Luke 11:4-27

⁴Forgive us our sins, for we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. Bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’”

⁵He said to them, “Which of you, if you go to a friend at midnight and tell him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread,

⁶for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him,’

⁷and he from within will answer and say, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I can’t get up and give it to you’?

⁸I tell you, although he will not rise and give it to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence, he will get up and give him as many as he needs.

⁹“I tell you, keep asking, and it will be given you. Keep seeking, and you will find. Keep knocking, and it will be opened to you.

¹⁰For everyone who asks receives. He who seeks finds. To him who knocks it will be opened.

¹¹“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, he won’t give him a snake instead of a fish, will he?

¹²Or if he asks for an egg, he won’t give him a scorpion, will he?

¹³If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?”

¹⁴He was casting out a demon, and it was mute. When the demon had gone out, the mute man spoke; and the multitudes marveled.

¹⁵But some of them said, “He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of the demons.”

¹⁶Others, testing him, sought from him a sign from heaven.

¹⁷But he, knowing their thoughts, said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation. A house divided against itself falls.

¹⁸If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul.

¹⁹But if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your children cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges.

²⁰But if I by God’s finger cast out demons, then God’s Kingdom has come to you.

²¹“When the strong man, fully armed, guards his own dwelling, his goods are safe.

²²But when someone stronger attacks him and overcomes him, he takes from him his whole armor in which he trusted, and divides his plunder.

²³“He who is not with me is against me. He who doesn’t gather with me scatters.

²⁴The unclean spirit, when he has gone out of the man, passes through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he says, ‘I will turn back to my house from which I came out.’

²⁵When he returns, he finds it swept and put in order.

²⁶Then he goes and takes seven other spirits more evil than himself, and they enter in and dwell there. The last state of that man becomes worse than the first.”

²⁷It came to pass, as he said these things, a certain woman out of the multitude lifted up her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts which nursed you!”