Principles of Productive Prayer

The fundamental problem that individuals, families, churches, and cultures have is they don't know who they're dealing with. Dr. Tony Evans says the real crisis isn't our circumstances. It's not recognizing God's power. That is our problem.

We don't know. Mm. understand who God is. This is the alternative broadcast, featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans.

Does it ever feel like your prayers are going unanswered? Like they're just bouncing. Bouncing off the ceiling? Today, Dr. Evans reveals how the breakthrough you're hoping for may depend on a change that needs to happen inside of you.

Let's join him as he walks us through the principles of productive prayer as illustrated in the story told in Nehemiah chapter 9. They have accomplished a great feat. Because they have rebuilt the walls. But anybody knows building a structure doesn't necessarily solve all your problems. People always have dedications of buildings and dedications of businesses and.

All the like, but unless you fix the folk. Who will occupy them? You haven't resolved your problem. And so, Nehemiah, along with Ezra, in the second half of the book. is trying to do the second part that has to be done.

And that is getting the people. Ready for revival. But you cannot have a revival. Until people take God seriously.

Well, here we have a revival in Jerusalem. And the people are being prepared for it. This is what we want to look at in chapter 9. The sons of Israel assemble with fasting and sackcloth and with dirt upon them. You don't see a lot of folk wearing white suits at funerals, you know?

It's just not normative dress for the occasion.

Well, this is an occasion of sorrow and it's an occasion of pain because they had forgotten God for so long that they had destroyed their culture because of it. And they're in pain. And then they do the ultimate thing. They put dirt on their head.

Now, why are they putting dirt on their head? Why? Number one, it's dirt is as low as you can go. And number two, they were dirty people. For the first time in light of God, they were assessing themselves.

And the same is true of us. A lot of us think we're cleaner than we are. But these people are dead serious. And one of the ways you know you're serious is if you give up food. Fasting is where you say, this thing is so important, I can't eat.

Certain things Jesus said only come by fasting and prayer. Verse 2.

Now, the descendants of Israel separated themselves from all foreigners and stood and confessed their sins. And the iniquities Of their fathers. There's a lot in that verse. Let me summarize it. First of all, They separated themselves, and one of the things that worship is designed to do is give you a couple of hours each week to.

to be with the family of God and be. Separated from the broader society to be reminded who you are. Because non-Christians rip off our identity. For some unknown reason, they're able to get us to forget about God.

Now, the second thing that they did is they stood and they confessed their sins and iniquities of their fathers. In other words, this stuff is all up in our background. This stuff is soaked in our family tree so deep. that we are hooked into this thing. And some of us have been hooked in to sinful actions and sinful attitudes because we were raised that way.

Now, you can't use that as an excuse not to be different, but it does say that what you call what your parents did is sin. Just because mama did it, don't make it right. Just because daddy said it doesn't make it right. And he says, our father. Fathers have sinned.

The racial problem we have in our country is because we have a generation sinning, and their fathers have sinned. That people were trained to believe certain things and act certain ways and reject certain groups and accept certain groups. The issue is not my father raised me, your father sinned. That there is a greater divine standard that governs. The people of God.

And so they came clean with God.

Now they didn't get up talking about mistakes, bad habits, they were talking about sin. Because that's the only thing God forgives. Verse 3 says, While they stood in their place. They read from the book of the law of the Lord, their God. for a fourth of the day.

These people, for three hours, the text says, stood and heard the word of God because they had to learn more about who they were dealing with here. And then it says, for another fourth they confessed. And worship the Lord their God.

So they read for three hours and they worship for three hours.

So we're back to chapter eight: a six-hour day with God. See, the fundamental problem that individuals, families, churches, and cultures have is they don't know who they're dealing with. Fundamentally, that is our problem. We don't understand who God is.

So the leaders got up, and at the end of verse 4, it says, with a loud voice. They cried to the Lord. This is the longest prayer recorded in the Bible. You could spend weeks just meditating on this prayer. I want to highlight something for you.

Verse six. Thou alone art the Lord, verse 7. Thou art the Lord God, verse 8. And thou didst find his heart faithful, verse 9. Thou didst see the afflictions of our father in Egypt, verse 10.

Thou didst perform signs, second half of verse 10. Thou didst know that they acted arrogantly, verse 11. Thou didst divide the sea. Verse 13. Thou didst come down from Mount Sinai, verse 14.

Thou didst make known to them, verse 15. Thou didst provide bread from heaven, second half of verse 15. Thou didst bring forth water from a rock, third part. Thou didst tell them to enter in order to possess. In other words, thou didst.

God, you're bigger, you're greater, you're more glorious than we could ever imagine. The Levites say, God, we forgot who you are. And then verse 16 says, but they. Mm-hmm. Our fathers acted arrogantly.

In other words, the contrast in the prayer is between the glory of God and the stupidity of man.

Okay. The contrast in the prayer is the greatness of God and the ignorance of men. You know, they have appreciation banquets for people. People who've done great things, they have an appreciation banquet. They bring together people and appreciate a man for what he's contributed to the community.

Well, if men who give that little pittance To making a better world deserves an appreciation banquet. God ought to get one every time you wake up. Every time you wake up in the morning, it ought to be an appreciation ceremony. Because nobody can do what God does. But oh, we forget who we're dealing with.

Let's look at some of the principles that come out of this passage. First of all, verse 6. Thou alone art God. You made heavens. Heavens with all their hosts.

The earth and all that is on it. The seas and all that is in them. Thou dost give life to all of them, and the heavenly hosts bow down before thee.

Now you want an impressive resume. You know, I w I was at an introduction one time. And the gentleman simply said, Uh Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, Dr. Anthony T. Evans.

I will not read his resume. There are too many things on this resume, and I would spend all of his teaching time giving this resume. I really felt good. Although I really would have liked them to give it anyway, but I really felt good. But that's chum stuff.

This is a resume. Who hath created all the heavens and all the earth. All the fish in the sea, and the animals, the birds, the insects, Homo sapiens, who has created all the natural resources that we enjoy now. Who else has done that? There are a lot of folk that got a longer resume than I do.

Nobody can compete with God's resume. If you named all the species of all the animals and all the fish that he's ever made, that. That's a resume. And that's our God. A young boy was going to see his grandfather, and he was traveling by train, and he was sitting beside a guy who was a seminary professor, and the young boy was reading a Sunday school lesson.

And uh The stranger was sitting next to me, he said, Young man. You've been reading your Sunday school lesson. Let me ask you a question. Trying to encourage the boy's spiritual interest. He said, I'll give you a big shiny apple.

If you can tell me something God can do, he said, let me just find out how much this kid is learning about God. If you simply tell me something God can do, this apple I will give you. The boy thought for a moment and said, Mister, If you can tell me something God can't do, I'll give you a whole barrel of apples. See, that's the question. Question?

That's the question. And don't name me one thing God can do. Naming one thing God can't do. We can get finished quicker. The Bible says with God there is nothing that is impossible.

And God does what he chooses, the Bible says. The judge of the earth does right, but he does whatsoever he wills. See, sinners think They having that day. That's right. And they better enjoy it because God's going to have his eternity.

You can laugh for the day. God's gonna laugh for forever. For the Bible says, be not deceived. God is not mocked. In other words, God always laughs last.

So, sinful men laugh in the face of God and do all kinds of evil, forget God, and pay no God's attention. And listen, don't get if you're a serious Christian, don't get upset because sinners are getting 50 years and 60 years and 70 years and 90 years and 100 years of messing over God and messing over God's people. Don't get upset about that. Yeah. Because that's a down payment.

Compared to what they're going to realize forever and ever and ever and ever and ever. And when forever is over, they will have just begun. See, God is not to be trifled with and we keep messing with him. God's justice is real, and His glory is unmatched. And when Dr.

Evans returns with the second part of today's lesson, he'll highlight God's greatness, starting with something as complex and awe-inspiring as the human body. Don't go away. Ladies, don't miss your chance to join our virtual audience for the Desperate for Jesus Conference July 25th through 26th. Gather your friends, small group, or all the women of your church for an empowering experience made just for you. Through dynamic speakers and powerful worship, we will equip you to leave a lasting legacy, telling the next generation of the Lord's praiseworthy deeds.

Visit dfjconference.com to register for the live simulcast. That's dfjconference.com. The message you're hearing today, Principles of Productive Prayer, is part of Tony's encouraging sermon compilation on the power of prayer. In these seven insightful messages, he'll show you how to pray prayers that don't just fill the air, but actually bring about transformation, healing, and God's divine intervention in your life. We'd love to send you the entire series so you can review these truths for yourself or share them with your family or a Bible study group.

And as a bonus, you'll also receive Tony's brand new devotional, Anchored by Prayer. In it, he offers practical help for praying with confidence, even when words are hard to find, and shows how the Holy Spirit empowers and guides your prayers for greater impact. To take advantage of this special limited time offer, visit us today at tonyevans.org or call us at 1-800-800-3222. That's online at tonyevans.org or by phone at 1-800-800-3222.

Well, right now, let's get back to Dr. Evans with more of today's message. You just take your body, for example. Your human body. Talk about the greatness of God.

You have You know, you have chromosomes in your body, and one human chromosome is made up of 20 billion bytes of information. To make a long story short, 20 billion bytes of information in one chromosome would be equal to what is stored in the downtown library. of Dallas. And you have that in one. Chromosome.

God is awesome. To steer the traits of your mother and father so that they are revisualized in you in skin color, eye color, and various personality orientation and hair color and all of that, that he can steal all those bites of information. Nobody can do that. And so It establishes God's greatness in creation. But then he Moves on to verse Seven?

And he rehearses Jewish history starting with Abraham. He says that you chose Abraham, you brought him out of the area of the Chaldeans, gave him the name Abraham, and then thou just find his heart faithful and make a covenant with him.

Now here's the point I want to bring out of here. God found his heart faithful and then made a covenant. Let me correct some errant thinking. Obedience comes before blessing. Blessing does not come before obedience.

And then verse 10. Israel is in Egypt. The Levites are praying. Thou didst perform great. Signs and wonders against all his servants and all the people of his land.

That is Pharaoh. And thou didst know that they acted arrogantly toward them, and didst make a name for thyself in that day, and thou didst divide the sea before them. Talk about the Red Sea. Farrogant was arrogant. All right, he was arrogant.

And that's why, you know, of the 10 deadly sins, the 10 sins God hates worst, pride is at the top of the list. He hates a prideful look. Men and women who hold their fists in the face of God, some, even in the church. Who are arrogant, who live their lives independently of God, who basically say with their mouths or with their lies, God, I don't need you. That is until a catastrophe hits.

Excuse me, how long that lasts. You see, when you have God on your side, circumstances never have the last word. Mm. People never have the last word. When you make God your God, your supervisors never have the last word.

Only God has the last word. If you're real sick today, the doctor doesn't get the last word. God has the last word. And that's why The New Testament says, don't fear men. Don't fear men.

Because the Bible says you're fearing the wrong person. But there was also. Guidance, verse twelve. Yeah. And you gave us a pillar of cloud that would lead them by day, and a pillar of fire.

To light for them the way in which they were to go. God had a guide for Israel when they went through the wilderness. They didn't know where they were going or how they were going to get there. And you know. We have a lot of confused people today.

And the only way you're going to make it through this maze called life is by being guided. There's only one problem: you don't know tomorrow. All you can do is guess about tomorrow. That's why the Bible says if you have plans tomorrow, don't go talking about, I'm gonna do this and I'ma do that. James 4 says, no, what you ought to say is, if it's the Lord's will, I'm gonna do this and I'm gonna do that.

You don't know a bit more about tomorrow. You know nothing about tomorrow. All you know about tomorrow is what you hope to do. And guess what? You will only do tomorrow what you hope to do tomorrow if God gives you tomorrow.

Yes. God demands the credit. He demands the glory. For he says, There's none liken unto me.

So there was guidance. Israel had forgotten that God had provided for them. That's why the Lord condemns worrying. Because worrying means you have forgotten God. You say it's natural to worry.

Yeah, if you're not thinking about God. What it ought to be natural is to remember God. And that's what they're doing. They're remembering God.

Some of you ain't here saying, Oh Lord. I don't have no money. But this ain't the first time you ain't had no money. Think back some years ago. You didn't have any money when you were living in that apartment, and you ran out of money.

You here today, aren't you? That means he continued doing something. He fed you enough to make it till the day. But what happens is we forget that we used to be broke. I don't have no job.

You've been jobless before. But somehow God brought you through. You say, but oh, I got a pain. You've been sick before, huh? God healed you before, but you forgot that.

I forget that. What he's condemning is that we don't take God seriously and we forget what he's done yesterday. And start worrying about the day. What did the people do? Did they appreciate it?

Verse 16. But they, our fathers, acted arrogantly. They became stubborn and would not listen to thy commandments. They refused to listen and did not remember thy wondrous deeds, which thou hast done among them.

So they became stubborn, appointed a leader to return them to their slavery in Egypt. They were going backwards. I wonder how many people in this room are going backwards. You're supposed to be on your way to Canaan and you're backtracking to Egypt. Going backwards.

When you and your wife used to live in an apartment, y'all were in love.

Now you're in a house trying to find out how you're gonna divide it. Back in that apartment, you had one car. Sharing at one car, picking each other up.

Now you're in a two and three car garage, each one in each of your own name.

So you don't have to share. Talking about my car. You can't take my car. Another word. You're going backwards.

You're going back to Egypt. Instead of going on to make progress, you're on your way backwards. And what he's condemning here is the kind of thing that when you get stubborn and when you say, I'm going to have my own way, God says, You're on your way back to Egypt. And we've seen this in individual lives, people going backwards, God delivering you from habits. You're going back to those habits, family lives.

God is trying to make you a family. You're going back to being single again. You on your knees praying, oh Lord, I got to get married. Please, Jesus, give me a mate. Lord, I got to have a man.

I got to have a woman. Jesus, Jesus. Oh, you know what I'm talking about. Yeah, Lord, yeah, Lord. I got to get married.

Finally, you got married. Come for marital counseling. Tell me, I'm in love. You know, Toma, you're just real excited and all pumped up and all excited. And now you want to go back to being single again.

Because you'd have gone back to Egypt. You stop, either one or both of you have started being stubborn and independent of God, and you're paying the price tag for it. A church can be stubborn. Refuse to listen to God and have confusion that abounds because they want to run the church like the local executive is running a corporation. Rather than listening to God, God has not requested that pastors read the one-minute manager.

I mean, God has already guidelined how the church is to be run. And then society going backwards. We're going backwards. I mean, we're going back to stuff that was happening in the 60s and stuff that was happening before then, and we're going backwards. Because when you dismiss God, you add confusion to your whole environment.

But I got good news even amidst the bad news. Verse 19 says, You are great with compassion. For you did not forsake them in the wilderness, and the pillar of cloud did not leave them by day to guide them on their way, nor did the pillar of fire by night. The life of them, the way in which they should go. And you did give them food and a spirit to instruct them, and manner thou didst not withhold from their mouth.

and you just give them water for their thirst. Indeed, verse 21: 40 years you provided for them in the wilderness, and they were not in want. Their clothes did not wear out, nor did their feet swell.

Now, you know the good news? See, I got some good news for you, folks. They're in the wilderness because they disobeyed.

Some of you here are in a wilderness. You should be married, but you're single because you got a divorce because one or both of you weren't right.

Some of you are in a moral wilderness, some of you are in an attitudinal wilderness, you're just wandering. That's what a wilderness is: it's a wandering place. You're just going around in circles because you've sinned.

Well, I got good news for you. God's grace is greater than your sin. If you get right with God, He'll even take care of you in a wilderness. Even though you shouldn't be in the wilderness, you ought to have been in Canaan a long time ago. If you get right with God, He'll take care of you even while you're in the wilderness.

The beautiful thing is while you're wondering. He'll take care of you. While you're trying to find your way, he'll guide you. Until such time, it's time to come out of the wilderness.

So if you're in the wilderness, don't say, well, if I hadn't sinned, I wouldn't be in the wilderness.

So I guess now that I'm in the wilderness, there's nothing I can do about being in the wilderness. No, what you got to say now is I'm in the wilderness. God, give me grace. Forgive me of my sins. God's grace is like a calculator.

He can cancel real quick. When you come to God and you come to God on his terms, he'll push the clear button. You're back to zero. He can cancel out the mistaken addition, subtraction, and multiplication of your life. And he can turn it back to a clear button and start doing a renumbering all over again.

He can do that for you in the wilderness. In the wilderness of whatever your despair happens to be. Dr. Tony Evans, reminding us that God is in the business of offering fresh starts in a message entitled The Principles of Productive Prayer.

Now, before we go, don't forget that Tony's current series, The Power of Prayer, and his brand new devotional book, Anchored by Prayer, can be yours as our thank-you gift. Learn how to pray boldly and effectively and deepen your walk with God. Visit tonyevans.org or call our resource team at 1-800-800-3222 to make your donation and request your copies. Again, that's tonyevans.org or call 1-800-800-3222. Relationship experts tell us that we ought to do more listening than talking.

And coming up tomorrow, Dr. Evans will explain why that idea is even more true of our prayer life. I hope you'll join us.