Pastor Dan Eddy

Luke 11:1-13

Persistent Prayer

7-18-10

I. Introduction…being persistent has its advantages

When I worked in advertising sales, I found one of the keys to success was being persistent, not taking “no” for an answer. I remember one client in particular, Luis of Zavius Jewelers. The first time we met it was like oil and water. He didn’t believe in radio advertising and worse he hated the radio station I represented.

I proposed ad ideas, gave him ratings and market information, and came up with promotions. I’d kept asking for the order, kept seeking new opportunities to present new ideas, and kept knocking on his door for attention…years of rejection. But remaining persistent paid off as one day he decided to give me and our radio station a try. And for the next six years he became one of my biggest clients. We had a good relationship to the day I left the station.

In fact, he was the jeweler who personally designed and manufactured my wife’s engagement ring and my wedding band. Being persistent has its advantages.

Perhaps you can think of times in your life where being persistent was quite beneficial…in asking someone out on a date, getting the ideal job, or obtaining a prized possession.

How about you when it comes to prayer? How persistent are you in your prayer life with God in asking for things you desire for yourself or others? I know prayer is a real challenge for many people in our congregation. It has been in my lifetime, too.

My prayer is that God’s Word proclaimed through this morning’s sermon will, in a good way, change the way you look at prayer.

Our Gospel text from Luke 11 is more than an abbreviated form of the Lord’s Prayer. The text is speaking about more than what to pray. Jesus is showing us how to prayer.

II. Persistent Prayer: Keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking

The sense from the text, in verse 9, is prayer is more than a static event or weekly ritual. It’s personal, so Jesus, in this text, is really saying to you, “Keep asking, keep seeking, and keep knocking.” He wants you to be persistent in prayer.

In others words, don’t stop praying. Keep bugging the Lord with your requests. Keep searching God’s Word for your answers. Keep knocking on the doors to find enlightenment to your faith in everyday life. Don’t take “no” for an answer.

Prayer is simply an expression of faith. Prayer is vital in your relationship with Christ. The more faith you have, the more often you express it in prayer to God.

And just so you don’t think that Jesus is not serious about being persistent in prayer, He uses this totally absurd exaggeration to make His point in verses 5-8. This obnoxious man goes to his neighbor at midnight and pounds on the door to ask for some food for his guests. Pretend that’s you for a moment.

And the neighbor is saying “Stop pounding on my door. Go home you bum…I’m sleeping.” But you keep pounding on the door: “I need food for my guest. He just arrived from out of town and is famished.” And so just to get rid of you, because you are so persistent…so shameless, he opens the door and gives you what you need, even though he doesn’t want to.

What’s absurd about this analogy is that God would never act that way toward you. He wouldn’t tell you to go away. He wouldn’t refuse to listen, and He would be more than willing to grant your request if it’s His will to do so. And He’ll grant much bigger things than giving you some bread. That’s how much your Heavenly Father loves you. But it involves opening your mouth and speaking prayers often.

Don’t believe me? Look at Abraham. He persistently prayed for a child with Sarah, and after decades, his 90 year wife was pregnant and he was going to be dad at age 100.

And in our Old Testament reading, he gets really persistent in prayer, negotiating with the Lord to keep Him from destroying Sodom if Abraham could find less than a dozen righteous people, among whom he was trying to save his relative, Lot, and his family. The Lord was willing to listen over and over and over, and never refused Abraham’s prayer requests. God changed His mind toward destroying Lot and his family based on His compassionate mercy.

The sin is implied in this text is not praying or not praying persistently. In fact I’ve heard on occasion from worshippers: “There’s too much praying going on during the service.” It’s in the liturgy, in the hymns, the Prayer of the Day, in Children’s lessons, in the sermons, the Prayers of the Church, before, and after Communion. There are a lot of prayers, because they work. God is using prayer to make your faith stronger.

Prayer in worship models the prayer life God desires for you outside of Sunday morning.

But often we resist because we are afflicted with the “Yeah but Syndrome.” “Yeah I pray to God once in a while, but He rarely gives me what I want.” And there’s no seeking His Word for why that is. No knocking on the door for greater enlightenment. How often you pray reflects how much faith you really have.

But Satan has cynically convinced us that prayer doesn’t work. Or only works some of the time for some of the people. Or we can rationally explain outcomes. It was the medicine or the doctors who cured them. Or God only listens when He wants to. That He should already know what we want, so why pray? Or prayer is something the pastor does, or those people do on Thursday nights.

In verse 10, Jesus promises that those who keep asking, keep receiving answers to their prayers. Those who keep seeking will keep finding blessings in their lives, and those who keep knocking, the doors will keep opening for greater enlightenment. Being persistent in prayer has its advantages.

Answers may come after years of persistent prayer. Recently some friends of mine back in Rockford lost their brother, their son. Joe was only 46. He contracted an illness and died un-expectantly. His mom and dad and four brothers along with a whole host of people prayed persistently for years for this man’s salvation. For years he was away from the Church involved in all sorts of bad things. But being persistent paid off as in the past few years he returned to the faith; the faith of Christ in which he was baptized.

Recently a parishioner shared with me how much she prayed for the salvation of her father, and how near the end of his life, he, too, received the love of Christ. But it wasn’t without persistent prayer.

III. Persistent Prayer: What a Friend we have in Jesus

In your life, Jesus is the friend you can persistently pray to? What did we just sing? “What a privilege to carry/ Everything to God in prayer! Oh, what peace we often forfeit; Oh, what needless pain we bear- All because we do not carry/ Everything to God in prayer.”

Author Joseph Scriven wrote those lyrics to What a Friend We Have in Jesus originally as a poem for his mother to comfort her when she was weighed down with sorrow and adversity from a severe illness. He never intended to publish it until years later when Scriven himself was ill and a friend visiting him noticed some words written on scratch paper buried over in the corner. His friend read him the same lyrics Joseph wrote to his mother.

“Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere? We should never be discouraged – Take it to the Lord in prayer.” Jesus is the friend who is always faithful; who shared all our sorrows at the Cross. That’s where Jesus was the weakest, and He knows your every weakness. He is your precious Savior to your rescue where in His arms He’ll take and shield you from your sins to always keep you from eternal damnation with everlasting life, given to you by faith alone.

So with that faith, keep asking for forgiveness, so He can keep giving it to you. Keep seeking Him in His Word, so He can continue to bless you. Keep knocking on the door for stronger faith so He can keep opening more doors so you can see Him daily more vividly in your life in more ways. Being persistent in prayer has its blessings.

IV. Persistent prayer challenge

A few weeks ago, I was cleaning out my office, which I realized was an answered prayer for many of you, and I ran across some sealed envelopes hidden under piles of paper. Back in early 2009, at one of the early Bible studies on prayer, I had volunteers write down prayer requests on a sheet of paper and then seal them in envelopes for safe keeping in my office. Then 60 to 90 days later I handed them back, encouraged people to open them, and if they wanted to – to share how God had answered their prayers. I forgot that a few people, who originally filled them out, weren’t there the day the rest of the class opened their envelopes.

So on Friday, I called one of the parishioners and asked his permission to open his envelope. He gladly agreed. I have permission to share the following. On his sheet, he had listed four petitions. He remembers all of them quite vividly, and do you know what? All of the prayer requests had been answered over and over and over in ways he could never imagine. Prayers for his family, his work, his relationships in life. Why did the Lord keep answering? Because this man keeps asking, keeps seeking, and keeps knocking? Like a persistent sale person he wasn’t going to take “no” for an answer.

I guarantee if we prayed more persistently to reach more under-churched and un-churched people in the South Shore area, we’d see more people believe in Christ and saved for eternity; we’d have more time, talent and financial resources to minister to people to know the Lord more vividly.

So here’s my challenge to you. In your bulletins this morning is an envelope and a sheet of paper. I challenge you to take the paper. Write down as many prayer petitions as you like. It can be personal, family, congregational, community, career…doesn’t matter. Write down at least one prayer request. Seal it in an envelope. Put your name on it, and drop it in the offering basket or give it to me. I will keep it sealed and safely in my office. And I promise no one, including me, will read your petition without your permission.

Then I promise to follow up with you in 30-60 days to give you back your envelope. You don’t even have to tell me how the Lord answered your prayers.

Pray for anything you want…and if you don’t know how to pray…take a Bible Promise Book located in the Narthex, find a subject area that best fits your prayer. Read a passage from Scripture and simply restate it as prayer request before God. Remember prayer is an expression of faith. Faith comes from receiving God’s Word.

So, for example, if you’re angry at someone, read Psalm 145:8 NLV “The Lord is full of loving favor and pity; slow to anger and great in loving-kindness.” Then pray “Lord, fill me with Your loving favor and pity; slow my anger and make be great in Your loving kindness, Amen.”

And then go and act on your prayer…seeking better ways to love those who torment you, and knocking on the doors to relieve anger and indifference.

I know many in our congregation who never had a strong prayer life before, have taken these Bible Promise books to build a persistent prayer life.

V. Conclusion

So let’s put God’s Word into practice by standing and praying about persistent prayer. Please hold hands…and repeat after me:

Dear Lord,

You promise to hear my prayers every time I speak them to You

Help me to keep asking

So You can keep giving

Help me to keep seeking You in Your Word

So You can help me to keep finding

Help me to keep knocking

So You can continue to open the doors of faith in my life everyday.

Forgive me for not praying to You more often

Hear my persistent prayers for Jesus’ sake.

Amen.

Go in peace to find the answers to your prayers. Amen.