Matt Hagee - The Parable of Breakthrough
So, the purpose of the parables was not for Jesus to present God in a way that you would agree with him, but for Jesus to introduce you to the God of heaven that you needed to understand. And therefore, he is teaching the disciples a principle about the God of breakthrough. And it comes in context with his teaching on prayer. Now, it's important that you understand where this parable falls, otherwise, you take the parable out of context. Luke 11, Jesus is teaching the disciples to pray. Why is he teaching the disciples to pray? Not because he had a three day prayer seminar. But he's teaching the disciples to pray because they asked him, "Lord, teach us to pray".
Sometimes, people wanna know, why isn't God doing something? And God's saying, "When are you gonna ask me to do it"? So, whenever they asked him to pray, they were saying to Jesus, "There are things that happen when you pray that don't happen when we pray? So, we wanna know, how do you pray and get things done down here on earth"? And Jesus begins to tell them how to pray. Now, this section of scripture, we call it the Lord's prayer, but really, it is the pattern that the Lord taught us when it comes to prayer. And what this pattern of prayer does is it aligns us not to get God to do our will, but to get us to accept and do his will. It begins, "Our father who art in heaven, hallowed by thy," what? "Name".
That's a very important thing to consider as we work through this sermon. And it says, "Thy kingdom come". Not my kingdom come, but thy kingdom come. And whose will be done? Thy will be done. Not my will be done. And do it down here like you want it done up there. Now, there is an entire sermon series in what is said in this Lord's prayer. But the point is, when Jesus gets done teaching them this pattern of prayer, he then tells them a parable about when you pray, the kind of attitude that you should have when you pray. When you follow this pattern of prayer, when you align your will with God's will and you ask for his kingdom to come into your life, there is a way that you should ask, and he tells a parable, and it's a little bit humorous. It's a little extreme. He says, "There's a man in his house and he receives a visitor at midnight".
Now, that sounds ridiculous to us, but in the ancient middle east, there wasn't any way to communicate if you were gonna go visit one of your friends in another town. You just started traveling and you got there when you got there. So, the guest arrives at midnight. Now, custoMary to middle Eastern culture is that when you receive a stranger, you entertain them, and the first thing you offer them is food and something to refresh themselves with. This is a tradition in many cultures. This is why I think Jesus might be... Because, I mean, if you go to a good traditional Mexican household... But in this particular situation, an unexpected thing happens at an unexpected time.
How many of you have ever had an unexpected thing happen at an unexpected time in your life? These we call problems. And what Jesus is telling the disciples by using this parable is, "Don't pray about things you can fix". Don't ask Jesus to do for you what you can do for yourself. He said, "This guy has a friend come at midnight and he doesn't have anything to feed him. He can't get up and do what he needs to do. It's an unexpected thing at an unexpected time. So, how does he solve the problem? He gets dressed, he goes across the street to his neighbor's house and he starts pounding on a door".
He says, "Hey, Harry, I know you're in there, man. I saw you blow out the candles. Look, Billy came. I wasn't expecting Billy. You remember Billy? He came back for last Passover. Yeah, that night. Yeah, that was Billy. Billy's here. I ain't got no bread. I know you have bread. I saw your wife putting the loaves in the windowsill and I only need three loaves of bread, Harry. Just give me three loaves of bread. Harry. Harry"! And Jesus says, when this guy knocks and he asks for bread obnoxiously at midnight, the man in the house is not going to get up because it's a convenient time. The time to come is when the sun's up. It's midnight, the kids are in bed, everybody's quiet.
The only reason that Harry's gonna get up and give this guy bread, not three loaves, but as many loaves as he wants, read the text. It says, "He will rise and give to him, not because he's a friend," not even 'cause I like you. "I'm going to give to you as many as he needs". You see that? He went for three. He might have got six, but he is going to get as many as he needs. Why? Because of his persistence. Harry knows the only way to get that guy to go back to his house is give him what he's asking for. You're not gonna argue your way out of this. "Harry, I came for bread, I want some bread".
And Harry opens the door. He don't even look. He just starts throwing loaves out. "Just go, go, go. Man, you wake up my wife, we're both in trouble. Go". And Jesus tells this parable because what he wants the disciples to know is that when you go into heavenly places and you pray, you need to act like this guy. You don't go into heavenly places and say, "Um, excuse me, I beg your pardon. God, if you don't mind, well, Jesus and I were kind of talking. He followed me on Facebook". Jesus said, "When you pray, pray this way. And then, when you go into heavenly places, you go knocking. You go seeking. You go asking. Because whoever knocks shall have the door open, and whoever seeks, they shall find, and whoever asks they shall receive".
God is anxious to answer prayers, but he wants prayers that are prayed with boldness. What you need to know is this, boldness brings the breakthrough. Say that with me. "Boldness brings the breakthrough". The Bible says, "Go boldly before the throne where you can find grace and mercy in your hour of need". That means when you go into heavenly places and you start asking God to do things in your life, go and ask God for things that are so big that heaven would be honored to do them down here on earth.
When you start knocking on the door, knock loud enough to wake up every power and principality and let them know that you are not defeated, and you are not going to quit. They've tried to discourage you, but they can't get you to stop until you get your breakthrough. Let them know you're not going to stop praying for your lost son or your lost daughter until they come back to the Lord and are committed to Christ. Let them know you are not gonna stop believing for your healing until that diagnosis gets reversed and the doctors stand in awe of the mighty God that you serve.
Let them know that you are not going to quit believing or looking for provision until you receive what he promised, which is houses you didn't build, wells you didn't dig, and vineyards you didn't plant. Let them know they didn't put enough giants in your promised land, because when you cross over that river, you are going to take it all. Because the God that you serve is a God of breakthrough. He is a mountain mover. He is a way maker. He's a God who never fails. He said, "Exceedingly and abundantly above all that you could ask, and all that you could think, and all that you could imagine".
Child of God, when you go, go with confidence until the door opens up and heaven answers your prayer. "Whoever asks, whoever asks". It says, "For everyone who asks receives, and whoever seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be open". We wanna disqualify and qualify based on our natural logic, but God says, "If you have enough courage to call on me, I'll answer you". Down here on earth, we get so silly and ridiculous about things. "Oh, well, they go to the wrong church. They don't pray right". There's nothing in there about denomination. It says "Everyone who asks".
Now, what you need to know is that because God is no respecter of persons, but a respecter of principles, if we will do what others have done, God will do for us what he did for them. Not only do we often disqualify and qualify, but we look at what God does in someone else's life, and we just say, "Well, he must like them better". That's not true. To prove it, the book of James 5:17-18 tells us this about a very key figure in the Bible. It says, "Elijah, Elijah was a man with a nature like ours". Now, that ought to be enough just to astound you. And here we read Elijah was a man that wasn't special. He was like us. But the thing that he did is he prayed earnestly.
Say that with me, "He prayed earnestly that it wouldn't rain, and it didn't rain on the land for three years and six months". Now, that's just not a weather event, that's an economic event, because Israel was a farming community. And what Elijah did is he said, "God, we want the stock market to crash". And it crashed. "And then he prayed again," verse 18, "And the heavens gave rain and the earth produced fruit". He turned off the economy and he turned on the economy. And he didn't do it by attending a seminar in davos, he just got down on his knees and talked to the God who controls the heavens and the earth.
Now, the Bible says there's nothing special about Elijah. If we do what he did, then we can have what he had. So, what was it that made Elijah want to pray earnestly? Elijah was a man of faith who got to a moment in his life where he looked at the condition of his nation and he simply said, "Enough is enough". He was fed up with weak leadership that was allowing others to manipulate Israel. Ahab was a cowardly king who let his manipulative wife, Jezebel start to persecute men and women of righteousness and kill priests who were serving the Lord God, and start building altars to idols. Elijah knew that if Israel went that direction, that the hand of God was going to be against them.
And so, Elijah said, "Enough is enough". My question to this generation is, when will those who call upon the name of the Lord be bold enough today to stand up and say, "Enough is enough. We have had all we can take of this ideology of deception and lies. We are tired of a culture that will defend every individual and every belief and say that they need to be a protected status, but it's open season on anybody who calls upon the name of the Lord". If you are a Christian, you are canceled.
If you're a person of faith, you are intimidated. What they want is for you to be silent, but enough is enough. We have had enough of the corruption and the deception in our leadership. We have had enough of the lies that they're trying to get us to believe. We have had enough of watching our dollars go towards agendas that we don't support. We have had enough of persecuting our law enforcement and turning criminals loose. We have had enough of calling abortion healthcare. It's not healthcare, it's murder. We have had enough of an open border that is turning this nation inside out. Secure the border and do your job. We've had enough of saying that a gender is a feeling and watching boys play dress up and go win girls' games. You need to call it what it is. It's perversion, because the truth is he made them male and female. Enough is enough!
So, what do we do about it? Pray. When we get fed up, we don't March in protest. We pray. Elijah prayed. Prayer makes the difference. Prayer brings the breakthrough. Knock and it shall be opened. Ask and you shall receive. Seek and you shall find. It didn't say, "Whine until it works". Prayer makes the difference. You want a miracle in your life? Pray. You want revival in this nation? Pray. You want mountains to move? Pray. You want your enemies to be defeated? Guess what? Pray? And when you pray according to what Jesus said, pray this way. "Our father who art in heaven hollowed be your", say it like you know it... name.
Why is that such an important phrase? Because the name of God describes the character of God. And one of the reasons why the God in the Bible and the God in your head are not the same God is because sometimes, you give an inaccurate character to God. If you can find his name that gives you that key, you can ask for what that name says and it will be done. For example, Abraham called him Jehovah jireh, meaning he's the God who can see. It was Abraham's way of saying, "He is God who is my provider".
So, based on the fact that we have a name that says he's a provider, you can ask God for provision. Why? He's a provider. Moses called him Jehovah Rophe, which means, "The Lord our God, our healer". Because he has a name that says he's a healer, you can ask him for healing. Why? Because it's in his name, it's in his character. He does that.
So, where do we find the name of God that's a breakthrough? You gotta go to 1 Chronicles 14:11. It's a story in David's life when the Philistines had been attacking him and he asked God, "Do I go after them"? It wasn't that he didn't want to fight, he just knew that if it wasn't God's time to fight, he wasn't gonna win. And so, he says, "Do I go after them"? And God says, "Yes, get 'em". It's my version. It takes a little longer in the king James.
So, David does. And in 1 Chronicles 14:11, it says, "Then David said, 'God has broken through my enemies by my hand like a breakthrough of water'". He's literally saying it's like a dam that just snaps, and all of a sudden, here comes this massive gush of water. And it says, "Therefore they called that place Baal Perazim, which means master of the breakthrough".
You need to know, my God is not just a healer, he's not just a provider, he's not just a banner, he's not just peace, he's not just a shepherd. But according to 1 Chronicles, he has a name that says he is the master of breakthroughs. He has the ability to do something for you in such a sudden manner that everyone is going to be in shock and awe when it comes.
What Jesus was telling his disciples is that if you want a breakthrough, call upon the hallowed name of the master of a breakthrough. Go into heavenly places and say, "I came up here looking for a breakthrough. I want the addiction and the chains that it's brought into my family to be broken. I want the ones who are off in the far country to come on home. I want the business that I've been working in to begin to prosper and increase. I want those who are speaking against me to be silent. I want every enemy that rises against me to be defeated. I'm not gonna stop knocking until that door opens. I'm not gonna stop looking until I find what I'm seeking. I'm not gonna stop asking, because if you broke through for David, you'll break through for me.
If you broke through for grandma, you'll break through for me. If you broke through for daddy, you'll break through for me. And if I pray like they prayed and you listen to what I say, then you're going to break through in my life because you are a God that whoever asks they receive, whoever knocks it is open, and whoever seeks they find". In this parable, Jesus gives us the pathway to promise. I say this in closing. Every promise that God gives you, it's yes and it's amen. If you find it in his word, he has to perform it. Why? Because he is obligated by himself to do it. Even to the point that Paul says, "When we're not faithful, he's still faithful".
Why is he still faithful? Because he cannot deny himself. He's faithful, not because we deserve it, he's faithful because if he said it, he's got to do it. "So, if every promise is yes, and every promise is amen, then how come there's times when I get a promise and there's other times I don't"? And the answer is very simple. It's because you're not following the path that leads to the promise. Let me show you what I mean. Is God a provider? He has promised in his word, "No good thing will I withhold from those who diligently seek me". He's promised in his word, he would supply all of your needs. He's promised in his word that you would lack nothing and have sufficiency for every good work.
So, is God a provider? But there's a pathway to provision. The pathway to provision in God's word is found in Luke 6:38. It says, "Give and it shall be given unto you, good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, he'll put it into your bosom. For with the same measure that you," what? "Give, you will have it measured unto you". The path to receiving is through the promise of giving. So, if you are not getting God's provision in your life, ask yourself, "Am I on the path that leads to provision"?
There's a path that leads to healing. God has promised in his word, healing. In Psalms 107, it says, "He sent his word, and he healed them". God has a promise for peace. "Thou wilt keep them in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee". The pathway to peace is Philippians 4, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything with prayer and supplication and thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God". And then, in verse eight, he says, "Just in case you're confused about this path, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, just, pure, lovely, good report, any virtue, anything praiseworthy, meditate," somebody say, "Meditate on these things".
Did you see any news networks in that list? Okay. But there's people who can tell you more about what they heard from the anchors on their favorite network than they can what they heard from the king of kings and the Lord of Lords. If you follow the path, you'll get the promise. Because God is so consistent to perform his word, that if you do what his word says, you get what his word has promised you. And the promise and the path that leads to a breakthrough is ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock... Some of you have been knocking for a few days. Some of you have been knocking for a few weeks. Some of you have been knocking for a few months. Some of you have been knocking for years.
When Jesus said, "Knock," he didn't say, "Until". He just said, "Don't stop. Don't stop. Don't stop". The door will be opened and you're not going to get the three loaves you asked for, you're going to get as many things as you need. Because when you ask you receive. When you seek, you find. When you knock, that door is open to you. Would you give the Lord a hand clap of praise in this place today?