In the sermon titled 'The Heart of Prayer,' Peter Allison explores the teachings of Jesus on prayer, focusing on the parable found in Luke 11. The sermon emphasizes the importance of persistence in prayer, highlighting how Jesus instructs His followers to ask, seek, and knock with the assurance that God will respond. Allison explains that this parable teaches believers to approach God with confidence, regardless of the timing or circumstances, and to trust in His goodness. The sermon outlines key characteristics of effective prayer: coming in times of need, praying persistently, interceding for others, and maintaining faith in God's willingness to give good gifts. Biblical examples, such as Hezekiah's prayer for deliverance and personal anecdotes, are used to illustrate the power of prayer. Ultimately, Allison encourages believers to cultivate a prayer life characterized by shameless persistence, faith, and expectation of God's good will.

Please turn in your copy of God's word to Luke chapter 11. We'll be looking at verses 5 and following, but I'd like to begin reading at the beginning of the chapter. Now it came to pass as he was praying in a certain place when he ceased, that one of his disciples said to him, Lord teach us how to pray as John also taught his disciples. So he said to them, When you pray, say, Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us day by day our daily bread and forgive us our sins For we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us and do not lead us into temptation But deliver us from the evil one and he said to them which of you shall have a friend and go to him at midnight and say to him, Friend, lend me three loaves.

For a friend of mine has come to me on his journey, and I have nothing to set before him. And he will answer from within and say, Do not trouble me, the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed I cannot rise and give to you I say to you though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend yet because of his persistence he will rise and give him as many as he needs. So I say to you, ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives, and he who seeks, finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone?

Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will he give him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him? May His Word be hidden in our heart that we might not sin against Him. Heavenly Father, thank You for Your Word.

And I pray that In this time, you would open our minds, our hearts, our ears, our understanding, that we may hear you as you speak to us through your word. And I pray that you would sanctify my sinful lips, that they might proclaim the riches of your glory, the grace of God in Christ. In Jesus' name, Amen. So we've spent a number of weeks looking at this prayer called the Lord's Prayer. We might say that in that Lord's Prayer, we have been learning what we ought to pray, and the petitions that we ought to bring.

And today we move into this parable that Jesus tells immediately following this instruction on what to pray. And we might call this the heart of prayer. The heart of prayer. Jesus gives instruction on how we ought to, our disposition in how we ought to think about prayer and how we ought to pray. And he tells this parable.

A little story. A very simple story. A man has a need. And it's not a convenient hour. It's midnight.

Most people are in bed, asleep. But this friend has a need. It's actually not his need, it's a need that has arisen From a friend of his who is traveling and arrived very late at night And he doesn't have anything to feed this friend that has arrived and so he calls upon another friend but when he goes to this other friend's house in the middle of the night and And asks for bread he knocks on the door and he hears a bunch of no's. No, I can't come. The door is shut.

My children are in bed with me. If I get up, I'll disturb them. I cannot rise and give to you." And then Jesus says, I tell you though this other friend will not rise and give to him because of a friendship, yet he will give to him because of his persistence. He will rise and give him everything he needs. And then he gives this promise, drawn as a lesson, as the moral of his story.

Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives, those who seek, find, and those who knock, it will be opened." And then lastly, he gives an encouragement to prayer. An encouragement to prayer because he talks about a child asking his father for food to eat, and he says, no earthly father is going to give his son something evil like a scorpion if he asks for an egg.

And the application of that is how much more than your heavenly Father will give to you. What is good. So in this parable, we are like the man who goes to his neighbor at midnight with a need. That's Jesus is characterizing us and the disciples as that man. We have a need.

Now the neighbor that he goes to and asks for a need, that's not God. That would destroy actually the whole main point of this parable, the little parable that Jesus tells. But in this parable, he encapsulates the heart of prayer, the characteristics of the heart of prayer, and the characteristics that we as disciples of Christ should be cultivating in our prayer life. Some of these might be obvious, But the first one is that we should come in the time of need. It might seem obvious, come in the time of need.

This man came when the need arose, which was an inopportune time at midnight. That might seem obvious, but isn't it so easy to forget to pray when a need arises? We're out in public, we're in an inconvenient place, and we forget to pray. How many times has that happened to you? I know it's happened to me.

We have a need and we forget. We forget to come to the Lord at the time of our need. Maybe we remember later, but it isn't the first thing that we remember. Maybe the need comes when we're not expecting it. And so it becomes very easy to forget to pray.

Or maybe we're so consumed with the urgency of the need. It's a big thing. It's important. It catches us off guard. It surprises us.

And immediately our mind goes to, What do we do? How do we fix it? Or maybe our mind shuts down and we can't think what to do. But we forget to pray. Even in smaller needs.

Do we remember to pray first? Or is it the afterthought? Do we recognize it as the most important thing that we can do in that moment? Even if there is an immediate action that needs to be taken, do we still remember as we are doing that action to call upon the Lord? Like Nehemiah did, as he is thrust into a hazardous situation, as the king is inquiring about the state of his sadness, you remember he immediately in that moment, before he answered the King, or even maybe as he's answering, he offered up a prayer to the Lord, in his mind at least, and then answered the King.

Do we think maybe that the need is too small or not spiritual enough? And so we neglect to come in the time of need. That's the first thing we see here in this heart of prayer. It's a heart that comes at the time of the need. It comes, secondly, regardless of the season, whether it's in season or out of season, to pray at that moment.

The man didn't say here in this story, oh, it's too late. He's already in bed. It's an inconvenient time. Friend, why don't you just wait until tomorrow and I'll get you something to eat. He went right at midnight.

He came regardless of the season. He came in the time of need, and He came regardless of the season. You know, Paul exhorted his protege, Timothy, to preach in season and out of season. Preach the word in season and out of season. When it was convenient and when it would seem fitting, but also when it wasn't the most convenient thing to do.

And that ought to be a characteristic of our prayer life as well. Third thing we see in this man is that he came boldly. Without regard to what people would think of him. He doesn't say, well, he's going to think poorly of me if I come to him at midnight. He might not be my friend if I do this.

He had a need. It was a good need. And so he went. There was no timidity in that. He didn't lack confidence in that his friend would give Him an answer or give Him what He needed.

And we need to have that same boldness when we come to the Lord ourselves in prayer, confident that the Lord will hear our prayer and answer it. Especially, especially in those times when we think that we are unworthy to come. There's no time more needful that we come because it is in our own worth and whatever we have done that we feel unworthy, If we had done something that we felt worthy of, that would be a great danger, because we wouldn't be worthy to come in that instance either. We need to come boldly even if we think we are unworthy to come. Because our ability to come before the throne of grace isn't on what we've done or haven't done, it's on what Christ has done.

He's the one who is worthy. And we come in His name. And we come as His children. He's our Heavenly Father. So we need to come with confidence.

We need to come in prayer with confidence that in Christ we can come. Then in Christ we are accepted at the throne of the grace, and that in Christ we have the authority. Christ has given us that authority that whatever we ask in His name of the Father, He will give it to us. Now there's certainly qualifications attached to the motivations behind our asking, and that we are asking for things that are agreeable to his will so we can always we can ask a miss and not receive an answer. The fourth thing we see here is that he is coming for a friend, interceding for a friend.

This wasn't his original need. Now he took it upon himself to feed this other friend who was coming to his house to stay. But He is in effect here interceding. He's not hungry, it's the person, it's his friend that has the hunger, but he is the one who goes to ask. That's intercessory prayer.

Someone else's need. He's bringing and asking for that need to be met, because he in his own strength can't meet it. Do we think of ourselves that way? When people are sick and in pain, it's hard for them to pray. It's hard to concentrate.

If you've ever been there, you know what I'm talking about. It's hard for our minds to concentrate. And it's that we can minister to people by praying for them, praying with them when they're not able to do that. We can also simply pray with people. As they pray, we can add our voice to theirs.

Interceding. Now fifthly, This man is not discouraged by the initial no's that he gets. He gets three no's here. No, don't trouble me. The door is shut.

My children are in bed with me. He gets lots of excuses. All of them are reasonable. Don't trouble me. It's midnight.

I'm tired. The door is shut. It's a process to get this opened up and unlocked. Barricade. It might have been barricaded.

It probably wasn't as simple as turning that deadbolt. He had to open some stuff up. His children are with him in bed. It's going to wake up the children, disturb the children as well, if he gets up and gets all this stuff. But our friend, our petitioner, our intercessor here isn't turned off by those no's.

He persists in asking. That's his next trait here in this heart of prayer, is that he's persistent in asking. Persistent. It's often, and it's repetitive, persistent. So having prayed once, Do we pray again?

How often do we pray in the day for it? Are we content to pray once a day? Or do we come to the throne of grace many times? The Bible says that we are to be Pray without ceasing I mean it's an ongoing thing that that we are continuing living a life of prayer And we can We can have our times of prayer, not to have our times that we set aside for prayer, but then there ought to be all those times that we, in the moment, in the heat of the moment, our heart is lifted up to the Lord. As you read the news today and you weep at what's happening, as our country falls into satanic worship and is being led into all manner of abominations.

As you see all manner of injustice happening to people. It ought to make us weep. It ought to cause us, in reading that, to simply cry out to the Lord in that moment, at that time. Getting upset or feeling sad or feeling a sense of impending doom doesn't do anything to help, But prayer does. The Lord is moved by the prayers of his people.

And as we read these things, we ought to be moved to prayer. As we read of horrible, heinous, wicked things going on, human sacrifices, injustices, people being convicted by wicked prosecutors. It ought to move us to cry out to the Lord. It ought to move us to prayer on that spot right at that time. That's persistent.

It's often and repetitive. That ought to characterize our prayer. When we are overcome with weariness, with sorrow, that ought to be a reason why we cry out to the Lord. Persistent, repetitively, often. We're not going to wear the Lord's ear out.

Rather He says that it is because of persistence that We will receive what we are asking for. And Jesus often tested people like this. He waited to watch them persist in their request. And when they persisted, then he granted it to them. There was the Syrophoenician woman who wanted to touch his hand.

It was hard but she persisted. There was another woman who wanted her daughter, a demon cast out of her daughter. But she wasn't an Israelite. And Jesus said, it's not right to give the food that's meant for the children to the dogs. He put her off.

But she persisted. She wasn't turned off by that answer. She didn't go off in a huff. She didn't say, oh well, okay, I won't ask anymore. No, she came right back with that wonderful response.

But yes, even the dogs get the crumbs that fall from the table. And then Jesus in amazement says, I haven't seen this kind of faith. That's what we ought to characterize our prayer. We continue to cry out to the Lord. We persist.

We ought to come assuming the goodness of God. We ought to come knowing that God is good, and that He delights in giving to us as children the things that we have need of, the things that are good for us. See when a child asks for a fish, he doesn't expect a serpent. When he asks for an egg, he doesn't expect a scorpion. When he asks for bread, He doesn't expect a stone.

When we come and ask the Lord, we ought to come assuming, knowing that He is good, for God is good. And if our evil earthly fathers know how to give good gifts, how much more? How much more does our Heavenly Father, whose thoughts toward us are vast and precious. David said, if I were to try and count them, they would be more in number than the sand. This is the Father that we are coming to, who knows us, who rejoices over us, who thinks about us often.

We ought to come knowing that he is good, and that he will give to us what is good for us. And that's really the whole point of this parable, that God is not at all like this man who can't get out of bed because the door is shut and his children are in bed with him. That's if this guy this human guy who is got all these excuses why he can't help if even he will give what is being requested. How much more will our Heavenly Father, who is not at all like that, how much more will He delight in giving to us those things that we are asking for. We just don't ask, do we, enough?

We just don't ask persistently enough. That's the point of this parable. King James, if you have it, calls it importunity. It's that word persistence. Yet because of his persistence, he will rise and give him as much as he needs.

That word is the only place in the Bible it's used. Luke in his writings has a lot of unique words that are only used in that place. And that particular word is literally shameless, without shame. This person is coming and is not ashamed to ask again and again and again. Without shame, importunity is a pressing request.

It is a request for a favor which is urged with troublesome frequency or pertinacity. Shamelessly is the literal Greek word. Without shame, Webster says of that word, importunity, men are sometimes overcome by the importunity of their wives or children. Because he's speaking of the children that ask again and again, mommy can't we do this, daddy can't we do this, mommy can't we do this, mommy you said you would do it. See they know how to bring those arguments very well.

The things that we said, all the other arguments. That's how we ought to be praying to the Lord. With that kind of persistence, holy persistence, a Holy boldness, not discouraged by nose, not discouraged by weights. Come expectantly. Coming expectantly.

We come as sons of the Heavenly Father, not as orphans. We have the expectation that God will bless us because we are His children. And He says that He delights in blessing us. And so this example ought to be what drives and motivates our prayers. Fervent.

Fervent and constant. Fervent, fervent and constant. There are a couple of examples in the scriptures where people did this and where people didn't do this. Asa was one example. Asa was a good king.

He was the father of Jehoshaphat. And in his reign, he had a long and prosperous reign in Judah in the northern tribe. He was the third king after Solomon. And an Ethiopian came out against Asa and the people of Judah. And remember now they are just the two tribes at the bottom, the smaller of the way, far smaller.

Ezra the Ethiopian came out with an army of a million people and 300 chariots. Asa's army was about half of that with no chariots. If you're in a chariot and you have a spear, you can do a lot of damage to people that are on foot. In other words, they had guns, and Asa did not. Asa went out against him and set his troops in array, battle array in the valley of Zeratha at Marisha.

And Asa cried out, Chronicles tells us, 2 Chronicles 14, 11, Asa cried out to the Lord God and he said, Lord it is nothing for you to help. Whether with many or with those who have no power, help us O Lord our God for we rest on you and in your name we go against this multitude. O Lord, you are our God, do not let men prevail against you." He's crying out to the Lord in the moment of his need, despite seemingly overwhelming odds, this army that was vastly outnumbering them, vastly outclassing them in equipment. And he cried out to the Lord, expectantly, expectantly. He said, Lord, it is nothing for you to help.

It's nothing. And it, because God says all the nations of the world are but as a speck of dust on the scale, so it is nothing. Verse 12 says, so the Lord struck the Ethiopians before Asa and Judah and the Ethiopians fled. God answered his prayer. God gave him what he requested.

But in his later years he forgot. After having seen that marvelous deliverance, after having come to the Lord in prayer With with persistence in the later years he forgot and the northern kingdom came against him without an army near as big This is his you know cousin basically cousins he forgot what the Lord had done and he went and hired Syrians to help him and gave him a whole lot of money to come and defend him. When God sent a prophet to correct him and admonish him Rebuke him for for this failing to call upon the Lord in his need Asa put the prophet in prison About three years after that he became he became diseased in his feet And the Bible says and he turned to the doctors instead of seeking the Lord. Now that doesn't mean that we pretend doctors don't exist. What it means is we recognize that praying to the Lord is the most important thing we can do, and that if the Lord doesn't bless what the doctors do, what they do is useless and maybe even harmful.

That's one of the leading causes of death in our country today is harm caused by doctors. It's called iatrogenic deaths. Asa, in his disease, did not seek the Lord but the physicians. He forgot. He forgot to come to the Lord in his need despite the Lord having this marvelous deliverance.

We looked last week at Hezekiah's prayer and with respect to the arguments that Hezekiah brought in his prayer when Sennacherib came against him. I'd like to look this morning at that same prayer but look at the answer that God gave to him from that prayer. So you remember the story. Sennacherib is invading Israel. He's conquered the northern tribes, carrying them off into captivity, dispersing them.

And Hezekiah, he sends his messenger down to Hezekiah who speaks to everybody on the city wall basically demoralizing them, telling them who are you to withstand this king? Look at all the other cities that have been demolished. Who are you? You know, we're going to come and you're going to be destroyed. Why don't you surrender?

It'll be better for you. We won't torture you as much before we kill you, basically. And then he had to leave and he sent some messengers back with a letter and Hezekiah remember prayed to the Lord. He took that letter and he went to the temple. And he also sent, at the same time he took the letter and went to the temple and laid it out before the Lord, this letter from Sennacherib with all these blasphemous things in it about what he was going to do to Judah and the kingdom.

He also sent messengers to Isaiah at the same time to ask of Isaiah. And then Isaiah the son of Amos sent Hezekiah saying, Thus says the Lord God of Israel, Because you prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria, This is the word of the Lord which the Lord has spoken concerning him. The virgin, the daughter of Zion, has despised you, laughed you to scorn. The daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head behind your back. Whom have you reproached and blasphemed?" He's talking about Sennacherib.

Whom have you reproached and blasphemed? He's talking about Sennacherib. Whom have you reproached and blasphemed? It wasn't Judah. Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted up your eyes on high, it wasn't Judah.

It's against the Holy One of Israel. God took those insults as against Himself. Those insults that were given to His people. Against the Holy One of Israel. By your servants, he said to Sennacherib, you have reproached the Lord, and said, by the multitude of my chariots, I have come up to the height of the mountains, to the limits of Lebanon.

I will cut down its tall cedars and its choice cypress trees. I will enter its farthest height to its fruitful forest." And look how the Lord answered this prayer of Hezekiah. Therefore, because Sennacherib had reproached God Himself, God said, thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria, He won't come into this city. He won't shoot an arrow there. He won't come before you with a shield.

He won't build a siege mount against it by the way that He came. By that same way he shall return. And he shall not come into this city, says the Lord, for I will defend this city, to save it for my own name's sake and my servant David's sake. And that night the angel of the Lord went out into the camp of the Assyrians and killed 180, 000 people. And when the people arose in the morning, there were the corpses all dead.

So Sennacherib, king of Assyria, departed and returned home and remained at Nineveh. And the next verse says, and his sons killed him. And then Hezekiah is told to put his house in order that he would die. And he was sick and near death. Isaiah the prophet went to him and said, Thus says the Lord, Set your house in order for you will die and not live.

And Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall and prayed to the Lord. And he said, Remember now, O Lord, I pray how I have walked before you in truth and with a loyal heart and have done what is good in your sight and Hezekiah wept bitterly and the word of the Lord came to Isaiah saying go and tell Hezekiah thus says the Lord the God of your father I have heard your prayer I have seen your tears and surely I will add to your days fifteen years God heard his prayer He came to the Lord in the hour of his need and he prayed expectantly. He prayed knowing the goodness of God. He remembered the good that God had done and the deliverance that God had sent. And he prayed as a son seeking God's blessing.

God gave it to him. God gave it to him. God even gave him a sign that the sundial would go back. Normally the sun only goes in one direction and the sundial only goes in one direction. God gave him a sign that the sundial would go backwards.

And it did. See, this is the promise that Jesus says, ask. Ask and it will be given to you. We don't have because too often we don't ask. And when we do ask, we ask a mess to consume it upon our own desires.

Seek, seek and you will find. Work for what you pray for. You ask the Lord to provide your daily bread, then go work for it. You ask the Lord for healing, then seek out the means that God has ordained for that. Knowing that the Lord is able to heal with or without those means.

Knock and it will be opened to you. Everyone who asks receives, he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. The Father will always give the Holy Spirit. How much more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him? Now the parallel passage in Matthew says give good gifts.

Here Jesus says give the Holy Spirit because that is who we need. If we have the Holy Spirit, we have all that we need. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of wisdom and revelation. The fruit of the Spirit is love and joy and peace and kindness, long-suffering, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. These are the fruits of the Holy Spirit.

The Lord says he will give us this Spirit, this Holy Spirit. This is the Spirit who empowers us, who enables us to do the things that we couldn't do in our own flesh. The things that God calls us to do. The Lord, Christ promises that He will give us, the Father will give us the Holy Spirit. Now, in closing here, I'd like to give you one example that this kind of prayer isn't just answered in Hezekiah's day.

It's not just answered in Asa's day. It's not just answered in Jesus' day. God still answers the prayers of His people. So I want to relate to you briefly a true story that happened a few years ago with a friend of mine. It was in February and he was in the Orient.

And a need arose for several thousand pocket-sized Bibles. Now mind you, he's in a country where it's a crime to have this book. And so they could not find that many in a short time inside the country. He contacted a friend outside the Middle East. And he said he would be able to have a shipment ready within a week, however, neither he nor his friends would be able to bring it in.

We had to pick it up in a neighboring country. So after some discussion on how to do this, a man in one of our groups said that he had a friend in the airport's custom and border control, and with the help of this friend, he believed he would be able to bring the Bibles in. So we purchased a ticket for him. He flew to a destination out of the country, received the shipment, and called us to say he would be on the 5 p.m. Flight expected to arrive at 8 p.m.

Myself and another believer went to the airport to pick him up. The flight landed on time. By 8.45, most of the passengers on that flight had come through the exit doors, but our friend had not. When he was not out by 9.30, we concluded he had been caught. Now we face the dilemma.

Should we stay in the airport or run for our lives? We assumed that if he was caught, it would just be a matter of time before he was beaten into a confession. He would say that his friends were waiting for him in the arrival terminal and then we too would be arrested. It seemed a disaster in the making. My companion said his wife was not well.

What would happen to her if he was arrested? Who would take care of her? All these thoughts are racing through my own mind. Months, maybe years of incarceration, abuse, humiliation, all the chores needing attention from my family as well as many other responsibilities my son's 18th birthday His graduation next year Every cell in my body was in flight mode however We could not bring ourselves to flee. We were in this together.

To run did not seem a good testimony before the host of heaven who were watching. The consciousness that we're seeing. We decided if this was our lot, we would face it with dignity before the Lord. In the meantime, we began to earnestly beseech God for His intervention and aid. They started praying.

Right there, in the airport, in this country where you could go to jail for having a Bible. You could be killed for having a Bible. Every time someone came close to where we were sitting or innocently looked toward us, we thought they were coming for us. Hours went by. A few minutes passed midnight.

Our friend came through the exit gate with the bags on a push cart looking exhausted, as though he'd survived the train wreck. He told us that he had come through the airport's custom checkpoint. His friend was not there. He was randomly selected to put his bag under the x-ray machine. He was confronted by the officer who asked him about what he had in those bags.

Faced with intense questioning, he finally said, these are Bibles. The higher level of airport security was notified. A few minutes later, a big bearded man looking like someone who had just jumped out of the pages of Who's Who among the Taliban had come and escorted him into an isolated office. He was ordered to sit down. As the man took out a form to record the illegal items brought into the country before making a formal charge and arrest, he took out one of the books and began to examine it.

Soon he was completely engrossed in reading. For the next two and a half hours, he thumbed through the pages, reading, shaking his head, and reading some more. Finally he broke the silence and burst out, we need to have some shiploads of this book brought into this country. He stood up, tore up his report, and told our friend he was free to go, and then he asked me, I keep this copy. We heard this account in unbelief and marveled at the grace of God.

Now if you're over five, this happened in your lifetime. We heard this account and marveled at the grace of God. They prayed for over three hours without ceasing. We marveled at the grace of God, his sense of humor, and for saving us out of the jaws of catastrophe. A couple thousand Bibles were preserved, and an unbeliever was introduced to Christ's teaching through those circumstances.

Men ought always to pray, Jesus said, and not to lose heart. Amen. Heavenly Father, we thank You that we serve a wonderful Father, a glorious King, who is sovereign over all things, even the hearts of wicked men, you are able to turn whatever direction you will. Direction you will. So we ask the Lord that you would encourage us to prayer, praying and not losing heart, to praying always with importunity, with shameless persistence, call upon you for the needs of your people.

Lord, may you seal these truths to our heart and enable us to practice them in our lives to be those who pray without ceasing, who pray with fervency, who pray with zeal, who pray in faith believing that you are good, and that you delight in blessing your people, your children, And that you are powerful and able to do so. Indeed, there is no circumstance where you cannot preserve and protect and defend your people in your glory, in your word. Oh Lord, we believe, help our unbelief. We ask in Jesus name, Amen.