When You Pray Part 2 - Luke 11:1-13

4:33And so, since writing the book, few Christian books have had as much success as that. But he's gone on to write some other less successful ones, like The Dream Giver, The Secrets of the Vine, A Life God Rewards. And one interesting episode in Wilkinson's life merits mention to clearly understand that he contradicts even his own teaching. In 2005 and 2006, both the Wall Street Journal and Christianity Today reported on Wilkinson's broken dream for Africa. In 2002, at the heart of success of the Prayer Jabez, Wilkinson traveled through Africa and later told Christianity Today that God ripped open our chest, took out our heart, dug a hole in Africa, put it in cover, and covered it in soil, and said, Now follow your heart and move down to Africa. And he soon launched the Dream for Africa and announced he was moving to Africa to save one million AIDS orphans, and he would begin his work in the small nation of Swaziland. The first problem he discerned to solve was hunger, and then from there he wanted to solve the AIDS crisis, and he built this very big apparatus and a large organization. In 2002, he was granted audience with the king of Swaziland and soon after announced the African dream village.

5:53And so he located 32,000 acres of prime land, asked the government to grant his organization a 99-year lease. Over it and basically threatened the government that if they didn't approve it very quickly, he would take it somewhere else. The government did not approve of the plan and the Swazi media mocked his plan. The citizens were outraged that he planned to take away the children from their clans and villages for this orphaned city. The king showed he had no interest. In October, Wilkinson suddenly announced his resignation, saying, With the successful launch of Dream for Africa, my family and I feel our work in Africa is complete. An internal memo to his staff explained that, to his regret, God had told him to leave Africa and return to North America. The dream dwindled and died. The Wall Street Journal wrote an article about it, talking about the dismay of his followers and the disillusionment of people who went along with that. And in the article, it said, Mr. Wilkinson says that he blames neither God nor man. He says he weeps when he thinks of his disappointed acolytes and is trying to come to grips with a miracle that didn't materialize despite his unceasing recitation of the prayer jabez. And here's, I think, the best thing Chales writes on it that's a good summary that's instructive for us. He says, While I believe we can fairly understand and critique the prayer Jabez on its own terms, meaning without looking into the life of the author too much, we understand it far better in the wake of the abject failure of the Dream for Africa. The simple fact is this: the prayer is not effective because it is not drawn. Faithfully from Scripture. And I think that's the line that is instructive. And there's a lot in the ministry and life of Wilkinson that isn't the point there. But looking at the book itself, we want to subject all these things to what Scripture says and ensure that our prayer life imitates what God would have for us. And so when he set out to write the book, and many of the people who read it, I don't think, had bad intentions with a lot of it. But I think that when we hear a message about how our prayer life should be framed, then we want to subject it to Scripture. And so that's why we're taking the time to go through what does God teach us about prayer. And then you don't need somebody to pick on a book. You can see for yourself what's biblical and what's not. Take the good and leave the bad. So last time we discussed that God does not say that using a particular instrument like a staff to draw circles in that case will make our prayers more effective or holy. We also discussed that a particular technique does not make us more effective in prayer, and we saw that the length of our prayers is not part of the equation for effective praying. And like the example that I read, taking prayers out of their biblical context and reciting them is certainly not what Jesus is commanding us to do in the model prayer. It's important to keep in mind because the model prayer itself is often recited. So what did we learn specifically from? Matthew 6, we learn not to be like hypocrites who pray so that we draw attention. We learn to pray in private and let God reward us. We learned not to heap up empty phrases or use many words so that we get God's attention. We learned that God already knows what we need and we don't have to inform Him. And we learned from the model prayer in Matthew 6 how to pray. And I said last time that there's two purposes for these messages on prayer. The first is that we'll learn what God has to say about prayer in the Bible and be instructed on the parameters He gives about how to pray. And second, that we would be moved to pray according to God's will. That's the ultimate hope. We want to pray, not be scared away from it, but to pray and pray according to God's will and enjoy the relationship with God we have from that and the responses that he gives. So let's read Luke 11, verse 1 through 13. Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples. And he said to them, When you pray, say, Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us, and lead us not into temptation. And he said to them, Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, Friend, lend me three loaves, for I have 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. I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence, he will rise and give him whatever he needs. And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives. The one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, it will be opened. What father among you, if his son, asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then 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? So as you see, it's a large passage. Some of it we covered in the Matthew portion, but also as we're looking at prayer, we're moving somewhat rapidly over these verses. There's a lot more to be said than we're going to be able to cover.

11:32But we have begun to study prayer from these two passages because it seems appropriate because these are the two places in Scripture that God specifically says this is how to pray and gives instruction on how to do that. In both cases, Jesus is teaching us and he tells us how God would have us pray. And I've realized in undertaking to preach about prayer and it's going to next week. We're going to talk more about prayer, and then, however, many other times that Tom would like or that it works out with the timing, I've got at least another 40 lined up. Not that many, but a few.

12:16Looking at the major themes of prayer in the text. But one of the things that I've realized is that when looking at prayer, it's interwoven into really all of the Bible. And it's somewhat difficult to organize even into sermons because of how much it's woven through all of the text. And I think that's instructive that we need to constantly be studying God's Word and exposing ourselves to Scripture to inform our prayer life. I think it's not enough just to take Jesus' teaching from the model prayer and assume that you'll pray effectively for the rest of your life. Your mind and your heart need to be consumed with the will of God if you're going to pray according to his will. And how can you know God's will from studying the Bible? And your prayer is also greatly affected by the way you live, by the righteousness in your life. And we're going to look at that in a future week. And how do you learn how to be righteous? Well, God tells us in Scripture. But for now, let's look at a passage here in Luke. It seems clear that the occasions in Matthew 6 and Luke 11 are different. They happen at very different times in Jesus' ministry. In Matthew 6, we're in the middle of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, which falls during the Great Galilean ministry that many call it. And that portion of his ministry begins just after John the Baptist is killed. In Luke 11, Jesus is in the last six months of his ministry before going to Jerusalem to die on the cross. Also, the circumstances between the two are different. In Matthew 6, Jesus is preaching to a crowd from a mountainside. But here, Jesus is praying privately with his disciples. And if you're curious, Matthew 5 through 7, the Sermon on the Mount, chronologically falls about the same time as Luke 6, 17 through 49, if you want to line them up over each other. This is a new section in Luke of Jesus' teaching that runs from verse 1 through 13 that we'll read. If you look over in chapter 10 and verse 38, you'll see the word now and begins a section there. In 11-1, you'll see the word now begins a section there. And again, in 11.14, now begins a section. And then that section goes awhile until 13 and 10.

14:45In Matthew 6, Jesus is teaching the crowds and instructs them on how to pray and how to avoid being like the hypocrites in giving to the poor and prayer and fasting. And in Luke 11, Jesus is praying. In a certain place, and one of his disciples comes up to him and asks, Lord, teach us to pray as John taught his disciples. So you'll notice it's a different circumstance that's happening. And you'll notice a couple things: that it doesn't say where Jesus was praying, and it doesn't say that who asked him.

15:19So those details seem less important. But the disciple does say that he asks, teach us to pray as John the Baptist taught his disciples to pray. And so it's possible that John the Baptist was well known for teaching particular prayers to his disciples, or maybe rabbis commonly would write prayers for their disciples. But I think more likely Jesus' disciples had specific knowledge of John the Baptist and the prayers that he taught. Because if you remember in John, the book of John chapter 1, verse 35 through 40, Andrew was a disciple of John the Baptist before Jesus called him to be his disciple. So I think it's very possible that Andrew may have had this specific knowledge of those prayers, and they wanted to know how to pray like John taught his disciples. The next interesting thing is that the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray. And I think it's an interesting question that my immediate thought was: why would they ask Jesus to teach them to pray when they have the entirety of the Old Testament? Seems like the Old Testament is full of prayers.

16:32It's interesting, God does not give explicit instruction for how to pray in the Old Testament. And in fact, you won't find a direct command that people ought to pray. But in following the law, you have to pray. It's unavoidable in keeping the law itself. But I think that that shows us something about the nature of even prayer itself: that it's a natural and necessary response of someone who knows God. And that's why you see it in the Old Testament even without God's direct command from the beginning. You see it going all the way back to Adam and Eve as they're talking with God. That's the same thing as prayer.

17:12And so it's interesting that they would ask him how to pray because they've also heard Jesus' teaching on the Sermon on the Mount. So they have this great body of knowledge of how to pray. They've heard Jesus' teaching on how to pray. And I think it's for two reasons that they asked Jesus here. I think, first, they know that Jesus is the Son of God and a prophet. So it's a unique opportunity to hear straight from God. If you were able to ask Jesus how to pray, well, there's a lot of questions you would probably ask Jesus if he were physically in front of you, things that you would want to know. But what an opportunity to ask the Son of God himself how we ought to pray. But also, they knew that Jesus was a man of prayer, and they saw him praying often. And it's interesting that Luke points out Jesus praying the most often of any of the gospel writers. He talks about Jesus going away privately to pray. So, no doubt the disciples observed Jesus praying a lot, and they wanted to know how to pray from a man that seemed experienced in prayer as well. And I think it's a really good question that they asked him, don't you? Aren't you glad that they asked him?

18:24We give the apostles and various disciples a hard time, probably too often in the scripture, but we could say this was a good question here. And so Jesus begins the same way as he did in Matthew 6. And so the prayer is very similar to Matthew 6, but you'll notice that there's a few slight differences. And I think this lends the credibility to the fact that this prayer is a model for prayer and not for recitation. This is not a prayer just to be recited from remote memory.

18:58And so the prayer itself you'll see in Luke 2 through 4: it's, Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us, and lead us not into temptation. So we're going to walk through this prayer quickly again. Yes, we did it once before, but the Bible records it twice. It seems good to go through it again, and it's very foundational to our praying. So he begins the same way as. Matthew 6 with Father, once again showing our need to acknowledge God's role in relationship to us at the outset. God is the author of our life and is in that authority over us. The next phrase is, Hallowed be your name. And we talked last time about hallowed, it's really holy. It's holy be your name. This statement is about ascribing holiness to God's name and beginning our prayer with the proper reverence to God. And not only is God's name holy, but we should desire deeply for it to be shown to be holy. And what does holy mean? If you remember, it means set apart. God is other. He's different. He's not like us. He's set apart from us and holy. The next phrase is, Your kingdom come. And this is a prayer expressing the desire that God's kingdom would come to earth and manifest its perfection here. I think it's fundamentally a prayer that everything here would be transformed to be consistent with the ways of God and his kingdom. We know that in the future there will be a kingdom where Christ reigns on the throne of David and he rules from Jerusalem. To pray for God's kingdom to come is to pray that God would conform this world to be like the kingdom he will rule in the future. I think the idea is that we're praying for God's ultimate will for how things are done on earth. To take root and to have effect here. God has told us that his will is for a kingdom to come. We see that from the Davidic covenant, right? God states clearly that is his will. And we see it come to fruition in the book of Revelation. God promises that someone in the line of David will reign from Jerusalem in the future and bring about God's ways on earth. It's going to be a great and glorious kingdom. It'll be the perfect king that you want to follow. And we know that Jesus is that Son of David.

21:33So we're praying that God's revealed will come to pass for his rule and reign to have its full effect on this earth, both literally as a kingdom and in the hearts of every subject of that king. And you see that in the new covenant mentioned in the Old Testament, how God will change the hearts, and then ultimately in Revelation, when all of the people worshiping the king in that kingdom will be those with hearts turned towards him.

22:02The next phrase is, Give us each day our daily bread. And I've read arguments saying that this phrase is to be understood as addressing the spiritual needs and really is not referring to physical needs like food at all. I think the best argument I've seen for that is that Jesus were confident, he was pretty confident, he was speaking Aramaic. And the phrase for daily bread has a more abstract meaning in Aramaic as opposed to. The Greek. And lending support to that argument, Jesus does, you'll remember, he chastises the crowds for wanting physical bread to eat instead of having a spiritual hunger for the truths that he's taught. And I'm not sure that the arguments to say physical versus spiritual are entirely important or convincing, because I think the point is that we're to look to God for our daily needs. I think that Jesus wasn't criticizing those crowds when they asked for bread because he was criticizing hunger, right? He wasn't saying you're sinful for feeling hunger and for wanting bread. Wanting bread is not sinful, I hope.

23:13He was criticizing them because they were hypocrites, right? They were acting like they wanted to follow him and like they desired his message, but he was saying, you just want free food. You're not really here for what you say you are. And so it's not wrong to hunger for food, and in fact, we would die without it. And I think the prayer could be a prayer for food and water as well as a prayer for your daily spiritual strength and the spiritual strength to act rightly and to be humble before God. I don't know that we have to draw a strong distinction before the with daily bread being spiritual versus physical. I think it's interesting as well is even though the heir may could have that meaning, God did have Luke right in the Greek, and in the Greek it seems more convincing this is really talking about. Bread, the way we understand it. But I think the idea in this model prayer is to lean on God for our daily needs. And, you know, I think there's an implicit reason that God or that Jesus puts this in the model prayer. And this is a passage I was reading through some of the Old Testament for something else and came across that I thought was helpful and instructive on this point. So you don't have to turn there. I'll read it. It's Deuteronomy 8, verse 11 through 17.

24:34So this is Moses talking to the people of Israel. And he says, Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today. Lest when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, so you see a lot of riches being multiplied, then your heart be lifted up, and you forget. So it's take care lest you forget that the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you to do you good in the end. Beware, lest you say in your heart, My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth. And it was interesting as I read that alongside this, give us each day our daily bread. I think implicitly, part of the reason Jesus puts it in this model prayer is that we are to depend on God for our daily needs and understand that even things as seemingly mundane or routine as daily things come from God. We're to look to God for His provision in those things. And the opposite of that would be to say, I've got food, I've got a house, I have all these things, I'm fine, I really took care of that stuff, and then maybe go on to request bigger and better things from God, but forgetting that God provides those in a daily sense. We all know that even tomorrow, it doesn't matter what you have now, it can be gone. Everything can be gone in an instant, and so it all comes from the hand of the Lord. And so, as we pray, give us this day each day our daily bread, we're remembering that our provision is from God's hand in its entirety. Next phrase is, and forgive us our sins, for we forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And I'm not going to say much about it. We talked longer about it last week, but it's clear that we are to confess our sins to God and that we are to forgive others. And in Matthew 6, he goes on to say, if you don't forgive others, that God will withhold forgiveness from you. And finally, lead us not into temptation. Temptation. This prayer is a request that God would deliver us out of the bonds of our sins, of our own nature.

27:07Our nature leads us into these things. We need deliverance from them. We have a weak flesh, and we need God's help to avoid sin. And as I said on the Matthew 6 passage, it's not saying that God would otherwise tempt us. God doesn't tempt. James 1:13 makes that clear. The prayer is that God would deliver us from our own nature and our own sin and the temptations that befall us. So, different than the passage in Matthew is the section that comes next in chapter 11, verses 5 through 8. And so, we're going to spend some time here. Hopefully, I can go through it rapidly.

27:48So, there are, and there's two ideas left in the entirety of the passage. One of them is in 5 through 8, and you see in verse 5, it starts with, and he said to them, and in verse 9, he says, and I tell you, and that sort of starts the next teaching in the section. And in verses 5 through 8, we hit one of the more difficult verses to interpret in the New Testament. And I almost said unfortunately, but you know, that's really not right to say because God was sovereign in the way he wrote his text. So, when you find a text that's difficult, that means you get to spend more time with it. So, you can think. God for that because there's a reason he wants you to. There's two reasons. It's difficult to interpret. First, the pronouns make it ambiguous as to who is performing every action in the section. And second, there's a crucial word for the meaning of this section that's a Greek word only used here in the New Testament, and the meaning of it can fit either direction of what you think the pronoun refers to, if that makes sense. And so Tom taught this passage in our hermeneutics class a while ago. I remember it well.

29:12And I think that the context does give us some clues as to the meaning of this passage here. So first, what we're going to do is track the pronouns through it. So hopefully this is instructive and helpful and doesn't feel too tedious. So there's one pronoun that's in question in the passage that it's hard to know who's performing the action. So Grace, I have that passage up there with these fun little symbols that help us track the pronouns. So if I had really done my job well, it would be animated. I could go one by one, but we'll work with what we have.

29:56Okay, so we have four actors in this passage. Passage. Jesus is the one telling us what's going on. We have the friend knocking at the door. That's the running man, who's purple or something there. You have the man in bed. That's the bed logo with the man in it. And you got the hiker guy. So the hiker guy is the guy who's the friend of the friend. He's coming on a journey. Okay, so five and six here. This is just to get us going. It's seven and eight where it's tough. Okay, so, and he said to them, we know that's Jesus. Which of you, that's the one who would be knocking at the door, has a friend, a man in bed, who will go to him at midnight, the man in bed, and say to him, So these are clear so far, we can tell who it's talking about. So it's the friend knocking, saying to him, Friend, so we know he's addressing the guy in bed, lend me, the knocker, three loaves for another friend, the hiker guy of his, who has arrived on a journey, and I, the knocker guy, have nothing to set before him, the friend of the friend. All right, you tracking so far with the, hopefully the little logos are helpful. They help me think of it visually. Go to the next slide. So these, these, you can tell what the pronoun is up until the end. It gets tricky. So it says, and he will answer from within. So it's within. We know it's the guy in bed because it's from within. He says, don't bother me. The door is shut. My children are with me in bed. I can't get up and go. You anything. And then I tell you, that's Jesus who's telling this story, though he, the man in bed, will not get up, that's how we know it's the guy in bed, and give him anything. So the guy knocking, he's the one who's asking for something, because he is his friend. So it seems clear he won't give his friend anything just because he is the friend of the guy in bed. This is the tricky phrase. Yet, because of his impudence, he will rise. So there's rising, we know it's the guy in bed, and give him, that's the knocking friend, whatever he needs. So this is the one that trips us up, the question mark pronoun here. And what's tricky is that word impudence that comes right after it. I hope this is helpful, maybe a little fun. You can go through your Bible with little icons. If you have trouble on a passage, you just scraph it out. It helps a lot of times. And so this word impudence is translated that way in the ESV. In the King James, it's importunity. It can be translated as persistence or shamelessness. The Christian Standard Bible, which was the new version of the Holman Christian Standard, a very good translation, it actually makes a decision for you and says, it renders it this way: yet, because of his friend's shameless boldness. So it's saying it's definitely the guy knocking at the door. And because he's shamelessly bold. The NIV does the same thing and reads, because of your shameless audacity, he will surely give up. And it uses your to mean the guy knocking.

33:14But the NIV doesn't let you off the hook so easily. It's got a footnote. And the footnote says the other rendering, which says, or it could be rendered, yet to preserve his good name. And the NIV uses his to mean the guy in bed. So NIV didn't help us there. They gave it both ways. So which one is it? Is the pronoun referring to the friend in bed or the friend at the door? And so if it's the friend at the door, then it seems that the impudence would be a shamelessness where the friend at the door is knocking shamelessly, right? It's midnight, he's making a racket, and he says, Hey, I need the bread. My neighbor's coming, and this is going to be really embarrassing. If it's the man in bed, this word rendered as shamelessness can also mean that because of his desire to not have shame, his aversion to shame, his wanting to hold up the honor of his name, and that that's the other rendering the NIV is giving you there, yet to preserve his good name. And so that would imply that it's saying that the guy in bed wants to preserve his good name, and because of that, that's why he rises. And gives the knocking guy whatever he needs, which is the the three loaves of bread. So it it's tricky.

34:40And Dr. Roskop had some helpfulness on the Greek root of the word for impudence. He says that the root of that word he he takes the position that it's the man in bed who wants to protect the reputation of his name. And he says that the root of it's because of this, the root of that word impudence is blame with the alpha privative meaning the opposite. So like atheist, like a theist, the opposite of it. So it's the word blame with an ah before it, so an ah blame. And so he says that because that's the root, it seems to imply more strongly that it would be because of an aversion to being blamed is the idea. And so that leads him to believe it's the man in bed who doesn't want to be dishonored by not helping his friend. It's a tough passage. It's one of the hardest to get this stuff right. And you'll find a lot of folks argue you will from both positions. Let's go to the next section, and I'm going to argue from the context what I think Jesus' lesson to us is here.

35:56And if you have questions afterward, Ask Tom, because he spent a lot of time on it. I think the context really helps us, though, I do. So you can, I don't know if that's distracting, maybe take it down. Okay, so in the next section, starting in verse 9, so we'll get back to it. Oh, I got to go quickly. Time flies when we're having fun. So he says, And I tell you, ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, received, the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, it will be opened. What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish, give him a serpent, or ask for an egg, will give him a scorpion, or if he, I think I skipped the one.

36:53Oh, the bread, we'll give him a stone. That might be from the Matthew one there. And so verse 13, if you then 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? So Jesus is repeating what he taught in Matthew 7, 7 through 11 in the Sermon on the Mount with slight variation to it. And so what is it that we're asking for and that we're seeking and that we're knocking to gain entrance into? I think it's God's will, God's plan, His kingdom.

37:30Referring, I think, to those who pray according to this model, that God is pleased to give the result of what they do. They ask and they are given. They seek and they find. And so, how do we please God in prayer? By praying according to the ways that please Him. And this model prayer shows us how we can ask in a way that is answered, seek in a way that we will find, and knock in a way that it will be opened. And Jesus continues by showing that even sinful men don't give bad gifts to their children who ask for good gifts. And so, what father would give these bad gifts that he refers to here? And he's saying, God is all the more a good father who gives good gifts. And so, in Matthew, Jesus says, How much more shall your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask?

38:24At the end of 13, there. In Matthew, it says, Give good gifts. Here it says, Give the Holy Spirit to those who ask. And wow. I think that's a phenomenal gift. He elevated it from good gifts to the Holy Spirit. I think that is probably the best gift that you can be given, apart from living in eternity in the kingdom with God. I can think of nothing better that would be the ultimate of a good gift that a good father could give. And it seems that Jesus. In this private teaching moment with his disciples, he has elevated that good gift to that. And God will give even the Holy Spirit to them. That's the ultimate of what his teaching is there. I think we can remember this is before the Holy Spirit is given to all believers, and so we don't need to pray for the Holy Spirit in the same way that they might have. Then we certainly would pray for the Spirit to influence us, to control our actions in a way that would be consistent with God, to guide us in a way that's pleasing to God. But we all have the Spirit in us.

39:37And so Jesus' point is that the Heavenly Father gives good gifts much more so than earthly fathers give good gifts, because even those sinful human fathers would do that and God all that much more. And so, going back to the previous section that's tricky to understand, I think that it's talking about the man in bed has this shamelessness, meaning this aversion to shame. He cares about his honor in the community and would not want to be accused, you can put it back up there, of holding back from a friend in need. And I don't believe that the point of the passage is the persistent knocking on the door that moves the friend inside to come and respond to him. And I don't. Think that this passage, that this passage is teaching that we should pray in a relentless and repetitive way so that God will be moved. I think here, what Jesus is teaching is that God will not allow his name to be dishonored by failing to answer us. And I think the context supports that point very strongly: that God's a good father who gives to those who ask, who causes those who seek to find, and who opens the door to those who knock. It's interesting, the same idea even carries there. Of those who knock, it is opened.

41:09And so it's a tricky one to understand. I encourage you to study it. And I don't mean to cast doubt on the clarity of Scripture at all, but you've got to do hard work sometimes. And I encourage you to go through this passage and understand what Jesus is teaching. It apparently matters. It's not only in Scripture, but it's right next to the foundational teaching on prayer. So this matters to our prayer life. We want to understand what He's saying. And so I think the context supports very strongly that God is saying to us, this is the kind of response that He's going to have as we pray according to His will. He is a good Father who answers because He wants to show His name to be great. And I started to develop this, but I'm already going to run out of time and I knew it would even more. In the Old Testament, there's so much. About God wanting to make his name great, that he does that a lot. We see that very strongly in the Old Testament, where he talks about the people showing his name to be great, and he wants to show his name to be great through the people. So, in conclusion, we've looked at the model prayers, the model prayer this week and last, and we've seen what elements are to characterize our prayer. And we've also seen God's promises related to prayer. He's a willing and good father who wants to answer prayer that is according to his will. So, we want to pray in ways that please God.

42:42And so, I would encourage you to memorize the model prayer so that you can always have your mind thinking through what these things are. We don't need to recite it, you can, but it's a good thing to have memorized as you're thinking, what ought I be talking to God about? What should be giving energy to my heart to want to talk to God about? And this model prayer, I think, directs you to think in a way that pleases God. And I want to ask you, very last thing here, to examine your own prayer life and ask: do you incorporate the elements of the model prayer into your praying? Do you acknowledge God's role as your author and creator who has absolute role and reign over the universe? Do you acknowledge that God is set apart from us and entirely? Different from how we are. In other words, holy. Do you desire for God's will to come to fruition on this earth and for God's ways to have their full effect on the physical world as well as in the hearts of all the people around you? Do you ask God for your daily needs, physical and spiritual, while acknowledging that even the smallest thing, like food, like what you had for lunch today, a glass of water that you had today, are gifts from God.

44:00And they can be denied by Him at any point. It's all from His hand, His good provision. Do you confess your sins to God? And are you faithful to forgive those who confess their sin, sins against you? Are you a forgiving person, even as you trust that God forgives you? Do you hate your sin and plead with God to help you run from it and defeat it? Do you lean on the power of the Holy Spirit in prayer to defeat the temptations that you face? Do you trust that God can deliver you both from evil from without and from within? If that was too many questions, they were just asking questions of each of the aspects of the model prayer. And so you can go through that prayer and ask those of yourself. So the second part, if you remember, of the purpose of this is that we will pray. And so I hope that you feel more.

45:00Informed about what kind of prayers that God wants to hear, and you know He's a good father who wants to answer you. So I encourage you to pray to Him. So next week is going to be about being constant in prayer. And so I'm looking forward to that a lot. So let me pray and close our time. Dear Lord, we thank you so much for this time to study your word, to look at the model prayer that Jesus gave us during his ministry on this earth. And we confess that we inadequately pray to you.

45:34Not just that our words aren't any good sometimes, but that we often just don't pray. Or we often pray in a way that is not pleasing to you. We don't always consider the kinds of things that are pleasing to you, and we want to be pleasing in our lives. Lord, we ask that you would conform us to your will and that our minds would just be full of the things that you care about. We want to be thinking on those things. We want to be wrestling through those things. We want to be kept going by thinking about things that you care about. We don't want to waste our time here. And we pray that you would ask that you would teach us to pray and that the prayer ministry of this church would just be a great blessing to all the people in it. Lord, I thank you for this body and all the ways that they have blessed me, and pray we encourage each other in our prayer lives. And pray these things in your Son's name. Amen.