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Grace, mercy, and peace be upon you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the text is from the Gospel reading regarding the prayer and especially the Lord’s Prayer. You may be seated. Here’s something for you to think about, and that is the reality that you have all, without an exception, everyone here has been born into a very privileged life. When you and I hear the word privileged, we like to think in terms of a socioeconomic status. I’m not talking about that because the Lord gives and the Lord can take away, can he not? The privilege of which I speak that you have had since you became a baptized believer in Christ is the privilege that you are God’s child and not a child of this world. You have been given a very privileged life today. And you live a very privileged life. Privileged in this also that if God had not kept you in the faith, you and I would be lost forever. You have been given a very privileged life as a believer in Christ. Having been baptized into him and raised with him in your baptism. And this privileged life did not come to you cheap. It came at the great expense of the only begotten Son of God by His holy precious blood. It also came at the great cost of His innocent suffering and innocent death for you. You live a very privileged life. But you know better than anyone in the world that such a privileged life is not a life of primrose paths. It’s a life of struggle, isn’t it? Having been born into such a privileged life by the baptism you’ve been given, you’ve been entered into a world of struggle as a privileged child of God. Because you know more than anyone how this world rages against you and your faith. And yet you know God will carry you through. But you know better than anyone How the very flesh that lays its head down on the pillow with you every night is your biggest nemesis. It is what causes you your fears, your anxieties, your struggles, your pride and pompousness. And we all know who are believers in Christ, who are living the privileged life that Satan never stops. He is relentless. This unholy trinity of the devil, the world, and our flesh… Even leads us to despise the privileged life into which we have been born. It leads us to despair of God’s great gift of mercy and forgiveness and to think we don’t deserve. Well, get it out of your mind. Nobody here does. That’s why it’s a privileged life. Given, not earned. Think about it. Who has brought you thus far? Who has brought you to the point at where you stand right now, today? Well, yes, your loving father, obviously. How? How has the loving father brought you to this point as a privileged child of God? Because somebody prayed for you. Somebody else prayed for you. Loving parents prayed for you. Loving grandparents prayed for you. And people whom you’ve never met who live in squalor pray for you around the world. Because Christians, whenever they pray, our Father are praying for you as well as themselves. You share the same Father. When Christians around the world say, forgive us our trespasses, they’re praying for you besides themselves. That’s how God has brought you thus far. That’s why you live a privileged life, because someone’s praying for you at every moment of every day, whether you’re asleep or whether you’re awake. Someone somewhere is. What a privileged life you live. And you and me, we’re too weak. We’re too ungrateful to realize. We happy-go-lucky walk about our life and think that some other reason is why. It has nothing to do with us. Get over ourself and yourself. It has to do with God working through other people whom you don’t even know. And many you do know. And you and I don’t even appreciate it. Shame on me. Shame on you. We live a privileged life. What our loving Father does, through the prayers of these faithful people whom we don’t even know, draw us back to Him as He has drawn you this morning. Through their prayers, God draws you to Himself and humbles you so that you can say, Lord, have mercy upon me, a sinner. And He does. And having confessed that to Him, He… pours out upon you his forgiveness and mercy. What a privileged life we live. But you know what the devil loves? And boy does he love this. He loves it when you and I are indifferent to prayer. That we don’t even relish the privilege of prayer. He is thrilled at that. When you and I think in terms of our abilities and our self-confidence and We take great pride or stock in anything about ourself rather than realize, well, you’ve heard the saying, there but by the grace of God go I. Your Father has commanded you to pray. It is not an option. It is not whether you feel it or not. It is not a recitation or a recipe to fix something. It’s a privilege. Your Father has commanded you to talk to him in prayer. More importantly, much more importantly, your father has promised to listen. Not to lecture you, to listen. Not to correct your prayer, to listen. That’s a gift. That’s a privilege. And he desires nothing more seriously from you than that you ask him for a great amount. Nothing pleases him more than when you ask for the moon and the stars. Now you know how earthly parents are with children. Children who ask for something that’s way out of your pocketbook, you look at your child and think, whose child are you? You are not mine. Oh yeah, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, does it? However, when it comes to your heavenly Father, that he does wish you to ask. Because he promises to hear and he promises to give. Now, quit letting Satan push our minds to think of earthly things. Stop. But of the more important things, such as lead us not into temptation, such as forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Are you really willing to ask him for anything? Or are you and I just too self-reliant and too absorbed with our confidence in ourself? Thanks, Lord, I don’t need it right now, but when I do, I’ll talk to you. That’s satanic. And that’s damnable, because that’s saying I am more important and more capable and have a better assessment of life than you do, Lord. But for those things that I’m unable to control, I’ll call you in when I need you like a relief pitcher. It is our privilege that he not only commands us to pray and promises to hear us, but he, in his infinite wisdom, shaped the very words that we can pray. And he’s placed them upon your lips. Most of us never had our mom and dad say, follow me and repeat after me, our Father who art in heaven. We learned it because we heard it. It was drummed into our ears by the faithful lips of other Christians, many of whom are already in glory now. By hearing it from their lips drummed into our ears, did we learn the prayer that he and the only prayer that he taught for his church to pray. What a privileged life we live. Our problem is that we don’t feel, see, or recognize our need. We don’t see all the things we lack. We’re blind to them. We’re blind to the things we lack. And only when we’re finally caught short do we realize what we lack. The rest of the days, as long as there’s not a pain, we don’t got a problem. Shame on me. Shame on you. For we have not I enjoyed the privilege of prayer as we are. Jesus tells two brief parables in this morning’s text. The first parable, the simple thought he’ll say, and I’ll tell you in just a moment, but it’s a very interesting thing. The only place in all of the gospel readings, the only place where his disciples actually ask him to teach them something is here. No other place in all of scripture will you find the disciples saying, Lord, teach us to love, teach us to forgive, teach us to serve. Here and here alone does he teach how to pray, and it’s the only time they ask. In response, he gave them the gift of that prayer, and in these parables to kind of formulate important aspects of prayer. The first is this one, Notice in the parable, a friend asks another friend. It’s not a stranger. It’s not someone who he couldn’t count on. He’s a friend, and if you have a good friend, you know you can ask your friend anything. Well, at midnight, in the middle of the night, he’s asking his friend, Hey, friend! And there wasn’t 24-hour Walmart or HEB at the time. Friend, do you got any food? I just had a friend of mine come in and arrive, and I want to feed him something. And the friend gives because the other friend expected that. That’s what a friend does. You ask, you get it. And the point of the parable is ask. Not just once. Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you up. I’ll come back later. That’s not faithful prayer. Faithful prayer is keep knocking, keep asking, keep seeking. Keep asking. Look at what Abraham did in the Old Testament. Lord, if there are 50, will you? Yes. Lord, if there are five less than 50, will you? Yes. Lord, if there are 40, will you? 30, will you? 20, will you? 10, will you? Yes. Be persistent. That’s the point of the parable. And secondly, expect him to answer. Otherwise, for why are we praying if we don’t think he’s going to answer? That’s idolatry. We pray because we know he’s going to answer. That’s what a loving father does. Speaking of loving father, that’s the second parable. If you, a sinful father, know how to give a good gift to your sinful child, how much more will the heavenly father give you, who is sinless, give you, the sinner, a good gift? And notice what Jesus does in this parable. He gives you the privilege of calling his father… Your father. And you were not the only begotten son. You were adopted. You were adopted. And he gives you the privilege of calling his father, who was born as a true son, the privilege of calling his father your father. That’s the point of this second parable. You have a father. And your father is a good daddy. He listens to his children. He listens to his children. You don’t have to prod him and poke him and rouse him out of a sleep. You know he’s always waiting for you to tell him something or ask for him. It’s we who are lazy and unappreciative, ungrateful of the privileged life into which we’ve been born. He has promised to give you the gift of the Holy Spirit, and the gift of the Holy Spirit is to believe that his kingdom comes for you. He’s promised you the gift of the Holy Spirit. It’s not like a little dab will do you. You need the Holy Spirit. I need the Holy Spirit each day. He gives you the Holy Spirit so that you believe the promises that he is a loving father, that he does listen to you, and that he will answer. Expect it. He’s what enables you to live a godly life, the Holy Spirit. And remember how I asked you the question, why are you brought thus far? Because of you. Because of God, the Holy Spirit, who has kept you in the faith. That’s why. Just as he keeps those Christians around the world who pray for you and have brought you through their prayers thus far. Just like you don’t know how far your prayers have done to bring them where they are at. As we pray the Lord’s Prayer. We’ve been born into a very privileged life. We have a Father who always answers. We have a Father who always gives. We have a Father who not only supplies our daily bread for this life, but sends us the bread from heaven, that we may eat of him and have eternal life. This is the privilege of prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen. The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.
