Shameless Audacity: Learning the Power of Bold Prayer from Luke 11

Voxology

Religion & Spirituality, Philosophy, Society & Culture

4.7 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 22 June 2019

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

How do we rediscover the bold, persistent faith that moves God to act? In this special bonus episode, Mike Erre shares a powerful message on prayer originally delivered as a sermon—highlighting Jesus' teaching in Luke 11 about “shameless audacity” and its role in how we approach God. With encouragement from Tim Stafford, this episode revisits Mike’s prior work as a teaching pastor to dive deeper into how chutzpah—or bold, shameless persistence—is validated and encouraged by Jesus himself.

This thoughtful exploration challenges the idea that prayer is merely a religious exercise. Instead, Mike argues it is a powerful invitation to partner with God in shaping the world. By walking through Luke’s gospel and highlighting five remarkable stories of radical faith, he shows how outrageous persistence and unfiltered honesty in prayer are not just acceptable—they’re expected. Whether you’re feeling lost in prayer or longing to re-engage with God more authentically, this episode is a genuine call back to honest, transformative communion with the divine.

Key Takeaways:
• Bold Prayer Matters – Jesus encourages persistent, shameless audacity in prayer, not polite hesitation.
• God Responds to Chutzpah – From a midnight bread request to healing interruptions, the Gospels are full of examples where bold faith moved Jesus to act.
• Prayer as Partnership – The biblical narrative constantly points to God inviting us into cooperation, not passive observation.
• We Have Not Because We Ask Not – Sometimes we don’t receive simply because we don’t ask boldly or at all.
• It's About Who We're Talking To – The goal isn’t to manipulate God with perfect words, but to fully trust the goodness of the Father.

Resources Mentioned:
• Luke 11 – The parable of the midnight requester and Jesus’ model prayer.
• Luke 5, 7, 8, 18 – Examples of people practicing prayer and faith with shameless persistence.
• James 4:2 – “You do not have because you do not ask.”
• Genesis 18 – Abraham negotiating with God over Sodom.
• 2 Kings 20 – Hezekiah’s faithful prayer and God’s merciful response.
• Other references: Exodus, Jeremiah, Ezekiel

Let us know if this is a format you'd like to hear more of—sermon reflections that unveil a different side of the Voxology conversation. Reach out with feedback and share your own stories of learning to pray with chutzpah.

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Music by Timothy John Stafford
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As always, we encourage and would love discussion as we pursue. Feel free to email in questions to [email protected], and to engage the conversation on Facebook and Instagram.

We're on YouTube (if you're into that kinda thing): VOXOLOGY TV.

Our Merch Store! ETSY

Learn more about the Voxology Podcast

Subscribe on iTunes or Spotify

Support the Voxology Podcast on Patreon

The Voxology Spotify channel can be found here: Voxology Radio

Follow Mike on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mikeerre

Music in this episode by Timothy John Stafford

Instagram & Twitter: @GoneTimothy

Transcript

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0:00.0	Everybody, Mike and Tim here.
0:12.0	We've got kind of an extra special episode for you.
0:16.7	This was Tim's idea.
0:18.8	Some of you know this, I know, but some of you may not know that in my previous
0:23.0	life, I was a public speaker. I was a pastor of, I had the privilege of being a pastor at several
0:30.7	churches in Southern California. And I gave these weekend talks that in church culture are called sermons.
0:40.3	And I, you know, there is, I don't know, 15, 20 years worth of these floating around various church websites.
0:48.5	And so Tim had this great idea.
0:50.2	So Tim, you want to share a little bit about what we're going to do?
0:53.5	Yeah, so I was, I attended one of Mike's churches years ago.
0:59.0	And then as we moved out of the area, we tried to keep track and follow along online via websites to the sermons.
1:08.0	And then we started mailing them around to other people and
1:10.9	mailed them yeah well I guess that's not true I guess we don't mail things anymore
1:16.1	emailed well we emailed them around yes to other folks sharing them and then I was going
1:22.8	through my computer and found I was looking for a specific one and I found a few that I thought were really good.
1:29.4	And like Mike just said, a lot of you guys don't know Mike as a traditional teacher in this sense.
1:34.8	And there is a lot of great cool content.
1:37.6	This is an episode on prayer that my wife and I probably listened to four or five times in the last couple weeks trying to internalize it and apply it I thought it was just really it was very helpful and I thought I bet
1:51.4	you there's a lot of people out there in the Vox community that would benefit from listening to
1:55.8	this and it kind of gives a new dynamic to Vox as well. So you can tell we pay Tim very well to say such nice things.
2:07.0	But I was kind of conflicted about it just because the assumptions I carry into a Sunday
2:14.2	morning sermon at a church are very, very different than the assumptions
	...

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