Ask and Receive

Luke 11:5-13

Key verse 13

“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!”

Introduction

As we studied in verses 2-4, Jesus taught his disciples what their prayer topics should be. In verses 5-10, Jesus taught them what kind of attitude they should have as they pray. In verses 11-13, Jesus taught them how God answers prayer. May the Lord help us to grow as prayer servants through studying today’s passage.

1. Read verses 5-8. Why did one go to a friend at midnight? (5-6) How did the friend respond? (7) What caused him to change his mind? (8) What can we learn from this parable?

1-1, Read verses 5-8.

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[e] he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.

1-2, Why did one go to a friend at midnight? (5-6)

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.’

• It was because his friend on a journey has come to him and he had no food to offer him (so he needed to get some from this friend to share with that one).

• In this parable, there are three parties; a friend, you, a friend of mine

• Friend ‘A’ visited friend ‘B’ who in turn visited friend ‘C’.

1-3, How did the friend respond? (7)

‘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.’

1-4, What caused him to change his mind? (8)

because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.

1-5, What can we learn from this parable?

• The key word is “audacity”.

• The meaning of “audacious” is to show a willingness to take surprisingly bold risks.

• Its synonyms are “bold, daring, fearless, intrepid, brave, courageous, valiant, and more”.

• In America, we have a kind of universal rule: “Don’t call anyone between 9PM and 9AM”.

• So if we got a call late evening, it’s considered to be an emergency call.

• Although they were friends, he wouldn’t get up and give him what he needed unless he was not shamelessly audacious in asking for bread.

• Although God knows what we need, God wants us to ask him boldly.

• However we can not miss the important point, that is the motive we should have in prayer.

• The motive is love for a friend in need.

• Likewise, Jesus wants us to pray for our friends who are indeed in need, particularly the young students of this nation who are in dire need for shepherds.

• Furthermore Jesus is the bread of life.

• We go out fishing and end up meeting a friend who is in great need of food: not physical food but spiritual food.

• We pray for him or her and find bread, the word of Jesus and deliver it to them, though it could be at an inconvenient time.

2. Read verses 9-10. What did Jesus say? (9, 10) What did Jesus promise to those who persistently ask, seek, and knock? What does it mean by “ask”, “seek”, and “knock”? Whom is this promise given to? (10) How can we apply this promise in our prayer?

2-1, Read verses 9-10.

“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.

2-2, What did Jesus say? (9, 10)

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. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

According to Amplified Bible(AMP),

9 So I say to you, Ask and keep on asking and it shall be given you; seek and keep on seeking and you shall find; knock and keep on knocking and the door shall be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks and keeps on asking receives; and he who seeks and keeps on seeking finds; and to him who knocks and keeps on knocking, the door shall be opened.

2-3, What did Jesus promise to those who persistently ask, seek, and knock?

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.

2-4, What does it mean by “ask”, “seek”, and “knock”?

• Ask: Although God knows what we need before we ask Him, He usually won’t provide our needs until we ask because He wants relationship with us.

• Seek: It’s not always enough just to ask. More often than not, you also have to seek.

• Knock: Once you see God's promise in clear view, knock and keep on knocking until the promised door is open.

• Prayer is not a mere getting down on our knees and uttering some words.

• Rather it is more than that. It consists of following up with what we asked God in prayer by actually going out and looking for God’s provided way.

• In other words, we may not find the way at first.

• Jesus wants us to keep on asking, seeking, and knocking.

• Asking is verbal. Again we are to use our mouths to ask God for our needs.

• And believers are to seek with our minds—this is more than asking; it is a setting of priorities and a focusing of the heart.

• To knock involves physical movement, taking action. Although asking and seeking are of great importance, they would be incomplete without knocking.

• In college, we rarely learn about these three. Only Jesus Christ teaches this.

• For God to answer our prayers we have to come to him persistently and boldly.

• To the person who believes and boldly puts into practice Jesus’ words: “Ask, seek and knock,” they will be the great servants who accomplish the mission given to them.

• There are a couple of examples in the Bible in a persistent prayer as follows;

Luke 18:1-8 read(it may be another good example of a persistent prayer),

Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.2 He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought.3 And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’ 4 “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’” 6 And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? 8 I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”

John 6:8-9 read(A man of faith, Andrew showed what it means to pray practically),

Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?”

2-5, Whom is this promise given to? (10)

For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

2-6, How can we apply this promise in our prayer?

• There are many examples throughout the history.

• Practically as we dedicated ourselves to campus ministry, we are privileged to experience like late Dr. Samuel Lee or Mother Sarah Barry.

• Through studying the book of Genesis, we are inspired to live as a source of blessing like Abraham.

• In turn we begin to pray(ask) personally to live as a blessing on campus by going out fishing and teaching the Bible as Bible teachers.

• Despite difficulties, we seek first God’s kingdom and His righteousness and experience God’s provision.

• When we further study the Bible, we find Jesus’ world mission command at the end of each gospel.

• We then begin to pray to be a pioneer of one college like a shepherd Frank Holman who shared his vision to serve students in Golden West college lately.

• Some students are praying to pioneer a nation and continue to knock doors to go out as missionary.

• Like apostle Paul who found a way to go to Rome to preach the gospel set a good example.

• Without ceasing God blessed his servants to go out as Bible teachers or missionaries by answering their prayers.

“ask, seek, and knock”.

3. Read verses 11-13. In what aspects are all fathers alike? How much more will our heavenly Father give us? (13) To whom does He give the Holy Spirit? (13b) What can we learn from our heavenly Father?

3-1, Read verses 11-13.

“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for[f] a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 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!”

3-2, In what aspects are all fathers alike?

• All fathers would like to give good gifts to their children.

3-3, How much more will our heavenly Father give us? (13)

• He wants to give the Holy Spirit to his children.

3-4, To whom does He give the Holy Spirit? (13b)

To those who ask him

3-5, What can we learn from our heavenly Father?

• According to Jesus what it means is God our Heavenly Father who is not evil but perfect in holiness and goodness how much more certain is he able to give us a good gift when we ask him.

• Jesus even specifies the good gift we all should ask God to give us. This is the Holy Spirit.

• The Holy Spirit is God’s Spirit. When we ask God for the Holy Spirit he gives his spirit to come and live within us.

• In other words we have the God himself living in us.

• Galatians 5:22 teaches us the fruit of the spirit is love, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

• Are you an impatient person? Don’t just pray that God would give you patience. Pray your heavenly Father would give you the Holy Spirit.

• Or are you sometimes a mean, unforgiving person? We should not pray that God would just give us a gentle and loving heart, but rather give us the Holy Spirit.

• With the Holy Spirit in us no evil spirit can live within us. Sometime we read about special people God used to change history for the good.

• We try to emulate them and become discouraged because we can be nothing like them.

• We forget it is the Spirit in the person that enabled them to do what they did.

• So if we want to become better people we must boldly come to God our Heavenly Father and ask him for his Holy Spirit.

• Daily we should ask our heavenly Father for his Spirit. Then we must be ready to listen to the Spirit and be sensitive to the guiding of the Spirit.

• God in his Spirit still wants to walk and work among the people of this world.

• Let us pray that God may use our lives as vessels for His Holy Spirit to live in and to minister to the people around us.

Conclusion

We have learned about what kind of attitude we should have in praying. First of all we have to be persistent and bold with a good motive in helping our friends in Jesus Christ. We are allowed to ask, seek, and knock continually until our prayer is answered, we may find God’s answer, and the door finally opened for his glory. Also the greatest fruit of prayer is the Holy Spirit. In fact, the Holy Spirit represents Jesus himself who represents God himself. Therefore to have the Holy Spirit inside of us does not mean that we will just have a couple of goodies such as good grades, a good job, a happy marriage, lots of disciples, and so on, but it means to have the right source of all blessings that fills our needs for eternity. May the Lord help us to appreciate the full value of the Holy Spirit and daily we live victorious and fruitful lives in and through him. Amen.

One word: God has been gracious to me and I have all I need. (Gen 33:11b)

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