Impudent Prayer: The Bold, Shameless Prayer Jesus Taught Ep 19

0:00 being devout in every way in your life. And yes, that can sometimes mean the Lord pours out extra gifts, but sometimes you can have those spiritual gifts going, but not true holiness. Remember, the church in Corinth, God called them unspiritual, even though they had tons of spiritual gifts going on. Welcome to the Bennett Broadcast. I'm Matt Bennett. Thanks for joining me as we explore what it means to seek the Lord wholeheartedly, to grow strong in faith, and to be fully devoted to God in today's world. When we do, He will pour out His Spirit and bring revival like never before. All right, a few days ago here in New York City, we had an all-night prayer meeting.

0:45 We have a young professionals ministry in New York City, Christian Union does, and myself and a bunch of young professionals. We went all night. We started at 7.30 p.m., ended at 5 a.m. A few went even past that, but mostly we finished at 5 a.m. And we started with worship in my apartment in Midtown, for about 45 minutes. And then our first place of prayer was at the Apple store. We met there. And I think our high point during the night, we had as many as 20, 25 of us. And then we finished with 11 of us. People would join us at different points, sometimes random people, but...

1:26 People that knew about it were joining us, part of the ministry. So we're at the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue, prayed there for an hour. Then we went down in front of St. Patrick's Cathedral, prayed there an hour. Then Rockefeller Plaza, an hour there. Then went to Times Square. A friend of mine who's a worship leader lives in the West Village. He came up, let worship for an hour. It was great. A lot of people joined us there. Then we went to Bryant Park, right there for an hour. Flatiron Building for an hour. And then finished down at Union Square. And it was wonderful. It was fantastic. And the question is, why would we do such a thing? Why can't we just pray during the day of the different times? And this explains why that is.

2:08 The truth of the matter is, today in the United States, is that most prayer among Christians in the U.S. is brief and polite and, in many ways, powerless. Not all prayer is equally powerful. And by the grace of God, as we go through some scriptures on this, you'll be persuaded of this. I want to say, too, that in our prayers, to make our prayers powerful, it's not enough to be a friend of God. And if you're a Christian walking closely with the Lord, then he considers us our friend. But the scriptures are plain. It's not enough to be his friend, to have the level of power and sway with God that I think we would like to have.

2:54 We'll be looking at a passage here and we'll see that Jesus communicates not just what to pray, but how to pray. Now most of our emphasis is on how to pray, the manner of prayer. The Bible teaches a lot about how to pray. Praise God, we need that, we got to know that. what matters to him and how to have the most powerful prayers possible. And we'll be looking at Luke 11. The disciples tell Jesus, teach us to pray. They want to know how to pray. And then he gives them the content of prayer, which is the Lord's Prayer, which... We're all familiar with, but then he goes into the manner of prayer. And that's our focus here because the manner matters.

3:36 And you'll see that here in these next few minutes. So I got a quote from E.M. Bounds. I think you'll find fascinating, interesting. He says this. He says, what the church needs today is not more machinery or money. better machinery, not new organizations or more or novel methods, but men whom the Holy Ghost can use, men of prayer, men mighty in prayer, of course, women too. The Holy Ghost does not flow through methods, but through men. He does not come on machinery, but on men. He does not anoint plants, but on men. but men, men of prayer.

4:17 This quote is more powerful and needed than ever. We spend a lot of time when people talk about ministry growth and church planting, about some methodologies, and there's nothing wrong with that per se, but it's not the main, it's not the most important part. People learn about how much parking you need for a, building a certain size and how things should be laid out to make things easier. Of course, these things should be discussed. But the most important part of starting a ministry, leading a ministry, leading a church is often forgotten. And that's the spiritual side of things. We can use that. And a huge part of that is prayer and how God.

4:58 We pray. I've had a lot of experiences with myself leading Christian Union. Most of our ministry is with college students. We focus on very academically intense universities that are very secular and influential. But we're doing increasingly more with Christian Union America, which is alumni of our programs, but anybody else who wants to join in, we do fast twice a year. We recently completed a 21-day fast, and some of us went longer for a 40-day fast. And actually I'm ending it tomorrow with a few friends who went longer. Praise the Lord. It's been a great fast though, but we do conferences, other such matters. So ChristianUnion.org has this.

5:38 And by the grace of God, I've got a master's divinity from Trinity Seminary and also have helped lead a couple of revivals, both at Princeton University and have studied the subjects around the world. And prayer movements in different countries Historically and currently So the Lord has helped me a lot In helping me gain an understanding So that's what we're going to go through As we look at this passage in Luke 11 And bring those experiences to bear So Jesus is again here And looking at the actual text in Luke 11 This is where we're focusing You can open your Bible and follow along I will I'll read it for you as well. But he teaches the content after they ask him to pray or teach them, and then he teaches the manner.

6:24 So the first part, you're aware, this is Luke 11, 1 to 4. It says, now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray as John taught his disciples. And he said to them, when you pray, say, Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Your will be done Give us this day our daily bread Forgive us our sins For we ourselves forgive everyone who's indebted to us Lead us not into temptation And there's a lot to be said about that I don't have time here to talk about it But learning and focusing on the right content in our prayers is very key He loves us and wants to hear everything But he especially wants to hear certain things from us But that's going to be another Bennett broadcast sometime So here he shifts at this point and starting in verse 5 to the manner of prayer.

7:17 And not to give it away, but it's fervent, impudent prayer. And let's read here starting 11, 5 to 8. And he said to them, which of you has a friend? We'll 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 him 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's his friend that because of his impudence. That's the key word here.

7:57 He will rise and give him whatever he needs. Now, just as an aside, Luke does more than the other gospel authors. He talks about the role and importance of prayer, especially in relating to Holy Spirit. You see this in the book of Luke. You see this in the book of Acts. So it's really beautiful to see this Luke highlighting the significance and importance of prayer at key points in Jesus's ministry. So this impudence in prayer is what he's talking about, and that's the focus of this message, to understand that and apply that to our lives. Jonathan Edwards, who was considered the theologian of revival, he called it extraordinary prayer. People may use different terms, and praying all night is an example of extraordinary prayer in many ways.

8:40 But... We'll dig in bit by bit here. So you have the scene here. It's midnight. You got the locked door. The kids are in bed. There's obviously a social cost of knocking on them, getting them up out of bed. He's a friend of his and wants him to get up, but he doesn't want to fool with it. The friend does. And even the parable mentions that there's a friend's status already, but it's insufficient. It's not enough for the friend to get up and to give him what he wants. And this is where it matters to us today as we think about even when we're a friend of God, that's not enough to have the maximum impact in your prayers with the Lord.

9:22 We can't just say, well, not only Christian, but I'm in good standing with the Lord and I seek him very strongly or I care about him and his ways. I walk in obedience to him. Therefore, I don't have to be fervent or impudent in my prayers. Not the case. and wants to answer you, then you have to have impudence. And so that word is a Greek word, anodeia. It means without shame, to have no shame. It's like a shameless persistence. It's a refusal to be shamed out of asking. Without modesty, you could think of it as something, the King James translates it, importunity.

10:07 But it also could be a brazenness. or have cheek or rude boldness or effrontery, a shameless persistence and boldness, impudent prayer. Some will use importunate prayer, although importunate may have more to do with persistence, which is Luke 18. But There are overlapping terms and concepts. Persistence in prayer is Luke 18. Here is impudence or fervency or shamelessness. Have you ever thought of your prayer that I'm going to push in my prayer and I'm going to do it to the point of social embarrassment? That's what's going on here. Imagine knocking on your friend's door at midnight and the friend is like, what's going on?

10:50 Get out of here. Leave me alone. And you keep banging so you can get the loaves of bread because you got somebody coming into town. That's what the Lord is saying. He knows that that's not our nature. He knows that we might feel like that's improper. That's why he's telling us. The disciples asked Jesus and said, teach us. And so Jesus says, here it is, if you can receive it. He gives the content, but now he's giving the manner and to really work hard and being bold and being confident and coming before the throne of grace. I'm gonna mention here a passage in Hebrews 4.16.

11:30 It says, let us in with confidence, draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. And that's pretty amazing, isn't it? I've talked to a lot of people over the years about that and asked them, do you feel like you come to the throne of grace with boldness, with confidence? And do you ever ask the Lord in a way that could be considered shameful or to the point of shameful embarrassment? And most don't. And I ask them why. And the answers are interesting. People will say, well, I think maybe it's improper, maybe it's not reverent. I think maybe the Lord wouldn't like it in some ways.

12:11 And that makes sense. That's the way we think on our own. That's why the Lord's teaching us. That's what's so beautiful about the scriptures. The scriptures are there laid out. The scriptures are beautiful and wonderful. Every word is a word from God that he might teach us. How we can think, how we can live. The scriptures are a goldmine for our living. I was talking with a friend today and also yesterday, and 80% of our problems could be solved if we spend 30 to 60 minutes every morning and every evening in the Bible and prayer, reading the Bible and praying, and also Christian conferences and some other times. But it does so much for us if we take that time and let our minds be saturated, that we would allow the Lord to teach us in these ways.

12:55 So, Boldness, confidence People I think are Feel like it's too much It's improper I remember reading a story about Henrietta Mears She was an incredible leader In American evangelicalism She passed away in 1963 Before I was born But in many ways She played a role of kind of spiritual mama To Campus Crusade for Christ especially, but also in some ways Young Life, in some ways Billy Graham. She was an extraordinary person. They would say when she prayed, it was like she grabbed both sides of the throne of God and would just shake for what she wanted. The Lord does not consider that irreverent.

13:37 And we'll look at a passage later that emphasizes that. So I wanna finish reading this passage in Hebrews 11 so you can see what comes When you pray with that kind of shamelessness, I think it's good for every kind of prayer. But let's see what it says here in Luke 11, 9 to 13, as this passage continues. I encourage you to open your Bible. And if you don't mind writing in your Bible, to write in there and take notes. So, This is the third part of what I want to mention. So first part being the content, which we skipped over largely. The second part being the shamelessness in prayer and fervency in prayer. And now what comes as a result of that.

14:18 And the fervency part is underscored, as you'll see. So Luke 11, 9 to 13 says, And I tell you, ask and will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and the one who knocks it will be open. So you see the impudence theme is continued, but also the persistent theme that's in Luke 18 with the persistent widow is also here overlapping with that. So you see this pushing. This is pushing. And then it goes on, it says, "'What father among you, if a son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent?

15:01 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?' Now, wow, that's fascinating and interesting. Remember I mentioned a second ago how much Luke connects the ministry of prayer to the ministry of the Holy Spirit, and Luke connects. Here you have it. That's going on here. And we as Christians, I'm going to explain a little bit more here in a minute, but we get filled with the Spirit after we become a Christian. We're all sealed with the Spirit, but we have multiple fillings of the Spirit. We'll talk more about that. And fervent prayer is part of getting that.

15:44 So, you see these triple ask, the fervency of impudence, you ask, you seek, you knock, it's kind of this escalating persistence, you see the father analogy, it's like, hey, God is so much more loving and cares for us much more than a father, and so then you get this climactic gift that's given an increased measure of God. Certainly this applies to receiving anything from the Lord, but how much more the Holy Spirit, which is beautiful and wonderful. So now let me say a word about what prevailing prayer is, because that's a term people don't use as much. It's kind of an old timey word was used maybe 100 years ago.

16:24 It's a really great word, though, because it brings together some different aspects. It brings together impudence. It brings together persistence in prayer, but also it brings together the mindset of kind of praying through it, sort of praying through until you have assurance that what you're praying for is gonna come about. Sort of some would say the witness that is granted, that your prayer is granted. And you may have heard stories. I've heard a lot of stories like this. I think of Luis Palau, when they went to a place one time and felt a lot of spiritual opposition. And Luis Palau, the great evangelist, he's with the Lord now. He got his prayer minister and I think some others, and they got in a hotel room. They just prayed and prayed for days.

17:06 Until they felt like the Lord's going to answer. They prayed through. They got that witness that it's going to come about. I've certainly been in that situation myself. I don't do that enough, though, honestly. I think there is something to that where the Lord speaks and you gain that confidence. Like the thing that we've been really pressing in hard for, the Lord will deliver on it. So that's called prevailing prayer. It's a really great term to take in and consider. So now let me say this about from Spurgeon. He's such a man who taught on prayer. He was an incredible preacher in England in the 19th century. He says, however, brethren, whether we like it or not, remember, asking is the rule of the kingdom.

17:52 Ask and you shall receive. It is a rule that will never be altered in anybody's case. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the elder brother of the family. But God did not relax the rule for him. And he hasn't relaxed the rule for us as well. And amen to that. Praise God for that. I think, too, of Finney. Here Finney said this about prevailing prayer. He said, Prevailing or effectual prayer is a prayer which obtains the blessings that it seeks. It is that prayer which effectually moves God. The very idea of effectual prayer is that it affects its object. It's a beautiful teaching and understanding about prayer.

18:34 So it's praying with confidence, drawing near the throne of grace, praying with persistence, and keep praying till you get that assurance that indeed this is of the Lord. It makes me think of the time when Finney wasn't even a Christian, and famously some people who are praying for his salvation, they ask him, hey, can we pray for you or anything? And he tells them, No, he doesn't want them to pray for them. And they're kind of stunned. And he asked why. He says, well, I've heard your prayers. Doesn't even sound like you expect an answer to them, the way you pray. I mean, wow. That was his view before he was even Christian. So he was a man who, of course, later came to faith and believed in the power of prayer. He was a great evangelist in the second great awakening.

19:15 So. Let's think about this energy and prayer even more So again, Jonathan talks about Edwards talks about extraordinary prayer So it's about putting energy Maybe in your voice or your body or duration Or maybe tears or maybe fasting alongside with it So many great saints in the Bible They're fasting, sometimes weeping in their prayers I think of Nehemiah chapter 1 He weeps in his prayer. Ezra does. So many people, when there's a burden on their hearts, they put in this extraordinary prayer with great feeling, great emotion. I think of one friend who called normal prayers after he got exposed to this concept and he changed his prayers.

19:56 He said, yeah, khaki pants prayers won't do, which I think is a funny term. I think in the American church, most of the time, our prayers are khaki pants prayers, meaning that they're just so limited and polite and so... Because of that, they can be quite weak and just so unemotional and certainly not fervent in any way. Not every prayer has to be a screaming prayer or whatever else. But a lot of them do, especially if you want something to come of it and then to be powerful. Jesus gave us this passage in Luke 11 so that we would know that we do not know this on our own. And it's certainly going to look a little different based on your personality.

20:37 However, think about times when you're very passionate. If you're watching your favorite sports team or whatever it is, the most passionate you ever get in whatever other context, have that same passion at times in your prayers. So even if you say, well, it's not my strong personality to do with others, wherever in your life, you're the most passionate person. Are you sometimes that passionate in your prayers? That's what you have to ask yourself. And it needs to be there. You need that fervency if you want power in your prayers, if you want great effectiveness in your prayers. Let's see here. Think of something else that Murray says.

21:20 It's about this passage. Andrew Murray, he says, He then speaks of how they ought to pray and repeats what he formerly said of God's fatherliness and the certainty of an answer. But in between, he adds a beautiful parable of the friend at midnight. to teach them the twofold lesson that God does not only want us to pray for ourselves, but for the perishing around us. That's more the content. And that in such intercession, great boldness of entreaty is often needful and always lawful. Yea, pleasing to God. Amen. Praise God. Andrew Murray knew what he was talking about. Great man of God. Bounds continues on this theme.

22:02 Importunity, or you can say impudence, is of the essence in successful prayer. Importunity means not dreaminess, but sustained work. It is through prayer especially that the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by forth. You may remember that passage where it says we take the kingdom of God by force. And that comes through sometimes in the fervency of your prayers to the Lord. And you can feel the Holy Spirit moving to you, speaking to the end of that passage there. You can, if you continue on in a fervent way in prayer, often you'll start to feel the Holy Spirit stir in you. Let's see here.

22:43 Bounds also says, The effectual fervent prayer has been the mightiest weapon of God's mightiest soldiers. Yeah, for sure. Okay, let's talk a little bit more about the Holy Spirit fillings that comes here. Because how much more would the Holy Spirit come for those who ask Him? Now, there's a lot to be said about the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And I believe in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, but that's not what I'm thinking of primarily here. Not that the Holy Spirit may not give you some spiritual gifts in these contexts. He does sometimes, and especially if you're wanting and asking for that. But I think about the multiple fillings of the Spirit that we see in the book of Acts.

23:27 Remember in Acts chapter 2, What happens? They're praying for 10 days. Then the Holy Spirit comes. It says they're filled with the Holy Spirit. And it was like the rushing wind. Peter gets up. They have thousands who come to faith, which is amazing. But then in chapter 4, it's the same group of people, or many the same, It says they pray together or they're gathered and the whole place was shaken and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. So to be filled is something that happens again and again. And if it happens a lot to you, I think it's fair to say a person is, quote, full of the Holy Spirit. So we want to be pressing in for these increased fillings of the Holy Spirit. And that's needed. And fervent prayer is.

24:09 is part of the way we get there. You see it right here in Luke 11. How much more will he give the Holy Spirit to those who ask? I think, too, of the Apostle Paul in Acts 9, when Ananias laid his hands on him, it says Paul was filled with the Spirit. But then later on, Acts 13, when Paul is confronting Elymas, it says Paul was, quote, filled with the Holy Spirit. He will come on you. If this doesn't happen to you, And I can't tell you how many people I've met over the years who are good, wonderful Christians, but they don't know that they've ever experienced the filling of the Spirit. And you feel Him so much of that time. It's not just, it's much of the time you should feel the Holy Spirit coming into you and onto you.

24:55 It doesn't mean it's always evidence with tongues or some spiritual gifts, or it could be, but it should be an experience for you a lot of the times. then, well, man, let's get there. Let's see if it can happen. Taking a lot of time to pray in the spirit, repent of all your sins can get us there. Let's talk about that a bit more. I was in Campus Crusade for Christ for 10 Years crew, which was a great organization in the 90s, which was wonderful. And they've got this little great organization book on how to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And much of it is great, but I want to add something to it. That has a strong emphasis on completely committing to lordship. And that's important. If you want fillings of the Holy Spirit, repent of all your sins.

25:37 But I want to add to that. And I want to say something else. And adding to that, they have a prayer in there. But a lot of times a person, to get the maximum of it, you need to take time more than just one prayer. Certainly pray that prayer. But a lot of times people need to take some hours with God or take a whole weekend or go to a Christian conference for multiple days. A lot of times there's a lot of... things going on in our hearts. We've got unforgiveness. We've got lust. We've got envy. We've got, we've taken of offense. We've got jealousy. We haven't been tithing. We've got a lot of things we haven't been doing and we need to take this all before the Lord and, and, and repent of all of it.

26:20 So we have a clean slate. So that's part of what I would add to that. But then I'd add something else, and that is, then it says, pray for the filling of the Holy Spirit. And that's great. But a lot of times that takes more time to really press in with that fervency for the filling of the Spirit. I find that if I take, if I'm reading in my devotion, maybe by the second full chapter that I'm reading, I may feel the Holy Spirit come over me. If that's not happening, I want to check and see why not. Why? And also if I'm praying, sometimes I'm not feeling God, but if I pray for a longer time, often I'll start to feel the Holy Spirit, especially if I'm praying some really fervent, kind of zealous kind of prayers.

27:05 I'm not saying that shouldn't happen all the time, but it should happen some of the time. And that can be a filling for a person, especially if you go on an extended multiple day retreat. It's fantastic in terms of what it does for you. So I'd encourage you to take that extra time. And for those who want to go deeper, I encourage going to christianunion.org slash seven keys. There's a bunch of videos on how to see the kingdom of God advance, and it's through fillings of the Holy Spirit. And as you think about the term revival There's a misunderstanding of the term A lot of times people use the word revival today Indicating where there's a lot of spiritual gifts in operation I believe in healings I pray people be healings I believe in prophetic words, etc.

27:49 But that's more of a more recent latter rain definition of the word. The original definition meant an increase in fervency, zeal for God, holiness, repenting of all sins, praying, being devout in every way in your life. And yes, that can sometimes mean the Lord pours out extra gifts, but sometimes you can have those spiritual gifts going, but not true holiness. Remember the church in Corinth, God called them unspiritual, even though they had tons of spiritual gifts going on. If you read 1 Corinthians. So revival is when there's a lot of outpourings of the Spirit in a certain geography. And then communities change and nations change. And I've seen it happen personally and visited nations where it's been happening, which is beautiful.

28:35 So impudent prayer is part of that formula. We need Christians who can pray with impudence. And not every Christian understands this. I encourage you to teach people and insist on it, call people to it, read the passage in Luke 11 and try it and change it. We want Christians in this country. Why is it just in the global South that people pray with impudence? And we don't really. We won't have the power that we want. We won't have the fillings of the Spirit. If we don't pray with impudence from time to time, we pray with impudence. We repent of all of our sins. We will see great things happen. Here Spurgeon says this as well.

29:16 He says, God will bless Elijah and sin reign on Israel, but Elijah must pray for it. If the chosen nation is to prosper, Samuel must plead for it. If the Jews are to be delivered, Daniel must intercede. God will bless Paul and the nation shall be converted through him. But Paul must pray. And we want deliverance for our nation, for our family, our community. We must pray as part of all of that. So, Thank you for listening to all this. If you want to help support this movement, go to ChristianUnion.org slash cornerstone and become part of it. I want to end this teaching and prayer. Father, we love you and praise you.

29:57 Lord, you're awesome and good and holy and wonderful in all your ways. Father, we need you. We need your grace. We need your encouragement. May the teaching of Luke 11, the second half about the manner of prayer, the need to be fervent. May that go down deep in our hearts. Thank you for bringing this passage to light to me some years ago. And may I be fervent in a regular way and impudent in my prayers always, Lord, at least periodically, let's say that. So we love you, Lord. We thank you, Lord. You are good and holy and wonderful in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, thank you so much. Thank you for watching the Bennett broadcast. God bless you. Thank you for joining me for this episode of the Bennett Broadcast.

30:40 To learn more and find additional resources to help you grow in your walk with God, visit BennettBroadcast.com. To accelerate this movement of helping America return to God, visit ChristianUnion.org slash Cornerstone. Be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode. And I hope you'll join me again as we seek the Lord together for our lives, for our communities, and for the future of the nation.