And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Do not bother me. My door is already shut, and my children and I are in bed. I cannot get up to give you anything.’and he from within will answer and say, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I can’t get up and give it to you’?And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee.and he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee?
3 sermons cite this verse
I'm going to give you four things to write down today. Write down number one, prayer works. I'm just convinced of it that I believe in the power of prayer. In fact, there's an old saying that goes like this, prayer changes things, mainly me. When I pray, it's not that I always get what I want, but it's that I'm at peace and I'm at rest because God is a good God. Come on, is there anybody here today that believes in the power of prayer and you believe that prayer works? Oh, come on, everybody, clap South Bay. Clap if you believe in the power of prayer. And he's trying to teach us. Now imagine this. When the disciples were with Jesus, they did not ask him, Jesus, teach us how to preach. Jesus, oh, Jesus, teach us how to deliver demons. Jesus, oh, you gotta teach us that, teach us how to walk on water. Jesus, you gotta teach us that wine trick. There'll be so fire. …
understand something about Bible times. In Bible times it was absolutely, totally unthinkable that a friend would come to you and you would not give him lodging and you would not give him food. Uh, hospitality is of the highest premium in the Middle East. And so here's a man, he has a friend on a journey, comes and says, uh, uh, James, may I stay at your house tonight? He says, well, why, we're so happy to have you, John, to come and stay. You're so welcome. Come right in and the wife will fix us something to eat. And he goes in the wife and he says, uh, uh, uh, wife, uh, uh, John has come and, uh, he's going to be staying with us tonight. Uh, fix us something to eat. She says, we haven't got anything. Oh, he says, don't say anything. I'll get it. So he says, uh, uh, uh, James, just sit down. Is James the visitor? I can't remember whether it's James or John. James, you know, just, just sit down and, and, and we're going to get you something. Now, he said, all right, just sit there. …
There are many benefits that we ask of God in our prayers, which are every whit of as great importance to us as those benefits which Christ asked of God in his agony were to him. It is of as great importance to us that we should be enabled to do the will of God, and perform a sincere, universal, and persevering obedience to his commands, as it was to Christ that he should not fail of doing God’s will in his great work. It is of as great importance to us to be saved from death, as it was to Christ that he should get the victory over death, and so be saved from it. It is of as great, and infinitely greater, importance to us, that Christ’s redemption should be successful in us, as it was to him that God’s will should be done, in the fruits and success of his redemption. Christ recommended earnest watchfulness and prayer-fulness to his disciples, by prayer and example, both at the same time. When Christ was in his agony, and came and found his disciples asleep, he bid them watch and pray, Matt. xxvi. 41. “Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. At the same time he set them an example of that which he commanded them, for though they slept he watched, and poured out his soul in those earnest prayers that you have heard of; and Christ has elsewhere taught us to ask those blessings of God that are of infinite importance, as those that will take no denial. We have another example of the great conflicts and engagedness of Christ’s spirit in this duty. Luke vi. 12. “And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.” And he was often recommending earnestness in crying to God in prayers. In the parable of the unjust judge, Luke xviii. at the beginning; “And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint; saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man; and there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. And he would not for a while: but afterwards he saith within himself, Though I fear not God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith.” Luke 5, &c. “And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him 1. And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee. I say unto you, though he will not rise and give him because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity, he will rise and give him as many as he needeth.” He taught it in his own way of answering prayer, as in answering the woman of Canaan, Matt. xv. 22, &c.“And behold a woman of Canaan came out of the coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us. But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children’s bread and cast it to dogs. And she said, Truth, Lord; yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master’s table. Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith; be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.” And as Christ prayed in his agony, so I have already mentioned several texts of Scripture wherein we are directed to agonize in our prayers to God. …