A sermon preached at Covenant Presbyterian Church of Fort Smith, Arkansas on September 14, 2025.
And he said to them, “Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; and he will answer from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything’? I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs. And I tell 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 the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:5–13).[1]
Jerry Bridges tells of a man who when reading a book would often write “YBH” in the margin. When asked what the letters meant, the man replied, “They stand for Yes, but how? I agree with what the author is saying, but I need to know how to apply it.”[2] In the first thirteen verses of this eleventh chapter of Luke’s Gospel, Jesus doesn’t tell his disciples to pray but instead gives us the “YBH” of prayer. He begins with the Lord’s Prayer, providing a succinct model or pattern for our prayers and then continues, in our passage today, with the attitude we should have when we pray.
To do this he provides a parable that tells of a man in need of three loaves of bread to fulfill his immediate obligation of hospitality at the (unrespectable) hour of midnight. In search of bread, he goes to his friend’s house, only to find the entire household asleep for the night, but the man is desperate and so makes his need known. How would you expect his friend to respond? How would you expect me to respond? Probably something like this: “Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything” (Luke 11:7). But he can, and Jesus leads us to believe he will, not because of friendship but impudence.
Pray Audacious Persistent Prayers
Jesus concludes his parable with this observation and correlation: “I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs” (Luke 11:8). The correlation is of course how we are to pray, but the thrust of the observation is the word translated “impudence,” a word that in context connotes more than just persistence but a complete disregard for another’s interest. In Jesus’ parable, the man who needs bread does not care that he is bothering his friend at midnight. He does not care that his friend and his family are sound asleep. He does not care that his friend cannot get up and get him anything. The man needs bread then and there, and he will continue to “bother” his friend until he gets what he needs. The implication is clear: So we should likewise pray.
As with most of Jesus’ parables, we should be on guard against an overly literal interpretation but rather look and listen for the principle of the parable. For example, Jesus is not teaching that our prayers “bother” our heavenly Father? Rather, he listens for them.[3] Nor is Jesus teaching that our prayers might interrupt our heavenly Father’s slumber. Scripture is quite clear: He neither slumbers nor sleeps.[4] And Jesus is certainly not advocating a kind of petition that disrespects our heavenly Father. On the contrary, we pray “hallowed be your name” (Luke 11:2).
What then is Jesus teaching us with his parable and this man’s midnight impudence? I find a concept developed by Jim Collins, author of the business book Good to Great, helpful here, a concept that goes by the acronym BHAG, which stand for “Big Hairy Audacious Goal.” To understand the concept, Collins says, “Think of the NASA moon mission of the 1960s. The best BHAGs require both building for the long term AND exuding a relentless sense of urgency: What do we need to do today, with monomaniacal focus, and tomorrow, and the next day, to defy the probabilities and ultimately achieve our BHAG?”[5] Of course goal setting isn’t prayer, but I think the concept is helpful in understanding the man’s impudence in Jesus’ parable. Our prayers should include no less than “big, hairy, audacious” petitions, prayers of a monomaniacal focus today, and tomorrow, and the next day. Just like the man banging on his friend’s door at midnight!
Of course, every petition we pray should be in accord with Scripture and in submission to God’s perfect will.[6] But Scripture does not advocate a kind of sanctified timidity in our prayers. On the contrary, according to the fourth chapter of Hebrews, because Jesus lived the righteous life we could not live, because he was crucified in our place and atoned for our sins, because he resurrected to life that we might have life in him, we may now approach “the throne of grace” not in timidity but “boldly” (Heb. 4:16 KJV). We pray audacious prayers persistently not because of our innate confidence or in the boldness of our flesh but because in Christ we are the children of the sovereign God of heaven and earth, who is our heavenly Father, who loves us and so hears our prayers.
Accept God’s Faithful Fatherly Love
Why then are our prayers often paltry at best or non-existent at worst? Could it be that in our hearts we doubt God’s faithful fatherly love? Dale Ralph Davis says, “Can you imagine God saying, ‘Oh, don’t bother me with that! I’ve enough of your troubles! Can’t you see I need some rest from these piddly types of interruptions over your trivial concerns? No, no, the door is locked, the angels are quiet, and the turmoil in the Middle East isn’t totally out of control.’”[7] We laugh at such a thought, and yet, how often do we transfer the cranky characteristics of the man in Jesus’ parable to God? Can we imagine that God would want us to bring even the seemingly trivial to him in prayer? Or, do we fear exhausting his patience?
To this point, Jesus asks, “What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?” (Luke 11:11-12). The question is of course rhetorical: Despite universal depravity, no loving father would knowingly meet his child’s need with harm. Should we then expect anything less from our heavenly Father? Or, do we? I remember man on the brink of bankruptcy advising me, “Be careful what you pray for. I prayed for patience, and this is what God gave me.” On the one hand, I thought, if God gives you his patience, would you accept it for bankruptcy? But on the other hand, I thought, can you imagine being “careful” in your prayers for fear of a retributive misstep? Can you imagine how you would pray if you thought that praying for one of the fruits of the Spirit was a mistake? And doesn’t God’s gracious Spirit guide us and serve as our interpreter, keeping us from praying what we ought not?[8] Be sure of this: Our loving heavenly Father always answers our prayers with what is best for us, every time.
We should not be careful in praying for patience, or any other gracious gifts of the Holy Spirit, but we should be careful in how we think of God. While even the gold standard of earthly fathers is still a sinner by nature, our heavenly Father is not. He is a faithful Father who knows and does what is best for us. His love for us is perfect, because he is love himself, and as he is love, [9] he has shown it clearly in sending his Son for us. The apostle John explains God’s love this way: “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:9-10). If “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16), should we not trust him with our prayers for all things great and small?
What if you were to accept the fact of God’s faithful fatherly love? How would it inform your life? How would it inform your prayers? What if you meditated daily on the truth “that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Rom. 8:28)? What if you believed that “he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion” (Phil. 1:6)? Would these truths affect your prayers? They would. Because, faithful prayer is rooted in God’s faithful fatherly love for us.
Seek God’s Gracious Good Gift
We are then to “ask,” “seek,” “knock” (Luke 11:9), all three metaphors for prayer: “For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened” (Luke 11:10). We find this admonition repeatedly in Scripture, as we are to “Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving” (Col. 4:2), to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17), and to pray always and not “lose heart” (Luke 18:1). We pray with the assurance that “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Rom. 8:32). Our heavenly Father will indeed graciously give us all things, not the carnal objects of our fleshly desires but the good and gracious gifts of his Spirit, which are always good.
For this reason, Jesus concludes his teaching on prayer, saying, “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:13). In the parallel passage in the Gospel of Matthew, the Father provides “good things” in answer to prayer, while here Jesus says, the Father gives “the Holy Spirit to those who ask.” Both texts are describing the same thing, because we are to pray for the good God gives through his Spirit. Jesus is not implying that we must pray for the Holy Spirit’s indwelling after our conversion. This God does instantaneously at the new birth. Rather, as New Testament Scholar, S.M. Baugh explains, “The Holy Spirit is the quintessential good gift given to the children of God, for in Him we have all things for growth in godliness in this life and for resurrection life in the age to come.”[10] What God gives is always for the good of conforming us to Christ and is always in, through, and by his Spirit.[11]
If this is the case, then what should be pray for? The apostle John helps us answer this, explaining, “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him” (1 John 5:14-15). By “his will,” John is not referring to his sovereign or decretive will, for it is known only to God but God’s revealed or preceptive will, for it has been given to us according to his special revelation, the Scriptures. Scripture is to inform our opinions, our values, and, yes, our prayers. But because Scripture often doesn’t inform our prayers, or our opinions or values, we are often more inclined to pray for what we don’t need than for what we should.
Terry Johnson observes,
One of the reasons we lack spiritual depth in our day is because of our failure to persist in prayer. Where do we lack it? We lack it in our family life. Our families are not as strong and as spiritually stable as they ought to be. We lack it in our personal lives. We are not progressing in sanctification as we ought. We lack it as a church. We are not seeking revival to any significant degree in our day. We are failing to reach our neighbors and our neighborhoods. Why are these things so? Because we don’t pray, and when we do pray, we trifle at it.”[12]
It is just plain silly that the children of almighty God would trifle at prayer. Jesus calls us away from the trivial to the significant, to pray for the Holy Spirit, that he will victoriously work in our families, in our church, in the hearts of our neighbors, and ourselves.
What if we prayed for these things? How audacious would it be to pray that the Holy Spirit would mature us in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control,[13] not only today but day after day after day? Will you “bother” God to ask for kindness? Will he sleep through your petition for gentleness and self-control? Will he withhold joy, keep you from peace, and hide patience from you? Never! Let us remind ourselves, “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence” (2 Pet. 1:3). So, let us pray audacious persistent prayers, accept God’s faithful fatherly love, and seek God’s gracious good gift, for such is the will of God for all who believe.
[1] Unless referenced otherwise, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (Wheaton: Crossway Bibles, 2001).
[2] Jerry Bridges, The Joy of Fearing God (Colorado Springs: WaterBrook Press, 1997), 118.
[3] Ps. 34:15
[4] Ps. 121:4
[5] https://www.jimcollins.com/concepts/bhag.html
[6] Matt. 6:10
[7] Dale Ralph Davis, Luke: The Year of the Lord’s Favor (Fearn: Christian Focus Publications, 2021), 203.
[8] Rom. 8:26-27
[9] 1 John 4:8, 16
[10] https://tabletalkmagazine.com/article/2023/03/the-heavenly-kingdom-and-the-earthly-kingdom/
[11] Rom. 8:29
[12] Terry L. Johnson, When Grace Comes Alive, quoted in Philip Graham Ryken, Luke, Vol. 1 (Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing, 2009), 587.
[13] Gal. 5:22-23
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