Luke 11:5-10 “And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves; For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him? And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee. I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth. And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.”

In Luke 11, our Lord’s primary emphasis is that of being persistent in prayer. Yet, within the text is a great principle that we need not neglect. The question that we must ask ourselves is “Why was this man over at his neighbor’s house trying to obtain bread for his unexpected guest?” The answer is found in verse 6, “I have nothing to set before him?” The arrival of an unexpected friend has revealed an insufficiency in his food supply; no bread. While leaving final instructions for his replacement in the ministry, Paul said in II Timothy 2:6, “The husbandman that laboureth must be first partaker of the fruits.” The thought Paul was trying to get across to the young preacher is this, “If the man with the vineyard is not eating grapes, you can be sure he doesn’t have any grapes to share with others!” The principle that Paul is setting forth in his illustration is; Timothy, you cannot spiritually share what you don’t have yourself! In Luke 11, it was not just the fact that the man didn’t have bread for his friend; he did not have bread for himself and those of his immediate family! We need to learn this divine principle; you cannot share spiritual things with others if you have not first partaken of them yourself. Speaking of the husbandman, Paul said that he “must be first partaker.” The word “partaker” means to participate, eat, receive or take. The word “first” means first in time, place, order, at the beginning. If you desire to share salvation with others, you must have already experienced this great transaction. If you have a friend that has come to you unexpectedly with a spiritual problem, the only way you lead them to a spiritual solution is that you possess spiritual truth sufficient to solve the problem. The husbandman had fruit because he “laboureth.”  The word “laboureth” means to feel fatigue because of hard work and comes from a word that means to toil so as to reduce strength. If you don’t labor in the Word you won’t have any spiritual fruit. Do you have anything to share?