SPEAKER_00: This podcast is the Ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_00: For more information on our church, please visit Grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_01: Well, Grand Parkway is my sincere joy to be with you this morning.
SPEAKER_01: I uh really uh rejoice, um, and I don't want this to sound like pastor talk.
SPEAKER_01: You know how pastors talk, they talk kind of weird.
SPEAKER_01: Um so I want to be as sincere as I can uh in what I'm about to say.
SPEAKER_01: I really rejoice in what God is doing here at Grand Parkway.
SPEAKER_01: Uh it is just it is a joy to me when I hear about what the Lord's doing here.
SPEAKER_01: Um I I've been friends with your pastor for over 15 years, and um just hearing about the stories about what God's doing here with missions and in the community and reaching people and and the truth of God, just another another place and community in Sugarland where the gospel is preached.
SPEAKER_01: And um, we are an area of of the city, I think you would agree, that has a lot of churches, but sometimes we don't have a lot of gospel.
SPEAKER_01: And so I I really rejoice in Grand Parkway.
SPEAKER_01: And just to just to say, uh, so you know my heart, um, like I said, I've I've known Neil for over 15 years, and I just want to tell you, um, I got no funny stories, because you probably got funny stories.
SPEAKER_01: Uh I got no pictures of him I want to show you uh or anything like that.
SPEAKER_01: I just want to tell you, um, just so you know where I'm coming from, um, I love that man.
SPEAKER_01: Um he makes me love Jesus more and uh makes me want to be a better man.
SPEAKER_01: And that's pretty much all I need to say about my heart for him, and uh you should um just pray for him and and thank the Lord for him.
SPEAKER_01: So uh that's all we'll really say about that.
SPEAKER_01: We have a Bible this morning if you want to open Luke chapter 11.
SPEAKER_01: Luke chapter 11.
SPEAKER_01: You've been in the parables for a little while, and um we're gonna talk about the parable of the midnight friend.
SPEAKER_01: And the parable of the midnight friend uh is really about prayer, and so I don't know how you are about prayer, and maybe you're a prayer giant, and if so, you probably should have the face mic this morning.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not a prayer giant.
SPEAKER_01: I I have a schizophrenic relationship with prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Um, where one moment I just love to pray.
SPEAKER_01: I I I long to pray because I don't know about you, but sometimes I just have things I can't get out.
SPEAKER_01: It's like what it says in Romans, how there's just longings and groanings that you can't express.
SPEAKER_01: And and and I and I really hope that in that that text it talks about the Holy Spirit expressing that for you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just trusting that's true because there's just sometimes I just don't know what to say in prayer.
SPEAKER_01: I got stuff I want to pray for my kids.
SPEAKER_01: You know, as it Wade said earlier, I have four kids, and so I just got stuff I want to pray, and sometimes I just can't get that out.
SPEAKER_01: And I just have this holy longings that they just would love him, and that all the junk out there that you know, I you know, I get all caught up like, you know, do I want to put them in a bubble?
SPEAKER_01: Yes, I do.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no, put them out in the world, let them let them equip them for the world.
SPEAKER_01: No, God just help them.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know how to pray sometimes because I just have this longings I want to pray, and so I just want to pray and long to pray.
SPEAKER_01: And then sometimes I run from prayer.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if you ever run from prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes, I'll just be real honest with you, and I know it's early on Sunday morning, we should be careful with this, but um, you'll just be real honest with you.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes I'm in a situation, someone says we should pray, and I'm like, it's come to that.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, really?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I I've gotten in more than one argument with my wife.
SPEAKER_01: She'll be here later uh this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, she loves y'all having 11:30 service.
SPEAKER_01: She's like, amen, that is awesome.
SPEAKER_01: So she may be coming here from now on.
SPEAKER_01: Um just because of that.
SPEAKER_01: And so I've gotten more than one argument before because we've been having this discussion about whatever, a need we need to miss, something going on with our kids, parents, wisdom we need, or something like that.
SPEAKER_01: And we're we're I'm we're trying to figure it out and discuss it, and she'll say, We should pray.
SPEAKER_01: And I had the audacity once to say, why?
SPEAKER_01: That did not go well after that.
SPEAKER_01: I was put in a corner for a long time and thought you should think about why that's a bad answer, Pastor.
SPEAKER_01: You know, whenever pastor is using our home, that's not a good thing.
SPEAKER_01: That's not a good thing.
SPEAKER_01: So that's how I that's how I am with pray.
SPEAKER_01: I I sometimes I run to pray, and sometimes I run away from it.
SPEAKER_01: And hopefully, hopefully I'm not alone.
SPEAKER_01: Um because no matter where you are, you you probably haven't arrived.
SPEAKER_01: You know, we live in a world where prayer is not an alien thought.
SPEAKER_01: Prayer is out there, it's all over the place.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, we have temples in our county where people pray to dead people.
SPEAKER_01: They actually um get on their knees and look at these statues representing a dead person just a few miles up the road from here, and they pray to that dead person.
SPEAKER_01: We have uh people in our city that they get out mats and they point themselves in a certain direction so they can pray.
SPEAKER_01: We have people that that pray to um figures that have been dead that have been given the mantle of saint.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you're from that tradition, and that's always maybe been confusing for you.
SPEAKER_01: Prayer is not something that is is out there in our culture.
SPEAKER_01: It's it's right up front.
SPEAKER_01: It's you will even you'll even hear on the news every now and then when something happens, like tragedies and you know, with the tornadoes in Oklahoma, you'll hear a newscaster say our our hopes and prayers are with them, and you're like, what does that mean?
SPEAKER_01: Our prayers are with them.
SPEAKER_01: And without the gospel, without an understanding of who Jesus is and what Jesus has done for us through his sinless life, his sacrificial death, and his glorious triumphant resurrection, prayer is really, you know, it's it's pretty religious.
SPEAKER_01: It's pretty much groveling.
SPEAKER_01: You know, oh, please help us, big deity.
SPEAKER_01: Don't hurt us.
SPEAKER_01: It's groveling, it's begging, or it's it's showing kind of my merits to him.
SPEAKER_01: It's it's me being a lawyer and presenting my case to the judge.
SPEAKER_01: Here's why you should bless me and bless my kids, because I'm a really good guy.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I give to this, I help this, I once helped an old lady cross the street.
SPEAKER_01: I've never kicked a cat in my life except that one time, but it was a mistake.
SPEAKER_01: And, you know, you just you pour it all out there because that's kind of prayer.
SPEAKER_01: It's groveling, it's pleading, it's showing your merits.
SPEAKER_01: But the gospel, having an understanding of the gospel and an encounter with Jesus by the Holy Spirit, and understanding all that he's done in the gospel, it changes our understanding of prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus himself changes prayer.
SPEAKER_01: So I hope we'll read this with fresh eyes today, and I hope we'll walk through some of these things with fresh eyes and fresh heart.
SPEAKER_01: My whole hope for us this morning is just that the Holy Spirit would just kind of ignite a little bit more passion in us to want to pray and draw out, if you're a follower of Jesus, you're a believer, you have the Holy Spirit in you, draw out some of those holy longings that you and I have and give maybe some words to it.
SPEAKER_01: And if you're not a follower of Jesus, you're not sure you're a follower of Jesus, maybe you'll hear some things today, and the Holy Spirit will show you this is what you're missing.
SPEAKER_01: This is what you're looking for, but you haven't still opened up your heart to Jesus yet.
SPEAKER_01: And you haven't just laid down your arms and wave the white flag and go, I surrender.
SPEAKER_01: And maybe today that would be you.
SPEAKER_01: So Luke chapter 11, starting in verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: Now, let's not run past that verse very quickly because that's an amazing thing right there to read.
SPEAKER_01: Because you, you know, he's praying in a certain place.
SPEAKER_01: You know, you just kind of put your Bible story glasses on, at least I do.
SPEAKER_01: He was praying and it was over.
SPEAKER_01: One of his disciples, the guy in the robe, just said, You know, Master.
SPEAKER_01: You know, he put the Passion Play voice on.
SPEAKER_01: I was in passion plays growing up in church when I started going to church, you know what a passion play is where they reenact the life of Christ on the stage there.
SPEAKER_01: And I and then it's like you get 50-year-old guys and up there with Rolex watches on, but they're wearing Bible robes.
SPEAKER_01: That just, oh, it's like, take the watch off.
SPEAKER_01: They didn't have glasses, dude, take them off before they got up.
SPEAKER_01: But they I I feel like they had that voice of Lord, teach us to pray.
SPEAKER_01: But I I I picture something different.
SPEAKER_01: I picture Jesus praying, and what an amazing sight that must have been.
SPEAKER_01: An amazing sight to see the Son of God through the Holy Spirit of God communing with the Father God.
SPEAKER_01: That must have been an amazing thing to hear.
SPEAKER_01: What did it sound like?
SPEAKER_01: How sweet, how strong, how tender, how intimate, how amazing that must have sounded.
SPEAKER_01: You've heard people pray and you've gone, wow, that person, that person knows how to pray.
SPEAKER_01: Man, I'd like to pray like that.
SPEAKER_01: You've heard people pray and say, Please stop.
SPEAKER_01: You've heard people pray and go, oh, they asked so-and-so to pray.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, this is not, this meal's gonna get cold.
SPEAKER_01: But what was it like to hear Jesus pray?
SPEAKER_01: It must have been amazing because when he's done, I picture it in my mind, it doesn't say in the text, but I picture it in my mind, he's done, he looks up, and this guy's leaning in going, Teach me how to do that.
SPEAKER_01: What you just did.
SPEAKER_01: Teach us to pray.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's what John did with his disciples, and you're way better than John.
SPEAKER_01: Teach us to pray.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 2, and he said to them, When you pray, say, Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come.
SPEAKER_01: Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us, and lead us not into temptation.
SPEAKER_01: And he said to them, Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him.
SPEAKER_01: And he will answer from within, Do not bother me, the door is now shut, my children are with me in bed, I cannot give up and give you anything.
SPEAKER_01: I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything, because he is my friend, because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence, he will rise and give him whatever he needs.
SPEAKER_01: And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you.
SPEAKER_01: Seek, and you will find.
SPEAKER_01: Knock, and it will be open to you.
SPEAKER_01: For everyone who asks receives.
SPEAKER_01: And the one who seeks finds, and the one who knocks it will be open.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: 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?
SPEAKER_01: I want to just give you four things.
SPEAKER_01: I think the that Jesus and the gospel, which when I say gospel, uh as we've already sang and proclaimed, I am talking about Jesus himself, the good news about him and everything he does.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so everything about his sinless life, his substitutionary death in our place, and his resurrection, everything he accomplished in his life on earth in ministry.
SPEAKER_01: How does that change prayer and how does he explain that through this passage?
SPEAKER_01: Well, the first thing is the gospel brings a new relationship.
SPEAKER_01: The gospel brings a new relationship.
SPEAKER_01: It changes prayer from groveling and pleading and plea bargaining now to a different relationship, all with that simple word father.
SPEAKER_01: It changes now from a word where God is not some absentee boss or someone we have to send an email to, but he is our father.
SPEAKER_01: The great uh doctrine of adoption, that when you become a Christian, you were a creation of God, you have dignity before God, you're made in the image of God.
SPEAKER_01: But the scripture says you're not a child of God.
SPEAKER_01: You're not a child of God, and so you come to faith in Jesus Christ, and you're reconciled to God because of his death, and you're indwelt by the Holy Spirit who causes you to be born again and causes you to have a relationship with God, and you now have the right to be called a child of God.
SPEAKER_01: He adopts you into his family.
SPEAKER_01: Galatians chapter 4, verses 4 and 7 says this.
SPEAKER_01: But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
SPEAKER_01: And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father, so you're no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.
SPEAKER_01: See, the gospel changes our praying from being some report.
SPEAKER_01: You ever felt like you're hearing someone pray or you've prayed before and you feel like you're giving a report to God?
SPEAKER_01: You know, God, I'm praying about such and such, and as you know, this is such and such, and this is happening here, and this is happening here, and it's almost like you've given a whole kind of report to him.
SPEAKER_01: Well, it's not me reporting, it's me relating.
SPEAKER_01: It's us relating to him now through Jesus as our Father.
SPEAKER_01: And the Holy Spirit causes that longing.
SPEAKER_01: The Holy Spirit causes a longing in a believer to want to move past ritual and move deeper into relationship, deeper into intimacy, deeper into a place where I know him and I can call upon him.
SPEAKER_01: And this relationship now that I have with him in the gospel, all because of Jesus, what Jesus has done, I now relate to God not based on what I have done, but based on what Jesus has done.
SPEAKER_01: I relate to God not based on how faithful I've been this week, but how faithful Jesus has been for all eternity.
SPEAKER_01: I relate to God not based on all that I've earned spiritually and all that I've worked up to and all that I've attended and all that I've memorized and all my efforts.
SPEAKER_01: I relate to him based on the efforts of Jesus Christ alone.
SPEAKER_01: It changes the game when it comes to prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Because when you come to prayer and I come to prayer, you don't got to put the prayer voice on.
SPEAKER_01: You have the prayer voice, you don't have to put that on.
SPEAKER_01: I remember I worked at this church once and you'd talk to these normal guys, and we I worked at this church for a while, and we would have a deacon close us in prayer uh every Sunday, and they'd come up and say the prayer, or it was the offertory prayer, or something like that.
SPEAKER_01: And if you don't, if you do that, sorry.
SPEAKER_01: Uh I don't mean that, but this was just this church, okay?
SPEAKER_01: But you'd talk to these normal guys that were deacons, and they had normal, happy, normal voices, and then they got to pray, and they're like, our most gracious heavenly father.
SPEAKER_01: You're like, wow, what just came out of that guy?
SPEAKER_01: You know?
SPEAKER_01: It's like there's a there's a baritone living in that fella, you know?
SPEAKER_01: It's just Barry White comes out, Father in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: You know, it's just whoa.
SPEAKER_01: Because they feel like they had to kind of get their prayer stuff on.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I gotta get in the prayer mood now, get focused, raise the shoulders, deepen the voice, grab the, grab the pulpit with both hands, kind of in a kind of in a kind of a 3-9 formation, and just stand and say, Let us bow.
SPEAKER_01: You know?
SPEAKER_01: And we sometimes we have that, those kind of thoughts where I have to I have to relate in a certain way, and it's not that we're irreverent, but I don't know about you, I have four children from 15 to 5, and none of them put on the daddy voice.
SPEAKER_01: They just come to me and they ask for what they need, and a lot of what they want.
SPEAKER_01: And and and they come and they talk to me, and they talk to me because I'm I'm their dad.
SPEAKER_01: They don't talk to me because it's it's that time of day where they're supposed to come to Father and and ask for what they need and get my blessing for the day.
SPEAKER_01: They come and talk to me because I have a relationship with them, and they know they're okay in that relationship.
SPEAKER_01: So the gospel brings us to a relationship of prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Do you do you think about that when you pray that I'm talking to my father in heaven?
SPEAKER_01: And I'm talking to him, not trying to show him all my goodness, but I'm coming to him on a based on the goodness of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And do you understand what that means to be in Christ?
SPEAKER_01: Because sometimes I forget what it means to be in Christ and standing in his grace.
SPEAKER_01: That means that when I call out to the Father, he listens to me with the same intensity, the same sincerity that he listened to Jesus when Jesus walked the earth.
SPEAKER_01: Because I'm in him.
SPEAKER_01: Because I'm in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: When I say Father, he turns his ear toward me.
SPEAKER_01: And toward you if you're in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Then he looks at you and he looks at me when I come to pray and go, what are you gonna say this time?
SPEAKER_01: Oh, it's you again?
SPEAKER_01: Didn't we deal with that last week?
SPEAKER_01: Oh, coming back to me with that issue?
SPEAKER_01: You're confessing that sin again?
SPEAKER_01: If you were really sorry, you would be different.
SPEAKER_01: No, he doesn't relate to us like that.
SPEAKER_01: He relates to us every time in Christ when we come to him to prayer, as he relates to his son.
SPEAKER_01: And how does he relate to his son, friends?
SPEAKER_01: Remember when he came out of the waters and he was baptized, and they heard a voice that said, You are my beloved son, in whom I'm well pleased.
SPEAKER_01: That's how he relates to you.
SPEAKER_01: That's how he relates to me.
SPEAKER_01: And I did nothing to earn that.
SPEAKER_01: You did nothing to earn that.
SPEAKER_01: It was all the work of Christ that ought to change the way we pray.
SPEAKER_01: That ought to make us kind of relax a little bit on the inside and sit down and say, He's pleased with me today.
SPEAKER_01: It ought to humble us, it ought to empower us.
SPEAKER_01: But that one word and all the actions Jesus did to bring us back to the Father, to reconcile us to the Father, He changes prayer.
SPEAKER_01: No one prays like Christians.
SPEAKER_01: No one does.
SPEAKER_01: Because no one knows the Father but to those who are in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: The gospel brings a new relationship to prayer.
SPEAKER_01: The second thing is it brings it brings a new purpose.
SPEAKER_01: It brings a new purpose.
SPEAKER_01: And he goes right, he says, Father, in verse 2, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come.
SPEAKER_01: That's the way the gospel works.
SPEAKER_01: The gospel works, it brings you in this relationship.
SPEAKER_01: You now call him Father, and it also brings you into a new kingdom and a new purpose for your life.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know about you, but for me, sometimes when I I have to write out my prayer so my mind doesn't go everywhere.
SPEAKER_01: If I'm praying for more than just a quick little, you know, prayer that I'm shooting up to heaven, I gotta write them down.
SPEAKER_01: So I basically write letters and write out my prayer so I can stay focused.
SPEAKER_01: And, you know, not every day, some days I can stay focused, some days I can't.
SPEAKER_01: But as I'm doing that, if I go back and look over these journal entries and over these prayers I've written, I am really shocked and humbled by how the word me, my, I, it's everywhere.
SPEAKER_01: It's all over the place.
SPEAKER_01: And every now and then I have to stop and go, how much of me praying is really about me coming saying, Oh, Father, I'm so great you're my I'm so glad you're my father.
SPEAKER_01: Now, let's establish my kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray about my kingdom come.
SPEAKER_01: And we let's let's hallow my name.
SPEAKER_01: Let's get my problems out of the way.
SPEAKER_01: But but when I when you and I let the power of the gospel by the Holy Spirit remind us of all that Jesus has done for us.
SPEAKER_01: And what the Holy Spirit's trying to do is guide us into all truth, remind us of all Jesus said, draw us after the Father.
SPEAKER_01: It reminds us that my purpose now is to hallow his name.
SPEAKER_01: My purpose now is not my success, my reputation, my well-being, my comfort.
SPEAKER_01: No, it transforms me now to live for him.
SPEAKER_01: And so the gospel gives me this new purpose in prayer.
SPEAKER_01: I don't just pray that my neighbor would stop messing up my side of the lawn.
SPEAKER_01: I realize he doesn't know Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And I forget that my purpose on my little cul-de-sac is for me to be an ambassador for the kingdom, that the kingdom needs to come on my street.
SPEAKER_01: And I get real complacent and real apathetic fast because I come home from work, I pull in, I got four kids, I got all this stuff going on, I've got a wife I gotta talk to, we got house projects all the time, we got all this stuff, we got bills to pay, and I get real complacent and forget that I'm on that cul-de-sac for the sake of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: And what am I praying about?
SPEAKER_01: Am I praying that more people on that street would love the name of Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: Am I praying that my kids wouldn't just be nice, good moral people, but they would love him.
SPEAKER_01: They would lay their lives down for him, that they would be caught up not in their career and not in their degree plan, but they would be caught up in a kingdom that is bigger than them and it will consume their lives?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, think about the way you pray.
SPEAKER_01: Not to make you feel guilty because you know you're in Christ, you're fully forgiven in Christ, but just to kind of awaken us going, what are my prayers oriented around?
SPEAKER_01: What purpose are my prayers oriented around?
SPEAKER_01: Is it purpose?
SPEAKER_01: Let the kingdom come.
SPEAKER_01: Because what what what do you need more in your marriage than for God's rule and reign to show up in you and your spouse's heart?
SPEAKER_01: What do you need more in your kids?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, everyone's got little needs and special stuff going on with your kids and things like that.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it's developmental, sometimes it's this, sometimes it's relational, sometimes it's whatever.
SPEAKER_01: But their biggest need is that God's rule and reign would be established in their hearts.
SPEAKER_01: That's a different purpose than saying, Oh, I hope they make good grades.
SPEAKER_01: Now they're all making good grades.
SPEAKER_01: That's a bigger purpose than praying, maybe other things that my fear leads me to pray for instead of my confidence that when the king has them, he never loses one of his own.
SPEAKER_01: And his spirit is way better at convincing and convicting than my voice is.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes that spirit uses my voice.
SPEAKER_01: But I gotta come back to what what am I what is the overarching purpose when I pray?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, where does his rule need to be more evident in your life?
SPEAKER_01: You might be praying, God, provide this area for me financially, help us with this, give us wisdom.
SPEAKER_01: Or that's great.
SPEAKER_01: Pray for that.
SPEAKER_01: He's a giving God.
SPEAKER_01: It's amazing how generous and giving he is.
SPEAKER_01: But what if you started first with, Lord, let the kingdom come into my finances?
SPEAKER_01: Let your rule and reign be evident with the resources you've entrusted to me.
SPEAKER_01: Let your rule and reign be evident in how I work Monday through Friday.
SPEAKER_01: Let the kingdom come.
SPEAKER_01: Let your name be hallowed more than my name, more than more than my words.
SPEAKER_01: What's your purpose when you pray?
SPEAKER_01: Do you ever think about that?
SPEAKER_01: I don't think about it much.
SPEAKER_01: I have to I have to pause and be intentional and go, wait, it's not about me.
SPEAKER_01: I get a lot out of this deal, but it's not about me.
SPEAKER_01: Third thing is the gospel brings a new attitude.
SPEAKER_01: The gospel brings a new attitude.
SPEAKER_01: It brings an attitude of a unique combination.
SPEAKER_01: And the first part of it is humility.
SPEAKER_01: It's a humility, it's an urgency of need.
SPEAKER_01: Need.
SPEAKER_01: And you see that as Jesus enters into the story.
SPEAKER_01: He enters into the parable.
SPEAKER_01: In verse 6, he talks about for this friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him.
SPEAKER_01: So he's gone.
SPEAKER_01: This friend has showed up in the parable, and Jesus is telling the story.
SPEAKER_01: And he's gone over to his neighbor, he's knocking on the door, and he's saying, Hey, my friend's here.
SPEAKER_01: I have no food, it's the middle of the night, you know, and they don't have H E B and Kroger and Walmart and all the little convenience stores.
SPEAKER_01: They don't have any of that, of course.
SPEAKER_01: And making all that food's a longer process for them.
SPEAKER_01: So he's going to his friend saying, Do you have anything now to give to my friend?
SPEAKER_01: He has this responsibility because hospitality in this culture is a big part.
SPEAKER_01: It's a big part of the culture.
SPEAKER_01: It would be relationally offensive not to offer hospitality to someone.
SPEAKER_01: You know, someone calls and says, Hey, is this a good time to come over?
SPEAKER_01: No, it's not a good time to come over.
SPEAKER_01: They don't even, they don't even they wouldn't even know how to think that way in the culture that Jesus lived in.
SPEAKER_01: And so they have this urgency of need.
SPEAKER_01: Urgency of need comes from first this idea of God-given responsibility.
SPEAKER_01: I have a God-given responsibility, the friend here, to be hospitable, to open up their home, and to feed and care and love on this person.
SPEAKER_01: It was a responsibility.
SPEAKER_01: The responsibility laid before us is really lined out there in this version of the Lord's Prayer, to do his will, hallow his name, live in his kingdom, forgive people, walk and be led away from temptation, walk in holiness.
SPEAKER_01: It's a God-given responsibility to live for I have this responsibility to live and love Jesus, live for Jesus and love Jesus and to be a holy man.
SPEAKER_01: I have a God-given responsibility to be a godly husband.
SPEAKER_01: I have a God-given responsibility to be a godly dad to these kids and to show them Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: I have a God-given responsibility in my job, in my profession, mine being a pastor, yours being whatever it is.
SPEAKER_01: And so I have these God-given responsibilities.
SPEAKER_01: And so it could be whatever.
SPEAKER_01: And you have responsibilities to be the lie of the world.
SPEAKER_01: That's what Jesus says we are.
SPEAKER_01: You're the lie of the world.
SPEAKER_01: You have responsibility to be a good church member and to make every effort to keep the unity of this church.
SPEAKER_01: Ephesians 4.
SPEAKER_01: That's a responsibility.
SPEAKER_01: You have responsibility to be a faithful worker on the job that shows that you're working for Jesus and not the guy that calls himself boss or the gal that calls yourself boss.
SPEAKER_01: Or maybe you're a child with aging parents, and now your responsibility, your God-given responsibility is to care for them.
SPEAKER_01: You have God-given responsibilities, and your humility comes because you realize you have no resources to fulfill it.
SPEAKER_01: You have no resources to fulfill it.
SPEAKER_01: The guy in the prayer, my friend's here, I got nothing for him.
SPEAKER_01: So he has the audacity, the boldness, the impudence, you know, to get impudence to go over there and knock on the door and just say, I need bread.
SPEAKER_01: It's the middle of the night, I know, but I got this God-given responsibility, and I have no resources to fulfill it.
SPEAKER_01: This is a guy that just wants to have bread and feed the guy that's come to visit him.
SPEAKER_01: You're a husband, men.
SPEAKER_01: You're a dad, fathers.
SPEAKER_01: Does the weight of the God-given responsibility ever weigh on you for that?
SPEAKER_01: And do you ever have this moment you go, I don't have the resources to fulfill this apart from God intervening?
SPEAKER_01: Because I don't have the resources to engage in life-giving conversation with my spouse after a long day at work.
SPEAKER_01: I don't have the resources to always keep pointing my kids back to God when what I want to do is just say, hey, go play video games and leave me alone.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe that's just me.
SPEAKER_01: I got a few looks on that one.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, sorry, you can pray for me.
SPEAKER_01: Um but you have no resources to fulfill it.
SPEAKER_01: See, the gospel reminds us, the gospel makes us okay to say, I don't know what I'm doing sometimes.
SPEAKER_01: And we're Americans, we don't like to say that.
SPEAKER_01: It's why we don't pray.
SPEAKER_01: We don't pray because we don't like to admit that we lack.
SPEAKER_01: And that's why sometimes we don't have wisdom, because James says, if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask God.
SPEAKER_01: We don't have a lot of wisdom because we're not asking God, and we don't do that because we don't like to admit that we lack.
SPEAKER_01: But the key to prayer, and I think the key to growth in prayer is the gospel reminding me of this attitude.
SPEAKER_01: I had no resources to make myself right with God when I became a Christian.
SPEAKER_01: Guess what?
SPEAKER_01: I still have no resources to make myself right with God.
SPEAKER_01: There wasn't a moment in my Christian life where he brought me here by grace and I said, Thank you very much, I'll take it from here.
SPEAKER_01: There's no moment where I take it from here.
SPEAKER_01: I always have to have the humility of the fact that I have the God-given responsibilities, and I have no resources to fulfill it apart from the help and power of the Holy Spirit, that it'll fuel your prayer.
SPEAKER_01: It's very humbling because you have to admit you don't have what it takes without Him.
SPEAKER_01: And again, we don't like that.
SPEAKER_01: And we live in a culture where you go to Barnes and Noble and there's a big section of books that tells you, oh, yes, you do.
SPEAKER_01: You do have what it takes.
SPEAKER_01: You're awesome.
SPEAKER_01: And the gospel, the first part of the gospel's message is no, you're not.
SPEAKER_01: You need a savior.
SPEAKER_01: You're in fact in big trouble without him.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, he loves you, but you're in trouble without him.
SPEAKER_01: And as long as I'm still here in this decaying body, in this wrecked world, I'm in trouble.
SPEAKER_01: I need him.
SPEAKER_01: You need him.
SPEAKER_01: The gospel reminds me of that attitude.
SPEAKER_01: The attitude of dependency.
SPEAKER_01: The attitude of, I didn't get into this relationship based on my own merit and based on my works, and I'm not going to grow in this without him either.
SPEAKER_01: I have God given responsibilities and I have no resources to fulfill them.
SPEAKER_01: So it's an urgency of need.
SPEAKER_01: And that just reminds me that asking.
SPEAKER_01: Asking, friends, it's it's the air that we breathe in prayer.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, look at what Jesus said.
SPEAKER_01: He said, You're gonna say, forgive us.
SPEAKER_01: Forgive us, lead us.
SPEAKER_01: He's asking.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes we get more spiritual than the Bible and we think, you know what, we're asking way too much.
SPEAKER_01: Let's just pause and not ask for anything in this prayer.
SPEAKER_01: And I get it, we should praise God a lot.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes we jump right to the grocery list and we forget ever praising and thanking.
SPEAKER_01: That's a good word for all of us, myself included.
SPEAKER_01: But if you don't ask, you've forgotten the heart of your father.
SPEAKER_01: You've forgotten the heart of Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: You've forgotten that one of the reasons we turn to Him is to humble ourselves, and He gets great glory when we say, I can't, you can't, and I'm coming to you because only you can make me the husband I need to be.
SPEAKER_01: Only you can make me the father I need to be.
SPEAKER_01: Only you can help me be the son to aging parents I need to be.
SPEAKER_01: Because I am a selfish man.
SPEAKER_01: I have an urgency of need, I have responsibilities and no resources to fulfill it.
SPEAKER_01: So that brings one part of the attitude, a humility.
SPEAKER_01: But you know what else, the other part of the attitude is?
SPEAKER_01: I have a confidence.
SPEAKER_01: I have a certainty of answer.
SPEAKER_01: How do I have a certainty of answer?
SPEAKER_01: See, as I was studying this parable, you know, some people say that Jesus is teaching on persistence in prayer because this person has gone over to their friend, they're just knocking over and over.
SPEAKER_01: Wake up! And you know, this person's, I mean, in bed with their with their kids, and you know, it's probably a very small home.
SPEAKER_01: It's, you know, it's not like, you know, and so don't think like, oh, my kids came down, they had a bad dream, we're cuddling.
SPEAKER_01: No, that's probably how they went to bed, and they just they're all in there in this one bed, and he's like, no, go away.
SPEAKER_01: We're all in here, you know, and and and they probably have a large family, so you know, it might take them an hour to get out of bed.
SPEAKER_01: You know, we're all snuggle, it took a lot to get us all down, not getting up, go away, all this.
SPEAKER_01: And so a lot of people think that he's teaching about persistence in prayer.
SPEAKER_01: But as I was reading different things, I and I think that's a great thing to persist in prayer.
SPEAKER_01: I also think he's teaching on the certainty of answer.
SPEAKER_01: Because, do you have a friend like this?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, basically, why do we have a certainty of answer?
SPEAKER_01: Because we have a true and better midnight friend.
SPEAKER_01: This person's not your friend.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, look at verse 5 again.
SPEAKER_01: And 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?
SPEAKER_01: For a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, I have nothing to set before him.
SPEAKER_01: And he will answer from within.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't even get up and open the door.
SPEAKER_01: Do not bother me.
SPEAKER_01: The door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed.
SPEAKER_01: I cannot get up and give you anything.
SPEAKER_01: What kind of friend is this?
SPEAKER_01: He's not a friend.
SPEAKER_01: That's Jesus' point.
SPEAKER_01: He's not a friend.
SPEAKER_01: If it's a friend knocking on your door at midnight, I answer the door.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, I'm in trouble.
SPEAKER_01: What do you need?
SPEAKER_01: You probably have a midnight friend.
SPEAKER_01: Your phone rings at 11.59, you see who it is, and you think, I better answer this.
SPEAKER_01: It's not like 11, you know, it's like 12.02, and you just finish watching whatever show you're watching on Netflix, and your phone rings, your wife says, you know, who is it?
SPEAKER_01: Oh, it's just, it's just my mom.
SPEAKER_01: She's, I don't know why she's calling at midnight.
SPEAKER_01: We'll call her in the morning.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: Probably answer the phone.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, it's just there's my neighbor, just my friend.
SPEAKER_01: I wonder why they're calling it midnight.
SPEAKER_01: Probably just, I don't know, they're crazy.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: You're a friend.
SPEAKER_01: You answer the phone.
SPEAKER_01: You answer the door.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus saying, this isn't a friend.
SPEAKER_01: There's a true and better midnight friend.
SPEAKER_01: There's a true and better midnight friend that gets up and answers the door.
SPEAKER_01: And when you call him, he doesn't go, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: I've dealt with you on this before.
SPEAKER_01: I'm done right now.
SPEAKER_01: I'm doing some things over here in Romania.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you heard about it.
SPEAKER_01: I don't got time to mess with you down in Sugarland.
SPEAKER_01: I don't got time to mess with you and Katie anymore.
SPEAKER_01: No, he's the true and better midnight friend.
SPEAKER_01: We call, he answers.
SPEAKER_01: I have a certainty of answer.
SPEAKER_01: He's my true friend.
SPEAKER_01: He's not my sole call friend.
SPEAKER_01: He's not my friend with limited resources.
SPEAKER_01: He's not my friend with limited patience.
SPEAKER_01: He has unlimited resources and unlimited patience.
SPEAKER_01: He is my true and better midnight friend.
SPEAKER_01: I have that certainty of answer because of who he is.
SPEAKER_01: He's that and he's my perfect father.
SPEAKER_01: Because in verse 12, he brings it back to Father.
SPEAKER_01: The how much more?
SPEAKER_01: He's the how much more God.
SPEAKER_01: How much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, every good dad does this.
SPEAKER_01: My dad will be um uh dead 10 years this coming um October.
SPEAKER_01: And um, you know, I miss him.
SPEAKER_01: And we at the near the end, we our relationship grew to a good place.
SPEAKER_01: But there were a few years there it was really rocky.
SPEAKER_01: I was the only one in my family that went to church, and um and they didn't understand me being a pastor.
SPEAKER_01: That was real weird.
SPEAKER_01: Uh my dad started two like pipe inspection companies, he was in the oil business.
SPEAKER_01: And um so it was real weird that I was doing that, and so we had a lot of rough stuff in there.
SPEAKER_01: But um, I spoke at my dad's funeral.
SPEAKER_01: I I myself and another pastor, we we spoke at the funeral together, and um I was thinking about what I should say about my dad.
SPEAKER_01: Um because you know, I because when I think about my dad, I I have a lot of moments where I think of some really sad things.
SPEAKER_01: But what I really felt just quickened by the Holy Spirit to do was talk about the ways I have learned about my heavenly father through my earthly father.
SPEAKER_01: And so what I talked about at my dad's funeral is just how generous he was.
SPEAKER_01: Because he was really generous.
SPEAKER_01: And I remember being a teenager and getting ready to go out with my friends from church, because I started going to church around 16.
SPEAKER_01: And that's really weird on Sunday morning when you're the only kid getting up and getting dressed and going out to church.
SPEAKER_01: And everyone else is staying home and watching, you know, we watched Tarzan from 10 to noon, and then NFL Day started, you know.
SPEAKER_01: It's kind of how it was at our house, um, at least in the Houston area back in those days.
SPEAKER_01: Um and but I'd go into my room as I was getting ready, and I would go over and I would get my wallet, and I and I was about to put it and I noticed it was different.
SPEAKER_01: And I'd open it up, there'd be money in my wallet.
SPEAKER_01: My dad'd come in and he had put money in my wallet, and I didn't even didn't even know it.
SPEAKER_01: And you come to this passage, and here's the deal my dad was not an engaging dad.
SPEAKER_01: My dad could be an honorary cuss.
SPEAKER_01: Uh my dad belittled my mom and did not love my mom in a way that Christ says we should love our wives, man.
SPEAKER_01: So I go back to this verse and says, if your dads who then are evil, and you know, he's a broken man like I am, I don't want to throw him under the bus.
SPEAKER_01: I really love him.
SPEAKER_01: He needed to know more of this of the gospel and and uh more a life with Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: If he would put money in my wallet just to go out with some friends to Chili's and a movie at AMC, how much more?
SPEAKER_01: How much more will my Heavenly Father give me wisdom, protection, safety, guidance, provision?
SPEAKER_01: How much more?
SPEAKER_01: Do you pray like he's a how much more God that have a certainty of answer?
SPEAKER_01: How much more will he want to help your marriage?
SPEAKER_01: How much more we want to give you wisdom how to love on your parents?
SPEAKER_01: How much more to raise your kids?
SPEAKER_01: How much more to face retirement?
SPEAKER_01: How much more will God the Father give to us?
SPEAKER_01: Do you pray like he's a how much more God, or he's a stingy old man?
SPEAKER_01: He's a how much more.
SPEAKER_01: So there's a certainty of answer.
SPEAKER_01: I have this attitude of I have no resources to fulfill my God-given responsibility and have a confidence of answer that when I pray because of who I am in Christ, he listens to me.
SPEAKER_01: He's a true and betterman, my friend, and he's the how much more God.
SPEAKER_01: We ought to pray like the room's gonna shake.
SPEAKER_01: We gotta pray like heaven's gonna come down.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because he's our father, he's the how much more God.
SPEAKER_01: When you lay your hands on your kids and pray with them at night men before they go to bed, you gotta pray like the kingdom's gonna come on them.
SPEAKER_01: Because it just might right then and there.
SPEAKER_01: Because he's the how much more God.
SPEAKER_01: You gotta pray over your little girls like that.
SPEAKER_01: You gotta hold your wife's hands and keep one eye open, because what if he shows up?
SPEAKER_01: You gotta come to church, we we come to church and we dress all casual.
SPEAKER_01: What if one Sunday you showed up?
SPEAKER_01: This would be great.
SPEAKER_01: Do this for Neil when he comes back.
SPEAKER_01: Wear a crash helmet.
SPEAKER_01: And he's like, What's the guy with a crash helmet?
SPEAKER_01: Because it just might come down.
SPEAKER_01: I'm prepared, Pastor.
SPEAKER_01: He's like, What did Lance and Wade do while I was gone?
SPEAKER_01: You know?
SPEAKER_01: People are wearing crash helmets to church, but that's how we ought to act because we ought to, we all, oh myself included, we just get real casual.
SPEAKER_01: We forget he's a how much more God.
SPEAKER_01: And we think, man, I mean, this guy, my neighbor, my friend, my dad, my brother, he's a hard nut to crack spiritually.
SPEAKER_01: And I don't know, I don't know about them coming to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And uh I mean, I there's gonna, I mean, maybe if I get him to talk to my pastor or this other friend or get him to read a book, uh, and you have forgotten to pray the how much more.
SPEAKER_01: The how much more God can save people.
SPEAKER_01: It's a new attitude of humility and confidence.
SPEAKER_01: And then lastly, the gospel brings a new request.
SPEAKER_01: The gospel brings a new request.
SPEAKER_01: So, what do we pray for?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, he tells us things to pray for.
SPEAKER_01: You know, give us what we need, our daily bread.
SPEAKER_01: It's okay to pray for that.
SPEAKER_01: What do you need today?
SPEAKER_01: Call out to your father, or how much more father.
SPEAKER_01: Call out to your true and better midnight friend.
SPEAKER_01: You blow it this week.
SPEAKER_01: You blow it last night.
SPEAKER_01: You blow it in the parking lot and just say, call out for his grace and mercy and forgiveness on you that you have through Christ.
SPEAKER_01: You're not sure what to do.
SPEAKER_01: Are you really do you find yourself in sinful?
SPEAKER_01: Let's call out to lead us, but but oh behind all those things, behind the forgive us, behind the give us what we need, behind the the lead us not into temptation, what is the heart cry of the follower of Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: Look what he says.
SPEAKER_01: How much more will the heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?
SPEAKER_01: Now, if you're a follower of Jesus, real quick little theology moment here, because according to my clock, I need to finish up quickly.
SPEAKER_01: Um, get near the time that Wade said, if you're not off, I'll get you off.
SPEAKER_01: That guy threatens people.
SPEAKER_01: And with the beard, it's kind of intimidating.
SPEAKER_01: Um, but you you you you you say this you say the Holy Spirit, when you become a Christian, you have him.
SPEAKER_01: All of him.
SPEAKER_01: He's in you.
SPEAKER_01: Sealed.
SPEAKER_01: You don't lose him until the day of redemption.
SPEAKER_01: Romans 8, Ephesians 1.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: That's a whole different message.
SPEAKER_01: So you have him.
SPEAKER_01: So what's he saying here?
SPEAKER_01: He's saying, what are what's the heart cry of the follower of Jesus praying to their how much more God?
SPEAKER_01: What are you asking for?
SPEAKER_01: What's behind all the requests?
SPEAKER_01: What's the gut level cry of your soul follower of Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: It's I want you.
SPEAKER_01: I want you.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, I need you to lead me.
SPEAKER_01: Unfortunately, I need you to forgive me once again.
SPEAKER_01: I need you to provide for me, but I want you.
SPEAKER_01: I want to know you.
SPEAKER_01: I want to love you.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to reveal yourself to me.
SPEAKER_01: This world is a hack when it comes to knowing how to satisfy and lead and sustain and give identity.
SPEAKER_01: But you, you have it all.
SPEAKER_01: You're what I've been looking for all my life.
SPEAKER_01: That's why I did that in college, and that's why I've got that job, and that's why I quit that, and that's why my first marriage ended back.
SPEAKER_01: I was looking for you.
SPEAKER_01: I want you, and how much more will he give you him?
SPEAKER_01: That's what he wants to give you most of all, friend.
SPEAKER_01: He wants to give you himself.
SPEAKER_01: Sam Storm's uh author and pastor says we were made to enjoy him.
SPEAKER_01: Our minds were shaped and fashioned to think about God, to reflect and meditate on his majesty and beauty, to experience the intellectual thrill of theological discovery.
SPEAKER_01: Our emotions were made to feel his power and love and his longing for us.
SPEAKER_01: Our wills were made to choose his will and his ways.
SPEAKER_01: Our spirits were formed to experience the ecstasy of communion with him.
SPEAKER_01: Doesn't that just make you go ooh for a second?
SPEAKER_01: But it's true.
SPEAKER_01: Our bodies were fashioned to be the temple where he himself would delight to dwell.
SPEAKER_01: What's that new request?
SPEAKER_01: What should be on the tip of the Christian's tongue?
SPEAKER_01: Yes, it's give me, forgive me, and lead me, but give me you.
SPEAKER_01: Show me who you are in this book.
SPEAKER_01: Show me who you are in my spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Remind me of your indwelling presence.
SPEAKER_01: Remind me of your omnipresence.
SPEAKER_01: Remind me that you're better than anything I give my attention to.
SPEAKER_01: Remind me, give me you.
SPEAKER_01: Because, friend, I don't know if anyone's reminded you of this lately.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if with all the news about the trial and all that's going down, if you really understood your basic needs, here's what we need.
SPEAKER_01: We were made to be enchanted and enamored and engrossed by God, enthralled, enraptured and entranced with God, enravished, excited and enticed by God, astonished, amazed and awed by God, astounded and absorbed with God, beguiled and bedazzled, startled and staggered, smitten and stunned, stupefied and spellbound, charmed and consumed, thrilled and thunderstruck, obsessed and preoccupied, intrigued and impassioned, overwhelmed and overwrought, gripped and wrapped, enthused and electrified, tantalized, mesmerized, monopolized, fascinated, captivated and exhilarated, intoxicated and infatuated with him.
SPEAKER_01: That's what you were made for.
SPEAKER_01: The best news ever?
SPEAKER_01: That's what he wants to give you.
SPEAKER_01: How much more?
SPEAKER_01: What's he gonna say?