The Secret Place // The Attitudes of Prayer // Pastor Josh Evans

Here today, and if you have your Bible, go to Luke chapter number 11. Luke chapter number 11, and I tell you, God is so good to us, isn't he?

And I tell you, he is so good. This is a series that if I can get through week to week without, you know, crying the entire time up here, then we're doing pretty good for ourselves because he's had me in tears studying for prayer and learning about prayer and, excuse me, thinking of you guys and everything that, you know, I know you guys have going on. It was good to see Miss Jean Pollard with us here today. She's filling in here today, and I know that life has not been easy for her over the last couple of months, and it was good to see her. It's also good to see Archie and Betty with us here today. I know it's been a while since we've been able to see them in church, and it is good.

They're as faithful as the day is, and they come when they can, so it's good to see them walk in here today. And listen, let me tell you this, that I know you have have needs in your life, and there's a lot of different needs that you have that you need to lift up to the Lord, and as I've been studying for this, I've been thinking about many of you in here, and I hope that this series encourages you. We've entitled this The Secret Place, and it is all about prayer, and I said this earlier, but I think if we were all honest before God here today, all of us can improve our prayer life to some degree, and all of us have room for improvement when it comes to prayer. If you're wondering about prayer, it's really not this magical thing. In fact, prayer is simply this. It's a relational communication that we have with with God. It is the means by which we ask God to bring His power and His kingdom down on earth. The goal of prayer is really for God to reach down and touch humanity, and for us to experience a little bit of heaven on earth. Now when we think about that, heaven on earth, how many of you that sounds pretty good here today?

Raise your hand, okay? I think all of us would would agree that, hey listen, a little bit of heaven down on earth sounds sounds awesome. If praying is the way that we can get heaven to come down on on earth, then yeah, sign me up.

I'm all in on that. I don't think anybody in here would say we don't want that, but the difference is so few of us do, through prayer, what it takes for heaven to actually come down here on this earth. Everybody wants it, but few of us are committed to do it. So you say, why don't we pray? I think there's a bunch of different reasons why we don't pray more often, and to be honest with you, if you look across even church leaders and things like this, this is beyond you. I think prayer is is really something that a lot of people struggle with, from the ones who are in leadership, to see if you're just coming and attending and not even a member of our church. Listen, prayer is something that is universally, I think, a struggle in the Christian life, and I'll be honest with you, I have room as your pastor to improve on on praying, and God is teaching me things, but as I looked at this, I was thinking, why don't we pray? And a few things popped into my head, and some of these are true to me, we don't really value prayer like we should. Let me just say this, that you know, here's a terrible excuse, if your first reason why you don't pray is I do not have the time for it, that is an absolute terrible excuse. And here's why, because we make time for what we value the most.

We do. We make time for what we value the most, and so if you don't pray, it simply because you do not value that relationship the way that you should. Or how about this, we don't believe, and you can be honest today, we might not believe that prayer does any good. Think about it, you know, we believe in the sovereignty of God, we believe God has a plan, God has a purpose, and everything's going to work out according to his purpose, and perhaps you have prayed for something that did not happen the way you want. We've all probably been there, where we went to God and we begged God maybe to heal, and he chose not to, or we begged him to, you know, save this person and he chose not to, or whatever, you fill in the blank for whatever you prayed for, and it did not happen. And so today you would say, hey pastor, this is really the reason why I don't pray, is does prayer do any good?

Does it actually work? Does it matter if I pray or not? Let me remind you that prayer is not about getting our will done here on this earth, it is about asking God to do his will down here on this this earth. You know, we pray for the craziest things from time to time, don't we? I know I do, you know, many of us pray for our sports teams, right?

Some of us, like last year, I'm not even going to say who I pull for, but I needed more prayer than ever before last year. And let me tell you this, some of us pray for sports teams or some of us, the extent of our prayer time, the only time you really talk to God is to bless a meal before you eat. Some of us pray for parking spaces, right? You pray and then you find a good parking space and you're like, thank you, Holy Spirit, right? And then you walk in and there's a ton of people who have never prayed a day in their life and they were just a notch closer to the door than you were.

What does that mean for you? We pray for good grades on our test. When I was growing up, you know, I grew up in church and they would always tell me, you know, they would say, hey, God cares about everything that you care about and so bring every need to him.

And so I would wait all week and I wouldn't study for the test at all and I would show up to school and before, you know, as the teacher's telling us the instructions, telling us to put away all of our notes and everything and she's starting to pass them out, I'd say a quick prayer and say, God, God, God, I need you now more than ever before. And I pray for good grades on test and we pray, I know this is a prayer in our household a lot, we pray that my wife would find her phone or that she would find her keys, right? And those are the things we're constantly praying for stuff like that, right? And some of us, that's the extent of our prayer time is some of the things that I mentioned and one thing that I'm learning that I want to propose to you over these next several weeks is prayer is supposed to be much deeper than bringing our to-do list to God. It's much deeper than you just coming to God with the 10 things or the 20 things that you want him to do in your life, God, I need you to heal my dog, God, I need you to heal my broken toe or God, I need you to do this, I need you to do this, I need you to work this out, I need you to do this and remove this in my life, God, I need you to do this. And what I want you to know, God cares about all those things so if that's the extent of your prayer time, I don't want you to leave and be like, wow, pastor was just harping on me. I want you to understand that prayer is supposed to be much deeper than just that.

Prayer is supposed to be much deeper than just you going to God with a to-do list. Think about your relationship if you're married in here today. What if I just every day woke up and the extent of my relationship with Abby is just, hey, Abby, each morning, hey, I need you to do these 10 things and then we're good and I don't speak to her the rest of the day. Do you think that will go well? How many of you think that would go well?

Anybody? Okay, you're smart. Listen, it wouldn't go well because that's not a relationship but yet that is a lot of times how we treat our relationship with with God and that's the extent of our prayer time. Prayer should not just be you bringing your to-do list to God. Prayer should actually be fundamental to everything you do in life.

It should be the center of everything that you do in life. When you go to work, pray. When you go to school, pray. Before the test, pray. After the test, pray.

When you go to the doctor's office, pray. Everything that we do should be bathed in prayer. Listen, I think if we were to look at the early church we'd find that that they got this way more than the church of today gets it. Don't believe me, Acts chapter one, when when Jesus ascended up into up into heaven and uh you know he's gone up into heaven and the apostles are sitting there and they're kind of like he told us to wait here for the comforter to come and they're they don't really know what that means and and so what do they do they could have left and and he just commissioned them to go and and share the message of Jesus with the world they could have done a lot of different things honestly if I was sitting there and I watched Jesus go up and he left me with a job to do my first response would have been like okay we need to go into town and we need to start preaching we need to start sharing you know all this different stuff but you know what they did Acts chapter 1 verse 14 says that they all continued they gathered together right after he left they continued with one accord in prayer and supplication Acts 1 24 when they had to replace Judas as as the apostle because Judas betrayed him they bathed that it says they prayed for guidance on choosing an apostle to replace Judas Acts 2 verse 42 remember at Pentecost when 3,000 people were saved how amazing would that have been what did they do after that did they start their discipleship program did they you know do a membership class did they have starting point back then what did they do they prayed all 3,000 of them gathered together and continued steadfastly in prayer Acts chapter 4 when the apostles began to face persecution it says that they praised they they prayed to the father in the midst of their persecution and in the midst of their prayer they actually praised God that he would kelp them worthy to to to allow them to suffer persecution Acts chapter 6 verse 4 when the church was growing and the church was growing and there were too many members coming into the church and and they didn't know what to do and and so the leaders there the preachers the apostles they they appointed seven men to kind of care for the widows and to do the work of the of the ministry why so that the pastors could devote themselves to prayer and to studying of the of the word of God you see how they valued it they valued prayer it wasn't just this to-do list thing it was something that they realized they were absolutely nothing without the prayer to God in their life they were desperate for it Acts chapter 9 Tabitha she she uh was sick and it says that that Peter came and prayed for her to be healed and she was Acts chapter 12 when Peter got thrown into prison and he was in prison in the middle of the night the church was praying continuously and and in the middle of the night God answered their prayer and and as Peter escaped from prison with an angel of God and came to the house to where all of them were gathered together praying they were still praying there together Acts 13 they prayed and laid hands on on new people that were being commissioned to go out and do the work of the of the ministry you see I could go on and on through the book of Acts and see that the early church understood that they were absolutely nothing without prayer they were nothing that they could not face each and every day without praying to God and and and that's the same desperation that's the same attitude that that we need the point is this prayer should be fundamental and central in everything in your life it shouldn't be just a moment in the morning or a moment before the meal or or just this moment that that you just throw up a couple petitions to God it should be at the center of everything that you that you do it's more than just something you say before before prayer before bed at night or before a meal it should be at the center of everything so if you if you're in here and and you feel like man I really my prayer life needs to improve then guess what you are not alone in fact everybody in here our prayer lives need to improve but the apostles they struggled with prayer as well the people that were walking with Jesus who saw Jesus perform miracles who who saw him heal people and and saw him you know feed five thousand people they still struggled and did not understand prayer and that's where we come to luke chapter 11 luke chapter 11 we see them ask a really good question something you might have never asked in your life here today you see the people closest to Jesus asking this verse one of luke chapter 11 and it came to pass that as he was praying jesus was praying in a certain place when he ceased one of his disciples said unto him lord teach us to pray as john also taught his disciples so so here's the setting i want you to put yourself in in this position and so jesus is praying and and the disciples are are watching him pray they're they're sitting there they're watching jesus pray which is so fascinating if you think about it jesus is the very son of god he came from heaven to to earth and he's there and yet he even values the importance and models before it's the importance of prayer to god and the disciples are sitting there watching and and i can imagine it's like you know when i was growing up we used to attend prayer meetings all the time so my church that i was growing up in they would have these prayer meetings and my dad would take me as a young kid and so i would go to these prayer meetings and and they were different than maybe what you've experienced and they would all like get together around the altar in the church and they would all pray at the very same time out loud how many of you have ever been in a moment like that okay few of you in here you grew up maybe like i did well that's what i did and so as a kid i was always i'd go and and my dad would be like okay we're gonna go up here and pray so i'd go up there and pray and i i would close my eyes and then the first you know they'd all start praying and i would kind of as a kid i would kind of look around to see who's praying and as a kid i would think okay he's a really good prayer so i really i need to learn to pray like that and he you know this guy i don't even know what he's saying so you know it's like okay that's the stay away from that guy's prayer and as a kid i would watch and and i would see these things and i imagined that that the apostles they're sitting there and they're watching jesus pray and and they're like man that's what we want and by the way they could have asked him to teach them to do anything they could have said hey lord teach us to teach like you can teach us to preach like you can teach us to heal god we just saw you feed 5 000 people hey teach us to do that i really want to learn to do that he could have they could have asked anything but yet the thing that set them apart is they were interested in how jesus prayed literally they're asking him not just to teach them how to pray they're asking him hey teach us to pray we want to learn to pray but also we want to pray like like you pray so he said to them verse 2 jesus says when you pray and we know this passage well our father which art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done as in heaven so in earth this also is recorded in matthew chapter 6 and and matthew chapter 6 jesus he he's talking to the apostles and he's sharing with them and and he actually recites the same this same prayer the same model the lord's prayer that that many of you can recite and that i can recite he recites this exact same thing but before he gets into it in matthew chapter 6 jesus actually added some things to it he said this when you pray go into your room and shut the door isn't that interesting he says listen prayer is first private before it's public you see he said hey go into your room and shut the door that's where your real prayer warriors are found let me tell you this i think it's cool there's a lot of really great praying people in churches but let me say this what's done in here is much different the real prayer warriors that set them apart is what is done in their closet when the door is shut when they're on their knees before god that's where your prayer warriors are built and jesus tells the apostles he says listen go into your room and shut the door because you don't want to be like the pharisees because they're hypocrites they just go out into the world and they just they they go out into the streets and they they pray and all all they want is to be seen of men they just want the attention of men and and guess what they got their reward the attention of men what they were going after that's their reward so he says something totally different he tells the apostles hey go into your room shut the door that's where prayer warriors are built and then he goes and he says what we have also recorded here in luke 11 when he prays say our father which art in heaven he starts with hey remember when you go to the lord in prayer remember who you are addressing remember who you are really addressing you're addressing your father relationship every time we say our father it should remind you that you are a child of the king of kings you're a child of the father he says remember who you are addressing that's the first thing you do is recognize who you are talking to our father which art in heaven hallowed be thy name your kingdom come your will be done as in heaven so as in earth in other words pray his will not your own verse three give us day by day our daily bread in other words provide for our daily needs and forgive us our sins for we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us examine us cleanse us then he goes on jesus is saying lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil and so he says this the lord's prayer that many of us know and then he goes on here in verse five and and he begins this parable which you know you know a parable is just a story it's an earthly story has a heavenly meaning and jesus is trying to teach them something and so he goes a little bit further perhaps he's looking at the apostles and he's saying okay they don't get it and so i need to take this a step further and so verse five he says and he said unto them which of you shall have a friend and shall go unto him at midnight and say unto him friend lend me three loaves now remember this they didn't have electricity like you and i have they they weren't up at midnight watching netflix and and watching videos and different things like that they didn't have any of those things and so at midnight they'd already been asleep for several hours so like they're they're sound asleep in their home and everybody's out and jesus says think about it this way think of prayer like this which of you you should have a friend and and say that friend comes to you at midnight and knocks on your door at midnight after you are in the deepest sleep possible and knocks on your door and say hey hey can i borrow three loaves three loaves of bread how many of you hate being woken up at night okay a few of us and listen he says think about it this way verse six and he said gives a reason why he needs the three loaves for a friend of mine and his journey has come to me and i have nothing to set before him in other words man i have guessed and i have nothing all the grocery stores are out amazon i didn't know that they were coming or else i would have ordered amazon a couple days ago for everything that they need and he comes to them he's desperate he has absolutely nothing and this friend he has nothing to feed him nothing's open hey neighbor can i have or lend me three loaves verse seven and he from within shall answer and say trouble me not the door is now shut and my children are with me in bed i cannot rise and and give thee back then most of them would stay in one room together the entire family and he says hey listen kids are asleep i have nothing can't you make it till morning but verse eight i say unto you though he will not rise and give him because he is a friend yet for him or because of his importunity that word just means persistence because of his persistence he will rise and give him as many as he needeth so jesus is telling the story and he says hey this this neighbor who his door you know somebody's knocked on his door comes asking for three loaves he's not going to give it to him just because he's a friend he's actually going to give it to him because this guy is persistent and he's not stopping and he's being bold with what he is is asking so therefore i'm going to give him as many as he needeth verse nine he goes back to the disciples and he said and i say unto you ask and it shall be given you seek and you shall find knock and it shall be opened unto you for everyone that asketh receiveth and he that seeketh findeth and to him that knocketh it shall be opened if a son shall ask bread of any of you that is the father will he give him a stone in other words he says listen if your child comes to to the dad any of you guys and and say hey listen can i have some bread you're not going to hand him a stone no i mean as dads we're going to give him a good gift or or perhaps he comes and asks for fish are you going to just respond and and hand him a serpent hand him a snake i definitely wouldn't because i hate snakes and so he says hey listen are you no no parents are going to do that or if he shall ask an egg will you offer him a scorpion so he goes on he says listen none of us are going to do that verse 13 if ye then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children he gets real direct you say what exactly does that does that mean he says even on our worst days we're still going to give good gifts to our kids because we're their their parents he says if you then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children come on how much more shall your heavenly father give the holy spirit to them that ask him he says listen if if you as a as an evil sinful parent are still going to give good gifts to your kids how much more is our heavenly father going to give us in life listen the in this story this is such a fascinating story to me as i was reading this there's three attitudes that i wanted to start this series with three attitudes that we have to approach jesus or approach our father in prayer that i want you to get i encourage if you don't take notes in church i encourage you write these down put them in your phone whatever it'll help you remember because these are three attitudes each and every day i want you to remember these three attitudes from this parable and i want you to remember this so that when you approach the throne of god you can approach it with these three attitudes the first one is this attitude number one is this persistency persistency verse eight he said i say unto you though he will not rise and give him because he is his friend yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth that word importunity means earnestness it carries on the idea of persistence it's talking about shameless persistence it's the idea that we are going to keep asking without shame we're not going to stop we're going to to continue in fact if you look at the new testament the phrase pray always or praying always is mentioned five different times you see the idea of praying should not be just coming to god one time with something it should be this continual conversation this continual relationship this continual persistent ask to him how many of us pray for something once and then we forget all about it are you like me do you do that from time to time i know that's my prayer life a lot of times i'll come to god say hey god i need some wisdom here and then next thing you know i forget all about it and i go on through life and i don't bring the same thing to god the idea of prayer or the attitude of prayer in scripture in the new testament is that we should be persistent in prayer to our father you should be shamelessly confident when you go to the father just like this man in the parable shows up at his neighbor's house after they've been asleep and knocks on his door and asks for three loaves of bread you see that same confidence that should be the way that you approach the father and so we should go to him remember acts chapter 12 i referenced this earlier when peter was stuck in prison and and uh and they put all these guards around him there were so many soldiers around him that that he could never be released on his own it's going to take a miracle an act of god and so what did the church do the church gets together and and they get into a house and their reason for gathering is hey we're going to pray for peter until god releases him we're going to just keep praying so i imagine they get in there and they're on their knees praying before god and and they're taking a break and grabbing water and then they go back into the room and they're praying and praying and they're begging god god please please release our friend peter god god we need you to release peter he's impacted us and in fact he probably led a lot of them to the lord at that time and and they're begging god god he doesn't deserve this please have mercy upon peter and so they're praying and they're praying and they're praying and in the midst of their praying they don't even realize it but god is behind the scenes working and so he shows up he sends an angel to to that prison cell and everybody falls asleep and the chains fall off and peter literally gets led out of prison by an angel and they're still praying they don't know god's already answering his prayer they're just still on their knees persistently begging god to do what is on their their heart and and so peter goes out and he doesn't know what to do he gets into the street and he finally comes to himself he finally realizes okay this is not a dream you know he's probably pinching himself the whole way out of prison and he shows up into the streets and and he he finally comes to himself and he's like man i don't know where to go and so i'm just gonna go do you know to my friend's house you know that where they're all all gathered praying he didn't even know and he knocks and and the girl comes to the to the gate and and she sees him and she sees him and doesn't even realize it's him and uh scared to death she thinks it's a ghost and so she runs back in and i imagine peter's just still knocking at the gate like hey listen they're about to come find me search warrants my picture is going to be going up all over the community and i got to really get into somewhere or else they're going to find me because i just broke out of out of prison with an angel of god she's knocking and the girl runs back in and and says hey listen everybody stop praying for just a second god answered our prayer peter is at the gate you see the same persistency they had probably prayed for hours upon hours upon hours for the very same thing here's the point is that you and i when we approach the throne i want to challenge you be persistent in your prayer i want you to be persistent in your prayer let me tell you this if the person you're praying for has not been healed yet keep on praying keep praying do not stop if you've prayed a hundred times let me encourage you keep on praying take it to the lord each and every day if your marriage that you've been praying for has not been restored and you just have given up all hope on that let me tell you this take it to the lord in prayer do not stop praying keep bringing it before god keep shamelessly staying confident to him bringing it before him for the hundredth and two hundredth and three hundredth time keep praying if the person you've been praying for hasn't accepted christ yet let me tell you this keep on praying don't stop don't give up stay persistent if your job hasn't worked out yet keep on praying let me tell you this i have some people praying for revival in our church let me tell you this if it hasn't happened yet keep on praying for it do not stop praying for those things many of you you have prayed i've heard your your comments and and things we have prayed for years and years and years about our church moving to this new property down the street right and many of you you you used to pray for those things and we've stopped it's like we've given up it's like we've given up on god and and we're just like ah man we'll never see it and so we've stopped all together and you probably can't even remember the last time you got on your face before god and asked him to do something supernatural at union grove baptist church something that the entire community feels the weight of it let me tell you this if you stop praying for those things keep on praying listen we need to be persistent in our prayer that's the attitude for for what we need to do second attitude is this desperation not only do we need to pray persistently we need to pray out of desperation this neighbor he was out of options there's nowhere for him to get bread nowhere he couldn't go to the store there's nobody else so he showed up at his neighbor's door at midnight the middle of the night after they'd been sleeping and he knocked and guess what one loaf of bread would have probably been enough but he asked for three loaves of bread desperation desperation listen this man was out of options and this was his last resort i'll tell you this this is what i'm learning as much as anything else that i say today this is what your pastor is learning i don't think that we can become people of prayer until we actually become desperate before god that that's the only option for us as long as you think you can still do life on your own you're not going to be a person of prayer as long as i think i can still be a really good pastor on my own then i'm not going to be able to be a person of prayer you see the point of this whole story is this is that you are absolutely nothing without jesus in your life you are nothing without him and so let me tell you this you want to know what attitude you need to come before god it's not just persistency it's this attitude out of desperation saying god i'm nothing without you you need to wake up each and every day recognizing that you are in desperate need of the goodness and grace and mercy and power of an almighty god in your life in every single situation that you cannot work at your job you cannot do what you're called to do you cannot lead anybody to jesus in and of yourself you cannot heal people in and of yourself no you need to realize that with god whatever you want to see happen is possible and we need to come to him out of this attitude of desperation that we are absolutely nothing without him and we need to just throw ourselves at his throne at the mercy and grace and goodness of almighty god saying god i can do nothing without you lead god and direct me in every single step of the way today listen if you're not to that point today i want to remind you that without him you can do nothing you can do nothing you might think you're pretty good at what you're doing on your own but let me tell you this it's by the grace and mercy and goodness of almighty god that where you're where you're at here today and you need to come to him out of desperation think about it this man he had no other option so the only option for him to provide for these people who showed up at his house that he had no food for him the only option was man i'm gonna have to go next door i'm gonna have to knock on the door in florida we used to live in one of those real strict hoa neighborhoods how many of you have ever lived in one of those before okay so we lived in a real strict hoa neighborhood and so like we had bible studies in our house all the time and and it was one of those neighborhoods where when you had a lot of cars on the street your neighbors would always like jump onto the local facebook page and talk bad about you but they wouldn't call you out by name they would just say hey there's this house they take pictures of your house pictures of your cars and they'd throw them on there and then we'd see them it was just wild and they'd be mad because you blocked like their mailbox and i'm like it's sunday night mel's not coming tonight okay you're good right and um and so but we were in this neighborhood and and um and we didn't have a lot of room to to to roam and and so in our backyard it was really small we had this white fence around it and um and so we uh we would bring all the cousins over and so this was like 10 people and and so and so everybody would would come over to the backyard and and uh and we i mean we had hardly any room and my my cousins are mostly comprised of of boys and so when they would get back there the only thing they want to do is like play baseball or kickball or throw a football or something well they didn't have a lot of room and these are kids and so they would uh they would all be gathered you know uh in the backyard we'd be inside and one of them would come inside and they would say or my my son would come and say dad i'm so sorry we threw a ball over over the fence to that neighbor's yard that's what we referred to my neighbor on the left that neighbor because they they they didn't like us a whole lot because we always had people over at our house in fact if you want to tell me that i'm lying here today we would throw balls over there and then i would you know kind of casually go to the next door and he has delivered me a soccer ball of my son's that his dog just completely destroyed holes in it and everywhere and he said here's your ball don't let it happen again he he installed like like you know motion lights and everything and so if we ever you know were barely on their driveway riding bikes or something i would get a message like hey stay off my driveway that kind of guy it was wild he needs the grace and mercy of almighty god today okay but you can imagine every time my kids i would literally look at my son we've had conversations like this i would be like cameron you know you kick it on that side so if it goes over that side of the fence it doesn't matter they're nice this side of the fence they're good no problem at all you go to that side of the fence and that's like going to the bad place we don't go there if you've ever seen the movie the sandlot that's how it was for me it was just like i don't want to go over there i'm scared and terrified to go over that right over this fifth so there was times when we would all be together and and uh so i'd be like okay i'll do this and i'd stress out you know i hate confrontation and and i feel like i can talk with most people and so i'd go over there and and uh and i would do it but listen the only time i would ever go is if i was desperate exactly like i would ask cameron which ball was it like do we need that ball like like i would say it costs thirty dollars dad i'd much rather go pay 30 bucks for another ball than go next door to my my neighbor the only time i was ever going to knock on his door was when i am completely desperate and it is the last resort that i that i have listen i want you to know that out of that same desperation we should come to our father each and every day but he should not be your last resort he should be your very first option when you wake up in the morning you need to say hey god listen i'm absolutely nothing without you i need the grace and mercy and goodness to flow throughout me today god i need your will to be done in my life today god here's a few things i would love for you to do but listen i want to walk in the spirit each and every moment of the day i am nothing without you do you come to god with that kind of desperation do you come to god with that kind of persistence and then the third one and finally is boldness boldness you see in verse 13 he says if you then being evil know how to good give give good gifts unto your children how much more shall your heavenly father give the holy spirit to them that ask him you see the point is that we are at our most loving when it comes to our kids and so he says listen think about it this way you know how your kids are with you as the father even on your worst day you love your kids and you're going to give them good gifts right like i'm sure you as a parent when your kids are terrible in the month of december you might say things like you might say hey you're not getting any christmas presents but then you still get them christmas presents right we were at myrtle beach this past week and my kids were not being the best in the world but we were driving there was a couple stores on the main strip and they were saying like end of blow end of summer sale and you probably never heard of them like these places called wings you know what i'm talking about they had huge sales like never before sales okay i'm sarcastic okay i get it i had to explain to my kids when we walked in they said um lindley said dad the sign out front said nothing over 5.99 and i walked in here and there's a ton of things over 5.99 and i said you see that corner over there there's like three racks that says nothing over 5.99 that's what they meant they just did that to coerce us it get us into this building right so that we buy stuff and so but my kids don't realize that and so we go in there and um and so my daughter she couldn't decide on what she wanted and so she was kind of being disrespectful she's gonna be frustrated she wanted um you know the two for one thing but it was way more money and i was like look we're not spending that you can get one thing that's all you can get and and so she's kind of being frustrated or whatever and at the end of the day i literally i left there and i told abby in the car i was like we shouldn't have got her anything she didn't deserve it but yet she's wearing a myrtle beach sweatshirt for the next three days right it's like we still give good gifts to our kids even though they don't deserve it and before you grandparents look at us parents and say you guys are bad parents nobody does this more this verse more than grandparents right kids are terrible and grandparents like i get you whatever they're just a child you know i'm like mom you didn't treat me that way you know and so they they're like he's like hey listen you're never more good than when it's your your kids and so he and then he kind of really drops this truth bomb on his apostles he says listen compared to the father's love for you even on your very best day as a parent it doesn't even compare to the father's love for you even on my best day as a parent even when my kids are awesome and even when i'm just generous and giving them whatever guess what i still do not even compare to our heavenly father and he says listen be bold think about this story he asked for three loaves one would have probably been enough he showed up you know in the middle of the night they've been asleep for several hours i i'll say this you know like my kids i don't like for them to wake me or abby up in the middle of the night you know when they're young and they come in and they ask for something in the middle of the night and you i do what other good dads do abby go help them if you're not married yet write in your bible don't do this right but listen you know we we do different things for our kids when they show up it's like hey listen yes i'll go get you a drink of water yes i'll go turn something on you know music if they needed it yes i'll go do this we get out of bed and we we do it and we help them why because they're our kids we love them but listen nobody's more bold at two in the morning to come in our room and say hey dad i know you're sleeping i need some apple juice i mean i'm thinking you can get through the morning without apple juice right but listen the kids they're shamelessly bold and confident they walk into my room into my presence and it does not even matter why they're my kids if you walk into my room at three in the morning there's a problem right because you're not my my kids and so like when if you walk in i'm gonna be like hey listen go get your apple juice yourself you know not gonna do that but but for my kids i'm i'm gonna do what what they are asking because i'm their father and and they're my kids and and i love them and and i want to help them and i want to give them good gifts and and so when they come to me with this shameless confidence and this persistence and they're just asking for something i want to as their father given and and jesus says this and we'll close with this he said do you see the point apostles do you see how you are with your kids because that doesn't even compare to the father that don't even compare you know what you need to treat god like just like kids show up in your room at three in the morning and don't care if you're sound asleep they don't care about anything they're going to show up shamelessly confident and persistent and bold because they're your kids he says listen apostles you show up to the father and get into his presence and whatever it is that you need you can come to him and you can share with him and you come to him with that shame same shameless confidence and persistence and boldness that the neighbor showed up at the house at three and midnight and said hey i need a little bit of food how crazy of a story is that he said listen at midnight you show up with whatever needs you have to our heavenly father and you've never experienced the goodness and mercy and grace that he is we only know earthly goodness and he said the father his love for you does not even compare he says come to us persistently come to us boldly you know the scripture promises that god will move if we pray second chronicle 714 if my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then i'll hear from heaven i'll forgive their sin away of their land we read verses like this first john 5 14 this is the confidence that we have in him that if we ask anything according to his will he hear with us luke 11 9 what we saw in this passage ask and it shall be given you seek you shall find knock and it shall be open unto you listen i don't know what you're praying for today but i want you to be persistent i want you to be bold and i want you to come to him in shameless confidence because you have a father that loves you so i'm going to ask you this it'll be up on the screen i want you to think about this god i ask you to do blank what is it what is it god i ask you to heal somebody that you've been praying for god i ask you to restore my marriage that has fallen apart god i have a wayward child i need you desperate god i want you to send revival god i have a child who doesn't know you as their lord and personal savior i have a friend who doesn't and god this is what i want you to do god says if you come to me consistently and persistently if you come to me boldlessly and come to me with no shame listen it doesn't matter if it's midnight he heareth us and if we come to him he is a good god and he's going to give you good things doesn't mean that everything's going to work out your way so i don't want you to hear me wrong but i'm telling you if you pray that way you're going to start to find that his will is what you want more than anything else so start praying continue praying some of you have stopped praying you need to keep praying you need to get back to praying and you need to keep every single day recognizing that you are desperate without god and you need to come to him in boldness just like a kid in the middle of the night no shame that's the kind of father we have would you stand with me nobody looking