Parables of Jesus Part 7: The Persistent Friend

This free Bible lesson, The Parable of The Persistent Friend, will teach preschool and elementary students about the lesson Jesus taught when He was living on Earth as a human and the greatest teacher of all time.

This lesson is part of a summer series titled "Jesus Makes a Splash: Lessons from the Parables of Jesus".

This lesson comes from the Seeds of Truth Elementary Bible Curriculum that is free to anyone looking for ideas to "plant seeds" into the hearts of children as they are learning about Jesus. Find more details HERE.

Transcript

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Welcome to the Seeds of Truth podcast, where seeds of biblical truth are planted into the hearts and minds of listeners so they can grow into a relationship with Jesus. I'm your host, Miss Dana. Thank you for joining me today. Let's get started. Hello, friends, and welcome back. This is part seven of a series all about the parables of Jesus. A parable is a short and simple story that uses everyday situations or ideas to teach a big lesson. The parable that we are going to learn about today is called the Parable of the Persistent Friend. And you may also see it referred to as the Parable of the Friend at midnight. And it is recorded in the book of Luke. So let's think about what the word persistent means. Being persistent means not giving up even when things are hard or take a long time. So maybe when you were learning to ride a bike, you struggled at first, but you didn't give up and you learned how to ride a bike. That's persistence. Or maybe you were trying to finish a challenging puzzle or an assignment at school. It was difficult, or it may have taken a long time, but you didn't give up and you finished. That is persistence. Maybe when you were learning to play an instrument, it was difficult or it took a long time. But again, you didn't give up and you learned how to play the instrument. That's persistence. So the parable that we are going to learn about today involves a man who showed persistence in something that he was trying to do. Jesus told this parable about the persistent friend after he talked to his disciples about prayer. Prayer is when we talk to God. Believers in Jesus can talk to God anytime we want to. And some things that we can pray about. We can pray to ask God for things that we need. We can pray to ask God to help us make an important decision or to keep us and our family safe. We can pray to ask God to help us with something we are afraid about, or we can pray for comfort and for peace if we are nervous. Does God always answer our prayers the way that we expect or the way we want him to? No, God will not always answer your prayers the way that you think he is going to, or the way that you want him to answer. Prayer is God's way of including you in his plan. When we pray, we are talking to God and not to anyone else. Even when you pray in front of other people, you are talking to God and not to the people you are praying in front of. There was a time when one of our U.S. presidents, President Lyndon Johnson, was having a lunch meeting with his staff. One of the men in the room was leading the prayer for the group out loud before lunch. President Johnson told the man to speak up as he was praying because he was talking too quietly and couldn't be heard by the other people in the room. The man responded to the president by saying, I wasn't addressing you, Mr. President. This is a funny example of how we should be focusing on God when we are praying and not on others who may be listening. So in the book of Luke, we can read about a time when Jesus was praying, and his disciples asked him to teach them to pray. They knew that Jesus prayed a lot, and they knew that John the Baptist had taught people to pray, so they wanted to be taught as well. Jesus responded to his disciples by giving them a model prayer. And a model is something that helps us understand something else. It's like an example to be followed. So Jesus showed his disciples how to pray so that they could follow his example when they prayed. And this is sometimes called the Lord's Prayer. But Jesus used the prayer as an example, but he didn't have to pray that prayer because he didn't ever have to pray for forgiveness. So it's called the Lord's Prayer, not because Jesus prayed it, but because he taught it. So Jesus taught that when we pray, we should honor God and ask for his will to be done in our lives. What does this mean? When we pray, we should be asking God to use us to do what He wants, not what we want. When we pray for God's will to be done in our lives, our hearts and minds will be changed to be able to accept God's answer, even if it is different than what we wanted, or different from how we thought he would answer. Right after Jesus gave the disciples his example of how to pray, he told the parable of the persistent friend. So I'm going to read from the book of Luke, chapter 11, verses 5 through 10. And I want you to think about what the message of the parable is. I want you to think about who the friend knocking on the door is a symbol of, and who the man answering the door is not a symbol of. The parable says, Suppose you have a friend. You go to him at midnight and say, Friend, lend me three loaves of bread. A friend of mine on a journey has come to stay with me. I have no food to give him. And suppose the one inside answers, Don't bother me, the door is already locked. My children and I are in bed. I can't get up and give you anything. I tell you, that person will not get up, and he won't give you bread just because he is your friend. But because you keep bothering him, he will surely get up. He will give you as much as you need. So here's what I say to you. Ask and it will be given to you. Search and you will find. So some of the parables that Jesus spoke, he explained, and it was recorded when he explained. But this time the explanation is not given to us in the Bible. But remember, when we don't understand something, we can ask the Holy Spirit for guidance. We can pray and we can study and we can figure out what Jesus was teaching. In this parable, Jesus teaches about how we should continue to pray and look for God's will in his answer. Remember that God does not always answer the way that we expect him to answer. The important thing for us to remember is that prayer is God's way of preparing our hearts for his will for our lives. When we pray for God's will to be done in our life, he will prepare us for how he is going to respond to our prayers. The person knocking on the door in this parable was being persistent. Remember, being persistent means not giving up even when things are hard or take a long time. So the person knocking on the door is a symbol of a person who is persistent in prayer. This is a person who continues to pray and look for God's will in his answer. The parable tells of the man on the other side of the door who says, Don't bother me, the door is already locked, my children and I are in bed, I can't get up and give you anything. This person is a contrast to God. A contrast is something that is the opposite of something else. God wants us to pray to him. God says in the Old Testament book of Isaiah, even before they call out to me, I will answer them. While they are still speaking, I will hear them. God wants us to call out to him in prayer. The apostle Paul teaches in the book of 1 Thessalonians, never stop praying. Some translations of this verse say, Pray continually or pray without ceasing. This means to continue to pray and continue to pray in everything that you do. The man who didn't want to be bothered in the parable is the opposite of God. Even though the man eventually answered the door, God is never bothered by our prayers. He wants us to pray to him often. Jesus even told us this after he told the parable. So here is what I say to you ask and it will be given to you. Search and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you. Everyone who asks will receive. The one who searches will find and the door will be opened to the one who knocks. So Jesus is teaching in this passage that God wants to hear our prayers. He wants us to ask Him for things we need through prayer. He wants us to search for Him through prayer. He wants us to knock on the door through prayer. Jesus compares our prayers to knocking on a door. He says that when we knock, the door will be opened. He means that when we pray, God will hear our prayers. We won't change God's mind about his plan when we pray. Instead, when we pray for God's will to be done in our lives, he will change our hearts and our minds to match what is in his will. Then when he answers, our hearts and minds are prepared for his answer, even if his answer is different than what we thought we wanted. Let's pray right now. Dear God, thank you for your word, the Bible. Thank you for the parables that Jesus used to teach big lessons. Thank you that we are able to come to you in prayer anytime that we want to. Please help us to be faithful in how we pray and to always pray according to your will for our lives. We love you and praise you in Jesus' sweet name. Amen. All right, we have one more parable. Next time we're going to be talking about the parable of the three workers. So until then, God bless. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Seeds of Truth podcast. For more free Bible resources, visit seeds of truth ministries.com.