00:00:00:30 – 00:00:24:04
Clint Loveall
Hey, everybody. Thanks for joining us. Closing out the week with us. Grateful to have you with us as we continue through the Book of Luke. Sorry about yesterday. So as we come to the text today, probably have to do a little bit of memory work if you were with us on Tuesday. Tuesday, we covered Jesus’s version of the Lord’s Prayer in the Gospel of Luke, a condensed version of the shortened version.

00:00:24:09 – 00:00:40:24
Clint Loveall
And the reason I bring that up is not so much the prayer itself, though I do think that version of the prayer is very interesting, and if you haven’t listened to it, we’d love for you to go back and pick that one up at some point. But I bring it up because today we have really it’s written as a continuation.

00:00:40:24 – 00:01:06:52
Clint Loveall
As we move into verse five, it says, and he said to them, and that’s written as if Jesus continues this conversation. Now, we don’t always know if that’s how the actual words happened in real time or whether this is what Luke is doing with them. But the point of this is that this next passage is a continuation of what Jesus has already said about prayer.

00:01:06:54 – 00:01:24:52
Clint Loveall
So let’s go through it a little ways. And he said to them, Suppose one of you has a friend and you go to him at midnight and say to him, Friend, lend me three loaves of bread for a friend of mine has arrived and I have nothing to set before him. And he answers from within, Don’t bother me.

00:01:24:52 – 00:01:54:45
Clint Loveall
The door has already been locked and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything I tell you. Even though he will not get up and give him anything because he’s a friend, at least of his. Because of his persistence, he will get up and give him whatever he needs. So there’s a similar story in other gospels about a woman who hounds a judge.

00:01:54:46 – 00:02:25:50
Clint Loveall
There are parables about this idea of persistence. I don’t know, Michael. This is this is a little bit tricky because this isn’t the most positive idea of prayer. The idea of, you know, beating down a friend till he does what you want him to do. But the point here, really, if we could talk about this in two sections, the Lord’s Prayer gives the disciples a sense of how to pray, of what prayer is of of the mechanism of prayer.

00:02:25:55 – 00:03:00:23
Clint Loveall
And now we get a word about the persistence of prayer, the way that we are to hang in there with prayer, even when the thing we’ve prayed for maybe doesn’t immediately come to pass. And so it is a strange example for Jesus to give. I’ll grant you that. But I think the real idea here is to be people of not just of prayer, but of persistent and consistent prayer, and not to let anyone or anything dissuade us in that.

00:03:00:23 – 00:03:13:46
Clint Loveall
And there’s a few more words on this as Jesus goes. But I think at least that’s where we start, Michael, that there is an encouragement here to endure and stay the course in regard to our prayers.

00:03:13:51 – 00:03:42:10
Michael Gewecke
Because prayer is a practice of the faith that we are called to practice with perseverance and steadfastness. I do think that it’s interesting here, Clint, that when Jesus wants to follow the Lord’s Prayer, he does not do so with a instruction manual on tone or consistency. You know, how often should I pray? What should I sound like when I pray?

00:03:42:12 – 00:04:06:02
Michael Gewecke
In fact, I think a lot of our anxieties about prayer I’ve heard over my time in the church, folks who don’t feel comfortable praying in public. Certainly a lot of those anxieties are rooted in the the esthetics of prayer, what it sounds like or what we have to say while we’re praying. Jesus teaches the Lord’s Prayer. We discussed that in our last episode and now here today.

00:04:06:07 – 00:04:31:21
Michael Gewecke
I think it’s just striking that what Jesus has to say about prayer is that it’s going to require dedicated effort, that it’s not a one and done kind of situation that one should not expect. When we approach God that one prayer is going to solve the problem. It’s not that kind of vending machine idea that if you put the coin in and you push the button, the thing will happen.

00:04:31:35 – 00:04:53:24
Michael Gewecke
Prayer is a practice throughout our lifetime, and I think in many ways we’re learning in a parable like this, Clint, that prayer is by definition relational, that that idea of calling this person coming to the house looking for bread, a friend, I think tips us off to this is how Jesus expects when we call God Father. We said that last time.

00:04:53:24 – 00:05:17:54
Michael Gewecke
How scandalous of a relational kind of statement that is when we conceive of prayer as that persistence required to keep at the door knocking until that bread is going to be given that that’s the kind of spirit and intentionality that we need to enter into our lives of prayer. I do think that begins to help us, Clint, sort of understand the lesson of the first prayer.

00:05:17:54 – 00:05:35:55
Michael Gewecke
The Lord’s Prayer helps us to understand that this is truly a daily prayer. It’s a our constant return to that important thing. It’s not a thing that we should be surprised when when it requires more and more effort as time goes on to keep our petitions going.

00:05:36:00 – 00:06:03:29
Clint Loveall
Yeah, I it could. You know, I want to be clear. We’ve told you that we’ll try to be honest about when we’re leaving the text. And I think perhaps I’m doing that to some extent here. Michael, I want to balance this because if all you had was this text, you could believe that what we’re taught about prayer is don’t quit until you get what you want.

00:06:03:34 – 00:06:28:45
Clint Loveall
I don’t think that’s the message, but I think it’s half the message. I do think the message of don’t quit is in the text. I don’t think the guarantee of until you get what you want is necessary necessarily biblical in the overall picture. And I think if you if you tried to read that into this, you will inevitably end up disappointed.

00:06:28:49 – 00:06:59:40
Clint Loveall
But I do think there is a sense here in which Jesus is saying prayer takes work. Prayer takes sticking with it. Prayer takes perseverance. And don’t give up. Don’t quit. Don’t back down. Be bold in prayer. Be can consist. Stand in prayer. Be constant in prayer. Now, again, that’s a lot to build on. One very strange kind of parable.

00:06:59:45 – 00:07:12:31
Clint Loveall
But if we hear the overall picture, I think those are the kind of messages we get. And again, though, Jesus gets there by way of an odd route, I think that’s where we end up.

00:07:12:36 – 00:07:30:52
Michael Gewecke
Well, Clint, one temptation in reading a text like this might be that this is a how to book on prayer. It’s kind of like a this is how you get from God what you want kind of story. And I don’t actually think it is that. I think that this is a story whose intention is to teach us something about God.

00:07:30:52 – 00:08:06:36
Michael Gewecke
In other words, that when we come to God, we need to come to God as if he’s already on our side, that God is wanting to do good things for us, that is going to be even more spelled out as we continue on in this passage. But I think it’s worth noting that already here, the parable makes it clear that God is like a friend, that there’s already a warmth and positive relationship in going and making the supplication, asking for the things that we need, that that is not a confrontational or a bargaining type relationship.

00:08:06:36 – 00:08:29:40
Michael Gewecke
It’s really one in which you come with the relationship already there. You asked, and that has something to say about who God is, that God is for you, that when you come to pray, you don’t need to bend God to your good, God loves you and that good is already there. But don’t be surprised that you still have to persevere in the prayer you meet.

00:08:29:52 – 00:08:42:52
Michael Gewecke
God is in this parable, has the thing that you need, but you’re expected to come back and ask him to be persistent in that desire, realizing that there’s more to it than what we see.

00:08:42:57 – 00:09:03:16
Clint Loveall
And Jesus is not here saying that that God is the friend. We have to be careful with this kind of parable like passages that we understand there is a primary point. And here the primary point is don’t give up. What this doesn’t say is that even if God doesn’t care about you, if you pester him long enough, he’ll respond.

00:09:03:21 – 00:09:28:01
Clint Loveall
This is not, you know, the kid in the grocery store who can’t take No. And his mom finally says yes because he’s screaming and bothering everybody. This is even if the friend won’t get up out of friendship, he will get up out of the man’s persistence. And that’s important because it can’t be separated from what comes next. Jesus starts verse nine with.

00:09:28:06 – 00:09:53:13
Clint Loveall
So I say to you, In other words, if even a friend will get up when another friend is persistent. So I say to you, ask and it will be given to you search and you will find knock and the door will be open for you. For everyone who asks, receives, everyone who searches, finds, and everyone who knocks the door will be open.

00:09:53:18 – 00:10:12:52
Clint Loveall
Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, would give a snake instead? Or if the child asks for an egg, would you give a scorpion? If then you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?

00:10:12:57 – 00:10:42:31
Clint Loveall
So this is really the complementary part of the previous text. I say to you Ask search and knock. And this is remarkably invitational. This is a promise. In other words, if if we as humans can be, can respond to persistence and we can give good gifts, then how much more the Heavenly Father would respond to us and be good to us.

00:10:42:32 – 00:11:13:10
Clint Loveall
And this, I think, is subtle. Michael, But in saying this, you know, we had the shape of prayer. Now we have had the call to be persistent. And now finally, I think we get to the heart of prayer, which is trust the the trust to include gone in our life, to ask to seek, to find, and then the promise that God is the giver of good gifts.

00:11:13:15 – 00:11:28:45
Clint Loveall
Now there’s a caveat on that, and we’ll have to circle back to it. But I think if we hear this, it is a remarkably invitational and B, it connects prayer with trust in a powerful and meaningful way.

00:11:28:49 – 00:11:53:46
Michael Gewecke
I think that there’s a really fascinating turn in this text and I want to look at it together here. Look in verse eight, this is the end of verse eight because of his persistence, the one who’s come to the door, the owner or the friend will get up and give him whatever he needs. Now, the stories about bread, but I love this phrase, whatever he needs now, let’s move on.

00:11:53:51 – 00:12:18:46
Michael Gewecke
The end a verse 13 where Jesus is really laying out this teaching. Look at what Jesus says. How much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him? So the friend is going to make sure that they get whatever they need. It seems very striking and interesting that then at the end of 13 we have that need being replaced with the idea of the Holy Spirit.

00:12:18:46 – 00:12:49:18
Michael Gewecke
So much of us think of prayer as God. I need an answer to this. I have this financial concern. I have this health concern. I have this relational breakage. I have this addiction. We have all of these things that we would bring to God as a supplication or as a request. And what’s striking to me is the core need might be if we’re going to actually boil it down, that we need the spirit of God living in us, that when God answers prayer, God is present with us.

00:12:49:19 – 00:13:20:15
Michael Gewecke
That is the answered prayer that God is in the middle of our life. Carry us in the moments when we can’t carry ourselves disciplining us in the moment where we air this idea of the spirit being the answer. The prayer, I think, is a very deep and powerful re-imagining of those things that came before. Because if we imagine God to be transactional, that’s not the kind of God that I see Jesus laying out and inviting us to consider at the end of this teaching.

00:13:20:20 – 00:13:44:03
Clint Loveall
Yeah, absolutely. And I think again, Michael, I think that is the corrective. I think Jesus and Luke here lay out a kind of natural protection, a barrier here in the text, because, you know, again, if you tried to take these verses and stand on them alone, what does it say? Ask and it will be given. That sounds great, right?

00:13:44:04 – 00:14:12:36
Clint Loveall
Whatever I ask, God will give me that. We all know that’s not what this text means. This text means that prayer builds relationship. That prayer connects us to the Heavenly Father and the Holy Spirit. And yes, one of the benefits of prayer is that sometimes God responds to our needs and our requests in ways that are exactly what we hoped.

00:14:12:41 – 00:14:47:51
Clint Loveall
But in the moments that that isn’t true, God still meets us in prayer and gives us the grace and the strength to handle not getting what we hoped for or asked for. And I think this gives the presentation of prayer here so much more depth than the idea is in the idea, which is sometimes been given in the church, which is, if you pray correctly and long enough and loud enough, sooner or later you’re guaranteed what you want.

00:14:47:56 – 00:15:08:03
Clint Loveall
That’s simply untrue. That’s not how life works. That’s not how prayer works. It is not a magic ticket. It is an invitation to a relationship with a God who loves us, who knows what we need, and who gives good gifts, though not always the ones that we hoped they would be.

00:15:08:07 – 00:15:33:42
Michael Gewecke
Clint the interest in nature of this teaching, I think, as we see it in verse nine, is the verbs, right? Or are the verbs rather ask, search, knock. These are powerful phrases. I think they have a way to teach us that prayer is bigger than folded hands on knees in the morning closet. That is a way of prayer.

00:15:33:46 – 00:16:01:30
Michael Gewecke
But we far too often look at prayer for technique, or we look at prayer for form. And I think to your point, and really this is me extrapolating out beyond what you’ve said, and I think in some ways even but beyond this text, that ultimately prayer leads us to this place where we use language like in verse 11, the child who asks for a fish, or in 12 the child who asks for an egg.

00:16:01:39 – 00:16:30:10
Michael Gewecke
We are God’s children. And when we come in prayer, that is a relational moment. And if you have had kids, you understand that sometimes when your child comes to you with a need, the answer to that need is simple. It can easily be delivered, but there’s something deep and meaningful in the opportunity to share in the solution together, to share time together, to allow your child to express their concerns.

00:16:30:10 – 00:17:10:21
Michael Gewecke
And this is therefore a relational encounter. It’s a relational encounter with God. And this is a critique, and I want to just pause and mention this. There are some people who have been praying for healing or praying for deliverance for a very long time, who have persevered in their request. And if you read this text wrongly and it’s easy to do and obviously I’m making an assertion calling it wrong like Clint, but if you read this text in the way that you think it means, that perseverance will ultimately end in you getting the thing that your words are asking for, then you’ve misunderstood.

00:17:10:22 – 00:17:35:31
Michael Gewecke
I think the point of this text, because at the end of the day, this isn’t a formula to get God to do the things that we want. It’s a way of understanding that in the right relationship with God, God will always ensure that we have what we need and the tough part of the faith is that sometimes the road that goes through our need is also the road that goes through suffering and difficulty.

00:17:35:31 – 00:18:01:28
Michael Gewecke
And that should actually be an opportunity for prayer, an opportunity to draw closer to God, to request help in the midst of those seasons. But we shouldn’t be shocked in the moment in which that prayer is not immediately answered, in which we don’t get the thing that we were asking for with our words. But instead God has graced us with the strength or the realities of what we need for the rest of life.

00:18:01:33 – 00:18:14:47
Michael Gewecke
That is interesting and important. I think distinction in how we interpret this text. I think if we read it wrongly, Clint, we’re going to be disappointed with God about things that I’m not certain Luke is trying to show us from Jesus’s teaching.

00:18:14:50 – 00:18:52:38
Clint Loveall
Yeah, I think not only that, Michael, but we’ll misunderstand prayer, not just the text will misunderstand the nature and the purpose of prayer, which is not fundamentally about getting what we want or even what we need. It is about interacting with and growing in the grace of Christ. And so here at the end, you know, Jesus says, if you people who are broken and struggle and have all, you know, sin in these issues, if you know how to give good gifts, how much more can God be trusted?

00:18:52:43 – 00:19:21:52
Clint Loveall
And I think that really is the question that Luke leaves us in regard to prayer. Give us this day our daily bread. Your kingdom come, forgive our sins. We forgive those who sin against us. And because of that, be persistent and trust the one who you’re praying to. Again, if not always for what you want, for showing up and being part of a relationship.

00:19:21:57 – 00:19:29:58
Clint Loveall
And I think properly understood. There’s a tremendous depth here to Luke’s description of prayer.

00:19:30:03 – 00:19:48:44
Michael Gewecke
We are certainly glad that you’ve taken time to spend this time with us today as we’ve explored prayer, hope it’s been meaningful, and that if you do have questions or comments that you would be bold enough to put them in the comments and let us continue the conversation as time goes on. But that said, friends, that ends our time today.

00:19:48:45 – 00:19:54:16
Michael Gewecke
We look forward to being with you again next Monday as we continue on. And Luke, chapter 11, verse 14.

00:19:54:27 – 00:19:55:15
Clint Loveall
Thanks, everybody.