Lord - Teach us to Pray

Alright, let's take our Bibles tonight and let's not turn to Philippians, which is where we should be. Some of you might know where we're going to go. I shouldn't surprise you. Turn to Luke chapter 11. Luke chapter 11. Tonight, I want us to look at a familiar portion of Scripture. These are verses and this is teaching that we come back to about one time a year. I do that intentionally. I went back this week and I looked at when we have been in these verses last. Last August, we studied Luke chapter 11 and what I call Teach Us to Pray, Seven Lessons for Praying Parents.

That was all tied into what we were learning about parenting out of Ephesians chapter 4, 5, and 6. They're in that practical section of the book. Then the time before that, we were here in Luke 11 in March of 2022. We study these verses in preparation for Brother John O'Comean to lead us in revival in renewal services. Tonight, I want us to look at a few things as we prepare for Matt Fowler to come lead as he's preaching God's Word. We're looking for spiritual renewal, spiritual revival, and all that comes with that. Now, I have to make a confession here. I honestly wanted to preach this the Sunday before Matt Fowler came, but it was Easter.

Now there are a lot of things I could do and get away with on Easter. I'm not quite sure if I could do this. I say that jokingly. I do want to honor Easter and preach on those kind of things as we should. I really wished I could have preached this to the entire congregation and those who do attend, but this is just the way it worked out. But we're familiar with Luke 11, and let's start by remembering what we have going on here in Luke 11. Simply, the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray. We see that right away in verse 1. The verse says, "Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished," that would be praying.

When he finished, one of his disciples, I wonder who it was. Maybe it was Peter. One of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray," as John taught his disciples to pray. Now the first thing we need to see here and the first thing we need to apply here is this. We are a lot like the disciples, far more like the disciples than we know. What I mean is this. We need to learn how to pray like Christ wants us to pray, and the reason I come back to this teaching like I do, the reason I come back faithfully about once a year is that we're like the disciples in another way. We forget.

If you study the Gospels, you will see that Jesus teaches certain things to the disciples over and over. I remember when we went verse by verse through the Gospel of John, I can remember thinking, "Man, these guys are dull. These guys are slow. What's wrong with them?" Well, we are more like that than we know. So we need to be reminded that we must pray and we must relearn how to pray and we need to remember all that our Lord expects from us here. Ignorance cannot be our plea. But two things I want to start off with right here in verse one real quickly. This isn't what I call the body of the message.

First, the disciples were somehow spurred on, somehow energized, somehow stoked to curiosity, and I think it was more than curiosity by observing Jesus in his prayer life. The text says that they knew John the Baptist was a man of prayer. Think about that. They had some connection or familiarity with John the Baptist. So they knew that John the Baptist was a man of prayer, and they also knew that Jesus was a man of prayer. Maybe they saw John pray, but we know that they did see Jesus pray. Here's a short list. He prayed on baptism in Luke chapter three. He prayed during his first preaching mission in Luke chapter five.

He prayed before he chose his disciples in Luke chapter six. He prayed before he fed the 5,000 in Mark 14, and after he fed the 5,000 in Mark 14, he prayed before Peter's famous confession in Luke nine. He prayed at the transfiguration in Luke chapter nine. He prayed before the cross in John chapter 12, and he prayed at the Last Supper. That would be the Passover, the Last Supper in Mark 26, and he prayed in Gethsemane in Matthew 26. Some of you may know this. Luke shows Jesus praying more than any of the other gospels. Now there's a lesson here. I often say this, prayer is cult. Prayer is cult, sometimes better than it is cult.

To me, it should be cult and taut. If we only teach on prayer and never model prayer, well, it's not cult. You understand what that means by cult, I hope. Then second, the disciples were spurred on here. Again, the word curiosity is not enough. They were energized, they were encouraged here by Jesus teaching on prayer. Simply the disciples knew that John was a man of prayer, and they saw Jesus as a man of prayer, and seeing it did something in them, so they asked him to teach them how to pray, and he did teach them.

So the disciples were spurred on, they were energized, they were stoked to some kind of curiosity by seeing Jesus pray, and by his teaching on prayer. But notice what we see in this situation. Now to me, the text doesn't explicitly say it, I know, but to me, it is definitely implied that the Holy Spirit of God was working in the disciples here. He had to be. It could have been seen as a curiosity, but it's got to be a Holy Spirit energized curiosity. They had more than just a curiosity. The disciples, I believe, they were stirred, they were moved, and so to me, the Holy Spirit was drawing them into the work of prayer.

And look folks, that's what we need. I come back to this year after year because we need to be reminded, but ultimately, I can only do so much. I need the Holy Spirit of God to draw you into this, to compel you to get into this. I need the Holy Spirit of God to work in you that you would take this teaching and the verses and you would go to your Lord in your prayer closet, in your own privacy, the privacy of your home, and say, "You know, Lord, I got to have this." And there are times in my life I do that. I could go back and teach you how God taught me how to pray.

I could go back and illustrate how prayer should be fleshed out by the way the Lord taught me how to pray and how I saw men pray and how it was called in my life. But what we need here is this, the Spirit of God to move in these things according to our own lives. Now let's read the verses. These are the verses that we will deal with in the message, verses 5 to 13. And He said to them, this is the disciples, "Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, 'Friend, lend me three loaves.'" That would be bread. "For a friend of mine has arrived on a journey and I have nothing to set before him.

And he will answer from within." That would be in the home. "Do not bother me. The door is now shut and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give him anything. 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 arise and give him whatever he needs. And I tell you, ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be open to you. For everyone who asks, receives, and the one who seeks finds, and the one who knocks, it will be opened. What farther 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? If you then who are evil, they can be translated sinful, 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?" Now, many of you know the outline here. Again, we have dealt with this often on through the years. I want us to look at the parable in verses 5-8, the prayer in verses 9-10, the principle that is taught here in verse 11 and 12 and the beginning of verse 13, and then the promise, which is the climax of the teaching, verse 13. So number one, the parable, verses 5-8.

Now I'm not going to read the parable, we just read it. But the parable is seen in verses 5-8, actually the first parable. And here we have a parable taught by Jesus, and because I have taught on this parable and I have taught through the other parables, we should know what a parable is. Simply a parable is an earthly story that communicates spiritual truth or truths. A parable is an earthly story and cast beside that story or within that story is spiritual truth and that is meant to illustrate the truth. But before we get into the teaching, I want us to see the context of this parable.

This was a common Jewish home in the parable where the family was all asleep in one room and this was normal in their day. Many homes in their day had one room and it was normal for families to sleep on one large mat in that room. There would have been one large door with a bolt of some kind for security. And right here, right now is when some of you are saying, "Praise the Lord, I don't live in that day. I'm thankful for bedrooms." And in the story, for the father to get up and open the door, that would mean that he would disturb the entire family because the friend came to him at midnight.

But we do see that the man does respond and he opens the door. That's easy to see in the story. Now some commentators note some specifics that seem unusual. First that this individual seemed to have been traveling at night. That night travel was not uncommon in their day. Scholars and historians tell us that they traveled at night sometimes to avoid the heat of the day. So this was not unusual for their time. Second that this friend went to another friend at such a late hour. This was unusual, but in that culture, hospitality to strangers and travelers was the expected norm.

Even though this was an inconvenient time, the man inside would have been expected to provide a welcome and to meet the need that was at hand. Many times visitors would be the guests of others in the community, maybe even the entire community. Scholars tell us that. So there was a great responsibility on the host and the man that was already asleep with his family. So the point I'm making is this was a story that would have resonated with all of those who were listening. It would have not been odd. It would have been normal.

Now out of these verses, I want us to see that Jesus is teaching two lessons and these lessons are centered around two words, perspective and persistence. Perspective and persistence. First the lesson on perspective is seen in verses five to six. We need to see that the first two verses in this story are meant to teach vision, perspective. I've got to use perspective to keep all of these words starting off with a P. And that was Jesus' point here. And the perspective can't be on the man traveling at night and the perspective can't be on the inconvenience for the family.

The perspective, the vision must be on the friend of the man that is in need. He had a real life need and even though this need came at a very inconvenient time, the focus, the vision, the attention, the perspective must be on the need of the friend. So there's a lesson on perspective. Second the lesson on persistence. That's in verses seven to eight. We need to see that the next two verses in the story are meant to teach persistence. This is easier to see than the lesson on perspective and we see this in a very important word, the word persistence. We see this in the New American Standard. Now the King James uses the word importunity.

The English Standard version uses the word impudence. It can also be translated accurately as boldness and shamelessness. The Amplified reads, "Yet because of his shameless persistence and insistence." I like that because all those words are right. All those translations and all those words are accurate. This word here speaks of an urgency, a boldness, a relentlessness, again the Amplified, shameless, persistence and insistence. Again though we got to go back to persistence because we got to keep all these things starting off with a P. So the lesson here is on persistence and prayer. So here we have an earthly story.

This was not uncommon for them. We struggle with it some because culturally we live different. So we have an earthly story and infused in the story there are two lessons, perspective and prayer, persistence and prayer. Seeing, vision, perspective and prayer and persistence and prayer. In every one of the messages I have on this passage I always have an example here, the example of Abraham's intercession for Sodom. It's a great example. He had persistence and perspective, perspective and persistence. The angels came, God's going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. What did he see? What did he see?

He didn't see just a bunch of wicked and vile people there. He saw the righteous, he saw a lot, right? So he saw it. He had vision, he had perspective and then he had persistence. He had persistence. He just kept on. He was bold. He just wasn't going to give up, right? One of my favorite examples that I preached a message on this particular passage before. Every now and then I go back to it in Mark chapter 7, the Syrophoenician woman, she had perspective, she had a need, she could see it. All the people there, the disciples wanted her to get out of the way, get out of here. She had perspective, she had vision and she was persistent.

She just wouldn't leave Jesus alone. And so for us, we've got to have perspective. We've got to see all of the spiritual needs all around us. And I want us to see that we can see but yet not see. We can see that there are lost people among us, but do we really see their lostness? We can see that people have spiritual need, but do we really see that need? And then persistence. This is a type of prayer that must characterize our prayer life. This is our manner of prayer. Are we persistent, bold, shameless? I mean if we really study this, it seems like we're being disrespectful.

Now I understand that we can have an ebb and a flow of this kind of prayer, but do we have perspective? Do we really see? I venture to say that if we really, really see the needs that are around us, then that will turn into persistence. You know, Lord, I see this. Oh God, I can't get it off my mind and my heart. God, you've got to do something here. You've got to save my lost loved one. You've got to save my friend. You've got to meet this spiritual need. Now I'm going to make application to Matt Fowler coming, but here's one that we really need to work here. If you're not here on a Wednesday night, be careful.

I might use you as an illustration. Many of you know Candy and Anthony have a son who's estranged. I cannot imagine having one of my children be estranged from us, lost and in the world. And I know many of you see it, but we need to be more brokenhearted about Jonah. We need to be more brokenhearted to the point where we really do bombard Christ Jesus with this need. God, you've got to save him. You've got to rescue him. You see? So perspective and persistence. And then number two, the prayer. We see the prayer in verses 9 to 10. Let's look at these verses.

He transitions from the parable and notice he says, "And I'll tell you, ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks and the one who seeks finds and the one who knocks, it will be opened." Here we have Jesus moving away from the parable. I've already said it, but he is teaching the disciples from the parable. And in this teaching here, verses 9 to 10, he gives the disciples not what to pray, but how to pray. And in teaching them how to pray, Jesus gives four lessons. These lessons are centered on three words. They're going to start with a P.

Position, progression, perpetual and promise. The first lesson, the lesson on position. In verse 9, now this is not clearly spelled out, but it's most definitely there. This word ask here is often used of an inferior asking of a superior in the original. Of course, we know that the one asking is a man and the one asking is a man who is asking of God. And even though this can be missed, it is important to see. And understanding the language here is a lesson. The proper position in prayer and the proper position in prayer is great submission and humility. And the second lesson, the lesson on progression.

Here we see that Jesus gives his disciples a short series of commands. Ask, seek, knock. Now, these commands are easy to see because Jesus even repeats them in the verse. And these are not suggestions. These aren't even soft commands. These are three imperative verbs which tell us numerous things. First, this tells us that Jesus was commanding his disciples to boldly, even aggressively come to God. Second, these words ask and seek and knock become increasingly more bold and intense. This tells us that Jesus was commanding his disciples to become progressively, increasingly more bold in their approach to God.

So this is a lesson on progression in prayer, but more. The third lesson is on perpetual prayer. Here these commands to ask, seek, and knock, they are present tense commands which means that Jesus is commanding his disciples to keep on asking, to keep on seeking, and to keep on knocking. So this is a lesson on perpetual prayer. And then fourth verse 10 is a promise. Here we see an all inclusive promise. Jesus was teaching his disciples that all who ask, seek, and knock, the door will be open. It is an obvious promise to answer prayer.

Of course, that every one of those who know Christ, Jesus was not teaching some sort of universalism in relation to prayer. So this is a lesson on God's promise to answer prayer. So here we have teaching from the parable that we've read and covered. Jesus tells his disciples exactly how they should pray. He says keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking. And this is done in great, great humility and submission, but with great boldness and even increasing boldness with great persistence and even a shamelessness. This almost seems contradictory. But this is the manner in which Jesus is teaching his disciples how to pray.

And what should we learn here? This is what Jesus expects in us. Our position in prayer must be of great submission and humility and this progression in prayer and this perpetual prayer. And my question, it's rhetorical and I think we need God to help us to answer this. Do we ever get to this place, a place where we pray like this? Notice he's not telling us what to pray, but how to pray. Do we ever get to the place where we pray like this? Honestly, I'm a meditator. I'm a far better meditator of God's word than I am a reader. What I mean by that is you guys who can read great portions of scripture just read through, "I envy you.

I don't work that way, but I'm a good meditator." And we need to meditate on this teaching here, this position in prayer, this progression in prayer, this perpetual prayer. We need to meditate on these things to the point where we can't get it out of our mind and out of our thinking to the point where it latches a hold of us. Because if we're not careful and we just zoom through it, we'll miss it. And then the promise, look at verse 10 again. This is hard to grasp now for everyone who asks, receives, and the one who seeks, finds, and the one who knocks, it will be open. Now it's not in the verse, but it's there. There's the word work.

This kind of prayer is work. There's another word in there, but it's not there, the word time. This kind of prayer takes time, lots of time. This takes work, this takes time. There's another word that's in there that's not there. This word patience, where you're just patiently praying this way. And there's another word or a phrase that's not in there, but it's there. That's not given up. You know there's a time to use incorrect English. Lord, I ain't given up. Lord, I'm just, I ain't given up. And then look at the promise for everyone who asks, receives, and the one who seeks, finds, and the one who knocks, it will be opened.

Now I'll go back to my illustration or my example, excuse me. I don't know God's will for Candy and Anthony's son Jonah. I don't. But see folks, in that particular need, it's not up to us to know God's will for him. That's not our business. Our business is to obey the text. Our business is to learn how to pray like this for that particular need. Nevertheless, not my will, but your will, but Lord, you've told me how to pray, and I've got to pray that way for Jonah, and then let God take care of the results. But we do see that the door will be opened. I don't know what that looks like for that particular circumstance.

Then number three, the principle. Verse 11, 12, and beginning of verse 13. What father among you, he's talking to the disciples now. If his son asks for a fish, well instead of a fish, give him a serpent. Or if he asks for an egg, we'll give him a scorpion. Notice questions. "If you then who are evil or sinful 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?" Here in these verses we see Jesus the storyteller again. Maybe this is another parable in the form of questions. But we need to see something.

This parable is not a continuation of the previous parable, but it's an independent parable, but yet they are all tied together. But there is one common denominator, food. Food. Maybe Jesus was a Baptist. We see bread in verses 5 and 6, and here in verses 11 to 12 we see fish, egg, some translations use bread. And just like before, these were ordinary things that all of those listening would have been familiar with. So this parable would have made sense to the disciples, although it is bizarre. I think you can see the strange thing here.

Now here there are three observations I want to make here that will lead us to the principle that is taught. One principle. First, the language changes. Verses 11 to 12. Starting in this new parable we see the language shift from a friend to a father. A friend to a father. In the first parable it was all about friends and a friend who was in need of bread. Well here and throughout the rest of the teaching it's all about fathers and children. So we see a shift in the language. And then second, these bizarre examples. The hypothetical example that Jesus is presenting here is absurd. It's bizarre. It's crazy.

And this would have gotten the disciples' attention. It gets our attention. And think about it. We do know that some of the disciples were married. The Scriptures say that Peter was married, so it would be natural to assume that they had children. So they would have seen this as bizarre, strange. No parent would give their child a snake or a scorpion when they asked for fish or bread or an egg. That's right. So these were bizarre examples. And then third, the style of argument here. You might not see it. But within this hypothetical situation there is this style of argument or reasoning that was common in teachers and teaching of the day.

Often teachers would reason from the lesser to the greater so as to make a point. And that's what we have here. Meaning from the lesser to the greater was to emphasize the point. And this argument starts off with sinful parents who would never give their children a snake when they need bread. Obviously even a sinful parent would provide the needs of their children. Right? Right. And within this argument we see two questions. Jesus says to his disciples, "Even though you are sinful parents, will you not meet the needs of your children who ask?" Sure. So here we see the principle. Even sinful parents provide for the needs of their children.

And we must say that this principle really isn't to be applied to earthly parents but to God. So the principle is this. If a sinful earthly father lovingly meets the needs of his children, then how much more will a loving Heavenly Father meet the needs of his people? So now that we understand the principle, how do we apply the principle? What do we need to understand from this principle? Look folks, if we are born again believers, God is our Father, our Heavenly Father, and he certainly knows how to meet our needs. Right? Right. And my rhetorical question that demands an answer is this.

What are the spiritual needs in your life and in the lives of others around you? What are the spiritual needs in your life? What are the spiritual needs of those around you? Remember we learned about perspective and vision earlier. One of the mistakes here is this. It's all about us and not about others. So what are the spiritual needs in your life? You might say, "Pastor, they're big." Oh, they're just so big. Bigger than God? And what are the spiritual needs of those around you? And then the next question, what are we doing about those needs? What are we doing about those needs? Again, he's taught us how to pray.

And we need to see the principle because in the principle we see a whole out about God and who God is, right? He is our loving heavenly Father. And then number four, the promise. Look back at verse 13. If you then who were evil or sinful know how to give good gifts to your children, let me pause there. Basically, this is my translation. If we who are sinful know how to give all the things that our children need, how much more will the heavenly Father, our heavenly Father, give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him? To me, verse 13 is the pinnacle of the entire teaching. And to me, we should see it like this.

Jesus has been teaching His disciples the entire time since they asked Him to teach them to pray. And what He has been teaching all along has been very, very important. But all of His teaching was leading up to this point right here. Now think with me here. I want us to see how these verses all fit together. We need to see that this promise in verse 13 is connected to the principle that we have just seen in verses 11 to 12. The parable in verses 11 to 12 illustrate the promise we are about to see. And this promise has this principle as its foundation. I'm going to come back to this which will help illustrate it and explain it.

So when leading to the promise, I want us to see a few details here. The comparison. Again, this is an argument moving from the lesser to the greater. Jesus says, "If you who are sinful know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father?" See the comparison? And notice what Jesus is highlighting here. I touched on it. He is highlighting the character of God. He is highlighting the heart of God. He is highlighting the love and the character of God. The love of God for His people. And then the transition. Jesus transitions from talking about earthly fathers to God.

But notice that He says, "Your heavenly Father." He speaks straight to the disciples and He speaks to their Father who is in heaven. So we see the transition from earthly fathers to God. And notice what Jesus is highlighting here. He is highlighting their relationship to God. God is their father. God is their father. And then the promise. How much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him? And we have to pause here before we move on. This doesn't make Jesus a crazy charismatic.

Years and years ago when I was in seminary, Southern Baptist Seminary, I had a professor stood up, or we did, and said, "Boys, the Charismatics and Pentecostals have made us Baptist afraid of the Holy Spirit." Even if we come across of King James this is Holy Ghost. We can't run. How much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him. Here, Jesus concludes His teaching on prayer by promising that their father in heaven will give the Holy Spirit to those who asked for Him. And notice that He, the Holy Spirit, is the promise. He, the Holy Spirit, is the promise. He, the Holy Spirit, is the promise.

And notice what Jesus is highlighting and saying. The Holy Spirit is the gift and the gift giver. He, the Holy Spirit, meets the needs of the Father's people. He comes and He is the gift and He is the giver of the gift that is needed. Now this needs to be fleshed out for some of you to get it. So follow me. I'm not just trying to give you a tongue twister. For those who need comfort, the Holy Spirit is the comforter according to Acts 9. For those who need power, He gives power in Acts 8.31. For those who need help, He is the helper in John 14.26. For those seeking truth, He gives the Spirit of truth in John 16.13.

For those seeking the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. He gives and He produces those things in the life of the believer, Galatians 5. He, the Holy Spirit, is the source of every good thing in the believer's life according to Ephesians 3.20. He is the gift and the giver of the gift. And then for the lost. Well the lost can't pray for themselves, but we can and we should. And what do they need? What do the lost need? The Holy Spirit convicts sinners, making them aware of their sin according to John 16.8.

The lost sinner can only enter the kingdom if they are born again. And the lost sinner is born again by the power and the work of the Spirit, John 3.5.8. The lost sinner comes to understand and have a knowledge of God through the Holy Spirit according to 1 Corinthians 2.11-12. And it is through a work of the Holy Spirit that the lost is baptized with the Spirit and placed into the body of Christ the church, 1 Corinthians 3.17. He is the gift and the giver. And for us who are engaging the lost, it is the Holy Spirit that empowers us to evangelize according to Acts 1.8. Pastor you don't understand.

I got a brother, I got a neighbor, I got a coworker that's so lost I can't reason with him. No you can't, but the Spirit of God can give you the power to do so. So in all our needs we pray that the Holy Spirit would come and work. We pray that the Holy Spirit would give the gift of what we need because He is the gift and He is the gift giver and we should not be intimidated by this. We should not shy away from this. Now some of you came from some charismatic Pentecostal backgrounds. You don't need to over correct. You see? We pray that the Holy Spirit would come and work. It's not wrong for us to say, "God please send the Holy Spirit.

Holy Spirit come." We pray that the Holy Spirit would give the gift that we need. Lord I don't know Jonah, I've never met Jonah, but would you please empower some Christian to witness to Him? Please send the Holy Spirit. He's the gift and the giver of the gift that we need. So here we see the promise is the giving of the Holy Spirit to them as their need. I repeat as their need. If they were in need of salvation in someone's life, the work in the ministry of the Holy Spirit is promised. If someone is in need of comfort and encouragement, the work in the ministry of the Holy Spirit is promised.

Every need that they had and we could have can be and will be met through the working of the Holy Spirit in the circumstances of life. And for us, we need to see that the promise applies to us as well. How much more will our Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to us if we ask Him? He is the gift we need. He is the giver of the gifts that we need. Now I want to close and I want to apply this to next week. Matt Fowler coming to pastor us for five services. When Matt is here pastoring us, we simply need to pray for the presence and the work of the Holy Spirit among us. General prayer. We have lost among us.

Yesterday I spent some time on the phone with Matt just talking, connecting. And he said, "Chris, I feel like I really can be evangelistic in some of these sermons." I said, "Go brother, go. You have full liberty." We have lost among us. We should be taking them, their circumstance and their situation, their name to the Heavenly Father in prayer saying, "Lord Jesus, would you please send the Holy Spirit to do in their life what they can't do?" Maybe your prayer is this, "Lord, when I was lost and I was blind, Your Holy Spirit came and birthed new life in me. Would you please do that for them?" We have those who are in our small groups.

You need to make a list and pray specifically for those who are in your small groups. Some of you know their spiritual needs. Some of you ladies are better at this than us men. Shame on us. You need to go and make a list of those in your small group. And you need to be praying for those needs. You need to be praying, "Holy Spirit, would you please come and meet those spiritual needs?" Use Pastor Matt. Use Brother Matt as he comes and preaches God's Word. Also you need to contact those here in your small group. Like, "Oh, now Pastor, you're getting real personal." You need to contact them.

Number one, you need to ask them, twist their arm a little, encourage them to attend. You need to tell them that you're praying for them and you need to pray for them. You might say, "Pastor, I can't be that personal." You should. And what are we praying for? Again, this is general, for the Spirit of God to come. Look, folks, do you see that the needs in the back corner, the needs on the front row, the needs in my life, the needs in your life, the deepest, most painful need in our congregation that someone can even voice, that could be met and ministered to in an instant and in a work of the Holy Spirit in their life. Do you see that?

And more specifically, what are Matt's needs? We may not know his specific needs and what's going on in his life, but we need to be praying that the Spirit of God will be with him as he continues to prepare. We need to pray for him as he's preaching. We need to be praying that the Spirit of God would work in him and through him. Have you figured it out yet? It's really not about the ability of the minister, it's the usability of the minister. More specifically, as Matt preaches on the theme, the work of the Spirit in the life of the church from the book of Acts, we need to pray three specific things that we will be attending and attentive.

You can't hear it if you ain't here. We need to be attending and attentive. Did you know you can attend and not be attentive? Confession here, I've said in the pew before and not heard a word preached. Number two, that God would empower Matt to preach what we need to hear. You know what happens when that goes on? That's when you go up to the pastor and you say, "I needed that." You just get a little vulnerable and honest. You know what happens when a pastor preaches just what you need to hear? Six months later, you'll still talk about it.

Three months later, you'll say, "Pastor, I went back and listened to that sermon." You know what happens when the pastor preaches just what we need to hear? You'll ask for his number or email so you can let him know. And then a year from now, six months from now, three months from now, you're still changed by it. Number three, that we would obey what God calls us to do individually and collectively. Collectively. So the title of the message is, "Lord, Teach Us to Pray." I have titled this, "Simply Teach Us to Pray" before, but that's not personal enough. I go all the way back to verse one, what the disciples say, or one of them.

"Lord, would you teach us to pray?" So we need our Lord to teach us how to pray. Not just for this week, but for the days and weeks and years to come.