Many Christians struggle with prayer. Some see it as a formal ritual, while others treat it like a divine vending machine—only coming to God with a list of wants. But Scripture challenges both perspectives. Jesus taught His disciples to pray with both intimacy and the right focus—not as a duty or a transaction, but as a vital connection with the Father.
Just as prayer was a constant in Jesus’ life and ministry, we are called to develop a prayer life that moves beyond self-centered requests to seeking God’s kingdom and glory.
Senior Pastor David Rose unpacks four key aspects of prayer from Luke 11:1-13. Even Jesus—fully God and fully man—made prayer a priority. Why? Because prayer is not about mere requests; it’s about deepening our dependence on God. Instead of treating prayer like a servant’s intercom for placing orders, we should approach it like a soldier’s walkie-talkie—staying in constant communication with our Commander as we engage in spiritual battle.
Bible study doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Here are five key questions to help you dig deeper into Scripture and apply it to your life:
These questions keep Bible study Christ-centered and practical, helping us not just read the Word but live it.
If you have questions about what it means to be a Christian, we would love to talk with you about it.
True prayer is only possible because of our relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Before we can even approach God as “Father,” we must first be born again in Christ.
The Gospel is this: Though we were created to know and glorify God, our sin has separated us from Him. We cannot fix this broken relationship through our own efforts or religious devotion – even through prayer itself. But God, in His great love, sent His Son Jesus to live the perfect life we couldn’t live and die the death we deserved. Like Pastor David said, “The only way we can come into God’s presence is because Jesus is the high priest.”
Jesus died for our sins, was buried, and rose again on the third day (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). Through His perfect life, sacrificial death, and triumphant resurrection, Jesus has made a way for us to be “rescued from the domain of darkness, and transferred into this new kingdom.” When we repent of our sins and put our trust in Christ alone for salvation, we are adopted into God’s family. The Holy Spirit moves in (cf. Luke 11:13), and we can now approach God as our loving Father.
That’s why Pastor David emphasized that prayer must begin with recognizing this relationship—not one we earned or deserved, but one made possible only through Christ’s work:
“The reason we can call God our father is because we’ve been born again in Christ.”
This transforms prayer from a religious duty into intimate communication between a loving Father and His adopted children, made possible only through the finished work of Jesus Christ.
The Gospel isn’t just the starting point – it’s the ongoing reality that shapes how we pray. We don’t come to God based on our performance but based on Christ’s perfection. We don’t pray to earn God’s favor but because Christ has already secured it for us.
This is what gives us “shameless boldness” – not because of who we are, but because of who Christ is and what He has done for us.
Good morning. Trinity. I'm Mitch Bohannon, and I'm the director of live production. Here. And it means I get to work with the great folks that are in the booth in the production room and spend time with them to help us all hear, see, and experience. Let's open the Word.
Luke 11 one through 13 this morning, the Lord's Prayer.
He was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray, just as John also taught his disciples. He said to them, whenever you pray, say, father, your name. Be honored as holy. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves also forgive everyone in debt to us, and do not bring us into temptation.
He also said to them, suppose one of you has a friend, and goes to him at midnight and says to him, friend, lend me three loaves of bread, because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I don't have anything to offer him. Then he will answer from inside and say, don't bother me. The door is already locked.
My children, I have gone to bed and I can't give you anything. I tell you, even though he won't get up and give him anything because he is his friend. Yet because of his friend's shameless boldness, he will get up and give him as much as he needs. So I say to you, ask and it will be given to you.
Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives the one who seeks, finds in the one who knocks. The door will be open. What father among you, if his son asks for fish, will give him a snake instead of a fish, or if you ask 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 would the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? Amen.
Amen. Thank you Mitch. Good morning church. If you did not, as Mitch, urge you to turn to Luke chapter 11, I hope you do that right now. Luke chapter 11 is on pages 591 and 592. In those complimentary copies of the text, if you don't have your own copy of the Scripture, then on your way out today, stop by the welcome desk.
We would be happy to have to give you a copy of your own, so that you'll be able to worship in the word with us here. But every day, be able to worship in the word at home. We believe the Spirit of God uses the word of God to make us more like the Son of God. And so we want you interacting with the text not just here, but every day, so that you're hearing from God and becoming more like Jesus every day.
We continue in this series of messages entitled Magnificent Seven, looking at seven different truths that Jesus taught us or displayed for us, so that as as we grow, we can also help others come to faith in Jesus and then take these these seven ideas and use them as as beginning points for them to to walk with Jesus and grow in Jesus.
And so we've looked over the first couple of weeks at the idea of repenting and believing that every person has to come into a personal relationship with Jesus at that moment of understanding, repentance and belief. Understanding that Jesus is perfect and I am not, I might be a good person. I may have even go to church for a long time.
But until I've come to a relationship with Jesus and understanding that his perfection is my only hope for perfection, that he lived the life I should have lived and died. The death that I deserve because sin leads to death. Then until you come to that moment, you'll never repent. You'll think that you're okay, but it isn't in that moment, just as we saw Zacchaeus coming to that moment with Jesus and recognizing that Jesus could do for Zacchaeus what his idols never could, and Zacchaeus lay them down and follow Jesus, he repented and believed that last week we saw that the Ethiopian had come to that repentant and belief relationship with Jesus.
And he said, what keeps me from being baptized? And so we say that that first step of obedience after coming to this saving relationship with Jesus is to then go through the waters in baptism. So that your body is demonstrating what he has done with your soul. That I was dead in sin, and now he's raised me to a new life.
Today we look in Luke, Luke chapter 11 and this this ongoing obedience, this ongoing relationship with Jesus through prayer. And I'm entitled today's message A wartime walkie talkie, not a servant intercom. When I was growing up in Mount Pleasant, I had an aunt and uncle, Robert and Helen, my dad's oldest brother Robert, his wife Helen, who lived in one of the nicest houses I'd ever seen in my life.
They lived about five miles north of Winnsboro, and we would go over with some regularity on weekends to see them, but we'd always gather at their place on Thanksgiving, and whenever we were there, I was so amazed by their house. My dad was the youngest of five siblings, and so when they would get together, those siblings, we want to sit in the same room and around the dining table or in one of the living rooms.
They would they would talk. They would catch up. This was long before the days of cell phones. This was when you were still paying long distance bills and so you didn't call your your family. All that often and you get together and they would talk. And I was the youngest child of the youngest child. So most of my other cousins were grown and gone.
So it was often that I was at that house by myself. Three story house, two stories that were complete, an attic that had been closed in multiple living rooms at sun rooms. And and I, being the only child, had the run of the house. I think it's where my spiritual gift of nosiness developed, because I could go anywhere in that house and I love it.
The adults were there and so I could go into the bedrooms and my Uncle Robert had a business, and so he had an office there at the house and a roll top desk. And he had an extensive library because he he loved the Lord as well. And he helped lead at his church. And it's just a fascinating place.
But one of my favorite things was in the formal dining room, big dining table seat, 10 or 12 people, easily huge area, but under that road near the head of the table, there was a slight lump because under that carpet was a buzzer, and the one sitting at the head of the table could step on that buzzer, and it would call the servants from the kitchen.
Well, this was well beyond the time where there were servants in the kitchen. So the only ones in the kitchen while they were preparing the meal would have been my mother and my aunts and all the other ladies getting ready. And so we kids would go in and get out of that table and just pound on that buzzer.
It's why you had to have a kids table because they didn't want us pressing the buzzer. They would shut us out and say quit pressing the buzzer. But we loved it because it would get a response every time we pressing the buzzer, we would laugh and we would press the buzzer even more. I think there are times that we treat prayer as if we're pressing the servant intercom and expecting Jesus to come running and ask, what can I do for you today?
John Piper and one of his magnificent books years ago said that prayer should be far more like a soldier on the field talking with his superior over the walkie talkie than it ought to be. This communication while on the battlefront, getting instruction from the one who sees the big picture rather than our seeing it as Jesus coming to us, seeing how he can make our lives more easy.
Jesus is going to instruct us today here in Luke chapter 11. In a way, I think that will help us to see that it is far more about this communication in a time of war, in a time where we are serving him rather than he is serving us for things that I want you to see in the text.
The first is this, and it's in verse one, is that Jesus made prayer a regular part of his life. Jesus made prayer a regular part of his life. If you look back there in verse one, Luke writes that he was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples came to it. It's not the first time that Luke has mentioned that Jesus is praying.
If you look back in the earlier chapters of Luke chapter three, chapter six, chapter nine, he mentions that Jesus was praying. Prayer was a regular part of Jesus life. Now think about that. This is God in the flesh. This is God who has eternally existed. The second person, God the Son, who has put on flesh and has come to live on this earth.
And he sees prayer as a regular necessity in his life, that even though he's God, he's also flesh. He's 100% God and he's 100% man. And it is in that limitation that his flesh brings that he knows, that drives him to that time with his father, so that he can have this time to be nourished and replenished, where he can get the wisdom and the direction that he needs.
And so if Jesus, who is God in the flesh, thought that prayer was a necessity in his life, then we must adopt the same attitude. That prayer must be something that that we see is absolutely necessary. It's not something that we can forego, but it's something that that must be a part of our lives every day, multiple times a day.
Years ago, in studying prayer and trying to become a better prayer myself, I remember reading an author who said that prayer is to the believer as breathing is to a human. Prayer is to the believer as breathing is to a human. I think it's an important picture. If you've ever been in the delivery room or you've seen those shows, it will will show delivery and new life.
What's one of the first things that a baby does breathes, cries out? It's one of those those moments of relief where we're the doctors know when the family knows this baby has arrived and and it's functioning well because those lungs fill up for the very first time. And this cry goes out. And so breathing happens. You don't have to teach a baby how to breathe the way God has wired us.
It happens naturally. You breathe all night while you're sleeping without even thinking. And I think there's there's a part of us that naturally knows how to pray. You may know someone who is rather distant from God, or who is not interested in religion at all, and yet they will tell you that they pray. I've had it happen countless times through the years, as I've struck up conversations with people who have come to my church who've needed some assistance, or people maybe I've talked with on a plane or on the subway somewhere, and we'll talk.
And it's always said that they are not as interested in church as as I am or not involved in a church. But almost every one of them says, but I pray every night there's this recognition, almost like the breathing that is so natural. There's recognition that there has to be a communication with the one who's made it there, atheist, who in the midst of battle, will begin to cry out to God.
Those who know that the plane is about to crash, that who who will begin to pray, who've never prayed before there. I think there's a natural inclination to prayer, but Jesus is showing us. And it's the second thing that you'll see on your handout, that Jesus teaches his disciples how to pray the just as you breathe without thinking, the just as you breathe when when you're sleeping, there's a prayer.
I think that naturally happens because there's a part of you, because you're made in the image of God, where you reach out to God, where you respond to God. And yet Jesus shows us that there's a way to pray. Look at the end of verse one says, the disciples came to him and said, Lord, teach us to pray, just as John also taught his disciples.
Who are they referring to? John and his disciples is John the Baptist. This is the the relative of Jesus, quite likely a cousin of some kind whose life had been chosen specifically by God to prepare the way for Jesus. And so John, as he lived his life and in a rather unusual way, wearing camel skins and eating locusts and preaching in the desert.
And yet he pulled around him followers, because they heard him and they believed him. And these disciples had a way of living in a way of praying that everyone around those are John's disciples. Jesus disciples come to him and they hear him praying. They see the prayers a part of his life. And they say, would you teach us to do that?
Teach us so that our lives look like your lives, that our prayers sound like your prayers? They wanted to be known by how they lived, that they had a line with Jesus. You see this in our culture all the time. They're a friend or fans of Taylor Swift that also got Swifties when they go to a concert, who are they going to dress like?
They're going to dress like Kanye West, right? No, they're not going to dress that Kanye. They're going to dress like Taylor Swift. They're Swifties. They want to be known as being aligned with her. Today there's a game of some importance happening in the football world, and that people will put on jerseys with a particular number and a name on the back because they want to be identified with that player.
The disciples had seen Jesus do all kinds of things. They had heard him teach to crowds of thousands. They had seen Jesus take five loaves and two fish and multiply to feed thousands. If he they had seen Jesus give sight to the blind and help the lane to walk, they could have asked Jesus to teach them to do a lot of things.
But what did they ask him to teach them? Teach us how to pray that they saw within Jesus and the way he prayed, the real uniqueness about Him and his depth of connection to the father. And they said, would you teach us to do that? Jesus had it as a consistent part of his life, but they realized that needs to be a part of our.
And so Jesus teaches us how to pray so that our lives will look like his life, so that our prayers sound like his prayers. Praying is something that you can do innately. And yet Jesus tells us this is something you have to learn how to do, just as you learn to to to breathe more intentionally. When when you're working out, your brain will always tell you to make sure you're breathing intentionally so you don't pass out when you when you get into to crazy situations, when the traffic is tough or or the pressure is deep, you learn to control your breathing so that you can live differently.
So what is Jesus showing us? So several things that he shows us in just this brief pattern in verse two he says, whenever you pray, say, father. So the first thing that your prayer needs to to show, to demonstrate is that you have a relationship with God. This word, father, the day that Jesus used here was used in the Old Testament 18 times.
They referred to God as Father in certain situations, but never in the Old Testament was God referred to as father in prayer. In an then they knew he had been their creator. They knew that they owed their life, their existence, their identity to him. But Jesus says now, because of who Jesus is, that we have an intimacy with God that was never possible before.
We cannot overlook that. That the reason we can call God our father is because we've been born again in Christ. And so it is that as we begin this prayer, every time, it needs to be a recognition of our relationship, our dependency, our hope that is in him. More often than not, when you come to God, it's often, I would think, in a time of distress or a time where where everything else has failed.
And so now you're coming to him and God says, even if it's in one of those moments, remember that this relationship is based on the work of Christ and not your righteousness. This relationship is possible because you've been born again, rescued from the domain of darkness, and transferred into this new kingdom. So he says, as we pray, if you want to sound like Jesus and look like Jesus and be different from all the prayers in the world, then it is that as you pray, you begin this relationship.
You say, God, I know that your father. And the only way that's possible because I've been born again in Christ, that the only way I can come into your presence is because Jesus is the high priest. When my kids were little, they could come into my office anytime they wanted without an appointment because they were my children. They had a special drawer in my desk filled with paper and pens that were specifically for them.
No one else could come in my office like that if they came in my office asking for paper and pens, I would wonder, what's wrong with you? That's not the relationship yet. My kids could come in unannounced because of the relationship. Jesus says, if we really want to pray as he did, it starts with the relationship. But then look what he says in the second part of verse two, your name be honored as holy.
Your kingdom come. Jesus says, if we want to pray as a real disciple, if you're going to help someone who's just now come to faith in Jesus, learn how to pray. It is that as they pray, not only are they focusing on the relationship, but then they're focusing on God's reputation. Your name being honored, his home. I'm not coming to you asking you to help me pass this test so I can be famous.
I'm not coming here to ask you to heal me from this disease. So you can be so I can be famous. I'm coming. Asking that your name would be honored as holy. That this relationship that we have would stun the world. And they would know that there's no God like you was the last time he prayed like that.
Praying so that God would be the one who would be revered because of the answers. That God would be the one who'd be honored because of the power. And then he says, your kingdom come. More often than not, when we pray, we pray selfishly. I want my kingdom, I want this, this boy to think that I'm special. I want this girl to be my girlfriend.
I want this job because it can pay me a lot of money. I need this answer from the doctors because it will make my life more comfortable. And yet Jesus says, if we want to pray as he pray and we want our lives to align with his life, then we recognize the relationship we have and we pray that God would be revered and that his kingdom would come on earth as it is and have it just as I know some that I was thinking between services, Luke gives us this outline.
Matthew gives us something similar in Matthew chapter six. Luke's is a bit briefer, and it hit me that if Jesus intended for us to pray this prayer word for word, and that was it, then either Luke or Matthew made a big mistake because they're not identical. But is what Matthew gives us. And what Luke gives us is really to be an outline.
Talk about these topics that the holiness of God, his Kingdom's coming, the reputation and honor of God around the world, then it is that these are place settings so that we can then go as deeply and widely on these subjects as we need to. So he says that as we pray, we recognize this is only possible because of the relationship through Jesus.
And then we pray about God's reputation in his kingdom, that his glory would be advanced around the world, have changed the way you pray, because it's not about your fame, but his. But here's the great news is that in verses three and four, Jesus shows us that we do pray about important things, personal things. But what he says in verse three, give us each day our daily bread.
Jesus says that as we pray, we talk about physical needs, but we also talk about spiritual needs that we recognize if this relationship is possible only through Jesus. Jesus was both body and soul. We are two and so we bring our personal needs to God. God, I need this today and only you can provide. I need this relationship to work out or I need to pass this test.
I need this job to come through or these bills to be paid. God, I need this relationship to be restored. God, I need this sin to be forgiven that we come to him recognizing, yes, there are real needs in our lives, tangible things. And so Jesus says, we bring this to him, but only after we've gotten ourselves in the right relationship, in the right posture, then we're not coming for our kingdom, but for he is.
But because we're members of the Kingdom, he cares about us. Have you ever thought about that? I should pray about that. But God really don't care about that. Jesus says God cares about even the little things like bread. Bread was the most basic item of food in their diet, and so there is nothing too small to pray about and nothing too big to pray about.
Jesus says we just simply need the right posture. As we're praying. And then look at verse four and forgive us our sin, he says, we realize that there is the spiritual dimension and and we need this continual refreshment of our relationship, that because Christ died and rose again and because we have repented of our sin and laid our lives in his hands, that he's forgiven us, but we know that we're still in this process of being perfected.
And so we need this continual reminder that he has forgiven us through the death and resurrection and ascension of Jesus. But that sin, if we ignore it or act as if it's not an important thing, will create distance between us and God forgive us our sins, for we ourselves also forgive everyone in debt to us that we want our relationship with God to remain healthy.
But we also realize that we want our relationship with others to remain healthy. And if we're not willing to forgive those around us, it's because we've forgotten what a great debt Jesus forgave between us and God. So do you see? How have Jesus is teaching us to pray that we don't get to hurry and we don't get selfish, but we we remain in all that we can talk to the one who breathed us into existence and who holds everything together in his name.
And so we look at ourselves, and we look at the relationships between us and God and us in one another. And then he says, and don't bring us into temptation. Then we realize that there is a physical world and there are these spiritual relationships, but we also know there spiritual warfare all around us. And I have to believe that Jesus, as he taught us that, that that he was reminding us that in Matthew chapter four, Jesus went to the desert to be tempted, and he faced the same temptations in the desert that Adam and Eve faced in the garden.
They failed and he passed. And I think it is this recognition all the time of God. There are temptations all around me. Don't test me because Jesus passed the test. I'm failing and I'm trusting him and not myself. And so look what Jesus is teaching us. As we pray, we talk about physical things. We talk about spiritual things.
We talk about our relationship with him and our relationship with others. We look at the present because we ask for our needs. We look at the past because we know we've committed sin for which we need forgiveness. And we look to the future because we know there's going to be warfare. And that happens to us after the prayer, physical and spiritual, past, present, future.
There's nothing about which we don't pray, but all of it is done in a proper posture before him. This is what we have to learn in the flesh. We go to God or whatever idol to whom we pray, and we ask for our things. But in Christ we go to God and we ask for his things, for his work, for his power to be at work in our lives.
This is why we need to pray. And we have to learn how to pray because it goes against our physical nature. So Jesus made it a consistent part of his life. He taught us how to pray. And then the third thing that I want you to see is that Jesus expects prayer to be consistent in our lives. Jesus expects prayer to be consistent in our lives.
Look what he says in verse five. Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and he says to him, friend, lend me three loaves of bread, because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I don't have anything to offer him. Then he'll answer from inside and say, don't bother me.
The door's already locked and my children have gone to bed. I can't get up and give you anything. This is not maybe as funny to us as I think it must have been to the disciples as Jesus was describing. This is a Jewish culture. Hospitality was was in the Jewish culture. It was expected that if someone showed up at your house, no matter what time of day or night, you would feed them and you would feed them well.
If they needed overnight accommodations, you would give them the best band in the house. Hospitality was in the Jewish culture. And so Jesus tells a story. He says, imagine someone shows up at your house late at night. What's the expectation? You're going to feed them? But there's a problem. You have nothing to feed them. What are you going to do?
You're going to go next door because the Jewish culture demands it. And, you know, even though you're out, that your neighbors have bread and they have to give it to you because the culture demands it. And Jesus paint this hysterical picture that you can go to the door. Hey, somebody say, I've got I'm in a bind. I've got to feed him.
Go away. Go away. We're in bed. Leave us alone. You can hear it from inside out. My kids are in bed. They're tucked in. I don't want to get up. Your children know this. That's why they come to your room at three inches the morning. I'm thirsty, I need that. It's in them. They know that you're going to take care of them.
Jesus is painting this, this picture. Then you come to the door. I need some help. And I know that you can help me because our culture expects it and demands. Look how Jesus describes verse eight. I tell you, even though he won't get up and give you anything because he is his friend. Yeah, because of his friend's shameless boldness, he will get up and give him as much as he needs.
Shameless boldness that this person was at the door, knocking incessantly in the middle of the night because of shameless boldness. This friend knows the culture demands it and you cannot get out of the demand. So he says, we can come to God. If the culture allows us shameless boldness, then imagine what we can come to God and ask when we know that he is a God who wants his kingdom to come, his will to be done, his glory to be spread across the earth, and we can come to him and say, God, I want you to answer this prayer for your glory.
I want you to answer this prayer so your kingdom can expand. Years ago, when I was in the BCM Baptist Collegiate Ministry at Northwestern State, there's a brand new study that come out by twin hunts called Prayer Life. Doctor hunt was a professor at Southwestern Seminary in Fort Worth, and now they do the study and learn more about Doctor Hunt.
I was amazed to learn Doctor Hunt was a professor of church music, and Doctor Hunt had learned to pray. Jesus had taught Doctor Hunt to pray in such a remarkable way that that he had written this study. And the thing I remember most from that study is that Doctor Hunt said, give Jesus a reason to answer your prayer.
Give Jesus a reason. Come to him with this shameless boldness that says, you should answer my prayer. For this reason. Because it is in that shameless boldness that if you're putting yourself first, it will lead to shameful moving away. You'll no longer be bold, but you realize I'm asking you for all the wrong reasons to answer this prayer.
But when you begin to ask according to the things he has taught us for his glory and for his kingdom, it changes how you pray. Teenagers are sitting there in geometry and you're praying. They say there's no prayer in school, but I promise you, on test day there's prayer in school, right? And you're praying, God, help me pass this test because and you fill in the blank, help me pass this test because I didn't study.
And I need you to bail me out, because if I fail this test, I'm going to be grounded for the rest of my life. Does that have anything to do with God's glory? Does that have anything to do with his kingdom? Likely not. But if it is, God, help me pass this test because I've been disciplined as you've made me to be disciplined, and I've studied, and I want this test to show the fruit of that discipline, and I want my life to show the glory of Jesus, because Jesus has given us the spirit of self-discipline.
And I want you to honor yourself through the way my life shows the fruit of discipline. It's a much different prayer, same test, same prayer for passing. But who gets the glory?
You're looking for that mate in life, that that person that you think is just the right person. God help this man fall in love with me, or help this woman fall in love with me because I need someone to show me I'm value. Or God, in your timing, bring me that the woman I need or the man that I need.
Because what I realized is I'm enough in Christ. I don't have to have a husband or wife in order to be complete and useful in the kingdom. But when you're ready and you think that that person can come so that I, as a man can can love her the way Christ loves the church, or or I as a woman can love and serve him the way Christ serves, the way the church serves Christ.
Then on that day, I'll be ready. So now you're not praying for that date or that mate, so that your life can be easier or more comfortable, but you're praying so that your life can bring him glory. It's a completely different mindset, and it's not something you learn selfishly. It's what you learn through discipline. God, heal me so I don't have to go to the doctor anymore.
I don't have these bills any longer or so that I'm not uncomfortable. It's a much different prayer that God gives me endurance until the day you heal me, so that even if you never heal me, I sense your presence and I can bring you glory even in my misery. Give God a reason to answer the prayer. It's a much more desperate prayer.
It's a much more wartime walkie talkie conversation with the God who is in charge of all things, rather than someone leisurely sitting in the living room texting someone in the kitchen to bring them a drink. God says that our lives should be our prayer. Life should be consistent. You might even write the word persistent because Jesus says that in that culture, there could be this shameless boldness.
That's what he's telling us. We can come boldly. The writer of Hebrews said in Hebrews four, we can come into his presence boldly because Jesus has made the way so we can come to God, but we don't come arrogantly demanding our ways. We come in wanting his way. And finally he says that our prayers should be expected. Our prayer should be expecting.
He says, ask and it be given. Seek. You'll find. Knock. The door will be open for everyone. Ask receives. He who seeks finds. The one who knocks. The door will be open. There's an expectancy that's there. He says. What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead of a fish. Or if he asks for an egg, we'll give him a scorpion.
If you who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will you, heavenly father, give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? Luke knew that the Holy Spirit was the best ultimate gift from God to us. Luke wrote a lot in his gospel about the Holy Spirit, but then in acts he talked about the arrival of the Holy Spirit in the work that the spirit does through believers.
When you're saved, when you come to that moment of repentance and you believe in Jesus, the Holy Spirit moves in. When Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit came down the form of a dove to to show God's pleasure. And it is as we pray that the Holy Spirit is praying for us with words that that can't even be put into words, that the Holy Spirit is our great gift from God, and he is our connection to him in prayer, and he allows us to be expected.
We don't have to be hesitant going to be expectant, but we don't ask for our things. We ask for his. In your worship, God, there is the the sword outline with a sword method. We talked about the last several weeks. If you were to lead someone to faith in Christ, how could you help them? Open up the scripture and learn to read?
And we ask these questions. And so we want to lay the sword onto Luke chapter 11, verses one through 13. The sword points up. And so we ask, what does this teach us about God? It teaches us that God listens. God expects us to pray. God wants us to come to him with a shameless boldness. God wants us to be persistent and expectant, that that horizontal peace provides some protection and some stability.
And so it reminds us to look around and ask, what does this teach us? About us, about mankind, about human? But we can learn from this that we have to learn to pray, and the world will know we are his disciples by the way we pray.
Swarms of sharks. So you want to avoid them because they'll do damage. And so we ask, is there a sin to avoid? I would think the Sin of Prayer listeners, we want to avoid. Jesus expects us to pray the sin of selfishness or arrogance, the sin of inconsistency. The sword is useful as well. So we ask, is there an example to follow, a truth to learn, a way to live?
It is that we're to to pray and pray some more and keep praying and keep asking and keep seeking. So the final question we ask is, how do I apply this? Just as you handle the sword, you you can only use it if you're holding on to it. How do we apply this passage? Well, we must be people of prayer.
We must be a church that prays, and individuals that pray, families that pray through our relationship with his kingdom in mind, his glory to be the outcome of those prayers. But but laying before him the physical and the spiritual, the past and the present, the future, and coming to him with shameless boldness. If you haven't been praying already for one who is near you, but who's far from God, my challenge would be start that prayer consistently, expectantly.
You have a couple opportunities over the next few weeks. I'll be preaching next week about evangelism, and so it could be that you might invite your friend to come next week to to hear the gospel and sing the gospel on March 16th, three 1625. On 316 we're going to preach John 316, in fact, churches all over Louisiana, all over the United States are going to preach John 316 and it could be over these next five weeks.
You're praying, God, show me the person to invite to church on that day and hear the gospel and give me the opportunity to share the gospel before the Easter is on April 20th. It could be that you're praying, God, show me how to get them here for Easter. No, no easier day to invite someone to come be a part.
But then praying for yourself as well that you become a person of prayer, a true disciple of Christ who's repentant and believes, a disciple who has been baptized and living in this new way. A disciple who prays. I'll ask our worship team to come because that's what we want to do. We want to pray, and then we want to respond.
Coming to God with this shameless boldness, asking him to change. Would you pray with me, father, this morning we we cannot say thank you enough for the hope that we have in Christ, the the change that you have brought in our lives, that our relationship is with you only because of Jesus. And this morning we pray that you are beginning a work in Trinity Baptist Church, where your kingdom will come and your name will be honored across the lake area and around the world because of how you transform lives.
So God, show us the things that we need. Give us those things physically and spiritually. Help us see how you've forgiven our past and secure in our future, so we can walk in confidence in the presence.
If there's anyone today who needs to surrender to you, Holy Spirit, don't let them go until they surrender. But if there's anyone that needs encouragement, help them. Come today to find that encouragement in prayer. And we pray all of this through the righteousness of Jesus. Amen.