Chris Hodges - Higher Heights in Prayer
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Well, good morning, everybody. How are you doing today? Is anyone glad to be in church? Is anyone glad to be in church today? Woo. I am too. It’s so good to see you all. Welcome to week number one of a brand new series called Higher Heights. We’ll tell you more about that in a second. I know Pastor Mark and the campus pastors have already said hello to all of our locations, but let me say hello to you as well. I pray for you every single day and am so grateful for all 26 locations, rooms where we have churches across Alabama and Georgia. Of course, we are bringing this service, and really all that we are as a church, into all 28 of Alabama’s Department of Corrections facilities. We’re thrilled to be with you guys as well. There are also people watching live online right now from somewhere around the world and possibly later on demand. Let’s hear it-clap like you’ve never clapped before! Come on, say a big hello. Give them a good hand.
I have the honor of kicking us off in this four-week series, and I wanted to give you a little bit of history on where the words «Higher Heights» came from. That was actually a phrase the Lord gave us in the very beginning of the church, almost 25 years ago, when Tammy and I were thinking about planting the church. At the time, we lived in Baton Rouge, and I was trying to come up with the coolest name, something almost like a metaphor to give people a picture of what God wanted to do in their lives.
I was driving by a road in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, called Highlands Avenue. When I saw it, I thought, «That’s the word!» We, of course, named it Church of the Highlands. Some people thought we were Scottish; that’s not what the Highlands we were talking about. Anyway, it was to give you a picture of the fact that we believe God has more for us. Can I hear a really good amen right there, everybody? Basically, what we’re experiencing, even if it’s great, is just the beginning. God still has more, and we are in constant pursuit of all that God has.
We thought the question people were asking, especially in the Bible Belt South, where everyone seems to be a member of a church somewhere -even if you don’t go, you’re still a member somewhere. I call them the Lily and Poinsettia crowd; they come on Easter and Christmas. They really don’t know God, but they are religious and probably asking the question, «There’s got to be more to it than this.» If God really is alive and if it really is real, shouldn’t it be more exciting? Shouldn’t it be more meaningful? Shouldn’t it actually be how the Bible describes? So, we decided we would take people on a journey to higher heights.
In this series, we’re going to show you some areas where we can all grow, improve, and learn, and experience the reality of the Christian faith. We think it’s going to help us. We strategically placed it here in this season because we’re all coming out of summer and heading back into our routines at work and school. Over the past 25 years, we’ve noticed that people kind of get serious again. It’s almost like a second New Year’s Day of sorts, where it’s time to wake up early and maybe start exercising again. For a lot of people, you took some time off — maybe took a little break -and unfortunately, sometimes we even take a break from God and our morning routines and things like that.
So, we’re actually going to shoot some energy right back into all of that. Let me give you the theme verse for this series, which is found in Habakkuk chapter 3. It says, «The sovereign Lord is my… Say it out loud. He is my strength.» Man, I just love that. He’s my strength. When I feel weak, God is strong. He makes my feet like the feet of a deer. Now, what in the world does that mean? There’s actually one translation that says He gives me hind’s feet. If you ever notice the animals that have the ability to scale rocks and sharp edges, you can imagine those rocks basically being a picture of your problems and the things that look so difficult: high altitude, dangerous places.
There are the animals that are able to do that. Look at all the sheep, all the different goats that have the ability to climb mountains. They have real skinny front legs and giant hindquarters because it gives them this agile ability to do something that looks almost too difficult to do. And God wants to give you hindquarters. Come on. All the ladies said, «No, don’t you speak that over my life.» Like, «All right.» But I’m talking about spiritually. He wants to give you the feet of a deer to enable you to go to places you never thought you were able to go. And so we’re going to look into that. We’re going to examine how we approach the Word of God, how we approach worship, and even how we approach our community together as a family of believers.
Today, Pastor Mark asked me to talk about prayer, something I’m very excited to discuss because today is day one of, of course, 21 days of prayer. This is something that we actually started the church on. Our church has a February anniversary because we wanted to take January to have 21 days of prayer and fasting. We had 34 people on our launch team back in 2001, and we prayed. When I first started bringing prayer to Birmingham and to the people at Highlands, a lot of them didn’t know how to pray.
Honestly, when I grew up in church, I didn’t know how to pray. The first prayer meeting I remember attending, I think I was 8 years old, and my parents were very involved in our Baptist church. They always came early because Dad played the organ and Mom sang in the choir. So we were there, you know, it felt like an hour before church began. We went to Sunday school, and then our pastor had a little prayer room. I will never forget being invited into that prayer room. It was really dark and had that shag carpet. Come on, where are you 1970s folks at? Shag. And it had this throne -like chair with a red velvet cushion on it. I remember he knelt down and put his arms there, and then the room went quiet.
I was invited into this, so I knelt down, put my arms on another chair, and just went quiet. All I heard from time to time was… and that was my whole introduction to what I thought prayer was. He said just pray for what you know, and we were in there for what felt like 800 years. You know what I’m talking about? It was just the longest time. I had no idea what to say or what to do. So when I really gave my life to Jesus at 15, one of the first areas I was discipled in was prayer. I’ll never forget one of the first sermons I ever heard as a believer was a speaker who was teaching on the passage where the disciples fell asleep when Jesus invited them to pray with Him in the garden of Gethsemane. When He came back and found them sleeping, Jesus said, «Could you not carry with me one hour?» He looked at us in the congregation and said, «Can’t y’all pray for an hour with God? " And I thought, «No, I can’t.»
I had about three and a half minutes' worth of material, and then I was repeating it. Lord, you know, Lord, I pray for Africa. I pray for Europe. Like, anything. And for some of you, that’s what your prayer life feels like. I mean, I want to; I don’t think desire is the issue. I think I just don’t know what to do. You got to help me with this.
So, I went on a journey of growing in it myself. And then when I got into ministry, I started teaching people how to pray. I had prayer meetings in my home. I actually put together stapled materials of different prayer guides. I would even have these pages next to me when I prayed- prayer requests, prayer outlines, you know, all the people that I want to pray for — just giving people loads of material to pray for. And then when we started the church, those stapled prayer pages that I just stapled together in my office at home and brought them to church, we actually turned into a prayer guide, where we had all these different models of prayer and places where you could fill in prayer requests.
Honestly, I thought if you could just keep people knowing what to do and knowing what to say, it became something very, very enjoyable. I don’t know when it happened, honestly, what year it was, but all of a sudden, it just took off here. People started coming to our prayer services by the thousands. I mean, tomorrow morning, when you join us for 21 days of prayer at 6:00 a.m., 7:00 a.m. over in Georgia, we have to have police out there directing traffic; there’ll be thousands of people coming in to pray together. There’s a momentum that’s caught, and I’m convinced it’s because we taught people how to pray.
A couple of years ago, I wrote a book called «Pray First» that honestly has done very, very well, especially in the church world. A lot of churches are using it as a manual and as a guide on how to pray. Then about a year ago, my publisher called and said, «This book is working so well in churches. We had an idea. Would you write 'Pray First, ' the book you already read? Would you write a kid’s edition of 'Pray First? '» I said, «Well, I don’t know how to write to kids.» They said, «We’ll hire a kid’s writer to help you, and we’ll even hire an illustrator.»
And y’all, I’m happy to report that today, out in the foyers, we have «Pray First for Young Readers», everybody. All right. So, I’m excited about this book. It’s specifically written for readers somewhere between 8 and 12 years old. If you are new to Highlands, you need to know this: I’ve never made a penny off of anybody in our church. I always bring everything that I have at cost to you guys, and I actually negotiate that with the publisher when we do that.
Now, I don’t mind making it from everybody outside our church. Come on, somebody! Where you at? Right. But these are out there in the foyer for five bucks. If you don’t know how we handle things at Highlands, if you don’t have it, just grab it. It can be yours; it’ll be our gift to you. But we want you to have these for your kids and your grandkids. By the way, I wrote the dedication to my grandkids. Y’all want to hear it? Yes or no? Yes. So, it says this: «This book is dedicated to my grandchildren — Jackson, Andy, Rhett, Riser, Ethan, Caleb, Charlotte, Carolina, Rowan, and Jane.» I have 10 grandkids, everybody. It says, «May this book inspire you to seek the beauty of prayer and to walk closely with God each day with all of my heart. Papa.» Oh, you know. Yeah. So, anyway, if you’re interested in that, you can check it out there.
I want to cover some of the material in there that I’ve learned years ago, that I taught a couple of years ago with «Pray First», and that I’ve written into this book. All this is in the book as well, but at a kids' level, and I’m still learning and growing in it. I’m still reaching higher heights in my prayer life too. Some of this is brand new that I want to share with you. If you know the material that I’ve taught over the years, I found five things that make prayer work. There are five P’s. Like preachers always do, I make things start with the same letter. It’s a little disease we have. All right. But these all start with the letter P. If you want to take notes, your app has everything you’re getting ready to see on this screen on your phone if you want to follow along and fill in the blanks.
And the first one, the first P is the priority of prayer. The book’s called Pray First. And you can pray anytime, by the way. You can pray at night, in the middle of the day. In fact, I encourage you to just throw up one-sentence prayers throughout the day. But there’s something very special about the first. In fact, everything — listen to me — everything first gets God’s attention. That’s good. So, if you wake up and you just first think, before you turn on CNN, Fox News, or Good Morning America, whatever you like, whatever you do, or Rick and Bubba, you know, whatever it is — wouldn’t it be great if you just first said, «Good morning, Lord»? Right? Right? Can I get a better amen out there, church? Right? Yeah. Just start with God.
In the beginning, God. Yeah. That’s actually the first verse. I know I’m taking it out of context, but the first line of your Bible is «In the beginning.» Can everybody say it? In the beginning, God. What would it be like if everything began with God? What if every meal began with God? Every trip you went on began with God? Every meeting — you know, before you walk into that meeting, step aside and say, «Lord, just really help me with this meeting. I commit it to You in Jesus' name. Amen.» And step into that. God blesses the first. In fact, I’ll show you a quick verse out of Proverbs chapter 3: «Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first.»
The Bible calls it first fruits because most of the people reading this were farmers. And they basically said, if you bring the first of everything to God, it goes on to say, God goes, «Wait a minute, that gets my attention.» And then everything else is overflowing. I want to encourage you — today’s the first Sunday of the month. We bring our first gifts to God. I encourage you in your tithes and your offerings, just worshiping God. But it goes way beyond that. We’re here on the first day of the week to say, «God, You get the best of my week, and I’m going to honor You with the first.» The way we say it with this material is prayer should be the same way. Prayer should be our first response, not our last resort. And for a lot of people, they only know prayer in their emergencies. So, «God, I’ll take care of things. When things go bad, I’ll let You know.» And we’re saying, «No, no, no. Flip that around. Let’s pray first.» All right.
Here’s the second P, and that is the place of prayer. So if you know anything about Jesus, the Bible actually says He went to a certain place, a solitary place, where He prayed. He had a place — watch this now — that was conducive to His personality and something that helped Him pray better. So I’m going to encourage you to find your own place. In fact, Jesus’s prayer place a lot of times was the Garden of Gethsemane, which actually has a beautiful view of the old city of Jerusalem. I personally think He went there, and it gave Him a visual of what He was praying for.
So, I do the same. I have a chair — my little prayer place is a chair next to an open window so I can see a little outside. I’ve got a hummingbird feeder hanging right there next to that window, and I’ve got a little candle. I’ve got a little Catholic in me -come on, everybody, right? I light a candle. Just kidding. But anyway, I just light a little candle. I’ve got all my prayer guides, got my journal, got my one-year Bible, and I just built a conducive place for prayer, and I’m encouraging you to do the same. For some of you, you need to get away from the kiddos in the morning and just find you a place.
Tammy, when we were raising kids in the house, we had kids, but to God be the glory, they' re no longer in the house -praise God. But she used to-I’d wake up and see a little light coming out from underneath her closet, and she actually sat on the floor of the closet. I can’t do that; I’m a pacer when I pray. So I needed to go outside. I go walking. If you ever see me, even here at our prayer services, I just pace back and forth. It’s how I enjoy a little bit of movement. It helps me find it more undistracted. But whatever it is, find a place where the noise of life grows quiet so that the voice of God can grow clear. And that’s the key. Have a place.
Here’s the third P. Y’all getting anything out of this so far? Anybody? Okay. The third one, and I’m actually going to show you this, and we’re going to end with this one. That is a plan of prayer. What I mean by that is a lot of what I’ve written and the tools that I give in these booklets we’re going to just give away to you tomorrow morning, so you can have all these models of prayer. Again, if you have information or a plan, it makes it easier.
There’s scriptural precedent for this in Ephesians chapter 6: «Pray in the Spirit in every situation. Use every kind of prayer and request there is,» which suggests there are different ways for you to pray. But I know this: the best way to pray consistently is to stop leaving it to chance. So, if you walk in with no plan, no booklet, no idea, and no training, you’re probably just going to try to think of something to say. You’re going to run out of it. Then, you’re probably going to fall asleep, get distracted, or start looking at your phone or something. That’s what happens to a lot of people. So, we’re just trying to help you grow in this area.
The fourth one is the power of prayer. What I mean by that is if you look at the prayer meetings in the New Testament, they weren’t a lot like what they are sometimes today in the church. In the church, everybody thinks, «As soon as you say, 'Let’s pray, ' everybody immediately puts their head down,» and then the whole room goes really quiet. Now, there’s nothing wrong with being really quiet, and I know that’s reverent and all nice, but every prayer service in the Bible, they actually lifted their heads toward heaven and raised their voices together in prayer, and they had some energy to it. In fact, not on the screen, but I should have put it there.
In James chapter 5, the Bible says that «the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous person is the one that avails much.» Right? The word fervent in the Greek is the word «energeo.» It’s where we get the word energy. So, the Bible actually teaches that prayer is with energy. If you come tomorrow, you’re going to see some energy in the room. In fact, I’m encouraging everybody who’s never been in a corporate prayer service. It’ll blow you away.
It is so exciting and full of energy. When we say, «Hey everybody, let’s pray for people that are far from God,» everybody raises their voices together and starts naming the people they’re praying for to know the Lord. Are y’all following me, everybody? So, we’re going to teach you how to have some energy in your prayer. I’m not asking you to necessarily be loud; I’m just asking you to have some fervent excitement about it because if your prayers don’t move, you can’t expect them to move mountains, everybody. Right? We’re going to have some energy in it.
Here’s the fifth one. The fifth P is what I call the persons. I’ve capitalized it: the persons of prayer. The persons are God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, the Trinity, or, we would say it this way, the Godhead. Watch this: each has a different role and personality. Now, I’ve done a whole message on this topic, and I don’t want to do that today. But basically, to say each one of those plays a different role in your relationship, in your prayer life. So you would talk to them differently because of the role they play in your life.
The benediction, which means the final verse of 2 Corinthians, tells us what those roles are. It says that Jesus’s role is to give you grace. The cross gives you the ability to have something you were never going to be able to get on your own, and that is righteousness. Is anybody in the room today want to put their hands together and thank God for the cross of Jesus Christ? Right. Of course. That’s why earlier I said, «the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous person.»
You might have thought, «Well, I’m not that person.» Yes, you are. If you’ve given your life to Jesus, he’s taken care of your sins, past, present, and future, and you are clean before God. The grace of God gives us the ability now to experience the love of the Father. People ask me, and our students at Highlands College ask me sometimes, «What’s the actual right way to pray?» We’re praying to the Father in Jesus' name because Jesus gives us the right to go there. But then we have this daily intimate friendship with the Holy Spirit. They all play these different roles in our life, and of course, I teach that in all the material so you know how to relate to the Godhead and understand the persons of prayer.
Now, I want to go back to the third one, and we’re going to close this way because I told you that you need to have a plan of prayer. In the book, I have seven different prayer models that are all found in the Bible. I want to give you the one that I was surprised to discover during my own research; I have not taught you this at Church of the Highlands on a Sunday since 2014. For some of you, this will be shocking. My own staff said, «There’s no way that’s true.» I replied, «I’m telling you, I keep copious notes. I can tell you every message I ever gave. I take great notes. I have not taught you this since 2014 on a Sunday.»
I have shared it on some Wednesday nights and several times during our prayer services, but I want to teach you the Lord’s Prayer today in about ten minutes. I want to share the beauty of this model. It all comes from Luke 11, where one day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, the disciples basically walked up and said, «Okay, that’s different.» To actually go through their bar mitzvah at age 12 or 13, they would have had to memorize prayers. So, they knew how to pray; they just didn’t know how to pray like that. They must have seen him really connecting with the Father, expressing love in a way that was so different that they said, «Jesus, you’re going to have to teach us how to do that.»
Jesus responds with what we know today as the Lord’s Prayer. I want all of us to read this prayer out loud together. Every campus, every voice, here we go. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. And God’s people said, «Amen.»
If you read that at the pace that I read, it’s 26 seconds. I want you to hear this: This was one of the greatest revelations of my life while being discipled as a young person, and it will shock some of you. It’s going to help; this is going to be one of the greatest moments of your life. I’m getting ready to give you one of the greatest gifts of your life when someone told me it’s a beautiful prayer that you can pray in 26 seconds, and it’s just beautiful. But that wasn’t the intent; when Jesus prayed and gave the disciples this prayer, he was a rabbi. In those days, rabbis taught topically, and history proves that he would have said, «Hey guys, if you want to know how I pray, let me give you seven focuses.» It was more of an outline than a prayer. You take the seven phrases that we just prayed, and we pray those to our God. But you expound on those, think about them, and learn.
When I heard that, my mind was blown -can’t even express it properly. I just thought, ' Oh, that makes so much more sense.' I want to give you, as a gift today, one of the greatest revelations of my entire life, which is using the Lord’s Prayer as an outline and not just as a prayer because it begins with’Our Father in heaven.' The first thing Jesus was teaching was to make sure, before you go any further, that you’re connecting with God relationally, not religiously, and that you clarify your view of God.
Now listen to me. Your view of God is going to determine your relationship with God. How you see Him is how you relate to Him. And if you think He’s boring, mean, faceless, uninterested, or angry, whatever you think He is, that’s how you’ll approach Him. But Jesus said, «Our Father.» What was He saying? That was actually new to the disciples, to say, «No, no, you can relate to Him not», as Romans says, «not as fearful slaves. Instead, you can receive God’s Spirit and realize that even though you didn’t deserve to be in His family, He adopted you as His own child.» If you love Him that way, you know Him that way; you approach Him differently. You can come to the Father, I mean, and call Him, and by the way, this is one of the most endearing terms in Scripture, to call Him Abba, which basically in English means Papa.
So it’s not, «O Lord, we have praise Thee.» No, He’s Daddy; He’s Father, and I relate to Him in that way. My, y’all know my grandfather’s name is Papa. We’re Papa and Honey. We figured she earned it; ain’t nobody sweeter on the planet than Miss Tammy. Can I get a really good amen, everybody? Right. She’s sweeter than sweet. Right now, what’s so funny, though, is Honey’s hard to say. We have found that out. We have ten grandkids, and it’s proven it’s hard to say. But Papa is-it’s like they said that, but they said Mama and Daddy. I’m loving it, everybody. All right. Those kids say, «Papa, Papa.» I got one of our grandkids. We FaceTime nearly every day, and Honey always picks it up, and the first thing he says when he sees Honey is, «Papa.»
Y’all don’t think I love that, do you, everybody? And when they say that, as grandparents, y’all know what I’m talking about. When those kids just say «Papa,» it’s like, man dude, what do you want? Just, what do you want? You know, and I’m encouraging you to relate to your God in that kind of way. Just realize He loves you. If He had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it. And I don’t know why I feel like pausing here for a second, but some of you, your view of God’s unhealthy, and you even think He’s ashamed of you and mad at you and disappointed in you right now.
Now, you may have done something that He doesn’t like. But the Bible says His mercies endure forever. Then who is a God like our God, who will pardon your sin and forgive the remnant of His inheritance? Who does not stay angry but delights to show mercy? Somebody needs to hear that today. Come on, give Him praise if you love our God as a Father. But then the next phrase is, «Hallowed be Your name,» which is a moment before you go any further in your prayer time. Before you ask Him for stuff, «Give me, give me, give me, my name is Jimmy.» No, don’t go there yet. We’re going to worship, and it’s specific. Worship His name. Okay, so what does that mean? That means through song or your own words, «Man, You’re holy. You’re just. You’re my peace. You’re my strength. You’re my provider. You’re my sanctifier. God, You’re my counselor.»
What are we doing here? We’re calling on the names. Why are the names important? Philippians tells us God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him a name that’s above all other names. And Lord knows there are some powerful names out there, like cancer, bankruptcy, and divorce. Those are powerful. I’m not denying that they’re not pretty real, too. But the Bible says that at the name of Jesus, every knee must bow to those other names. They submit to those names.
Watch this: on earth and under the earth. That means in heaven, earth, and hell. All demons go, «Wait a minute, they mentioned the name, and they have to bow to that.» So I love declaring the names of God and worshiping, and I have a little playlist. I have all my songs lined up with this progression, if you will. And so like the second or third song in my little prayer playlist on my phone is «What a Beautiful Name It Is.» What a beautiful name it is. And I just worship the name. I’m trying to take you on a journey in your prayer life. You’re going to enjoy it so much more if you have this plan in your heart.
Then the third phrase is to notice that it’s your kingdom and your will. And what does that mean? It means long before we get to our agenda, we must pray His first. Make sure you’re not just going, «Okay, Lord, I need you to know my kids from time to time get this right.» When I had one of my sons actually come in and surprise me in my office, I was working at home. He walked in and said, «Hey, Dad. Is there anything I can do for you?» I passed out, but then I got back up and said, «Yeah.» I immediately asked, «What do you want?» I knew he wanted something, but he insisted, «No, Dad. I just want to know if there’s anything I can do for you first.» He was being very genuine. I mean, he wanted something, but he was being very sincere.
That’s just what you call common courtesy, actually. We don’t expect that from kids necessarily, but we do expect that from each other. We don’t just walk up and say, «Hey, I need you to.» No, you always want to think about that other person first. And God’s no different. Seek first His kingdom, His righteousness, and He’ll take care of your needs. You take care of His agenda, and He’ll take care of yours. In fact, Luke states it this way: He will always give you all you need from day to day if you make the kingdom of God your primary concern. So good. So, Lord, think about what’s important to God. Well, He loves the poor. He loves the lost. And so we start praying. You’ll notice tomorrow when we pray, we’re going to pray God’s agenda long before we get to our agenda, because that’s how He asks us to pray. Isn’t this good stuff? Here’s the next.
The fourth phrase in the Lord’s Prayer is,» Give us this day our daily bread.» If you’re taking notes, write this down. And if you’re not taking notes, write this down, okay? Don’t depend on Him for just what you need. Depend on Him for everything. You might say right now,» I don’t need God to help me live because I’m alive.» But what if you said, «Lord, it’s You who gives me breath. It’s You who gives me strength. I need You today just to live another day.» Realize, watch this, that God is interested in giving you good things.
Again, you have to have a right view of God to have a right relationship with Him. Many people, and it’s a shame, honestly, see God as a withholder, like He’s got all this stuff and is just waiting to make you pray hard enough or get it all right before He gives any of it to you, and there’s no scripture that supports that whatsoever. In fact, in Matthew 7, Jesus’s own words say, «How much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him?» Philippians states it this way: Pastor Mark already quoted it at the beginning of the service. My God will meet all your needs according to His riches. So, I don’t go to Him thinking, «Well, He really doesn’t want to help me.» No, He does want to help you, and some of you need to remind yourselves of that fact and pray in that kind of way. But then here’s another part of this: give us this day our daily bread.
And then this next one is now forgive us where we’ve offended you. And watch this: As we forgive those who have offended us. And this is why I say the next part of the prayer; you ought to add this to every part of your daily prayer. In fact, let me say it this way: Do it for seven days. Every day, ask God to forgive you, and you forgive every person you can think of that needs to be forgiven. And watch how much cleaner your heart is going to feel. If we confess our sins to God, the Bible says He’s faithful and just.
In fact, when I close in a moment, we’re going to have a time where I’m going to ask everybody to whisper up anything that you need to confess to God. And I’m only doing it for one reason: I want you to leave here with no guilt or shame because He’s willing to let you leave it right here. In fact, He will not only forgive your sins, but He will purify what feels unrighteous on the inside. But by the way, that’s not enough: God, forgive us as we forgive those who trespass against us.
In fact, Jesus said — this is pretty cool -the only part of the Lord’s Prayer that He gave commentary on after delivering it is about forgiveness. Let me say that again: The only part of the prayer that He gave commentary on after giving it is right here. That’s the same passage: Verse 14. For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive your sins. And I’m telling you, guys, if you could just live — if that could be part of your daily prayer life — you’re going to walk around through this world so much differently. Man, I’m just telling you, it’s going to heal your heart. It’s going to make you feel right before the Lord. I promise you, you just need to add this to that place. Two more and we’ll close.
The sixth phrase is, «And do not lead us into temptation.» Actually, the correct translation of this is, «Do not allow us to be led into temptation.» Because God doesn’t lead you into bad places. But we know we have an enemy of our soul. And if you say, «Well, I don’t know if I believe that,» that does not make him go away. Right? Right. Right. In fact, the truth is, whether you like it or not, I’m so sorry to tell you, this is very bad news: You have one who is actually strategizing. He’s working harder to destroy you than you are working to ensure that he doesn’t destroy you. You have an enemy prowling around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.
Ephesians says, «We have a struggle that’s not against people; it’s not flesh and blood.» You’ve got rulers and authorities, powers of this dark world, and wicked spiritual forces in high places, heavenly realms. So, what do we do? Engage in spiritual warfare. And you’re going to see some of that tomorrow where we not only commune with God, love God, but we’re going to confront the devil in Jesus' name because He’s given us the victory. Somebody say amen right there. And then we end-we end with yours is the kingdom, yours is the power, yours is the glory. And what is that? You always end your prayer with expressing confidence and faith in our God. And this is the verse I usually quote at the end of every one of my prayer times. And then we’re going to go, and it goes like this: This is the confidence I have. I’ll always put scripture in the first person.
This is the confidence I have in approaching God that if I ask anything according to His will — God, you heard me today. This is the confidence that I have; that whatever I ask, I know that we have because I’ve asked in Your name and I asked You. And so, Lord, I truly believe You heard my prayers today. And Lord, so I leave this place with confidence knowing You’re on my side. Hey, everybody, this is the plan of prayer, and I officially launch 21 days of prayer. Come on, everybody. Right? All right, let’s go for it. And I want everybody to join us in the morning. If you can physically come, physically come. If you can’t join us, we’ll stream it live online, and then we’ll have it on demand for 24 hours.
Let’s bow for prayer, everybody. I promise you this moment where we can just confess our sins. Would you turn your hands up toward heaven? You don’t have to lift them, just turn them toward heaven and whisper.
So, Father, right now, we confess our sins, God, and anything that we’ve done or thought that has displeased you. And Lord, we know you’ve already forgiven us — past, present, and future. But Lord, we’re doing this for us to say, God, we know you’ve forgiven us. And as we confess our sins, we ask you to cleanse us from that unrighteousness. Let every person leave this place today knowing, God, that they are forgiven in Jesus' name. And Lord, we also forgive those who have hurt us and those who have disappointed us or wronged us in some way. Thank you, God, for setting us free.
With every head bowed and every eye closed in this room, this is an opportunity for someone here or at one of our other locations to give your life to Jesus. We never close the service without this opportunity because there is someone listening to me right now, and God is knocking on the door of your heart saying, «It’s time. It’s time. It’s time for you to go all in with God.»
And for some of you, you’re already a Christian, but you need to come back to God because you’ve slipped away. You’ve backslidden; He’s not the priority of your life anymore, and you need to rededicate your life to the Lord. Whoever you are today, if you want to come home, you need to know that His arms are open wide, welcoming you right now. If you’ll just pray this prayer, and if that’s you, pray it with me right there where you are. Just say:
Jesus, thank you for going to the cross to pay for everything that I ever did. And today, I receive your forgiveness and your love for me by surrendering my life 100% to you. I give you my all. (Say it this way, just as the Bible says) Be the Lord of my life because I believe you are the Son of God who died and rose again. And today, I put my faith in you. In your name, I pray. Amen. And amen.