 Good morning everybody great to be here a joy to be with you all I'm so grateful to God for the faithfulness of this church and for your pastor and for the ministry that has been happening here in Chino for decades and it's a privilege a joy to be able to be out here this morning and I'm really looking forward six weeks from now to be in back here to be with the couples for the couples conference and I want to encourage you to come out and spend today we're going to have a lot of fun we're going to look at how we can rethink relationships and rethink marriage because I think most of us have gotten our cues about what marriage is supposed to be like from movies and from pop songs instead of from the Bible so we're going to look at what the Bible has to say about what makes for a strong and a healthy marriage and I hope you'll invite people you know this is a great opportunity for you to invite folks who may not come to church regularly get them to come out for a fun Saturday where we focus on marriage a great event so looking forward to being back that's six weeks it's the 27th of August and really looking forward to being here for that all right if you have your Bible and I hope you do I want you to meet me in Luke chapter 11 this morning and we're going to talk about a parable in Luke 11 that helps us understand prayer that's going to be our focus I don't know where you learned about prayer or how you learned how to pray some of us are still learning and on that journey I think it's a lifelong journey to learn about prayer but maybe you grew up at a home where prayer was normal or regular maybe you prayed for meals maybe you grew up at a home where Jesus' name was not used in prayer but was used in other ways maybe you have had formal instruction about prayer or maybe you've just watched other people do it but all of us have kind of come to prayer with questions wondering how does this work what's it all about and Jesus gives instruction about prayer in Luke chapter 11 I grew up in a church where as a boy we memorized the Lord's prayer we were taught when I was very young before I knew what a debt or a debtor was I was praying about forgiving debts as as we forgive our debtors I didn't know what I was saying I'm glad I had that memorized it served me well through the years I think it's good to memorize the Lord's prayer but you can you can grow up with a mindset that God's design for prayer is that we memorize something and then we just repeat it we chant it we we we we say it over and over again kind of like the pledge of allegiance it's a new declaration God's design for prayer is very different than that in fact I don't think it was Jesus' intention when he gave us the Lord's prayer for us to memorize and repeat it he was giving us a pattern for prayer that would help us think about and more carefully and clearly pray to him so while it's not bad to recite the Lord's prayer I don't think that's the main purpose for it our focus this morning is going to be on a passage where Jesus is giving instruction on prayer and after he teaches the basic framework for prayer he comes back around with a couple of illustrations that honestly have always been a little confusing for me I don't know if when you've read these parables about prayer that we're going to look at this morning if you've read them before I don't know if you've walked away scratching your head saying so what am I supposed to do with that I have for years kind of hurried past some of these parables and thought that doesn't make any sense to me I'll just get to the next part that makes sense so I spent a little time recently digging back in and saying what is Jesus telling us when he shares these parables about prayer and that's what I want our focus to be on here this morning so we're going to read Luke 11 beginning at verse one we'll read through it together and before we read God's word let's take a minute and let's ask him to bless the reading of his word father as we come now to your word we come as needy people we are in need of the work of your spirit in our hearts and our lives we confess to you that without your spirit we're helpless to comprehend what your word is teaching us here so holy spirit be our teacher this morning we pray and Lord our our hope our desire is that we would not only understand this issue better today but that we would be more than hearers of your word we would be doers of your word speak to us again through your word by your spirit we pray we ask this in Jesus name amen Luke chapter 11 beginning at verse one you follow along as I read this is the word of God for the people of God the Bible says 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 forgive us our sins as 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 a friend of mine has arrived on a journey and 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 in bed with me I cannot get up and give you anything I tell you though he will not get up and give and give him anything because he is a 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 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 your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask of him amen may God add his blessing to this reading of his word the grass withers and the flower fades but the word of God will stand forever here's how we're going to divide this passage up we're going to look at four things as we look at this passage we'll look first at what I called the predicament that's verse one and then we'll look at the pattern that Jesus gives for prayer in verses two through four then we'll look at the parable which is in verses five through ten and then in verses eleven through thirteen we'll look at what I call the promise so we're going to start with this area of the predicament and I think starting here is is why the decide we have to understand why the disciples are asking Jesus to teach them to pray so Luke tells us that Jesus had been praying in a particular place and when he was done one of the disciples said to him teach us to pray and and I think you have to understand what the disciples thought about prayer in order to understand what was behind that question or when they asked for it for instruction on prayer if you had grown up as one of the disciples in a Jewish home in Judea or in Samaria or in Galilee you'd been wherever you were you would have heard the stories of the patriarchs you would have heard of the great men of God and you would have heard about some of the interaction between the great patriarchs and and God and that would have given you a perspective on prayer that probably would have caused you to be tentative about approaching God let me give you an example if you go all the way back to Exodus chapter 19 in fact keep your your finger in Luke 11 and flip back in your bible all the way to the beginning go to Genesis there are 50 chapters in Genesis so go ahead to Exodus that's the next book go to chapter 19 in Exodus and let me tell you what's going on in Exodus chapter 19 the children of Israel have been enslaved in Egypt Moses has led them out of bondage you know the whole story you've seen the movie the Ten Commandments so he brought them out God brings them out of Egypt after all of the plagues Pharaoh finally lets them go and then they're they're in the wilderness they have just entered into the wilderness and Moses is now about to meet with God on Mount Sinai and Exodus chapter 20 is where God gives Moses the Ten Commandments so in the chapter before the Ten Commandments here's what's going on I'm going to read this whole chapter just so we can get a feel for what what the Jews thought of when they thought about how you approach God with any kind of request Exodus 19 one says on the third new moon after the people of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt so that would be about three months after they've been out of Egypt on the third new moon on that day they came into the wilderness of Sinai they set out from Refidim and came into the wilderness of Sinai and they encamped in the wilderness there Israel encamped before the mountain while Moses went up to God the Lord called out to him on the mountain saying thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the people of Israel you yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians how I bore you up on eagle's wings and brought you to myself now therefore if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples for all the earth is mine and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation these are the words you shall speak to the people of Israel so here's God on the mountain Moses is up and he says here's what I want you to tell the people remind them that I brought them out of Egypt that I brought them from bondage and slavery into this place of liberation that I bore them up on eagle's wings and now tell them after deliverance if they will obey me we'll have covenant blessing I'm going to bless them in their obedience give them that message so in verse 7 Moses came and called the elders of the people and set them set before them all the words that the Lord had commanded him all the people answered together and said all that the Lord has spoken we will do and Moses reported the word of the people to the Lord and the Lord said to Moses behold I am coming to you in a thick cloud that the people may hear when I speak with you and may also believe you forever so Moses and God have been having this conversation and God says we're about to have a moment I'm going to come in a thick cloud everybody's going to see this they're going to see you and me talking I want them to see this so that they know that what they hear from you is coming from me when Moses told the words of the people to the Lord the Lord said to Moses this is first hand go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow and let them wash their garments and be ready for the third day for on the third day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people and you shall set limits for the people all around saying take care not to go up to the mountain or touch the edge of it whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death no hand shall touch him but he shall be stoned or shot whether beast or man he shall not live when the trumpet sounds a long blast they shall come up to the mountain so Moses went down from the mountain to the people and consecrated the people they wash their garments and he said to them be ready for the third day do not go near a woman so this is a setting apart this is going to be a special day we got to get ready we got to be consecrated and this is God's coming down verse 16 on the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightning and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast so that all the people in the camp trembled then God brought the people out of the camp to meet God and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain now Mount Sinai was wrapped up in smoke because the Lord had descended on it like a fire the smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln and the whole mountain trembled greatly and as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder Moses spoke and God answered him in thunder the Lord came down on Mount Sinai at the top of the mountain and the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain and Moses went up and the Lord said to Moses go down and warn the people lest they break through to the Lord and look and many of them perish also let the peace to the priests who come near to the Lord consecrate themselves lest the Lord break out against them and Moses said to the Lord the people cannot come up to Mount Sinai for you yourself warned us saying set limits around the mountain and consecrated and the Lord said to him go down and come up bringing Aaron with you but do not let the priests and the people break through to come up to the Lord lest he break out against them so Moses went down to the people and told them all right so you get the picture of what's going on this is a big day God's coming to speak with with Moses and the people are afraid and the mountains are trembling and there's smoke and there's thunder and it's loud and everybody's trembling now jump ahead 1500 years and Jesus disciples who've heard that story over and over and over again and have thought to themselves you got to be pretty careful when you go out to talk with God you could die they watch Jesus go off and spend hours in prayer with God on a hilltop and he comes back and he's smiling and they go Moses Jesus Lord teach us to pray you see what's behind the question there's something we've learned about prayer growing up that has made us fearful that has caused us to think we better not go too near God I don't know that we have rights there's a story we can't confirm that this is the case but you may have heard this that in the in the Old Testament when the priest would go into the inner sanctum to the holy of holies on the day of atonement they would tie a rope around him because they were concerned that if something was wrong God might kill him in the holy of holies and they would have to pull him out with the rope now again that's not confirmed that's not in the Bible but that's the Jewish mindset it is it's a terrifying thing to go stand before the God of Israel remember Dorothy and the Tin Man and the Scarecrow and the Cowardly Lion going in to see the great and powerful Oz and they're shaking and they're trembling that's how Jewish people thought about going before the God of the universe and now we watch Jesus go have a conversation with God and come back refreshed Lord teach us to pray that's the context here and we should know the Bible does teach that God is holy that he is high and exalted and we should go into his presence with reverence and respect there should be a fear of the Lord as you approach God not a quaking fear but a reverent fear of the Lord but the Bible also teaches that God has welcomed us as children that we are his father and in the same way that Jesus says let the little children come to me for of such as the kingdom our heavenly father says come to me I delight in your presence so these two things are both true and they shape how Jesus teaches his disciples to pray we can approach God without fear because of what Jesus has done but we should never approach him casually or carelessly we should always approach with a clear understanding of who he is and Jesus is saying to his disciples I know you see the predicament let me teach you how to pray and and we have to learn how to deal with this tension as well I don't know what you're thinking about God is or how it has shaped how you come to him in prayer there are some people who think God it's like a kindly old grandfather and you go up to him and you just say here's what I want and he pats you on the head and says here here and it gives you whatever you want other people who see him as an angry father who doesn't want to be bothered by his children some see him as a buddy others see him as unapproachable the bible helps us shape our thinking to say we can never forget who God is but we are welcome to come into his presence think about it this way let's say you were best friends growing up with the guy who is president I don't mean any particular president not getting political so you can you can pick your president you were either best friends with Barack or Donald or Joe or George pick pick the president you want to be best friends with okay you were best friends growing up with whoever this was and you used to call each other you know spunky and dimwit I mean you you thumped each other on the head you you fouled each other hard playing basketball that's just that's who you were you had that kind of relationship growing up that was very casual and comfortable and then this guy gets elected president and he comes to you and says I want you to serve in my serve in my administration well as soon as you step into the oval office with the your friend who is now the president your relationship takes on a whole new turn right now you come into his office and you say good morning mr president how can how can I serve you serve because of there's respect for the office he's now the president of the United States well turn it around with God the Jews always saw God as high and holy and lifted up and to go into his presence you would go in with your knees shaking and now he says sit down permission to speak freely we can talk about whatever you want to talk about call me George or Joe or Donald pick again pick your president's name this is how we have to understand there there are two truths that are both real God is near God is far God is close God is high and holy we need to keep both of those in mind and we see this in how Jesus begins to teach the disciples about prayer so we move from the predicament into the pattern for prayer and we're not going to spend a whole lot of time in this pattern for prayer but the place where Jesus starts when the disciples say teach us how to pray he says pray this way here's the first thing you say father now you look through your Old Testament and you find for me the number of times in the Old Testament that anybody called God father there are a handful of them but not many the thought of calling Yahweh whose name was so holy we wouldn't even say his name to call him daddy that just blew all the circuits on the disciples grid they say teach us to pray okay call God father what yes father and then what's the next thing he teaches them hallowed be your name Jesus says you start prayer remembering you have access to God as a father and his name is holy and you let those truths guide the rest of the conversation so the pattern for prayer begins with that that essential element draw near but don't forget who you're drawing near to this is your father who is holy and then he says after you've done that in the pattern for prayer make sure you're aligning your priorities with his priorities going to prayer is not trying to get God on your agenda it's about you getting on God's agenda so after you say father hallowed be your name your kingdom come your will be done it's saying Lord the reason I'm here is not to talk you into doing things my way but to do things your way father hallowed be your name I want to be on the same page with you and then we confess that we are utterly dependent on him for everything in life give us today our daily bread Lord we can't make it through the day without you everything we have is a gift from you we come dependently you're our father your name is holy we want to be about your agenda we're completely dependent on you and we are in need of grace we need your forgiveness to come now you understand when you come into a relationship with Jesus your sins past present and future are done away with God forgives them in that moment you have sins you have not committed yet that God has already forgiven that's the promise of God but the Bible tells us that we're to confess our sins before God because if we confess our sins he's faithful and just to not only forgive our sins but to cleanse us from all unrighteousness your sins are forgiven why do I need to confess my sins to God to be cleansed from all unrighteousness so the cleansing we come to God acknowledging we know we still have sin issues in our lives Lord we're dependent on your grace for life and we are not only dependent on grace for life but we are intending to be dispensers of grace to others so give us forgiveness as we seek to forgive others and then Lord we know we're weak and we're frail and we're feeble so lead us not into temptation that pattern that Jesus has just laid out put you in the proper framework for whatever you're going to ask for next you have now established what you need to keep in mind as you go before God with whatever request is on your heart you come in and reposition your thinking about who God is about who you are about the reality of your needs Jesus says when you pray make sure this is the pattern that you follow as you go through this and then he says bring your requests before God now this doesn't mean that you can't ask God for what's on your heart you can God says come to me with whatever burden you have cast your cares on me bring come come to me all you who are weary and heavy light now give you rest those are the promises of God when it comes to prayer but we do it with this essential framework in mind that says but we want to remember who we are who we're talking to and what's true so that's the pattern that he gives he says this is the foundation that that prayer should begin with and then he tells the parable that begins in verse five so we move from the pattern to the parable and the story in this parable that the details of the story are pretty straightforward but it can be a little confusing I think he's here's what you need to understand in the parable in Jesus day there was a responsibility on the part of every Jew to provide hospitality for the stranger and the alien this was considered a divine responsibility failure to care for the the needs of the stranger or the alien who came into your village would be to bring disrespect on yourself on your village and ultimately on God so God had said in his law you are to care for the needs of the wanderer of the stranger of the alien so knowing that we have this story this guy is at home late at night and his buddy shows up at his door so 11 o'clock midnight something he hears a knock on the door the buddy's there he said hey I know surprise you know I know you didn't know I was coming but I'm here at can I crash here tonight you have a divine responsibility of course you can crash here tonight but then you look around you go I'm out of food I got no bread we ate all the bread we had today and before the Lord you need to offer your friend something to eat and you go on every food so instead of just saying hey sorry kitchen clothes we ran out of food you say not only can you stay here but I'm gonna go out and find you some food at midnight right and 7 11's closed so you go next door to your next door neighbor now you're walking up to your next door neighbor's door and the lights are out they've been out for hours and you're about to bang on his door to see if you can get him get some bread for your neighbor and you're thinking to yourself my neighbor is not going to be happy when he hears a loud knock on the door but I got to do this because I got honored the Lord and I've got there's a stranger in our town and we've got to feed him so that's the context now if you ever had a middle of the night emergency where you had to call somebody wake them up go knock on the door had to disturb them from their sleep you know if you do that if you've got a child who's sick in the middle of the night and you need Tylenol or something and you're out and you're going to get some help from somebody before you disturb them the first thing you say is man I'm so sorry to be calling you this late at night but but I need help I I need you to help me and so you disrupt somebody sometimes we disrupt people in the middle of the night for trivial reasons I did recently I wasn't even thinking about this so I had been Marianne and I by the way my wife's here can I introduce my wife this my wife Marianne would you stand up and say we are the two of us we are headed up this this afternoon to Forest Home Christian camp just outside up in San Bernardino Hills where I'm at family camp there all this week as one of the speakers we're looking forward to that and really thrilled that we could get to be here with you this morning but I'm happy to have my wife here so my my wife and I had this situation recently we had gone to see Top Gun Maverick right and we liked the movie and got home so I was reading The Wall Street Journal a few days later and there was there had been a review of the movie in The Wall Street Journal and the the critic for the movie had said you know some of this stuff is just kind of crazy well this guy wrote in it's it's up yet so this guy writes in this letter to the editor and he says please tell John Anderson the guy who reviewed the movie we all realize movie critics have to be well critical but as a lifelong military airline and general aviation pilot I need you to tell him it's the best movie best flying movie I've ever seen I'm not naive enough to ignore the weaker points of the script but I would do just about anything to fly an F-18 or an F-14 with or without Tom Cruise on my wing right this is guy who used to fly planes in the Air Force and has flown for years he said man to fly an F-14 or F-18 he says there's nothing like it so I'm reading this it's it's after midnight and I'm thinking about Marianne's brother Marianne's brother served in the Air Force and flew F-14s back in the day he then went into commercial aviation worked as a pilot for years I asked him one time I said the difference between flying an F-14 and flying an MD-80 what's the difference he said it's like the difference between driving a city bus and a Maserati right he said you drive the M-80 you know you're driving the bus but you drive that Maserati man you can get around he he it was fun flying the F-14 so I read this after midnight and the first thing I think of is Marianne's brother and I think I wonder if he's seen the movie and I wonder if he'd agree with Butch Gilbert the guy in the Air Force so I copy this this letter to the editor and I text it to my brother-in-law David and went to bed so and I copied Marianne on the text next morning I get up and Marianne says you should probably not text my brother after midnight he sleeps with his phone by his bed with it on in case there's anything the grandkids need so when he got your ding after midnight he probably he was I'm imagining he's awake and he goes oh do the kids need something and then he reads the stupid thing about Top Gun from his brother-in-law right so all of a sudden I I felt bad I didn't realize that he did write back kindly though and here's what he said he said Bob no doubt this came from you it shows it was sent at 105 in the morning okay so it was after midnight but he went on to say the plot of the movie is preposterous the flying scenes were awesome the techniques of flying low altitude at very fast speed are taught to fighter pilots it's very dangerous one second and it's in the rocks most fighters when I was flying could do nine Gs but the strain on the body was pretty hard we would come back from a dogfight drenched in sweat even though we were in an air conditioned cockpit it's a good escapist movie so there's a fighter pilots review of Maverick for you but that has nothing to do with the parable so let's get back to the parable the only connection here is the guy in the parable is getting awakened in the middle of the night not for something stupid like a top gun text but because his neighbor needs bread and how does he respond he responds by saying go away we're all asleep in here you woke the whole house leave us alone find bread somewhere else and the next door neighbor won't let up keeps knocking but I need bread leave us alone I need bread finally guy goes okay here's your bread now leave us alone that's how the exchange happens in the parable now if you're like me you would read this parable and think is this trying to teach us is Jesus saying the way to get God to do what you need him to do is just keep pestering him yes he'll be really annoyed with you when you come asking but you just keep pestering and he'll finally give in does that sound to you like what Jesus is trying to do does that sound like God to you follow me here go back to where we started the Jews to whom Jesus is speaking his disciples are thinking exodus 19 I can't go wake up God he could come in thunder you could come in a cloud he might kill me Jesus is saying your next door neighbor is like that not God this is not a parable to show us what God is like it's a parable to show us what God isn't like how he's different than this how he's a good father not a grouchy neighbor the point of the parable is if you think you need to pester your neighbor to get what you want that may be true but God's not like that he's not sleeping you're not disturbing him you come to the Lord and you say Lord I want to honor you I want to obey your word I want to serve my neighbor who's in need but I ran out of daily bread can you help me Jesus is not saying God's not there saying oh man you're annoying me because you want to keep my will you want to serve and then he says based on the parable so here's the point keep coming to God keep coming to God keep knocking keep asking keep keep seeking when we read that we can tend to read that and think what this means is when you ask God once you have to there's a magic number that you've got to get to before the breakthrough will happen so keep on asking because you don't know what the magic number is and God does he knows it's 87 and if you quit at 86 you're not going to get up but you get the magic see that's not how God works what Jesus is saying here is whatever the burden on your heart is don't quit asking don't quit seeking don't quit knocking don't don't think I can't go back to God with this again I can't lay this I'm probably annoying him no you're not keep asking keep seeking keep knocking he is not put off by your requests you know there's another parable that's like this in Luke chapter 18 about an old woman who goes to a judge late at night and she's knocking on the door because she wants justice it's the same story and again the idea is God's not like the unrighteous judge he's a righteous judge God's not like the grouchy neighbor he's a good father keep coming keep asking professor Darrell Bach from Dallas Seminary in his commentary on Luke's gospel says the point of this parable is this God is approachable and should be approached often and with confidence if an irritated person responds to boldness you can be bold with a gracious one so you should continually pray now a couple of caveats here here's one caveat before you come to God with your request work through Luke 11 2 through 4 the reason that this parable comes after Jesus teaching on prayer is because Jesus is saying before you bring the request to God and knock on the door and say here's what I'm looking for remember who you're talking to remember whose kingdom this is remember that you want it to be about his agenda remember that he is the one who provides for your needs that you need grace you need to be a dispenser of grace and you're weak remember all of that before you say here's my need you don't just barge it and say hey god here's what I need that no you come in and say lord Jesus hallowed be your name I want what you want I want your kingdom to come so you frame your requests with that mindset in mind and second notice that this man is not coming with just some some personal appetite or desire that he wants God some itchy wants God to scratch he's coming because he wants to to honor God by serving his neighbor the request he's making to God is not a request for himself it's a request to do God's will so he's coming with that I don't think it's by accident that in telling the story Jesus has the man in the story seeking to do the will of God he is asking his neighbor to help him do God's will do you think if you go to God and say God ask help me to do your will he's going to say leave me alone I'm fathered by you no and that leads to what I'm calling the promise in verses 11 through 13 there's another simple illustration so you got the parable of the grouchy neighbor but then you've got this illustration where Jesus not not a story but he says if a child comes to his father and asks for a good thing ask for bread is the father going to give him a snake if he asks for an egg is the father going to give him a scorpion and the obvious answer is a good father is not going to do that again we're back to where we've we started your grouchy neighbor might throw a snake out the window at you if you're asking for bread but not God you come asking for bread he's going to go yeah that's a that's good here's your bread a good father is going to give good gifts to his children he knows what they need in fact he knows what you need catches he knows what you need better than you do okay I know you think that what you need is really what you need God knows what you need better than you know what you need now if your parents you know this your three-year-old thinks he knows what he needs right but you know better than your three-year-old knows your three-year-old every three-year-old I know in the history of three-year-olds has done this it's 30 minutes before dinner you're in the kitchen cooking and your three-year-old comes in and they say to you mama I'm what's the word hungry mama I'm hungry can I have a treat and you say wisely to your three-year-old no sweetheart we're about to have dinner mom's cooking dinner we're gonna eat in about 30 minutes so we're not gonna have a treat that would spoil your appetite and does your three-year-old go oh yeah okay that makes perfect sense thanks mommy I just hadn't thought 30 minute I'll go yeah perfect what does a three-year-old do when you say no treat mommy I'm hungry and they right look we're like three-year-old sometimes with our request to God we don't know I don't know if you have these do you have a ho-ho's out here right so if you have hostess ho-ho's your three-year-old comes to you and it's it's 30 minutes before their mommy can I have 10 ho-ho's all right you're gonna say no sweetie first of all even if you even if you haven't eaten a day you're not even 10 ho-ho's that's bad for anybody but that's what the three-year-old wants God is God is saying you come to me with request I know what you're gonna need now so we have if you come asking for an egg even 30 minutes before dinner God may say it's not egg time now sweetheart we're not going to do that right but let's flip this around let's say you go to God and ask for a scorpion or a snake because you don't know about the danger you you take your your six-year-old to the reptile store do they have reptile stores I don't know you take them to the reptile store and there's a snake in the cage and it's a poisonous snake he goes oh that's so cool can we get it a good father's not going to say sure you can keep it in your room right because you know better what could happen with the poison a snake so even if your kid wants it you're not going to give it to him so when when we go to God and ask for the wrong thing a good loving father is going to say no and we may be like a three-year-old go but I want it God said no but you don't need it it's not what's best for you a good father can be counted on to give good gifts even when that good father says no to what you're asking for but the point of the parable is keep being bold keep coming keep asking if what you're asking for is what you need God's going to give it to you if it's not what you need a good God will say no sweetheart but don't put off asking God what you need because you think you're bothering him or he doesn't really care about you or he might get mad at you that's the big idea of the parable here and there's a punchline and I don't want you to miss the punchline because it's in verse 13 Jesus says even an imperfect fallen father knows how to give good gifts to his children he talks about evil fathers by the way that's all of us but if you think that's some special cat no we're all sinful fathers we all make mistakes even an evil father who has his own issues still knows how to give good gifts to his children so even if an evil father knows how to give good gifts God knows better when you go to God and say will you give me this God's going to say to you every time I'm going to give you something better than what you're asking for what's that I'm going to give you me see that's verse 13 if an evil father knows how to give good gifts won't a good father give you the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit is God the third person of the Trinity permanently dwelling with you which is what you need more than the fish or the egg or any of it when you ask God for whatever it is you're asking for God says I got something better for you I'm going to give you the best gift of all I'm going to give you the Holy Spirit you say I want a fish or an egg God says I'm going to give you a chef and a dietician you see see that it what it means whatever you face in life God says you're going to face some hard things but you'll never face them alone you'll never face them without me being there with you facing it with you even if I walk through the valley of the shadow of death the psalmist says I'll fear no evil why because you're with me and your rod and your staff comfort me JC Ryle who was the Anglican preacher in the late 1800s in England says this he says the Holy Spirit is beyond doubt the greatest gift which God can bestow on men and women having this gift we have all things life light hope and heaven having this gift we have got the father's boundless love we have got the son's atoning blood and we have full communion with the three persons of the blessed trinity having this gift we have grace and peace in the world that now exists and glory and honor in the world to come so you might not get your egg today but you've got God with you yes God for help and God says here's what I'm going to give you I'm going to give you the helper you say God I need comfort he says I'm going to give you the comforter you say God I need wisdom he says I'm going to give you the counselor you say God I need insight he says I'm going to give you the spirit of truth and the Holy Spirit the Bible says when you don't know how to pray Romans 8 the Holy Spirit knows how to pray for you there's no need you have that has a better answer for it than the presence of God walking with you the point of this passage is we do have a loving heavenly father who is ready to receive his children and ready to give them good gifts keep asking keep seeking keep knocking don't be intimidated your neighbor may be grouchy a bad father may not always give good gifts to his to his children but God is a good father he's never sleeping he's never grouchy he's ready keep asking don't be intimidated but it's for those who can call God father and you need to know this not everybody can back in the 1800s there were there was a movement among clergy people that was called the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man movement and it was the idea that if God is the father of all then we are all brothers well it's a nice sentiment in fact I remember learning in when I was in elementary school we learned this song that was let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me you ever heard this song and then there's like with God as our father brothers all are we okay if God is your father then we're all brothers it's great to be able to come to Southern California I know I'm here with my brothers and sisters okay but not everybody is a child of God how do I know that because Jesus says in John 1 to all who did receive him who believed in his name to them he gave the right to become children of God who were born not a blood or the will of the flesh or the will of man but of God those who have God as their father are those who have received him those who have believed in his name and have committed themselves to him and say I will follow you Lord that's how you become a child of God by surrendering your life and giving yourself to him so anybody who says I'm a child of God but I don't follow my father doesn't understand what it means to be a child of God the good news is everybody is welcome there's nobody who comes to God and says I want you as my father who God says yeah I'm not interested God is welcoming all who will come surrender themselves and say I've made a mess of my life I need a good father who will guide and direct I need the presence of the Holy Spirit with me to walk through this life I can't do this on my own I can't make this on my own I'll die on my own God says come be my child the offer is there but you have to receive him and believe on his name and for those of you who are here those of you are watching online if you have never taken that step to go from being somebody who knows about God to somebody being a child of God today can be that day for you today can be the day when you go from death to life from darkness to light and it's simple by by surrendering to Jesus and saying Lord I need you I know I've made a mess of my life I want you to come in to my life I want you to be with me always I want to follow you thank you for what Jesus did on the cross to pay for my sin thank you that he rose from the dead to give new life I now trust myself to you I will follow you and be your child thank you for being my father it's as simple as a prayer like that and so I want to ask you to pray with me here as we close this morning father