This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

(upbeat music) - Welcome back to Drive Time Devotions. Hi, I'm Pastor Tom, and
we are in the third week of our look together through the Gospel of Luke. As you
know, if you're this far in, we're going a chapter a day.

So we're doing sort of a survey of the Gospel, which means we aren't going into
the detail and the depth of some of the truth, which you're going to want to go back
and do if you've never done that. But we are getting a chance just to see the
life of Christ and how it lays out. We've seen together a birth, the birth of
Jesus Christ in the first couple of chapters.

We've seen a beginning, the beginning of his ministry as he is baptized, as he
starts his ministry out, as he faces temptation, how Jesus began to do his
ministry in Galilee and serve people there. And now we're in the midst of the
longest section of the Gospel of Luke, a journey. The bulk of the book, as it
talks about Jesus heading toward Jerusalem, walking with Jesus, learning from
him what real life and real faith are all about as he walks towards the cross,
as he walks towards his own death, and then his resurrection.

Walking along the way, last week we began this journey with Jesus and we began
to see priorities were part of what he talked about. And as we begin this week,
we're going to see at the beginning of chapter 11, one final priority at the
beginning of this week. It's the priority of prayer.

Listen to what Jesus says in verses one to four. One day, Jesus was praying in a
certain place. When he'd finished, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach
us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.

He said to them, when you pray, say, Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom
come. Give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive
everyone who sins against us, and lead us not into temptation.

Now, these very familiar words to many of us called the Lord's Prayer came out
of a question. And they came out of Jesus talking about priorities, the priority
of prayer. The question from the disciples was, Lord, teach us to pray.

I wonder, I thought myself as I read through this this week, have I ever asked
Jesus that in prayer? I've read that the disciples did. Have I ever said to
Jesus in a prayer, Jesus, would you teach me to pray?

I'm not talking about praying to Jesus. I'm talking about asking Jesus a
question in prayer. Jesus, would you teach me to pray?

Nobody ever prayed better than Jesus did, 'cause he is God, and he knows the
Father. He was connected with the Father in the Trinity. No one could ever pray
better.

Jesus, teach me to pray. If you've never prayed that prayer, if you haven't
prayed it for a while, you might just pray it in your mind right now. Teach me
to pray.

The disciples were ready to learn when they prayed that prayer, and Jesus knew
it. Jesus often, you're going to see this again and again as we walk through his
teaching in these chapters, he often waited for someone to ask a question before
he gave him a teaching. Why?

Because he wanted them to be open to what he had to say. He wanted them to
listen. And when someone asks a question, that means they're ready, oftentimes,
that they're ready to listen.

I know some questions can be a challenge, and some questions can be just off the
top of the head, but many times when someone asks a question, it means I'm ready
to listen. And these disciples, they were ready to listen. They saw Jesus pray,
and they saw things change.

So they said, teach us to pray. And what does Jesus teach us? The model of
Jesus' prayer for us, he says, when you talk to God, praise God for who he is.

That should be part of your prayer life. So my question is, for you and I both,
is it part of our prayer life? If not, let's add it in.

Jesus said it should be. Jesus said when you talk to God, make sure you talk to
him about your needs, even your daily needs. I know some people who think prayer
is such a sacred thing that they can't talk to God about their regular everyday
needs, not according to Jesus.

Jesus said if prayer is real, it's going to be about what you need every day, daily
bread. Jesus said when you talk to God, make sure you talk to him about
forgiveness. Pray for forgiveness, and pray against temptation.

If you're not talking to God about sin, you're not talking about the world that
you live in, that I live in, 'cause I live in a world where other people sin
against me and I sin against God. Am I talking to God about that, that reality?
Because that affects my relationship with God more than anything else.

So I'm not talking to him about it, that I'm really not working on my
relationship with him. This is a great reminder to me in daily life of how you
and I need to talk to God, just about the daily things of life, the struggles of
life, and also talk to God about the holiness of who he is. After talking about
what we should talk about in prayer, Jesus then goes on to talk also about the
attitude of prayer.

What's the sense of your heart towards God as you're praying? Which may be as
important as the word that you say when you're praying. And as Jesus talks about
the attitude that we should have when we pray to God, he uses the word boldness.

Listen to verses five to nine. Then Jesus said to them, "Suppose one of you has
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 one inside answers, 'Don't bother
me.

"'The door's 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 as much as he needs.

' "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.

" And then Jesus goes on and talks about the truth that we as fathers give to
our children. Why wouldn't we expect God as our father to give to us? Jesus
teaches us here that we are not bold enough in our requests of God because we
don't truly understand the character of God.

He's not teaching us to be selfish, by the way, here. Keep demanding things of
God that he says he's not going to give us. The picture here is if somebody can
go and get something from a friend just because he's bold enough to go in the
middle of the night and keep on asking, don't you think that if you're bold
enough to go to your father who loves you, who's willing to listen to you any
time of the day, midnight, midday, two o'clock in the morning, doesn't matter to
God, don't you think he's going to give to you as well?

So keep on asking. Now I understand the mystery of prayer. We often don't get
what we want and we often don't get it when we want.

I don't understand how and why and when God answers all the things that he
answers, but I do understand very clearly in the teaching of Jesus we're to keep
on asking. We're going to keep on asking until we hear an answer from God. Maybe
the answer is no.

Maybe the answer is wait. Maybe the answer is you're not going to understand
this one until you get to heaven, but you keep on asking until you hear from
God. Now, as we continue through this chapter, we turn from priorities to
barriers.

Jesus begins then as he walks through his teaching because of the opposition of
the Pharisees, he begins to turn his teaching to those who have barriers in
getting to know him. And really this teaching is all about choices. It's one
thing to say you have priorities, but the real question is how do those
priorities affect your choices?

And there were many who their priorities were the wrong priorities and they
became barriers in their relationship with Jesus. We're going to walk through a
few of these today and then continuing looking at these barriers throughout much
of this week. First barrier that keeps you from getting to know God, getting to
know the life that God has for you is the fear of change.

Verses 14 to 15, Jesus was driving out a demon who was mute. And when the demon
left him, the man who had been mute spoke and the crowd was amazed. But some of
them said by Beelzebub, the prince of demons, he is driving out demons.

This is amazing. This is the barrier of some people being so afraid of change
that they attributed the work of Jesus to Satan. They were so afraid of it, they
couldn't accept it.

So in their minds, they twisted. So they thought that God himself in human flesh
was doing the work of Satan. That's the strange thing that can happen in your
life, in my life when I'm afraid of change.

I begin to fight against anybody who is a representative of that change. I begin
to see them as evil when the truth is they're just offering you the goodness of
God's life for you. Now Jesus' answer to those who struggled with this was very
simple.

In verse 17, he says, any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined and a
house divided against itself will fall. Now you may think Abraham Lincoln first
said that last part. No, Jesus first said it.

Lincoln got it from Jesus. And the truth of the matter is Jesus is saying, if
Satan were working against himself, it would not work. It would crumble from
within.

If I'm afraid of change, I'm going to see even the good that people are wanting to
do in my life, that God is wanting to do in my life as something evil. It is a
huge barrier. Jesus makes it personal in verse 23.

He says, he who is not with me is against me. He does not gather with me,
scatters. The question is, how do you respond to the work of Jesus in your life?

Is it something you feel you have to reject right now? Why is that happening?
What change are you afraid of?

The change that you're afraid of is not some change where God wants to ruin your
life. You know that in the depth of your soul. He made you, he created you.

He wants to do his best in your life. It is a change for the best in your life.
But a fear of change is a barrier to what God wants to do, the life that God
wants to give.

There's a second barrier in these verses. The second barrier is always asking
for more. Always asking for more proof before you will make a commitment.

It's a common barrier. In verse 29, as the crowds increased, Jesus said, this is
a wicked generation. It asks for a miraculous sign, but none will be given it
except the sign of Jonah.

The more they saw the miracles that Jesus was doing, the more they asked for
more and more miracles. You know the truth, you know what to do, but you ask God
for something more. And then you act as if it's God's fault when he doesn't bow
to your wishes.

I've always liked that line from one of the Chronicles of Narnia books by C. S.
Lewis.

He said, maybe, speaking of God, he says, maybe we need to prove ourselves to
him instead of always asking him to prove himself to us. And the truth is, if
you're asking for some great miracle when you know God is real, then it's become
a barrier to change in your life. It's one of your excuses.

We all use them, I sure do, too. There's a third barrier to change in these
verses. Just walking through them very briefly.

These deserve a greater, closer look, obviously. The third barrier is being
clean on the outside, looking better morally than the other people around me.
Verses 37 to 39.

When Jesus had finished speaking, a Pharisee invited him to eat with him. So he
went in and he reclined at the table. But the Pharisee, noticing that Jesus did
not wash first before the meal, was surprised.

Then the Lord said to him, now then, you Pharisees, clean the outside of the cup
and dish, but inside, you're full of greed and wickedness. On the outside, you
look better than others. That's a huge barrier.

'Cause the truth is, on the inside, we're all equally in need of the grace and
the love of God. And if I feel like I'm morally superior to other people, that's
a barrier to the life that God wants to give me, to the heart that God wants to
give me. Going on from these verses is a list of what some people call the woes
of Jesus, the great dangers of religion.

For instance, verse 42, woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of
your mint, rue, and all the other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice
and the love of God. It's easy for us to replace some human form of morality
with the truth of God's love in our lives. These are barriers.

These are things that get in the way when God wants to be doing something in our
lives. Question is, where's your heart? Where's your mind right now?

Is it on the priority side or is it on the barrier side? Let's talk to him.
Jesus, we all have barriers.

It's tough to grow. You challenge us to grow. And because of that, we throw up
barriers, whether it's this excuse or that excuse or this reason.

We see ourselves as better than others. We ask for some miracle, some proof. We
try to look for something that's not even there.

Lord, forgive us when we do that. And teach us to pray. Teach us to trust you
for the little things.

Teach us to trust you for forgiveness. And as we do that, help us to come to you
boldly making requests. And in that, Jesus, we know, if we'll live in that daily
relationship with you, we will grow closer to you.

So instead of barriers, we desire a depth of relationship with you. Help us in
this journey with you along the way to Jerusalem. Help us as we walk through
this to grow closer to you, Jesus, we pray.

In your name, amen. Tomorrow, we're going to look at some more barriers to real
life. Barriers like others' opinions and greed.