Now, it's kind of an over-the-top story about a neighbor coming at midnight. It's kind of pretty silly on its face. It's kind of absurd. It's kind of meant to startle his disciples. But before we do that, let's talk about hospitality in that ancient culture. In that ancient Jewish culture, not only was it customary, but it was also almost a legal obligation for you to show hospitality no matter what. There were no motels or hotels or things like that, so if a friend or a relative came traveling into your town, it was just an obligation of yours to open up your home and to provide for them and to provide lodging for them. And so if somebody showed up at late hours, if somebody showed up at midnight, you really had no choice. It was an obligation. You had to let them in. It was customary that you had to actually put some food in front of them, bread. And so here's the issue of what happens. Somebody shows up at midnight, knocks on the door and says, here we are after a long travel. And the guy says, Oh no, they showed up. I can't turn them away. I've got to be a good Jewish citizen here. I've got to welcome this person into my home. I don't have any bread. I have nothing. I didn't go to the store. And so I have nothing to put in front of them. And so what does he do? He goes next door to his neighbor and knocks on the door at midnight. And what does he do? Hey neighbor, I got some friends that showed up. Can I borrow some bread? Can I borrow some sugar? Can I borrow some flour? Can I borrow some bread? And his neighbor says no in four different ways. Okay, I want you to see it. His neighbor says no in four emphatic ways. Verse seven, he will answer him from within. Do not bother me, don't bother me. That's number one. Number two, the door's shut, the door's locked. Number three, my children are with me in bed. Now back then they were like one room little houses where the whole family would sleep together in one room. He didn't want to wake up his kids. And finally he just said, listen, I really don't want to help you. I can't get up and give you anything. No, don't bother me. Now when we lived in Black Forest in Colorado Springs before we moved to Sterling, the boys were little, okay? So Aiden was probably in kindergarten. Zachary was probably two or three. Zachary, our youngest son who has special needs, has always had a hard time sleeping. And I remember about midnight, this pounding came on our door. This pounding on our door, and this guy was yelling at us through the door. And I get up, and I walk to the door. Obviously, I don't open it. And he's yelling. He's saying, your boys need to come out now because they're throwing rocks at my window, and they're riding their motorcycle up and down, and they're trying to destroy my property. Get your boys out here right now. And I yelled back, and I said, sir, my boys are preschoolers, and they're sleeping. Leave us alone. And he kept pounding. I'm like, I'm going to call the cops unless you leave us alone. And obviously, I think he was drunk. He was upset. He kind of mumbled to himself. And then he finally left. I know what it's like to be woken up at midnight with a pounding on the door. This is the neighbor pounding on the door, hey, I need some bread. And the neighbor says, can you just go back to your house, I'm not gonna get up. But here's the key, here's the issue, here's the point Jesus wants to drive home. It's in that word in verse eight. I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything, because he's his friend, It's like, I don't wanna get up, but here's the reason why he gets up. Yet because of his impudence, he will rise and get him whatever he needs. Because of his impudence, that's what the ESV says, impudence. What does that word mean? It means persistence. It actually means rude persistence, brash persistence, boldness, audacious. Here's the point. The guy that ran out of food didn't care if he was bugging his neighbor at midnight. He needed to take care of the people that showed up and be a good host, so he kept pounding, and he kept pounding, and he kept pounding, and he didn't care how long he kept pounding. He was gonna pound on the door until the guy woke up and came and gave him some bread. He was gonna shamelessly pound on the door. He was gonna be persistent. He was gonna keep doing it. He was going to keep knocking and knocking and knocking until he wore the guy down and the guy finally said, okay, stop knocking, I'll give you some bread. That's what the word impudence means. Knocking, knocking, knocking. Now, here's the point of the parable. Ironically, this is how Jesus tells us to pray. with this type of knocking and knocking and persistence and ongoing persistence. Now let's make sure we understand what this parable is not teaching. So we can misunderstand parables sometimes because parables maybe are a little bit hard to understand because there's shades of meaning. What's this not teaching? So we don't want to twist the scriptures. What's this not teaching? First, it's not teaching that God is somehow annoyed at our persistence. It's not teaching that God is annoyed at our persistence, our boldness. God is not like the sleeping neighbor that gets annoyed. That's not the point. The point is not that God is bugged. The point is that we should be coming to God with our request persistently. God never sleeps. God never slumbers. God is not bothered by your asking. God is not bothered by your praying. God is not the annoyed neighbor that gets upset. God is ready and willing and able to take your request, your boldness. Psalm 34 15, the eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry. You and I have permission to bug God in prayer. He can handle the truth. Remember a few good men, you can't handle the truth, God can handle the truth. God can handle your prayers. God can handle you coming to him with your request. 1 Peter 5, 7, cast all your anxieties on him because he cares for you. So number one, this parable is not teaching that God is annoyed in our praying. That's not the point. The point is we are to come to God with persistence. Now here's the second thing that we need to understand. This is not a blanket check to demand from God whatever we want. We don't ever have permission to go to God and demand things from God or decree things from God or twist God's arm and get God to do what we want him to do. I've heard people pray like this. They kind of tell God what God has to do. You never hear out of their mouth, thy will be done. It's always, God, you need to do this. God, I declare that you do this. God, I command you to do this. Now, that's kind of a boldness that's presumptuous. That's a boldness that goes a little bit too far in telling God what He has to do, or what we think He has to do. Now, we do have permission to come boldly, we have permission to come persistently, but we must remember that at the end of the day, in our praying, God is still sovereign. God is still on His throne. God will accomplish His purposes. God's not even obligated to answer our prayers, but He does. Psalm 135, six. Whatever the Lord pleases, He does. In heaven, and on earth, and the seas, and all the deeps. God does whatever he wants to do. Nobody tells God what to do. He does what he wants to do. Job 42.2, I know that you can do all things and the no purpose of yours can be thwarted. Remember, the Lord's prayer is about God's will, God's glory, God's kingdom, not ours. So yes, we can come boldly. Yes, we can come persistently. We're not bugging God. God's not annoyed with our prayers, but we need to be careful that we don't go too far and begin to demand of God things that we want him to do as opposed to realizing that in the end, it's his will that needs to be done. Now, there's a wonderful example in the Old Testament of this type of bold praying. You know, for the past 30 days, we've been going as a church through this 30-day prayer journey where we're looking at the prayers in the Bible, and I'm drawn back to Daniel chapter nine. Daniel's an old man. He's probably in his 80s. He knows that the prophecy of Jeremiah says that the Israelites are gonna get back out of Babylonian captivity, and they're gonna go back to Jerusalem, and Daniel knows this is a promise, and so he prays to the Lord, and he prays to the Lord with a boldness. that I think illustrates what we see here in Jesus. So Daniel 9, 17 through 19. Now therefore, O our God, listen to the prayer of your servant and to his pleas for mercy and for your own sake. O Lord, make your face shine upon your sanctuary which is desolate. Oh my God, incline your ear and hear. Open your eyes and see our desolation and the city that's called by your name. For we do not present our pleas before you because of our righteousness, but because of your great mercy. Oh Lord, hear. Oh Lord, forgive. Oh Lord, pay attention and act. Delay not for your own sake. Oh my God, because your city and your people are called by your name. Listen to the language that Daniel uses there. Listen, incline your ear, open your eyes, God. Forgive, pay attention, act, don't delay. God, I want you to do this. Now, does that sound kind of brash? Does that sound kind of bold? Daniel's basically pouring his heart out to the Lord, saying, Lord, I want you to act now. Lord, I want you to do this. Lord, bring us back to Jerusalem. Your city's lying in waste. Do this, Lord. I plead with you, Lord. Please do this. But in verse 18, we find Daniel's heart. If you could put that text back up there, I just want you to look at verse 18. He says, I'm not praying these things because of my own righteousness, but because of your great mercy. He says, We do not present our pleas before you because of our righteousness, but because of your great mercy. In other words, Daniel's saying, listen, I bring nothing to the table, Lord. I'm not bringing you my resume. I'm not bringing you anything. You're not even obligated to listen. There's nothing righteous I can bring to the table, Lord, in my praying. I'm pleading. I'm pouring my heart out. I'm asking, Lord, please act. I bring nothing to the table. There's nothing that makes you move on behalf of anything I bring. Why does God act? Why does God move? Why does God answer? And the answer there is in verse 18. It's not because of our righteousness, it's because of your great mercy. That's why God answers any prayers. God answers prayers because he's a merciful God, not because we can somehow twist his arm to do what we want him to do. God is gracious. God is merciful. You see, here's the way we should be praying. This should be the heartbeat of all of our prayers. Father, whatever will bring you the most glory and whatever will conform me the most to your son Jesus, that's what I want. Is that the way you pray? What I want, Lord, is whatever's gonna bring you the most glory and what's gonna conform me the most to your son. That's my prayer. Now, God may answer that in a way that you would never imagine. And God may not answer it in the way that you want him to, but God's gonna do it for his glory, for his name, and he's gonna do it to make you look more like Jesus. And so when we align our praying with the will of God, It's whatever would bring you the most glory and conform you the most to your son. That's what I want. So Jesus tells this parable, and the point of the parable is to be persistent, to be bold, to keep coming to God with our requests. Like the neighbor that's knocking late at night, God can handle our anxieties, our requests. Now let's look at the second aspect. The second aspect is centered in verses nine and 10 on these three verbs. These three verbs that Jesus uses that kind of are progressive in intensity. And they're all in the present tense, which means that they're continual actions, okay? So, what does he say there? Verse nine, I tell you, ask, there's the first one, ask, or literally, keep on asking, be persistent in asking, and it will be given to you. Ask. James 4, two through three says this. You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions. There's an appropriate way to ask. James here says you're not receiving answers to your prayers because you're asking in the wrong way. You're asking selfishly. You're asking it to spend it on your passions. You're not asking in line with the will and the Word of God. You're doing it out of coveting. You're doing it out of envy. So we are to ask, but to ask in the right way, to ask with the right manner. And so secondly, he says, seek or continually seek the Father. Seeking's a little bit more strong or intense than just asking. Asking and then a little bit more intense. Seek. Keep on seeking the Lord and you'll find. Seeking. Deuteronomy 4.29. But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you'll find him if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul. Over and over in the Bible it talks about seeking the Lord with our heart and soul to search after the Lord, to seek after the Lord. Isaiah 55, six through seven, seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he's near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord that he may have compassion on him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon. Seek the Lord. while he may be found. Now, kids, when you went through VBS back this summer, remember our verse, Jeremiah 29, 12 through 13? You will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me when you seek with me with all your heart. Kids, you remember the motions? I don't remember it, and it was only like a month ago. Maybe some of the kids will remember those motions from the songs. You'll seek me with all your heart. Seeking the Lord. A.W. Tozer has given the paradox of the Christian life. Here's the paradox. If you're a Christian, here's the paradox. He says this. To have found God and still pursue him is the soul's paradox of love. Here's the point. You've become a Christian. You've found God. You have a relationship with Jesus. But here's the point. You don't just stop there. The Christian life is one of ongoing seeking, ongoing searching, ongoing pouring your heart out to find out more about who God is. You should never be content that you have your free ticket to heaven. and then you just really never really seek the Lord after becoming a Christian. We continually seek him, we seek his face. Philippians 3.8, listen to Paul. Indeed I count everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I've suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ. Paul says I want to know Christ. I want to gain Christ. Now here, now think about this, this is Paul. This is the apostle who Jesus knocked over on the road to Damascus, the greatest apostle of all time. He has a relationship with Christ, but notice what Paul says, that's not enough. I want to know Christ more deeply. I want to gain Christ. I want to seek Christ. I want Christ to be my all and all. Ask and then it's a little bit deeper. Seek and then it gets pretty intense. Knock, knock like the man is knocking on the door at night, at midnight. Knock and the door will be open to you. Constantly, continuously, persistently going before the Lord in prayer. Hebrews 4.16. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. We can pray with confidence because of Christ. We can pray with boldness. We can pray with persistence. Let me ask you some questions. Do you pray with this type of intensity, this type of passion, this type of boldness, this type of persistence? Or do you kind of throw up a couple of token prayers to the Lord and say, bless me, bless so and so, Lord, let me have a good day? Is your prayer persistent? Epaphras was the pastor in Colossae, the church that Paul wrote to in the Colossians. And Paul said something very interesting about their pastor, Epaphras, in Colossians 4.12. Epaphras, who's one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you always struggling on your behalf in his prayers that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God. Epaphras was struggling in his prayers. Do you pray with boldness and persistence and urgency? for the salvation of an unsaved friend or family member. When was the last time you prayed with urgency? When was the last time you asked and sought and knocked and came before the Lord with persistency with someone that you know that's not saved? Over and over again you begged the Lord to save them. When was the last time you asked and you sought and you knocked and you came before the Lord with persistency and urgency about your family? About your children, about your grandchildren? that you just wept before the Lord and you came before him on behalf of your family. When was the last time you did this on behalf of our church? On behalf of your elders and leaders, when was the last time you sought the face of the Lord for the health of this church? When was the last time you prayed for our nation like this? You prayed for the revival and spiritual awakening in our nation with persistence, with boldness, with urgency. J.C. Ryle said this, let us resolve by God's grace that however poor and feeble our prayers seem to be, we will pray on. We'll pray on. We may feel weak, we may feel like we don't know what we're saying, but we're gonna pray on. We're gonna be persistent. We're not gonna stop. God's never offended by our persistence. He's never offended by our urgency, our boldness. Let us pray on. Let me give you two quotes from Charles Spurgeon. I love this one. Pray until you can pray. Think about that for a moment. Pray until you can pray. Pray to be helped to pray. And do not give up praying because you cannot pray. For it is when you think you cannot pray that's when you're praying. Pray until you pray. Even if you don't think you're praying, just keep on. And then listen to this, he's the second quote. That which is gained speedily by a single prayer is sometimes only a second rate blessing. But that which is gained after many a desperate tug and many an awful struggle is a full-weighted and precious blessing. The blessing which cost us the most prayer will be worth the most." So Jesus tells a parable about this man knocking And then he gives us these three verbs, ask, seek, knock. And then he finishes it out with another little parable. So the third thing this morning is the second parable about a father giving gifts to his children. He says there in verse 11, what father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead give him a serpent? If he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? Okay, as fathers, we do anything to take care of our children. We love to give gifts to our children, even as imperfect, sinful fathers, even unsaved fathers, good fathers that aren't even Christians, like to give good gifts. And we know how to give gifts. I have never given my son a spanking on Christmas. When Aidan was little and he opened up that gift, and he found a piece of worn out tire, He found that nice gift of moldy cheese. Then he opened up his stocking and it had broken glass. And it had an empty jar of, you know, empty tomato can there. Has anybody ever done anything like that? No, you give good gifts to your children because you want to be a good dad and you want to be a good father and you want to be generous and we're sinners. And what does Jesus say there? He doesn't how much more. He argues from, Lesser to greater, verse 13. If then you who are evil, if you're evil, even sinners, 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? What's the gift that God gives? The Holy Spirit. Now in Matthew 7.11 it says something a little bit different. It says, Matthew says good things, Luke says Holy Spirit. I think it's both. The Holy Spirit is the greatest thing that God can give you. I could spend a month of Sundays preaching a sermon on the next seven things I'm gonna tell you, but we got about 10 minutes. So this is not in any ways meant to be an exhaustive, big explanation. What I'm gonna do is I'm just gonna show you seven wonderful things that the Holy Spirit gives you as God's greatest gift. And again, I could spend forever talking about these, but let's just talk about the greatest gift God could give you is the Holy Spirit. Seven blessings that come from the gift of the Holy Spirit. Here's the first. The Holy Spirit is God's promise to cause his children to be born again. The Holy Spirit's the one that caused you to be born again. John 3, 6-7, that which is born of the flesh is flesh, that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. The Holy Spirit causes you to be born again. Titus 3.5, he saved us not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit. You are born again today because the Holy Spirit did that work in you. It's a gift that the Heavenly Father gave you in your salvation. Second, the Holy Spirit is God's promise to live in us forever. God's promise to live in us, you ever thought about that? The very Holy Spirit of God lives inside of you if you're a believer. John 14, 16 through 17. I will ask the Father and he will give you another helper to be with you forever, even the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him for he dwells with you and will be in you. What a wonderful promise from the Holy Spirit to be in you. The Holy Spirit's God's promise to guide us into all truth, to help us understand the scriptures, to help us to be solid in the truth, John 16, 13 through 14. When the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth. For he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. He'll cause you to be born again. The Holy Spirit will live inside of you. He'll lead you into all truth. Number four, the Holy Spirit is God's promise to produce the fruit of godly character in us. The fruit of the Spirit. Galatians 5, that the fruit of the Spirit is love. joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there's no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. He will produce the fruit of the Spirit in you. He'll cause you to be born again. He'll live inside you. He'll guide you in all truth. He will produce his fruit, godly character in you. Okay, fifth. The Holy Spirit's God's promise to empower us to kill sin in our lives. You wanna kill sin, you wanna deal with sin? You don't deal with it on your own. The Holy Spirit gives you the power to do that. Romans 8, 13, if you live according to the flesh, you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. The Holy Spirit helps you put to death sin in your life. He causes you to be born again. He lives inside of you. He guides you in all truth. He produces his character in you. He helps you kill sin. Sixth, the Holy Spirit is God's promise to equip you with gifts for ministry. Spiritual gifts come from the Holy Spirit. First Corinthians 12, four through seven. Now there are a variety of gifts, but the same spirit. There are a variety of services but the same Lord. And there are varieties of activities but the same God who empowers them all and everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. You've been given a spiritual gift for the common good by the Holy Spirit. In 1 Corinthians 12, 11, all these are empowered by one and the same Spirit who importions to each one individually as He wills. The Holy Spirit causes you to be a born again. The Holy Spirit lives in you. The Holy Spirit guides you in all truth. The Holy Spirit produces the fruit of the Spirit in you. The Holy Spirit gives you the ability to kill sin. The Holy Spirit equips you with gifts for ministry. And then number seven, and we could go on and on this morning, but this is just the end of the list. The Holy Spirit is God's promise to embolden us to witness for Christ. Acts 1, 8. You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. Here's the bottom line. Our Heavenly Father is amazingly gracious and generous in giving the gift of the Holy Spirit. He's given us the greatest gift in the Holy Spirit. He's given us everything we need and more. Second Peter 1.3. His divine power has granted to us all things, all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence. So what's the point? Since God is generous in giving us the Holy Spirit, We should be thankful and we should pray with persistence. We should pray with boldness. We pray with boldness because God is faithful. We pray with persistence because God is generous. We pray with urgency. because God loves to answer our prayers. And we pray with an intensity because God will honor his name. I want us to be a people that are bold in our praying, persistent in our praying, urgent in our praying, intense in our praying, passionate in our praying. Is it because we're all that? No, it's because God is generous. And what does God give us? He gives us every good thing. He gives us the Holy Spirit. Romans 8, 32. He who did not spare his son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Praise your heavenly Father that God has given you the Holy Spirit. And ask, what does Jesus say there? For those who ask, how much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him? Ask the Holy Spirit to actively work in your life. Rely on the power of the Spirit in your life. Keep in step with the Spirit. Ask the Father to give you good things. And you have permission to ask with urgency, to ask with persistence, to ask with boldness. But you need to remember one thing. Father knows best. Your father knows best what you need. You can ask, you can ask, you can ask, you can seek, you can seek, you can seek, you can knock, you can knock, you can knock, and we have permission to do that, but at the end of the day, the father knows what you need best. And he's gonna answer your prayer in the way that's best. It may not feel best, It may not feel good, but it will be for His glory and for your good. And He's given you the Holy Spirit to give you the power. He knows what you need. So let's ask our gracious Heavenly Father. Let's be persistent in prayer. Let's be intense in prayer because He's good, because He's generous, because our Father loves to shower His children with good gifts. What an amazing Father we have. What an amazing Father we have. So let's go to this Heavenly Father right now. And maybe you have a request that's just burning on your heart that you need to spend some time this morning in persistence. Maybe you need to ask and seek and knock. And maybe you need some extended time this morning, and it's not just a token prayer, you need to pray up. So I want to give us a little bit of time this morning to seek, ask, and knock, and spend some time going before our Heavenly Father. So just pour your heart out to Him. Just spend some time pouring your heart out to Him. Lord, I'm thankful that you have put this parable, this account in your Word. It shows us that we can come before our Heavenly Father with persistence, with urgency, boldness and intensity. Not, Father, to twist your arm or tell you what to do, but just because we know that you're generous and you're gracious. and you give us the Holy Spirit, and Lord, help us to never take for granted the gift of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Holy Spirit, we thank you for your power. We thank you for living inside of us. We thank you for producing your fruit. And I'm reminded of that passage in Ephesians 4.20 that says, do not grieve the Spirit of God. Holy Spirit, we don't wanna grieve you. We wanna walk in step with you. We wanna rely upon you. We need you. We can't live the Christian life without you. So we come before the throne of grace this morning, Lord, to pray. Lord, I don't know what's on the hearts and minds of people in this room, but I'm sure that there's a lot of burdens, a lot of big requests, maybe things that people have been praying for for years, and maybe they've given up praying. Lord, help us to be persistent. Help us to trust in your generosity. Help us to know that you know best. Help us to glorify you in our prayers, Lord, asking your will to be done, your glory to be on display. Conform us to the image of Christ. That's what we want, Lord. So Lord, I don't know exactly what people are praying, but Lord, I just pray that if there's somebody in this room today that's been burdened and they've been praying and praying and knocking and knocking and asking and asking and seeking and seeking, Lord, I'm not trying to twist your arm, but would you just be generous to them and answer it in only the way that you can? according to your will and to your way. Lord, if there are those in this room that have given up hope or those that have become discouraged, would you be the lifter of their heads and let them know, Lord, that you're generous, you're good, that you haven't given up on them, that you've got a plan and a purpose for them. We thank you, Lord. We're like Daniel, we don't bring anything to the table, Lord, we do this because of your mercy. Thank you for your mercy. Thank you for your generosity. Thank you for your patience. We love you, Jesus. We honor you. Thank you, Heavenly Father, that when we ask, you give us good things. You give us the Holy Spirit. Lord Jesus, thank you for your cross. Thank you for your resurrection. Thank you for being our king. Will we leave this place encouraged? Will we leave this place thinking about the generous grace of our Heavenly Father? Will we leave this place with an intense desire to be more persistent in our praying? And we ask this in Jesus' name and for his glory, amen and amen.