All right, I'm in Luke chapter 11.

I want to welcome Wesco Rancho.

Glad you're with us, those listening wherever.

As you find Luke 11, you know when I was a boy, my entire world basically existed in three streets.

It was our neighborhood.

And all the streets were named after trees.

We weren't very original people in East Tennessee.

We just kind of grabbed a name and applied it to a street.

And I was a paper boy, as I mentioned before.

And some of you don't know what newspapers are, but they used to print these words on papers.

And we would roll them up and put a rubber band around.

And my father bought me a bicycle.

It's kind of my first job.

It had baskets on each side.

So I kind of made a game out of it.

I'd just travel down the street and just take one of those papers and throw it on the front porch.

You know, we didn't have walls or gates back then.

And then every Friday, you would go to the homes that you'd been delivering these newspapers to.

And you would say the word collect, and that meant that they were to pay you for the Monday through Friday.

Sometimes they would leave you a tip, very seldom actually, but that's how you made your living as an eight-year-old, a little extra spending money.

Well, it's in these events of my life on these three streets that I learned to pray.

These are my first prayers because each street had its own challenge.

On Walnut Street, the first street, there was a...

bully.

His name was Rufus.

That's not his real name, but I've learned that people listen.

And I don't want to name him in case I'm part of a lawsuit of some kind.

And he was a bully.

He was just a mean boy that lived to just throw pop bottles at me or to call me names.

Couldn't wait till I got there every day, especially on Friday because I had to get off my bike and go up to the door.

And it's kind of just one of those guys, just mean, you know, you know, mean people, right?

Like your mother-in-law or something like that.

And I learned to pray because I would pray that God would give him the measles or chicken pox or maybe food poison or anything painful.

I'm serious about that.

When you're young and you're learning to pray, you want God to take out your enemies.

Then over on the next street, Mulberry Street, there was this really mean Doberman. I don't know if you know that dog, just a mean, mean dog.

They actually named him Satan, if you can believe that.

And maybe it was God.

trying to give me a metaphor of what my life would be, that I would grow up to be a pastor and Satan would always be chasing me.

Because this dog literally waited for about 3.30 every afternoon, could not wait till I get there and would start chasing me.

It never really bit me, just threatened to bite me, just would wait on the porch.

And of course, when you're eight years old, you have nightmares about this dog chasing you and biting you and just a mean, mean dog.

and I would pray for that dog as well.

Pray that he would have a gum disease and his teeth would fall out.

I remember praying that he would get hit by a car, preferably a van or a truck, a big car, so that he would have a lot of suffering before he actually died.

And then you went, yeah, yeah, well, that's what you do when you're eight years old, because it's terrorizing you.

Then you're the next street, right on the corner, it was called Hickory Street, and right on the corner of Hickory and the main drag was a pretty little girl named Tracy.

And I remember asking God, to help her notice me.

God would kind of play Cupid and she would notice me and things would go from there.

The hard thing about this is that none of those prayers were answered.

Rufus lived on, terrorizing many paper boys to come.

I don't know where he is now, probably in Leavenworth or someplace like that.

The Doberman just lived a long time.

Big Dog Those dogs are only supposed to live like 15 years at the most, probably 12 to 13.

This dog, I think, lived to be 20.

My older brother said, that's because mean don't die.

The meaner you are, the longer you live.

And that was a horrible, horrible dog.

And then Tracy, of course, she grew up, never noticed me.

She ended up marrying the captain of the football team, didn't even like basketball players.

So as a child, I remember in my Christian infancy, wondering You know, maybe God doesn't really care that much about my life.

And there was a time when you're younger, you pray all these prayers and nothing seems to happen or matter.

And then you get older, and then your prayers become much more serious.

They move past neighborhood bullies and pretty little girls.

And I remember in my probably late teens having a bit of a crisis of faith because I started thinking, you know, I've prayed all these prayers and nothing seems to happen.

When Robin and I had our second child, so those of you who know our story, we lost our first child in a road accident in Africa when we were missionaries there.

And then we had Delaney, my son.

And then Sian came along.

When Sian came along, I had one of those catalytic moments because when she was born, the cord was around her neck.

And I walked in and it brought up past memories of losing a child.

And I could see by the look on the nurses and the doctors' faces that this was a serious business.

And I remember leaving immediately and going into the hospital bathroom there and just getting on my knees and just begging God for the life of my daughter, praying, God, You know, please spare the life of my daughter.

I don't want to go through this again.

And in that moment, I had this other catalytic moment whereby I started asking a question.

And the question was this, why do I have to beg God for the life of my daughter?

I kind of did some business with God in that moment.

Why do I have to come down here and pray so desperately that my daughter survive?

I mean, life comes from God.

Why do I even have to go through this.

And at that point, it might...

prayer life, it was a little bit of a crisis because after that moment, I continued to pray, but I really went through the motions of prayer because down deep inside, I was asking the question, do these prayers really do any good?

Now, I know none of you have ever been through that.

As I mentioned last week, this is probably one of the most important series that I've ever done because feeling and experiencing God is not only the very reason for our existence, but it's essential.

to emotional, psychological, well-being, human flourishing.

I've quoted throughout this series Augustine who said, our souls are restless until we find our rest in him.

And there's no way we're ever going to be able to rest and have everything we're looking for internally to have that peace of the soul until the penny drops and we recognize that God truly is not only God, but he's our father.

No other religious system offers this kind of God.

where he's your father, and the father that Jesus presents through the scripture is a father who longs for us to come to him, who wants what is the very best for us, who is more loving and gracious and forgiving than you could ever imagine, and he always has our best interest in mind.

But here's the problem.

As we've said, there's no shortcut to experiencing God.

It's the discipline of hearing the word of God, hearing him speak, and then continuing that conversation.

that began in us at the new birth.

But one of the primary obstacles as we move toward God, and this is what I want to address, one of the primary obstacles as we move into relationship with God is the reality that there are oftentimes we pray for things that in our minds God should not be reticent to give us.

We're not praying to win the lottery.

We're not praying for a bigger house, bigger car, larger community.

We're simply praying for something like a life or for a child or for something that we think in our mind really matters.

And how difficult is it really for God to meet this request?

And if God fails to meet the request, there's a part of us that says, you know what?

Maybe this whole thing's a waste of time.

I was in Australia a few years ago, and I just finished preaching at a church on the Gold Coast.

And a man in his mid-40s named David came up to me and said, look, pastor, I always like it when you come to our church, when you you deliver the word.

I really appreciate it.

And I may be overstepping my boundaries here, but I need to ask for a favor.

Would you please come to my house and would you pray for my wife?

It was about 40 minutes away.

So myself and another pastor, a couple of other people went to David's house, David's wife dying of cancer.

And you could tell he just adored her.

She was his world, both in their mid forties and just asking us, will you pray?

Will you pray that God do something in the life of my wife?

Because I'm afraid, I'm terrified, I'm going to lose her.

So I sat on the couch and I grabbed her hand and I prayed the best pastoral prayer that I could for God to come into the life of his wife and to produce this wonderful healing where there would be restoration.

After I prayed, the pastor that was with us also prayed.

And the more he prayed, the more uncomfortable I got because his prayer was more of a declaration.

He was declaring that God was going to heal David's wife.

And he was saying, Very positively, I demand, you know, I come before you, God, and we know that you have power.

And then before we left, basically this other pastor promised David that his wife was going to get well.

He said, God has told me your wife is going to get...

And David was happy.

He was elated.

I was a little nervous about that.

I didn't feel comfortable with that at all.

Well, we left and three months later, David's wife passed away.

I went back a year later.

And I noticed David was missing from the church.

So I asked the pastor, can we go visit David?

So I made an effort to go out and visit David.

And David was very honest.

He said, you promised me.

Your friend promised me that God, he said that God said that my wife was going to be made well, and my wife died.

So if I can't trust God, why would I want any kind of relationship with him?

Now, I have known many people over the course of my life who have been made promises, or even if they weren't made a promise, they felt like, you know, I went to God.

You say that God has my best interest in mind.

You say that God longs for me to come to him, and yet I came to God.

with something I thought was important, like the health of my wife or one of my children or a grandchild.

So God did not answer.

How can you say that God is a loving father who wants what's best for me when I asked God for the very basic and God said no?

Now, in Luke chapter 11, as typical, Jesus anticipates this kind of question.

And he tells a parable.

And in the parable, you'll notice that it comes on the heels.

of the Lord's prayer in the early part of Luke chapter 11.

So the disciples say, teach us to pray.

And Jesus says, here are the words you are to pray.

And then he basically tells a parable to answer the question.

Here is the attitude with which you should pray.

Let me read what he says.

Jesus said to them, suppose you have a friend and you go to him at midnight and say, 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.

And suppose the one inside answers, don't bother me.

The door is already locked and my children and I are in bed.

I can't get up and give you anything.

I tell you, Jesus says, verse eight, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity, he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.

Now, the first time I read that early in my ministry career, I thought, well, this seems to be teaching me something about God that I'm very uncomfortable with.

It seems to me that Jesus is saying that God is reluctant to give us what we ask for.

But if you keep on begging and you keep on nagging him, over time, he'll finally grant you the request that God is busy running the universe.

But if I just keep nagging and persisting, eventually I'll get what I want.

Of course, later on, I realized that that kind of interpretation of the parable does not take into account when Jesus tells parable, he uses a tool called from light to heavy, from light to heavy.

So he contrasts light, the comical nature in which you and I respond and communicate with each other, with the manner in which a good, loving, perfect God wants us to deal with him and he with us.

Let me say it again.

It's a tool used in parables moving from light to heavy.

Light is often the comical nature in which we humans deal with each other, to heavy, the manner in which a good and loving God wants us to deal with him and he with us.

So as I look at that in the parable and I go through it verse by verse, I recognize that Jesus is communicating three things.

The first two you're familiar with, I'll move quickly.

It's the third one that separates the parable from other parables and we'll spend the most time on.

But let's go ahead and do the first two.

Jesus is teaching us, number one, that God is a relational God.

Now you automatically assume this because you've grown up in a Judeo-Christian worldview.

Most religions do not see God as personal.

or relational, where you can actually talk to him and change his mind.

Most religions have God as an impersonal being, and you just do what you're told and don't ask questions.

I love the story about the Indian, young Indian boy in New Delhi, whose father gets up every morning and he bows down before the mantle.

There are two statues on the mantle.

He sees them as gods.

They are idols.

And every morning he goes through this ritual.

Fruit offerings, and he's chanting hymns and mantras, and he's praying for leading and guiding and blessings and direction.

Finally, one day, the son says to his father, dad, why do you talk and pray to these stones?

Why do you give offerings to these idols?

They can't speak.

They can't move.

They can't do anything.

They're lifeless and powerless.

The father says to the son, you don't have any idea what you're talking about.

I've got to go on this business trip, and when I return, I will sit you down, and I will explain all of this to you.

So he comes back after a couple of weeks, only when he returns, the young boy had taken a stick and placed it in the hands of one of the idols and smashed the other one.

The father says, what have you done?

And the son says, I've done nothing.

Can't you see it's obvious?

One of the statues got angry with the other and took the stick and smashed him.

And the father said in response, what are you talking about?

These idols can't speak, move, or do anything.

They're lifeless and powerless.

And the young boy says, that's what I've been trying to tell you.

When people say to me, all religions are fundamentally the same, only superficially different.

I remind them that only Christianity offers you a God who is alive, who is powerful, and who intensely desires to be involved in your life.

Day by day, moment by moment, he longs for you to come to him.

David understood this.

It's a relational, he's a relational God.

In Psalm 116.1, he says, I love the Lord because he hears my voice and my supplication, because he has inclined his ear to me.

Therefore, I shall call upon him as long as I live.

So the first thing, and most of you are familiar, God in the Christian faith is a relational God who wants to be involved in the daily details of your life.

The second thing is, God is not reluctant to hear and respond to your request.

So there are key words in the parable that Jesus talks about.

Let's look at verse 5 again.

He said to them, suppose one of you has a friend and goes to him at midnight and says to him, friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has come to me on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him.

So in the ears of Jesus' listeners, they would have heard this, and there would have been a few things they're familiar with, and then a few problems.

First of all, notice the traveler travels at midnight.

Typically, as you make your way from town to town, village to village, you would travel late at night because the nights are cooler.

And on these long trips, there are no golden arches.

No McDonald's, no Taco Bell, no In-N-Out.

So you depended completely on the hospitality of the villages through which you would travel.

In fact, we have historical data to suggest that most villages entered into what we call a hospitality competition.

In other words, you wanted your village to be known as the most hospitable, and that would uphold the honor of the village and the community.

And of course, this isn't anything new, is it?

We do the same type of thing now.

We're only a little bit more prideful on a more significant scale.

The Olympics are coming to LA.

Do you know how much money we're spending on the Olympics to come to LA?

Here's what we're being told, so just double it.

$15 billion.

We're spending so that the world will know that LA is a beautiful city and incredibly hospitable.

What will we do?

We will remove all the homeless, get them out of the way, right?

We will make the city appear far greater than it is, and it will cost $15 billion to do it.

And if you're like me, you're thinking, hey, here's a novel idea.

If we have $15 billion, how about a subway system?

Right?

Anybody?

Or how about stop taxing us $1.20 per gallon of gas?

Here's a novel idea, right?

The way you look to the world is important, so you'll change things momentarily or temporarily to give the idea that LA is a beautiful city, and it is a beautiful city, that it's a beautiful city and it's hospitable.

Second, notice that the neighbor goes to the other neighbor and says, I have nothing to set before him.

Really?

You got nothing?

You got no food in the house at all?

Well, that's not the point.

The point is, It's kind of like the analogy I've used concerning when my wife goes into the closet and she says, I have absolutely nothing to wear.

This is an amazing thing to me.

There are shoes everywhere, clothes everywhere.

We guys, we have one or two golf shirts, maybe a couple of trousers.

Wife goes in, got to go to a dinner party.

And she says, I have absolutely nothing to wear.

I now know what that means.

What she really means.

It doesn't mean clothing optional.

It means I have absolutely nothing to wear that will not make me look like Thank you.

A fashion challenge hag married to a cheapskate.

That's what she's saying.

So when he goes in and he says, I got nothing to set before him, basically I got nothing that would honor the community.

In fact, we're told that all he asked for from the neighbor is three loaves of bread.

And the loaves described here are a basic bread, a barley bread, the kind that you cleanse your hands with.

They didn't use forks and spoons and napkins in those points.

So this is a cheaper grain of bread.

And he's basically going to the neighbor.

All I've got is nothing.

I have nothing really to set before them or to set before the travelers that would honor the community.

So I need some bread.

Now, the whole idea here is that he's asking, this is important.

We're going to visit this again in a few moments.

He's asking for the basic trusting in the goodness of the neighbor to provide so much more that would honor the reputation and admiration of the village in the community.

Now, when Jesus tells the parable, he's basically saying, suppose this would be the response.

Now, the community or the people listening to the parable would say, no way.

There's no way the neighbor would ever respond.

This is absurd.

But Jesus says, for the sake of argument, imagine that you go and ask for the basic, and this is the response you get.

From the inside, he answers and he says, 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.

So the listeners would say, that's absurd.

That would never happen.

There's too much at stake.

Too much at stake.

The honor of the community, the reputation, the hospitality.

But Jesus says, okay, all right, just pretend though that that's his response.

What would you do?

I tell you, he says, 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.

So Jesus says, if that were to happen, I know it's far-fetched, but if that were to happen, what would you do?

You'd just keep standing there.

You'd keep knocking.

The wife would keep asking, is he gone yet?

Look down there.

Is he gone?

He's going to wake the kids up.

Just stand there.

And Jesus is saying, the way we relate to each other in a situation like this, if you just stand there and keep knocking, your sheer persistence will eventually wear him down.

So this again is where we go from light to heavy.

Your neighbor When you go to your neighbor, everything's against you.

It's night, he's asleep, the doors are locked, the kids are tucked in.

He may not even like you.

Still, in humanity, you go to your neighbor knowing that if you just persist, the persistence will wear him down and eventually he'll get up and give you what you're asking for.

Jesus is moving from light to heavy saying that if that's the way your neighbor is, God, everything is for you.

Remember, he's your father.

who is in heaven, we learn through the Lord's prayer in verses one through four.

He is closer than the air that you breathe.

He's always attentive.

He's never absent.

And this God longs to give you what you're asking for.

So Jesus basically is saying in the first part of the parable, far more than you want your prayers answered, God longs to give wonderful things to every one of his children.

So whatever else you do, since everything's on your side and for you, don't stop asking.

Come to God.

He longs to hear from you and he longs to give you every good thing.

Now, so far, so good until we move to the third point.

Because if all of that is true, then why are there times in my life that I ask God for things I know are good things and yet God seems reticent to give them?

This is the third point.

Jesus, when he tells the parable, reminds us that God wants you to come to him, but he wants you to trust his goodwill.

Now, this is hard for us.

Remember I said that the neighbor asked for the minimum.

This is the telltale sign of the parable, but he's depending on the neighbor to use his good judgment to determine what it is that would be truly good to communicate hospitality from the village, from the neighborhood to the traveler.

Now, here's the thing about our relationship to God that seldom gets discussed.

If we see prayer as a means to say to God, my will be done, then our prayers will begin to harm our relationship with God.

And even though we desire to move in the intimacy, communication, and closeness with God to reattach ourselves to the Creator's moorings, if we see prayer as a way to get what we want from God without considering what God wants for us, then there are often going to be times we are alienated or feel alienated from him.

When prayer becomes a means by which we tell God how he should be running the universe in our lives, when he fails to comply with our desires and wants, we will interpret that as God abandoning us.

And that's a very immature relationship to have with God.

I'm still amazed at the sermons I hear on YouTube, whereby somehow we're told that there's a specific formula.

If you want to get what you truly want from God.

Do it this way.

And when you do it this way, it is communicated somehow that we have placed God now in our debt and God has to respond to us in the way that we want him to respond.

Well, that's a very weak God, I would assume.

If God is our father, then a good father, a true father, we would approach him with grace and glory, but primarily we would respect the wisdom that he has to give us the thing that will help us.

A good father would not just give you everything you want because some things will destroy you.

But that's not the point of the parable.

Because there are times when we pray and ask God for things that there is no way in our right mind we could think for a moment that this somehow would harm us.

These things are good.

And pastors never talk about this.

What about when I ask God for something I know that has to be the will of God, and I don't seem to be getting it, and God seems to be reticent?

And then I go to passages of scripture where the Bible tells me it's possible that I approach God far too timidly.

Do you see in the parable that prayer is not just petition, it's strenuous petition.

Romans 15 30, I urge you brothers and sisters by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the spirit to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me.

So prayer is seen as something that isn't done lightheartedly.

It's a wrestling.

It's a struggle.

It's to bring what is in you before God.

In James chapter 5, we're given all kinds, by the way, this is just one example.

We're given what seems to be infinite examples of people who prayed, and it moved the hand of God, and power rained down, and something miraculous occurred.

James 5, 17, we're told that Elijah was a human being, even as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years.

Again, he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.

Wow, wouldn't it be great to pray and stop the rain?

or pray and bring the rain.

That's what happened.

And we're told that Elijah's nothing special.

He's a man just like us, human just like us.

Have you read the story in Isaiah 38?

In those days, Hezekiah, we're told, became ill and was at the point of death.

The prophet Isaiah, son of Amoz, went to him and said, this is what the Lord says.

Put your house in order because you're going to die.

You will not recover.

Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord.

Remember, Lord.

How I have walked before you faithfully and with a wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes.

And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah.

Go and tell Hezekiah, this is what the Lord, the God of your father, David says.

I have heard your prayer and seen your tears.

I will add 15 years to your life.

Man, wouldn't it be great if you could pray and add 15 years to your life or pray and take away 15 years of somebody's life you don't like?

Or maybe Subtract 15 pounds from, I mean, wouldn't it be great if you could just pray and something like that would happen?

Pastor Jeff, are you telling me that prayer can change God's mind?

If by change you mean alter the primary objective, no.

If by change you mean take a different path to the same objective, yes.

Be careful of overthinking this.

Sometimes I'll hear people say, well, if God knows everything that's going to happen, why pray?

And my answer is because God knew you would pray.

And he knew the answer he would give you.

And if you don't pray, God knew you would not pray, and he knew he would not respond to a life that has no prayer.

Prayers have brought about some of the most miraculous things in history.

And I had to cut a section out here.

I had some examples of how the hand of God has been moved through history, during wars, through developing, through the birth of nations.

But I want to stick to the point here.

Because the real issue is not that you and I don't believe God is our father.

We do.

The real issue is not that we don't believe somehow that when we bring our prayers to God, he will or will not listen.

We know that he'll listen.

We know that he hears us.

And I'm not talking even about the skeptic kind of prayer that says, God, if you are real, you'll do this.

You know, the Bible talks about that kind of prayer does nothing.

If you're real, do this.

I've had people say, I prayed, Pastor Jeff.

I asked God for something.

I said, if you're really there, do this.

And the Bible tells us in the book of James, if that's the way you pray, you're a double-minded man, unstable in all your ways.

And if you ask God to prove existence by answering this particular prayer, it won't do it.

You'll keep asking for more and more.

I'm talking about Christ followers.

I'm talking about people who know his voice, who feel his presence, who are in an ongoing conversation with him.

And yet there are times when you're so burdened, you don't want some formula to pray.

You don't want to talk about instruction and confession, repentance.

You just want to go right to God with a thing that is burdening your heart.

And that is the question.

Why is it in your mind does God seem so reluctant to give you good things if he's really a good father?

What are you talking about?

What about those of you who are praying for your children to return, the prodigals to come home?

Is that not something that you think God would not be interested in?

Why do you have to pray so hard for a son and daughter who've gone off the rails, who've gone to the distant land to return home to the Father?

Let's go right for the jugular here, folks.

What about the Christian parent who has a five or six-year-old son or daughter who's dying of cancer?

And that parent on their knees praying that God would bring healing.

What possible reason could God have for not answering that request?

It's the hardest thing for a pastor.

Pastors see a lot of death.

Pastors are by the side of a lot of people who are dying.

But there is nothing more difficult than standing or walking beside a mom or a dad whose son or daughter or grandchild is suffering.

Pastor Jeff, if God has my best interest in mind and God wants to give me the desires of my heart, it's not like I'm asking to win the lottery or for a bigger house, a better job.

I'm just asking for the life of someone precious.

And this is where we have to understand what 11 chapter of Luke is really teaching here.

It teaches, first of all, yes, we do have the assurance that God, our heavenly father, always wants what's best for his children.

And listen, there is no such thing as unanswered prayer.

God grants our prayer request, even if he does not respond to the exact form of the request.

Your prayers are always answered.

And that's why Hebrews chapter four says, let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

What do you mean, Pastor Jeff?

Well, I mean that you and I know that as we pray, Every prayer, listen now, every prayer we will ever pray as Christ followers will be answered.

The question is only when.

So the parent, listen now, so the parent who prays for the child to be healed, will the healing not eventually come?

Yeah, Pastor Jeff, I know that, but there's a lot of pain to be had before the healing comes.

Isn't that the very purpose of the cross, that by his stripes we will all be healed?

Isn't it true?

There's a fabulous verse of scripture in Romans 5.13 that we just kind of glaze over.

The Bible talks about in Romans 5.13 that where there is no law, there is no sin.

And the argument that Paul is making is the only place there's no law is in the life of a child.

It's called before the age of accountability.

So the Bible teaches that when a child dies, the next waking moment is in the arms of the father.

Every child that dies goes immediately into the arms of God waiting for the parent to arrive.

I don't know why God decides because sometimes there are stories of healing of children.

There are plenty of those around too, but there are just as many of those who are not.

And the only way you and I will be able to survive and continue to move close to God is to trust the wisdom and the power of God, to know that God is always doing something you and I cannot see, that we are finite and limited in our knowledge.

God is infinite, and he's able to take the very worst of circumstances.

and use it for good and even though you and i may not see the good we know that in god himself we have the headwaters and the source of all we desire even if one of the tributaries of our joy something in this world that we love goes dry we will be well fed we will be healed our security and hope ultimately is in god Therefore, as we move toward God in relationship, we have to remember, we can be sure that if we ask for something that would be best for us, God will deliver it.

If we ask for something that does not coincide with what God is trying to accomplish in us, then God will delay.

But we must have the assurance that he will answer the basic desire of our prayer always.

but find a form or mode that isn't harmful or that is consistent with what God is doing in our lives.

Let me give you an example.

I know it's a bit much.

Tim Keller in his book on prayer, he says, when I entered seminary, I was in a relationship with a woman who wanted to break up with me, so I prayed fervently.

I think some of the greatest prayers are about women.

He said, oh Lord, I can't do this without her.

I really need her.

Please don't break up this relationship.

He goes on to say, in hindsight, it was a misguided prayer.

It's a good thing that the relationship broke because I later married Kathy, but that is not how I felt at the time.

Did God deny my prayer?

Yes, but no, because there was at the core of the prayer, a desire for God to give me a ministry partner.

This was the implicit request.

Then there was the mistaken part, this is the woman who will help me.

You with me?

God gave a ministry partner.

God answered the prayer.

It just wasn't that woman because that wasn't the right woman.

In fact, It's interesting that when you come to a relationship with God and you struggle in prayer, you can come before God with the confidence that he will give you what you would have asked for if you knew everything he knew.

He'll give you what you asked for and what you need, but you have to come with him with the confidence that he's going to give you what you would have Fast forward.

If you knew everything he knew, that's what it is to trust God.

That's why the Bible says, actually, when you pray, the spirit of God takes your prayer and asks for what you really need or want.

It goes like this, in the same way the spirit helps us in our weakness, we do not know what we ought to pray for, but the spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.

And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the spirit because the spirit intercedes for God's people in accordance with the will of God.

God knows what you're really after, and that's what you'd be asking for if you had all the information that he had.

We have assurance that our bad things will turn out for good, Romans 8, that our good things can never be taken from us, Psalm 4, and that the best things are yet to come, 1 Corinthians 2.

You and I have assurance.

I'm trying to illustrate what Jesus is saying in Luke 11.

is you do have a heavenly father who longs for you to come to him.

You do have a heavenly father who's already promised to give you every ultimate good thing.

It's already a done deal.

But this is the hard part that we know we often are called to wait.

Why?

In verse 9, so I say to you, ask and it will be given to you.

Seek, you'll find.

Knock on the door, it will be open for For everyone who asks, receives.

The one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

So that for which you ask, that for which you seek, the door upon which you knock, we are being told, keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking, because it will be given to you, maybe just not right now.

Why?

Man, we are at the affluent west.

I want to drive up to the drive-in window.

I'll take one answered prayer to go, please.

I want it right now.

2 Peter 3.9, the Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness.

In other words, God, you think he's slow.

He's not slow at all.

He's right on time.

Why?

Two quick illustrations and I'll stop.

I think it'll help.

So my father, when I was 50, I have confessed to you that I know I am one of the lucky or blessed ones because I had a fantastic father.

And I know many of you did not.

I get that, but that doesn't change the reality that God is an awesome father, the father that you've always been looking for.

In fact, the only reason you know your father's a bad father is because you've gotten a picture of a real father in the fatherhood of God.

I was blessed to have a great father.

When I was about 15 years old, I came to my father, had something I needed to kind of resolve.

And this isn't the great sin that I've told you about in the past, totally different issue here.

So I came to my father and I respected my father.

And we sat out on the back.

My father had built this kind of deck that overlooked all the trees in our Tennessee backyard.

And I said, Dad, I've got something I've got to resolve.

I need your wisdom on this.

I need you to help me.

And we kept meeting evening after evening.

As soon as he came home from work, Dad and I were on the back porch talking, grilling hamburgers or whatever, but talking about this situation.

And there came a time when I thought, you know, my father seems reticent.

to help me solve this problem.

So one day after about a week of conversation, I was honest with my dad and I said, dad, I feel like that you know what to do, but you're holding it from me.

He said, yeah.

He said, because this is the most you've talked to me in your entire life.

What do you mean?

He goes, do you notice you're waiting on me when I get home from work?

I don't want to give you the answer too quickly because I know you won't come back out and talk to me anymore.

Right now, I've got an opportunity as your father to give you a course correction, not only in this issue, but talk about five or six other things that I've noticed in your life.

You know what my dad was saying?

Your problem is valuable because it forces you to talk to me.

I believe that sometimes God delays because you're talking to him more than you ever have before.

In fact, you've never talked to him like this because you're in disarray.

God has the answer, but he's going to delay because there's a few other things in your life he's got to deal with.

I've got a friend who has a wife in Tennessee, and she's gone back and forth through cancer.

She is diagnosed, okay, it's gone, and then it's back, and then it's gone, and then it's back.

And my friend calls me, and he says, why is God doing this?

I prayed, and then it seems like God's healed, and then it comes back.

Why is God doing this?

Now, I want to say this, but I don't because he's my friend.

I want to say because your wife is the most arrogant, apathetic, and superior individual I've ever met in my life.

I want to say to him, I have never, your wife is the only woman I have ever met that has not been changed at all by a fatal disease.

Usually when people go through something like cancer, they're humbled.

They become more concerned about the needs of others.

They become more sympathetic towards something.

This woman has changed in no way.

And there's a part of me that wants to say, God is not going to give her complete healing until she becomes more humble, more sympathetic, and far less superior to everybody than she thinks she is.

Now, I don't say that, and I took the risk by saying that out loud in case he's listening this weekend.

But I figured it was time for him to hear it, even if it has to happen this way.

Because I believe that God keeps sometimes in wherever it is we are, because he's got our attention and he does his best work when we're in great need.

And believe it or not, God's primary goal in your life is not convenience.

It's conformity to the image of Christ.

That's what he wants to...

He wants to make you like Jesus.

And sometimes he delays.

Because he's not quite finished doing what the pain and the suffering is doing.

Let me say it again.

In God himself, we have the headwaters and source of all we desire, even if one of the tributaries of our joy, something in this world that we love goes dry.

When we lived in New Zealand, my daughter Sian, who's been in a lot of trouble now that I think about it.

But when she was eight years old, she developed chronic asthma.

Now, if you're a father and you've ever sat with your daughter night after night after night, and she can't breathe, and you're trying to give her albuterol or Ventolin, and she's scared, and of course, the more frightened you are, the worse it causes the asthma to get.

And I had asthma as a kid, so she inherited chip off the old block from her father.

And I was frustrated because we went, took her to the doctor, and the doctor basically, the advice of the doctor was this, you need to leave New Zealand.

New Zealand's mold count is so high.

You need to get her to a drier climate.

Well, we were there because we felt called of God to be missionaries.

So I started praying.

I reminded God of a few things.

Hey, God, I'm here on your terms.

You know, I'm doing you a favor here.

So if you want me to stay, you're going to have to heal my daughter.

Man, I cannot tell you how many times my wife and I prayed, just heal her asthma.

We know you can do it because we know you want us to stay.

Heal her asthma.

Nothing, nothing.

Week after week, month after month.

It was taking its toll on Robin and me because you're not getting any sleep as parents.

And finally, I was in my closet praying for my daughter.

And God spoke to me.

It wasn't audible, but it was no less clear.

And God basically said this, you know, Pastor Jeff, why aren't you as interested in her spiritual well-being as you are her physical well-being?

Man, that, what?

And it was like God was saying, you preach and you teach other people, but you're not doing the same with your own family, your kids.

And it was that evening, the next day I got up and I got a little book from John MacArthur called Faith to Grow On.

And I told my wife from now on, when I get home from work, I'm with Delaney and Sian in their rooms and I'm going to teach them.

I'm going to disciple them.

And I started teaching them the word, praying with them.

And I did that every evening, just about every evening until they were up in their teen years.

Paid huge dividends, by the way.

But do you know about a month after that, Sianza asthma disappeared.

I believe there are times...

that God says, yes, I'm going to do this, but not yet, because of an unfinished work.

There are more important things, believe it or not, than physical hardship and its spiritual awakenings.

Now, look at how the passage finishes.

Jesus says, which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead?

Or if he asks for an egg, we'll give him a scorpion.

If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?

I love this because when Jesus says in the first part of that, which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, he uses a word that describes an eel-like creature in the Sea of Galilee.

Totally inedible, five feet long.

It's like a snake.

So if your son asks you for fish, here, eat this eel.

No father's going to do that.

And then he says, or what if he asks for an egg?

When a scorpion is rolled up, it's said to look like an egg.

So your son wants an egg, let's give him a scorpion.

Take a bite of that.

What father would do that?

No, no father would do that.

And Jesus says, if you're evil, that's not the whole story of us, but we are.

We're not good.

If you know how to give good gifts to your children, how do you think I know how to give good gifts to mine?

I love that because I know as a father what it is to see the joy on my son's face when I give him something that he really enjoys.

Like when he was a kid and he got a bicycle for Christmas and I got to spend all Christmas Eve putting that bicycle together.

together because some pathological liar at the factory put easy assembly on the box.

And it takes me like six, eight hours.

But I do it anyway because I love my son.

And I love the look on his face the next day.

Jesus is saying, man, if you can feel that, Pastor Jeff, how much more committed am I as your heavenly father to see a smile on your face by giving you what is ultimately good?

There's never been a parent on earth.

who wants joy for his or her children as much as your father in heaven wants joy for his child.

You have to understand in the mind of God, who is a good, good father, he wants you to have the good, good stuff.

I don't know why he delays, but I know every individual is different.

And I don't know why.

I don't know why sometimes when we pray for something as serious as a child who has cancer, why God heals some.

And I've seen that, man, it's a happy day.

But why some know, I don't know why.

There's no way I can.

And there's no way you can because you're limited in your knowledge.

But remember, there is nothing that can happen to us in this life from which God cannot recover because the God who gives life the first time gives life the second time.

And the second life is far more glorious than the first.

So keep praying.

Never give up.

Keep praying because God will always give you what is good.

Father, thank you for your love for us, for the power of prayer.

And I pray that our prayers that we feel are unanswered will never stifle our relationship with you, but will cause us to even lean in and move closer to a God that we trust, who's already proven that he loves us because he gave up his only son.

So whatever reason, our prayers.

Do not get the response that we intend.

It can't be because you don't love us, because you've already given us everything.

And we will live in eternity with you where everything that we have lost will be replaced to an infinitely greater degree.

We praise you.

We trust you in Christ's name.

Amen.