Book of Luke - Ch. 11, Vs. 1-11 (06/21/2020)

Let's take a moment for a prayer. Most gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for this day and thank you for all of our many blessings.

Thank you for protecting us. Thank you for giving us the technology to reach out even though we are in times of stress and meet one another.

Thank you for all of the things that you've given us. Thank you for your Son that you've given us to redeem us.

Thank you for giving us the Holy Spirit. Thank you for giving us your scripture.

Thank you for all of the things that you've provided. We know that you're a gracious and good God. In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen. We are going to begin this morning with Luke chapter 11 verse 1.

I'm going to read the first verse and then I'm going to go somewhere else, but just a second. And it came to pass that as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him,

Lord, teach us to pray. He does that.

Okay. Lord, teach us to pray as John also taught his disciples.

Now Jesus will be teaching the same basic prayer that he had earlier taught in Matthew 6.

The fact that he repeated it showed how important it was and is.

The fact that he did not repeat it in exactly the same way as he did in Matthew as he did in Luke shows that it was not to be used as a precise ritual or magic formula for prayer.

It's not a litany of words that we say that puts us in a state.

It is, however, it does serve as a model. It serves as a model for the prayer of a disciple.

This model contains at least seven petitions, some of which the disciple may and probably should request in his prayers and some of them in all of his prayers.

Now we're going to look at the Matthew account first, and that will be found a little bit earlier in Matthew, Matthew chapter 6 verse 5.

And he's talking to the crowd about how they should pray, his disciples.

So I'll give you a second to get to Matthew 6 verse 5. And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are.

For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men.

Verily I say unto you, they have the reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet.

And when thou hast shut thy door, pray to the Father which is in secret, and thy

Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. But when you pray, use not vain repetitions.

Now he says that clearly. I don't want a series of repetitions, as some of the

Eastern religious cults have now, where they chant things over and over.

It puts them in a state. Brother David talked about this a couple of weeks ago, about opening yourself to being attacked by satanic forces, when you put yourself in that state.

But he says clearly, when you pray, use not vain repetitions, as they heathen do.

For they think they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore likened to them.

For your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask him.

Any petition, any request that a disciple makes is not new to the

Father. He knows it before you ask it. In fact, he put it in your heart to ask.

So now we're going to go to the prayer that most of us know as the Lord's Prayer. I'm going to tell you this up front.

The name is not scriptural. We just made that name up. Nowhere in the world, in the word, in the scripture, does it refer to this prayer as the

Lord's Prayer. It would have been more accurate if we'd have called it the Disciples Prayer.

But that's just me. Now we get to the prayer. Matthew 6, verse 9.

After this manner, therefore, pray ye our Father which art in heaven.

We'll talk about that more later. And then comes a sequence of seven petitions made by the prayer to the

Father. First, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, is number two.

The third petition is, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.

And then four, give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us of our debts as we forgive our debtors.

Underline the word debt in that passage, if you would, or highlight it some way. Just the word debt.

The sixth petition, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.

Amen. Now that's the Lord's Prayer recorded in Matthew.

The same prayer recorded in Luke begins in verse 2 of chapter 11.

And I want you to kind of keep track of the petitions as we go.

And when he said it, and he said unto them, when you pray say, our

Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come.

Thy will be done as in heaven, so in earth. Same thing, just said a little bit differently.

Give us day by day our daily bread. Slight difference there. And forgive us our sins.

Now underline that word sin in the Luke account. It was debt in the

Matthew account that we underlined. It's sin in this account. For we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

And that's the end of the Lord's Prayer in Luke. Now we're going to go through line by line, phrase by phrase, through Luke's version of the prayer.

And as we proceed, we'll point out where the two accounts are identical and where there are slight differences.

But before we do that, please note that both versions contain the seven petitions.

Exactly the same seven petitions, with the exception that Matthew's account uses the word debts, whereas Luke's account uses the word sin or sins.

So at this point, we might ponder two questions. We're not going to answer them right now. We'll answer them later.

But the two questions are these. The most important question is, how many sins does

Jesus have that need to be forgiven? And the second question, what kind of debt is

Matthew alluding to? So ponder these two questions as we read, and we'll see the answers later today.

Now I'm going to clean them up. Seven petitions as presented in Luke. First, hallowed be thy name.

Second, thy kingdom come. Third, thy will be done.

Fourth, give us day by day our daily bread. That was slightly differently worded.

Five, forgive us of our sins, it says in Luke. In Matthew, it says, forgive us our debts.

So you might wonder, what kind of debt is this that we're talking about? Six, lead us not into temptation.

Seven, deliver us from evil. So there they are.

Now, I'm going to go back to the beginning of the Luke account and start reading, and we're going to stop even before we get to the petitions.

And he said unto them, when you pray, say our Father which art in heaven.

Now we understand that he is our Father, but he is our Father in heaven.

When we say in heaven, we remember God's holiness and his glory.

To say that God is in heaven infers, though, more than just his location.

That's where he is. But what does it infer? Well, I've got three or four places

I'd like for you to go, and I'll give you a second to get there. The first one is 2 Chronicles chapter 20, verse 6.

2 Chronicles chapter 20, verse 6. And this is here because it refers to God in heaven.

I'm going to go ahead and read it while you are finding it, if you've not already found it. The next ones will be easier to find.

They're in Psalms, and they're one right after the other. O Lord God of our fathers, art thou not

God in heaven? And rulest not thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen?

And in thine hand is there not power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee?

So the inference is, God is in heaven. He rules over all the kings, over all the kingdoms.

He has power and might, so much power and so much might, that none is able to withstand him.

Now go to Psalms 11, and we'll pick it up in verse 4.

Psalms 11, verse 4. The Lord is in his holy temple.

The Lord's throne is in heaven. His eyes behold, his eyelids try the children of men.

So where is he? He is in his holy temple. The throne is in the holy temple, and the holy temple and the throne is in heaven.

So he's in heaven. And what does he see? His eyes see everything.

And they not only see, but they judge the children of men, and they test the children of men.

That was Psalms 11, verse 4. Now go way down to Psalms 115, beginning at verse 3.

Psalms 115, verse 3. Our God is in the heavens.

He hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. That's not hard to understand.

God is in heaven, and he has done what he wanted to do. All he chose to do, he does, and none can withstand him.

Now this model of prayer also shows us passion for God's glory and his agenda.

His name, his kingdom, and his will will have top priority, and they come as the first three of the seven petitions that we're going to look at.

How it would be thy name is first.

And we'll just look at it right now. Psalms 8, 1. Psalms 8, 1.

Oh Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth, who hath set the glory above the heavens.

So who's responsible for everything? Our Lord. Psalms 9, verse 10.

And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee, for thou, Lord, hath not forsaken them that seek thee.

Those that know your name will put their trust in thee, for we know that the

Lord has not forsaken them that seek him. Psalms 22, verse 22.

I will declare thy name unto my brethren. In the midst of the congregation,

I will praise thee. This is David talking. I will declare thy name unto my brethren, and I will praise thee.

And now Psalms 54, verse 1. Save me,

O God, by thy name, and judge me by thy strength. Save me by thy name, and judge me by my strength.

Hear my prayer, O God. Give ear to the words of my mouth, for strangers are risen up against me, and oppressors seek after my soul.

They have not set God before them, shall I? Behold, God is mine helper.

The Lord is with them that uphold my soul.

He shall reward evil unto mine enemies, cut them off in thy truth.

I will freely sacrifice unto thee. I will praise thy name, O God, Lord, for it is good.

For he hath delivered me out of all trouble, and mine eye hath seen his desire upon mine enemy.

And then Psalm 115, verse 1. Not into us,

O Lord, not into us, but into thy name give glory, for thy mercy and thy truth's sake.

That shows the importance of his name, the first thing in his, in the list of priorities.

Thy kingdom come. John the Baptist, Jesus, the 12 disciples, and the 72 disciples had been preaching about the coming of God's kingdom.

Now when Daniel read from Jeremiah that the 70 years of captivity were about over, he didn't lay back and wait for something to happen.

He prayed for it to happen. Daniel 9, verses 1 through 20, is known as the interrupted prayer of the

Old Testament. Daniel starts praying, asking for the thing that Jeremiah had already written about the 70 years of captivity being over.

He was asking for that, and while he was asking, he was interrupted. I'm going to go ahead and read that.

This is Daniel 1, Daniel 9, verse 1. In the first year of Darius, son of Azarius, of the seed of the

Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans, in the first year of his reign,

I, Daniel, understood by books the number of years whereof the word of the

Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet that he would accomplish 70 years in the desolations of Jerusalem.

A moment. The 70 years are now up, and Daniel is waiting for the captivity of Israel in Babylon to be finished.

And I set my face unto the Lord God to seek by prayer and supplication with fasting and sack cloth and ashes.

And I prayed unto the Lord my God and made confession.

Now, he doesn't only confess his sins. He confesses the sins of the nation, and maybe that's something that we should be doing right now.

We feel we are in stress right now. Maybe we should pray for the sins of our nation.

And I prayed unto the Lord my God and made my confession and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful

God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him and to them that keep his commandments, we have sinned, we have committed iniquity, we've done wickedly, we have rebelled, and even by departing from by precepts and by judgments, neither have we hearkened unto thy servants, the prophets, which fake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, to all the people of the land.

Not only did they rebel, but they ignored the prophets. O Lord, righteousness belongs unto thee, but unto us a confusion effaces, as at this day to the men of Judea and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and unto all of Israel that are near and that are far off, through all the countries where thou hast driven them because of their trespass, that they have trespassed against thee.

O Lord, to us belongs confusion efface, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee.

To the Lord, our God, belong mercies and forgiveness. We've rebelled against him, neither have we obeyed the voice of the

Lord, our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants, the prophets.

Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice.

Therefore, the curse is poured out upon us. The oath that is written in the law of Moses, because we have sinned against him, and we have confirmed his word, which he spake against us and against our judges, that he judges us by bringing upon us great evil.

For under the whole heaven hath not been done as it has been done upon Jerusalem.

As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil has come upon us, yet we made not our prayer before the

Lord, our God, that we might turn from our iniquities and understand the truth.

I'm going to pause there. Now, the second to say this, we're in a time of our nation where good people,

Christian people, need to be praying that we might turn from our iniquities, understand his truth, and then maybe the

Lord will set aside our problems, as he's going to set aside some of the problems of Israel.

Therefore hath the Lord watched upon us, watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us.

For the Lord our God is righteous in all his works, which he doeth, for we obey not his voice.

And now, O Lord our God, thou hast brought my people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand.

There has gotten thee renown, as at this day we have sinned and we have done wickedly.

O Lord, according to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from the city of Jerusalem, thy holy mountain, because for our sins and the iniquity of our fathers.

Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us.

Now therefore, O God, hear the voice of thy servant and his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thee, upon thy sanctuary, that it is desolate for the

Lord's sake. O God, incline thine ear in here, open thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by thy name.

For we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousness, but for thy great mercies.

O Lord, hear. O Lord, forgive. O Lord, hearken and do.

Defer not for thine own sake, O my God, for thy city and thy people are called by thy name.

And whilst I was speaking and praying and confessing my sins, and the sins of my people

Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lord, my God, for the holy mountain of God.

Yea, whilst I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, told me about the time of the evening oblation.

And he informed me and talked with me, and he said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give you skill and understanding.

At the beginning of thy supplication, the command came forth, and I am come to show you, for thou art greatly beloved.

Therefore, understand the matter and consider the vision. And we could go on and do a month's worth of study just on that passage in Daniel.

But I wanted to put that in because it shows Daniel praying for something that had already been prophesied.

It was going to come into place, but it did not come to place until Daniel prayed his prayer and asked for the forgiveness of him for his sins and for his nation for their sins.

So now we've dealt with the first two precepts, his name, and I can't remember.

So now we're to the third one, the coming kingdom.

Thy will be done in earth. I'm sorry, I did so badly.

Thy will be done as in heaven, so in earth. I had memorized that prayer many years ago, and when

I was a basketball coach, we recited that prayer before every basketball game. But we did the

Matthew account, and the Matthew account is so ingrained in my head that I want to read the

Matthew account while I'm in Luke. So I apologize to you for that. Thy will be done in heaven, so is in earth.

We should be continually holding up his agenda. Prayer is God's way of enlisting us in what he is doing, getting us to the place where we can trust, where he can trust us with his answer.

We never need to be afraid of the answers he gives us. Prayer is not overcoming

God's reluctance. It's laying hold of his highest willingness. Now we come to the first of the petitions that has to do with the prayer asking something for himself.

The first three petitions, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done.

Those are things pertaining directly to God. Now here is something that he says we should ask for ourself.

Give us this day our daily bread is the way it says it. Matthew, here it says give us day by day our daily bread.

A little bit of difference though. Day by day, not enough in one day to last several days, but day by day provide the provisions for the day.

And this is the first petition for God to do something for the one that is praying.

The first three petitions were to do something for God. Now five, this is verse four, and forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us.

That's interesting. Forgive us our sins and we forgive those indebted to us.

I told you earlier on what kind of debt is it that Matthew is talking about.

Well, you can look at these two verses and see that it's a sin debt.

It's the sin debt that we're referring to. Not debts of money, but sin debt.

Forgive us our sin, for we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us.

The fifth request, this one, concerns man's relationship to God, the forgiveness of sins.

Now you might make a note right here that this could not really have been the

Lord's prayer. How many sins did

Jesus have that he had to be forgiven for? Not a single one. Jesus could only ask that our sins be forgiven.

He had no sins of his own to be forgiven. Now he did pay the price for our sins.

He was separated from the Father for a while for our sins. He was crucified for our sins, but he had no sins of his own.

So he couldn't be asking. He couldn't be asking for the Lord to forgive him, but we certainly can be asking for the

Lord to forgive us because each and every one of us have sins to be forgiven.

Now Luke had already linked forgiveness of sin to faith. He did that back in Luke chapter 7.

I'm going to read it quickly. We've done this before. And one of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him.

And he went to the Pharisee's house, and he sat down to meet. And behold, a woman was in the city, which was a sinner.

And when she knew that Jesus sat at meet at the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster box of ointment, and stood at the feet behind him, weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears.

And did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with oil.

Now the Pharisee, which had bitten him, saw it. He spake within himself, saying,

This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that touches him, for she is a sinner.

And Jesus answered him, saying, answering a question that he hadn't asked, but a question

Jesus knew was in his heart. And Jesus answered him, said unto him,

Simon, I have some what to say unto thee. And he said, Master, say on. And he said,

There's a creditor which had two debtors, one owed five hundred pence, the other fifty. And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both.

Tell me, therefore, which of them will love him most? And Simon answered and said, I suppose that he to whom he forgave most.

And he said unto him, Thou hast judged rightly. And he turned to the woman and said unto

Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered thine house, and thou gavest me no water for my feet, but she washed my feet with tears and wiped them with the hairs of her head.

Thou givest me no kiss, but this woman, since the time I came in, hath not ceased to kiss my feet.

My head with oil thou didst not anoint, but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment.

Wherefore, I say unto her, unto thee, her sins which are many are forgiven, for she loved much.

But to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. She's referring to the

Pharisee here. And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven. And they that sat at meat with him began to say with themselves,

Who is this that forgives sins also? And he, Jesus, said to the woman,

Thy faith has saved thee. Go in peace. Well, was it the faith that saved her?

It was, in a sense, the faith that saved her. But she had faith because she was saved.

In asking for forgiveness of sins, a person expresses his faith.

Actually, he expresses God's faith that God will forgive him.

We know that because in 1 John chapter 1, verse 9, it says, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

I highlighted all unrighteousness. Such a person then evidences his faith by forgiving others.

And let's remember this. He didn't just forgive the sin that we confessed.

He forgives them all. He cleanses us from all unrighteousness.

Now we're to the sixth petition, the sixth request. Lead us not into temptation.

Now, Chuck Missler, in his commentaries, said this. Why would we pray such a prayer?

But why pray such a prayer since God does not want people to sin? Does God want you to sin?

Then why should he say, what would he be doing leading us into temptation? The meaning of this,

Missler says, is that Jesus' followers are to pray that they would be delivered from situations that would cause them to sin.

His disciples, contrary to the law experts that we saw expressed earlier in Luke, realized that they were very easily drawn into sin, the sin that so easily besets us.

If you'll turn back one chapter in Luke to chapter 10, verse 25, we will see the law experts.

And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall

I do to inherit eternal life? And he said to him, what is written in the law?

How readest thou? And he answered and said, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself.

And he said unto him, he said, Jesus, thou hast answered right. Do this, and thou shalt live.

But he, willing to justify himself, he thought that would not be a problem.

He, willing to justify himself, said to Jesus, and who is my neighbor?

Now, we're going to go to item seven, the final one of these petitions.

But deliver us from evil. That's deliver us from the evil one.

Deliver us from Satan. Virtually the same prayer is found in Matthew, with the only really significant difference being the addition of the final phrase in the

Matthew account, and the substitution of debt and sin, or making equal sin and debt, being a sin debt.

I'm going to read the passage in Matthew 6 again, and bring to highlight the phrase left out.

After this manner, therefore, pray, our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

That's where Luke ends. Matthew doesn't end there. He finishes the prayer. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever.

Amen. Well, that's the end of the Lord's prayer, or the disciples' prayer. These first four verses of Luke 11 deal with what to pray.

The next nine verses deal with the persistence of prayer. We're going to go through those as well, but we're going to go through those much quicker.

Verse five. This is Luke chapter 11, verse five. 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.

Now a friend is someone who's inclined to help you. Yet it is still audacious to call on anyone, even a friend at midnight, especially in the

Middle East, and especially at the time of Christ. We'll get to that a little bit more in a second.

But it's pretty audacious to call on even your friend at midnight, and say to him, for a friend of mine in his journey has come to me, and I have nothing set before him.

The man didn't expect his friend to arrive, and he hadn't prepared for him, so he had nothing to give him.

He had done nothing to create the situation in which he needed to call for help from his friend, and yet that's exactly where he found himself.

A man in need of help. Verse seven. And he from within, his friend, shall answer and say, trouble me not.

The door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot arise and give thee.

Now, in our culture, that seems a little strange, and seems like all you'd have to do is get up, open the door, and let him in, and give him some bread.

But in the Middle East of that day, the whole family lived together in one house. More than that.

On one side of the house was a raised flat, where all of them slept.

On the ground floor were all their animals. A cow, a donkey, perhaps some sheep, maybe some goats.

What other animals they had were on the ground floor. The man couldn't get from where he was down to the door without disturbing the whole household.

There was no way the man could come to the door without disturbing the whole house.

Jesus goes on to say, and I say unto you, though he will not rise and give him because he is his friend, yet because of importunity, he will rise and give him as much as he needeth.

Now, a couple of things. The word translated importunity in the King James Version can mean impudence.

It conveys the idea of urgency, audacity, earnestness, boldness, relentlessness, like the persistence of a desperate beggar.

They just can't take no for an answer. Even though a friend and inclined to help, the man who is roused out of his sleep is at first not willing to help.

But because of the persistence of a caller, he eventually agrees, and not only to provide the three loaves requested, but actually as much as his friend needs.

It was not the loaves of bread that he was concerned about.

It was disturbing the whole household. Verse nine, and I say unto you, ask and it shall be given you.

Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth.

And to him that knocketh it shall be opened. We're told to keep on asking, to keep on seeking, to keep on knocking.

All of those verbs are continuous. Jesus is not speaking of one single activity.

Jesus is speaking of persistence. Keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking.

When do you stop? When the Lord tells you to stop, or when the

Lord gives you what you've been asked for. Verse 11, if a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, well, that's interesting.

This is Father's Day, isn't it? If today your son asked you for a bread, would you give him a stone?

If he were to ask a fish, will you for a fish give him a serpent?

Or if he asked for an egg, will you offer him a scorpion? If your son asked you for something good, will you give him something bad?

Any human father loves to bless his children and would never answer a simple request for something good with something evil.

If that's the case with us, how much more will God answer us even though it sometimes doesn't seem so?

That was put in by a commentator that I read, and I wanted to add this.

If that is the issue, the problem is with us, not with God.

And the resolution to that problem, that it seems like God doesn't answer us, the resolution of that problem is with prayer.

God often waits for our passionate persistence in prayer.

It isn't that God is reluctant and needs to be persuaded.

Our persistence doesn't change God. No matter how much we ask, it's not going to change what

God's going to do. But it does change us. It changes us. It develops in us a heart and a passion, not for what we want, but for what

God wants. And one of the issues of prayer is continue praying.

Pray for what you want. There's nothing wrong with asking for what you want. You should also thank the

Lord when you're praying for all the good things He's already done for you. You should ask for the things that are important for the investment of His kingdom, the hallowedness of His name, the coming of His kingdom,

His will be done. We should pray for the forgiveness of our sins. All of those things model for us in the prayer that we looked at.

But continuing that prayer doesn't change God. It changes us.

It brings us in line with what the Lord wants for us. And now

I'm going to close with a passage from Isaiah. Isaiah 55, 6.

I'd like for you to go there. It's a rather lengthy passage. Isaiah 55, starting with verse 6.

Seek ye the Lord while he may be found. Call ye upon him while he is near.

Let the wicked forsake his way. And the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the

Lord. And he will have mercy upon him.

Seek the Lord while he is near. Forsake your evil way.

Return to the Lord, and the Lord will have mercy on you. And to our

God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the

Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thought higher than your thoughts.

And there's no way that you can come to an understanding of what the

Lord's thoughts are unless he reveals them to thee. For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from the oven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth.

It shall not return to me void, but shall accomplish that which

I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

So the word of God will not come back to him empty, void, but it will accomplish exactly what the

Lord pleases. For you shall go out with joy and be led forth with peace.

The mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle tree.

And there shall be to the Lord for a name, and for an everlasting sign, that shall not be cut off.

Now back to Luke chapter 11 verse 13. If ye, then being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly

Father give the Holy Spirit unto them that ask? Now one other thing

I probably need to say. Jesus was talking to his,

I'm sorry, Luke was referring to the time before Pentecost.

Believers today don't need to pray for the Holy Spirit. That's indwelt in them.

That's indwelt in the disciple since Pentecost. In Romans 8 verse 9.

I'm going to read some of Romans 8. Brother David's been going through this clearly, so I'm just going to read

Romans 8 verse 1. There is therefore no condemnation to them which are in Jesus Christ, who walk not after the flesh, but after the

Spirit. The Spirit's there in you. If you walk after the Spirit, there'll be no condemnation for you.

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own

Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemneth sin in the flesh.

That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the

Spirit. For the things that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the

Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

Because the carnal mind is entity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither can it be.

So they that are in the flesh cannot please God. So if you're in the flesh, you can't please

God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the

Spirit. If so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.

Well, the Spirit of God is dwelling in you if you're one of his, but that doesn't mean that you always are walking with the

Spirit. When you're not walking with the Spirit, you're walking with the flesh. And if you're walking with the flesh, you can't please

God. And now if any man have not the

Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And that is about it for me.