This Is Us - Week 3 1

This Is Us - Week 3 1 Persistent Prayer - Luke 11:1-13 We are continuing our series called This Is Us, which is all about who we are as a church family and the values that define us. This week we are talking about prayer. If you are a Christian if you follow Jesus then prayer should be a regular part of your life. And I realize that by saying that some of you might immediately feel guilty because you know that it s anything but regular. Some of you immediately are encouraged because for you your prayer life is this life giving source where God empowers you each and every time you connect with Him through prayer. Many of you might be frustrated because your prayers go unanswered and God is silent in fact He is so silent that you often dose off in your prayer time. Author David Fitch, recently wrote a book called, 7 Practices For The Church On Mission and he shares how the prayers of a church vanquished Satan's grip on a neighborhood: In 2010 a group of eight people from two churches felt called to the Detroit Boulevard neighborhood of Sacramento. It was known as one of the most notorious crime-ridden neighborhoods in all of Sacramento. Each house in that neighborhood was a place of danger. Nonetheless this group of eight decided to walk through the neighborhood praying over each home and praying for the presence of Christ to reign over violence, addiction, and satanic oppression. They began walking through the neighborhood, praying over each home and rebuking the demonic strongholds of addiction and violence. One of the eight, former Sacramento police officer and gang detective Michael Xiong, reported that "each time we prayed over the houses, we felt the weight of oppression becoming lighter." A woman from one of the houses confronted them. When she discovered they were praying for the community, she asked for healing, and God healed her. The group soon physically moved into the neighborhood and started what they called Detroit Life Church. A couple years later a local newspaper, the Sacramento Bee, reported that there were no homicides, robberies, or sex crimes, and only one assault in Detroit Boulevard between 2013 and 2014. Detroit Boulevard had been transformed by a small group of people who began their ministry in the neighborhood by praying around houses, streets, and parks for the power of Satan to be vanquished. Kingdom prayer in body is what it means to be faithfully present to his presence in the world. You might hear that story and think that s great what am I doing wrong because that s not my experience I praise God, lift him up, I thank him for so many things, I surrender to him, I confess to him and yet when I pray for circumstances and stuff nothing happens what gives? Maybe you have given up on prayer or the church, or even abandoned God because nothing ever happens in your prayer life. Throughout Jesus ministry he had a lot to say about prayer. One of the places where we find him teaching on prayer is Luke 11. So if you have your Bibles or your Bible apps turn to Luke 11. In this passage Jesus has some very specific points about prayer. In this passage specifically he talks directly to our frustrations with prayer it s like he knows how prayer can be frustrating many times he is going to speak to our frustration today. This week I spent some time at the North American Christian Convention. It s a place where our tribe, the Independent Christian Church gathers every year, for community, encouragement and the sharpening of skills. It is filled with pastors and lay leaders and volunteers by the way if you volunteered there this week thank you so much it was great running into a handful of GCC folk this week. There was one speaker that really packed a punch, his name was James Okalo. He is from Uganda he is a pastor and also oversee the Ugandan staff of Children of the

This Is Us - Week 3 2 Nations, which is an organization that helps traumatized and orphaned children who are living in displacement camps. As he spoke in his think accent, he said the American church is doing many great things in fact we would not have the ministry in Uganda if it were not for the support and encouragement of the American church then he added a but. But I am worried for the American church. Because I fear that you plan your way around the Holy Spirit. You plan your services, schedule your transitions, making sure that you plan moments for people to connect with God. And my fear is that you do that to the exclusion of the Holy Spirit. All our planning can t change people we wish it could don t we? But then he said and this is what has stuck with me The presence of the Lord is the game changer. It s really obvious isn t it? I mean throughout the Bible when God shows up things happen that don t usually happen. Storms are created, storms are quieted, entire armies are thwarted, peoples lives are changed, people are healed, people are forgiven, people are accepted, people are freed from all sorts of ailments, people are freed from all sorts of oppressions, people are called to leadership, people are called to do things that they thought were never possible, and people are even brought back to life from the dead. The presence of the Lord is the game changer. Dare I say that maybe we don t experience God in our prayer life because we are doing it wrong. We are planning God out of our prayer time. So in Luke 11:1 the disciples come to Jesus and ask, Jesus teach us to pray. This is interesting because Jesus could have said, well, just talk to God and your good to go he didn t, so it s like he knows that there is a wrong way to pray and a right way to pray. Then he says look at verses 2-4. That s what we call the Lord s prayer right but you might be saying that s not the way I remember it, there are some lines missing. Isn t it your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven? First of all you are right, there are some lines missing from Matthew s version of the Lords prayer. Some people would say, see there are discrepancies in what Jesus said, Matthew says one thing, Luke says another, therefor the Bible cannot be trusted. Before you jump to that conclusion let me explain when Jesus teaches about prayer in Matthew, it is right in the middle of the sermon on the mount. He is preaching a sermon to thousands of people some are is disciples and some are not. In Luke, notice verse 1, Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, Lord teach us to pray That is a completely different context and if you are a teacher have you ever taught the same material but it different contexts. You might be in a classroom in one setting and the next you might be in a small group or one on one. You adapt your content based on your context. That is what Jesus is doing here we see similar content and most importantly the content doesn t contract each other. Jesus is basically saying the same thing in both contexts. The Bible can be trusted! If the presence of the Lord is the game changer; and when we pray we are talking to the Lord it can be frustrating because we can feel like God is anything but present. Starting in verse 5 Jesus starts talking about the frustrating things of prayer. Jesus is like, I know this is frustrating! But let me give you some tips for a great prayer life. The first thing is that, persistent prayer grabs God s attention. Read verses 5-8. So Jesus tells this story about a friend who comes knocking at your door around midnight. The thing is you already have your onesie on and you are already in bed, your teeth are brushed, your face is washed, you are snuggled are warm in your bed and you hear this (Knock, knock, knock,). Hey John, do you have any food, man I have a friend over and I got nothing, so I wanted to know if I could borrow some stuff to make a sandwich. What would you do? I already have

This Is Us - Week 3 3 my onesie on, I don t want to get up so I would probably lay real still and not make a sound and hope that after a few minutes the knocking and yelling stops. When Anisha and I were living in Boston we lived in an apartment building and we had an intercom system where someone at the front door would ring into your apartment and you would answer and find out who it is and then push a button to unlock the main door to the complex. One night at about 2 am the buzzer starts ringing Anisha and I are deep asleep and then it keeps ringing probably 30 mins I don t know why we let it go on that long, but it might be because Anisha was watching too many crime shows and had a CSI plot line running through her head. Eventually I answer and a guy responds, Uhhh is Nikki there? I immediately said you got the wrong apartment. He didn t respond and quickly left. Now Anisha and I knew Nikki, she was a waitress at a sports bar next to Fenway Park. We lived in Apr B, Nikki lived in Apt D. I am guessing this guy met Nikki at the bar and she gave him her address and either gave him the wrong apartment or he simply heard wrong. Whatever the case was he was not going to quit ringing the bell until someone answered I like to think that I blocked a booty call from happening that night. That guy was persistent our friend in Jesus story is persistent Jesus says you even respond, I can t get up the kids are in bed, you are going to wake everybody up not tonight, just go home. But this friend keeps at it, until we have to respond or else get no sleep. In verse 8 Jesus says because of his impudence you could also translate that persistence. Jesus is saying that persistent prayer grabs God s attention, God will eventually answer. Jesus says, just like a good friend would answer so will God. Maybe we don t have an answer yet because we haven t been persistent in our prayer. We haven t been persistent in praying for this decision that we need guidance on, we haven t been persistent in praying for our marriage, we haven t been persistent in praying for our child, we haven t been persistent in praying for our friend. When I read this I thought, now this makes God seem like he begrudgingly answers our prayers. But then I thought about my kids. Sometimes I will be doing something and one of my girls will come up and say, Hey dad, would you play this game with me. Sometimes I will respond, No not right now. Then they will ask again, Come on dad, please! I might respond, I just got home, not right now. They will say, We have really been looking forward to playing with you, will you play with us. Ok, let s play. Did I respond begrudgingly? No I responded out of love. Maybe that is just a glimpse of how God the Father views us when we are persistent in our prayers. There is something else about persistent prayer it honors God. God is not annoyed when you keep coming back to him. When you keep asking him, pleading with him, praying for something to happen he s not annoyed by that he is honored by that. When we come to God and bring Him a circumstance, a relationship, a need what are we doing? Many times we are saying, God this is beyond my control, this is out of my hands, this is too much for me, I am powerless here. In our persistent prayer we are surrendering to Him. All along God wants relationship with us. When Adam and Eve sinned, Genesis says that they felt shame and hid when they heard the sound of God walking in the garden. They knew what the sound of God walking in the garden sounded like because they had heard it before. He regularly walked with them in the garden. God was all about relationship with his creation from

This Is Us - Week 3 4 the beginning. Sin ruined that relationship and yet Jesus came on a rescue mission to restore the relationship. God wants connection with us he is honored by our persistent prayer. Look at Luke 11:9-13. Jesus uses three verbs in this verse; ask, seek, knock. As far as Jesus is concerned there is nothing different between asking, seeking and knocking he is just emphasizing the point of being persistent in your prayer life. Ask, seek, knock keep going to the Father, asking, seeking and knocking, don t quit take all your problems and concerns to Him. Keep surrendering to Him, asking, seeking and knocking. A little English lesson here, who is the subject? Anyone know? that s right everyone. Not some who ask, not a few who seek, not a couple of those who knock but everyone! Jesus says let me teach you how to pray you pray, surrender to God and keep at it God will respond. Jesus goes on and says you all know how to give good gifts to your children and your evil. Basically Jesus is comparing us who are imperfect to God who is perfect if we who are imperfect can answer and give to our children then who much more will God who is perfect and good. Now as I say that maybe you are sitting there and saying look I prayed for a situation or relationship and I heard nothing from God. Notice what Jesus is saying and what Jesus is not saying. Jesus is saying that God will answer your prayer. Jesus is not saying that God will answer your prayer exactly how you want Him to answer. Jesus is saying that God will answer your prayer. Jesus is not saying that God will answer at the exact moment you want Him to answer. God is honored by our persistent prayer. There are countless stories of people praying for family members who need Jesus, for years and years and even decades and through a circumstance or event, they surrender to Jesus, some of those stories are right here in this room! God is honored by your persistent prayer, we just have to hang on and keep bringing back to him again and again. There are stories like that of my family when my grandfather was diagnosed with cancer, we prayed and prayed and at one point the doctor said after a scan I don t know what has happened the cancer is not there anymore. Our family was so relieved. But then a few months later he went back in to find that cancer had spread everywhere and a few months later he was gone. We prayed and prayed and prayed for healing asking, seeking, knocking. And yet I can say, God did heal him just not in the way that I any of us had hoped. He went to heaven, because he loved and surrendered his life to Jesus. This leads me to the last point, persistent prayer changes us. Notice what Jesus says at the end of verse 13 He says that our heavenly Father will give us the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the one who is responsible for transforming our heart. There have been many times when I have been praying for someone maybe there was some tension there, an argument, a disagreement. And I begin to pray, God will you take this person out! But as I continue to pray for this person days and weeks go by and I start to see places where I was at fault where I wronged them. I start to see how I caused some of the hurt. That is part of the discipline that the Holy Sprit uses in our lives to change us. A man praying for his marriage and she is not coming back, she is not responding. And as he is praying God says, I have some work to do in you first, before any restoration of your marriage takes place. Will you give me your heart to work?

This Is Us - Week 3 5 There are also times when you are praying for something and you are asking, seeking, knocking not giving up and as you are praying, you realize that this is not at all what God wants what Gods wants is over here so you being praying for this over here, where God is already moving. Persistent prayer changes us. When you pray persistently, God will do something. Sometimes he will do the very thing you are asking for, sometimes he will do something entirely different in you, and every time you will walk away saying God you are so good. Every Tuesday we meet here at the church to pray at 5:30 we pray persistent prayers for our leaders and our church, join us. So the question is, what am I persistent about in my prayers? What do I need to be persistent about? Or is your prayer life, something like, Hey God, this food looks delicious, please help me on this test I have today I ll talk to you later. You see when we are persistent in our prayers we are saying, God you are the only one who can do this I am depending on you, because if you don t show up here then this isn t going to happen. This relationship won t last if you don t do something. This diagnosis will literally be the end of me if you don t step in. If you don t provide then things are going to fall apart. I am surrendering to you, I am depending on you that s why I continue to ask, seek and knock. God says, I like that, I am honored by that I can work with that. Keep asking, even though there isn t an answer. Keep seeking, even through you don t feel like your close to finding anything. Keep knocking, even when the door is locked and won t open. God loves his children and will answer everyone who persistently asks, seeks and knocks. Prayer moment (Bow your head and close your eyes) What do you need to persistently pray about? Maybe you have a friend with some health issues. Maybe you have the health issues. Maybe your home life is in shambles you marriage, your relationship with parents or children. Maybe it s job related stressed out, frustrated, feel undervalued. Maybe your asking about God s purpose for your life. Maybe your hear at the end of your rope and you need hope for tomorrow.