Teach us to Pray

Well, take your Bible, turn to Luke chapter 11. I know I said this morning that we would be in Luke chapter 11, and I think I even mentioned that it's been quite a few years since I've been in this chapter as far as teaching is concerned in this parable. I think my notes say that I was here in 2018, but I've enjoyed some time back in this chapter. It's very relevant. It's one of those portions of scripture we have to come back to time and time again. We're going to be in verses 1 to 2, and then really most of our time, most of our work will be in verses 5 to 13.

Now before we get into the parable on prayer, that's what verses 5 to 13 are all about. I want us to see why this came about. What was going on here? What was taking place? Who was there? And why Jesus ultimately taught on prayer in this parable. Obviously Jesus was with his disciples and they asked him to teach them to pray. Look at verses 1 and 2. Says then it came about that while he was praying in a certain place. Think about that for a minute. Maybe that resonates with you. Maybe you've never noticed it.

Because while Jesus was in a certain place of prayer, after he finished, one of his disciples said, "Lord, teach us to pray." And he doesn't stop there. Just as John, that would be John the Baptist, also taught his disciples. Well, we see right away the disciples asked Jesus, "Teach us to pray." That means that they knew that they needed to learn to pray. That means that they knew they had a deficit in their life. That means that they saw something in John, they saw something in Jesus that they did not have. Now think about it. They saw him in prayer. They knew John prayed and even taught his disciples to pray.

And they said, "Lord, teach us to pray." Now I want to say this before we continue. We are a lot like the disciples. We need to learn how to pray. We need to learn how to pray the way Christ wants us to pray. We need to be taught to pray. There are some of us. We have been taught to pray throughout our Christian journey, but we can become rusty. We can lose sight of what our prayer life should be. But we all need to learn to pray. We need to be taught to pray. We need to relearn how to pray. Now there are two things here right away. Notice the disciples were spurred on. They were spurred on by observing Jesus in his prayer life.

I've read that, verse 1. And notice they knew John the Baptist was a man of prayer. And get this. John the Baptist was filled with the Holy Spirit before his birth. Don't ask me to explain that. He, John the Baptist, was the last of the Old Testament prophets. And Jesus said there was no one born of man, born of woman, greater than John. Yet John prayed. And he needed to pray. And he taught his disciples to pray. Of course, Jesus was a man of prayer. I have a list here that I have kind of accumulated this week. Jesus prayed at his baptism in Luke 3, 21. Jesus prayed during his first mission's journey.

Preaching mission journey that is in Luke 5, 16. Some of you might not know that Jesus would take these journeys preaching. Jesus prayed before he chose the 12. The 12 disciples in Luke 6, 12 to 13. Jesus prayed before he fed the 5,000. This is Mark's account, Mark 14, verse 19. And then after he fed the 5,000. When we get that prayer in Mark, or excuse me, Matthew 14, 23. Jesus prayed before Peter's famous confession. We know that confession. Luke 9, 18. And he prayed at the transfiguration in Luke 9, 28 to 29. Now that's just a few examples. A couple more. Jesus prayed before he went to the cross. John 12, 28.

He prayed at the Last Supper in Matthew 26, 26 to 27. He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane in Matthew 26, 36 to 44. And in his prayer in the Garden, he prayed much like we're going to see. A lot like we're going to see here in the parable. Now what am I wanting us to see here? Jesus prayed. His disciples saw him in prayer. John the Baptist prayed. His disciples knew that he prayed. But what I'm showing you is this, somehow, some way, their prayer life, John's and Jesus' prayer life impacted the disciples. And this shows us that prayer is caught. Not just taught. It's caught.

You ever notice that sometimes certain things are caught rather than taught? Sometimes men will say something like this, don't give me the directions, show me the picture. I know men who can do things with their hands like plumbing work or electrical work or carpenter work. And sometimes if they can just see you do it, they can catch it. You know? Well, that's what's taking place here. Prayer was caught somehow. They were impacted. They were spurred on by observing John's prayer life and John's disciples prayer life and Jesus, his prayer life. Well, this reminds me of when prayer was caught rather than taught for me.

I'm thankful my home church pastor was a man of prayer. I remember in those days, there was a lull in the life of the church and there were some men that were pretty serious about their spiritual life. And I happened to tag along with some of them. And I remember one time we were meeting with Brother Dennis in the life in his office discussing some things going on in the life of the church. And one of the men said, "Well, pastor, what do we do?" He said, "The only thing I know to do is pray." And we began to pray. We prayed in some sacrificial times and some sacrificial ways.

And I really didn't know job from job and I didn't know how to pray, but I learned how to pray by being around men who could pray. Prayer was caught. But then the disciples were spurred on by the teaching on prayer that Jesus gives. We see the teaching start off in verse two. And this is a short version of what's commonly called the Lord's Prayer. Really this is the model prayer. This is a very short version. There's some other places where it's a little longer. So we see that Jesus taught them starting in verse two with the model prayer. And then he transitions to teach them starting in verse five in this parable.

So Jesus teaches on prayer in two different ways. Now I'm not going to teach on the model prayer tonight. We're going to focus on the parable. And I want us to read the parable and then I'm going to share with you kind of how I'm going to approach it and then give you a couple of words of preparation and then we'll dive right in. Notice verse five. Let's start with verse five. And he, this is Jesus, said to them, that's the disciples, suppose one of you shall have a friend and shall go to him at midnight and say to him, friend, lend me three loaves. That would be bread.

Remember a friend of mine has come to me from a journey and I have nothing to set before him. And from inside he shall answer and say, do not bother me. The door has already been shut or locked and my children and I are in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything. I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence. Some translations can say boldness. He will get up and give him as much as he needs.

And I say to you, ask and it shall be given to you, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you for everyone who asks, receives, for everyone who asks, receiving, he who seeks finds and to him who knocks it shall be opened. Now suppose one of you fathers is asked by his son for a fish, he will not give him a snake instead of a fish, will he? Or if he asked for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion, will he? Then verse 13 is really the pinnacle of the teaching. If you then being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?

Now this is how we are going to approach the parable. We are going to look at four major truths. We are going to look at the parable, verses 5-8. Then we are going to look at the prayer in verses 9-10. We are going to look at the principle that is taught in verse 11 and 12 and it really spills over into the beginning of verse 13 and then we are going to look at the promise. Now I want to show you something. This teaching, these things that are taught are really more about the manner of prayer, more about the manner of prayer and there is really only one thing when it comes to the substance of prayer. Notice that.

This is mostly about the manner of prayer and how we pray and only one thing when it comes to substance or what to pray for. So let's start off. This would be considered the body of the message. Number one, the parable. I am not going to read it again. We see that in verse 5 all the way down to verse 8. Here we have a parable taught by Jesus to his disciples. Now because of our study in the parables on Wednesday nights, we know exactly what a parable is. A parable is an earthly story that communicates spiritual truth. Many times there are spiritual truths involved.

A parable is an earthly story and cast beside that story or within that story there is spiritual truth and it is meant to be illustrated by the story communicated by the story. Now before we get into the teaching I want us to see the scene in the parable. Culturally we are very disconnected from these things. We don't live in this kind of a world. This scene was very common. It was a very common Jewish home where the family was all asleep in one room. This was normal in their day. Many homes had one room and it was normal for families to sleep on one large mat in that one room.

There would have been a large door in the home and they would have some kind of a bolt or some kind of a lock to secure the door and the home. And in this story for the father to get up and open the door it would mean that he would disturb the entire family. You see because a friend came when? At midnight. But we do see that the man does respond and he does open the door. It's easy to see the parable, the scene, the story. Now some commentators note some specifics that seem unusual. First that the individuals seem to be traveling at night. Night travel was not uncommon in their day. Some traveled at night to avoid the heat.

So this was not unusual for their time and culture. And second that this friend went to another friend at such a late hour. Some say that is unusual. But in that culture, in that day, hospitality to strangers and travelers was expected as the norm. As a matter of fact I read this week where if someone wasn't hospitable to travelers and strangers they would even be ostracized in the community. And even though this was an inconvenient time, midnight, and the man inside would have been expected to provide a welcome and to meet the need at hand, this was an unopportuned time.

Many times visitors would be the guest of others in the community, maybe even the entire community. So there was a great responsibility on the host and the man that was already asleep with his family. You see? Now out of these verses I want us to see that Jesus is teaching two lessons. Two lessons and these two lessons are around two words. The word perspective and the word persistence. The word perspective and the word persistence. First the lesson on perspective. The lesson on perspective. And this is in verses five to six. We need to see that these first two verses in this story are meant to teach perspective. That was Jesus' point.

The perspective can't be on the man traveling at night. The perspective of the focus can't be on the inconvenience for the family. The focus of the perspective must be on the friend of the man who was in need. He had a real life need even though this need came at a very inconvenient time. The focus, the perspective must be on the need of the friend. So this lesson is on perspective and this is meant to be applied to prayer. Second the lesson on persistence. We see this in verse seven and eight, the second part of the parable. 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. I'm reading from the New American Standard. But notice the King James uses the word importunity. The English Standard uses the word impudence. It can also be translated as boldness or shamelessness. Now why sometimes do different translations use all these different words? It's because all of these words can be accurate. I know I read from the Amplified this morning and the Amplified helps us here. It's a paraphrase. It helps. It's meant to come alongside a solid translation.

But the Amplified reads, "Yet because it is shameless persistence and insistence." That's what's happening here. And all of those translations that I refer to are accurate. This word speaks of an urgency, a boldness, a relentlessness. I like the Amplified. Shameless, persistence, and insistence. Simply persistence will do. This is a lesson on persistence in prayer. So here we have this earthly story. Jews would have understood it. We might struggle, but yet with a good, obvious explanation we can get what's happening here. But within the story is infused to lessons.

A man has a friend who comes to him at an unexpected time as an unexpected guest. It was inconvenient. This friend has been on a journey and he needs food. The host goes to another friend at this inconvenient time and he asks for bread for the traveling friend. And evidently the man does give his friend all that he needs for his traveling friend or traveling guest. So within the story there are two lessons on prayer. Perspective and persistence. A biblical example that will help you. The story of Abraham and his intercession for Lot. I'm going to paraphrase the story. You know that Lot couldn't keep his eyes off the world.

He moved near Sodom and ultimately moved into Sodom. But Lot was a righteous man. God had come to Abraham and God had told Abraham that he was going to destroy and judge Sodom and Gomorrah. Well, Abraham begins to intercede on Lot's behalf. He begins to pray and talk to God. And he goes back and forth, back and forth. See, he had perspective in prayer. He saw the circumstances the way God did. He saw Lot. He saw judgment. He believed what God said. He saw it. He had perspective. But he had persistence. He would not let go of God. He kept praying with God. He kept wrestling with God, even wrangling with God until he got an answer.

Another example. Mark chapter 7. If you want the example with Abraham, it's in Genesis 18 starting in verse 22. In Mark chapter 7 verse 24, passage dealing with the serophoenician woman. And she comes asking Jesus to heal. And he would not. He was reluctant. But what do we see? She has perspective. There is a tremendous need. But she is persistent and she will not let Jesus go. And Jesus commended her for her faith. So there's perspective in prayer. You can call it vision. You can call it understanding. And then there's persistence in prayer. And look folks, perspective. We have so many people all around us who are in need.

Lost people and saved people. There are lost people all around us. Do we see them as we should? Do we have proper perspective? And then our brothers and sisters around us. Have lived the faith among one another long enough to see certain struggles and certain difficulties and certain trials. And do we have perspective among ourselves in the life of the church? And listen, persistence. This is the type of prayer that must characterize our lives. This is the manner of prayer that we need. So write those two words down. Perspective and persistence. Perspective and persistence. Number two, I want us to look at the prayer.

Now I want to read these verses because we transitioned. Jesus moves away from the parable. Verse 9 and 10. And I say to you, ask and it shall be given to you. Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be open to you. And then it changes a little. Verse 10. For everyone who asks, receives. And he who seeks, finds, and to him who knocks, it shall be open. Of course, Jesus is moving away from the parable. I've already said that. But he is teaching the disciples from the parable. In this teaching, he gives a prayer, not what to pray, remember how to pray. And in this teaching of how to pray, I want us to see that Jesus gives four lessons.

And these four lessons are centered around four words. They start with a P as well. Those words are position and then the word progression and then the word perpetual and then the word promise. The word position, the word progression, the word perpetual and the word promise. Now if you do not know how to spell any of those words, just write it in cursive and nobody will ever know. First, the lesson on position. Verse nine. Verse nine. And I say to you, ask and it shall be given to you. Seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you. Now this is not clearly spelled out, but it's most definitely there.

The word ask, that's a key word here. In their day, this particular word that's used was often used of an inferior asking a superior. As a matter of fact, some of my reading this week, I ran across a scholar that pointed out that when Jesus was praying and asking the father, he never used this word. So what we see here is this. We have an inferior asking of a superior. And what I'm trying to show you is this. This is our position in prayer. This is a lesson on our proper position in prayer. This is a lesson on humility. This is a lesson on submission. Okay?

So this one word and understanding what it means is a lesson on our proper position when we come in prayer. The second lesson is on progression. This is easier to see in the verse. Here we see that Jesus gives the disciples a short series of commands. Ask, seek, knock. And look, these commands are easy to see. Jesus even repeats them in verse 10. These are not suggestions. These are not even soft commandments. These are all three imperative verbs which tell us numerous things. First, this tells us that Jesus was commanding his disciples to boldly and even aggressively come to God.

Second, these words, ask, seek, and knock, become increasingly more bold, increasingly more intense. This tells us that Jesus was commanding his disciples to become increasingly, progressively, increasingly, progressively more bold in their approach to God. So this is a lesson on progression in prayer, but really more. And then third, the lesson is on perpetual prayer. Here these commands, ask, seek, and knock, they are present tense commands which means Jesus was commanding his disciples to keep on asking, to keep on seeking, to keep on knocking. So this is a lesson on perpetual prayer.

This is a lesson on progressive prayer, progression in prayer, and those two really are infused together. But then fourth, this is a lesson on a promise. Look at verse 10, "For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it shall be open." Here we see an all-inclusive promise. Jesus was teaching his disciples that all who ask, who seek, who knock, the door will be open. This is an obvious promise to answer prayer. Of course, everyone, the everyone here are those who know Christ. Jesus was not teaching some sort of universalism in prayer, no. So this is a lesson for his disciples on God's promise to answer prayer.

It's there in the verse, "For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it shall be open." So here we have teaching from the parable. Jesus steps away from the parable. Jesus tells his disciples exactly how they should pray. This is not what they should pray, but how they should pray. He says, "Keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking." This is done in great humility. Remember the position. And submission, remember that position. But with boldness, with even an increasing boldness, with even an increasing persistence, and even shamelessness. This almost seems contradictory.

But this is the manner in which Jesus is teaching his disciples to pray. Has anyone ever heard someone pray in an arrogant manner? There are certain things are self evident. You know what that means? I give you a physical example. Christie has an uncle who was a legitimate six foot eight. I met him one time. When he walked in the door, he filled up the whole opening. I mean he did not have to wave his hand and say, "Hey, I'm a rather large man." It was self evident. It was just obvious. You know, arrogance can be self evident.

I used to go to church with a man who had a particular position in the community, and oh, he did things in the life of the church. He called himself a lay minister, and oh, he was so arrogant. I mean, it was obvious when he left the room, everybody just had that look on their face. It was just obvious. Well, let me turn it around. Humility is self evident. If you have to tell someone you're humble, you're not. What is this position? It's a position of submission in humility. But then notice this progression in prayer and this perpetual prayer. Let me speak about this perpetual prayer for a minute. We're horrible at this.

We mention a prayer request and we forget it. I remember years ago when I first came to Christ, I've mentioned this before. I've mentioned this individual before. He's since passed away and gone to be with Jesus. Robert Bryant. Robert was a faithful member there at Highland Baptist Church. Robert had some difficulties. He had some difficulties. His mother experienced some complications during childbirth. So he just had some struggles. Oh, Robert loved the Lord. Oh, I'm telling you, he loved Jesus. Matter of fact, he always kept a shirt full of gospel tracks in his shirt pocket. I mean, he witnessed.

I remember he was the bag boy at Jitney jungle and he'd take people's groceries out and he'd witness. But I'm going to tell you in Sunday school, if you mentioned a prayer request, he would write that down. And six months later, he was still praying. He was still praying. He was perpetual. He kept on asking. He kept on seeking. He kept on knocking. But I don't know if you've ever been around people who pray in this progressive manner, but it can be intimidating. When you're with someone and they've learned to pray like this and they're coming to God boldly and they're asking, but yet seeking and they move from seeking to knocking.

Let me tell you something folks. If we don't learn how to pray in this progressive manner, I don't think we'll ever see some of our loved ones come to faith in Christ. What does he say? Ask, seek and knock. But then notice this promise here. He says, if we ask, what does it say? He might ask and it shall be given to you. Seek and he might. No seeking you will find. Knock and the door will be open. There is a promise here. And notice this is all about the manner in which we pray, not what we pray. It's how we pray. And then third, I want us to see this principle. This principle verse 11 and 12 and it goes over into verse 13 as well.

Let's look at those verses again. It's obvious there's a transition here. Now suppose one of you fathers is asked by his son for a fish. He will not give him a snake instead of a fish. Will he? It's a question. Or if he is asked for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion. Will he? And then there's a change. If you then being evil or sinful, know how to give good gifts to your children. I'm gonna pause there. Here in these two verses, we see Jesus as a storyteller again. Simply we see another parable maybe in the form of two questions. I think these are parables. This is a parable.

Now this parable is not a continuation of the previous parable, but it does have one common component, food. We see bread in verses five to six and here in verses 11 to 12, we see the use of fish, eggs, some translations use the word bread. This is food. We can see it. And again, these were ordinary things that they were familiar with. So this parable would have made sense to them, to the disciples, although some of it is rather bizarre. Now there are three observations that I want to make here. This will lead us to the principle that's being taught. All right. First of all, I want us to see the language changes.

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 this teaching, it's all about fathers and children. So we see a change in the language. And then second, these bizarre examples, the hypothetical example that Jesus is presenting here is absurd, two questions that are bizarre, that are crazy. And this would have gotten the attention of the disciples. It would have. Now we do not know if some of the disciples were married, but we do know that some were.

The scripture say that Peter was married. So it would be natural to assume that he had children. So they would have been, they would have easily seen this as bizarre. They would have picked up on these questions, this example, this parable is being strange. Why no parent would give their children a snake or a scorpion when they ask for fish or bread or an egg. This is bizarre. But then third, I want you to see something that's important. The style of argument. This is what we get over in the verse 13. In this hypothetical situation, there is this style of argument or reasoning that was very common for teachers in their day.

Often teachers would reason from the lesser to the greater to make a point. They would reason from the lesser to the greater to emphasize their point. And this argument starts with the lesser. It starts with sinful parents who would never give their children a snake when they need bread. Obviously even a sinful parent would provide for the needs of their children. And within this argument, we see two questions. Jesus says to his disciples, even though you are sinful parents, you will meet the needs of your children if they ask. So here we see the principle. Even sinful parents provide for the needs of their children.

And we will see that this principle really isn't meant to be applied to earthly parents but to God. So the principle is this. This is where we get into the greater, verse 13. If a sinful father lovingly meets the needs of his children, then how much more will God meet the needs of his people? See where it goes from the lesser to the greater? All emphasizing what Jesus is trying to teach the principle? See some of you need this more than you know because the principle illustrates and helps us see who God is. We relate to God properly if we know who God is properly.

I'll never forget years ago in my home church in a Bible study situation, there was a lady there that loved the Lord and she said for years she struggled in her relationship with the Lord. She grew up with a mean alcoholic abusive father. She described years of alcoholism, verbal abuse. She alluded to physical abuse and she said she grew up with the image and the reality of a harsh, sinful, mean, abusive father and she said then when she came to faith in Christ and she looked to God the father, she had a hard time understanding that God the father was not like her earthly father.

There are some people that think God the father is this man in a red suit. Get whatever you want. See we have to understand who God is. And in this principle what is he saying to the disciples? Look, you're sinful, you're evil but you will take care of your children. How much more will your heavenly father meet your needs will come to you and meet your needs when you have them. You see it's about the father and the kindness of the father and the goodness of the father and the love of the father for his people. You see the principle? Some of you need that maybe more than you know. And then number four I want us to see the promise.

It's in the rest of verse 13. I'll read it again. Remember he gives the lesser verses 11 and 12. Now the greater with verse 13. If you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly father? I like the fact that he doesn't just say God. How much more shall your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? Here in verse 13 we have what I see as the pinnacle of the entire teaching. We should see it like this. Jesus has been teaching his disciples the entire time since they ask him to teach them to pray. You see? He's been teaching them all along.

And what he has been teaching them all along has been very good. It's been very important. But all of this teaching is leading up to a crescendo up to this point. Now think with me here. I want us to see how verses 11 to 13 all fit together. We need to see that the promise in verse 13 is connected to the principle that we've just learned in verses 11 and 12. The parable in verses 11 and 12 illustrate the promise that we are about to see. The promise has this principle as its foundation. I'll come back to that here in a minute. So hold on to it. So leading up to the promise, I want us to see just a few details here. Three.

First, the comparison. Again, this is the argument moving from the lesser to the greater. Jesus says, if you, you're evil, you know how to give good gifts to your children. How much more shall your heavenly Father give to you? So we see a comparison. And notice what Jesus is highlighting here. He is highlighting the character of God. He is highlighting the heart of God. I've already covered some of this. The love of God. The kindness of God. The goodness of God. This is all about his character. And then notice the transition. Jesus transitions from talking about earthly fathers to God, the heavenly father.

But notice that he says your heavenly father, he speaks straight to his disciples and he speaks of their father who was in heaven. So we see this transition and notice what Jesus is highlighting here. He is highlighting their relationship to God. God the father is their father. If he were to use God, the word God, he would say he was their God. He's using personal pronouns here. And then notice third, the promise. The last part of verse 13. Here Jesus concludes his lesson or lessons, because it's a lot of them, on prayer by promising that their father in heaven will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him. He the Holy Spirit is the promise.

You see that? The promise is he. It's a person. It's God. It's the Holy Spirit. He is the promise. If you being evil, there's the lesser, know how to give good gifts to your children. How much more shall your heavenly father, this is the greater, give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him. 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 the Holy Spirit comes and he is the gift and he is the gift and he is the giver of the gift that is needed.

I'm going to say all that again and then I'm going to show you and illustrate you in scripture. Jesus is highlighting and saying something here. He is saying the Holy Spirit is the gift and what should be sought. The Holy Spirit is the gift and the gift giver. He the Holy Spirit meets the needs of the father's people. He the Holy Spirit, he is the gift and he is the gift giver and he is the gift and the gift giver that is needed. Let me show you what I mean. For those who need comfort, the Holy Spirit is the comforter. Acts 9, 31, you see? Christians who need comfort, the Holy Spirit is the comforter.

He is the gift and he is the giver of what? Comfort. For those who need power, he gives power. Acts 8, 31, we sang about power. Power with men and power with thee. When Christians need power, power in their life, he is the giver of power. The Holy Spirit is power and he comes and he gives power to God's people. For those who need help, he is the helper. Have any of you been so low? Have any of you been so discouraged that all you could do is say, "God, I just need help? God, I just need help?" Well, what does the Scripture say? For those who need help, he is the helper.

And so we can cry out and say, "I need the Holy Spirit and I need the gift of help." He is the gift and he is the giver. John 12 or John 14, 26. For those seeking truth. Truth. God's truth. The truth from God's word, the truth that we need in life. He is truth. He gives the Spirit of truth. And so he is the gift and he is the giver of that gift of truth. John 16, 13. For those seeking the fruit of the Spirit. Did you read that earlier? The manifestation of the work of the Spirit in the life. The presence of the Spirit in the life. Therefore, producing the fruit of the Spirit.

Fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control and notice he, the Holy Spirit, he gives and he produces these things in the life. And what we see is he is the gift and the giver of these things in the life. So if we're struggling in our Christian life, we could open up those verses and we could pray that the Spirit, that the Spirit would come and the Spirit would come and give those things and make those things really known in life. He the Holy Spirit is the source of every good thing in the believers life. Ephesians 3, 20. So that's just a broad and general prayer.

Lord, I need good things in my life. So bring the Holy Spirit into my life. He is the giver of good things. He is the gift and he is the gift giver. But I want to transition here, the lost. The lost can't pray for themselves. They're dead in their trespasses and sins. Now there are few occasions where lost people in the scriptures prayed and God heard their prayer. Now that's a mystery. Brother Keith will explain all that to you. But what about the lost? Their lost, their dead, their dying in their despair. See they can't pray for themselves, but we can. We can and we should pray for them. And what do they need? The Holy Spirit.

See the Holy Spirit does what? Jared read this earlier. He convicts sinners making them aware of their sin. You see in John 16, 8 we see that reality. So we can pray that the Spirit would come and do what? Convict sinners of their sin. Did you know that's a judicial term? The Spirit convicts and prosecutes the sinner in their sin. Listen, the lost sinner, the lost sinner can only enter the kingdom of God if what? If they are born again and see the lost sinner must be born again by the power and the work of the Spirit. John 3 verses 5 to 8. So we can pray for that lost sinner and pray that the Spirit would come.

He is the gift and the giver of the gift and giving the gift of the new birth. The lost sinner comes to understand and have a knowledge of God. Did you know lost sinners have to be brought to a place where they have this awareness and this knowledge of God? And see it's the Holy Spirit that does that according to 1 Corinthians 2, 11 and 12. And so when someone is lost and they're living their life going the other way from God, we can pray that the Holy Spirit would come and make them aware to have a knowledge of who God is.

And it is through a work of the Holy Spirit that the lost is baptized with the Spirit and they are placed in the body of Christ, placed into the church, 1 Corinthians 3, 17. And so we see that it's the Spirit that bursts someone into the kingdom, bursts them into the body of Christ and they must have the work of the Spirit. He is the gift and the giver of the work. I've said this before when I came to faith in Christ, I went to church the next day and I found all the people I loved. I didn't even know them. What had happened? I had been baptized into a new body and it was done by the Spirit.

And for us who are engaging the lost, the Holy Spirit empowers us to evangelize Acts 1 and 8, does anybody need power to share the gospel with a lost brother, with a lost mother, with a lost neighbor? Does anybody need power? Acts 1 and 8 says that the Holy Spirit empowers. We might need the gift and the giver, the gift, the Spirit in our life to give the gift of power in our life so that we can engage the lost. So in all of our needs, and this is just a few folks, in all of our needs we pray that the Holy Spirit would come and work. We pray that the Holy Spirit would come and give the gift of whatever we need according to Scripture.

But I hate to hurt your feelings. There's nothing in here about a new car in the list. So here we see that the promise is the giving of the Holy Spirit to them who ask and those who have need. I repeat as those who see their need. And if they were in need of salvation in someone's life, well the work in the ministry of the Holy Spirit is promised. They were in need of comfort and encouragement, the work of the Holy Spirit is promised. They need, they had, and they could have would be met through what? The working and the presence of the Holy Spirit of the life in the circumstance, you see?

But I want us to go back to something that I shared earlier. We need to see that the promise of the Spirit, you see in verse 13, it is connected with the principle and it is built on the principle. What's the principle? You're evil. You're sinful. And if you give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Heavenly Father give the gift of the person and the work of the Holy Spirit to those who ask? You see how the promise is built on the principle? It's the foundation. Now let me make a couple of comments about application and we'll move to the conclusion. For some of you, this scares you. You know why?

It's because the Pentecostals and the Charismatics have made you afraid of the Holy Spirit. Years ago when I first started seminary training, I remember we had a teacher and I never forget he stood up and I don't remember the class, but he stood up and he said, "Boys," he called all the men in the class, "Boys, the Charismatics and the Pentecostals have made us afraid of the Holy Spirit." And what I want you to see is this. The Holy Spirit is God. The Holy Spirit is not a thing. The Holy Spirit is not an influence. The Holy Spirit is not an opinion. The Holy Spirit is not a feeling. The Holy Spirit is deity, God.

That's why many times in your English translation it'll be capitalized Spirit, Spirit as in Holy Spirit, Spirit as in God. And look, we need God. Now let me show you how I want to close this. Let me give you some direction. I'm going to speak straight to you. Some of you need to put down a list. Some of you may need to make your list of lost people. And some of you need to make a list of brothers and sisters in our church. This is what I encourage you to do. Look around, not now. Look around in the life of our church. Our church is small enough you can look around in your mind. Make you a list of three or four brothers and sisters.

Write their names down. If they have a wife, write the wife down. Write down some brothers and sisters. Pray over them. Because let me tell you something. Everybody in this church needs bread. Write down a list of lost people. And look, we come and meet in small groups. We get closer in small groups. We're going to come together in some prayer meetings and we're going to need to get closer. This is where we have to become vulnerable. We have to be honest. And maybe in our prayer times you open your list. You say, "I got these lost people here. They need bread." Would you help me pray? Maybe you get vulnerable.

Say, "You know, I'm walking with God. I just got this struggle, this trial. I need bread. Would you pray for me?" Maybe as we get closer in this thing called the Christian life, we have to begin to share our prayer needs, the loss we're wrestling with, our struggles, our concerns. So what I want you to do is make your list of the lost. And I want you to make a list of folks in the life of this church. And you might not know what to pray for, but you can pray for them. You can intercede for them. Now, some of you know needs of folks in this room right now. They need bread and you need to be praying for bread. And you know what?

If you obey what we have here, you'll be persistent. You'll have the right position. Ask, seek and knock. You'll start finding that you have boldness, have brokenness. You keep being persistent, being perpetual, building up in your progression as the Spirit leads you. You'll find yourself hanging on to some of these prayer needs for weeks, months, and even years. And you'll find yourself sometimes in the floor when no one's there and you're banging on the door of heaven. God, we got to have bread. So what are we looking at tonight? What have I shared with you? What have I tried to bring to you? Teach us to pray.

And that's what we want the Lord to do, to teach us to pray.