Today is another Tuesday takedown.

Never have people just have bad ideas, bad arguments, bad apologetics, and specifically today, bad advice.

And today we're going to look at a quick clip from Paul Washer on how to pray.

Now, Paul Washer is someone that I have been meaning to cover for a while, and I'm sure I'm going to actually end up doing an entire series on Paul Washer.

I think there's a lot to say here.

But today, the goal is to have a very short video.

However, I still think there's a lot of meat here, even though it's only four lines.

Let me show you the clip.

How do you pray?

I'll tell you what was told me many years ago.

You pray until you can pray.

And then you pray until you have prayed.

You break through.

You'll give him no rest.

So here's the deal.

I've had a few videos on prayer, mainly this one.

This video isn't going to be talking about does prayer work or is prayer actually harmful or testing prayer to see if there's actual results.

But what I want to talk about today is this advice.

This is so common, not just of Paul, but of so many different preachers and teachers where there is not really practical application, where there is just pretty and confusing language that sounds deep and wise.

But when you leave the service after the emotional high and the music has stopped playing, what does it really mean?

What does it really look like?

And I think the advice we get here from Paul on how to pray is not only not biblical, it's anti-biblical.

It's laced with confusion.

It's circular.

It's not practical.

And I think it leads to great harm.

I think the best way to address this is going to go line by line.

We have four lines here.

And the first line he says is pray until you can pray.

Just what does that mean?

That through the practice of doing it, you'll actually learn how?

Yeah, it's not horrible advice for some things.

Oh, you don't know how to shoot a free throw consistently?

Shoot until you can shoot.

Like I get the general concept, but when it comes to something as vague and intangible as prayer, again, what does that look like?

Because when I teach my son how to shoot a free throw, there's practical steps.

Well, you're Maybe you want to give yourself a little ritual before you begin.

Something to get the muscle memory going.

The position of your arm and elbow should be like this.

You're going to flick your wrist here.

Make sure you have a follow through.

Where are your eyes looking?

There's a lot of actual advice that leads to something being able to say really general, hey, shoot until you can shoot.

Because if you do this enough, you're going to get a result of consistency as long as you're practicing well.

And you might even learn some new things along the way that work better for you.

But we don't have all those practical steps.

Pray until you can pray is essentially meaningless.

How do you know when you've arrived?

There's a question.

Because before we get to step two, line two, first we have to know that we now know how to pray.

What does that look like specifically?

Is it when you start hearing the voice of God?

How do you know it's the voice of God?

What does that look like specifically?

See, when everything is so vague and you're talking to an invisible thing and you're trying to sort through the thoughts in your head, I think you need a lot more practical advice.

So again, when do you arrive?

When have you learned that you now know how to pray simply by the act of praying?

Is praying, by the way, first of all, so complicated?

We're going to get to a few verses specifically of what Jesus said about prayer.

But is it so hard that Christian believers at this conference in front of this man who supposedly don't know how to pray can start praying and through pure perseverance reach a point where they now can pray?

Were they not doing it before when they said anything to God?

Did he simply not hear it because they didn't know how?

Because if God heard it, then it was prayer, correct?

Even that there's this dividing line in the sand between prayer that is and prayer that is not is insane.

Only to follow it up with his second line, and then, so this is after you have arrived at learning how to pray, at actually praying because you prayed enough times that weren't praying that it's now become prayer somehow.

And then, pray until you have prayed.

Again, what?

If you just arrived at praying, then you've immediately prayed.

What does it mean to and then continue until you have prayed?

Like, I'm trying to really think about this realistically.

I lock myself in a closet for eight hours, and I'm picking that amount of time because earlier or later in the sermon, I'm not quite sure, Paul goes on to talk about these silly spiritual gifts that people seek after instead of being a real man of God who gets down on his knees and prays for eight hours straight, who fast for two weeks straight.

Again, just causing more division and doubt in the church.

No problem.

We'll just skip through that.

But let's say you don't know how to pray.

You hear Paul's advice, and you go lock yourself in a closet with a timer for eight hours, and you pray until you can pray.

By the way, is this something that should happen in a couple minutes?

Like, oh, I got to get the rhythm going.

Is it something that happens in a couple hours?

Can you What if it took months?

What if it took a full year?

What if it took a decade?

Like, what is the standard for acceptable understanding of what it is to pray?

It's so unclear.

But whenever you reach that moment, now what do you do?

Now you pray until you have prayed.

What?

Again, I'm not trying to just go over this.

I'm sure it's starting to sound like nonsense.

We're saying so many nothing statements here.

Do you just pray for a minute now?

Like you figured it out, and now your words actually matter to God?

Do you go on for another eight hours, and then it's done?

Just looking at these first two lines.

I know I already gave you a basketball example, but try to apply this to anything else.

Because this isn't a question that's benign.

This is one of the most important questions that could be asked if you're a believer.

How do I commune with God, my personal Savior, my Father, my Creator?

But see how much this fails even for the simplest of things.

Hey, I want to get good at surfing.

I want to learn how to surf.

How do I surf?

How should I surf?

Oh, no problem.

Just surf until you can surf, and then at that point, surf until you've surfed.

You, standing on the beach right now, what do you go and do?

Drown?

I mean, it's insane advice.

Hey, I want to start baking.

Oh, sure.

Just bake until you can bake, and then bake until you've baked.

Again, I know the feeling when you're sitting in a pew, and you had the priming from the worship service, and maybe you just had a really emotional session as someone laid hands on you and prayed for you, and you're seeking out this God, and you're in front of the Paul washer, and there's 6,000 people in attendance, and there's an energy, and there's a ritual, and there's a chanting, and all kinds of things that have triggered your brain to just receive emotion.

And he says something that sounds so wise, so deep, something that has helped him in his personal journey, something that a wise mentor once told him, wow, this is gold, but this is what it is.

It is this silly.

It is this nonpractical.

It is this much of a nothing.

His next line is this, break through.

Again, going with this idea of him praying for eight hours, or fasting for two weeks, or that God needs something more from us before he's willing to hear us, to answer us, whatever it is.

Well, if that's true, A, it should be spelled out in the Bible, and B, it should be you're not being fair.

There's different levels for different people.

Maybe they have to get their heart right.

Maybe they weren't ever sincere.

Again, all this vagueness.

If it's this vague, then Paul shouldn't be saying any advice to a general congregation.

He should be teaching people one by one, if it's so hyper-specific to them, and their unique personality, and their struggle, and their level of relationship with God.

Otherwise, telling someone, pray until you can pray, pray until you have prayed, breakthrough, still means nothing.

How do you know that you've broken through?

Will you then hear the voice of God?

Do you pray until you do break through?

What does this look like physically in your life?

When are you eating?

When are you sleeping?

Are those things bad now?

Does it mean if you stop to eat, or stop to drink, or stop to sleep, that you have given up on God, and you have to start the whole process over tomorrow?

Or again, if this is a much longer time frame, which many people would tell you that it is, you know, draw a circle around yourself, and demand this from God until He shows up kind of a deal, it's months.

What happens to your job?

What happens to your family?

What happens to your friendships?

Is this what God demands before He will address you, commune with you, hear you?

The very phrase, breakthrough, after this impossible understanding of what He actually means to pray, suggests that an all-powerful God that desires a Sometimes, sometimes He says the opposite, is not quite powerful enough to have heard you unless you've really beaten down His door, which is the fourth line, you'll give Him no rest, as if this is a God that can be worn down.

Now, ironically enough, there are many Old Testament passages that would lead you to believe this is exactly the case, and we do get even contradicting New Testament verses about praying without ceasing.

What does that mean?

No one can agree.

I've heard so many different pastors in so many different kinds of settings and congregations and denominations say something about prayer without ceasing, and they cannot make up their minds.

They cannot agree.

Where's the witness of the Holy Spirit to help us?

Praying with perseverance, praying in steadfastness.

Again, this is all so vague.

You know who wasn't vague?

Jesus.

It really shouldn't be this confusing.

Jesus was asked the same question.

How do we pray?

And that's where you get the Lord's Prayer, a prayer that is typically depicted in seven lines.

Jesus didn't tell His followers, hey, you know what, this is, okay, this is a lot, get ready, but pray until you can pray, and then pray until you have prayed.

Break through.

Give your Heavenly Father no rest.

No, He said, oh, pray like this.

And I'm actually excited to do a breakdown on the Lord's Prayer, but that prayer is really specific.

It covers a lot of things that can be used as kind of an outline for how one should ask God.

Then you show reverence.

Then you show submission to God's will.

Then you ask for provision, forgiveness, guidance, and protection.

That's the Lord's Prayer.

That's pretty simple.

What if Paul had said that?

I'm a non-Christian, and I can teach you how to pray better.

And I want to read you Matthew 6, 7 through 8.

And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.

Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.

Could we find a verse that is more contradicting to Paul's message here?

I don't think so.

Do not just keep babbling, thinking that because of that, the many words, your God will hear you.

That is exactly what Paul is saying.

Wear him down.

Break through.

So I know there's confusing and contradicting passages about prayer between the Old Testament and the New, or the New and the New, or between Jesus and Paul, or between the different Gospel accounts of what Jesus said.

There's a ton of confusion.

But a man of God who fasts for weeks on end and prays for eight hours at a time should know that verse, and should know that the advice he's given from the pulpit in a position of power and authority and respect completely disagrees with what the Bible just said.

This doesn't even need to be an atheist channel.

I might as well be a Christian critiquing another believer right now.

And Jesus ends that verse with, do not be like them, why?

Because God already knows before you ask.

Jesus's depiction here is of a good father who is invested, who is already leaned in, who already hears the cries of your heart, completely separate from the idea that one needs to break through before they can reach God.

But Paul is a good Old Testament reader, and again, you would not fault him for thinking that this God can turn a deaf ear or needs his attention grabbed through consistent prayer, fasting, or sacrifice.

So therefore, my gripe is not as much with Paul or the circular and impossible preaching that he's done as it is with the inconsistency of the Bible that can lead someone to preaching something one day and preaching the exact opposite the other and both being considered biblical and both failing overall.