St. Luke’s Evangelical Lutheran Church -- Watertown, WI
Pastor Mark Gartner
Sermon for Pentecost 10 -- Aug. 5^th and 8^th, 2004

Dear children of God,

How many of you can remember getting your driver’s license? How did you learn how to drive a car? Did your mom or dad take you out? Did they first take you down some quiet side roads where the traffic was less busy? Did they clutch the dashboard everytime you got too close to the car in front of you or when you turned without looking both ways to make sure no cars were coming? How did your first try at parallel parking go? Did you turn the wheel just right and glide between the two cars or did you bump into the curb and have to try again and again? What was it like the first time that you drove on the highway or a busier road or in a bigger city? I think that most of us would agree that we have become better and more confident drivers with experience and the guidance of others.

As we look at our reading for today we soon realize that there are things in our spiritual lives that get better the more that we work on them and especially as we trust more and more that God will help us. One of the areas in a Christian’s life that can always see room for improvement is in our prayer life. Do we always know what to pray and how to pray? Are we confident when we pray or are we kind of weak in our prayer life. Today we see the disciples asking Jesus to help them in their prayer lives and the answer that he gives to them will also serve to help us as we talk to our Lord in prayer. Our theme is:

How would you rate your prayer life? On a scale of 1 – 10 where would you rate yourself with 1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest? If we are honest would have to admit that we are far from perfect when it comes to prayer and our conversations with God. This is a sign of a weak faith, but I think that the disciples might have been in the same boat as they came to Jesus, "Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples." The disciples most likely had witnessed Jesus many times during their three years together as he prayed. I’m sure that Jesus had taught them about prayer and what prayer was, but they just weren’t quite sure what prayer was all about.

As we go through our daily lives, how many of us are like the disciples. From little on we are told by our parents and our pastors and teachers to pray to God. But how many of us don’t really understand what prayer is and would like for God to help us in our prayer lives? That is exactly what Jesus did as he gave the disciples of all ages the beautiful and most fitting words that we call the Lord’s Prayer, "When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation." There is not person in this building, except maybe the very young who don’t recognize these words of Jesus. We have prayed these words so many times that we almost forget to think when we pray them. But it is the words that Jesus uses after the giving of the Lord’s Prayer that we would like to concentrate on today.

Our text today is a strong reminder to all of us to remember that "he that seeks" does find, and he "that asks" does receive, but often we seek for a long time before we find, and often we must ask a thousand times before we receive. We are thinking here of something that concerns all of us who are living the Christian life. How can we achieve that patience and perseverance that we need if we are to march onward on the Christian way to our final victory? Jesus, as he always does, turns our thoughts toward him. He tells us that if we know of God’s love for us, and know how God showed that love to us in the form of his one and only Son, and understand how much God loves us each and every day, then we will share that confidence and trust in God, which will enable us to pray persistently and wait patiently for God’s answer.

The sad thing about these words of our text is that many people misunderstand them. We have in this text a picture of a man asleep in bed, and his neighbor comes with a very reasonable request and receives a very ungracious reply. "Don’t bother me. My house is locked for the night. Stop pounding on the door, or you’ll disturb the children. I cannot and will not give you what you want or need." We who know our heavenly Father and this is not a picture of God, "who neither slumbers nor sleeps." This is not a picture of the God whom we know as One who loves us and cared for us as he sent his Son who came to earth and died for us on the Cross. The point of the parable, you see, is not the resemblance between this grumpy man and God, but the contrast between them.

The words that follow help us to understand this contrast. "If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!" Jesus is telling us that if this gruff and angry man in bed will finally respond to the persistence of his neighbor, then certainly we who are the children of God can be confident that our perseverance will be noticed by our heavenly Father. Jesus is reminding us of God’s loving concern for us, of God’s eager willingness to supply our needs, of God’s boundless love for us. But why should we need to be reminded of that? You and I have stood at the Cross, and there in the crucified Christ we have discovered the infinite grace and mercy of God. Yes, how can we ever doubt that this God who gave us His Son will also hear our prayers and supply all our needs?

How many of you think that your computers are too slow. You just bought the latest model with the fastest Internet connections available, and you still tap your fingers on the desk and mumble at your computer screen -- as if it really is listening – just because it doesn’t boot up fast enough or download things quick enough. Isn’t that much like our prayer life. We need to remember, however — and that is what our Lord is telling us in this parable — that we must be patient. We must never give up in our talking with God, and whether we are praying for forginvess or help with a problem or longing for a stronger faith, we must be patient! With God a thousand years are as one day, and often God in his wisdom moves slowly, not only in his judgments, but also in his answering of our prayers. We are usually in a hurry to get what we ask for, and often our prayers are offered in a frantic, "get me the answer as quickly as possible fashion." As though God doesn’! t really understand the urgency of our need! And God just seems to keep us waiting, a year perhaps, or ten years, or maybe fifty years. And very often he doesn’t answer our prayers until after death. But, knowing God and his love and kindness toward us, we can be sure of this. That if we ask, it shall be given to us, and if we seek, we shall find. But we must never stop seeking! We must never stop asking! It is a hard lesson to learn, isn’t it?

How many of you wives out there really have confidence that you husband will buy you the right birthday gift or anniversary gift? Or how many of you have your doubts and reservations in the gift-buying ability of your husbands?. As we pray to God, I think that too many of us have doubts and reservations that God really knows what we need. While we may pray for something, we don’t really expect to receive it or we think that God wouldn’t give it too us anyway. Our reason for coming to Jesus over and over again is found in the final part of this text. We come to Jesus often, because we know that he will answer us. He tells us that those who ask will receive, and the one who seeks will find, and the one who knocks will certainly have the door opened. Jesus will 100% answer our prayers. But how many of you have prayed and haven’t received what you prayed for? Did God answer that prayer, or did he miss that one? Or how many of us got something else than what we ! prayed for? Did God get the order mixed with someone else’s prayer? The answer is very simple. Jesus hears each and every one of our prayers, and he answers each and every one of our prayers in the best way possible.

He is the perfect Father, giving the perfect gifts to his children. Just as we as parents know how to give good gifts to our children, God will bring even better gifts to us, because he knows perfectly what gifts to give to us. Also, just as parents may sometimes withhold giving a child something, because they know it may be harmful to the child. God also may withhold something from us, even if we prayed for it, because he knows that it will be dangerous to our faith and us. Who of us sitting here can truly know what is best for us now and into the future? Jesus is the only one that can say this. Maybe we can think about God’s answers to our prayers in this way. If we didn’t get something we asked for, God gave us something better than we prayed for. We can come to our Lord and know confidently that he cares enough for us to answer our prayers in the best way possible.

Today we have received a wonderful lesson from the great teacher himself. Jesus today has taught us a few things about the wonderful gift of prayer. Let us remember to pray with Persistence, With Patience, With Confidence, knowing that God hears and God answers our prayers perfectly. Amen