Surprised by God’s Willingness to Listen

Today on Summit Life with J.D.

Greer. Prayer is the natural result of humility, knowing you need God's help and faith, knowing that God is willing to help. Yes, you need more self-discipline and yes, we need to learn how to pray, but ultimately what we need are things that the gospel can teach us, which is humility and faith. When we get those two things, prayer will come to us as naturally as breathing. We'll just pray continuously, instinctively. Welcome to Summit Life with Pastor J.D.

Greer. As always, I'm your host, Molly Vidovitch. Today we visit Luke chapter 11 for a new teaching on prayer titled, Surprised by God's Willingness to Listen.

Does that title catch you off guard a bit? It's really amazing that God actually does listen to us. After all, every religion on earth teaches their members to pray and polls show that even non-religious people pray. So what makes Christian prayer unique and why is it so hard for us to pray consistently and believe that he actually hears us? Today, Pastor J.D. teaches the counterintuitive secrets that will make your prayers come more naturally. So grab your Bible and let's listen in. Here's Pastor J.D. I want to try to tackle something this morning for you. I want to hit it head on and just get right to the heart of an issue that I think most of you deal with.

And let's just go ahead and throw it right out here and get it on the table. And that is why most of you don't pray. Why is it that most Christians don't really have an active and vibrant prayer life? Most Christians will first probably point to a problem with their self-discipline. You're like, what's the same problem? I don't work out like I should. Same reason I don't read as many books as I'd like to read or I eat too many desserts and not enough alfalfa sprouts. It's just lack of self-discipline, right?

That's one thing we point to. The second thing some people point to is they really struggle to make their prayer times meaningful. You think it's supposed to be some sweet hour of moment with God where you get swept up into Jesus' arms and he pours Holy Ghost oil in your head and you get goosebumps all over.

And it's just not that way for you. Others of you, if you were totally honest, you would admit that you're just not sure how much good prayer does, right? Nobody really wants to admit this in their small group, but sometimes you see that you pray and things happen. Sometimes you pray and they don't. Sometimes you forget to pray and then the thing that you forgot to pray for happens anyway.

And you're like, I'm just not sure how much this stuff works. Quit sitting there looking at me like this is not true. I know it's true because listen, most of you don't have an active prayer life and there's a reason for that. And you can sit there and smile and nod your head and say amen and take notes like we're all on the same page nervously, but I know that it's true.

So what's the reason? I want to suggest to you that prayerlessness is, at its core, a gospel problem. Prayerlessness comes from not understanding what the gospel says about you and what it says about God. It's a gospel problem. One of the things I've noticed as I've been studying Luke this time around is how repeatedly in Luke you get this picture of Jesus who is so tender. He is so willing to be interrupted.

He is so willing to help, like the story we looked at last week. And then mixed throughout that are these repeated instructions about prayer. Luke teaches about prayer more than any other book in the Bible. There are nine prayers recorded in Luke. Seven of those nine are only recorded in Luke and in none of the other gospels.

So you got these two themes running through Luke simultaneously. Jesus's willingness to help on one side and then instruction about prayer because the two always go together. Prayer is the natural result when you understand how willing Jesus is to help those in need and how desperately it is that we need his help. Prayer then, when you understand those two things, becomes as natural to you as breathing. You don't need me standing up here yelling at you, making you feel guilty about not praying.

It's just part of who you are. In fact, I would love for you to write this down. Write this down and talk about it in your small groups. Prayer is the natural result of humility, knowing you need God's help and faith, knowing that God is willing to help. Prayer is the natural result of humility and faith.

The gospel alone produces those two things. Yes, you need more self-discipline and yes, we need to learn how to pray, but ultimately what we need are things that the gospel can teach us, which is humility and faith. When we get those two things, prayer will come to us as naturally as breathing.

We'll just pray continuously, instinctively. Now, before I jump into this, I realize that at the Summit Church, we have people that are literally all over the faith spectrum. Some of you are not really sure how much you believe in God, right? And you might be tempted to, at this point, write the rest of this message off and say, I'm not sure how relevant this is for me because I'm not even sure if I believe in God at all. I would suggest to you, hear me out for a second, I would suggest to you that prayer is a window into the origin of your soul, whether you are a believer or not. The human instinct to pray is hardwired into us. One of the cattiest things that Christians say, it's catty, it's snotty, but it's true, okay?

Every time I hear this, I think that's a cheap shot. There are no atheists in foxholes. Now, that's a catty thing to say because it's kind of like, you know, there's no atheist in foxhole. But it's true because even the most ardent atheist will admit that in a time of danger, most of them instinctively begin to pray. Mark Twain's a great example. He was a strident unbeliever. And Mark Twain said that on his wife's deathbed, he prayed. He says, I prayed and I prayed like a dog, even though I didn't know if I even believed in God. Now, you might hear that and you might say, well, yeah, that's what happens when a human being gets in an unnatural situation and when they get desperate, then they do something that comes out of their desperation, but that's not really who they are, right?

That's unnatural. I would suggest to you exactly the opposite. I would suggest to you that in a moment of desperation, when you see how fragile life is, that's when the real you comes out. The human instinct to pray gives you a window into the origin of your soul, whether you're a believer or not. So I want to explain to you why that's there and I also want to explain to you what God has to say about it. So, again, if you've got your Bible, Luke chapter 11 is where we're going to be. Luke chapter 11. Let's begin in 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.

I find it very interesting, by the way, that of all the things that the disciples would ask Jesus to teach them about, they asked him about his prayer life. I mean, think about it. This is the guy that created the universe. He designed the atom.

He invented the sun. But there is something about his prayer life which makes them say, we want to know about that. We want to be able to connect with God like that.

Clearly, they saw it as a key to his strength and his powers. So the first thing that he does is he teaches them the Lord's prayer. That's his first response back to that. Now, we're mostly today going to skip the Lord's prayer, not because I don't think it's important, but because I want to get to the parable that's after that and then another place in Luke. But I do want you to notice one word that's in there because this kind of guides everything else he's going to say about prayer. It's the very first word of the prayer. Father, sometimes I think we forget how revolutionary that actually was for him to say that.

Scholars have pointed out that Jesus was the first religious leader in history to teach that kind of relationship with God. And it's not even just Father. Father in English almost sounds a little formal. I never called my father father. I called him daddy. And that word father there in the Greek, it's transliterated from the Aramaic, that's what it meant.

Abba. Abba meant daddy. It's what a little kid called their father. And he says, that's how you're going to pray to God like he's your daddy, like he's your daddy. Then he teaches them this parable. Watch this, verse 5. And he said to them, which of you has a friend who will go to him at midnight and say to him, friend, lend me three loaves. For a friend of mine has arrived on a journey and I got nothing to set before him. And he will answer from within, do not bother me. The door is now shut and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything.

A few details on that story. First of all, in a country without electricity, midnight was literally middle of the night. Midnight's not like it is for you college students when it's two hours before you actually go to bed. Right? Midnight meant you've been in bed and asleep for about four hours so you are deep into rapid eye movement.

Okay? So this guy has been in bed for a while and he is in the middle of the night. Secondly, notice that it says he's in bed with his children. In those days, people lived in one room houses.

There was one major bed area and everybody slept in that bed area. So he's literally in bed with his children. And the point of that is that in order to fulfill this guy's request, he's got to wake up everybody in the house. You know what it's like to wake up two-year-old and five-year-old and eight-year-old, not that I have a lot of experience with that, but it's not pleasant.

Right? Finally, notice the man knocking here doesn't have an emergency. He's not like, hey, my wife has fallen. She can't get up.

She's bleeding out of the years. That's not his request. He's like, hey, I had some guests show up unexpectedly and we're out of Pop-Tarts. You see, do you got something in your house there, a toaster strudel, something, anything? I'm embarrassed.

I got nothing to feed these people. Help me. Verse eight, I tell you though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence, it's a great word, impudence. Some translations say boldness. Some say shamelessness. Some scholars say that word could really be translated annoyiness. Because of his annoyiness, he will rise up and give him whatever he needs. Here's the point. Jesus says this man gives the bread to the man not because he's his friend.

In fact, after this event, he's probably not his friend anymore. He gives this bread to him because of his boldness and his persistence and his impudence and his annoyiness. Verse nine, so I tell you, ask and it will be given to you.

Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be open to you. For everybody who asks receives and the one who seeks finds and the one who knocks, it will be open. The whole analogy, by the way, of knocking reinforces this idea of persistence. When you knock on somebody's door, you don't knock one time, right? I mean, if you just go to somebody's door and you go like that, then they think someone of their kids is falling off their bunk bed.

That's what I think when I hear a thud like that. If you're knocking, you're hitting over and over again and you keep knocking until they know that you're knocking and then they get up. And Jesus says, prayer is like that.

You got to knock and knock and knock again. Verse 11, what father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent? And you parents ever do that? You kids hungry and you're like, huh, here's a cobra.

Of course not. Verse 12, or if he asks for an egg, will he give him a scorpion? If you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly father, the ultimate daddy, how much more will he give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? Now, there's some really important stuff in there that we're going to come back to, but go ahead real quick and flip over to Luke 18. Luke 18, seven chapters later, Luke 18, just for a minute, because Luke records essentially the same teaching twice. And I'm really glad he did because if he didn't record this twice, I would be tempted to write off the first one as just a fluke because it is so counterintuitive. It goes against what every religion, indeed, what even common sense teaches you about prayer that I'd be tempted to write chapter 11 off.

It's just like, that's a fluke. But so Jesus records it twice so that you will know that it's the core of his teaching about prayer, okay? You're listening to Summit Life with J.D.

Greer. We'll get back to our teaching from the Book of Luke in just a moment. But first, I wanted to remind you about a fantastic resource to supplement what you're learning in this series. With your financial gift of $35 or more to this ministry, you'll receive a copy of Kingdom Come, 20 devotions from Luke. The Book of Luke has so much unique information and teaching about Jesus's life and ministry, and these devotionals will help you learn even more about them and, we hope, help you fall even more in love with our Savior. And once you're finished, it's a great resource to share with someone else. To get your copy, call right now with your gift.

You can reach us at 866-335-5220 or visit jdgreer.com. And as always, we want to thank you for your continued support of this ministry. Now, let's get back to today's teaching from Pastor J.D.

right here on Summit Life. Go to chapter 18, verse 1. He told them a parable now to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. Verse 2, he said, in a certain city, there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, give me justice against my adversary.

For a while, he refused. But afterward, he said himself, though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming. Then Jesus says, unbelievably, this is like praying to God.

I am so glad that Jesus told this parable, not me. I mean, seriously, first, comparing God to a cranky, old, unjust judge? Who but Jesus could get away with that analogy? And wearing God down through persistent, annoying asking? Now, the point, of course, is that God is not like an unjust judge. God is a tender father, which is what he's already established, right?

But the point is, if even an unrighteous, selfish judge will grant answers because of persistent asking, won't God, who cares about us as a tender father, who is the ultimate standard of justice, won't he give us what we ask if we come to him? You see, Jesus stories, you gotta get this, Jesus stories are parables, not allegories. Allegories are things that correspond in like multiple points to a true situation. A parable just has one point. And a lot of times people try to treat parables like they're allegories, like there's all these different parallels. There's just one point in a parable, and the one point that's being made here is that we should approach God with our needs persistently, shamelessly, almost rudely, like children approach their parents with requests. I mean, who else but a child could get away with the kind of impudence shown in these parables? I mean, think of the President of the United States, right? Who but a child could get away with showing up at his bedside at 3 a.m. and asking for something to drink? Bill Gates couldn't get away with that with all of his money.

Oprah couldn't get away with that. But a child shows up at 3 a.m., only a child gets away with that kind of asking, and that is what we are to God, is what Jesus is saying. We're like children, and he is like a tender father to us. Y'all, listen, this is the opposite of every religious teaching on prayer. Lots of religions teach people to pray. Lots of religions even teach that God answers prayer, but they don't teach us to approach God with the shamelessness with which children approach their daddy. For example, Islam. I mean, think for a minute about Islam teaching this kind of familiarity with God as a father? It would never teach that.

This kind of shamelessness, this kind of impudence where you come up to him as a daddy? This is surprising, it is counterintuitive, and it turned every religious teaching about prayer in its head because it taught us something about the tenderness of God that was mind-boggling. So let me make several important observations from these parables about prayer in your life, all right, that I think could be game changers for you if you really get them. I've got four, maybe five, depending on if I think of another one while we're going through because that happens sometimes, all right.

Here, let's go, I'll give you, we'll start with four. Number one, prayer actually changes things. Prayer actually changes situations.

There's a statement I hear a lot of people make, I hear a lot of people, and it sounds so spiritual, but it is so wrong, and that is prayer doesn't actually change the situation, prayer changes you. My hero, C.S. Lewis, you guys know how much I love C.S. Lewis, one of my favorite authors.

If you've seen the movie Shadowlands, anybody seen that? The story of his marriage to Joy Davidman. In the story, Joy Davidman was a Christian, but she was a very non-traditional Christian, and so when C.S. Lewis and her got married, on their first night together, C.S. Lewis got down on his knees beside their bed to pray, and Joy Davidman says, what are you doing? He says, well, I'm praying because every night I just lay before the feet of God the things that are on my heart, and knowing that God will take care of these situations, and her statement was, you don't actually think that your prayers change the situations, do you?

And C.S. Lewis kind of reflects for a minute and says, well, no, but I do think my prayers change me. Now, that sounds so spiritual, and it is C.S. Lewis, this is very difficult for me, but that is so wrong. That's just not what the Bible teaches.

Yes, prayer changes you, it does, but prayer also changes situations. In this story, Luke 18, the woman asked, and then she asked again, and then she asked again, and then again, and again, and again, and then the situation changed. Now, I've got questions about that. I'm like, if it was God's will, why not say yes the first time? I don't know. I don't know. But this passage shows you that some outcomes are dependent on our prayers, and not just prayer, but bold, persistent, continual prayer. Did you catch that phrase?

I mean, see, it's plain as the words on the page there. It's because of the impudence, because of the persistence. God gives this thing because of the continual asking. Listen, Luke 11, 9, that we went over, does not say, ask and you will be changed for the asking.

Seek and the journey will make you different. Knock and your heart will be transformed by asking the question. No, he's like, hey, knock, and if nobody answers, knock louder.

And if you think that they're not home, they're probably hiding under the table. So keep knocking, keep knocking. Paul understood this. Paul had to be told 2 Corinthians 12, 9 to quit asking for something. God sends a message from heaven and says, let this one go, Paul.

I'm not going to say yes to that. Paul knew he does knock and you knock and you keep knocking. One of my favorite scenes from the Old Testament, Exodus 17, Israel's out fighting against the armies of Amalek. Then it says that while Moses was on the mountaintop with his hands lifted to God, symbolizing prayer, that Israel was winning the battle. And then it says that when he dropped his hands, symbolizing he was not in prayer, they would lose the battle, which makes you begin to ask what would it have looked like if Moses had started to do jumping jacks to get his blood flowing again. But it's a great visual picture of what was happening through his prayer. His prayer was causing the change in the outcome of the battle.

Prayer was actually changing the situation. I heard it described like this. Let me give you an analogy.

It's not original to me. I heard it described before like a laser beam. You know the way a laser beam works is you've got a wave that is intensified when you add another wave to it on top of it. You see the way that these waves work is whenever you have a wave that goes opposite the wave that is, you know, given, then it cancels that one out. That's the way that noise canceling headphones work is you got sound waves coming in and sound waves that cancel those waves. But whenever you have a wave that's going on the same wavelength, the same frequency, it intensifies that wave.

And if you pile enough on top of each other, it can actually get to where a light beam could cut through steel. The way that prayer works is similar to that concept because God has, watch this, declared his will in various situations. But in order for them to be enacted on earth, his people have to add their faith to what God has said. And the wave of their faith is added to the wave of his will and the two together become the laser beam of his power in a situation. That's why Jesus would use a phrase in the Lord's Prayer like, your will be done on earth like it is in heaven. I want to add my faith to what I think you want in this situation and that is the means by which God releases his power. That's why a guy like John Wesley would say, God does nothing on earth except in answer to prayer.

Now that is clearly an overstatement, it is. But what he is saying, there's something true in what he's saying and that is, watch, the way that God enacts his power on earth is through the prayers and faith of his people. The exact way that all that works together with God's sovereignty over all things, I don't quite know.

But it does. Listen, y'all, I know Isaiah 46 10 that God knows the end from the beginning, which means that none of my prayer requests ever surprise God. He's not like, oh, I didn't know you were going to pray that, now I'll do this. He knew what I was going to say before I said it. Psalm 19 says before a word forms on our mouth, he knew it all together.

Right? In fact, Philippians 2 12, just to further like confuse all of us, says that it is God who works in us both to will, to desire and to do of his good pleasure, which means that when I am praying that somehow God is in me working out the request that is being asked. Does your mind hurry yet?

How all that works together, I'm not totally sure. But what I do know for sure is that God has sovereignly chosen to enact his will on earth through our prayer. And that means that there will be things that happen on earth if we pray, and things that won't happen if we don't. And I just say this to all you young budding theologians. Listen, it is foolishness, rebellion and pride that sits around and speculates on questions about the sovereignty of God, when simple obedience is what is commanded. Yeah, one of my favorite quotes by an AA hides 19th century theologian said this, I love this. This is my paraphrase, because I heard this one time, and I cannot remember where I heard it from. And so I've tried my best to recreate this.

So there may be a little bit of me mixed in this. AA Hodge, does God know the day that you'll die? What do you think?

What's the Bible say? Yes, he does. Has he appointed that day?

Yes, he has. Can you do anything to really change that day? No. Then why do you eat? To live. What happens if you don't eat?

You die. Well, if you don't eat and die, would that be the day that God had pre appointed for you to die? Quit asking stupid questions and just eat. Because eating is the pre ordained way that God has appointed for living. Prayer is the pre ordained way that God gets his work done on earth.

Sounds pretty straightforward. Prayer equals the mission of God on earth, just like eating equals living. Do you do you view prayer as being that essential? Hopefully today's teaching has expanded your understanding. You're listening to Summit Life with Pastor JD Greer. I hope that you've been enjoying this teaching series in the book of Luke just as much as I have. And in case you missed it earlier on the show, I wanted to make sure that you know about our latest featured resource that ties in perfectly with this series.

And in fact, they share the same name. This month, we are sending all of our financial supporters and gospel partners a copy of Pastor JD's new resource called Kingdom Come 20 Devotions from Luke. You can read through these devotionals in 20 days, be encouraged each day by their truth, and then pass it on to a friend when you're finished.

It's a built in discipleship opportunity to share with a loved one how God's word has transformed your life. You can receive your copy today with a gift to this ministry. Just give us a call at 866-335-5220.

That's 866-335-5220. Or give online at jdgreer.com. That's jdgreer.com. Your support is essential to our mission and we're so grateful for every contribution. While you're on the website, be sure to sign up for our email list to get ministry updates and blog posts from Pastor JD delivered straight to your inbox. It's a great way to stay connected with Summit Life throughout your week. Sign up when you go to jdgreer.com. I'm Molly Vitovich inviting you to join us again tomorrow when Pastor JD wraps up this important message on prayer. See you Friday right here on Summit Life with JD Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by JD Greer Ministries.