Without Ceasing

Sunday Sermons

Mark Dunagan
11/25/07 - Sunday Morning

Without Ceasing

Luke 11:5-13 And He said to them, “Suppose one of you shall have a friend, and shall go to him at midnight, and say to him, 'Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him'; and from inside he shall answer and say,' Do not bother me; the door has already been shut and my children and I are in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.' I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs. And I say to you, ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it shall be opened.”

The connection between these verses and the previous verses is that here, Jesus instructs His disciples in what spirit they are to pray, especially here in the spirit of persevering faith. “The Lord here suggests a series of short subjects for constant prayer, and further gave them words to help them, and then proceeded to press upon them that this constant seeking help from God should never be interrupted: no discouragements were ever to prevent their praying” (P.P. Comm. p. 301).

The Parable

Unexpected guests have just dropped in on a friend and he comes knocking, at midnight, on your door, imploring you for help. “Friend lend me three loaves”. This does not necessarily imply poverty. Bread for the day was baked every morning. “If food was not available from one’s own stores, it was necessary to go to the local market to purchase provisions. This was a daily task because it was not possible to keep food for more than a day in the hot climate without recourse to drying or salting” (Manners and Customs, Grower, p. 45). 11:6 “I have nothing to set before him”: Mother Hubbarb’s Cupboard was bare! 11:7 “Do not bother me”: In the simple, one-roomed Israelite home, there was only one place to sleep and the guest would sleep on the raised platform with the family. It was common for the entire family; parents, children, and servants, to sleep in the same room. They have all gone to bed and are now sleeping, and he does not want to risk waking them. “Note the crowded living conditions. Such a reference gives real meaning to John 14:2 “In the Father’s house are many abiding places”, that is, many rooms, in contrast to the many one-room houses in Palestine” (The Parables, Jackson, p. 55). People have not changed. Neither would we want to get out of a warm bed or risk waking up the kids. 11:7 “I cannot get up”: That is, I am not willing. How many times is our “cannot”, more accurately a “will not”? 11:8 Friendships among people do have their limits. He may or may not give for the sake of friendship, but he must give for his own sake. Here, persistence wins out over friendship. 11:8 “As much as he needs”: This imploring will result in not only what he needs, but more than what he needs (Luke 6:38).

Immune to Embarrassment

11:8 “Persistence”: Literally, the word here means “shamelessness”, that is, persistence to the point of shamelessness. Here is a man willing to risk friendship, violate manners and tact, in order to get what he needs. This man had no shame to bother a friend in such a way; he was stretching friendship to its limits, and exhibited no pride. He let nothing deter him (the lateness of the hour, comfortably asleep, or the initial rejection), but rather he kept asking. We often despise such behavior in others, like the salesman who refuses to take his foot out of the door or the telemarketer who has a quick answer to all our attempts to politely end the conversation. Yet, when it comes to prayer, God actually commends such shameless asking. “Part of the reason that we are so seldom heard as a church may be that we are too prim and proper! Perhaps the trouble is that we are bound by a false decorum which dictates that if we do no immediately get what we ask, we become too embarrassed to keep kneeling and crying out. Instead we simply let the matter drop” (If God already knows, Why Pray? Douglas F. Kelly pp. 158-159).

The Devil’s Lies

When our prayers do not seem to be answered, Satan comes whispering:

“Prayer does not really work.”
“Stop depending upon God and fix it yourself.”
“Such total dependence upon God is humiliating.”

Why the Wait?

“Why is it that answers to specific requests, which seem to accord with the glory of God, are often delayed for so long? Why do we have to become so shameless to obtain the answer? It seems as though we have a God who loves for us to become so desperate that at least we realize we have come to an end of ourselves and to an end of human resources. We have to discover that we simply cannot handle everything by ourselves; that all our cleverness, all our talents, all our family or business connections, and all our education are totally insufficient. Sometimes only that sort of situation can make us become desperate and determined enough to throw ourselves on His mercy and keep crying out. And it seems that our God is touched by that kind of desperation” (Kelly pp. 160-161).

When God Waits

“Be patient, therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it, until it gets the early and late rains” (James 5:7). “God will not delay one moment longer than is absolutely necessary. He will do all in His power to hasten and speed the answer. He is like the farmer who does not harvest the crop too soon because He knows it is far better to wait until it is ripe. He is patient with that crop until just the right time – then, and only then, He brings it in speedily” (Kelly p. 165). “Now shall not God bring about justice for His elect, who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them? I tell you that He will bring about justice for them speedily” (Luke 18:7-8). On the surface it may look like the previous story contains two contradictory statements, that is: on the one hand, God’s people need to be persistent and patient like the widow; and on the other hand, Jesus says that God will bring about justice for them speedily. Some say that this means that even though we need to be patient, when God does act, He will act quickly. Yet, is God not always acting? “My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working” (John 5:17). A better solution could be that, from a human and earthly perspective, it might look like nothing is happening, yet in the spiritual realm, and behind the scenes, God is working earnestly. We clearly see an example of this in the book of Esther. To Mordecai and Esther, along with the rest of the Jews, it might look like nothing is happening, yet to the reader of the book, one can see God working constantly behind the earthly backdrop.

Why We Can Wait

It is easy to forget that persisting in prayer is actually doing something in us. Such persistence moves us away from depending upon ourselves or other earthly resources.

Like Jacob in the Old Testament when he wrestled with the angel (Genesis 32:24-32), he underwent a transformation. He entered the match named “Jacob” (the deceiver) and exited “Israel” (prince of God). “Could it not be that one of the major reasons that God lets us wrestle in our prayers is that He wants to turn us, in our own particular way and in our own particular circumstances, from a ‘Jacob’ into an ‘Israel’? Not only in Jacob’s experience, but also in ours, it takes hard wrestling with ourselves and with the Lord to be turned from self-centered manipulators into princes with God. Even to begin this kind of wrestling…will mean rethinking personal priorities in order to put time with God at the top of the list. We often have to struggle hard with ourselves and many conflicting demands on our time and energy just to get ourselves to the place of beginning to pray. It will not just happen” (Kelly p. 173).
We are also told to pray according to His will (1 John 5:14). When we are required to wait for any answer and continue our prayers, such moves us again and again back to the Scriptures for we will naturally ask ourselves, “Is this according to the will of God? I need to double check”.
God describes Christians as being His children and being a part of His household, yet our attention can stray, as it does with earthly children. Waiting in prayer equally forces us to examine ourselves and ask, “Does God have my full attention?” “Has my self-importance been broken and have I come to the point that I realize that everything hinges upon God?” “Every day, do I have a God-centered awareness?” Or, can I go for long stretches of time without even thinking of God, the return of His Son, the salvation of the lost or my own earthly departure?
Praying persistently reminds us that we are to pray even when we don’t feel like praying at the moment. “Once we have won the primary battle of making prayer a major priority in our time schedule, then the devil will certainly attack us in the area of feelings about the activity to which we are now giving so much time. ‘Is it worth it?’ he will ask. Indeed, he may go on. ‘Are you worth it?’ ‘Will a holy God hear an unworthy person like you?’ While feelings do of course have a legitimate place, we cannot afford to depend on them alone. A war is not won on whether the army feels like fighting”(Kelly pp. 174-175).
I can persist, and patiently wait, when God’s track-record in Scripture is such that when God shows up, it is all over for the enemy. This was true when the flood came, the end of Sodom and Gomorrah, the fall of Jericho, the end of Haman and it will be true when Jesus returns
(2 Thessalonians 1:7-9).

Mark Dunagan/Beaverton Church of Christ/503-644-9017