The Paternity of Prayer, Part 1

God can do stuff without you knowing or having any idea of how he's going to pull it off because he doesn't need raw materials to do what he's going to do. Dr. Tony Evans says when we pray to the Lord, we need to remember who's listening. Your daddy is so big he can bypass raw material to pull off answered prayer.

That's the daddy you want to talk to. This is The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, author, speaker, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Texas, and president of The Urban Alternative. The disciples saw firsthand the intimacy Jesus had with the Father when he prayed, so it's no surprise they asked him to teach them how to pray.

Let's join Dr. Evans as he explores that with us today. A lot of people think they know the Lord's Prayer, but we're going to walk through the Lord's Prayer word by word, line by line. Jesus told his disciples how not to pray. He let them know if you don't have a prayer relationship in secret, don't think you're 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 into time, and the mechanism that God has established is prayer. In Luke's rendition of the Lord's Prayer, in Luke 11 one, the disciples went to him and said, teach us to pray. We see this power you have, these miracles you do. We see this direction and this hookup you have with God.

We want in on that. Teach us to pray. That leads Jesus to tell them the Lord's Prayer 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, it's 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 thy 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 forever and ever.

Amen. So it's God us God. What leads Jesus into this prayer from verse eight is his statement that God knows our needs. Your father already knows before you ask what you're coming to him to talk about. So prayer is not an informational session to inform God.

He says, 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 meeting of the need? Prayer becomes an answer to that question. Jesus says, pray in this way in verse nine.

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 your Bible because you know this prayer. It's been prayed since you were a child. He says, pray like this. In other words, follow this guide, let this be a governing premise as to how you approach prayer. So it's nothing wrong with repeating it, but he doesn't want just meaningless or what he called in verses five through eight, 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. Verse nine is pregnant with principles for prayer. First of all, our father, our father. Point, you are not an only child. It's not just your 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 going to be conflict not only with the other kids, but with daddy who has to 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 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 with one another, assist one another, all these one anothers 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. 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 because 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 as bound to earth as you are. But your heavenly father is not. Therefore, if you put all of your marbles on your earthly father with their limitations, you are going to miss out on the 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, because your daddy got a daddy who is in heaven. That is, he operates out of a whole different realm.

And then he comes to it. Here it is. Hallowed be thy 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. 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. 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 in the Baltimore Harbor. And some weeks he wouldn't have work to do of loading and unloading boats.

Sometimes it went on for months that they didn't call him for work. And so I remember now, if you were to go to the basement in the home that I grew up in, you'll see all of this stuff, old TVs, old radios, because to make ends meet, he would go down and he would try to fix the neighbor's radio or the neighbor's 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 eat fish 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.

He would catch herring by the hundreds. We had herring and eggs for breakfast. Herring mayonnaise sandwiches for lunch. Herring and greens for dinner. And herring and ice cream for dessert. I mean, we got overwhelmed with herring.

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, because I know the price he paid. When you know the price God paid for your salvation, for your deliverance, it shouldn't be a problem hallowing 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're dealing with super unleaded here, not regular. The Bible uses many names for God. And Dr. Evans will have much more to say about that when he continues our message in just a moment. First, though, a quick reminder that you can get Tony's current series, The Lord's Prayer, on CD and digital download to review and study at your own pace. This eight-part collection focuses on how to make your prayers more like the model Jesus gave us so they become more effective, more intimate, and more about God's agenda than our own. Just visit tonyevans.org, make a contribution, and we'll say thanks by sending you full-length copies of all the messages in The Lord's Prayer series, including material we won't have time to share here on the air. And as a special bonus, just for a limited time, we'll include a copy of Tony's powerful book, God Is More Than Enough. Centered on Psalm 23, Dr. Evans explores how David's timeless masterpiece goes beyond literary brilliance and teaches us the secret to finding a happy life by looking for fulfillment in God alone. Both of these resources can be yours, but don't wait, this special offer ends soon. Just visit tonyevans.org to get the details and make a donation, or call 1-800-800-3222, where members of our resource team are on duty 24 hours a day to help you.

That's 1-800-800-3222, or online at tonyevans.org. Well, Dr. Evans, we'll come back with more of today's lesson right after this. Too often it's an us-versus-them society. Even among believers, it shouldn't be like this, and it can't be like this. Unity is key to spiritual victory, and when believers stand shoulder to shoulder in prayer, darkness is overcome. In his book, Stronger Together, Weaker Apart, Powerful Prayers to Unite Us in Love, Dr. Tony Evans urges you to unite in prayer, providing a starting place, and then inviting you to pray in your own words. Find out more about Stronger Together, Weaker Apart.

Visit tonyevans.org. In my book on the names of God, I have in the back listed 85 names in the Old Testament for God. 85 names because those names have meaning. So when he says, hollow be your name, if you don't know his name, you can't hollow him. To put it another way, the better you know his name, the more you can hollow him because you'll have more information on your daddy. First of all is the name Elohim. That's the name in Genesis 1. In the beginning, Elohim, God, created the heavens and the earth. This is his power name.

When you know your daddy is so big, he can bypass raw material to pull off answered prayer, that's the daddy you want to talk to. Second name, foundational name, Jehovah or Yahweh. That is the name God gave himself. That is God's relational name. It's his covenant name.

It's his connect with you name. Moses asked, who shall I say sent me? He said, I am that I am. I'm not what you want me to be.

I am who I am. I am a relational God. You have to understand God, that's why he was his father, is a relational being. So if you don't want to relate to Jehovah, you may not get the benefit of Elohim. See, everybody wants Elohim. Show me your power. But not a lot of folk want Jehovah.

Give me the relationship. And God won't give you all Elohim if you don't want none of Jehovah. You don't want to spend time with him. You don't want to get to know him. You don't want to study him. You don't want to learn him. You don't want to apply him. You don't want to interact with him. You don't want to include him, but you want the blessing. You want the power.

You want the deliverance. His name is Jehovah when it comes to relational expression of Elohim. That's why in Genesis chapter one, the only name in Genesis one is Elohim, because he's creating the stars and the moon and the sun and the animals.

He's doing all that. But in chapter two, verse four, when he begins creating people, you don't read Elohim anymore by itself. You read Jehovah Elohim, or as you'll see it in the Bible, the Lord God, the Lord God, the Lord God.

Why? Because man would see Elohim when he got connected with Jehovah. So if you want to see more power, get closer to daddy, because daddy is the one who dispenses the Elohim power of God. Don't have a long distance with God and expect close-up deliverance, close-up blessing, close-up fire, close-up protection, close-up provision, but you keep a long distance from your daddy.

No, he wants to be Jehovah. Then the third foundational name is Adonai. Adonai, when you read your Bible, is capital L, small o, small r, small d. Capital L, small o, small r, small d. That is typically Adonai. Adonai means your boss, your manager, your supervisor, your owner, the one in charge of you.

That's Adonai. So Elohim is his power. Jehovah is his relationship.

And Adonai means that he's in charge of you. So if you don't want God telling you what to do, don't be calling on Elohim and don't be thinking you're getting close to Jehovah, because he is in charge. He wants to call the shots, just some of the key scriptures about the name of God. He says, for example, in Psalm 34, verse 1 and verse 3, we are to magnify the name. He says in Hebrews 13, verse 15, you are to give thanks for God's name. He says in 2 Timothy 2, 19, he says, when you go public, you are to wear God's name.

He says in Psalm 8, verse 1 and verse 9, oh, magnify the Lord with me. Let us exalt his name together. He says in Psalm 111, verse 9, awesome is his name. And if his name is awesome, nobody else's name is. He says awesome is his name. We're talking about a name above every name.

And guess what? The greatest name in the world is your daddy. The most powerful name in the world is your heavenly father.

So you are to magnify the name. That's not just being emotional. Emotionalism is when you're making a lot of noise about nothing.

But true emotion is when you're making a big deal about something. So when God does something in your life, because you've joined him in prayer, then you are to hollow his name. And you may even forget the three names.

But if you forget how to technically call the name, just do what the old folks used to do. Because they would say, he's a doctor in a sick room. He's a lawyer in a courtroom. He's a bomb in Gilead when you're sick. He's the rose of Sharon. He's the bright and morning star.

If you can't remember the name, just describe the person. And then when you see him show up and the power of hollowing his name as you treat him as father, do like the team will do when the defense scores. They just go and they do that. They say give it up, give it up.

What they're saying is, I want everybody to join me in celebration of what just happened. When you discover the Heavenly Father and what he can do, you better not keep it to yourself. You better give it up.

You better give it up. You better give it up and give him the glory to his holiness. If you don't have that kind of relationship with God the Father that Dr. Evans described today, if you don't know what it means to be a real Christian, stay with us. He'll come back in a moment to wrap up the program with a look at how you can do that. First, though, I want to remind you to stop by TonyEvans.org and get that special double offer I mentioned a little earlier, a copy of Tony's current series, The Lord's Prayer, and his powerful, life-changing book, God Is More Than Enough, where he takes an in-depth look at how Psalm 23 can help you realize this simple truth. If the Lord is your Shepherd, he will meet all your needs.

Both of these resources are great tools for digging deeper into what we've been learning here. We'd like you to have these as our thank-you gift when you help us keep Tony's teaching on the station by making a contribution. Contact us today at TonyEvans.org to get the details and make the arrangements. Or call us on our 24-hour resource request line at 1-800-800-3222.

That's 1-800-800-3222. The Bible tells us to bring our requests to the Lord. But tomorrow, Dr. Evans will explain why those requests ought to have more to do with God's agenda than our own.

Right now, though, he's back to talk about the most important decision you could possibly make. You're not a Christian because you're religious or because you go to church or even because you believe in God. You're a Christian because you've accepted Jesus Christ as your personal sin-bearer. Being religious, doing good works, that's nice, but it's not sufficient when God demands perfection. 2 Corinthians 5.21 says, He who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. So what God has said is, He placed your sin on the cross, on to Christ, and then judged Christ for your sin. If you will go to Christ, He will take Christ's righteousness, which is perfect, and He will credit it to your account. So you will stand before God as though you've never sinned, not because you're sinless, but because you've got a sinless credit on your account. If you will receive Jesus Christ right now, if you will invite Him into your life, believing that He died for you and rose for you personally, He will credit your account with perfection because He's already credited your sin on to Jesus Christ. So go to Christ right now and get this free gift of salvation that He's offering to all who come to Him for it.