Ask & Your Will Receive TDD #32

A Ask & Your Will Receive
LUKE 11:1

“Lord, teach us to pray.” (Luke 11:1)

God answers the prayers of sinners, not perfect people. 

And you can become perfectly paralyzed in your praying if you do not focus on the cross and realize this.

I could show it from numerous Old Testament texts where God hears the cry of his sinful people, whose very sins had gotten them into the trouble from which they are crying for deliverance 

For example, 

Psalm 38:4

For my iniquities have gone over my head;  like a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me.

Then in verse Ps 38:15

But for you, O Lord, do I wait; it is you, O Lord my God, who will answer.

 Ps 40:12–13

For evils have encompassed me beyond number; my iniquities have overtaken me, and I cannot see; they are more than the hairs of my head;  my heart fails me.

Ps 107:11–13

for they had rebelled against the words of God, and spurned the counsel of the Most High.  So he bowed their hearts down with hard labor;  they fell down, with none to help. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,  and he delivered them from their distress.

Those passages all show that God hears the cry of his sinful people,But let me show it from Luke 11 — in two ways:

First,  In this version of the Lord’s Prayer (Luke 11:2–4), Jesus says, “When you pray, say . . . ” and then in verse 4 he includes this petition, “and forgive us our sins.” 

So, if you connect the beginning of the prayer with the middle, what he says is, “Whenever you pray, say . . . forgive us our sins.”

I take this to mean that this should be as much a part of all our praying as, “Hallowed be your name.” 

Which means that Jesus assumes that we need to seek forgiveness virtually every time we pray. In other words, we are always sinners. Nothing we do is perfect.

As Martin Luther said, on his deathbed, “We are beggars. This is true.” Even if we have achieved some measure of obedience before we pray, we always come to the Lord as sinners — all of us. 

And God does not turn away the prayers of sinners when they pray like this.

The second place we can see this is in Luke 11:13: “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!”

Jesus calls his disciples “evil.” Pretty strong language. And he did not mean that they were out of fellowship with him. He did not mean that their prayers could not be answered.

He meant that as long as this fallen age lasts, even his own disciples will have an evil bent that pollutes everything they do, but doesn’t keep them from doing as much good as they can as they rely on his grace and power to work.

We are simultaneously evil and redeemed. 

We are gradually overcoming our evil by the power of the Holy Spirit. 

But our native corruption is not destroyed at conversion.   Rather wet re being made new.    Now in a real sense our eternal position with God has been forever moved, and altered never to be taken away.  So positionally I am in Christ, but practically  I am not always what I need to be,  I am practically moving in and out of the obedience I have learned and therefore I am still evil being redeemed.  

That is why Paul said  in Philippians 1:6  - We are to understand that He who began a good work in us is faithful to complete it.   Eternally it is a finished work, but earthly I am a work in progress.  

Philippians 1:6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

We are sinners and we are beggars. And if we recognize this sin, renounce it, fight it, and cling to the cross of Christ as our hope, then God will hear us and answer our prayers.

What's more, this story that Jesus told in verses 5-12 Is a very interesting story indeed. In Palestine travelers often traveled late in the evening to avoid the heat of the day. In the story that Jesus told such a traveler had just arrived towards midnight at a friend’s house.  

In the East hospitality is a sacred duty as it is in much of the world today. It was not enough to set before anyone asking of them a bare minimum. An overabundance was the cultural expectation…. 

In these villages bread was baked at home, and only enough for the days needs were baked, because, if it was kept and became stale, obviously no one would wish to eat it.

Things are certainly expensive and the homeowner, the host, would not want to be wasteful. So the late arrival of a traveler confronted the householder with an embarrassing situation, because his kitchen was bare, and empty.  he would have difficulty fulfilling a sacred obligation of hospitality.

As late as it was, he came to borrow from a friend.  The friend’s door was shut.   There are some things going on in this passage culturally that I think's interesting.  

In the eastern cultures no one would knock on a shut door unless the need was imperative.  only if this was an emergency .

In the mornings their doors were often opened and remained open all day there was little privacy ;  but if the door was shut, that was a definite sign of the home owner did not want to be disturbed.

In this story , the man traveling was not deterred.  not by the shut door or by the time of day.  This individual knocked, and kept on knocking. Most homeowners were poor and the house consisted of one room with only one small window and the floor was simply dirt covered with Reeds and weeds…

The room was small and the family often slept on ground level mats often around a charcoal stove that burned all night  - families were often large and they slept close together for warmth  - especially in the cold winter months .

so when this man knocked on the door it would have disturbed the whole family,  and if the knocking on the door was not enough when the father rose from his sleep he would have certainly caused others in his family to awake. 

If all of this were not enough travelers often would bring livestock :  hens, Roosters, and goats, and all of these animals are often brought into the house.

is there any wonder that the man who was in bed did not want to be disturbed and get up ? v 7

However this determined traveler knocked with shameless persistence that's what this Greek word tells us  - this man knocked and kept knocking until at last the homeowner rubbed his eyes set a few things under his breath and knowing the whole family was disturbed anyway went and gave him what he needed.

This story Jesus said will tell you about prayer.  

I simply find it interesting - here's my takeaway the lesson of this parable is not that we persist in prayer.  it is not that we have to batter God’s door with our request until we finally compel him to give us what we want.  Jesus is not teaching us to persist in our prayers in an effort to coerce an unwilling God to answer  - instead the point of this lesson is to contrast one to another.

Jesus is saying if an evil person who is filled with sin can be nice to a person in the middle of the night and provide needs out of obligation - how much more will God who is loving supply all his children's needs?

This is the point..  you don't have to Badger God.  God is not like us.  he is not put off by our needs, or our request.  there might be an inconvenient or inappropriate time to approach your fellow countryman with the need that you are faced with, but God knows no such inconvenience. 

How much more will God show you love if you will simply ask in prayer?  Now this does not remove us from intensity in our prayer life,  We should in fact possess a passion in our prayer life incoming before the Lord.

Furthermore we were not wrangling gifts from an unwilling God, but we're going to one who knows our needs better than we know them ourselves.  we in fact are approaching a God who is generous in love, and all knowing.  if we do not receive what we pray for, it is not because God refuses to give it to us but it is because he has something better in store for us.  regardless of what songs teach us there is no such thing as an unanswered prayer .

The answer given may not be the answer we desired or expected - Even if God refuses our request we must understand that God is a God of love and in his wisdom he sees things we cannot see. 

So we must learn to pray  to a God who sees, a God who is love, and wise, and we must approach him as a sinner.