The Secret to Powerful Prayer (September 15, 2019) - Tony Evans Sermon

a man one day was talking to a friend of his and they were discussing biblical things and the gentleman looked at his friend and said that you don't really know that much about oh I bet you you don't even know the Lord's Prayer in fact I'll give you $10 if you recite the Lord's Prayer his friend said I'll take that bet I said okay let's hear it the man said now I lay me down to sleep pray the Lord my soul to keep and if I die before I wake pray the Lord my soul to take his friend looked at him and laughed reaching his pocket took out $10 I didn't think you knew it a lot of people think they know the Lord's Prayer it's recited before sporting events in locker rooms Civic events school events community gatherings it is the go-to prayer but we're going to walk through the Lord's Prayer word by word line by line we introduced it last week where jesus told his disciples how not to pray you let them know if you don't have a prayer relationship in secret don't think you accomplishing anything in public he said God looks at the secret closet of communication because you want a relationship with him you just don't want something from him you want to be with him for prayer is relational communication with God yes to draw heaven into history eternity in the time and the mechanism that God has established is prayer in Luke's rendition of the Lord's Prayer in Luke 11:1 the disciples with him and said teach us to pray we see this power you have these miracles you do we see this direction and and and this hook-up you have with God we want in on that teach us to pray and that leads Jesus to tell them the Lord's Prayer and as it is known it really could be called the disciples prayer because this is a prayer that Jesus could never pray see Jesus can't pray this prayer because it says forgive us our trespasses and he would never need to be forgiven so it's really not his prayer to pray is him teaching us how to pray now the Lord's Prayer is divided into a very simple flow two halves if you will the first half is concerned with God hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come Thy will be done it's about the I or you the second half is about us our daily bread our trespasses lead us not into temptation so the first half is all about God the second half is about you and then of course he closes it with prayer about God again thine is the kingdom the power and the glory for ever and ever amen so it's God us God what leads Jesus into this prayer from verse 8 is his statement that God knows our needs your father already knows before you ask what your coming to him to talk about so prayer is not an informational session to inform God he says I I already know what you want to talk about I just want to know do you want to talk to me about it here's the key just because God knows something doesn't mean he will act on it he has knowledge of everything but some things he will not act on until there is relational communication with him about it so his knowledge does not equal his action I know what you need I just want to know do you want me or just do you want the meaning of the need prayer becomes an answer to that question Jesus says pray in this way in verse 9 pray like this this is really not a prayer to be repeated word-for-word it is really a framework a guide for praying this prayer is one of the most empty prayers prayed by people some of you didn't need to look at the screen didn't need to look at your Bible because you know this prayer it's it's been prayed since you were a child he says pray like this in other words follow this guy let this be a a governing premise as to how you approach prayer so it's nice nothing wrong with repeating it but he doesn't want just meaningless or what he called in verses 5 to 8 vain repetition just talking because you memorized it but he says you can use this as an outline if you will for communicating with God today we want to look at verse 9 that's all our time will allow for 4 verse 9 is pregnant with principles for prayer first of all our Father our Father point you are not an only child it's not just yo daddy it's our Father why does Jesus say when you approach me you're approaching an our God and not just your God because you're not the only kid in the family if you are a parent and one of your children wants to act like they're your only kid there's gonna be conflict not only with the other kids but with Daddy who has two equally relate to the whole family so you can't be in a family of multiple people multiple children and function like you're the only child in it it's our Father this is why God has said there are certain things he will not do for one of his children if they're if they are not connected to the rest of the family so any unchurched uninvolved Christian is blocking the father from answering their personal needs because they don't want to be related to the siblings so that's why God wants every Christian to be a functional ministering part of a local church which the Bible calls the family of God the household of faith scripture says forsake not the assembling of yourselves together all the one anothers in Scripture love one another care for one another support one another connect connect with one another assist one another all these one another's in Scripture because God says you will get more from daddy if I see you relating to your siblings so church involvement has to do with father engagement one father many children so it's our Father who is in heaven not just your daddy but he is father he is father let's talk about that you only have a father cuz you got kids that's what makes you a father everybody who has accepted Christ John 1:12 has been made a son or a child or daughter of God so you have a father so when you approach God in prayer he wants you to approach him relationally not just God way up there but daddy up in here he wants a relational communication as a father now the problem is many of us have had a bad relationship with father some of you have had no fathers others of you might as well have had no fathers because he was there and not there others have had bad fathers or abusive fathers and the temptation is to start with the father on earth and let him define your view of the father in heaven so you and if you had a bad deal with the father on earth it may have colored your view of your heavenly father but the idea is to start with the father of there and let him define fatherhood down here so for all you men who happen to be fathers let's find out what the father is like so you and I can know the kind of father you supposed to be first of all he is father by position because in the scripture the father was the head of the home I am the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob the breakdown of the father God always did his covenants through the father because the father held the post of responsibilities so if you are a man here God holds you in ultimate place of responsibility for your home by position and for your children maybe you didn't know that but every man he needs to know in the Bible it is the father's responsibility to raise the children not the mother the Bible says in Ephesians chapter 6 verses 1 to 4 fathers raise your children it is not the mother's job to raise the children it is the father's job to raise the children the job of the mother is to help and fill in the gaps when the father can't be there because that is your role the Bible tells the father's to teach their sons the Bible gives the father the responsibility so if the father doesn't own it you may be father by title but you're not father by position because you're not carrying out the rearing responsibility that belongs alternately certainly with the help of the wife but ultimately belongs in the hands of the man so if you were the devil what would you do get the father's out of the home because by getting rid of the father you've canceled the position create an extra burden on the mother and perhaps damage the kids so the devil has gotten father's away so that people can be messed up about what our Heavenly Father really looks like so there is a position to be held the beautiful thing is if we start with our Heavenly Father he takes responsibility for all of his children and for all of us who name the name of Jesus Christ he owns that God owns that because that's what father's do in addition to that position of raising the children his job is to provide God told Adam before he gave him a family I'm gonna make you a provider and I'm gonna provide for you so I'm gonna provide for you so that you can provide for them cuz I'm yo daddy I want you to be their daddy in addition to the position and the provider was the protection he says you are to guard the garden and if you guard the garden under me I'm gonna guard you I'll guide you while you guard the garden and you cover the family so it was the god fathering Adam Adam was to father the family and Adam was to get his clues of fathering from God if you start with your human father and your human father wasn't a father worth following and you transfer that to God you have a bad attitude toward God because you had a bad situation with your human father so you're not an only child but you do have a father and he says you start your prayer recognizing that there is this relational connection with God even in ministry I am pastor by position but Paul says that your role in 1st Timothy is to father the flock so I know I'm not just to occupy a position but I am to father the lives of those who is placed under me under a pastoral staff too far that is to care for your well-being because that's what father's do they don't just show up to Eve they show up to care and so our Heavenly Father has a position he is a provider he is a protector and that's who you talk to you when you pray our Father second thing you need to know is our Father who art in heaven translation our Father who's not on earth your father is a Heavenly Father now this is critical because you and I live on earth and on earth we operate by our five senses and we are limited by time and space cuz we're earthbound let me tell you something about your daddy your daddy is not subject to the limitations of time and space because your daddy's house is in heaven Daniel 4:26 says heaven rules over earth so what you need to know when you pray to your unseen father is that he's very much operative he's in heaven and heaven overrules earth so therefore the limitations of your earthly father are not the limitations of your heavenly father because your earthly father is is bound to earth as you are but your heavenly father is not therefore if you put all in your marbles on your earthly father with their limitations we're gonna miss out on the Pope potency of your heavenly father who is not subject to this world order I'm glad to know that earthly fathers don't have the last word so if you were raised without a father if you were raised with an abusive father if you were raised with a neglected father I want you to know right now that that earthly father doesn't have the last say so over your life over your recovery over your stability over your provision cuz your daddy got a daddy who is in heaven that is he operates out of a whole different realm now when Jesus was on earth he prayed to God as his father every time Jesus prayed he prayed relationally in fact the only time that I've seen in scripture where Jesus prayed and called his father God was when he died on the cross my God my God why hast thou forsaken me every other time he calls him father the reason he has to call him God on the cross is he's coming with our sin so there's no fellowship with the father so he gotta have him way out there as the transcendent God but when he was walking on earth he called him father this is why I love John chapter 20 verse 17 because John verse 20 chapter 20 verse 17 says he tells his disciples I am going to my father he's getting ready to leave earth and go to heaven I am going to my father but then he says and yours o women I'm not only going to my daddy I'm going to your daddy too now why do you need to know that you need to know that because what Jesus was telling them that he's telling us is the same help that my daddy gave me when I'm on earth now that I'm leaving he makes available to you because you're as much of his kid as I am the Bible says that Jesus Christ is seated on the right hand of the Father in heaven and guess what it says in ephesians chapter 2 verse 6 we are seated with him so the same level of intimacy based on God's will that he had with Jesus he says he wants to have with you if you'll relate to him as daddy some of us have gotten such bad teaching that we might as well be praying our judge who art in heaven because we walk around feeling this hammer over our head that's what legalism does it puts a hammer over your head God is always out to get you God is always out to judge you now God does have a standard but that's not the relationship he wants you to pursue he wants you to pursue an intimate relationship with him so that you feel sent and variants his love not as discipline because good fathers do discipline so it's our father he is your father now you're gonna have to grow into this you're gonna have to you gonna have to grow into this but when you do when you experience him on the father level not the judge level although he does judge not the way our bear level talking King James English you know English you would never use him human discussion yet you get private with God or God or one who lives in the third heaven one who put the stars in space okay you don't talk to your daddy like that Oh father who goes to work every day or father who who brings home the bacon old father you don't talk to your daddy that way because that's stranger conversation he wants to talk to one of his kids prayer is a kid talking to his dad and now it becomes a conversation not just this ethereal discussion our Father who is in heaven who operates I would have that realm but I'm praying because I need you in this realm and then it comes to it here it is hollow to be that name hallowed be thy name the Greek word hallowed means to be sacred separated and unique it's to treat as one of a kind it's to treat a special a class by itself it's from one of the cognates of the word holy to be separate unique special daddy there's nobody like you if you've been around it for some time from time to time you hear me talk about my dad he's in a nursing home now and I fly up as often as I can given everything else that's going on to spend a few days with him in the nursing home it's a joy for me to talk about my father it's a joy to me to talk about my father because I know the price he paid for our family my father dropped out of high school because my grandfather was not able to make ends meet to help my father make my to help my grandfather make ends meet he dropped out of school and then when he could went back to night school so he could finish when he had the four of us he was a longshoreman working on the the in the Baltimore Harbor and some weeks he wouldn't have work to do of loading and unloading boats sometimes they went on for months that they didn't call him for work and so I remember now if he were to go to the basement in the home that I grew up in you'll see all of this stuff the old TVs or radios because to make ends meet he would go down and he would try to fix the neighbors ready or the neighbors television to just get a few dollars so we could eat as most of you know I don't eat fish can't stand fish but there's a reason I can't even fix and don't eat fish because when my father didn't get work and couldn't make ends meet even shining people's shoes he would go fishing and he would go out and take a net and catch herring now herring a little fish with a billion bones okay he would catch herring by the hundreds we had herring and eggs for breakfast herring mammy sandwiches for lunch herring and greens for dinner and herring and ice cream for dessert I mean we got overwhelmed with Harry I hate fish because for some reason that thing created a negative thing but my point is he would do whatever he had to do for his family he wouldn't give excuses he wouldn't say it's tough out here he wouldn't blame racism all of those things were real but he had a responsibility to take care of his family and so when it comes to earth I hallowed be his name I celebrate his name and there is no inconvenience there is nothing I'm not willing to do that I'm able to do cuz I know the price he paid when you know the price God paid for your salvation for your deliverance it should be a problem Halloween his name that means to put it in a class by itself he's not to be treated like just another deity or just another greater no you are diminishing his name that's why the third commandment says don't take the name of the Lord in vain that means don't not hallow his name don't treat his name as ordinary don't treat his name as something regular we dealing with super unleaded here not regular what does it mean to not hallow his name that is to treat his name in vain there's a lot of ways you can do that comedians do it by profaning his name they will put his name or Jesus's name at the end or at the beginning of cuss words or of evil and they profane his name they take the great name of God and they desecrate it that's not too hallow his name or maybe it's not something that radical maybe you knew you were lying but you said so help me God so you used his name to back up your life or your deception it's been bad enough your lives but to put his name on it that's why when you go to court do you promise to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you God now why do they make you do that because what they're saying is if you gonna lie after having put your name with God's name you have perjured yourself because once you do that now once you bring God's name into it you shouldn't be lying attached to it that's how serious in principle they use the hand on the Bible and also help you God because you can profane many things the word vain means empty with no real reason that there there's you just throwing it out and not recognizing the significance of it okay I've said this before but to understand this idea of Halloween stick making it sacred treating it like it's like it's unique I am in light of what's happening in our home with sister Evans and everything I've had to learn to do dishes for 50 years I've not done dishes okay I had other responsibilities you know the trash cleaning the bathrooms I had my fast but dishes was never one of them so I never I never had to do dishes but now I got to do dishes so I'm trying to figure this out I've gotten instruction but I'm trying to figure this thing out there's a dishwasher but that's too much like using a computer so I am the fool with that so there's a dish board whatever this thing is that holds the dishes over here and so I'm I'm washing the dishes you know try to my big problem is not making the water too hot just trying to get it get it just right so I so so every day I'm washing dishes okay so I wash the dishes now the reason I'm washing the dishes it's because the dishes in the sink are profane they're dirty those are dirty dishes that's the reason I'm washing them when I wash the dishes they're no longer hopefully profane that I've gotten the dirt off the dishes then the dishes after they dry have to be put up in the cabinet in the kitchen those are regular dishes those are the dishes for breakfast lunch and dinner so they are profane if they're in the sink because they're dirty but they're clean and the cupboard but they're regular because you use those all the time but in this whole separate room call the dining room are the untouchables these are the dishes you better not touch unless is the birthday Christmas anniversary or you got special guests over you don't touch those dishes they're off limits why because those are special dishes accompanied by special silverware that is to be used for special purposes those are holy dishes those dishes get their own room own glass cabinet you know those dishes are not treated you know you know the few times we get to use them I kept toe with them things I acted I kept toe with them things because those are hollow dishes these dishes have been separated as unique God certainly doesn't want to deal with the profane but he doesn't want you treating him with the regular either he wants you putting him in a class by himself now we had some folks at first service the only reason they were at first service is because the Cowboys playing at 12th I talk pointing them out without pointing about I just pointed folk out who I knew with we're not here ever at the early service but when I found out the Cowboys was playing because they hollowed their name she they treated them so special that they were willing to do something they don't normally do and get up for somebody that may or may not win even some of you here today who didn't skip service think you fooling me by having your phone low making me think you're reading along with me in Scripture but I know you don't have to read along with me cuz I'm gues doing verse 9 and you just quoted it so every time time you lift down I know what you're looking for because you hollow their name where you gonna hollow the name of somebody that may or may not win may or may not be successful what you think you ought to do for the king of kings and the Lord of lords who is your daddy you

Channel: Tony Evans

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Id: EVkC-zzubWY

Length: 30min 47sec (1847 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 18 2019