Raymond Woodward - SEVEN SIMPLE PRAYERS THAT CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE

Tonight, uh, everybody says it's going to be simple, and it is, because I want to talk to you about seven simple prayers that can change your life. Going to go to this scripture, Luke chapter 11 and verse 1. And it came to pass that as Jesus was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.

Please notice that the disciples did not say, Jesus, teach us how to pray. They said, teach us to pray. It was more about motivation than some method. It was more about hunger than structure. It was more about thirst than technique. They, they weren't looking for a prayer plan. They were looking for the passion that they saw in Jesus when he prayed. And tonight, God wants to ignite somebody's passion for prayer in this service.

With that in mind, I want you to lift up your hands. If you got that Bible, that's good. Lift that up too. I want you to just say, Jesus, I'm open for your word. I'm not resistant. I'm receptive. I want to be instructed and equipped. And God, I want you to ignite a fire in me. Teach me to pray. Teach me to pray, God. I want you to let light that fire. Let it blaze in my heart. This is the week that we've set aside at the Pentecostals of Cooper City. This is the week, Jesus, I just want you to ignite that in my life and in my heart. Oh, if you're filled with the Holy Ghost, I want you to lift up your voice like a trumpet and pray in the spirit for a minute or two. Just pray in the spirit. Use that gift that God put inside of you. Access that power that God put inside of you. Let me tell you, to this afternoon, somebody can receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost in this service tonight. Yes, yes, yes, yes.

[Applause]

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Oh, I worship you, Jesus. Go ahead and be seated. And the devil needs to know, we can do this any old way we want. We can do this standing, seated, laying on the floor, walking around. So when you get all comfortable, oh, clap your hands all ye people, and shout unto God with a voice of triumph. Jesus is in our midst tonight. Jesus is here tonight.

Now, when the disciples said that, in response to their question, Jesus taught a master class on prayer. It's what we now call The Lord's Prayer, and it may be the most often quoted words in the history of the world. But here's the point: Jesus wasn't just giving us a paragraph to be repeated. He wasn't just giving us a pattern to be memorized. He was showing us just how simple prayer can actually be.

Let me just pull the cover back and just kind of just say this as plain as I can. Prayer is a conversation with God. That's what it is. When you pray in your home, when you pray all alone, can I just tell you, I think you know this by common sense, but we forget it sometimes. Your prayer at home is not going to feel exactly the same as corporate prayer when we're all together on a Sunday night. And that's okay, because conversation is conversation. It's talking to God.

Now, when you have conversations with the important people in your life, your loved ones, your spouse, your children, your family, your parents, your siblings, you don't plan those conversations. You just have those conversations. They are now natural as breathing. They are effortless. Sometimes they're just about endless, and they're sometimes even voiceless. We're just fellowshipping together. We are in conversation. So conversation isn't pressure or performance. It's not posturing or pretending. Prayer is a conversation with God.

Now, if you're like me, uh, I'm a kind of a type A, driven, um, perfectionist. Somebody said to me one time, well, are you a recovering perfectionist? And I said, no, why would you want to recover from perfection? Like, that's crazy. But if you're one of those people like me, you maybe have thought this: God already knows what I need, and he already knows exactly what I'm going to say, so what's the point? That thought entered my brain before. But don't tell me that, because your friends and your family, they already know exactly what you're going to say too. They can finish your stories. They can finish your sentences. Some of your friends in this church, you start a story in the church foyer, and they can finish it to everybody standing there because you've told it to them 50 times before. They already know who you voted for. They already know what you think about the government. They already know what you think about your job. And you tell them all over again anyway. Why? Because that's a conversation, and you're in relationship. So you just talk about it.

So tonight, I want to give you a little gift, and it's going to try to demystify this thing called prayer and make it simple. Here's, here's the thing. I want to go to two, uh, passages, actually, one passage and one book of the Bible. Two gospels. We're going to look at the Lord's Prayer recorded by Matthew, and that has seven phrases in it. But then we're also going to look at the Gospel of John. John is the only gospel writer to record what the theologians call the seven I Am statements of Jesus, where he declares definitively, I am Almighty God. And we're going to twin them. We're going to put them together tonight. This is something the Lord really gave to me, and I'm so grateful for it. So I want to talk about some, uh, some very simple prayers.

So let's go first to Matthew 6, verse 9. First phrase of the Lord's Prayer: "Our Father which art in heaven." And I want to twin that with this statement of Jesus in John 14. He said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father, but by me." So the first phrase of the Lord's Prayer is all about approaching Our Father, our heavenly Father, our good, good Father, our eternal Father. And the very first prayer we encounter here is the heartfelt cry of a child to their father. And the very first prayer is really simple. Somebody shout, "Help!" That's the first prayer. It's real simple. Prayer begins with no one who to turn to. You can't get to the Father unless you know Jesus, because that's who he is. "He that has seen me has seen the Father." "I and my Father are one." So if you want to approach God the Father, you've got to know Jesus.

Now, "help" is simply a confession of need. But when we cry out for help, we are crying to a God who can meet that need. He's my Father. So if it matters to me, it matters to him. He's ready to help us whenever we call on him. Somebody say, "Help!"

Now, the truth is, it takes far more courage to ask for help than it does to hide and pretend and deny. When you ask God for help, that's not weakness. That is strength. Needing help is the way God created us. You were not created to be a little island floating around life all by yourself. One of the most used names for God in the scripture is God my Helper. Psalm 46: "God is our refuge and strength, he's a very present help in time of trouble." See, the word "help" can change your life if you'll just learn to pray it. You know why you were created with a flaw? God let you be born with a flaw, and that flaw is you need him. There's an empty chasm inside of you. There's a black hole inside of you. It can't be filled with anything else but God. So God created you with that little flaw. You're never going to get rid of it until you know Jesus. You're never going to get rid of it until you fill it up with the Holy Ghost. And it may look like weakness to the world for us to always be calling on God for help, but we figured out that's actually strength.

Psalm 121: "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help." You say, but Pastor Raymond, here's the problem. What you don't understand is nobody else got me in this problem. It's my fault that I'm in this situation. It's my fault that I created all this mess. But see, your past doesn't matter to God, because he can forgive your past and redeem your past and restore you. So no matter what caused it, God can help you get out of it.

I fell in love with this little verse, Hosea 13 and 9: "O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself." Your fault, you made the mess. But then he says, "but in me is thine help." I don't care how you got into it, God can get you out of it. I don't care what caused it, God can use it for your good. And so he invites us to come to his throne room for help. Look at this, Hebrews 4: "Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, why? That we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." So it's a simple prayer. I'm not denying that. But it's a prayer to a powerful God, and he cares about you and he loves you. And if you'll just ask him, he will help you. Somebody shout, "Help!" That's the first simple prayer.

Here's the next one. Matthew 6, verse 9. Second phrase of the Lord's Prayer: "Hallowed be thy name." Want to twin that with this statement from Jesus in John 10:9: "I am the door; by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture." To hallow someone. Now, I guarantee nobody used the word "hallow" while you were eating your taco this afternoon. Nobody said, "I think we should hallow something." Because we don't use that word anymore. But to hallow means to consecrate, to sanctify, to treat as holy, to revere, to be in awe, to set apart. When you hallow God's name, you do it by offering worship, because worship is the door into God's presence. When you pray, you're going to need to spend some time worshiping, because worship is the door into God's presence. And the easiest, most instinctive, most natural kind of worship is one simple word. Somebody shout, "Thanks!" Somebody shout, "Thanks!"

See, when you say "thanks" to God, that's the password into his presence. That's the key to the the door. That's the latch to the gate. Look at this, Psalm 100, verse 4: "Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name." So when you just lift up your face and your voice and you say, "Thank you, Jesus," that's the quickest way I know into his presence. That's the quickest way to bring his presence close.

Now, giving thanks to God, it is not a list to recite. It is not an obligation to fulfill. Saying thanks is an attitude of your heart that is heard in your words, and seen in your expression, and demonstrated in your actions. Being thankful is not reciting a list to God. Being thankful is a lifestyle. And that lifestyle of thanks appears everywhere in the Bible. So I got to ask you, what about you? How often do you say thanks to God? More importantly, how often do you feel thankful to God? Have you ever thought about all the blessings you have simply because you live here in America? Have you ever thought about how you are in the top 5% of all the world's people in income and in privileges and in perks? You have a lot to be thankful for. Our prayer of thanks is simply trying to put into words what is really beyond words.

So it's not so much about what you say. You don't have to get it perfectly right. You don't have to be eloquent or classy when you pray. You just say it from your heart. It's not about what you say. It's about that attitude of thanks that you feel. Colossians 3: "Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him." So we often major on the first phrase: "Whatever you do in word or deed, do it all in the name of Jesus." And we should. If you're going to pray, pray in the name of Jesus. If you're going to be baptized, be baptized in the name of Jesus. If you're going to intercede, intercede in the name of Jesus. If you're going to claim a promise, claim a promise in the name of Jesus. But there's a second phrase. "And while you're doing all of that, give thanks to God and the Father by him." Everything we do should be permeated with thanks to God. Somebody shout, "Thanks!"

So whatever you're doing, and whatever you're talking about, and whatever you're feeling, and whatever you're going through, give God thanks. You say, but Pastor, I have a problem with that, because, because I'm going through some rough stuff right now. I'm going through some hard situations right now, and I don't feel like I can give God thanks for that. Well, the Bible, that's good, because the Bible never told you to give God thanks for it. Here's what the Bible says, 1 Thessalonians 5: "Not for everything give thanks, but in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." So when you can't give God thanks for everything, you can still give God thanks in everything. My goodness, that's important.

Job lost everything that he had. Job lost his family, his possessions, he lost his livelihood, he lost his home. Even his wife looked at him one day and said, "Why don't you just curse God and get it over with and die?" Job lost everything. And Job declared, "Though he slay me, yet will I trust him." He said this: "When God is finished trying me, I shall come forth as gold." Here's what Job said: "I can't tell you when I'm coming out of this trial, but I can show you how I'm coming out of this trial." Whatever day God lets me loose of this, whatever day God heals me, whatever day God turns it around, I can tell you how I'm coming. I can't give you the date when I'm coming out, but watch me, devil, here's how I'm coming out. I'm coming out giving God thanks. I'm coming out giving God praise. I'm coming out rejoicing. I am not coming out of this backsliding and bitter. I'm going to come out of this with my head held high, giving thanks to God in everything. Oh, somebody shout, "Thanks!" Somebody lift up your voice and thank God for something. Thank him for something good. Thank him in the middle of something bad. But when you give him thanks, that brings his presence. Oh, my, my, my.

Here's another verse, one more, and we'll move on. Hebrews 13: "By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually." What in the world is the sacrifice of praise? Here it is. That is, this is what it is: "the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name." That is the sacrifice of praise. When your lips, your voice, your tongue, your words, when you give thanks to his name, that's the sacrifice of praise. You see, sometimes thanks feels like a celebration, but other times thanks feels like a sacrifice. Because everything's not going good, but you give God. Oh, this will help you. You give God thanks with your mouth until your heart catches up. That's what you do. You enter into his presence, and you use that word. You use that prayer. It's very simple, but if you learn to pray it, somebody say, "Thanks!" And when you say thanks to him, that is the quickest way I know into his presence. Just thanking him. Thank him for a good day. Thank him in the middle of a bad day. Thank him for your family. Thank him in the middle of a cancer diagnosis. You can thank him for it, or you can thank him in it. But one way or the other, devil, I'm going to give God thanks, because that's the way I get into his presence. "Enter into his gates with Thanksgiving." Oh, my. Somebody say, "Thanks!" Thanks can change your life.

So let's move on. Somebody say, "Help!" Somebody say, "Thanks!" And here's the next one. Matthew chapter 6 and verse 10. Next phrase of the Lord's Prayer: "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven." And we're going to twin that with this statement of Jesus in the Gospel of John. Jesus said, "I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." The very presence of our God, the very presence of Jesus, pierces the darkness and puts the devil to flight, because Jesus doesn't just have light, he is light. 1 John 1: "This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare it unto you, that God is light and in him is no darkness at all."

Now, here's the thing. We understand why Jesus would say that he is the light of the world, because he's perfect, he's sinless, he's Almighty, he's God in flesh. We get it why Jesus would say, "I am the light of the world." But see, here's the thing. Jesus is no longer here on this planet in physical form. But that's exactly why he has his body, the church. So the same Jesus who said, "I am the light of the world," also said this, Matthew 5: "Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid." Verse 16: "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." So it's no longer just about Jesus being the light. He left us here to be the light.

Let me tell you something about prayer. It's very simple. In fact, this is all just kind of just brain-dead simple. Every light switch in this campus preaches a sermon, because if that light switch is connected to the power, then you flip the switch, and the light is going to overcome the darkness. It is inevitable. And you, brothers and sisters, you are that light switch. And it all comes down to one very simple prayer. Somebody shout with your voice, shout, "Yes!" That's the prayer. That's what you're praying when you pray, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven." It's simple, but it's powerful.

When you pray that prayer, when you say "yes," what you're doing is saying, "God, you already gave me a lot of promises in your word. So I'm going to look at a promise in your word, and I'm going to go to prayer, and it's real simple. I'm just going to pray, 'Yes, Jesus, that one is what I need.'" "I am the Lord that healeth thee." "Yes, thou shalt be saved and thy house." "Yes, Jesus, I need that one." "I speak to the north, give up, and to the south, hold not back. Bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth, even everyone that is called by my name." "Yes, I need that one, Jesus." Oh, my. Somebody say, "Yes!"

"Yes" is a prayer of agreement with what God has already stated in his word. "Yes" is you agreeing with the the promises and the plans of Heaven. Now, like every light switch in this campus, you don't have to provide the power. You're just hooked up to the power. Jesus has all power. You just need to be the switch that turns on the light. That's what part of your prayer is. "Yes, God, you promised me that you'd save the backslider. You promised me that you'd pour out your spirit." "Yes, yes, yes." That's what you're doing. You're turning on that light switch. That's what you're doing. All you have to be is the switch that turns on the light in this dark world. And that's why there's no test on this. After that, that's why in The Lord's Prayer, those phrases that Jesus said are written in the third person imperative of the Greek language. Didn't you talk about that at dinner? Nah. What that means simply is this: they're not just little wimpy statements. They are commands in the Greek language. Jesus taught us to pray like this, commanding, "Come, kingdom of God, be done, will of God." Right here, Jesus, I'm on the ground over on Main Street. I'm on the ground in my apartment. I'm on the ground at work, and your will is not being done here. So I'm just going to stand here and I'm going to pray, "Yes," until I see it bend to your will, until I see it move, move toward your kingdom. Your kingdom's not being manifest in this corner of my existence. So I'm going to be the light switch. I don't have the power to change it, but I know a God with the power to change it. So I'm going to get a promise and I'm going to pray, "Yes, come kingdom of God, be done, will of God."

Now, I love the Apostle Paul. Oh, my goodness. I can hardly wait to meet him in heaven. You know why I love him the most? Because every once in a while, he just let people have it. I love him for that. I just love him. I can hardly wait to talk to him in heaven. Say, Paul, I knew some stupid people too. Paul writes a couple of lessons, uh, a couple of letters, rather, to the Corinthians. First and second Corinthians. Anytime you see two epistles in the Bible that share the same name, like first and second Thessalonians, first, 2 Corinthians, any of that, there was a problem in between. Every single time. And in Corinth, between his first letter, which contained a lot of correction and discipline, and it was no doubt hard to receive, boy, there was a lot of buzzing going on in the foyer at First Apostolic Church of Corinth. But they were at least comforted by what Paul had said in his first letter. He said, "I'm going to come and visit you, and we can talk about this in person." So they took some comfort in that. But then Paul's plans got changed through no fault of his own. I mean, this is the guy that was shipwrecked and left for dead and and and beaten and put in jail. His plans got changed through no fault of his own. So now the buzz going around in Corinth is, well, Paul lied to us. Paul's fickle. Paul changed his mind. Paul told us he was coming, but then he said he's not coming. He's written us off. He doesn't really love us. Paul told us "yes" when all the time he intended to mean "no."

So Paul uses that misunderstanding to teach them something so powerful. Look at this, 2 Corinthians 1: "When I therefore was thus minded, did I use lightness, or the things that I purpose do I purpose according to the flesh, that with me there should be yea yea and nay nay? But as God is true, our word toward you was not yea and nay. For the Son of God Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silas and Timothy, was not yea and nay, but in him was yea." There you got it. That's a King James tongue twister, isn't it? You know what Paul's saying? Do you really think I speak out of both sides of my mouth? Do you really think I callously would break a promise? Don't you know I would have been there if my circumstances had allowed? Because I try to be as true to my word as God is to his word. But there's a difference between me and God. I don't control all the circumstances. But we know a God who does control all the circumstances. And when he gets that out of the way, now he moves to his punchline in verse 20: "For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him amen, unto the glory of God by us." All of the promises of God are yes in Jesus. Jesus is God's yes to every one of them.

Now, right now, there's a little contingent in modern Christianity that is trying to attack and diminish and demean and discard the Old Testament. And if you hear any of those voices, ignore them. Because all of the counsel of God is important to us. If you hear one of those people and they say, you know, "We don't need to pay attention to the Old Testament. We're new Covenant people." Would you just put them on ignore? Because here's what those dudes have forgotten: there was no New Testament until all the people living in the New Testament were old. They didn't have a New Testament. Those epistles, all of those letters that you read, all of those gospels that you read, were written somewhere between 30 and 60 years after the day of Pentecost when the church started. So when the apostles were doing ministry and preaching the word of God, they didn't have the book of Acts. It hadn't been written yet. They didn't have the epistle to the of the Romans. Hadn't been written yet. What they had was the Old Testament. Do you understand that? When they needed to preach the gospel, they preached it from the Old Testament. So this is not a church that's going to toss out the Old Testament. We're going to read it. We're going to love it. We're going to proclaim it. And we're going to know that the New Testament is the fulfillment of the Old Testament.

So I'm going somewhere. That means some of you are keeping score because you know there's like seven things and this is only three. Oh dear. Yeah, go ahead, keep score. Here's what that means. I know that when God says to Joshua, "Every place that the sole of your foot treads, I will give it to you." I know that's a promise to Joshua. I know that was written thousands of years ago. I know that its primary fulfillment is to Joshua. But see, here's what else I know: all of the promises of God in Jesus are yet, and in Jesus are amen. So I have a right to reach back into the Old Testament and say, "God, if you would do that for Joshua, you can do that for me." If he could walk and you could give him that territory, we're going to walk. I'm going to walk into my home and I'm going to say, "Every place that the sole of my foot treads, you're going to give it to me." Because all of the promises of God in him are yes, and in him amen. Somebody say, "Yes!" Because you're the light switch that turns on the light.

Okay, here we go. For all of you that are keeping score, this is number four. Everybody say, "Help!" Everybody say, "Thanks!" Everybody say, "Yes!" Now, Matthew 6, verse 11: "Give us this day our daily bread." Of course, we will twin that with this statement of Jesus: "I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst." Ironically, Jesus makes that I Am statement the day after he feeds 5,000 people bread. But those same people have shown up the next day still looking for more miraculous signs. And that's when Jesus puts an end to the discussion by saying, "I am the bread of life." What he's saying is, "I am everything you need. I am enough."

And something similar happens in The Lord's Prayer when Jesus says, "Give us this day our daily bread." He's reaching back into Jewish history and he's alluding to that time when God miraculously provided manna in the wilderness. God sustained them on a daily basis with manna. And he even told Israel, "If you gather more than you need, it will just spoil, because I want to teach you that you're going to rely on me for daily bread." Here's the setting. God told this to Moses, Deuteronomy 8: "And he humbled you, and suffered you to hunger, and fed you with manna." What's that? Now, wait, wait, wait. Moses, God fed you and caused you to hunger at the same time? What's that mean? He suffered you to hunger and he fed you with manna. You know what that means? That means that God gave them everything they needed, but he didn't always give them everything they wanted. That's what that means. "Which thou knewest not." Now, that's kind of funny. There's funny things in the Bible. When they first walked out of their tents on that first morning, God sent manna. They didn't know what it was, so they called it manna. Manna in Hebrew means "What is it?" They had "What is it?" every morning, every night for years, 40 years. Manna, what is it? Now, I've been married to Beverly for nearly 40 years, and there are several times she's made manna, and she's not here to defend herself. So I sat down at the table and I said, "Manna, what is it?"

Here's the point. This is Old Testament. Even in the Old Testament, God was teaching them something. "Which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know." God is teaching, teaching you something, Israel, that man does not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. That's how man lives. Even in the Old Testament, God is trying to teach his people something. You need me more than you need stuff. If you're not obeying my commandments, no amount of possessions will ever satisfy the hunger of your heart. Without me, you will always feel empty. Without me, you will always want more. Without me, you'll always hunger and thirst. Without me, you'll always be discontent and unfulfilled. But if you'll put me first, somebody shout, "Enough!"

That's the prayer that Jesus is teaching us to pray. With God, I have enough. I may not have everything that everybody thinks is a status symbol. I may not have the newest and the greatest and the latest version. But with God, I have enough. And if you'll learn to pray that prayer, "Jesus, you're enough. Jesus, you're enough. You gave me everything I needed to get through today. You gave me my daily bread." It'll change your life. This is probably the most misunderstood and misapplied phrase in all of the Lord's Prayer, because when you pray, "Give us this day our daily bread," that is not saying, "God, give me what I want." It is saying, "God, give me what I need." That's very different. It is not saying, "I want everything on my list." No, it's saying, "Jesus, you're at the top of my list." When I have you, I have my daily bread. When I have you, you are the bread of life to me. When I have you, you are enough.

Now, we'll talk about my prayer requests, but I just want to let you know first that you're my daily bread. See, "Give us this day our daily bread." That is not a demand for more. It is a declaration of enough. Because if you learn to pray enough, that will change your life. If you learn to say to God, "Jesus, you're my All in All. You are the fairest of ten thousand to my soul. You are enough for me." That'll refocus every day of your life. Enough is not a level you achieve. It is a statement of trust that you declare. Oh, my goodness. It's like the little Catholic boy living in the home. They had all those little pretty statues all around, and he was praying for a new bike. And he never got his prayer answered. He prayed it again. He never got a new bike. Prayed it again. Never got a new bike. And finally, he snuck into his mother's bedroom, and there was a statuette of the Virgin Mary there, and he took it and he hid it under his bed. And when he got down to pray that night, he said, "God, I have your mother." He's going to get what he wanted.

When you pray, "Give us this day our daily bread," it's not a ransom note to God. "I'm going to get bitter. I'm not going to serve you. I'm going to get an attitude if you don't." No, no, no. That's not what it is. It's a statement: "Jesus, you are at the top of my list. You are my daily bread. You are the living Word. You are enough." Here's how Paul said it to Timothy: "But godliness with contentment is great gain." I know a lot of godly people. They live a holy life, but they are miserable. You know why? Because they're not content. But you know what? I have everything I need today. I could name you a hundred things that I want, but they're not even consequential, because with Jesus, I have everything that I need for today. You're enough. Jesus, you're enough. Somebody shout, "He's enough!" That's a good prayer to pray. Somebody say, "Help!" Somebody say, "Thanks!" Somebody say, "Yes!" Somebody say, "Enough!"

Now, you might not have liked that one, and that's okay, because you're going to like this next one less. Matthew chapter 6 and verse 12: "And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors." And strangely enough, we're going to twin that with this I Am statement of Jesus: "I am the True Vine, and my Father is the husbandman." See, God, like any good vine dresser, any good husbandman, God has a pruning process in our lives. And his pruning process allows spiritual deadness and disease and damage to be removed from our lives. His pruning process increases our fruitfulness and it clears debris and clutter that can hurt our relationship with God and with others. But here's the thing: God's pruning process always feels miserable. It never hurts us, it always helps us. But many people resist praying one simple prayer that could free their heart. And you know why they fight against praying this simple prayer? It's because his pruning appears to take something from us when in reality, it's really giving something to us.

This is the only prayer in all of the Lord's Prayer that is connected to what we do in our relationships with others. In other words, we need to learn to say this word to God, but we also need to learn to say this word to others. Because in relationships, whether it's our relationship with God or our relationship with others, all too often the only fix for that problem in that relationship is to pray to God or say to someone else one simple word. Everyone say, "Sorry." Sorry. That's the word. Oh, my goodness. We don't like saying that or praying that.

Now, it's one thing to say sorry to God, who always responds by pruning sin from our life and forgiving us. But Jesus made what you pray, pray to God, conditional on what you say to others. When you choose to forgive others, then you can ask God to forgive you. Letting them go free allows you to be free. Only that phrase of the Lord's Prayer has a PS attached to it. Here it is, in Matthew 14, the very next verse after the Lord's Prayer: "For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses."

Now, when you look at forgiveness in the Greek language, in the language of the New Testament, it always means a release from some type of obligation. And most commonly, it's a financial obligation. It's a debt. And that's how Jesus always illustrated forgiveness. That's how he always did it. He told stories like this: There was a king who loaned a servant a million dollars, and the servant wasted it, squandered it, lost it, and comes back and says, "I can't repay." And at that moment, that king has a decision to make. Because that servant owes him that money. That servant did wrong. That servant took something that wasn't his. And that king has to make a decision. He has every right to be repaid. That is his money. The servant has every obligation to repay. He's guilty. But the servant doesn't have enough resources to pay that debt. And so, in every one of Jesus' stories, every time he's illustrating forgiveness, that king chose to take the loss himself and forgive the servant and let that servant go out free.

Jesus is saying something strong, because I know probably thousands of people I've met in my travels that they are holding on to something that somebody did against them, and it has bound their spirit for months or even years, and sometimes decades. And you know how you know? Because when they get in a conversation, it can't help but bubble to the surface, and it comes out in their words, because Jesus said, "Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks." And they can't hide it. They're bitter, they're upset, and they really feel like if they would forgive that person, they'd be losing something. "If I forgive them, then they just get to go out free." No, no, my brother. If you forgive them, you get to go out free. You get to lay that burden down. You get to have your joy back. You get to give your get your peace back. If you forgive them, it's not about what it does for them, it's about what God wants to do for you.

So you got to learn to pray this, and God connects them, him, and people. You've got to learn to pray, "I'm sorry" to God every time you sin, every time you mess up, quickly, quickly, as soon as you can. Don't let the sun go down on that list of sins before you pray and say, "God, I'm sorry. Please forgive me." But let me tell you something else that's connected to you and other people. And if there's something in your heart towards somebody else, you say, "But it's their fault, Pastor Raymond." Of course it is. They did wrong to you. They took something from you. They hurt you. They're 100% wrong. I'm not even going to debate that with you. But Jesus isn't asking you to forgive them because it takes something from you. It gives something to you. God wants to prune that hurt off of your life. God wants to cut that bitterness out of your heart, and he wants you to have joy. He wants you to have peace.

You, you, you say, "You don't, you don't understand. You don't understand. I still feel so bad about it." Not one time in the scripture does God compare forgiving somebody to feeling different. Not one time. Forgiveness is not about your feelings. You listen to your feelings, they will destroy you. Your feelings are not reliable. They can be influenced by the news you see on your phone, by one phone call or text message. Your feelings can be conditioned on what you ate the night before. Your feelings are not reliable. Let me tell you something else. You say, "I can't forgive them because I still remember it. I remember it like it was yesterday." Not one time in scripture does God ever compare forgiving and forgetting. You may remember it every day for the rest of your life, but forgiveness is not forgetting. And forgiveness is not about feelings. Here's what forgiveness is: it's a choice to just let go of that. It's a choice to say, "I'm sorry. Sorry that happened, but I'm moving on. I'm sorry that happened, but I refuse to talk about that for the rest of my life." Oh, my goodness. It's a wonderful thing to be free from the burden of sin that was between me and God. But let me tell you something else. It's an amazing thing to be free of the burden of offense that was between me and somebody else. It's amazing to be free.

Some of you deserve to be free. Some of you, Pastor, he's called this week, and and he didn't know it, and you don't know it, but Jesus knows it. While you're praying and fasting and consecrating yourself this week, God is going to pull some old hurt out of your heart. God is going to cut some stuff out of your life. God's going to prune some old offense, and you're going to get to the end of Wednesday and you're going to say, "I've never felt freer. I've never felt better. I've never felt lighter. I got my joy back. I got my peace back." Oh, I wish you'd lift up your hands and just worship God for a minute. My, my, my, my. I need to move on. Somebody say, "Sorry." Sometimes you got to learn to pray that to God, and sometimes you got to learn to say that to somebody else. Remember, Jesus was the one that said that if you forgive them, your heavenly Father will forgive you. You ever notice this scripture in the Bible? "If your brother has an offense toward you, and you're at the altar worshiping, leave the altar, go make it right with your brother, and then come back and offer your gift to the Lord." Boy, that would change a lot of church services. I'll tell you what it would do. This church is going to have revival whether you and I are in it or not. But I choose to be right smack dab in the middle of it. I am not going to sit on the sidelines and nurse an old hurt and nurse an old wound and just watch it happen. I want to be right in the middle of it. So I'm going to just let go of anything, any offense, any hurt, any old wound. I'm just going to let it go. Oh, let's move on, because some of you are getting nervous.

Matthew 6:13: "And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." And I want to twin that with this I Am statement of Jesus: "I am the Good Shepherd: the Good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep." Now, I got to tell you something. You're not going to like sheep. Sheep are not survivors. Sheep are not strong or independent creatures. Sheep are not proud hunters or fierce predators. You can take just about any other domesticated animal, a cat, a dog, and you can return that domesticated animal to the wild, and it will at least stand a fighting chance of survival. But not sheep. Because sheep are so defenseless. Sheep are kind of dumb. There are YouTube videos. Do not look them up right now. There are YouTube videos. They're all over YouTube of sheep literally, one sheep will run off a cliff, and a hundred other sheep will follow it, and they all end up like some big, rising marshmallow at the bottom of the cliff, dying and bleeding and hurt. Sheep are dumb. Oh, oh, yeah. Here's my point. Guess what animal God compares us to? Here's why. Because sheep are so defenseless, they are totally dependent on the shepherd to protect them. If they don't follow the shepherd, they can't survive for very long. But here's the key: if they will stay within the boundaries that are imposed by the shepherd, they will be protected and they will flourish. So anytime the shepherd says, "No, we're not going over there. No, you can't graze over there." It's for their own good.

Let me tell you something, people. There is a prayer you can pray that will make you a spiritual survivor. It's a very simple prayer, but it's a very powerful prayer. If you pray it consistently, it will defend you against the enemy's attacks. It will direct you in the Lord's paths. This little simple prayer will even keep your flesh in check so you don't make dumb mistakes. It'll guard you from the danger of temptation. It will deliver you from the snares of the devil. It's just a little tiny prayer. It's just a little short word, but it's a powerful prayer. We already learned one prayer is saying "yes." Here's the other one. Somebody shout, "No!"

Just the same way you need to pray "yes" to God's kingdom and "yes" to God's will, you need to learn every day to pray "no" to the devil's kingdom and "no" to the devil's will. That's what you need. "No" is not a prayer of burden. "No" is not a prayer of bondage. "No" is a prayer of blessing. "No, devil, you don't have any right to walk into this house and tempt me like that. You get out of here. I say no to you." You see, Apostolic believers, when we pray "yes," we are equipped to entreat. That's when we ask God, and we ask him fervently, and we ask him repeatedly. We are entreating. But you're equipped to do more than entreating God, asking him. You are equipped to enforce God's will. And you are equipped and to enforce that the devil doesn't have a right to your life. Prayer is not about begging and pleading. Prayer is about binding and loosing. That's what prayer is about. When you loose something in the spirit, you're praying "yes," "Thy kingdom come, thy will." When you bind something in the spirit, you're praying "no." "Devil, you can't do that to my kids. No, devil, you are not making a drug addict out of my teenager. No, no, no, no."

Matthew 16: "And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." Jesus is teaching right there that the church is empowered to pray in ways that stop hell dead in its tracks. You are God's on-site observer in your life and in your home and in your city. And when you say, when you see something that's not right, you learn to pray those two prayers: "Yes" to your will, "Yes" to your kingdom, and "No" to the devil.

No to Temptation and no to sin. Now, you don't make it happen, but when you pray, it releases God to do what He wants to do. Look, look at this. Paul, 2 Corinthians chapter 10: "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh." Your enemy is not your spouse, not your kids, not your parents, not other people in the church, not your boss. We are not warring after the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but they are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.

And when you go to prayer as an Apostolic believer, you can cast down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of Christ and of God, and bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. How do you pull down a stronghold over your teenager? How do you pull down a stronghold over your spouse? How do you pull down a stronghold that's trying to beat its way into your brain and cause depression in your life? Here's how you pray it, and you say it: "No, devil, I refuse you. I refuse your will. I refuse your kingdom. I refuse Temptation." Every once in a while, you just got to stand up straight and push back and say no.

By the way, if that situation continues to resist you, remember what pastors are teaching you this very every week, that fasting is using your body to say no. Fasting is like putting an exclamation mark on the end of your prayer. "I'm serious about this, God. I'm fasting!" Exclamation mark. That's what fasting is. No to the flesh and yes to the spirit.

So, I, I, I need to hasten, and I've just got one more. Some of you already knew that because you've been keeping score. Somebody say, "Help." Somebody say, "Thanks." Somebody say, "Yes." Somebody say, "Enough." Somebody say, "Sorry." Somebody shout, "No." No, there's just one more prayer, and it's really simple. Last phrase of the Lord's Prayer: "For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen." Twin that with Jesus' statement: "I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, dead, yet shall he live."

And this is unique. I, I kind of like this. The "w" sound. The "w" sound. W, w. That is one of the easiest sounds for human beings to make. Babies are able to make "w" sounds before almost any other consonant sounds. Like "t," "t," or "s," "s." They require much more fine tongue articulation. You don't even need a tongue to make a "w" sound. You just round your lips and go, "wo." Try it. Yeah, see, that's why it's so easy to say. Woodward. "W" is one of the most common sounds across all languages.

One study of languages found that people across cultures, they tend to use similar vowel sounds when they're disgusted or fearful or in pain. And these sounds aren't just random. They're actually very universal across cultures, across languages. People that are human, which is all of us, tend to make these natural sounds. How are natural exclamations decided? If they're very similar across cultures and languages, they're decided by what your face is doing and where your tongue happens to be in your mouth.

So when you're disgusted, your mouth will stay mostly closed, and your tongue will tense up, and you will say, "Ugh." That's what you do. But when you're in awe of something, your mouth just naturally opens. You don't even think about it, and your tongue just naturally relaxes. You don't have to think about it. And when you're in awe of something, you go, "Oh." Your face naturally makes an "o" shape when you're in awe. And if you happen to be making a sound when that happens, it naturally sounds like "w." And that's why linguists tell us that the original use of the word "wow" was probably not considered language at all, but "wow" is the natural, instinctive sound that human beings make when they're in awe.

Every language has a word for "wow," and many of them are very similar. And that's not surprising when you think of this word's origins. And I think that "wow" qualifies as a prayer. Every once in a while, you just need to take a walk out in the beautiful sunshine, look through a, a, a grove of trees, and take a walk in a park. Every once in a while, you need to look at your little children playing, and you just need to look up at the heavens and you need to say, "Wow, Jesus, you sure have been good to me." Woo!

If you look through a telescope, you can't help but say, "Wow." You might feel like you're sitting still in church right now. That's a total illusion. This Earth is spinning around its axis at a speed of 1,000 miles an hour. So every 24 hours, this planet pulls off a celestial 360. And we're also right now hurtling through space at an average velocity of 67,000 miles an hour. That is 87 times faster than the speed of sound. So even on a day when you feel like you didn't get much accomplished, don't forget that you did travel today, 1,599,793 miles through space. And to top it off, the Milky Way, all that time, is spinning like a galactic pinwheel at the dizzying rate of 483,000 miles an hour. No wonder you're tired.

If you look through a telescope at the awesomeness of God's creation, you can't help but say, "Wow." But let me turn it around. If you look through a microscope, you can't help but say, "Wow." Trillions of chemical reactions are taking place in your body every second of every day. Right now, you're inhaling oxygen, metabolizing energy, managing your equilibrium, manufacturing hormones, fighting antigens, filtering stimuli, mending tissue, purifying toxins, digesting whatever you had for lunch, and circulating blood. And all the while you're doing all of that, your magnificent brain is performing up to 10 quadrillion calculations per second, using only the equivalent of 10 watts of power. A computer would require a gigawatt of power, produced by a nuclear power plant, to pull off the same performance.

If we took your personal genome sequence and we wrote it out longhand, you would be a 3 billion word book. The King James version of the Holy Bible has 783,137 words. So your genetic code, just you, is the equivalent of nearly 4,000 Bibles. Yes, you are fearfully and wonderfully made. If we turned you into an audiobook and you were read at the rate of one double helix per second, it would take nearly a hundred years to put you into words.

I know there are people on this world, on this planet, and I know you work with some of them. I know some of them might be in your family, and they say something like this: "I have never experienced a miracle." Oh my goodness, you have never not experienced a miracle. You are a walking, talking, living, breathing, praying, worshiping miracle. Every second of every minute of every hour of every day, you are a miracle.

So every once in a while, you just need to learn in prayer. It's really simple. It's not profound. You don't need a degree in theology. You just lift up your hands and you think about God's goodness and His creation, and you just say, "Wow, God. All my life, you have been faithful. All my life, you have been good. Wow, Jesus." Prayer is not complicated. Prayer is you talking to God.

Stand with me. Just, just one last scripture. Just, just one last scripture. There are lots of "wows" all around us everywhere we look. Human history is filled with "wows." God's great story of redemption is one big "wow." And if you think about it for a minute, you'll understand that your life is filled with "wow" moments.

Married to a precious lady named Beverly. She's a prayer warrior. I have never called her when I've been away, never called her one time in my life that she has not said, "I was just praying for you. I was just about to go pray for you. I am praying for you right now." And when I think about her and her commitment, I just say, "Wow, Jesus, what a beautiful lady you gave me." When I think about my kids, and I think about those precious little grandkids. Emily sent us a picture of little Elena the other night. She was in prayer meeting. She's three. Precious little curly hair flowing down her back, little hands raised like this in prayer meeting. And Emily just happened to catch a picture of that same prayer meeting. I was up at the front walking around the church, and Clara, her older sister, who is seven, I just felt something right here, and I looked down, and Clara was reaching for my hand 'cause she wanted to pray with Grandbuddy. And we prayed. Talk to Jesus. That little girl has a heart that hungers after God. I got to baptize her in Jesus' name last year. I will never forget that moment. My other granddaughter, little Rosie, her daddy Matt baptized her last year. They are precious little girls. And when I think of them learning about Jesus, I just say, "Wow, God, you've been so good to me."

Last scripture. I'm done. Thank you for your attention tonight. But the greatest "wow" of your existence hasn't happened yet. Because the most amazing moment of your life will be the first moment after your life on Earth is over. Whether you die and we have your funeral and you go to Heaven by way of the grave, or whether you go with those of us that remain in the Rapture, the greatest "wow" you have ever uttered in all of your existence will be the first second your foot, you'll be taking one step on Main Street, and the next step in the air, and the third step on streets of gold. And when you see the One that sits upon His throne, the first thing you're going to say is what every human being says instinctively: "Wow, Jesus."

Paul said it this way: "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." People are so scared of death. They'll go to the gym and eat crazy food trying to stave off death for a few more months or years. It's our biggest, worst, most fearful enemy. But there's coming a day when the last enemy is going to be destroyed. But I got a question for you. Because Jesus beat death 2,000 years ago on the cross of Calvary. So if He already tackled your greatest enemy 2,000 years ago, what do you think He could do with what you're praying about right now? Put that last picture up for me, would you please?

Or the, the, the Lord's Prayer. Jesus said, "After this manner, therefore, pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven." Somebody say, "Help." "Hallowed be thy name." Somebody say, "Thanks." "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, in earth as it is in heaven." Somebody shout, "Yes." "Give us this day our daily bread." Somebody say, "Enough." "And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors." Somebody say, "Sorry." "And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." Somebody shout, "No." "No." "For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen."

Somebody at the end of this Sunday night, would you lift up your hands and lift your voice higher than your hands, and would you just begin to pray one of those simple little prayers to God? Maybe you need to cry out to Him for help. Maybe you need to forgive something. Maybe you need to ask Him for forgiveness. Maybe you need to push the devil back and say, "No, you're not welcome in my home anymore." Or maybe you just need to say, "Thank you, God." Or, "Wow, Jesus." Wow, Jesus. Would you just, this is the core of this great church. Would you just step out of where you're standing and would you make your way down on this first night leading into a week of dedication? Could we pack this altar for a few minutes? We're not going to keep you long. We've already been here for a while, but I think it would be so good for this great church to come together and just lift up your hands and begin to pray in one accord. This is a week of destiny for the Pentecostals of Cooper City and the Pentecostals of Coral Springs. This is a week of destiny for every family in this church. This is a week of destiny for you personally. God is going to do the miraculous for some folks this week.

Now, take somebody's hand on either side of you if you can, and let's lift every hand that we can to the Lord. Let's lift every hand that we can to the Lord right now. But your hands are not the center of spiritual warfare in your life. Death and life are in the power of the tongue. So with your hands lifted, would you now lift up your voice and would you begin to pray? When you pray, heaven moves. When you pray, situations change. When you pray, God shows up. When you pray, the heavens are open over this church. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes, yes, yes.

Just want to do one more thing, and I'm going to pass this to whoever. They'll sing, and we'll pray. There is a difference between praying with somebody or beside somebody and praying for somebody. This is a week of consecration. I just want to push you just a couple inches out of your comfort zone. I'd like you, when we go back to prayer in about five seconds, I'd like you not to just pray beside them. I'd like you to lay your hand on them, and I'd like you to pray for them, and they can pray for you. That's different than praying beside them. We're just all worshiping Jesus together. I want you to pray for them. Somebody, if you would, take authority right now. If you know that they've got a backsliding son or a drug-addicted daughter, you already know what to pray for. Take authority over that. Just lay your hand on them, and everybody right now, would you pray for your brother? Pray for your sister? Pray for your spouse? Pray for your church? Go ahead.

Oh, that's so good, church. That's so good. The presence of the Lord is here. I feel Him in the atmosphere. Your prayers make a difference. Your prayers bring Heaven to Earth. Yes, yes.