Prayer: Talking With God | Luke 11:4-13
This message was preached at Sherwood Community Friends Church on Sunday, July 27, 2025. You can watch the video in full by clicking below.
Note: This weeks message is an adaptation from the Prayer Practice from Practicing the Way.
Last week, we began our 4-week sermon series on Prayer.
It’s not much of a secret that many followers of Jesus find prayer boring. One reason for this is perhaps that they aren’t actually praying. They are performing.
Let’s watch this clip…
A humorous take on what most of us feel like when we pray.
You see, we are so used to performing our life with other people. We edit our thoughts to present a more polished image of ourselves to the world in order to be loved and not rejected, to succeed and not fail. It’s like we can’t help but carry that way of being over into our relationship with God. But this isn’t what God designed.
Learning to pray is about learning to bring all we are to God, because he already knows all that’s inside you.
Psalm 139 says, “You have searched me, Lord, and you know me… you perceive my thoughts from afar… Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely.”
There is no need to perform in our conversation with God. He just wants to hear from us honestly.
But like any discipline or skill, there is a natural progression that leads us along the path to a fruitful and productive skill. In our case, the skill or discipline we hope to improve is prayer, leading us to a deeper communion with God.
The 4 parts of our current series are…
Talking to God - which Robert talked about last week
Talking with God - today
Listening to God
Being with God
While the spiritual journey is not linear, most of us learn to pray just like children learn to engage with their parents. First, we learn the vocabulary and grammar of life with God. A child starts with Daddy or Mommy. For us, we say, “Our Father who is in heaven…” We learn to talk to God.
But there comes a time when we desire a more personalized relationship with God, more grounded in the highs and lows of our particular life. So we begin, most of us intuitively, to talk with God, or tell him what’s on our mind.
Turn in your Bibles to Luke 11. Jesus has just walked through the Lord’s prayer, and now we see this progression—from talking to God to talking with God—in Jesus’ central teaching on prayer. Let’s pick it up in verse five.
He also said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend and goes to him at midnight and says to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I don’t have anything to offer him.’ Then he will answer from inside and say, ‘Don’t bother me! The door is already locked, and my children and I have gone to bed. I can’t get up to give you anything.’ I tell you, even though he won’t get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his friend’s shameless boldness, he will get up and give him as much as he needs. ' Luke 11:5-8 CSB
This is a rabbinic form of teaching that New Testament scholars call “how much more.”
It’s Jesus’ way of drawing attention to a point.
His point is not that God is the grumpy neighbor with a “do-not-disturb” sign on his front door. The point is that if the grumpy, begrudging neighbor will answer your request, how much more will our Father?
Jesus goes on…
“So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?”'Luke 11:9-13, CSB
Jesus starts by teaching his disciples to talk to God, meaning, to pray a pre-made prayer: “When you pray, recite this: Our Father who is in heaven…”
But he assumes his disciples will move on to talk with God—to come to our Father with all we need and desire.
This progression is kind of like learning to play music. Now, I am not what any of us would call a musician, but I have dipped a toe in learning instruments.
Here I am with my Oboe for the 7th grade concert. The first thing you do when you learn a new instrument is to learn some basic music theory and scales and notes. You have to learn to play other people’s music before you can learn to write your own. I never got to that point haha.
But when you watch someone who has been playing for years, say this professional oboist with the Philadelphia Orchestra Phillippe Tondre, you see their dedication to their instrument. They are so mastered with all the ins and outs of music that now they just feel their way into each song, creating new music for others to enjoy.
In the same way, we begin to pray by learning the basics of life with God, but, with practice, discipline, and guidance, eventually we move on to just smoothly entering in our conversation with our Father.
This is what we call talking with God. But what do we talk with God about?
Gratitude
First, we talk with God about what is good in our life and our world. Otherwise known as gratitude.
St. Ignatius of Loyola says this: “It seems to me, in the light of the divine Goodness, though others may think differently, that ingratitude is one of the things most worthy of detestation before our Creator and Lord, and before all creatures capable of his divine and everlasting glory—out of all the evils and sins which can be imagined. For it is a failure to recognize the good things, the graces, and the gifts received. As such, it is the cause, beginning, and origin of all evils and sins. On the contrary, recognition and gratitude for the good things and gifts received is greatly loved and esteemed both in heaven and on earth.”
Gratitude isn’t just the beginning of prayer. It’s the heart and soul of our entire relationship to God. It’s an acknowledgement that all that is good in our lives comes from Him.
Even when we come to God with our requests, which we’ll talk about in a moment, Paul reminds us that those requests should be bathed in thanksgiving.
'Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” Philippians 4:6, CSB
Without talking to everyone present here today, I can be fairly confident that there is something weighing on your mind. Something that, if you let it, could spiral you into the depths of anxiety, spike your stress levels, and bring restless nights.
So when we talk about this with God, what Paul is saying here is to also bring that thing, that worry, that mountain in your life before him with thanksgiving.
“God, I don’t know how I can keep dealing with my work……… but thank you for your provision to meet my needs.”
“Father, I am so frustrated with my spouse……… but thank you for their life and our life together.”
“Jesus, I feel absolutely hopeless about………. but thank you for another day.”
Last week, Robert talked about liturgy, praying the prayers of others from long ago. What better place than to look at the prayers given to us in Scripture to pray? In the transition from talking to God to talking with God, we build on the words we have learned through borrowed prayers. We use them as a jumping-off point. We learn the vocabulary to then weave our own prayers.
Psalm 100 “Let the whole earth shout triumphantly to the Lord! Serve the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Acknowledge that the Lord is God. He made us, and we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and bless his name. For the Lord is good, and his faithful love endures forever; his faithfulness, through all generations.” CSB
Or how about
Psalm 136:1 “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His faithful love endures forever.”
And then for the next 25 verses, the psalmist lists an attribute or action by God and follows up each line with “His faithful love endures forever.”
A repetitive reminder that God’s faithful love is never-ending, not just because of what he does for us, but simply by his nature. This is something to be grateful for.
Paul writes that we are to be “overflowing with gratitude” (Colossians 2:7). Are you overflowing with gratitude today–seeing your life as a gift?
Lament
Another topic we talk with God about is the evil in our life and world. Otherwise known as lamenting. The honest truth is that our life and world are both full of things that are not good or beautiful. Evil is real.
What are we to do with all the pain and suffering we carry in our heart?
Pray it.
As I said earlier, there is no need to perform in our conversation with God. He just wants to hear from us honestly. Lamenting is a real part of prayer. While it’s very rare in modern worship, it is very common in ancient worship.
Reading through the Psalms, the “prayerbook of the Bible,” scholars tell us two-thirds of the Psalms are lament. They are full of rage, anger, vengeance, jealousy, envy, doubt, suicidal ideation, and worse. Why would God put that in Scripture?
Because we are full of all of it too.
Lament is an emotionally healthy way of processing the pain of your life and world with God.
If we don’t complain to God, we’ll end up complaining to our spouse, our friends, our boss, or the internet. We’ll vent, rage, criticize, and leak emotional waste into the atmosphere. This is what I refer to as verbal vomit. And when we dump all this out there around everyone else, it becomes the mess of others to clean up. But when we lament to God, he’s ready to handle all of it.
But it can feel uncomfortable to bring these laments to God. Our complaints. Our woes. This struggle taps into our tendency to lean towards performative praying. If lamenting sounds out of reach for you, again, repeating the prayers of others can be a balm for the weary soul.
Psalm 13:1-2 “How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long will I store up anxious concerns within me, agony in my mind every day? How long will my enemy dominate me?”
In Psalm 79, the Psalmist begins by describing the ruined Jerusalem and cries out
“How long, Lord? Will you be angry forever? Will your jealousy keep burning like fire?” Psalm 79:5
Of course, there is David’s personal lamenting when he realizes his sin and just how far he had strayed from God’s presence.
Psalm 51:10-11 “God, create a clean heart for me and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not banish me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.”
Lament is also a type of protest. We’ve seen an increasing number of protests happening in the news, on our street corners, and in our social media feeds. And while there is a time to stand up against the injustices we find in our world today, what if we were to channel all that pent-up anger into prayer? JT Thomas, Director of Civil Righteousness, calls this a “pray-test”—praying against evil and injustice. It does something both through us and in us.
I believe we can affect change in our world with our prayers, and the psalmist believed this too.
“Rise up, Lord God! Lift up your hand. Do not forget the oppressed. Why has the wicked person despised God? He says to himself, “You will not demand an account.” But you yourself have seen trouble and grief, observing it in order to take the matter into your hands. The helpless one entrusts himself to you; you are a helper of the fatherless. Break the arm of the wicked, evil person, until you look for his wickedness, but it can’t be found.” Psalm 10:12-15 CSB
Lamenting is our way of fighting with God against the physical and spiritual forces of evil.
Petition and Intercession
This brings us to petition and intercession, asking God to fulfill his promises to overcome evil with good.
You might be wondering Why do I have to ask Lisa? You said earlier that God knows us in and out, so why do I have to ask if he knows my needs and struggles and desires? If he’s so good, then why do we need to ask?
Often when we think of praying, this is what we tend to default to. I bring my to-do list to God and pray that he will answer according to my wishes. When he doesn’t answer in the way we wish, it often this leads to discouragement, confusion, and anger.
Yet we are told to ask! We must make the assumption that prayer shifts things. Remember the words from Jesus that we read earlier!
Luke 11:9-10 “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
So we petition and we intercede, which are two sides of the same coin.
Petition is when we ask God to do something on our behalf.
We ask for physical healing and endurance. Psalm 6:2 “Be gracious to me, Lord, for I am weak; heal me, Lord, for my bones are shaking.”
We ask for wisdom and guidance. Psalm 25:4-5 “Make your ways known to me, Lord; teach me your paths. Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; I wait for you all day long.”
We ask for provision, for our needs to be met. “The Lord helps all who fall; he raises up all who are oppressed. All eyes look to you, and you give them their food at the proper time. You open your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing.” Psalm 145:14-16
Intercession is when we ask God to do something on someone else’s behalf.
We stand before God on behalf of people and we stand before people on behalf of God. The very nature of God is communal. It was never about God setting the world into motion just to leave us to it. God regularly communed with Adam and Eve in the Garden. This is how he created us – to bring our requests to him together.
So we intercede.
Psalm 122:6-7 “Pray for the well-being of Jerusalem: ‘May those who love you be secure; may there be peace within your walls, security within your fortresses.’”
NOTE: The Psalmist prays for Jerusalem in a different context then what is being elevated in some circles today regarding the current war. You will not hear us preach politics from the pulpit but you will hear us teach us what the text actually says in its correct context.
Psalm 28:8-9 “The Lord is the strength of his people; he is a stronghold of salvation for his anointed. Save your people, bless your possession, shepherd them, and carry them forever.”
Both petition and intercession are summarized by Jesus’ command to ask.
Over and over again, Jesus says, “Ask, and it will be given to you.”
He regularly says to people who cry out to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” Here is the story of Bartimaus.
“As he approached Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the road begging. Hearing a crowd passing by, he inquired what was happening. “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by,” they told him. So he called out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me! ” Then those in front told him to keep quiet, but he kept crying out all the more, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me! ” Jesus stopped and commanded that he be brought to him. When he came closer, he asked him, “What do you want me to do for you? “Lord,” he said, “I want to see.” “Receive your sight,” Jesus told him. “Your faith has saved you.” Instantly, he could see, and he began to follow him, glorifying God. All the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.” Luke 18:35-43 CSB
In fact, when I think of all miracles and healings in the Bible, I cannot think of one instance where the person, or someone on behalf of another, didn’t have to do something to receive that healing. For Bartimaus, he had to ask. He could have shrank back when Jesus asked. No, nothing Jesus. You are just too busy for my little issue of blindness. But NO!
And we could assume the request was obvious. But Jesus asked the man what he wanted, and Bartimaus asked with shameless boldness.
Many of us have thought about a problem in our life many times, but we have never stopped to ask Jesus to do something about it. Jesus is asking you today - “What do you want me to do for you?”
So what happens when our prayers are unanswered? Or answered in a way other than what you hope? How do you thrive in a relationship when you feel ignored? The prophet Jeremiah knows this pain.
“You deceived me, Lord, and I was deceived. You seized me and prevailed. I am a laughingstock all the time; everyone ridicules me.” Jeremiah 20:7 CSB
In 2020, Robert and I lost both Robert’s mom and my dad to terrible battles with cancer. Anyone who has walked with someone through something as deterrioting and devastating as cancer knows that those are unique prayers. There is a pleading for wholeness. Begging God to restore their bodies, to take away their suffering and bring them back into the fullness of life that we know they once lived in.
And what happens when you pray those prayers faithfully and diligently and full of belief that God can and does still heal today – but then they take their last breath. The finality of any hope left is taken from you. At best, it seems as though God just didn’t hear you. At worst, he told you “No” turning his back on your grief.
It would be easier in those times to walk entirely away from God.
Even Jesus himself asked the Father that the cup of his sacrifice would be taken from him. That he would be given another way to redeem us from eternal separation from God. We forget sometimes that Jesus was fully human. He had free will. He could have chosen to say “No!” He could have spoken up and defended himself to Pilate and his accusers. He could have avoided Jerusalem altogether instead of riding in on a donkey.
But there in the Garden, on the eve before his crucifixion, after Jesus has pleaded with God for another way, he says “Your will be done.”
If God is just going to do something different than what we ask, does this mean that we should abandon our requests altogether?
On the contrary, we lean on the side of asking, trusting that our God is a good God, our Father, who gives good gifts to his children.
Luke 11:11-13 What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead of a fish? 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? ”'
Conclusion
Some of our disconnect in talking with God, in our prayers, is a cultural one. We make assumptions about how God should or shouldn’t respond to our pleas. We think of our rights and what we are entitled to according to our standard of what is fair and right.
But when we talk with God, we aren’t addressing a genie in a bottle, demanding or dictating our way, and then when we don’t get our way, we threaten to quit on the relationship.
No. We approach God as our Father, one with whom we carry an intimate relationship with, who knows what we need before we ask.
We thank him for the roof over our head, the food on our table, and the abundance of other good gifts he gives to us.
We bring to him our woes, our laments, our regrets, and our cries for justice in a world where evil persists. We pray against the three enemies of God and his kingdom come - the spiritual enemies, the world, and our own flesh. And until the day that Jesus returns, these enemies will persist. So then will our laments.
We come and petition and intercede in the presence of God. We implore God because we believe that with our pleas we can bend the trajectory of the physical and spiritual world we live in. Don’t believe me? Here are a few examples from Scripture:
When the Israelites abandon the God who saved them for a golden calf, God relents in their destruction when Moses pleads with him to restrain himself.
Hannah is given a child after she has incessantly prayed for years for this blessing.
God extends Hezekiah’s life by 15 years after he weeps and pleads for more time.
In all our dialogue with God, we come to the conversation with a foundational assumption that he gives us good gifts. This is a promise. Tyler Staton, pastor at Bridgetown Church and author, says this:
“Prayers should begin with a promise not with problems. We need to be praying promise-specific prayers, not problem-removing prayers.” Tyler Staton.
So the question today is:
When you approach God, are you coming with your list of problems? Or are you coming before God with his promises in hand? Are you reminding God of what he says and believing that he is faithful to deliver?
If you’ve lost hope of those promises, then perhaps that is the work you have to do this week. Find those promises of God in his Word and hold on tightly to them.
Let’s pause for a moment before we close with a final song. At the bottom of your bulletin is a spot for you to write your next step so that you can progress in your communion with God.
