Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Hello everyone.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is Pastor Benjamin.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You're listening to Sermon Audio from New City Orlando.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: At New City, we long to see our Father answer the Lord's Prayer.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: For more resources, visit our website at Newcity Orlando.com.
Raquel West: Please pray this prayer of illumination with me.
Raquel West: Gracious Redeemer, as we hear your word, open our eyes to your glorious kingdom and bring us life through your word, Spirit.
Raquel West: Through Christ we pray.
Raquel West: Amen.
Raquel West: Today's scripture comes from Luke 11.
Raquel West: 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.
Raquel West: And he said to them, When you pray, say, Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come.
Raquel West: Give us each day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins.
Raquel West: For we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us, and lead us not into temptation.
Raquel West: And he said to them, Which of you has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him.
Raquel West: And he will answer from within, Do not bother me.
Raquel West: The door is now shut, and my children are in bed with me.
Raquel West: I cannot get up and give you anything.
Raquel West: I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything, because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence, he will rise and give him whatever he needs.
Raquel West: And I tell you, ask and it will be given to you.
Raquel West: Seek and you will find.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: There's almost a spiritual undertone to it.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: There's almost a way, a moral insistence, this is how you ought to live.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Another commentator says it like this.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Basically, we're just going back to church.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Except instead of having one giant church, we have lots of little churches where you pick your pastor and follow them and believe what they say.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now I get it.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I actually can empathize with this in a world awash with information overload and decision fatigue.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What we're looking for are models of the good life.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: All of us.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We want a mentor, a rabbi, a teacher.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We want to be disciples.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's just that's just in our nature.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Discipleship is simply learning from someone to live as they live.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's it.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Learning from someone to live as they live.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so whether Aristotle or athletes, plumbers or parents, all have disciples.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And many of us have been called students, we've been called players, apprentices, or children, but all of us have learned from someone to live as they live.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We've all been discipled.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now, that's why our text is so fascinating.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, because from a purely historical perspective, Jesus of Nazareth is one of the most influential human beings to ever walk on planet Earth.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And he had disciples.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He had men and women who were trying to learn from Jesus to live as he lived.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Which is why it's amazing to me that we don't have one record in Scripture of any of his disciples asking him, teach us to preach.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Although Jesus preached to countless people.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I mean, he healed blind eyes.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He opened the ears of the deaf.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Wouldn't you want to know?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Teach us to heal, Jesus.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Nobody says, teach us to multiply bread or raise the dead.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: In fact, over three and a half years of spending time with Jesus, the only request that we have recorded is this one in our text: Lord, teach us to pray.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The disciples knew that if they were going to live as Jesus lived, they needed to learn how to pray as Jesus prayed.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: At the end of the day, what the disciples wanted was Jesus' prayer life.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: They wanted what happened when he spoke to God.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so they had a simple request.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And it's the request I'm going to invite you to be asking throughout this sermon.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Ask the Lord this simple request.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Lord, teach us to pray.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And in response, Jesus models a practice, gives a prayer, tells a parable, draws out a principle, and promises a person.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And those are my five points.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So if you have a Bible or a device, go ahead and get Luke chapter 11, verse 1 in front of you.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We're going to walk through this text verse by verse.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look at Luke 11, verse 1.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I want to see how Jesus models a practice.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now, Jesus was praying in a certain place.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Pause for a moment.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: In July of 2023, I had the joy of going on a peacemaking trip to Israel.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And while I was there, we landed and I was jet lagged and exhausted and could not wait to just get in bed.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so I got to go to bed and I fell fast asleep and then woke up at 2 a.m.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: because of the time change.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And I woke up thinking, I'm so tired, I'll just fall back asleep.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And then three came and four came and I realized I'm not going to fall back asleep.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I need to get up and do something.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And I happened to be staying in a hotel that was a rock's throw from the Sea of Galilee.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so I put on my Chacos because they're sandals, you know, it feels biblical.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And I walked out in the middle of the night, darkness.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It was a little sketchy.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I was wondering what it was going to be like, but I walked out and I walked down to the Sea of Galilee.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And in a moment of, I don't think I'll ever get to do this again, I took my sandals off and I walked ankle deep into the water and I looked up at the heavens where I could see stars and I could see the shape of some of the hills around the Sea of Galilee.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And I thought to myself, I've read about this place.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I've read about the certain place where Jesus would go in order to commune with his Father.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And I just prayed with the water of the Sea of Galilee lapping against my ankles.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I prayed the Lord's prayer.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And when I got home, my brother-in-law Hardy asked me an amazing question.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He says, Hey, what's one story from your trip you're going to tell your grandchildren?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And that was one of them.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Because there's something so beautiful and powerful about being in the very place.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It says here in our text, now Jesus was praying in a certain place.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Because Jesus, in his model of prayer, modeling this practice of prayer, he had certain places he would go to pray.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Up to this point in the story of Jesus, we see multiple times where the disciples would have witnessed his prayer life.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He prayed early in the morning.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Mark 1.35 says, rising very early in the morning while it was still dark, Jesus departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Jesus prayed by habitually withdrawing.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Luke 5.16 says he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He prayed before major decisions like choosing his disciples.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: In Luke 6, 12 it says, In these days Jesus went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He prayed after success.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: In Matthew 14, 23 it says, And after Jesus dismissed the crowd, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And he prayed before big moments like the Mount of Transfiguration.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: In Luke 9, it says this, now about eight days after these sayings, he took with him Peter and John and James, and he went up on the mountain to pray.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So it's not surprising that when we get to Luke 11, 1, it says, Now Jesus was praying in a certain place.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And when he finished, one of his disciples asked, Lord, teach us to pray.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now, one of the ways the Holy Spirit ministered to me in preparing the sermon was, I'd never noticed this before.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: One of his disciples asked, just one, Lord, teach us to pray.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is how the Spirit met me in that.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I have been praying.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I have been asking the Lord, Lord, teach New City to pray for over a decade now.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And I don't think I'm the only one asking that, but I'm certainly one person, one disciple, asking, Lord, teach us to pray.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And the reason why is because if I if I only got a few things that would mark this church, one of them would be that we would have a climate of prayer.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Let me just read to you from my prayer card.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: A climate of prayer is where New City's ecosystem lives on earth by inhaling the atmosphere of heaven.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: As prayer becomes like breathing, everyone, even newcomers, will sense that this church draws her life from another world.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's what I want for New City.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's why we can't shut up about seek prayer on Wednesdays or seek nights on March 27th.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's why our staff tithes our time in prayer.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's why our elders fast and pray every Wednesday, especially when we have big decisions coming up.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Because we want to be marked as a people of prayer.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Disciples of Jesus ask Jesus, Lord, teach us to pray.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So I praise God for the incremental increase of a climate of prayer among the people of New City.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I say, Lord, teach us to pray like the disciple does here.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But it goes on, it says, Teach us to pray as John, that's John the Baptist, taught his disciples.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, other rabbis like Jesus or John the Baptist, they would teach their disciples how to pray.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: If discipleship is learning from someone to live as they live, then disciple making is simply taking spiritual responsibility for one more person to teach them to live as you live.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Super simple in that way.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now, rabbis in the tradition that Jesus was in, they had prayers for waking up and putting on clothes and standing up and washing their hands, even going to the bathroom.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: All right?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We have this phrase, New City likes to say that all of life matters to God and God matters to all of life.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Well, the rabbis meant it.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, in a in a collection of rabbinic discussions called the Babylonian Talmud, this is a blessing you'll see behind me here.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And this is what it reads One who enters a bathroom says to the angels who accompany him at all times.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Can we just pause?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Is that a different worldview or what?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: All right, go on.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Be honored, whole honorable holy ones, servants of the one on high, give honor to the God of Israel.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Leave me until I enter and do my will and come back to you.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And I love this.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Another rabbi's like, mm-mm, that's not the way to do it.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Instead, a person should not say this, lest they abandon the angels abandon him, which would be bad.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Rather, he should say, Guard me, guard me, help me, help me, support me, support me, wait for me, wait for me until I enter and come out, as this is the way of man.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And then when you leave, you're supposed to say this blessed, who formed man in wisdom and created in him many orfices and cavities.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It is revealed and known before the throne of your glory that were one of them to be ruptured or blocked, it would be impossible to survive and stand before you.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now, I that's body positivity, y'all.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Like, there's no secular sacred divide.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Some of you are like, really, Ben?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Bathroom humor?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Like, you're not, you're not beyond this.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: No, no, no.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I want you to see the extent to which the rabbis took it seriously when they taught their disciples to pray.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This was not an incidental thing, this was integral to the life of a disciple with their rabbi.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so, Jesus, I'm so glad I'm a disciple of Jesus because he gives us one prayer to memorize.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Just one.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's not that hard.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He gives us a prayer to memorize that sanctifies all of life.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And this is what Rabbi Jesus says.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Point two, Jesus gives us a prayer.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look with me at verse 2.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And Jesus said to them, When you pray, say, Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, give us each day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: For we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us and lead us not into temptation.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This prayer is so vast and deep and yet so simple and childlike.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I'm so glad.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I'm so glad Jesus, our rabbi, gives his disciples a prayer to pray.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Ian Bowne says it like this it was worth a trip from heaven to earth to teach men this great lesson of prayer.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now, our vision here at New City is to see our Father answer the Lord's Prayer.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We've preached sermon series on the Lord's Prayer.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So I'm I'm resisting the temptation to do a 20-minute sidebar just on the Lord's Prayer here.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So just give, permit me a few comments and then we'll move along.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: First, if you look at Luke 11, 12, Jesus gives us the Lord's Prayer as a script to play to pray.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He says, When you pray, say.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: In other words, one way to pray the Lord's Prayer is word for word.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Pray it like it is.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Just recite the script before the Lord, not without heart.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But in Matthew 6, 9, Jesus gives the Lord's Prayer as a scaffold for prayer.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He says, There, pray then like this.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So the Lord's prayer is it's something that we should memorize.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's it's both a prayer template, but it's also a copy and paste prayer.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Jesus has this way of his disciples learning to pray.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: One of the earliest manuals for disciples is called the Didiche, and it was written late in the first century AD.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And it calls the disciples to pray the Lord's Prayer three times a day: morning, noon, and night.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Jesus wants his disciples to pray this prayer in all of life.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So then Jesus goes on and he tells us a parable.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Point three.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look with me at verse five.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And Jesus said to them, Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Pause for a moment.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Um, one of the most difficult things as a church is to measure what matters.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And I've said before you can measure stats, stories, and self-report.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And in our measure of self-report, what we call our disciple-defined check-in, we have a question in there which says this I have three 2 a.m.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: friends that I could call in a crisis.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Like a mark of a good community is that you have some 2 a.m.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: friends.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You have a friend at midnight, if you will.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so he goes on, he says, and he said to them, Which of you who has a friend who will go, who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey and I have nothing to set before him.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The best example of this is if you've ever seen the movie Lone Survivor.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's about a Navy SEAL named Marcus Luttrell who is being attacked by the Taliban, and he finds himself in an Afghan village where the villagers risked their lives against the Taliban to protect this wounded stranger because of the Pashtun code of hospitality.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Let me just make that plain.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: In the ancient Near East, hospitality was non-negotiable, but iPhones were non-existent.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So if your friend's on a journey to your house, you don't know if they got waylaid, you don't know if they've made record time, you have no idea, you just know they're on their way.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But notice if the friend arrives, you better have bread for them.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Because hospitality is so important.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now I want to point out there's a prompt to prayer in this text in verse 6.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is the simplest way to grow in prayer is to recognize, as verse 6 says, quote, I have nothing.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Like if you want a good prayer life, if you could just take the feeling of desperation and distill it into a liquid, and whenever you wanted to pray, you just take a swig, you would be amazing at prayer.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Because the basis of prayer is this sense of I have nothing.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And verse seven goes on, and the so-called friend will answer from within, do not bother me.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I'm so glad for Western amenities that my kids don't sleep in bed with me.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Goes on, I cannot get up and give you anything.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Verse 8, I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence, he will rise and give him whatever he needs.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So imagine for a moment.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Imagine you have a friend who wakes you up at 2 a.m.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: because they're just blowing up your phone, and you finally answer at 2 a.m., you're groggy and sleepy, and you say, Hey, what's going on?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And they say, Hey, I need a ride, and you say, Get an Uber and hang up.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And then you finally fall back asleep about 30 minutes later, and you hear a knock on your front door that's just so insistent.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You're like, what is going on?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So at this point, your dog wakes up and starts barking at the door, which wakes up the whole household, and you go to the door and you realize it's your friend.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And you're like, I meant Uber home, not to my house.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You're like, hey, well, I'm here.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Can you take me home?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And you're like, no, I and they they reel, you realize the look in their eye, they're not going anywhere.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So you get your keys and your shoes and you take them on an awkward car ride home.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And and not because you're friendly, but because you're fuming, that they won't give up.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is what Jesus calls impudence.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is impudence.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It means shamelessness, it means bold persistence, it means a lack of social restraint, a refusal to be embarrassed, it's an annoying persistence.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Or in one word, verse 7 says, Do not bother me.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Dallas Willard said, impudence is what you see in the eyes of a dog when you're eating a sandwich in front of him.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So, what's going on here?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Like, what is Jesus trying to teach us about prayer?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Well, point four, Jesus draws out a principle.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look at verse 9 with me.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And I tell you, ask and it will be given to you.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Seek and you will find.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Knock and it will be open to you.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And to the one who knocks, it will be open.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, Jesus is doubling down on this shameless persistence.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So, what is the principle in prayer?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Is it be obnoxious until God gives you what you want?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Well, it's important to know, verses five through ten are about how we are to be in prayer, not about how God is in prayer.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's important.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is about our posture, not God's posture.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's significant here.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Because God is not like the friend in bed.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You are to be like the friend at the door.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So, what is God like?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Well, just notice that impudence in any other relationship is a problem.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: In marriage, it's called nagging.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: In friendship, it's called codependency.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: At work, it's called incompetence.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: In parenting, it's called parenting.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, impudence is not socially acceptable in any other relationship except one, a child with their parent.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Tim Keller says it like this: the only person who dares wake up a king at 3 a.m.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: for a glass of water is their child.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So, this makes prayer a great diagnostic.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: How do you relate to God in prayer?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Do you relate to God like an employee to a boss?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Like a subject to a king, like a slave to a master, like a consumer to a vending machine, like Aladdin to a genie, or like a child to a father.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's exactly where Jesus goes next.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look at verse 11.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What father among you, all right, fathers and mothers, listen up.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is, he wants you to imaginatively identify here.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a servant, a serpent?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Like you're just cooking up some fish tacos, and little Johnny's like, hey, mom, can I have one?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And you drop down a cotton mouth in front of him.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Goes on.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Or if he asks for an egg, we'll give him a scorpion.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Dad, you make the best scrambled eggs.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Can I have some?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Here's a scorpion, kiddo.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see the silliness, the ridiculousness of that.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now, none of you would do that.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But it's not because you're good people.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: In fact, Jesus makes that clear, verse 13 if you then who are evil, come on, Jesus, gentle, meek, and mild, like spare some punches here for a moment.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: No, no, no.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is core to his argument because he wants to point out, he wants to point out if you, with your character as it is, which is questionable to Jesus, are willing to give good gifts to your children, here's his argument.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: How much Much more will the Heavenly Father give Verse 13.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, even the best fathers have failed.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We know this.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: They've acted in anger or selfishness, and yet your heavenly father is uncompromisingly good in all that he does.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: How much more will your heavenly father give?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now, if you're anything like me, when you come to these bold promises of prayer that come from the lips of Jesus, it stirs something up in you, both a longing and a and a what if, a possibility, and a sense of ache at your unanswered prayers.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so I want to talk about this because I know I know bodies and souls, faces and names, I know the particular prayer requests on some of your lips that have gone unanswered.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That you've had a longevity of longing to see your Father.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You've been asking and seeking and knocking and left without.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so let me speak to that from the text.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: First, some of us think we're asking for fish and eggs, but we're really asking for snakes and scorpions.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Let me say it like this: for God to act unthinkingly with our prayers would be paganism.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Pagans believe that their gods will do whatever they need them to do in response to their prayers.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Listen, if my three-year-old had a genie in a bottle to give her whatever she asked for, I would move to New Zealand.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Like a safe distance, a few oceans between us.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: There's few things more dangerous than unhindered desire, especially dangerous to ourselves.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Tim Keller says it like this if we knew what God knows, we would ask for what God gives.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, there's only two answers to our prayers.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: One, God gives us what we ask, or two, God gives us what we would have asked if we knew everything He knows.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Second, some of us just haven't endured long enough in asking to see the whole story.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now, I'm a connoisseur of questions.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I love a good question.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I love the listening practice Joey just taught us about.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: One of my favorite questions for like table conversation is this if you were to get a tattoo, what would it be?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Or for some of you, if you were to get your tenth tattoo, what would it be?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I love that question.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And mine would be this, because I'm a nerd.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It would be the Latin phrase desiderium sinus cortis.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's a quote from Augustine of Hippo.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It means this it is yearning that makes the heart deep.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Why does that matter with unanswered prayer?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Well, one of the ways that God is forming you is by drawing out your yearning over time.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, what God gets out of our lives is the person that we become.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And the main character in all of our stories is God, but but a supporting cast in everyone's stories of formation into Christ-likeness is always unanswered prayer.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: God uses unanswered prayer to develop us, to form us, to shape us over time.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Paul Miller, in one of the best books on prayer, called A Praying Life, says it like this: I often find that when God doesn't answer a prayer, he wants to expose something in me.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Our Father wants to shape us as much as he wants to hear us.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, when someone's prayers aren't answered, I want to know the backstory.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I want to know how long did they pray?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What did God do in their heart when they prayed?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What was God up to in the situation at hand?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: How is he at work in the world?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: In our Bible reading plane, we just finished reading through the book of Acts.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And maybe you caught this in Acts 12, verses 1 through 11.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: God frees Peter with an angel, but Herod kills James with a sword.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: In the same 11 verses.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What's God up to?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You better believe, you better believe James prayed, Lord, deliver me from Herod.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And Peter prays, and an angel comes and does a jailbreak.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, there's a story God's at work in the world.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He's up to something.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Brendan Manning says to be grateful for unanswered prayer is to whisper a doxology of defiant praise in the darkness.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: There's something God wants to do in us.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's the second thing we do with unanswered prayer.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The third is that there is one prayer that Jesus promises our Father will always answer.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is my fifth and final point.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Jesus promises a person.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look at verse 13.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: 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?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The best answer to every prayer is always the Holy Spirit.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, we want stuff, God gives himself.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We want presence, E-N-T-S.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He gives his presence, E-N-C-E.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We want an answer, God gives us a person.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Why begin the story with Lord, teach us to pray and end with the Holy Spirit?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Well, because just as a mother gives birth and the first act of the baby is to cry, when the Spirit gives the new birth, the first act of a disciple is to pray.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, Romans 8 says that when we belong to Jesus by faith alone, the spirit of adoption is poured out into our hearts, which causes us to cry, Abba, Father.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I've come to realize just in practice what that feels like is if I ever have an inkling to pray, I assume that's the spirit of adoption.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I assume it's the spirit of adoption going, talk to your father about this.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Don't quench the spirit in that moment.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Obey, listen, receive, respond, do, offer up a quick prayer in that moment.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's what the spirit of adoption does in the hearts of his disciples.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Romans 8 says that when we are wordless, the spirit groans for us, intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Ephesians 1 says the Holy Spirit is the guarantee of our access to the Father through his Son Jesus Christ.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So why begin a sermon, begin a teaching, Jesus, where people say, Lord, teach us to pray and end with the Holy Spirit?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Because when the Spirit comes, the Spirit brings strength in the very place of weakness, fruit in our barren circumstances, presence when we've been neglected by our friends.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Like there's this story at the end of 2 Timothy chapter 4, where Paul says, No one came to stand by me, all deserted me, but the Lord stood by me and strengthened me.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Elizabeth Elliott says it like this the secret is Christ in me, not me in another set of circumstances.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So when we wrestle with prayer, answered prayer, unanswered prayer, the Father always responds by promising his very presence with us.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now, listen, it's one of my growth areas to not outpreach my life.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I don't want to give this impression that like I just walk hovering 12 inches above the ground because I'm just like filled with the Holy Ghost all the time.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Like I have probably tasted about a shot glass full of what I'm preaching about right now, but I know there's gallons on offer, and so I'm reaching for more.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I want you to reach for more.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I want you to go before your father and say, Father, you promised.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You said Luke 11, 13.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And just say, Lord, here I am asking.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Give me a fresh filling of your Holy Spirit.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Give me more.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I'm not, this isn't enough.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I'm thirsty.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Pour out the water on parched soil, Lord.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He's got promises.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Take him at his word.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Be shameless in your boldness to ask for him to answer this promise.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But what if our hope is flagged flagging?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What if we what if we've been there, done that, and it just doesn't seem to work?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Where do we where do we stir up that shameless boldness?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Well, we look at Jesus.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Go back to the top at verse 1 again.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It says this.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now Jesus was praying in a certain place.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You ever wonder, Judas dips out on the Lord's Supper, and then he knows exactly where to find Jesus when he leads the Romans to come kill him.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You ever wonder?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Well, we get an answer in Luke 22, verse 39, it says this, and Jesus came out and went, here's the phrase, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, Jesus' model of prayer was so predictable that Judas knew just where to find him when he wanted to betray him.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And what was Jesus doing in the Mount of Olives?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What was he doing in the Garden of Gethsemane?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He went there to pray.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And Matthew 26 says that Jesus prayed three times, saying the same thing.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What was he doing?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He was asking and seeking and knocking.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What was he praying?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Mark 14, 36 says this, Abba Father, all things are possible for you.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Remove this cup from me.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: There's the request.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Remove this cup from me.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Yet not what I will, but what you will.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Did the Father answer Jesus' prayers in Gethsemane?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Yes, but not by removing the cup.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, the answer was not removing the cup, but the strength to endure the Father's will and accomplish his purposes for Jesus.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And where did that strength come from?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Well, Hebrews 9 14 says this Jesus, through the eternal spirit, offered himself without blemish to God.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: From a Father who promises to give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him, including his unique Son, Jesus Christ.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now the answer was not removing the cup, but it was resurrection on the other side of the cross.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so when we get to our text today, Jesus tells us this parable to argue from the lesser to the greater.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: If bothered friends will do this, how much more?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: If evil parents will, how much more?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, Jesus is a better friend and God is a good father.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Jesus not only got out of bed, but he came from heaven to earth.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The Father gives to those who ask, he sends forth his son and his spirit in order to bring you before him in shameless prayer so that when you come to him, he says to you, Hey, when you realize you have nothing, bother me at midnight, little child.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Let's pray.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Holy Spirit, come.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Come and fill us.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Draw us to Jesus.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Spirit of adoption, cry out in our hearts again, Abba, Father.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Renew in us a confidence that we have the ear of our Abba.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We pray in Jesus' name.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Amen.