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Week four - Shameless Audacity
Luke 11:5-10

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If God gave you everything you’ve prayed for in the last week, what would happen?
Would anything be different?
We often pray vague,

prayers

But there’s a mode Jesus invites us to hit specifically with regard to how we pray for others that Jesus called

Reveal Answer

Luke 11 Context: Jesus teaching on prayer didn’t end with the part we think of as “The Lord’s Prayer.” There was more…

5 Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; 6 a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’ 7 And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ 8 I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need. —Luke 11:5-8

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1st century Jewish hospitality laws
Hospitality was not just good behavior, part of a moral code and law - it’s a

(a law that was a direct pathway to showing loving kindness to the stranger).
- Part of reality for a people with a nomadic existence

The scenario Jesus describes -
A guest arrived, the host wasn’t prepared, and needed supplies for someone else.
First, you meet whatever needs you are able to meet.
Then, you ask

for whatever you cannot meet on your own for someone else.

9 “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. —Luke 11:9-10

There’s confidence in asking because we know God wants to give us what we need.

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And still we wonder, do our prayers matter? If God is sovereign and God is going to do what He’s going to do, why does it matter if we pray?

God being sovereign and God getting everything He wants are not the same thing.
-God is sovereign and God gives us free will.
-But, He’s clear that we should ask.
-And He’s clear that there is power in prayer.
-And, prayer engages us in being part of the answer to the prayer.

Some practical thoughts on praying for others:

• Do it
• Be bold
• Be specific
• Follow-up

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*Read chapter 5 in “Praying Like Monks, Living Like Fools” by Tyler Staton as a companion to this message