TITLE: PRAYING AND GETTING WHAT YOU WANT
INTRODUCTION

TEXT: LUKE 11:5-8


A. In Luke 11:1, the disciples asked, “Lord, teach us to pray…” ​

B. Jesus responded with the Lord’s Prayer or the Model Prayer​

C. However, prayer is not limited to the Lord’s Prayer or the Model Prayer​

D. Why is this important? Teachings on prayer people receive… ​

FRIENDSHIP DID NOT FULFILL THE REQUEST
A. He went to a friend ​
1. A friend who is closer than a brother or sister

2. A friend through thick and thin

3. A friend is one soul in two bodies

B. At midnight  ​

C. Request:  “Lend me three loaves of bread.”  ​

D. “To feed a friend of mine”  ​

E. The friend never said, “No.”  ​
1. “Do not trouble me”

2. “The door is now shut”

3. “My family is in bed”

4. “I cannot rise and give it to you”

5. He was not willing to rise and give him the bread out of their friendship
 
PERSISTENCE FULFILLED THE REQUEST
A. Two things undergirded his persistence (Being Conscious and Intentional) ​

B. He was Conscious  (He knew what he wanted) ​

C. He was Intentional  (He knew his friend had what he wanted)  ​

D. Therefore, he was Persistent  (He knew he was going to get what he wanted) ​

E. Am I Conscious in my request?  (I know what I want) ​
1. Do I know what God wants

2. Romans 8:26, 27  26 Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. 27 Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God

3. 1 John 5:14, 15  14 Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we
have asked of Him.

F. Am I Intentional in my request?  (I know God has what I want) ​

G. Therefore, I am Persistent in my request? (I know I am going to get what I want)​

WORK FOR THE WEEK
 
APRIL MEMORY VERSE
17 Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and prosper for us the work of our hands — O prosper the work of our hands!

- Psalm 90:17
 
 
APRIL MEDITATION QUOTE
You can pray until you faint, but unless you get up and try to do something, God is not going to put it in your lap.​​

~ Fannie Lou Hamer
