Sermon Tone Analysis

February 22, 2015

*Intro* – (Read Luke 11:5-8).

The count was 3 and 2 when Danny MacFayden, pitching for the Pirates, fired what he thought was a strike, but which Umpire Bill Klem called Ball 4. Danny rushed the plate, offered his glasses to Klem yelling, “Here, you need these more than I do!” Manager Frank Frisch arrived on the scene just as Klem thumbed MacFayden.

Frisch argued, “Bill, the kid didn’t mean that.

He was excited.

Have a heart.”

Klem responded, “I’m not throwing him for insulting my eyesight.

I’m tossing him for inciting the fans.”

Danny took offense: “I was not yelling at the grandstand.

I was hollering just in case your ears are as bad as your eyes.”

Well, I’m wondering today if some of us have stopped praying feeling the Lord is hard of hearing.

Prayer seems to yield nothing, so we have largely given up.

We’ve all been there.

But Jesus urges, get back in the prayer game.

In Luke 11:1-4 Jesus teaches what to pray.

Now, in vv 5-13 Jesus teaches us how to pray.

Two words – persistently and expectantly.

Vv. 5-8 deal with persistently.

V. 8 is key: “I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence (persistence, shameless audacity) he will rise and give him whatever he needs.”

How should we pray?

Persistently.

We’ll examine that more closely next week.

But first, let’s get oriented.

In any parable we ask what the parts represent, right?

Here it’s clear.

The man seeking bread is the disciples – or us.

The sleeping friend is God.

So, with that in mind, I want us to ask two questions of this parable.

Why is God reluctant?

And why is persistence necessary?

*I.

Why is God Reluctant?*

A. W. Tozer made a profound comment: “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”

Dead on!

What we think about God is the most important thing about us because that will inform virtually every thought and every action we take.

And if we think of God as a decrepit umpire who can neither see nor hear, why pray?

Right?

But isn’t God the sleepy neighbor here?

Note his response to the request: “7and 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’?”

Don’t bother me!

So God doesn’t want to be bothered, so you can only move Him by being the squeaky wheel, right?

You’ve got to be the loudest and longest to get a response.

And that’s too hard, so we count ourselves out.

If that’s how we view God, we’re not likely to spend much time pursuing Him.

So, why does God not want to be bothered?

Why is God reluctant?

And the answer is [listen carefully now.

Here is the heart of the message].

Why is God reluctant?

The answer is – He’s not!

That’s great news, isn’t it?

He’s not reluctant.

But sometimes it appears that He is!

Given that, Jesus is teaching us what to do.

How do we deal with a seemingly reluctant, AWOL God? Jesus answer is – keep asking, persistently and even shamelessly, impudently.

But before we go there, it’s important to ask why God sometimes appears reluctant.

Remember, the most important thing about you – the thing that will drive every decision you make – is how you think about God.

If you think He’s reluctant, you will act in kind.

You will blow Him off like you think He’s blowing you off.

But if you understand that He is not reluctant, it changes everything.

So, if He’s not reluctant, how come I don’t get immediate answers?

I’m an American!

I want it now!

Why does God delay?

*A.

Unconfessed sin* – Psa 66:18, “If I had cherished [held unconfessed] iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.”

How did David know that?

Because he had tried it many times.

By firsthand experience he knew, if I harbor known sin in my life, the Lord is under no obligation to hear my prayer.

When I cover sin – bitterness, anger, selfishness, a critical spirit, vengeance –I’m not being genuine with God.

And He knows our heart!

We can’t ask God for help with our marriage while we cheating on our taxes, right?

You can’t ask a friend for a loan while you stab him in the back at work.

Unconfessed sin ties God’s hands – except to discipline us.

Jesus says in Matt 5 that if you bring an offering (equivalent to prayer today) but have unresolved conflict, “First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift” (Mt 5:23).

Your offering is no good here until you’ve done what you can to right the wrong.

If we harbor sin our hearing is denied.

God gets really personal about this in I Pet 3:7, “Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.”

Look at that.

Unresolved conflict in marriage nullifies prayers.

In the case of unconfessed sin, it isn’t a case of God appearing reluctant, it’s a case of Him being reluctant.

But the fault is not His.

The fault is ours.

And the answer is, confess and forsake the sin.

*B.

Spiritual Warfare* – One day Daniel got a vision he did not understand.

It plagued him and he prayed for enlightenment.

Nothing came.

He neither ate nor bathed so consumed was he in seeking an answer.

After 3 weeks, an angel showed up, and said in Dan 10:12, “Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day (that’s not reluctance) that you set your heart to understand and humbled yourself before your God, your words have been heard, and I have come because of your words.

13 The prince of the kingdom of Persia (demon) withstood me twenty-one days, but Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I was left there with the kings of Persia, 14 and came to make you understand what is to happen to your people in the latter days.

For the vision is for days yet to come.”

Amazing insight.

Sometimes good angels and demons battle it out in the background before answers come.

And Paul tells us we’re in the same warfare.

So, sometimes the answer may be delayed because of the spiritual warfare that surrounds us unseen, but very real.

*C.

Timing is wrong* – Suppose your 10-year-old son came and asked for the keys to the car.

You giving them to him?