SERMON FOR THE 9TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST, July 25, 2010 "Disciples Pray!" (Luke 11:1-13)

"One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When He finished, one of His disciples said to Him, 'Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples'" (Luke 11:1).

It was a trip 1400 miles one-way, taking 25 hours. 215 of us on board 4 buses, joining 25,000 teens and adults for our church body’s youth gathering in the city they have nicknamed “The Big Easy” – New Orleans. I ask you, “What sounds easy about that?” 1400 miles, 25 hours, 215 on buses – no extra seats, about this much leg-room – 25,000 teens and adults, what’s easy about teens? What’s easy about us adults? I won’t get into some issues we encountered, like pulling into a rest area with 215 people and two, itsy-bitsy restrooms!

But it was mostly all good, very good, as we got together for our National Youth Gathering in New Orleans from July 17-21, under the theme, “We Believe.” I want you to know what a wonderful group of teens went with us: Colin, Cayla, Sarah, Sam, and Brandon, along with Miranda from Resurrection, Rashya from Lord of Life, and Ryan, Stephanie, and Bailey from Memorial. And wonderful adult leaders served the kids: Jessica and JoAnn and Joan, with a little help from me. I thank God for all of them.

We gathered at the Convention Center and in the Superdome in New Orleans, bearing our bright green back-packs, and we studied sections of the Gospel of John together, 8,000 of us in one Bible study (8,000 in another and 8,000 in another), and we learned together, and celebrated our salvation and we grew in our faith. We were encouraged to LOOK to Jesus, to LISTEN to Jesus, and to LIVE for Jesus, all because God listened to us sinners in our distress, He looked and acted to save us by sending Jesus into this world, and Jesus lived and died and rose again for us.

I asked Colin to help me with this sermon on the way back from the Gathering. (Hey, I was tired; I needed a little help!) He wrote down some thoughts, and made a neat comment about the Cajun food we experienced in New Orleans. Cajun food is spicy. You can order your catfish or your alligator steak blackened, extra spicy. Colin connected this to God’s work in us. He said, “Jesus spices up our lives and gives us a wonderful fill of the Holy Spirit and His Word to bless us.” He also wrote down a comment about a Christian comedian we heard, David Dean, who taught us about God’s gift of laughter…this, too, spices up our lives!

I mentioned before that at the Gathering we were encouraged to LOOK, LISTEN, and LIVE as God’s people. A special way God presents us today in our reading to do this is by way of prayer. Prayer is something that a disciple of Jesus does, plain and simple. Disciples pray! Prayer is a special gift God has given us to look to Him (and talk to Him) and to live as His people.

In our lesson from Luke 11, Luke says that Jesus was praying in a certain place. When He finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” He proceeded to teach them the prayer we call the Lord’s Prayer.

We feel the same about prayer, don’t we? That we could use a lesson on prayer. We want to be better at prayer, don’t we? It seems that more is said about prayer and less is done about it than just about any other subject in the Bible. Many Christians have forgotten how to pray, or maybe they never really learned how to pray, and now maybe we don’t even feel like learning. It’s no wonder we can feel that God is absent from our lives. But what we may be saying is that we have been absent from God and silent. We may feel like the disciples. We need the Lord’s help, and so we say, “Lord, teach us to pray.”

When the disciples of Jesus back then and when we followers of Jesus today come to Him for help in prayer, we’ve come to the right person, haven’t we! Prayer meant so much to Jesus. It was a regular habit. It was His resort in every emergency, however great or small. When He faced difficulty, he prayed. When hungry for companionship and fellowship, he prayed. When tempted, He prayed. When criticized, he prayed. While dying on the cross, He prayed. There was no emergency, no difficulty, no necessity that would not yield to prayer. The heavenly Father’s listening ear and power-giving answer brought Jesus immeasurable strength and faith.

So Jesus, the Expert in Prayer, helps His followers to pray. He gives a pattern for prayer – A pattern. In giving us the Lord’s prayer He does not say that this is the only way to prayer or the only prayer to offer. God’s Word is sufficiently clear elsewhere that there are many other ways to pray. Paul tells the Thessalonians and us to “pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” In the Gospel of John, Jesus tells us, “My Father will give you whatever you ask in My name.” And so we pray in the name of Jesus. As we do this, we are acknowledging that our prayer is acceptable to the Father because of Jesus’ saving work and the forgiveness which covers us, not because we deserve the privilege of prayer.

But what else does our text, specifically, say about prayer? First of all, we notice Jesus’ loving address of our heavenly Father; He says, “Our Father.” We begin our prayers with the knowledge and faith that we are praying to a loving God who is eager to hear us. He is “our Father.” The epistle for today from Colossians tells more about the God to whom we pray; it tells about the Son of God sent by a merciful heavenly Father. In one breath-taking paragraph we learn about God’s grace: When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having cancelled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; He took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the power and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

We address the God who has done this for us! If He has already loved us so much, will He not hear us now when we call to Him in prayer? Address Him, knowing you are speaking to a God of love: Heavenly Father, Dear Lord, Gracious Father in heaven… And we can, of course, also address our prayers to the other persons of the Trinity, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to properly address God as “our Father.” Next, Jesus gives us a pattern of what to pray for: Hallowed be Thy name, Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive those who sin against us. And lead us not into temptation.

Do you notice, in this prayer, how spiritual requests outnumber the physical requests for daily bread? It’s 4 to 1, spiritual requests over requests for physical blessings. We need both physical and spiritual blessings; of course we do! Don’t be afraid to ask God to provide shelter and food and rain, according to His will. But let’s not forget Jesus’ emphasis on the spiritual. Pray for God’s kingdom: Thy Kingdom come. God has set up His kingdom in our hearts and lives through faith in His Son’s redeeming work. When we say “Thy Kingdom come,” we are asking that God would continue to pour out His forgiveness upon us and that He would work mightily through His Word and sacraments to set up His kingdom in other people’s lives as well.

There are many other spiritual requests you can make of God. You can pray that God would help you in your own spiritual life. We each have specific problems and concerns and voids and temptations. Perhaps you are not so happy about going to church. Ask God to restore that joy to you. Maybe you are harboring a load of guilt. Ask the Lord to remove that load, and ask Him to help you believe and accept that Jesus has done away with all the guilt on the cross. These are examples of spiritual blessings we can boldly pray for for ourselves.

We should also pray for other people and their physical and spiritual needs. Pray for them by name. Pull out your pictorial directory and pray for a couple of people or families every day. Pray for people you dislike and for people who dislike you. It’s awfully hard to dislike someone when you’re praying for them. Remember your godchildren. Pray that God would cause their faith to grow.

Our lesson today includes some other encouragement to pray, via some stories Jesus told the disciples. Listen to this again, vv. 5-10: READ! Talk about inconsiderate and rude! It reminds me of a lawn mower commercial from some years ago where friends and neighbors come at all hours of the day and night to borrow this guy’s terrific lawn mower, and he’s getting fed up with it! Jesus is comparing the attitude of God with the attitude of this father who is awakened in the middle of the night. He’s awakened by a friend who wants bread in the middle of the night. The friend knocks on the door, the guy crawls out of bed, answers the door. And you can imagine him saying, “You want bread. Bread.” And he gives him bread so that He’s not bothered by the friend anymore. He wants to get rid of him. He needs sleep because he works hard. Jesus’ point is how different is the response of God to our prayers. God is always awake and ready to hear us. We can pray any time, in any place. We keep on praying because God responds graciously to the needs of His children. He responds, not to get rid of us, but out of love, to help us. God wants us to be persistent, to go boldly and often to Him, even as Abraham did in pleading for the city of Sodom.

The other story, in vv. 11-13, likewise encourages us to pray. (READ verses 11-13) Human fathers give good, worthwhile things to their children, not things that will harm them. But God outgives even the most loving father on earth. All we need to do is ask.

A little boy was admiring the ripe, red apples in his neighbor’s yard. He said to his father, “I wish I could have some of those apples.” His father replied, “Why don’t you ask Mr. Brown if you may have one.” But the boy was very bashful. One day he saw his neighbor, Mr. Brown, walking past his house. He said, “Your apples sure look pretty, Mr. Brown.” He replied, “Do they? Would you like some?” The little boy nodded yes; yes, he would like some. Mr. Brown said, “You may go and pick some any time.” The little boy hurried over to the tree to get some of the apples. He could have had them sooner if only he had asked for them.

Let’s not be afraid to ask God for things in prayer. Disciples pray! Follow Jesus’ pattern for prayer: address our loving God, ask Him for things both physical and spiritual, ask persistently, confidently, knowing our God is a loving, giving God. And remember His promise: "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; He who seeks finds, and to him who knocks, the door will be opened." Amen.