The Precautions of Prayer, Part 1

Biblical prayer is relational communication with God. Dr. Tony Evans' prayer should be more like talking with someone you love than like calling 911. So the goal of prayer is not just the thing you want, but the relationship you are pursuing. 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.

God always hears our prayers, but that doesn't mean He always likes what He hears. Today, Dr. Evans offers some precautions we need to keep in mind as we talk to the Lord. Let's join him. A couple were on their way to another country and they had arrived at the airport. As the line was getting closer and closer to get the ticket, the husband looked at the wife and said, oops. She said, what's wrong? I forgot the piano and we need the piano. Why do we need the piano? We're going to another country. He said, because the passports are on the piano.

He didn't have what he needed to get to the place he was trying to go. We have a place that we're trying to go. We're trying to get heaven to meet us here on earth. But to get to that foreign location, you need a passport. You just can't waltz up into heaven without a passport. But thank God that Hebrews 10.19 says that we can now enter the holy place through the blood of Christ. The blood of Christ has given believers a passport to enter into a realm that is closed to the general public.

General public can't go there because they don't have a passport. The mechanism that God has given us, the dominant mechanism for the use of the passport that has been granted to every believer by Jesus Christ to enter into what Hebrews 10.19 calls the holy place, heavenly places, the very presence of God is prayer. Prayer is how you show your passport. The disciples never asked Jesus to teach them to preach, to teach them to do miracles, to teach them to heal the sick, to teach them to have the blind see, to teach them how to make the lame walk. But the one thing they did ask him is, will you teach us to pray? In Luke chapter 11 where verse 1, you teach us to pray because they saw every time that Jesus prayed, something happened. Something supernatural took place every time he prayed.

And so they were saying, show us how to do that. How do you make that contact with God that makes things happen on earth? And so as we enter this series on the Lord's Prayer, we want to set the table today through the guidance and precautions that God gives us before we get to the details of the prayer itself.

Because what I'm going to share with you today will set the table. It will establish the concept for prayer hopefully at a level that will turn it from a boring exercise for many into an exciting opportunity for most. He starts off in verse 5 and says, and when you pray, not and if you pray. There is an assumption as Jesus talks to his disciples that if you are a follower of Christ, you are a praying follower of Christ. It's when you pray. So let's start with an assumption. The assumption of Jesus is that if you are a Christian and you are a follower of Christ, prayer is part of your lifestyle.

It is not something you're considering whether you do or not. It's when you pray. And then we're introduced to this dominant word called prayer. It's a word we all use. It's a word we all reference.

But let's get to a basic understanding of the term. Biblical prayer is simply defined as relational communication with God. Simply stated, it is relational communication with God. I need to say that again. It is relational communication with God.

Now why am I saying that over and over again? Because it's not just communication with God. It's not just talking to God. It is relational communication with God, which is why the prayer starts with our Father who art in heaven. Because he's establishing that prayer is connected to a family relationship.

A lot of people pray to God without a family connection. When you go to God and there is not a relational connection, you are not connecting with the person you think you're talking to. So prayer is relational communication with God.

Therefore, he's called Father, even in these passages we go over today. Relational communication with God. So the goal of prayer is not just the thing you want, but the relationship you are pursuing. When people go to God for what they want, without a concern about the cultivation of the father-child relationship, then they want to use God, not relate to God.

And nobody likes being used. So prayer is relational communication with God. Why do I have relational communication with God?

Because I need up there to do something down here. I need eternity to enter time. I need heaven to enter history. I need God to come into the context of man. But God does not want to do that outside of a relationship. Prayer is relational communication with God. So when you pray, you are talking to God.

He says, I don't want you to be like the hypocrites, because the hypocrites pray in public. The Greek word for hypocrite is a word that was used of Greek theater. You've seen it on television where the actor would take a mask on a stick and put it in front of his face to play a part. Then when they switch parts, they put down this mask, put up this mask to play another part.

Then they would put that down and they would go get it. So you could have one person playing five or six parts by just picking up a mask and putting it over the face. In other words, it was to camouflage reality because you were playing a part. Many people come to church wearing a mask. They come to church playing a part. They want to look the part. They use Christianese to sound the part.

They want to play the part. He says, while you may play the part with folk, don't play the part with me. He says, don't be like the hypocrites who play the part in public, he says, in the synagogue, that's the church, but then on the street corner, at the work, on the job, whatever.

He says, don't be like them because you're wearing a mask. He says, no, when you pray, when you communicate, you're communicating with God. It reminds me of the story of a man who was praying and he had all this bad English. He was mixing up verbs and adjectives and adverbs and getting all the sentences all wrong and somebody overheard him and said, I don't understand a word you were just saying.

The man looked at the other guy and said, yeah, because I wasn't talking to you. Prayer is communication with God, relationally driven. The reason why this is critical, as you'll see in a moment, is if there is no communication, many things that you want to happen won't happen, or if there is communication, but relationship is not a concern, only getting your prayers answered is a concern, you still may not get what you're asking to happen because God is after a relationship, not a temporary hookup. Prayer is our 800 number toll free connection into heavenly places in order to draw heaven down. In Joshua chapter 9 verse 14, it says that God's people made all their plans, but then it says, but they did not consult the Lord.

So they came up with their plans, but they didn't consult the Lord and as a result, havoc broke out in their situation. When you leave God out of your planning, then you wind up on your own and the problem with that is you don't know all of the potentialities of a decision, only God does. Prayer is relational communication with God with the goal, if the divinely authorized means to access heaven in order for intervention on earth. So, the first thing is, I don't want you to pray as a religious performance, as fulfilling a duty, as getting something done that you know you're supposed to do because it's the thing to do.

Now we do that all the time. In fact, for many people, the only reason they pray is because it is the appropriate thing to do. Well, Dr. Evans will share a more significant reason to pray when he returns in just a moment to continue this first message from his current series, The Lord's Prayer. This eight-part collection will teach you how to develop the same kind of intimacy Jesus had with the Father when He prayed. It'll undo common misconceptions about what people think prayer is like and help you discover why the Lord's example of how to pray is also an example of how to live. We'd like to send you a copy of this powerful series as our gift so you can review it on your own or share it with your family or Bible study group. All we ask is that you make a donation to help us keep Tony's teaching on this station. And if you do that right now, as a special bonus, we'll include a copy of his very popular book, God Is More Than Enough. In it, Dr. Evans takes a close look at the 23rd Psalm, realizing that it's much more than just a charming poem.

It's a call to let God handle any distress, anxiety, fear, or uncertainty that you may be facing. But this offer is only available for a limited time, so be sure to contact us right away. All the details are waiting for you at tonyevans.org. Or you can give us a call day or night at 1-800-800-3222 and let one of our team members help you with your resource request.

I'll have that information again for you right after part two of today's message and this. The Bible makes it clear that you know when God has cursed a land, when its fathers are nowhere to be found. Dr. Tony Evans says that what becomes of the next generation of men depends on what happens with this one. Our kids need to see men in their midst who love God and who love them. But what does it take to be that kind of man?

You can find out with the help of the Tony Evans Training Center's free course called Kingdom Man. It'll teach you to see past the phony images of manhood that society surrounds us with and become the loving leader that a wife and family would want to follow. As with all of our courses, there's in-depth study material you can work through at your own pace, lots of exclusive content from Tony, tightly focused Q&A videos, and an online forum where you can collaborate with other students. It's almost like having a seminary on your smartphone.

Check out the free course called Kingdom Man and the growing list of other subjects waiting for you. Visit tonyevans.org today and follow the link to the Tony Evans Training Center. We say grace because it's the prelude to a meal. I remember growing up in Baltimore and Sunday was guaranteed there would be fried chicken on Sunday. My mother was a fried chicken cooking genius.

She would cook some chicken. There'd be potato salad, there'd be green beans, there'd be rolls of cornbread, and of course my father would call us to the table and he would say, now let us pray. We're supposed to pray before we eat. But I and my brother always prayed with one eye open. One eye open because me and my brother both liked thighs. My favorite piece of the chicken is the chicken thigh.

So we both love thighs and thighs would typically be at the top of the big plate of chicken. So while heads were bowed and eyes were closed, one eye would be closed and another eye would be open. And as we saw or heard our father getting toward the end of the prayer, we knew when he was moving toward amen, our hand would rise up off the table in order to be the first one to grab the top two thighs. We tolerated prayer. It was an unnecessary means to introduce what we were really going after. Many Christians tolerate prayer. We do it because we've been taught to do it.

Mama did it. You're supposed to do it without any real relational meaning tied to it. We're fulfilling a role, a job description, but not pursuing a relationship through communication. He says, when you pray, don't be like the actors who play a role. Verse 6, but you, talking about his followers, Christians, disciples, when you pray, because I'm assuming you do, he says, go into your inner room. That's like a closet. Not only do I want you to go inside your inner room, I also want you to shut the door. Prayer in the Bible is a partnership.

Okay, let me say that again. Prayer in the Bible is a partnership. In other words, God has entered an agreement with man that we will have a communication relationship with one another.

And in this secret, inner closet, communication relationship that we're going to partner on, I want to hear from you, but watch this, I also want you to hear from me. Prayer was never meant to be a monologue but a dialogue. Most people think of prayer as me talking to God.

But if that is your only definition of prayer, relationship isn't being cultivated, because any time you have a relationship, you get a two-way communication. God wants to talk to us, but when does he want to talk to us? In secret.

He says, when it comes to talking to me. First of all, if you go in the inner closet and you shut the door so nobody else can hear, now you can be honest. Because see, when you're out in public praying, you lying, you ain't going to be here.

You ain't honest. You're saying stuff that's acceptable to everybody else who you know is listening. But if you go in the closet, you're free to now tell me the good, the bad, and the ugly, you're able to come clean because nobody else is listening because you're in the closet and you shut the door. In other words, I see in secret.

But let me tell you the other reason. He wants a private conversation to dominate your development of your prayer relationship to me, because he wants to talk too. Prayer is a dialogue.

It is not a monologue. And he has something that he wants to say to you. But you will not hear his voice around a lot of noise. You won't hear his voice in the midst of distraction. You won't hear his voice if you're doing two and three other things at the same time.

Now, there are times where you have to pray when you're doing two other things. But here he's talking about the dialogue, where Father wants to talk to you. But wait a minute.

You say, wait a minute. I'm in this quiet room. I don't hear any voices.

I don't see anybody. God's invisible. How in the world is he talking to me in this quiet atmosphere? Because he speaks to your spirit.

Let me say that again. You and I speak to our ears. We speak audibly to our external ears.

And we hear it in our minds and our brain. That's not where God starts speaking. In the inner room, he speaks to the inner man, inner person.

You are composed of three parts, spirit, soul, and body. The way God meant it to work, like with Adam and Eve in the garden, who the Bible says, and they walked with God during the cool of the day. They communicated with God as they walked with God in the Garden of Eden. He says, it is in that walking and privacy with me that I will bring into the spirit man my thoughts for you to pick up on. When the spirit man gets God's thoughts permeating inside of the inner man, it then flows to the soul. When it flows to the soul, it hits your brain.

It hits your mind. That's why 1 Corinthians chapter 2 verses 9 and following say, what eyes have not seen, ears have not heard, and you have not thought about, has not entered into the heart of man, God has revealed them to us by his spirit. So God wants to talk to you about the thing you're dealing with, the struggle you're having, the fears that you're addressing, the crisis that you're in. He wants to bring thoughts and ideas and perspective, but he wants quiet. He wants no competition because he wants to speak in terms of your spirit.

So he says, shut out the distractions, you come in and you be honest with me and give me some space. That's why when you read the book of Psalms, you will regularly read the author, most of the time, David, talk about how he is meditating in prayer, meditating in prayer. See, God wants to talk to you. He speaks objectively through his Bible. He speaks subjectively through his spirit. And when the Bible and the spirit come together, as you think through what you are talking to God about, David says, spoke to him in the night hours, in the night hours.

In other words, when it was quiet in the room and it was laying back on his bed and he was just meditating and he was thinking through and talking to God and rolling this stuff over, God brought thoughts and ideas and perspectives into him because God was not being competed with. Dr. Evans will come back in a moment with a final comment to wrap up today's message. In the meantime, if you'd like to review today's lesson on your own or share it with somebody else, the title to ask about is The Precautions for Prayer, and it includes a lot more material than we were able to present on the air. Or better yet, get it as a part of Tony's current series, The Lord's Prayer. You can get this compilation of messages on CD and digital download as our thank you gift when you make a contribution to help support Tony's ministry. And as I mentioned earlier, we'll also include a copy of God Is More Than Enough, Tony's book that has already helped thousands of others find the strength they need to overcome inadequacy, worries, and hardship with the Lord as their guide. Just get in touch with us today and make your request before this special offer runs out.

You can get all the information and make your donation online at TonyEvans.org or call us at 1-800-800-3222. Our resource center is open 24-7, so there's no need to wait. Again, that's 1-800-800-3222. Well, tomorrow Dr. Evans will point out more precautions for prayer, including a look at why sometimes when we pray we only think we're talking to God. Right now, though, he's back with his final thought for today. Have you ever been trying to have a serious conversation with somebody and other folk interrupting? And you have to say, especially to your kids, I'm not talking to you. It's like the boy who was praying out loud, he was screaming, God, God, I believe in you for a bicycle for Christmas.

I know you're able to give me a bicycle for Christmas. You're the great God. The mother heard him screaming and said, boy, God's not hard of hearing. You don't have to scream like that.

The boy said, yeah, but Grandma is hard of hearing. I need to hear this prayer. Because a lot of times we're not talking to God. We're talking to people using God's name. God says, I want a conversation with me with no competition because you want to be with me as your father. The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans is brought to you by the Urban Alternative and is made possible by the generous contributions of listeners like you.