“HAVE YOU ASKED HIM?”
LUKE 11:5-13

I. Introduction
Have you asked God for anything lately? Has He answered you? Do you believe He will? Or are you afraid He won’t? Let me say right at the outset, “He will answer you!” Of course, His answer will come in His time, not in yours. And when it comes, it will be according to His will, not yours.

How will God answer your prayer? He may say, “Yes!” He may say, “Yes, but not now.” He may say, “Yes, but I will give you what you need, not what you want.” Or He may well say, “No!” But the fact is that God both hears and answers our prayers!
Psalm 10:17
17 “O LORD, You have heard the desire of the humble; You will strengthen their heart, You will incline Your ear…”
Proverbs 15:29
29 The LORD is far from the wicked, but He hears the prayer of the righteous.
Isaiah 58:9a
9a “Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry (out), and He will say, ‘Here I am.’”

We also know that God takes pleasure and delights in answering our prayers.
Proverbs 15:8
8 The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD, but the prayer of the upright is His delight.

Why does God delight in our prayers? He delights in them because He can answer them. Listen to John Piper:
“God delights most deeply not in making demands but in meeting needs. Prayer is His delight because prayer shows the reaches of our poverty and the riches of His grace. Prayer is that wonderful transaction where the wealth of God’s glory is magnified and the want of our soul is satisfied. Therefore God delights in the prayers of the upright.”

So God answers our prayers and in doing so He demonstrates His sovereignty and dis-plays His omnipotence. But do we only believe in God’s control and power when He answers our prayers in the affirmative, or when things work out as we think they should? What about those times when God says, “Not now”? Or what about those times when God says, “Yes, but I will give you what you need, not what you want”? And what about those times when He says, “No”?

Do those answers make Him any less sovereign or omnipotent then than when He says, “Yes”? Of course they don’t!
If anything, those answers should remind us that God is not our own personal celestial vending machine! But the fact is that we always want our prayers answered in the affirmative, don’t we? We want what we want when we want it. And in our selfishness and self-centeredness we often forget that God’s answers to our prayers have everything to do with His will and nothing to do with ours…UNLESS our will is aligned with His.

THEN we will get what we want because it will be what He wants. THEN our prayers will be answered with a “Yes!” And God will glorify Himself in them. And isn’t this precisely what Jesus taught?
*John 14:13-14
13 “And whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
14 “If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.”

*John 15:7-8, 16
7 “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you.
8 “By this is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.”

16 “You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask of the Father in My name, He may give to you.”

*John 16:23b
23b “Truly, truly, I say to you, if you shall ask the Father for anything, He will give it to you in My name.”

What are the conditions Jesus lays out for God’s giving you what you ask for? First, you must be a Christian. None of these verses apply to unbelievers. Second, you must ask in Jesus’ name. Asking in Jesus’ name is not some sort of a magic formula. Rather, it is acknowledging who Jesus is and asking Him to accomplish His will in your life. It is asking God to fulfill His purpose and His plan. Both John 14:13 and 15:8, 16 tell us what the results of such prayers will be. You will bear fruit and God will be glorified.

Real, powerful, God-honoring prayer is a means of God getting His will done on this earth. It is not a means of us getting our will done in heaven. (repeat) This may well be one of the greatest lessons that we as Christians will ever learn in this life here on earth. But do we truly believe this? Listen to John in his first letter to the churches.
1 John 5:14-15
14 And this is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask any-thing according to His will, He hears us.
15 And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.
One of the ways we can see these things worked out in our lives is the subject of this morning’s passage in Luke’s gospel.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

II. Review
Luke 11:1-4 gave us Jesus’ pattern for God-honoring prayer in what we most often call “The Lord’s Prayer.” When broken down into its basic elements it teaches us the five aspects of prayer that both please and honor God.
1. We recognize who and what God is – “Father, You are holy.”

2. We humble ourselves before Him – “I submit myself to You and to Your will.”

3. We seek His provision – “Please give me everything I need.”

4. We ask His forgiveness – “Forgive me to the same degree that I forgive others.”

5. We pray for spiritual protection – “Keep me from falling into sin.”

It is with those five things in mind that we are to approach God in prayer. Why should we expect Him to honor our prayers if we refuse to come to Him on His terms or think we have a better idea? Doing things His way is the key to powerful prayer. If your prayers lack power, it may be that you’re trying to enter into His presence on your terms.

Or could it be that you are asking God for His blessing but you don’t really believe He will give it? Again I ask you, isn’t that precisely what Jesus taught? If your prayers align with God’s will, you shall receive what you ask for.
*Mark 11:22-24
22 And Jesus answered saying to them, “Have faith in God.
23 “Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it shall be granted him.
24 “Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they shall be granted you.”

Does Jesus mean what He says or doesn’t He? Your prayers and mine, when they are aligned with God’s will, will be answered in the affirmative. That is what Jesus is saying and that is what He means. There is no equivocating here. Your requests may not be granted today. They may not be granted in your lifetime here on earth. They may be granted in some fashion other than you expect. But God’s promise is God’s promise. He cannot lie. Listen, God does not honor doubt. God honors faith.
Hebrews 11:6
6 And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for He who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.

So ask yourself: Are your requests bouncing off the ceiling because God doesn’t hear and answer, or because of your own lack of faith? Here is a story about Christians who pray but don’t really believe God will give them what they ask for.
Many years ago there was a small town in Oklahoma that had two churches and one dis-tillery. The church members complained that the distillery was giving their little town a bad name. It didn’t help that the owner of the distillery was a rather obnoxious and out-spoken atheist.

So the two churches got together for a Saturday night prayer meeting. They prayed that God would intervene and take care of their problem. As they gathered together, a violent thunderstorm hit the town. During their prayer time the distillery was struck by a bolt of lightning. It caught fire and burned to the ground. The next morning the pastors of both churches spoke on the power of prayer. (What else?)

The distillery owner’s insurance agent was a member of one of the two churches. He promptly notified the man that the insurance company wouldn’t pay for the damages because the fire wasn’t an accident; it was “an act of God,” something the distiller’s policy clearly excluded.

Needless to say, the distillery owner was furious. He sued both churches, claiming that they had conspired with God to destroy his business. The lawyer for the churches said that the Christians had nothing whatsoever to do with the fire.

When the case came to trial the presiding judge opened the proceedings with these words: “I find it quite perplexing that we have the plaintiff, an avowed atheist, who is professing his belief in the power of prayer, while we have the defendants, all church members, who are denying the very same power.”

Are we like that? Or are we like this: We ask God for something and we don’t get an immediate response. So we just assume that no answer will come and we stop asking. I am ashamed to admit to you that I’ve done that more than once in my life. But when we do that, we need to ask ourselves a few questions.

First, are we in God’s will? And second, if we are, where is our faith in His promises? Didn’t Jesus say, “Have faith in God (Mark 11:22).”? And didn’t He say, “…all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they shall be granted you (Mark 11:24).”?
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

III. Text
And so we come to this morning’s text in Luke. It is basically one story that Jesus tells us in two consecutive parables. They teach two overarching truths. The first is that God wants us to persist in prayer. The second is that He loves us beyond more than we know and wants to give us all good things.
*Luke 11:5-13 (Please stand with me in honor of reading God’s Word.)
5 And (Jesus) said to (His 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;
6 for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’;
7 and from inside he shall answer and say, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been shut and my children and I are in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’
8 “I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs.
9 “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.
10 “For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it shall be opened.
11 “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?
12 “Or if he is asked for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion, will he?
13 “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?”

In vv. 1-4 Jesus has just taught His disciples how to pray in what we typically call “The Lord’s Prayer.” Jesus has taught us a pattern for prayer. It reminds us that we are totally dependent upon God for all of our needs, and in that dependence it teaches how to estab-lish and maintain legitimate communication with God. Now in vv. 5-13 Jesus applies the lesson by way of two parables.
*Luke 11:5-6
5 And (Jesus) said to (His 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;
6 for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him…’

Imagine this scene with me. It is midnight. Suddenly a friend appears at your door. He is coming to you from a long journey and he is both hungry and tired. He needs your hospitality in the form of food and lodging. You can provide the lodging but you have no food. To quote the old nursery rhyme, “your cupboard is bare.” What can you do?

You turn to one of your own neighbors. You go to him, but now it is extremely late and he and his family are asleep. But you awaken him and ask him for food for your friend.
Under normal circumstances your neighbor might be willing give you food. But these aren’t normal circumstances. It’s the middle of the night.

Most Bible scholars describe the neighbor’s house as follows: It would likely be one room with a raised platform on which the entire family would sleep.
The animals would be brought in at night to sleep below the platform. So in order to fulfill the man’s request the neighbor would have to get up, descend from the platform, work his way through the animals and unbolt the door. All of this would result in his disturbing his whole household. How does the neighbor respond?
*Luke 11:7-8
7 and from inside he shall answer and say, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been shut and my children and I are in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’
8 “I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs.”

But the man who has a friend to care for is not so easily dissuaded. He refuses to go away. Instead, he persists. The lesson is clear, isn’t it? We need to be persistent in our prayers. We should never be discouraged when God’s response is not immediate. Since we know that “Yes, but wait,” or “Yes, but I have something else in mind,” are legitimate answers to prayer, we should be willing to continue praying until God acts.

Have you been praying for someone’s soul for years but they are not yet saved? What gives you the right to assume that God will not save them in His time? Why would you stop praying for them? Do you know something that God doesn’t? Do you understand that each time you bring that person before God in prayer you are exercising your faith that He will answer you? Do you understand that such faith pleases God? Sure you do!
Hebrews 11:6
6 And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for He who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.

But now go back to the first man in the parable. In Luke 11:8 Jesus says that even though the neighbor doesn’t want to get up, he’ll finally do so because of his friend’s persistence. He’s being pressed and sooner or later he’ll respond, albeit reluctantly.

But the neighbor’s motive is not the primary issue here. Jesus says that one way or another the neighbor will get up and meet the need. The “good deed” will be done. Of course, it’s helpful for us to remember that God sees the heart and will determine the reward. But again, the neighbor’s reward (or lack of reward) is not the issue here.

What is the point? Persistence pays off! Virtually all of us would eventually respond to the man who needs the food…especially when the guy won’t stop knocking on our door.
We may throw the food out the window and tell him to be quiet, go away, and leave us alone, but at least the man’s friend would be fed.

Jeff opened this morning’s service by reading from Luke 18 where a poor widow was seeking legal protection from a judge. That situation and the one here in Luke 11 have something in common.
Both the man here and the widow in Luke 18 eventually received what they sought because of their unwillingness to give up. They both had their needs met, but only after they had persisted. That’s the lesson.

The widow received help from a judge whose motives were selfish and self-centered. The man in today’s passage had a neighbor whose motives were questionable at best. But God’s motives are not questionable. And they’re never selfish or self-centered.

On the contrary, God responds to the needs of His children out of an abiding love. He doesn’t say, “Here, take this. Now stop pestering Me. Be quiet, go away, and leave me alone.” Rather, He says…
*Luke 11:9-10
9 “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.
10 “For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it shall be opened.”

In v. 9 Jesus is teaching us that if we believe God, if we have true faith in Him, then we are to be bold in our requests and petitions. In fact, in Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus he says that very thing. In Christ, “…we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him (Ephesians 3:12).” The writer of Hebrews is even more specific.
Hebrews 4:15-16
15 For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weak-nesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.
16 Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help in the time of need.

(back to Luke 11:9) So Jesus tells us to be bold and confident. When He says “ask, seek, and knock,” He is using strong words. Here is what they do not mean: “Ask” is not a meek little request without any real expectation that there’ll even be a response. “Seek” is not a cursory glance on your table for a misplaced pencil. “Knock” is not some light gentle tapping that goes unanswered because it may not be heard.

“Ask” is “aitĕō.” (ahee-teh´-o) It means “to beg.” Jesus is saying that we are to be bold and earnest in our requests. We’re not just to ask, we’re to appeal to God expecting Him to answer us. Doesn’t that kind of plea reflect faith?

“Seek” is “zĕtĕō.” (dzay-teh´-o) It means “to endeavor.” The idea is to search for some-thing, to look hard for it. The idea is that it’s something you want so intently that you’re willing to strive for it.

“Knock” is “krŏuō.” (kroo´-o) It means (ready for this?) “to knock.” But as with the other two words, it implies a strong action. Again, it’s not a light tapping, it’s a loud and per-sistent rapping. The point is that you are to make some “noise” about your request.
Do you see how all of this connects to one of the best known passages in the entire NT?
Philippians 4:6-7
6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. (“Ask, seek, knock!”)
7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

In Luke 11:9-10 Jesus is telling us to ask in faith, persevere with conviction, to knock on “God’s door” repeatedly. Will God be offended by such bold behavior? No! If you ask, you will receive. If you seek, you will find. And if you knock, the door will be opened. Remember, you’re not dealing with an unjust judge or a fickle neighbor, are you?
*Luke 11:11-13
11 “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?
12 “Or if he is asked for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion, will he?
13 “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?”

This second parable is a reminder of how God deals with His children. “Being evil” in v. 13 doesn’t mean that we’re as bad as we can be. It speaks to our fallen condition, our sin nature. Jesus’ point is that even sinful men are capable of giving their children good things. The rest of the verse is a rhetorical question that leads to an obvious answer.

If you approach God on His terms, with a right heart, and sincerely want to see His will accomplished in your life and the lives of your loved ones, He will give you what you request. When, how, and under what circumstances He chooses to do so are all up to Him. Do you believe that? Do you trust Him?
1 John 5:14-15
14 And this is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask any-thing according to His will, He hears us.
15 And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

IV. Conclusion
The question for us is why doesn’t this always happen? Does it seem that God has ignored you? First, have you asked Him? Yes? Second, have you asked Him on His terms? Third, have you asked Him for what He wants or for what you want? Fourth, are you living just a bit too close to this world? Jesus’ own half-brother James puts this last question to us and he pulls no punches. For one thing he tells us that we are “…to keep ourselves unstained by the world (James 1:27b).”

But three chapters later he takes it a step further.
James 4:3-4
3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.
4 You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

The hard truth is this: When we put the things of the world or our personal comforts ahead of God in our life He is no longer Lord, and we are at enmity with Him. When we pray for something, we need to be sure that we’re not asking God for something that goes against His revealed will. And we need to be walking with the Lord and seeking to do the things pleasing in his sight. Then, and only then, do we have His promise that he is more than willing to answer our requests.

Let me close with one of the great promises of the OT.
*Psalm 37:3-5
3 Trust in the LORD, and do good; dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.
4 Delight yourself in the LORD; and He will give you the desires of your heart.
5 Commit your way to the LORD, trust also in Him, and He will do it.

~ Pray ~