Keep Knocking

This message is one of the Times Square Pulpit series. It was recorded in the Sanctuary of Times Square Church in Manhattan, New York City. Other tapes are available by writing to World Challenge, P.O. Box 260, Lindale, Texas 75771 or calling 214-963-8626.

None of these messages are copyrighted and you are welcome to make copies for free distribution to your friends. Acts chapter 12, Acts chapter 12, I want to and we'll basically stay right here with the story that covers most of this chapter about Peter and I'll just read one verse of scripture and then we'll fill in the entire story here. Acts chapter 12, I'm reading from the New American Standard and I just want to read for now just one verse that really gives me the title of my message tonight.

Verse 16, Acts chapter 12, verse 16. It says, I'm just going to simply entitle my message tonight, Keep Knocking, Keep Knocking. Let's bow in a word of prayer.

Praise God. Hallelujah. Lord, we thank you for, again, your faithfulness to us tonight in this service.

We thank you. The musicians reminded us of the cross, the blood, and the cross. And Lord, you always bring us back to that point that you would be glorified, that you would be lifted up.

We sing glory, glory to your name. We sing glory to you tonight. Lord, let all that's said and done in this service bring honor and glory to your name.

Let the word bring glory to your name tonight. Lord, anoint our lips, we pray, minister to every need. You know people that have come here tonight that have burdens upon their heart.

And Lord, as I felt impressed even before coming to this service that there would be some that would come in here tonight perhaps with very, very heavy burdens upon them, weighted down by certain burdens. Lord, minister to them, Lord, through the word, we pray. Through the word tonight, just begin to lift them.

Minister to them, Lord. And then at this altar, those that need to surrender to you, that need to lay some things down, that need to cry out to you, Lord, again, be faithful to them. Minister to that need, we pray.

And we'll thank you for it in Jesus' name, amen. In this 12th chapter is the story of Peter getting out of prison and then some subsequent events that happened after that when he went to visit a local prayer meeting after he got out of prison. And this story of both his imprisonment and what happened after it is both amazing and amusing.

Now, first of all, regarding Peter's imprisonment and what happened to him is that he was personally, if you know the story, he was personally escorted out of his prison cell by a very special heaven-sent angel. I call him the prison-breaker angel. Now, Peter had seen him before.

In the 5th chapter of the book of Acts, Peter was also in prison, maybe or probably the very same prison. And at that occasion, that same angel, if it was the same angel, and I believe there probably was a prison-breaker angel, the same one came down again to Peter and escorted him out in a miraculous way. But this time, Peter was in a different situation.

He was on death row. Herod already had put James to death and Peter was due next. In fact, Herod may have wanted to score some political points by executing Peter during the Passover time.

This was the Passover time when the city was jammed with Jewish pilgrims. And so this special angel was sent and he had to arouse Peter who was sleeping soundly between two soldiers or two guards. Now, we know Peter was sound asleep because in verse 7 it says that the angel had to arouse him, had to wake him up.

And it says, And behold, an angel of the Lord. This is chapter 12, verse 7. Behold, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared and a light shone in the cell, and he struck Peter's side and roused him. And he said, Grab your coat, Peter.

Put your shoes on because you're getting out of here. And as he did so, his chains fell off of him miraculously and all Peter had to do was to follow the angel. Now, I know there's a few of you that sit here tonight that you've been in prison.

How would you have liked to have that angel visit you when you were in prison? I knew you'd say a man, but let me also tell you that the reason that the angel visited Peter is because he was in prison for doing good, not for doing bad. And so he had the angel came and delivered him. And as he did so, the angel led Peter past two guards, and then they came to the iron gate that led outside into the city and into freedom.

Now, the iron gate was no problem for the angel because this angel came fully equipped. He had his own automatic gate opener. And all he had to do was push the button.

That's an automatic gate opener that's made in heaven. It's guaranteed to get any man of God out of trouble if he's preaching righteousness. And the angel pushed the gate opener, and verse 10 says, and the iron gate opened for them by itself.

Well, actually, it didn't open by itself. I mean, it had some help, but it just moved open. And out they went.

And outside the prison, the angel stayed with Peter for about one block and then left him and, in essence, said to Peter, okay, Peter, you're on your own now. I did for you what you couldn't do for yourself, and now you're on your own. Go your way.

At that point, Peter, he wasn't aware fully what was going on, and suddenly he realizes it, and he sees his outside, and he remembers that he's very near to some believer's house. And it's at this point that the story turns from being amazing to being rather amusing. And Peter goes immediately to the house.

Whether he knew that there was a prayer meeting going on at that very hour, I doubt it, but it so happened that they were, at that very moment, praying for Peter. And so he goes to the home of a mother of a disciple named John Mark. And verse 5 says, it talks about the prayer meeting.

It says, so Peter was kept in prison, but prayer for him was being made fervently by the church of God. And so Peter comes to the house, and he knocks on the door. A servant girl by the name of Rhoda, her name in English is Rose.

Rose comes, and she answers the door, and she looks out. She can see him. I don't know if it was a little peephole like I have in my door in my apartment, or whether it was an iron gate that you could see through or whatever, but she recognized it, and she said, it's Peter.

And she cries out in joy, and she runs back into the prayer meeting to tell everybody, leaving Peter still standing outside in the night air to say nothing of the possible danger of his still being seen by the authorities. Now, when Rhoda told the believers that Peter was knocking at the gate, they said, sure. Sure, Rhoda, tell us another one.

But when she kept insisting, they finally said to her, you're out of your mind. In verse 14, let's read it. And when she recognized Peter's voice, because of her joy, she did not open the gate, but ran in and announced that Peter was standing in front of the gate.

And they said to her, you're out of your mind. I think in King James it says, you're mad. But she kept insisting that it was so, and they kept insisting that it wasn't so.

In other words, they're saying, Peter, don't, or Rhoda, don't disturb us. We're busy praying for Peter. We've got to do business for God here.

You know, sometimes, isn't it, we get so engrossed in our prayer, we're so engrossed in the urgency of our prayer, we don't recognize it when the Lord knocks at the door with the answer. And so instead of opening the door to let Rhoda in, or to let Peter in and prove her point, Rhoda keeps insisting, Peter is here, Peter is here. And they kept insisting that it couldn't be Peter.

It must have been an angel that you saw. And so Peter was still left standing outside. Now fortunately, Peter kept knocking at the door.

And in so doing, he provides me the basis of my message tonight. You see, there comes a time in our walk with God that certain doors will not open to us until we persist and until we keep knocking. But Peter continued to knock.

I hope that you'll let this very simple but encouraging word touch your heart tonight. If you're asking the Lord to open a certain door, and like Peter, you find yourself tonight standing yet outside that door, looking at an iron gate, as it were, looking at an unlocked door, then the word of the Lord to you tonight is this, keep knocking. Keep knocking because good things are about to happen for you.

If you're asking God to let some chains fall off you, like those chains that came off of Peter, then I say to you, keep knocking and keep praying and don't give up and don't get angry and walk away from that door, but keep knocking because good things are about to happen to you. The chains and the fetters are about to fall off. If you're interceding for somebody in prayer, such as the salvation of a loved one, then I say to you tonight, keep knocking.

Parents, if you're praying for an unsaved son or daughter or an in-law or someone that's close to you, a husband or a wife, then the word of the Lord to you tonight, the encouragement is keep knocking because good things are about to happen to those that continue to knock. Now, whether we're talking about prayer or anything else that God requires of us, we are to keep knocking until the door opens. The whole of our Christian life ought to be characterized by an enduring, persevering, and steadfast spirit.

Not only in prayer, but in matters of faith, matters of obedience, matters of service. You see, the answer, the victory, and the blessing comes to those who not only knock, but keep on knocking as Peter did. And because Peter was persistent, it says finally that they opened the door and they saw him and they were amazed.

And you'll be amazed as well if you keep on knocking and don't give up too soon and run off and don't run off in anger, discouragement, or self-pity. He that shall endure to the end, the same shall be saved, the Bible says, and receive his answer. You see, there's some doors, it's interesting, Peter had one door open for him, the other door didn't.

You see, some doors we don't have to wait for them to open. Peter did not have to wait for the door of deliverance to open. But he did have to wait for the other door into the house.

You see, there are doors that lead us out and there are doors that lead in. You can't get yourself out of certain situations. If you're in the prison house of sin tonight, you can't get out, only God can open that iron gate.

But once he brings you out, then there are other doors that you're going to face that aren't going to open so soon. And you're going to have to keep knocking and keep knocking and persisting. Now, there are some things that Peter demonstrates in his character in this amazing miracle and its aftermath.

You see, God not only requires us to knock at his door, but in so doing, it reveals something about our character when we examine what's in our hearts as we knock and especially as we wait for the door to open. And I want to point out some of these things to you. First of all, Peter kept knocking.

And while he kept knocking, I believe that he held his peace. He held his peace, and he did not panic. Now, this was evident.

Peter was calm both in prison as well as out of prison. Peter's life, you see, even after he came out of prison was still in jeopardy, and he knew this. That's why after he made a very brief visit to the prayer meeting, he told them what happened, and he knew enough that he had to get out of town right away.

So he made a brief appearance. He gave them, let them know that he was safe, that their prayers had been answered, and he went on his way because his life was still in jeopardy. How would you feel, however, standing outside that door? Peter probably was still looking over his shoulder.

He was freed from prison, but he was not safe. Now, how would you feel being rejected at the door of a believer's prayer meeting, knowing that a citywide search was going to go on for you in just a few moments? But you see, Peter, I don't believe when he knocked at that door was in a state of panic. And listen, as you and I knock at heaven's gate, the Lord does not want you to have a disturbed spirit.

Look at Philippians, the fourth chapter. If you want to just turn to that just a moment, keep a hand or keep something there in Hebrews, Acts chapter 12, so you can flip back to that, and go to Philippians, if you will, a familiar portion of Scripture, Philippians 4 and verse 6. Paul is writing, and this is what he says. I believe it's both a promise and it's a command.

What does he say there? He says, Be anxious for nothing. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request, let your door knocking be made known to God. Now, as I said, what a command that is.

What a wonderful promise that is. Be anxious. I read that, and I've read that many times, but I read it again, and I said, Lord, it says be anxious for nothing.

Lord, do you really mean that for nothing? In all things, is that possible? I mean, Lord, would you allow, for example, what about earthquakes? What about earthquakes? And the reason I say that is, did any of you hear about the earthquake tremor that happened in the northeast? It started in Canada, and then it rumbled down through Vermont on Friday night? Well, I was in Vermont Friday night, sitting in my mother-in-law's house, and all of a sudden, the house began to shake. And I looked over at my mother-in-law, and her face turned as white as her hair. And I looked at my wife, and she heard the door rattling down to the basement.

She said, there must be something wrong with the furnace, and the house was shaking. And so I said, let's get out of here. And so we went out, but we got out of that house.

We didn't know what it was. About 20 minutes later, it flashed over the news that it was an earthquake. Well, I want to tell you, the Bible says be anxious.

We didn't panic. We didn't know what it was. I think if I'd known it was an earthquake, I might not have been as calm as I was.

But it says, be anxious for nothing. Actually, it wasn't an earthquake. It was just the Lord telling us he's coming soon.

So it was a heavenquake. But the Lord said, don't be anxious. Don't worry, don't fret.

But under all circumstances, by prayer and earnest entreaty, joined with thanksgiving, make your needs known to God. You see, I don't believe that Peter was anxious or upset or that he blew up. You know, if that was someone, I can just hear some of us.

I could just hear some of you, if you were in the same situation. If the same thing happened to you as Peter was happening, I wrote a few comments down here. I wrote a few phrases down here.

Let me give them to you, see if that fits any of you. Here's one. Rhoda, Rhoda, open that door, young lady, right away.

Rhoda, what are you? Are you crazy, Rhoda? Woman, I'll have your job. Or I can hear another one. I commend you in the name of Jesus.

Open that door. The point is this. How do you handle closed doors? How do you knock when you pray? You see, some people are knockers and some people are bangers.

And if God does not open the door that they want, when they want it open, they're ready to make a Holy Ghost rush at that door. I mean, well, it's really an unholy rush at the door. I think that's why Philippians, in the same chapter, verse 4 and 6 says, be anxious for nothing, but two verses prior, above that, Paul says, rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice.

And the reason that he says, again I say rejoice, is that he knows that some doors you knock on, there's going to be a Rhoda there. And the door's not going to open, and you're going to have to stand there and still rejoice, and when the door doesn't open, to rejoice again. That's a good verse to quote when, like Peter, you're standing waiting for a door to open.

The next verse is interesting. It says, let your forbearance, let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is near.

Hey, listen, don't panic, my friend. The Lord is near. And if you're praying, then remember the Lord is near.

In fact, he's right on the other side of the door. He's right on the other side of the door, but let me tell you something. He's more interested in how you knock than what you want.

He's more interested in the attitude of your heart. He's more interested in how you knock than in what you want. Now, Peter in prison was a model of peace and self-control under pressure.

Look at verse 6. It says, on the very night when Herod was about to bring him forward, forward for trial and for execution, what was Peter doing? Peter was sleeping between two soldiers bound with two chains. Now, imagine yourself in the same tight spot. Peter was asleep.

What peace and trust that he had in the Lord. This is the same Peter, you recall, who took sword in hand and was ready to fight at the trial of Jesus. This was the same Peter who under the pressure of the crucifixion blatantly denied the Lord.

But it was also the same Peter who wrote in his own epistle, chapter 5 and verse 7, listen to what he wrote. He said, casting all your anxiety upon him because he cares for you. He knew whereof he spoke.

Perhaps Peter had in mind that night in the prison cell when he said, cast all your care upon him because he said, I know it works, I did it. And if you find yourself like Peter in a situation in which you can't get out of, you are locked into a situation that you can't get out of or that only God can get you out of or only God can see you through, then I say to you, keep knocking and keep trusting and then go to sleep. You'll note that Peter was not pacing back and forth in the prison.

Of course he couldn't, he was chained to two soldiers, but he wouldn't have, even if he could have. You'll notice Peter was not wringing his hands. Of course he couldn't, he had them chained.

But if he could, he wouldn't have. Peter went to sleep because he knew the Lord was awake. And what would you have been doing in a similar situation? Oh, first of all, some would question God, especially if they had a theology of faith that does not let them see that God does allow such things to happen to his disciples.

Others would try to rebuke the devil and command the chains to fall off. Now there's nothing wrong with rebuking the devil unless it's more in anger than faith or if it's more in panic than in peace. You see, a lot of praying is mere hollering at God or at the devil.

Rather than, as Philippians 4, 6 says, be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. I had a 10 evangelist call me one time and he said, you know, he said, Reverend, he said, I noticed in our meetings, he said, the more noise we make, the madder the devil gets. No, the devil doesn't.

He just laughs at noise. The devil laughs at prayer if it's noise of the heart that's filled more with human emotion than it is with Christ-centered devotion. Now if you feel bound or chained and imprisoned by some circumstance and it's not the result of your own willful sin and like Peter, you're cast into a prison not of your own doing, then commit yourself to Jesus and rest in Him and then go to sleep.

I don't just mean physical sleep because when you completely trust in the Lord, you see your emotions get settled down. Your spirit gets settled down. Your mind gets settled down.

Your mind is at rest. You're at peace. And if you've got peace in the day, you'll have peace in the night and you'll even be able to sleep better.

Psalms 127.1 says, Unless the Lord guards the city, you're in trouble. Unless the Lord guards the city, the watchmen keep awake in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early and to retire late.

If it's caused by fear, anxiety, and a disturbed spirit, the psalmist calls that eating the bread of sorrows. I don't know what you eat before you go to bed. I don't know what's eating you before you go to bed.

But perhaps Peter remembered Psalms 127.2 when he was in prison cell. He said, listen, there's nothing that I can do to change my circumstance. I may as well go to sleep because the scripture says, for he gives his beloved sleep.

He knew the Lord was his guard, not those two soldiers, and he knew the Lord was going to stay up all night and watch the city, and so he went off to bed, trusting in the Lord. So Peter, when he knocked at that door, he did not have a disturbed spirit. That's evident by his action in the prison.

It's evident by his whole demeanor and the testimony of his life. But you know, there's something else I see very interesting in this. Peter teaches us that when he came out of this one miraculous door, he got by all these guards.

He got out of the chains. He got away from those two men he was sleeping with, sleeping next to. He got through other guards.

The iron gate opened up, and now he comes to this other gate, and he can't get in it. Peter kept knocking, but I don't believe that he knocked people. He kept knocking at the gate, but he didn't knock people.

Now, please follow what I'm going to say in this regard. You see, Peter understood. I believe he understood when the believers thought that Rhoda was mad.

She was out of her mind. And they said that, you know, you didn't really see Peter. You must have seen an angel.

And maybe Peter even heard their conversation. Now, the reason that I believe Peter was patient and understanding is that he had just been with an angel himself, and he didn't know it at first. He didn't know it at first.

And so he understood when it took others time to come to the same level of spiritual knowledge and understanding that he had. Look at what he says in verse 11. It says, And when Peter came to himself, he said, Now I know for sure that the Lord has sent forth his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people are expecting.

And so when Peter knocked at the gate and it took the local church time to come into the same revelation that it took him time to understand, Peter discerned this, and he didn't get upset at them. He kept knocking at the door, and he did not engage in hostile attitudes towards the people inside or go knocking them personally once he did get inside the gate. Now, please listen carefully, and I just pray that the Holy Spirit will open this to you tonight because some of you need to hear what I'm going to say tonight in this regard.

You need to hear it particularly. The Lord may have brought some of you, and the Lord has brought some of you out of the prison house of sin, and he's brought you into a level of spiritual knowledge and understanding such as you never knew before. Also, the Lord came to you.

It says in verse 7, And behold, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared and a light shone in the cell. Oh, praise God. Have you ever had a light shine in your cell? Have you ever been in a situation where you didn't think you could get out of, and God came, and he shined a light in your cell, and he revealed something to you? Well, you see, this happens to all of us, but then, like Peter, we go to the local prayer meeting.

We go to the local church. We go to other believers, and we want to tell everybody what happened to us, and you knock at their door, and they don't receive you. They don't let you in.

They don't receive what you have to share. You see, beware when a light has shone in your cell, and the Lord has revealed something special to you, and you go knocking at doors, but they don't open. You see, Peter did not say, Listen, my goodness, I've just been in it with an angel.

You better open that door. You don't know who you're talking to. I've just been, bless God, I'm a man of God, of faith and power and prayer, and I've just been with an angel, and you're going to stand in my way.

You see, you can end up getting angry and knocking people if your spirit is wrong, and you'll lose the very thing that God is trying to do in your life. I've seen young men get saved. They've come out of a life of drugs.

They've come out of a life of alcoholism. I've seen the Lord save them. Maybe they've been in a rehabilitation program, maybe a ministry somewhere, or they've been off somewhere, and God's done a marvelous thing in their life, and now they come home to their wife, and they come home the night in shining armor, and suddenly they want their wife to come and be at the same level of spiritual understanding that they are, and they come home, and they come knocking at doors, and they're not received, and so they get angry, or I've seen the wife come into a level of spiritual knowledge, and she turns around to her husband, or she turns around to other people and goes knocking at the door and said, here I am.

I'm ready to share. I've got all of this, and it's rejected, and they get angry. You see, be careful, husbands wise.

If God has shown you something, yes, share it, but don't shove it. Share it, but don't shove it. Listen, mom and dad, with your teenagers or your young children, God has shown you something.

Don't try to jam holiness down their throat. Share it, but don't shove it, because if you try to shove it, you're going to have rebellion in the heart of your teenagers. You've got to live the example before them.

You've got to let the Holy Spirit do a work in their heart. You see, the angelic light that shone in Peter's cell did not shine in the prayer meeting at the same time. The way the Lord moved in Peter's situation, he did not move exactly the same among the believers gathered at the very same time.

Peter had enough discernment to know that, and he gave time. He gave them time. I've seen people come to this church.

They've come up to us in the back. They've come up here to the front. They've come to we pastors, bishops, had it happen to him, and they come.

They come to share some revelation that God has given them, or they'll hand us a piece of paper, or they'll have a prophecy or something written out, and they come knocking at our door, but sometimes we don't answer because sometimes we don't understand it, or sometimes we don't believe it, or sometimes we don't accept it. I've seen people get... I've seen them walk right out. I've seen them walk right out, get angry because they came knocking, and they end up knocking the pastor.

They end up knocking the church. They end up knocking some leader because they felt rejected. You see, when the Lord has shown you something, give others time to come into the same revelation or level of understanding.

Yes, you ought to share what God is doing in your life. Keep knocking at the door, especially if other people that you're trying to share with are unsaved. Of course, keep knocking at that door, but don't get upset if others do not see what you're seeing.

If you have a vision from God, God has shown you some work that He's called you to do, and you believe that other Christians are to be a part of that vision, well, then give them time. If it's truly of God, if that thing that you have is truly of God, and it's not some harebrained idea, listen, there's no devil in hell that can stop it if you're trusting the Lord. You see, what happens is sometimes what we have is out of heaven, but once it comes in our hands, then we start destroying it, or we get all worked up, or we don't know what to do with it, and we put it into our own hands, and our own spirits come out of it, or we want to go around knocking at doors and busting doors down to get our vision accepted.

If it's of God, there's nothing can stop it. If it's not of God, it'll come to naught. You see, in Peter's case, he kept patiently knocking.

He didn't bang on the door of heaven, and he didn't bang or rave at other people because they shut him out. Listen, Peter did not need the church to verify his vision. He didn't need the pastor.

He didn't need the local prayer meeting. He didn't need anybody. He didn't need the church to verify his vision.

He knew what God had done in his life, and he stood on it. We're to pray like this. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven above.

Verse 16 says, And when they had opened the door, they saw him and were amazed. And then, of course, Peter shared what happened, and their confusion was cleared up. Now, Peter was very fortunate that the door finally opened, but you see, sometimes people never do open the door to some of us and what we have to share.

And I want to tell you, it hurts. It hurts. It hurts when others shut the door to what we think is God's will or God's revelation to us.

It pains us to keep knocking, and yet others shut us out. But never allow the rejection of what you feel is from God to disturb your peace. The surest way to lose the touch of God upon your life is to knock others when you're rejected or to knock the church or the pastors or the leaders.

And by the way, you know, some of you are going to be sitting there and saying, well, you know, what's going on in this church? Why is he talking like that? You know, there must be something going on. I don't know what's going on, but if a shoe fits, put it on. You know, we don't get our sermons from the troubles that we hear about in the congregation.

We seek the Lord and go and deliver what God's put in our heart, and if a shoe fits, then put it on. It's for you. Then receive it tonight.

Now, thirdly and finally, the picture of Peter knocking at the gate is most precious when we apply it as a type of our attitude in prayer. Heaven's doors open to the constant, persistent, and patient knockers. Go to Luke chapter 11.

Luke 11 is on prayer, and Jesus taught some beautiful lesson here on prayer, and I want to just make some remarks regarding it. Very familiar to you, verses 9 and 10. It says, and I say to you, ask, and it shall be given you.

Seek, and you shall find. Knock, and it shall be open to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks, it shall be open.

You know, I've always wondered when I, when I, these verses are very familiar to those of us who are Christians and know the Lord and studied the Word, and I've always wondered if this Scripture that uses these three words, ask, seek, and knock, whether it's meant to convey the same truth three times, or whether it's talking about a progressive thought that we must first seek, and that we must continue then, and we must first ask, and then we must seek, and then we must knock. And I believe it's the latter because of the parable that Jesus gave us just before it. The parable before these verses is that of a man who needs bread, and he goes to his friend's house, and he asks, he said, friend, lend me three loaves.

And he gets no answer, and of course what had happened is that a friend of his had traveled to his house late at night, arrived at his house, and he was out of bread. And in those days, it was not unfrequent that people would travel late at night in order to avoid the heat of the noonday, and often people would show up late at night, and so this is what happened to this man. His friend showed up, and he had nothing.

The man was hungry. He had nothing to feed him. And in those days, hospitality was, they placed hospitality, a great value on hospitality.

And so this man was very, very embarrassed, and so he went to his neighbor, and he asked him, friend, lend me three loaves. And getting no answer, he persists, and the scripture says because of his persistence, he will get up and give him as much as he needs. Now, this parable is not conveying the idea of God's reluctance, and therefore, this is the reason we have to ask, seek, and knock.

This is not, this parable is not saying God's asleep, and you gotta wake him up, and that's why you have to keep knocking. That's not the lesson. You see, in the east, no one would knock on a door unless it was really important.

The door of ancient days was always kept, the houses were generally smaller, and the door was generally open all day long, and therefore, you didn't have to, people really didn't knock at doors, but once a door was shut, that was a sign, like when you go to a motel, and you put up a sign on the door, do not disturb. That's the same meaning in those days. A shut door meant I've gone to sleep, I've retired, I want privacy, don't wake me.

But this man, in this parable, could not be deterred, and the first thing that he did was not knock. The first thing he did was ask. I believe he hollered out in the window at the man, and he probably went like this, Psst, Jose, can you help me? And maybe he didn't stir, and finally, he hollers a little bit louder, and the man said to him, this is what he said, he said, do not bother me, the door is shut, and my children are in bed.

And what he was saying is this, you see, in the homes at that time, everybody slept in one room, and they slept on mats on the floor, and the mother and the father and all the children all slept together, and in addition, their livestock also came inside the house, the chickens and the goats or whatever they had, and the man is saying, look, have mercy on me. I'm asleep. If I get up, you're gonna wake my wife, you're gonna wake the chickens, they're gonna be roosting the goats, the dog's gonna be barking, and have mercy on me.

And yet, the determined borrower knocked on with shameless, and what the word means in Greek is shameless persistence, and he did so until the man of the house would get up, and you know what he did? First of all, he asked the man, and the man didn't respond, and so to show his determination, I believe maybe what he did is that he went and he knocked at the door. He asked and then he went seeking for the door and knocked at the door to let the man know inside that he was determined to get an answer because he had gone against custom and did it, and so finally, the man says, okay, all right, you know, you must want bread. Okay, I'll get up and give it to you.

Now, this story, Jesus says, will tell you something about prayer. Now, the lesson is not that we must persist in prayer, as I said, because of God's reluctance, or batter down at God's door until we finally compel him for the very weariness to give us what we want, or until we coerce an unwilling God to answer. That is not the point at all.

Now, a parable literally means something laid upon, something laid alongside, and what Jesus is talking about prayer, and he teaches on prayer, and then he lays this story alongside, this parable, and when he did so, either that lesson to be drawn from that was either he is saying it's like this, or it's in contrast to this, and so that is the point of this parable. What Jesus is saying this, if an unwilling householder can in the end be coerced by a friend's shameless persistence into giving him what he wants, he's saying in contrast to that householder, how much more will your heavenly father supply all of his children's needs? Because he said, if you who are evil know that you are bound to supply your children's needs, how much more will God? And that's why he says, ask and then seek and then knock, and listen, if you're going to go to a friend's house and you don't know where that friend is, what are you going to do? You're going to ask, first of all, where do you live? Or where does he live? Then you get the address, you get in the car, you get in the subway, and you go to the neighborhood and you seek for the door, and then when you come to the door, you knock, and if you know your friend's there, you keep knocking until he answers, and that's what the Lord is saying about prayer, that when you come up to the door of prayer, the reason that we don't receive is that we don't ask, and the reason that we don't find is that we're not earnest in our seeking, and the reason that the doors don't open is because we don't knock, or if we do, we give up too soon and we go away. But Peter continued to knock, and you and I are continued to knock because we do not have a reluctant God, but we have a willing God who is more willing to give than we are even to receive.

But you know, as Jesus, as I was reading that parable, I thought, what would Jesus do today? What kind of a parable would he give us? And you know what I think he would do? He would say, hear the parable of the homeless person. You know, we have homeless people that come in here to ask for things, and we have one, and dear sister, if she's here tonight, God bless her, but we have one who comes in, some of you yeshers know who I'm talking about. I want to tell you, is she bold? Is she ever bold? She comes up to the, you know, when I leave here and I drive home, I'll go by Port Authority there and stop at a traffic light, and the fathers are there, they want to clean my windshield, and you know what they want? They want basically a quarter.

You know, and if my windshield is dirty, I let them do it, and I'll give them a quarter occasionally. This is the end of... If my windshield is not dirty and they do it, you know, I don't give them anything. Or others will come up to us here and they want a dollar or two dollars or a sandwich, but we got a dear sister, a dear lady that comes in here, and I want to tell you, she's bold.

She comes up to this altar, she marches up the altar, she, I need $20. I need $20. I've got to get a bus somewhere, you know, it's, you know, we get many like that.

They're always getting a bus somewhere. One night, she came up these stairs and got by everybody. She went right back into the prayer room, and there she was, right out in the middle of prayer.

I need $20. And you know, if Jesus was here, he would say, you know, hear the parable of the street person. When they come knocking, boy, if that sister would just get saved and she would take that same persistence that she has going after that, and the street people, that same persistence in coming to the house of the Lord or coming to knock at the gate or coming to knock at the door of heaven, my goodness, there'd be no telling where they would be or what God could do in their life.

And the Lord would say to us tonight, learn a lesson of the street person. Look at their persistence. Look at their determination.

Look at how they knock until they get what they're after. And God, give us that kind of saints, that kind of Christians. And you know, the Lord has been convicting me and showing me in my own prayer life, and Pastor Dave talks Sunday night about prayer.

But the Lord, you know, you know what the Lord has been showing me about prayer is the importance of me being persistent in my prayer. I'm not just talking about being persistent and praying every day. I'm talking about when I pray about certain things.

Not to give up. Not to give in. And even today when I was praying, the Lord reminded me about requests that I used to, and people that I had prayed for, that I had gotten weary praying for because I hadn't seen an answer yet.

And the Lord says, keep on praying. Keep on knocking. And that's the lesson that Peter has to teach us.

And all especially, unsaved loved ones are especially on my mind tonight. I guess it's because I just was with relatives over the holidays, over Thanksgiving. And my wife and I were with her family.

And she's one of 10 in her family. And all the brothers and sisters came by. And we talked about our concern.

My wife and I talked about it again. Our concern for their souls. And I must confess that I've been a weak knocker when it comes to praying for them.

And the Lord's convicted me. And listen, if there's any prayer request that we need to be challenged to be persistent and consistent and prevailing in prayer and in knocking at the door, it's for our unsafe family members. There's nothing that can wear you more than the indifference and the rejection and the rebellion that you receive by those that you love or live with.

But the Lord would say to you tonight, keep on knocking. Keep on knocking because God wants to answer that prayer. Hallelujah.

I want you to go with one last illustration. I've gone longer than I expected, but I want to give you one more. Go to 2 Samuel chapter 21.

2 Samuel 21. I saw something here two weeks ago that I don't know. It just touched me.

It just touched me. It'll take me just a few minutes and I'm gonna finish. 2 Samuel 21.

And I want to introduce you in this chapter to a woman, a mother you probably never heard of before. Her name is Rispa. R-I-Z-P-A-H.

Rispa. And she's a model and testimony of loving, persistent devotion in behalf of her sons. Let me read verse 1 and give you the setting.

It says, Now there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year. And David sought the presence of the Lord and said, Lord, why are we having this famine? And the Lord told him. The Lord showed him what it was.

He said, It is for Saul and his bloody house because he put the Gibeonites to death. Now the Gibeonites were the descendants of the Amorites who had made peace with Israel during Joshua's period and they were promised safety by a covenant. But Saul broke it and therefore he shed innocent blood.

And so David discovers, you know, after this famine continues and he asks God, God pinpoints it and he said, It's that specific sin against the Gibeonites. And so David gets the Gibeonites together and he said, What could we do to make right this wrong? And therefore secure God's favor on our behalf again so that it'll rain and we'll have our harvest. Now in verse five and six, this is what it says.

So they said to the king, The man who consumed us, meaning Saul, and who planned to exterminate us from remaining within any border of Israel, let seven men from his sons be given to us and we will hang them before the Lord in Gibeah of Saul, the chosen of the Lord, and the king said, I will give them. Now two of those seven sons of Saul were from his marriage to a woman named Rizpah, R-I-Z-P-A-H. Now she did a very, very remarkable thing and it's written for us.

It's told in verse nine and 10. Look at it. It says, Then he gave them, meaning the seven sons of Saul, actually a few of them were grandsons.

He gave them unto the hands of the Gibeonites and they hanged them in the mountain before the Lord. Actually they were hung, you might say, as a sacrifice, as a restitution and they were hung and so the seven of them fell together, meaning they were hung and they were put to death in the first days of the harvest at the beginning of barley harvest and Rizpah, the daughter of Ai, took sackcloth and spread it for herself on the rock from the beginning of the harvest until it rained on them from the sky and she allowed neither the birds of the sky to rest on them by day or the beast of the field by night. Now, what that woman did, what that mother did, touched me.

I must have read this, I don't know how many times over the last two weeks and every time I read it, the Lord seemed to be speaking to me and I didn't know what. It's, you know, talk about knocking at doors. I think Pastor Bob knows what I'm talking about.

You know, sometimes the Lord will lead us to a text and we don't know what's there and we gotta keep knocking and keep knocking and keep knocking at the door and I kept knocking at the door and I saw a beautiful picture here. Here is this woman, get the picture again. She goes out and normally when someone dies, the law says that they have to be buried in 24 hours, I believe.

The law was, but because this was a sacrifice, in this case, they were to hang there until God's justice was satisfied and when rain came, then they would take them down and so what this woman did is she went and she camped out at the hanging site. She camped out at the foot of those seven dead bodies, particularly her own two sons and she set up sackcloth on a rock. She probably had other people with her and what she did is that every time a vulture would come by to eat at her dead son, she would shoo off the vulture or at night, if an animal would come to devour the body, she would be there or perhaps with servants or other friends in order not to have those bodies devoured because what she was saying is that my sons were not evil sons.

My sons are not hanging because of their own sin, they're hanging because of somebody else's sin and therefore she's trying to, as it were, to save their name and what a picture this is. Can't you see this woman there pacing back and forth and I get this picture and she's looking at the skies all day long and here comes along a bird and she watches it and if it gets near, she's there to protect her children. What devotion, what sacrifice, what determination and she did it until it rained.

Now we don't know, no scholar knows, it's a very puzzling part of history. We don't know whether she was there for days or whether she was there for weeks. It could have been a few days, it could have been a few weeks but she was there until it rained and what happened is that King David heard about what she was doing and he was so moved by her determination, her devotion, that he went after it rained and the justice of God had been satisfied, he took their bones, their bodies down from the hanging tree and went and got Saul's bones and gave them a proper burial because of that woman's devotion and when I think of that, I think to myself, Lord, give me the same kind of persistence.

Give me the same kind of devotion as I have to hover over. I'm concerned about my living children. I'm concerned about their living bodies.

I'm concerned about the devourer who would want to come and snatch them away but I believe that my task is as a father and as a mother is to stand in the gap and seek the face of God and stand before him and to make sure that the devourer does not come until they are protected. Hallelujah. It says she allowed neither the bird to the sky to rest on them by day nor the beast to the field by night.

Oh, God, give us that kind of a devotion. Give us that kind of a persistence as if we knock at the door and say, I want to save mine. I want to see my unsaved loved ones come into the kingdom of God.

I want my children saved. I want my sons and my daughters to be saved. Give us a spirit of rispa in our congregation and in our prayer life and in when we go knocking at the door of heaven.

Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Let's stand together.

From homosexuality. Some of you thought that there was never gonna be seeing that kind of bondage and slavery. But one day you saw a door.

Actually, it was a day, it was a doormark entrance. It was a door under salvation and it became both an entrance and an exit.