Sharing good news of great joy to all people.
Elation Church. Week number two in our series
that we entitled Powerful Prayer. Powerful Prayer.
And since we have a lot of first -time visitors,
you might say, well, I missed the last one, so
is it going to be okay? Yeah, it's going to be
okay. All right. Each week could stand alone.
I do have some recap this week to help you. from
where we started last week. We started by looking
at Jesus and how important prayer was to him.
Mark 1 .35, before daybreak the next morning,
Jesus got up and went out to an isolated place
to pray. So, if I'm going to get up before daybreak
and do anything, it's going to have to be intentional.
I'm just saying. Gayna is a morning person. I'm
not. Somebody smile or something. Did I get too
rough in the taking notes thing that you can't
even smile today? But that was important for
Jesus to get up even before the son came up and
go get by himself and talk with the father. Jesus
said, he said, I don't say anything that my father's
not saying. I don't do anything that my father's
not doing. How does that happen? By fellowship,
by communication, by spending time. That's how
that happens. Matthew 14, 23. After sending them
home, they'd just been, I'm sure, talking very
loud to be able to talk to 5 ,000 people plus.
How many of you know that can be strenuous? Everybody's
out there to listen to you, and you're out there.
He didn't have microphones and speakers. He found
places that the acoustics worked a little better
than others, but it's still a lot. And get this,
he doesn't just speak for 45 minutes to an hour.
Hello. He doesn't just speak for... He doesn't
just give sermonettes for Christianettes. He
would speak all afternoon. I mean, he had already
spoke so long that he's like, okay, these people
have been here long enough. We're going to have
to feed them now. Don't worry. I'm not going
to preach for five hours, even though sometimes
I think I could. After sending him home, he went
up into the hills by himself to pray. Night fell
while he was there alone. This kind of sums it
up, Luke 5, 16. Jesus often withdrew to the wilderness
for prayer. This wasn't just a one -time thing.
This is something he did on a regular basis.
He went and got alone to talk to the Father.
In Luke 11, It says, once Jesus was in a certain
place praying, and as he finished, one of his
disciples came to him and said, Lord, teach us
to pray. Obviously, they saw that spending time
with God in prayer resulted in a powerful life.
So they're like, I don't want to miss out on
this, so teach us to pray. Last week we looked
at Jesus' words to learn what prayer is and what
prayer is not. Let's take a look at some of that.
Prayer is not being hypocritical. That word hypocrite
in the Greek language, in the Koine Greek, it
means play actor. So prayer is not being yourself,
right? And then all of a sudden when it's time
to pray, you're going to put on a mask. going
to put on a spiritual mask to pray. And during
this time, they would often have plays where
public performance of plays where one character
would play, one person would play multiple characters
just by putting on a different mask. How are
you doing today? I'm doing great. How are you
doing? Changing masks. So that's what prayer
is not. Prayer is not coming from your regular
self going into some kind of spiritual self to
pray. We're just talking with God. Prayer is
not suddenly beginning to speak old English,
putting a TH on the end of every word. That's
not what prayer is. Prayer is not a public display.
of your super spirituality. We looked at that
last week. I'm about to show everybody how spiritual
I am, so I'm going to pray. I'm going to pray
this magnificent prayer that everyone is going
to be in awe of. They'll be in awe of me when
I pray like this. No, that's not prayer. Prayer
is communication between you and God. So you
don't need to talk to him any different than
you would talk to the person beside you. You're
talking to God. You're talking to God. It's not
a religious exercise. It's talking with God.
And get this, you don't have to do all the talking.
You ever notice that you're around someone and
they're doing all the talking, you don't want
to even be around them much anymore because they're
just doing all the talking and you can't get
in a word edgewise? Let God talk to you. Y 'all
just look at me really funny sometimes. Some
preachers just stare at the back wall and they
never look at people's faces, but I'm not one
of those. All right. We also learned that prayer
is not mindless and meaningless repetition. I'm
just letting this sit there a minute. It's not
coming to God with some memorized prayer that
you're not even thinking about what you're saying
and you're just spouting off these memorized
words or these memorized phrases. Look at the
person beside you and tell them, check yourself.
Check yourself. When you pray, are you really
communicating with God or are you just ripping
off? Some religious phrases that you've memorized.
In Matthew 6, 9, Jesus said, pray like this.
Everybody say like this. Notice that Jesus did
not say pray this. He said pray like this. People
have been mad at me for saying that. Pray. Picked
up a word study on Bible Hub. That's the Greek
word. I'm not even going to try to pronounce
the Greek words this week. You can pronounce
it if you want to. And just in case you don't
know, the New Testament was written in Koine
Greek, not in English. It was translated into
English in the 1500s. Okay? So, what is prayer?
Prayer is interacting with the Lord by switching
your human wishes and ideas for His wishes or
His will as He imparts faith or divine persuasion.
Now, sometimes we think that prayer is, we just
got to beg, prayer is begging God to do what
I want Him to do. Hello? Has anybody prayed where
you're begging God to do something that you want
him to do and that's what you're praying? Like
this, is like this, in this manner, in this way,
in this fashion, in accordance with this description
or along this line. The Lord's Prayer should
be seen as a pattern. a guide or a model for
prayer. Because here's why. The memorized Lord's
Prayer can easily become mindless, meaningless
repetition. Now don't get me wrong. You can actually
pray the Lord's Prayer every day as long as you
are considering the words that you are saying
and the words are coming from your heart to God
is not mindless, meaningless repetition. But
if all you're doing is going through some spiritual
motion just to rip out the Lord's Prayer, you
might as well not pray at all. So today, we're
going to dig in deep. Look at the person beside
you and say, we're going to dig in deep. Just
going to look at the first sentence. Some of
you think it might be already time to go. It's
not quite time to go yet. Matthew 6, 9. Our Father
in heaven. How many of you memorize it? Hallowed
be thy name. May your name be kept holy. Let's
say that line together. Our Father in heaven.
May your name be kept holy. Let's say it again.
Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy.
I want you to say it like you're talking to him.
Not just repeating it like we're in the third
grade and we're reading something off the board.
I want you to consider what this is saying. And
I want you to say it to him. Our Father in heaven,
may your name be kept holy. Let's break it down.
Our father. Our father. The word there is pater,
pater, father, parent. Listen, it means he's
the one who imparts life. And he's not just imparting
life and walking away. He's imparting life and
he's committed to it. He's committed to it. God
didn't just make this creation and create man
and cause him to breathe the breath of life into
humanity. He didn't do that and just walk away.
He's committed to it. He's... Bringing into being,
imparting life, bringing into being to pass on
the potential for likeness. I thought that was
good. Let's break it down. Look to the person
beside you and say, you are created in the image
of God. He created us in his image. And he imparted
life to us. And he's committed to the life that
he imparted to humanity. And here's what he wants
to do. He's wanting to bring us to the place
to look like him. The Holy Spirit is at work
in the lives of believers to conform them. Into
the image of Christ. We're growing spiritually
when we look more like Jesus tomorrow than we
did today. That's when their spiritual growth
is happening. It doesn't really have a lot to
do with how much spiritual knowledge that you
get, words and ideas. It's how much are you transformed
into the image of Christ. Because he's a father
that wants to be, let's put it this way, he wants
to imprint himself on his children. And that's
what parenting is. Right? I mean, we don't want
our kids to be... Not exactly like us, but when
we train up a child in the way they should go,
they should get some things, right? We don't
just send them off for somebody else to raise
them. Help me out when I'm preaching good. So
he's a father. He imparts life. He's committed
to it. He's bringing into being to pass on the
potential for likeness. Here's a different thing
under the same Bible hub word study. He imparts
life from physical birth to the gift of eternal
life through the second birth, being born again.
Through ongoing sanctification, the believer
more and more resembles their heavenly father.
That's who he is. And when we say our father,
what we're saying is, God, you gave me life.
You gave me spiritual life. And basically, when
we call him Father, we're agreeing with him that
he wants to work in our lives and make us look
more like Jesus every day. I mean, I was just
blessed just doing this study, just looking at
the words, because... Because it's always been
our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy
name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth
as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily
bread. Right? I mean, I've been preaching over
30 years and I've never dug this deep before.
So I get blessed when I'm digging deep. Our Father
in heaven. In heaven. There's your Greek word.
It's translated air, heaven, or sky. The sky.
Heaven as the abode of God where God lives. I
thought this was interesting. It's happiness.
It's power. It's eternity. I grew up thinking
that God is just like real stern. Just watching.
I'm so disappointed in you. You messed up again
today. I pictured that. Nobody specifically taught
me that, but that's just kind of the, it's just
like, you know. I want to tell you, heaven's
a happy place. It's a happy place. I said heaven's
a happy place. The Bible says there's rejoicing
in the presence of the angels of God over one
person who turns from their sin and turns to
God. Out of the billions of people in the world
and out of the, I don't know, hundreds of thousands
of preachers in the world and out of the billions
of Christians in the world who are sharing their
faith. How often do you think somebody is turning
from their sin and turning to God? I think it's
an ongoing thing in the earth. Not just on Sunday.
Maybe it gets revved up a little bit more on
Sunday, but it should be happening all the time.
So that means there's rejoicing in heaven. It's
a celebration. It's happy. It's eternity. How
many of you are looking forward to stepping out
of this captive by time realm that we live in
and stepping into eternity one day? Where there's
no death, there's no sorrow, there's no pain.
I mean, I'm not taking up a busload today. We
should look forward to that, right? And then
it's also translated actually as the gospel too.
Our Father, the one who gave us life and continues
to give us life and to transform us into your
image. It's a process. You're transforming us.
You're... and you're in power and you're in eternity
and you're all about love for people. Our Father
in heaven, may your name, everybody say name.
Here's a word for name. And here's what that
word means. The manifestation or revelation,
Of someone's character. Distinguishing them.
From all others. May your name. The manifestation
and revelation. Of your character God. What is
character? I'll just go ahead and tell you. God
is a picture. Of ultimate character. Honesty.
Faithfulness. Right? His actions. Because we
don't always see character by someone's words.
We see it by. Right? How they respond. God is
the ultimate. The ultimate. So may your name,
the manifestation and revelation of your character,
God, who you are. Your character is who you are
when you're all by yourself. That's where you
can find out what your character is. May it be
kept holy. Here's a Greek word. It means to make
holy. To purify. consecrate, to venerate, to
regard as special. Father, you're the one who
gives me life. You're the one who gives me life.
You're the one who's working in me. That's what
we're saying when we're saying the Lord's Prayer.
You're the one who's working in me. This is what
Jesus taught us to pray. life giver, father,
you're at work in me. And your name is special
to me. It's one of the most special things that
are in my life, that's in my life today. God,
your name is special to me. It's really special
to me. We did a series, right? I want you to
consider this when you're praying. We're going
to back up. I think it was January or February,
we started a series on who God is and what God
does. So I'm not going to preach the whole thing
again. I just want you to think about it. When
you're talking to God, If his name is special
to you, maybe there's something you're going
to God to talk to him about. Something specific
that's in your life. Maybe it's not just general
communication and conversation, which is awesome.
And we'll be talking about that in weeks coming
up. That we need to be in constant communication
with God. But maybe you want to pray to him.
You want to talk to him about something that's
going on in your life. Chances are, what's going
on in your life? God has given us who he is.
God has given us who he is. He's given you who
he is. So when you come to him, you begin to
tell him how special his name is. And God, I
know that this is who you are based on your word.
I know you. I have this revelation of who you
are and what you do. Come on, somebody. Somebody
smile and say, I'm going to get this. Two people.
He tells us this is who he is. Now, you can go
back to a podcast and you can listen to every
single one of these. I'm not preaching the whole
thing. I'm just telling you who God is. Is his
name? special to you? Has he given us his name
that applies to what we're facing today? Chances
are, yes. He is Yahweh Shalom. Everybody say
Shalom. Now, everybody always says it's peace.
Everybody say peace. But I double dog dare you
to look up the word in Hebrew and get the definition.
That's what I've got here. This is who God is.
It's what God does. If you are feeling like you
need to be safe, somebody to help you to be safe,
guess what? That's who God is. God is safety.
God is wellness. God is happiness. God is a friend.
God is concerned about your well -being. That
word welfare. Have you ever gone to him, praying
to him, and there's something to do with your
well -being? Well, you probably need to say,
God, I know who you are. Based on your word,
I know who you are. Your name is special to me.
You are Yahweh Shalom. You know the situation
that I'm dealing with. You know what I need even
before I ask. But I just want to acknowledge
you. that you're concerned about my welfare.
You're concerned about my health. You're concerned
about my prosperity. Don't go running down some
road when I say a word, because it's in the Bible.
I didn't say, God, you're concerned about me
driving a Bentley. That's not what I said. That's
not what I said. Don't run off with your definition
of it. God's concerned with your flourishing.
Let's use that word, flourishing. And he's concerned
with your peace. That's who he is. That's what
he does. So God, this is who you are. This is
what I'm dealing with. You know what I'm dealing
with. But God, I acknowledge you as who you are.
Won't that make a difference in your prayer life?
Hello? Instead of just thinking that you're coming
to God to beg Him for something? See, here's
the deal. A lot of times we come to God begging
Him for something, and God has already given
us the answer to our prayer. He's already given
it to us, and then we're begging Him. And God's
saying, it's who I am. It's what I've done. It's
what I have given you. So powerful prayer would
be us acknowledging who he is and what he's done.
He's already done it. You don't have to beg him
for it. He's already done it. It's who he is.
Hallelujah. All right. He is Yahweh's Sid Canoe.
Anytime you're feeling condemnation, Like we
talked about at Life Group this week. We were
talking about, you know, shame and guilt and
condemnation. Does anybody feel that way sometimes?
When you mess up, you're just like, I'm a no
count good for nothing for God. Because I messed
up again. I wanted to do the right thing, but
here I go messing up again. God must be disappointed
in me. Has anybody ever felt that before? Well,
if we know who God is, He is our righteousness.
We have no righteousness apart from Him. That's
who He is. When we're in Christ, we are the righteousness
of God in Christ Jesus. And God looks at us and
he calls us righteous. So don't go to God saying,
oh God, I messed up again. God, I'm just sorry,
Christian. I just can't. I know you're disappointed
in me. See, some people pray that. I've probably
prayed that a few times in my life. But I'm not
acknowledging what God has provided for me. Look
to the person beside you and tell them, listen
faster. All right. He is Yahweh's Sabbath oath.
Does anybody find themselves in a spiritual battle
every once in a while? You feel like you're being
attacked. Well, this is who God is. He's the
Lord of hosts. He's the commander -in -chief
over a great mass of people or servants organized
for battle. Remember when the prophet walked
out and his servant walked out and they were
surrounded? Like, oh no, what are we going to
do? What are we going to do? What are we going
to do? And then the prophet said, God, open his
eyes. Send him back outside. He's like, there
are chariots and angels and fire all over the
place. Because God is Yahweh's Sabbath oath.
You're never alone. Don't go to God and say,
what am I going to do? What am I going to do?
What am I going to do? What am I going to do?
Go to God and say, God. Your name is special
to me. You are Yahweh Sabaoth. God, you are the
God of angel armies. You are on my side. I'm
on your side. I will not be taken out. He is
Yahweh Nisi. You can go back and listen to these,
but he's our banner. When God's people were...
took their eyes off the banner when the banner
wasn't lifted up, when Moses' staff wasn't lifted
up to where they were putting their eyes on that.
When it dropped down, God's people began to be
defeated. But as long as that banner is held
up, just like, I mean, you've studied history
before. When the flag on the fort goes down,
it means that you've lost it and somebody else's
flag has got it. Well, God is our banner. He's
our banner of identification. He's our banner
of remembrance. He's our banner of announcement.
He's our banner of focus. He's our banner of
hope. If you need hope, start saying, God, you
are my banner. I look to you in the middle of
what I'm going through. I look to you. You are
my hope. You are my victory. Since you are for
me, what does it matter who's against me? It
doesn't even matter. He is Yahweh Ra. Or Ra 'al,
I believe is the Hebrew pronunciation. The Lord
is my good shepherd. Look to the person beside
you and say, he's a good shepherd. So when you're
praying, it's like, God, I need provision. I
need peace and rest. I need my strength renewed.
I need you to protect me and comfort me. I need
you to vindicate me. I need you to bless me.
I need you to satisfy me. That's what a good
shepherd does for his sheep. Go check out 23rd
Psalm. And he's a good shepherd. So if that's
what you're facing, make sure that his name becomes
special to you. You acknowledge it. You esteem
it, who he is, in your life, in the situations
that you're facing. He is El Shaddai. That means
he's all sufficient. It means he's more than
enough. He is the one who is mighty to completely
nourish you, to completely satisfy you, and to
completely supply you. Is his name special to
you? See, it's easy to say yes, but then we don't
know or we forgot because it was just another
Sunday. And we're not really holding on to who
God is and what he wants to do. He is pater,
which is our father. We've already looked at
that. Abba. He's a good and loving father. He
loves you. He wants to lead you. Maybe you're
going through a situation where you need God's
help and direction for what's going on. We need
to look to Him to lead us more than we do. I'm
just going to say it. We need to look to Him
to lead us. We need to be led by God. Spirit
-led people. He is our source. We look to him
to provide for us, to protect us, to restore
us. Sometimes we need restoration. Is his name
holy to you? Is it special to you? Yahweh Shammah.
The Lord is there. He's not just there. He's
there with directed and targeted purpose. Is
this just too much to wrap your brain around?
I say God is there with directed and targeted
purpose in your life. He is with you. He will
not leave you. He will not turn His back on you.
Does anybody ever feel alone every once in a
while? Just your feelings. You feel alone. You
feel abandoned. You feel like, I'm going down
for the last time. We don't live by our feelings,
we live by faith. What we're established in.
Be established in this. God is with you. He is
Yahweh Makedesh. He's the one who consecrates
us and sanctifies us. He's the one who sets us
apart. and makes us holy. That's who He is. Maybe
you need to talk to Him about something that's
going on in your life that has something to do
with this. He is Yahweh Jireh. He provides, and
technically the word is translated, He will see
to it. So whatever you're facing, if you'll put
your trust in God, if you will look to Him and
quit being smacked around and tossed around by
the things that you're dealing with, if you'll
look to Him, you can find someone who will see
to it. Go back and listen to those sermons. There's
a bunch of testimonies that goes along with these
things. He is Yahweh Rapha. What does that mean?
It's who God is. It's what He does. I am the
one who heals, mends, restores, cures, and thoroughly
makes you whole. And that's who He is. That's
His name. This isn't a denomination or some kind
of... Crusade. It's who God is. Now, if you say,
that's not who God is. Well, there you go. He's
not going to be that for you. But this is who
He is. It's who the Bible says He is. So we look
to Him. If something's going on, and you need...
healing and restoring and curing. If you need
to be made whole, if you see parts of yourself
as being broken, you go to the one who can fix
it. He is Adonai, despotis, kurios. Everybody
say Lord. He is Lord. What does that mean? That
he's our respected authority. He's the absolute
ruler. He's our Lord and owner. He's supreme
in authority. That's what you're saying when
you call him Lord. That's what you're agreeing
to. He's the authority in my life. He's my respected
authority. I surrender my life to him. Here's
the deal. Our prayers become powerful when we
acknowledge God, acknowledge who He is, when
we praise Him for who He is, when we honor Him
for who He is and what He does, when we esteem
Him. That's when our prayers are going to be
powerful. When we quit just... Coming out of
ignorance, our lack of knowledge of the Word
and who He is. See, our prayers aren't going
to be powerful if they're ignorant prayers. If
you want your prayers to be powerful, make sure
His name is special to you. And you have confidence
in who He is based on His Word. Not based on
what the preacher said, but based on His Word,
who He is and what He does. You trust Him and
have confidence in that and you pray and let
Him know that His name is special to you. Your
prayers are going to be different. They're going
to be powerful. Somebody say hallelujah. Hallelujah.
Thank you, God. Thank you for your truth. All
this is available to those who are in Christ.
Everything I said. But that's the stipulation
in Christ. Because if you're not in Christ, there's
only one prayer that he's going to hear. And
that prayer is that you come to him and you say,
I surrender my life to you. I believe you are
who the Bible says you are. I believe you're
the Son of God. I believe you died on the cross
for me and my place for my sin. I believe you
rose again from the grave. And I ask you to forgive
me and be my Lord. Listen, I didn't say joining
a church does that for you. I didn't say... being
dip, dunked, or sprinkled does that for you.
I've got this friend in Myrtle Beach who was
dip, dunked, and sprinkled. All before she actually
came to Christ. In her, how old was Norma? In
her 70s maybe? Late 60s or 70s? That's when she
came to Christ. She had been a very religious
person up until that point. But she had never,
confessed her sin and surrendered her life to
Christ. She had never done that. She had a relationship
with religion and a relationship with church,
but not a relationship with God. And if she was
here, she would tell you that testimony. So here's
my question, and I'm done. Has that ever happened
in your life? Have you ever came to the point
where you realize that you are a sinner and your
sin separates you from God and you realize that
Jesus died on the cross for you like we talked
about in communion today and you realize he did
that for you. He died for you. He shed his blood
for you and he loves you and he demonstrated
his love for you. Have you ever come to him and
say, God, I've messed up. I'm a sinner, but I
know that you love me and I know that you died
for me, so I ask you to forgive me. Help me to
turn away from those things in my life that don't
honor you. Help me to turn away from those things.
And I want to live for you. I want to follow
you. I want to know you. So I ask you to be my
Lord. I surrender my life to you. Have you ever
done that? If you would, I want everybody to
bow your head and close your eyes just for a
minute. I want you to be alone. That's the only
reason I ask you to do that. And if today you
would say, Dean, you know what? I look back over
my life and I've been to church and I've gone
through all these things, but there's never really
been a specific time when I have asked Jesus
to forgive me. There's never been a specific
time when I've surrendered my life to him. And
ask Him to be my Lord. The Bible says, if you
call on the name of the Lord, you'll be saved.
It's never happened. But I would like to today.
That's the good news. Today is the day of salvation.
It's today. So if that's what you want, I ask
you to pray with me. There's nothing magic about
the words of this prayer because we can teach
birds to repeat words after people. But if you
listen to this prayer and it sounds like what
you want to say to God from your heart, here's
the deal. I know He will hear you. I know He
will forgive you. I know He will welcome you
into His family. I know He will send His Spirit
to live on the inside of you. And His Spirit
will seal you until the day of redemption. I
know those things according to God's Word. So
if that's what you want, I ask you to pray with
me. It's a simple prayer. One Friday morning,
I pray a prayer a lot like this, and I've never
been the same since. Jesus, I believe You are
the Son of God. I believe You died on the cross
for me, in my place, for my sin. I believe you
rose again from the grave, just like the Bible
says. I don't fully understand it, but I believe
it. And Jesus, today, I confess my sin to you.
I'm guilty. I've messed up. I ask you to forgive
me. Wash me clean. Thank you for shedding your
blood for me so that I could be forgiven. And
Jesus, today, I ask you to be my Lord. I surrender
my life to you. I want to live for you. I want
to follow you. I want to know you. So I ask you
to be my Lord, my Savior. Jesus, thank you for
forgiving me. This online worship experience
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