Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Shameless Prayer

Episode Date: August 21, 2023

When Jesus is asked by his disciples, “Lord, teach us to pray,” he tells them a story and puts forth an approach that runs against common sense and against what other religions say about prayer. In the story, a man who’s in bed at midnight gives bread to another man who’s knocking and asking. Jesus says the man gives the bread not because the other man is his friend but because of the man’s boldness. Other ways to translate the word Jesus uses include shamelessness, rudeness, discourtesy, impertinence, and impudence. That’s what Jesus says is a model for our prayer. “Pray like that,” he says. “Bother God.”  Why should we pray this way? Jesus gives the answer: 1) it’s a way to judge our hearts today, and 2) it’s a way to actually live our lives tomorrow in a different way. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on January 31, 1993. Series: Hard Sayings of Jesus (1993). Scripture: Luke 11:5-13. Today's podcast episode is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Welcome to Gospel in Life. This may sound strange at first, but in many ways Jesus is an upside down Savior. He came not in strength, but in weakness. He came not to gain power, but to give away power. As a teacher, then, he spoke in a way that turned people's expectations on their heads, calling people to lose their lives to gain them, to die to themselves so they can truly live. Some of his teachings can be difficult to understand

or accept. Today Tim Keller is teaching through one of the hard sayings of Jesus, showing us that while Christ's teachings aren't always easy, they provide the answers to having a meaningful life and a relationship with him. After you listen, please take a few seconds to rate and review our podcast. Your review can help others to discover our podcast and experience the hope of the gospel.

Now here's today's teaching from Dr. Keller. I'd like to call your attention to the words of Jesus in Luke chapter 11. We're going to look another week here at the hard things of Jesus. There are many things Jesus said and taught that are difficult to understand. Unless we take some time to reflect and to think together about them, I'm going to read from Luke chapter 11 verses 5 through 13. Luke chapter 11 verses 5 through 13. Then he said to them, Suppose one of you as a friend and he goes to him at midnight and says,

Friend lend me three loaves of bread, because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him. Then the other one inside answers, don't bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can't get up and give you anything. I tell you, though he will not get up and give him

the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man's boldness, he will get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man's boldness, he will get up and give him as much as he needs. So I say to you, asking it will be given to you. Seek and you will find, knock, and the door will be open to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, but to him who knocks, the door will be open. Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish,

will give him a snake instead, or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children. How much more will your father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? This is God's Word. Jesus is asked at the top of Luke 11, at the top of the chapter, by His disciples.

Lord teaches to pray. Jesus, like all good communicators, proceeds to tell him a story. In the story, we have a man who is in bed at midnight. Now, in an electricity less culture, midnight really was midnight. You really were, it was the middle of your night. It was, you were sound asleep. It's not like today in which midnight is when we go to bed.

It's beginning of the night. Not then, it was midnight. And this man, like most people of the time, was living in a one-room house. There was one bed in the house, and that's why he says, I'm in bed with my children. The whole family was in one bed.

And this man who comes with the request, who comes knocking on the door at midnight, is not coming with an emergency. He's not saying, my wife fell and she had an accident and she's bleeding, please help. Instead, he says, I am entertaining a guest. I need some bread. He knocks on the door, but there's no way for the man in bed, of course, to respond to the request without arousing the entire household. And it says, eventually, however, the man who is knocking does get what he asks for why.

And Jesus says, not because the man gives him bread, not because he is his friend, but because of the man's and in our translation that we read today, his boldness. What makes this saying so hard is that Jesus is putting forth here an approach to prayer that as we will see really is there in the Bible throughout the Bible, but it is an approach to prayer that runs against what other religions say about prayer and even what common sense says about prayer. Because the word boldness is a nice way of translating a word that means shamelessness. Another way to translate the word that Jesus uses is

rudeness, discuracy, impertinence, impudence. That's what Jesus says is a model for our prayer. Pray like that, he says, bother God. And the word bothers there. You're bothering me, says the man in bed. But because he continued to bother, he got his bread, and Jesus says pray like that.

That runs against common sense, and it runs against what other religions say about prayer. The idea of continually coming back relentlessly for anything that we want. Jesus says it again in Luke 18. Just to make sure you don't anybody thinks here that this is a fluke. In Luke 18, he tells us how to pray

and he uses another illustration which is justice startling. There's a judge, an indifferent and unjust judge, and there's a widow coming and asking for justice. And the judge doesn't want to give it to her, but eventually we read Jesus says, finally the judge says in the parable, I will grant her justice, bless she wear me out.

And then Jesus says, and will not God see to it that justice is done for his elect who continue to cry to him day and night. Yay, I say, and to you, he will see to it and speedily. Day and night, bother him, shamelessness, impudence, impertinence. That's the reason, for example, why Jesus says prayer is likened here to knocking.

You don't knock once, ever. If you just go to a door and you go like this, nobody will know. If you notice that, you know what you say is you hear this thud and you say, honey, what happens? Something fell down. Unless you do it repeatedly, it doesn't work. Now this doesn't make sense. Now you have to be very careful quickly here in our interpretation of literary forms.

A parable is not an allegory. We'll get back to this. A parable is not an allegory. In an allegory, every feature of this illustration corresponds to a spiritual truth. In a parable, there's one point. Jesus was not asked, how does God receive prayers? Jesus was asked, how do we present our prayers? And therefore Jesus is not teaching that God

answers prayers like the friend or like the judge. Who does it unsympathetically? That wasn't the point of the parable because that wasn't the question. The question is, how can we, how must we go to God with our prayers and Jesus says relentlessly? shamelessly rudely

discertiously constantly Now that's a hard saying why is it so hard because it doesn't make sense? Can you imagine can you imagine and some of you know something about other religions, can you imagine this sort of thing being a teaching of Islam? That's how we should approach Allah, you see, with this shamelessness, with this familiarity, constantly arguing, pleading, reminding God of what he said before. Can you imagine this being the way Jewish people are told to pray?

And also does it, does it, does it? Make sense. Why? If God loves us and He knows what we need, should we do it this way? Why if we respect Him? Should we do it this way? And why, since we so often don't get what we want,

should we keep doing it? The answer is right here in this text, Jesus gives you the answer, and it's an extremely important and telling answer. It's a way to judge our hearts and actually to live our lives tomorrow in a different way if we grab the answer. But before, I tell you the answer to why we should pray that way, why we should pray shamelessly. First of all, I want to make sure that everybody understands, let me digress maybe for a couple of moments it's all, and make sure everybody understands the absolute relevance of this subject. The great thing about Redeemer is that whenever we gather for

worship on a day like this, a good number of folks are at every part of the spectrum of faith. Some of you really know what you believe, but a lot of you don't really know what you believe, and a lot of you are actually dubious about Christianity, most of it, or even all of it. So there's people at every spot on the spectrum of how they relate to the Christian faith, and that's what's great of it or even all of it. So there's people at every spot on the spectrum of how they relate to the Christian faith. And that's what's great about Redeemer. But that means some people might sit here and say,

oh, this is a sermon for true believers. I don't really know what I think about this and I don't pray that much. And this is a sermon on how to pray that. So it's not relevant to me, wrong. And here's why. Prayer is a clue to the origin of your heart. Prayer is a clue to some of the mysteries of life that you face right now.

Prayer tells you where you've come from. Prayer actually shows you what you were built for. One of the most interesting things about prayer is that it's almost an involuntary reflex of the human soul. No matter what you believe, no matter how unbelieving you are, you've probably prayed. And now one of the snottiest things that Christians have ever said, I think it's a snottie thing,

but it points up something, so. One of the snottiest things Christians have ever said is there's no atheists in foxholes. When things get desperate, people pray. And you have lots of anecdotal support for that. Mark Twain, who was an ardent unbeliever, admits that when his wife was very sick before her death, he says, I prayed and prayed and prayed like a dog.

wife was very sick before her death. He says, I prayed and prayed and prayed like a dog. Whenever the news talks, whenever the news shows you some little vignette a couple of weeks ago, there was a couple caught in the snows in California. Do you remember seeing that? The man had to go for help and the wife and the little baby was breastfed and they just, they got into a snow cave and they just hope

that they would be safe and they were all saved and when they saved, she says, oh, I prayed in a way I'd never prayed before. As a pastor, I don't know how many times I've had people say to me, though I have no real religious belief. Man, when that happened, when I was in the hospital, I prayed that shows what your heart is really like.

It shows what the foundation of your soul really is Now somebody says that proves nothing. All it proves is that when you're desperate when you're in an unnatural situation You do crazy things that doesn't tell you a thing There's nothing unnatural about it. What a useful illustration. See, I saw this gave me some years ago, not personally, but he says, if you want to know what's in the bottom of the basement, surprise your basement. See, he says, if you want to know if there's rats or roaches down there, you don't announce it. You don't get to the door and say, I'm on my way down

dear, and then you open the door slowly, and you open the light, and you clear your throat, and you walk on down. He says, if you want to know what's in your basement, you have and then you open the door slowly and you open the light and you clear your throat and you walk on down. It says, if you want to know what's in your basement, you have to sneak up to the door and you have to jump to the bottom and fling on the light and you have to surprise your basement to find out what's really in it.

You have to surprise your basement to discover what's really there. You'll see little things scurrying away and then you know, call workin' I guess, or something like that. Now the point is, when you are at what you consider your most unnatural, when your defenses are down, when you're not thinking but reacting, when terrible things have happened and you're desperate,

that tells you what you're really like. That tells you who you really are. It's in those moments that you find out what you really are. Don't say that's unnatural, that's not the real you. You are religious. See, we are homo-religiosa. It's one of the things that makes us human. See, there's another way to put it. Some people say, well, yeah, of course, when you're most desperate, there's a tendency to pray. Oh, no, when you're most human, when you feel vulnerable, when you know you're

out of control, when you know you're not in charge, when you most feel you're humanity, when you're the most human, you pray. And that means that they're not pray to humanize as you. So when you only pray, when you're vulnerable, you only pray when you're helpless, you only pray when you know you're not in charge. Now, the world is full of all sorts of philosophy that says, take charge. Don't rely on anybody.

Create your own reality. Take control of your environment. Hmm? That kind of philosophy does not make you more human. It makes you more like Genghis Khan. It makes you more like Hitler. And you see, when you think you're in charge and when you think you're in control of everything, people like that are out of touch with their humanity.

And when they feel, quote, desperate, it's really when you realize you're human. You realize that you don't have control over your environment. You realize you're vulnerable. You realize you're mortal. And therefore prayer not only tells you where your heart is from. It shows you that you're built that you have a deep, deep, deep need for God, but it also shows you the absolute importance of it because prayer continually humanizes you without a crisis. Prayer is continually bringing you back into connection with your humanity. So don't say to me, well I'm not a true believer, I don't need to hear about prayer. Oh listen, prayer is the clue to the origin of your heart.

And prayer is something incredibly important for all people to do. But having said that, that does not really, what I just said, shows you the relevance and the importance of prayer, but it doesn't really answer the question, how can Jesus ask for us to do this kind of prayer, this kind of prayer, this shameless prayer,

this bare face prayer, it doesn't make sense. It's a lack of respect, isn't it? To God, to pray like that? And if you know so often we don't get what we want, it doesn't even, it seems futile to do it. Why pray like that? Here's the answer. The answer is, you must pray, pray shamelessly, because we are His children. And you must pray shamelessly if you want to become more and more and more his children. The key to the whole thing is the doctrine, the Christian doctrine of adoption. You see in verses 5 to 10, when Jesus is talking about how to pray, he says he gives us the illustration of the friend and the relentlessness of the whole thing.

But then in verse 11, 12 and 13, the metaphor changes and he immediately begins talking about prayer in terms of family, in terms of approaching a father. And here's why. Jesus did not say, pray this way, our friend who art in heaven. He did not say, pray this way, our judge who art in heaven. He did not say, pray this way, our judge who art in heaven. What Jesus tells us about prayer makes no sense except on family terms. To trust and yet relentlessly bug God's something that only a little child can do,

or I'll put it this way. Only little children, on the one hand, have the impertinent and audaciousness to continually tug on a father's sleeve, and on the other hand, are able to do it with so much trust, not expecting to understand everything he does. Children pray aggressively and children pray trustingly.

And only thinking of ourselves as children and seeing that he's a father to his prayer of that kind, that type makes sense. Let me break that down. First of all, children pray aggressively. None of the things that Jesus is saying makes any sense unless you understand that God's your father. Look at the great saints of old. It's astonishing. Here's Abraham. And God comes and says, Abraham, I'm about to wipe out Sodom and Gomorrah where some of your relatives live. Abraham

begins to pray and look how he prays. Look how he prays. This is Lord, if there's 50 good people there, you wouldn't wipe them out. Would you please, for my sake, do not wipe out some of Gomorrah. If there's 50 good people, God says, all right, I answer your prayer. Abraham says, let me ask you one more thing. If there's 45 people, 45 good people in there, 45 decent people, will you not please destroy it? God says, okay. I won't destroy it for 45. One more thing, says Abraham. Is this Abraham or is this Colombo? He says one more thing.

He says, how about for 40? How about for 40 people? All right, I won't do it for 40 people. I'll refrain. How about 30? How about 20? What is this? How about 10? What's the matter with him? Knock, knock repeatedly.

The bare face, shameless impulence of going before the father. Look at Moses. Moses praying in Exodus 33, he says, I'm not going to do this if you don't come with me. You promised to come with me. He's here, he is arguing with God, reminding him of the promise of saying, this be consistent God, be consistent. How in the world do these people talk like this? But now think of the great kings and the great presidents

and the great influential and powerful people of the world. The only people that can approach people like that and take such liberties are their little children, even their spouses can't do it. Think about that. Let's just say Bill Clinton had a four-year-old daughter, a their spouses can't do it. Think about that. Let's just say, Bill Clinton had a four-year-old daughter, a five-year-old daughter. First of all, the four- and five-year-old daughter

cannot make any distinction between big and small petitions. Children understand that, so you bring them. Not only that, you bring them anytime, any place, and repeatedly. You have unconditional access. Even your spouse doesn't have that kind of access. The only person who can go to the President of the United States and ask for a drink of water at 4 a.m.

would be your five-year-old daughter. Even Hillary can't do it. Hillary says, for an a.m. Bill, get me a drink of water. He'll say, oh, why? You sick? You feel bad? Why can't you get it? That's what you, even your spouse, you don't allow.

You don't allow, you don't allow, you see. Even your spouse can't take those kinds of liberties with you. But your little child can, the reminding you of what you said, the tugging at your sleeve, the impertinent. What in relating to my neighbor or to my friend, or even to my spouse is rude and impudent, and impertinent and discurdious,

is not so when I come to my father. The way my five year old treats me, if anybody else treated me that way, including my spouse, it would be inappropriate, but it's not for my five-year-old. And therefore, there is no other way to explain not only how the saints of old, how Abraham and Isaac and how Moses treated God, but even how Jesus now enjoins there's no way to understand it unless you understand that your relation to him has been radically changed

when you became a Christian. Adoption, the fact that he is your father, makes sense of Christian prayer. Christian prayer only works on family terms. All other kinds of prayer works on a different set. Look, John 1 chapter 12, chapter 1 verse 12 says, as many as received him as believed in his name to them he gave authority to become his children. Most people believe what it means to be a Christian is to go to God and say, I promise now to commit myself to you and to be good.

That's really more like signing up and drawing up a contract with an employer. Most people think that what it means to become a Christian is I give myself to God and I devote myself to pray and come to church and read His Word and try real hard to live a Christian life and do my best. Now in that case you relate to God as a boss. Because when you sign up and you agree to do work for him, for you say, if God's your boss, you sign up for your employer, you do expect wages, you do expect benefits,

you do expect to be able to go to your employer sometimes to ask for things. But you don't go the way a little child goes. You don't go the way a little child goes. You don't go to your employer constantly. You don't go with impudence, with bare-fraite face joy, with an absolute certainty that you will always be heard. You don't go constantly.

You don't go for little and big things, and you never go, unless you feel like you've worked hard and you deserve it. That's a completely different form of prayer. That's how most people pray. It's formal. It's not as intimate. It's not as bare face. It's not shameless. It's not certain. It's not assured. But that's not what it actually means to be a Christian. What's so wonderful about this hard saying is this kind of prayer, understanding this kind of prayer, engaging in this kind of prayer, can tell you whether or not you're a Christian. It can tell you whether you understand the gospel, whether you understand the difference between true Christianity and moralism and legalism.

Because most people think to be a Christian is I make myself committed to God, and now I'm gonna do good things for him and now he will help me. That means he's your boss. Something much more radical happens, says John 1, chapter 12, chapter 1, verse 12. Something much more radical happens when you become a Christian, you become his child. You're adopted into his family.

Hear this, adoption is a change not of nature or even of behavior. Adoption is a change of status by an act of the Father so that now you enjoy privileges and an intimacy and unconditional acceptance that no one else, you have an access to the Father, that no one else has. He has an access to the Father that no one else has. The reason it can happen is because Jesus Christ is not merely an example for our emulation, but is a representative for our substitution. He came and lived a perfect life on earth and he died to pay the penalty for our imperfect life. So there's two ways to approach God.

One is to say, God, be my boss. I'm going to live a good life. Please then, because I'm living a good life, you should hear my prayer. That's one approach. The other approach is, God be my father. I can't live a good life, but because Jesus has done it for me. And because Jesus has died for me,

I refuse to any more be my own Savior and Lord, and I rest in Him alone for my salvation, and therefore hear me in prayer because I'm your little child. Those are two fundamentally different ways of relating to God. They're two fundamentally different religions. God's boss, God's father.

See? Save by my efforts, saved by Christ's efforts. Listen to me because I have worked for it. Listen to me because Christ has worked for it. And now I belong to you. Two totally different things. In the one, your prayer life will be anxious, your prayer life will be formal, it will be intermittent, it will only happen when you're

desperate, and when God doesn't come through, you won't really ever, you'll wonder what's wrong, because you see an employer, an employee expects to understand an employer, but a child doesn't really expect to understand a father. A child is knows the father loves him or her and therefore kind of expects the Father to do things you don't understand. Big people do that. They do things that we don't understand. But I know he loves me. Two different approaches. Don't get me wrong. When we talk about going to him shamelessly in bare face, that doesn't mean the Bible doesn't say we forget his majesty.

I mean, even Abraham, who continually came back again, every time he would say, oh, here I am talking to you. I am just put dust and ashes. I am, you are a judge of all the earth, but how about 30? How about 20? It's true, when Moses approached God says, take off your shoes for you are standing on holy ground. Of course God is majestic. Of course we never forget that when we pray, but it's because of His majesty and because of His holiness and because of His towering greatness that this kind of access is so unbelievable. Come on in. Bother him. For anything, I drink of water, pour your heart out to him. For many in our culture today, Biblical Christianity is a dangerous idea,

challenging some of their deepest beliefs. In her book Confronting Christianity, 12 hard questions for the world's largest religion. Dr. Rebecca McLaughlin explores the hard questions that keep many people from considering faith in Christ. Tackling issues, including gender and sexuality, science and faith, and the problem of suffering, McLaughlin shows that what seems like roadblocks to faith in Jesus can become signposts to a relationship with Him. Confronting Christianity is our thank you for your gift to help Gospel and Life share the love of Christ with people all over the world.

So request your copy today at GospelAndLife.com slash give. That's GospelAndLife.com slash give. Now, the Hutspaw of it. Now, the hutspa of it is something it is unique to people who understand that they're adopted and it makes no sense on any of the terms. But also, and I said lastly, a child prays to a father aggressively, much more aggressively than an employee goes to a boss. But then secondly, a child also prays trustingly, much more trustingly than an employee prays to a boss. Because we already mentioned this, but the point is, you see, it talks about here, fathers, if your child asks for an egg, will you give him a scorpion?

No. But the implication, what's the implication? Father, if your child asks for a scorpion, will you give him a scorpion? You get the answer, of course, is no. Fathers don't do that. What's the interesting thing about children is that they instinctively expect adults to do all sorts of inexplicable, inscrutable things. You know, children are always,

children are coming up to you and say, I don't understand why you do this and why you do that. Why do you do this? Why do you do that? They don't expect to understand most of the things that you say. So a five-year-old, you have to come down

and speak very directly and be careful about your language. Most of the time they hear the adults talking about things and have no idea what's going on at all. That's, They understand that. When an employee goes to an employer and asks for something and doesn't get what you think you deserve, you don't knock, you don't knock, you tap. I asked why isn't it coming. But a child, you see, very often, is used to this.

You go to your father and you ask for something and your father is very typical. Your father says, honey, I know you want to do that to have fun, but that would be very bad for you. Let's have fun this way. And therefore, if you understand prayer and family terms, and I say this once a year in a sermon, so I'll say it again, your father gives you what you would

have asked for if you knew everything he knows. That's how prayer works. Your father gives you always what you would have asked for if you knew everything he knows. He redirects. He says, I know you want to have fun, but this will be more fun. I know you want to have this, but this will do it. This is better. Now, let's see the children understand that kind of instinctively. Children pray aggressively, children pray trustingly, and nobody else does. Now let's finish up by applying this to people who both know what they believe and who don't know what they believe. Christian friends, you know what you believe? You say, I've received Christ's Savior,

I know he's my father. I want to challenge you to something. I want you to know that most of your problems today come from the fact that you don't live that out, that you don't believe it, you don't realize how many of your problems come because you're not being consistent with this. Or I'll put it this way.

Many of us have had excellent families. Most of us have had mediocre families. Some of us have had terrible families. If you watch little children, you'll see instinctively, they do everything that the Bible says here, we're talking about. Instinctively, they bug their parents trustingly. Instinctively, they bug their parents trustingly. Instinctively, they expect their parents to take care of them.

They expect their parents to love them. That's why they expect to be accepted. They instinctively know that. A lot of us have had parenting right in which we learned that that didn't work. So we've lost those instincts. In fact, as you grow up, you lose them anyway. Complete trust. Knowing that you're accepted.

Knowing that you're not about to be kicked out just because you had a temper tantrum an hour ago. Knowing your father loves you and wants your best. Being able to just come and open up and not have to worry about protocol. Not have to worry about whether I deserve it. Just coming. That is instinctive to children. Plenty of children are abused and they I deserve it. Just coming. That is instinctive to children. Plenty of children are abused and they unlearn it.

Most of us grow up in a sense we unlearn it. What does it mean to become a Christian? What does it mean to grow as a Christian? It means to get those responses back and recover those responses toward our heavenly Father. You don't live love, let me prove it to you. Some of you are just tapping your foot right now because you've asked God for things and they haven't come through. You're irked. You're not relentlessly like a child coming

back and continuing to ask but trusting him. Instead you're saying, I asked and I didn't get it. Prayer doesn't work that way. Look, imagine if you give a laden's lamp to a five-year-old. Hey, runny, any three wishes and their yours automatically, whether good or bad, whether it's smarter or stupid, what would you do if your five-year-old got a hold of a laden's lamp and you had three wishes coming? You get out of the world, you know, you get in a rocket ship, go someplace, disaster is looming. If you are a Christian and

you've been asking for something and God has not given it to you, you've asked for a scorpion. And if you're mad about it, it's because you want prayer to work like a lad in slant. It doesn't. You're a toddler. Get out of the world. Prayer is so powerful. I mean Moses understood that it went, if this is my father, if I've got access to the throne of the universe, this is the greatest power I've got. This is the most incredible thing I've got. I pray first. I don't pray when everything else is gone now. There's nothing to do but pray. I pray first. Most of us understood that, but it's so powerful it's got to have a safety catch on it because we're toddlers.

Prayer is not a laden's lamp. If it was, we all be dead. Well, I've killed each other if not killed ourselves. Prayer only works on family terms. You go to your father, not to a genie. That's what prayer is. You go to him as a father, not as a genie. And you say, this is what I want. And your father may say, oh honey, that would hurt you. But here's what I would like to get instead.

Do you really understand unanswered prayer as a little child? Do you believe that he's your father? Some of you are bitter and upset and angry and your life is is coagulating underneath that bitterness and all that upsetness because God hasn't done things the way you want and you are not practicing the fact that you're a child. You're not willing to respond to him as a father. Instead you want him to be a genie and he's not. You want him to be a boss and he's not. He's a father.

Apparently, works on family terms. You can... What's your alternative to trusting him? What is your alternative to trusting him? Huh? You'll just get hard and brittle and crack and go to pieces. There's no other alternative. And look what he said.

He will do for you. That's why Jesus says have no anxiety about these things for your heavenly Father knows. If you don't practice his fatherhood you are going to be a wreck and that's that. You're not worried because of events, you're not angry because of events, you're worried and angry if you're a Christian because you're not practicing the fatherhood of God. Or let me give you another example. Some of you do not pray like this, you don't pray relentlessly, not because you're mad but because you feel so unworthy. And you say, oh, because of what I've done, because of how I failed, because of what I've done, I couldn't possibly just

keep coming back to God and talking to Him like that. You're talking like an employee, not like a child. Look at what Jesus says. He says, if you who are evil know how to give your children good gifts, how much more your heavenly thought. Did you see what he said? He's talking to his disciples. You who are evil.

Evil. He's talking to his disciples. He know you,phemisms. He doesn't say you who are still sinful, you who are still flawed, you who still have some rough edges, he says, you who are evil. He says, you're evil. You're evil right now. Even those of you who've given your life to me, you're still self-centered, you're still full of all sorts of flaws, you're still evil. And he's still your father. If you don't come to him because you think I've blown it or I've done something wrong,

you still are said he's a boss. I didn't get to work. I broke a rule. I didn't do right. How can I ask for my wages today? Or is he your father? Do you go to him any way? Do you go and you throw yourself in his arms any time for anything? Do you really unburden yourself? If you can't, you're not practicing his fatherhood.

Or here's one more thing. Some of you, think of him as a lad in the lamp or you think of him as a boss, here's another one. A lot of you say, well, I've told him once. That's all I should need. All right, that's all he should need. All right, that's God as a computer. You know, my computer, if I put the file on there once, he doesn't want it again.

I put the file on there again. It says, sorry, if I'll cannot be copied on itself. It only needs it once. Because on a computer, he's a father, therefore, he works in relationship. Why do you think he wants you to continually come back? Father's love, repetition. We love to have our children, remind us of what we said. We love to know that you're listening.

We love because prayer works on a relational family basis. The Father wants us to be coming and depending on him. The Father wants us to be taking what he knows, what he has said in his word, and obviously incorporating it into our heart. The Father wants us to be coming and depending on him. The father wants us to be taking what he knows, what he has said in his word, and obviously incorporating it into our heart. The father wants us to see us becoming like him, spending time with him, seeking his presence. He knows that there's nothing we need more. The father therefore is not a computer,

but works on the basis of family relationship and therefore, knock, knock, knock, keep coming after him. He says, you have not because you asked not. Why did why? Is he want me to just continue to ask? Because it's good for us. Because that's how families work. You don't just say, gosh, in families, wives, next time you go to your husband and say, do you love me? Your husband said, I told you, 1957, I love you.

What do you need that for now? And the answer is your wife is not a hard drive. It wipes a person. And the reason that you're not relentless is because you forget that. And you're praying, knock. Paul says, I am wrestling in prayer for you that you might stand firm in the will of God. Wrestling, crying out day and night, it's good for us and it's the only way in which our friends

and the people we love will stand firm in the will of God. Look at your neighborhood. How is the righteousness of God going to march to your neighborhood? Look at your church, look at your friends, look at your family. It only happens if you're wrestling in prayer for them. You knock, you go back and back to your father,

you tug on his sleeve, you remind him of what he said. And he says, I love that. It honors me so much, it's so good for you, and we will take this prayer and use it explosively in the lives of the people that you are praying for. Not only that, you, because you prayed so relentlessly for them them have become an instrument of my peace in their lives. Christian friends, do you see that your bitterness and that you're worried, that you're guilt, that your lack of discipline and prayer all comes from feeling that God's a computer where he's a laden's lamp or he's a hard drive

or he's a boss and you're forgetting that he's your father. You don't pray with this relentlessness and as a result you don't have, you're not bathed constantly in the rest and in the peace and in the joy of your father's arms. You don't know, nearly like you ought to know what it's like to be embraced by him. You don't live loved. You don't live accepted. And lastly, last thing.

I hope there's some people here who are realizing that though you may be very moral and you may be very decent, you may be very religious, you may have been coming to church all your life. You are not Christians. At least you don't know God as a father. Because this kind of the boldness, the relentlessness, the shamelessness, the impudence, the bare face, child likeness. But Jesus Christ says must be the characteristic of Christian prayers is not a characteristic of your life. You pray only when you're desperate

only. That shows you're human, but if you pray only when you're desperate, it shows you're probably not as child. Do you know that you're in this family? Have you ever really said, Lord, I can't be good enough. I can't do it. I need for Jesus to be my savior. Have you ever done that? Have you ever given yourself to Him that way? If you do, you will pray like this. If you do, you will pray. And when you do, he says, will He not see to it? To His elect who called Him day and night, surely I say unto you, He will see to it, to his elect who called him day and night, surely, I say unto you, he will see to it

and speedily. He hears. He's your father. Let's pray. Now Lord, we ask simply that as you have spoken to us through your Word, I pray that those people here who are not living out, the truth of their adoption, and are not living out your fatherhood, who can see that their anxiety and their anger today

is because they are not praying aggressively and praying trustingly, because they are not willing to relearn the responses of a little child toward you. I pray that you would help them to recover those responses and show them what they need to do differently. Leave them to repentance, the kind of repentance that changes them and brings them the joy and the power that we've talked about today. And Father, if

there are some people who realize they know you as a boss but not as a father, they pray to you, but they don't pray to you as a little child. If they don't really know you and they've never received the authority to become your children, let them receive your son as Savior and let them come to know you that way. So, all the blessings and all the realities that we've discussed today might fill the lives of every person sitting in this room, listening to this prayer. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you for joining us today.

If you were encouraged by today's podcast, please rate and review it so more people can discover the hope of the gospel, and thanks again for listening. This month's sermons were recorded in 1993 and 2016. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel and Life Podcast were preached from 1989 to 2017, while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church. you