The Audacity Of Prayer / Luke 11:5-10 NIV

2 Prerequisites We Must Understand About Prayer

#1. Prayer is not based on a ___________ relationship, but on a _____________ relationship

“Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread.’”Luke 11:5 NIV

We’re not talking here about finding Aladdin’s Lamp and rubbing it to get 3 wishes. In prayer you may not command whatever you wish and God must perform for you!

“I don’t call you servants any longer… Instead I call you friends.” John 15:15 GNT

We can do things and act in ways with a friend we never would with someone not a friend.

So here is the starting gate to prayer: Are you a friend of Jesus? When he said, “I don’t call you servants, I call you friends,” he wasn’t speaking to the entire world at large. He was talking to his disciples, to men and women who had made the commitment to be & to live as Christ followers.

#2. Prayer is framed within the __________ & _______ of God.

“‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’” Luke 11:5b-6 NIV

We may never ask for something the Bible commands against. That would be asking God to work against His own Word. God will never act against Himself. Notice how Jesus even frames the parable by asking for a loan rather than demanding a gift. Jesus is Lord as well as our friend. Our prayers must be consistent with His teachings.

“If you remain in me and follow my teachings, you can ask anything you want, and it will be given to you.” John 15:7 NCV

Those who follow Christ want - more than anything - to remain in Him and to follow his teachings! True Christ followers, therefore, may ask for anything because even their asking will fall within God’s will. Jesus even modeled this Himself in His own Gethsemane prayer.

“Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” Luke 22:42 NLT

4 Amazing Truths About Prayer

#1. My prayers before Almighty God should be _____________.

“Yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.” Luke 11:8b NIV

“Shameless audacity.” This is a hapax legomenon, used only once. It is the basis for everything that we will learn this morning about prayer. Prayer should be audacious. You are entering into the throne room of God. You have no right to ask or demand anything. Yet, because of God’s great love for you, you may be audacious.

ἀναίδεια[anaídeia] (even sounds “naughty”) - shamelessness (DBY), impudence (ESV), persistence (NLT), hutzpah (CJB)

Anaideia was not a word often used. We DO discover a Greek goddess / spirit named Anaideia. She personified ruthlessness, shamelessness, even unforgiveness. She hung out with Hybris, the goddess of insolence and outrageous behavior. Not a word you would expect with “prayer!”

Word appears in 1st century Greek writings most frequently in the accusations of lawyers about the “shamelessness” of their opponents and in the descriptions of heretics and actions of Pilate!

When you pray, we should be in Awe of God. But because of His love for you, you can also be shameless, audacious in your prayers! You should not be encumbered by rules or language or properness or right prayers. No such thing as “It’s just not done” when it comes to your prayer life!

#2 My audacious prayers more than ______. They’re also _______.

“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” Luke 11:9 NIV

Jesus is saying 3 different things. One of the 3 involves talking. Two involve action, work! 1/3 talk. 2/3 work! Ask God. Then seek God’s solution - go looking for it. Knock on doors until you find it!

Is it possible we don’t have the answer to our prayers because we stopped at the ASK?! “Ask and it will be given to you; Seek and you will find.” Is there a difference between “given to you” and “will find”? Could you possess something but not know where it is? Absolutely.

Maybe you’ve received your answer and have even found it, but it still will require some work on your part. Some knocking on doors. Maybe you’ve knocked on one or two, but the doors haven’t opened for you. Don’t quit!

#3. My audacious prayers bring me into an _________ with God

God could - with simply a word - command everything He wants accomplished. He chooses to work through Christ followers to redeem creation. He chooses to A.C.T. - Answer, Comfort, Transform through your A.S.K. - Asking, Seeking, Knocking!

This changes everything about our prayer lives. We typically think of prayer as asking God for something that we want that only benefits us or is selfish or self serving. But when we think of the A.S.K. Asking Seeking Knocking kind of prayer life, then it becomes a living prayer, literally a way of life, where we continuously seek out God’s will and desire to be His agents of change within an evil, stubborn, shameless world. So we respond with good, stubborn, shameless, audacious prayers for God’s will to be accomplished and for us to have a chance to partner with Him.

#4. Audacious prayers that get results are the ones that __________.

“For everyone who keeps on asking [persistently], receives; and he who keeps on seeking [persistently], finds; and to him who keeps on knocking [persistently], the door will be opened.” Luke 11:10 AMP

In verse 10 the verbs are participles, verbs with the “-ing” endings. There is a continuousness about these verbs. So then this verse is about the one who is asking and keeps on asking, the one who is seeking and keeps on seeking, and the one who is knocking and keeps on knocking! This is how and why Paul can tell us to “Pray continually.” (1 Thess. 5:17). Even when we are working (seeking & knocking), we are praying!

Sometimes, when we don’t receive the answers we seek from God, well meaning pastors and friends will counsel that we DID receive an answer. The answer was “No.” Sometimes that indeed is the case. But if we understand everything we’ve talked about in this sermon so far, then maybe we should counsel, “Keep on keeping on.” Maybe the answer is “yes,” but we just haven’t found it yet - so we keep on seeking! Maybe the answer is “yes,” but we just haven’t knocked on enough doors yet. So we keep on knocking. Each “no” is another step closer to our “yes”!

God’s answers don’t just appear before our eyes. We are to be asking continually, but then also seeking and knocking continually. 1/3 talk, 2/3 work! Martin Luther, when asked about prayer, said this: “Pray as if everything depends upon God, then work as if everything depends upon you.”