Gregory Dickow - The Most Powerful Words on Earth

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The most powerful words on earth, do you remember when Lazarus died and Lazarus was the brother of Mary and Martha? And so Jesus knew Mary and Martha, he knew Lazarus. He loved them. They loved him. And Lazarus died suddenly. And they reach out and they send somebody. Could you tell Jesus that our brother Lazarus has died? And so word got to Jesus, but he was delayed in coming. Either he delayed himself or he allowed himself to be delayed because he didn't need to come at the exact time that they wanted him to come. God's timing is always the right time, and it's never too late with God. Say that it's never too late. Paul, I believe that about God, that that his timing is always perfect and it's never too late, no matter how bad the situation is.

You remember when that one Jairus, his daughter was sick and he sent for Jesus and he said, send Jesus message, please come and heal my daughter. She's sick. And Jesus says, I'm going to go and do it. And on his way back with Jairus, his daughter dies. Isn't it interesting that as soon as Jesus got involved with Jairus, the situation got worse? How many have ever thought? Man, as soon as I started following God, as soon as I started tithing, as soon as I started forgiving and as soon as I started going to church, especially that church.

Come on, help me now. As soon as I started doing what I thought, God said things got worse. But you know what? Sometimes it gets worse before it gets better. But that's OK, because God's not limited by the current condition of the situation, because even though she was sick and when Jesus started going with him, she died, Jesus still came and raised her from the dead "Talitha Kum!" little girl. I say to you, arise. And she was healed and she was miraculously she miraculously recovered. He raised the dead. Well, it's never too late for God. No matter what situation you're in, it's never too late. Amen. So Jesus waits. Four days before coming to Lazarus, his tomb, Lazarus is now dead for four days and Jesus gets there.

And in verse 38, Jesus was moved with compassion. Jesus said in verse 31, remove the stone. And Martha said to him, the sister of Lazarus, Lord, by this time there's a stench, for he's been dead for days. But Jesus said to her, Did I not say to you, if you believe you will see the glory of God. Now, that ought to teach us something right there that if you believe you will see now, this is what Living by faith is all about. It's believing God's word before you see it. It's believing God's promises before you see them show up in your life.

Well, if you have to see it to believe it, then it's not faith at all. But if you'll believe it, you'll eventually see it. Anybody believe that here today? He said, didn't I say if you would believe you would see the glory of God or you would see God's power show up the word glory? Here is the manifestation of God's power if you believe you will see the glory of God. But here, verse 41. And so they remove the stone and Jesus lifted up his eyes in verse 41. Jesus lifted up his eyes and he said, Father, I thank you, Father. I thank you, Father. I thank you, Father. I thank you Father. I thank you.

Notice how Jesus prayed Father. I thank you Father. He didn't say Father. Give me the power Father. Raise him from the dead. Father, help me. No, Father. Thank you. Now, Father, will you not Father. Can you. But Father. Thank you. Now these are the most powerful words on Earth. The most powerful words on Earth are Father. Thank you, Father. Thank you. You know, this is how Jesus prayed. He didn't pray. Father, will you. But how many times have we prayed that. Father, can you how many times have we prayed that. Father, if you don't if I need this. No, that's not how Jesus prayed. He prayed. Father. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Father. I thank you. And listen, this isn't the first time that he prayed this way. He prayed this way in Matthew Chapter 11 when he said, Father, I thank you that you have not revealed these things to the wise and the intelligent, but to the babes, to the innocent, to the pure, to the humble. This is what Jesus is. How Jesus praise Father. Thank you.

Now, remember, thankfulness is the gateway to three things. Thankfulness is the gateway to happiness. I think that we have to realize that happiness is not some secular, worldly, unspiritual thing. Happiness was God's idea. The Bible says happy is the man who knows his sins are forgiven. The Bible says happy is the one that does not condemn himself. The Bible says happy is the man that finds wisdom and gets understanding. We can go through the Bible and say and see scripture after scripture in Jeremiah Chapter 17, he said. He said, Happy is the man that trusts in the Lord and whose trust is the Lord. We can go and find it from Genesis to Revelation. How God's Saw God is the source and author of all happiness and all of the things in the Bible that tell us that these things will make us happy.

That God says that when you know your sins are forgiven, you'll be happy. When you trust God, you'll be happy. Happiness is not some worldly feeling. Happiness is God's idea. Happiness was God's idea. Happiness is God's idea. In fact, if you look at your life, everything you do today, everything you'll do tomorrow is in some way done to make you happy, whether it's going to work because so you can have money so that you can give and pay your bills. Why so you'll be happy whether it's treating somebody in a good way, why would you do that? Because it'll make them happy. It'll make you happy whether it's leading somebody to Jesus Christ and seeing somebody get born again by sharing your faith. Why are you doing it? Because it makes them happy. It makes God happy, and it makes you happy.

You might think this is such a limited word about happiness, and yet everything we do is done to make us happy. Studies show that everything people do in their lives, their actions, their behaviors are done to make them happy. But the fact is, is that we do what we do in order to obtain happiness and God wants us to obtain it his way. And I'm telling you, thankfulness is the gateway to happiness. It's the gateway to happiness. Thankfulness is the gateway to the miraculous. We talked about that a little bit. And I'm going to show you here how it's the gateway to the miraculous. And thirdly, it's the gateway to your purpose. It's the gateway to your purpose.

If you could get a hold of this, I think that every one of us could say today we're seeking today to be happy, we're seeking a miracle, or we're seeking to discover our purpose and our destiny and God's will for our lives. Is there anybody here that could agree with that with me today? Every one of us is seeking one of those things or a combination of all of them. We're seeking happiness. We're seeking the miraculous. We're seeking purpose. And yet gratitude and thankfulness is the gateway to all three of those things. So let's take the shortcut to those three things. Let's take the shortcut to our purpose by being grateful.

Let's take the shortcut to the miraculous by being thankful. Let's take the short the shortcut to happiness, by being thankful it works every time. So let's look at this miracle in John. Eleven verse forty one. So Jesus comes to this dead man. For days he's been dead and Jesus says, Father, I thank you Father. I thank you. Now let's talk about this for a minute. What is he thanking him for. The power is in the specificity of what you're thinking God for and notice specifically what Jesus thinks. The Father, for Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I thank you that you have heard me. Boy, when you come to realize that God hears you, it will make you thankful.

You see, it's in the reality of knowing that he hears you. That causes Jesus to thank the Father. He's not thanking him out of a ritual. He's thanking him because he believes the Father has heard him. You know, something happens when you believe God has heard you, it affects you, it affects your emotions, it affects your attitude, it affects your your perspective. I love this verse in Psalm 116:1. He says, I love the Lord because he heard my voice and my prayer. I love the Lord because he heard my voice and my prayer, knowing that God hears him cause David to love God, knowing that God heard him, cause Jesus to thank the Father. Father, I thank you, Father. I think you see, it's not a ritual. It's not a religion. It's not a manner.

Now, there's nothing wrong with having thankful manners. That's way better than being unthankful and having bad manners. Right. It's better to have good manners than bad. But that's not what we're talking about. Our manners. We're talking about the most powerful words on Earth. Our Father, I thank you again. And John 11:41. Jesus, praise Father. I thank you. Notice this. I thank you that you have heard me. And then notice what he says. Says in verse 42. I know that you always hear me, but because of the people who are standing here, that's why I said this so that they will believe that you sent me and then verse 43, he says. And so when he said these things he cried with a loud voice. Lazarus, come forth and what happens?

Verse 44. Picture this folks. Look at verse 44 and he who had died came out bound hand and foot with grave clothes around his face, wrap with a cloth and Jesus said Lose him and let him go. And all of this happened. This miracle, the power of the miraculous comes from the power of gratitude. Father, I thank you. And a miracle takes place. Father, I thank you that you've heard me and you always hear me. You want to know how to be heard by God is is found in 1 John 5:14. Because God hears you too. But here's how your prayers get answered. Ask anything according to his will and he hears you. And if you have confidence that he hears you, you can have confidence in whatever you've asked you receive from him, boy, God knows how to how to tie this thing up and to make it plain and make it simple, it's really simple. He hears you when you pray and you know how to know his will look in the Bible.

What is he left seven thousand promises that not one of them are maybe. And not one of them are. No, but all of them are. Yes. And a man in Christ, all the promises of God, all the promises of God are yes. And a man in Christ. If you're born again, God says yes to all of His promises. All that you need to do is ask him. And the way to ask him is not Father, will you? It's not Father. Can you. It's Father. Thank you. Thank you Father. I thank you. It's not Father. I wonder about you Father I. I wonder if you can do it. His Father. I thank you that you've heard me and you always hear me. He always hears the cry of his children and any promise that is uttered out of your mouth is a prayer that God says yes to, and especially when it begins with.

Thank you, Father. I thank you, Father. I thank you, Father. I thank you all. The power of thankfulness. It produces the miraculous, it produces happiness and it produces purpose. It is the gateway to your happiness. It is the gateway to your purpose, and it is the gateway to the miraculous Father. I thank you that no matter what weapons are formed against me, none of them will prosper no matter what. Father, I thank you. See, these are the most powerful words on Earth. Father, I thank you that no matter who is for me, God, you are for me. No matter who's against me, God you are for me. Death, life, angels of principalities. None of them can separate me from the love of God. Father, I thank you that you love me. I thank you that you're for me. I thank you that you're with me.

It's all about gratitude for who God is and what he's already done. And that's where our focus needs to be. And I might sound I might sound like a broken record. I might sound like a broken record, but that's how I memorized all the songs that I know by heart is when I used to play them on my little phonograph. Anybody remember what a phonograph is, not photograph. Most people don't even know what that is, but a phonograph was a record player. Anybody ever heard of a record? Somebody said, What record did you break? I broke all of them. They all skipped first, though, and all of my records, you know, the grooves, the grooves on the needle, the grooves in the vinyl and then the needle.

I think they're popular now again, or they've made a comeback a little bit that people listen to go buy these these vinyl records. But what would happen is I had my favorite album was the Jackson five Greatest Hits, and that's controversial these days, too. Sorry, you can't say anything in life today without somebody taking offense to it and reading it the wrong way, reading into it the wrong way. But I love the Jackson five when I was a kid. And, you know, I remember that I remember the one song I used to play all the time. Got to be there. Got to be there. Got to be there. Never would get to be there as bad. I used to be able to sing that high in the morning. Got to be. It's got to be. Got to be. Got to be. Got to be there.

So you have to put you'd have to you'd have to press down on the needle so it go it would get into the groove and it would keep playing. That's how we listen to music back in the day, you know what I'm talking about. But if I sound like a broken record, it's so you can get it. Got to. Got to. Got to. Got to. Got to be the. It's so you will truly get a hold of this. This is not some fancy sermon. It's not fancy at all. It's not a sermon at all. But it's I'm not trying to come up with something that will make you happy. You came to church today. I'm trying to come up with show you what God has already come up with that will make you happy for life and he'll make you powerful.

And you walk in the miraculous and you'll live out your purpose when you learn the beauty of thankfulness and gratitude that comes from remembering what God has done. It comes from it comes from remembering the cure to being offended is not protecting your life. So nobody offends you. The cure to being offended is not by getting rid of all your friends and not having any relationships. The cure to being offended is not to jump from. Church to another church, because something somebody did offended you, the cure to being offended is to be grateful. The cure to being offended is not to jump from one relationship to the next. It's not to leave people. It's not to abandon people. Being the cure to being offended is not to be a holy person, to be perfect all the time.

The cure being to being offended is simply to be grateful, to be thankful for what God has done, to be thankful that God's power is greater. What God has done for you is greater than what people have done to you. Just get a hold of that for a minute that what God has done for you is greater than what people have done to you. You can only be offended if you believe that what people have done to you is greater than what God has done for you. Romans one verse twenty one noticed what he says here, for although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God.

In other words, they didn't magnify the Lord. They put the magnifying glass on themselves rather than on God. Nor did they give him thanks. But their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. How did their thinking become futile? Because they did not give him thanks. And what does it mean to be futile in your thinking? The word futile means without purpose. Without purpose. You miss your purpose. When you're not thankful, but when you're thankful, it brings you into purposeful life and purpose for direction, and when you're ungrateful and I'm thankful it makes your thoughts futile. You live a life without purpose, without focus, without aim. I choose thankfulness for what God has done.

How about you, boy, if we can get a hold of this, if we get a hold of this, that, how do you express thankfulness to be thankful? It requires you to be humble and it requires you to use your memory. We got to remember that it is he that gives it is he that gives is he the gives. And we need to be humble. Meaning what does it mean to be humble? The word humble. The word humility comes from the the Latin word humous. Which means it means the earth. It means it means the earth versus hubris, which is arrogance. It means to see yourself above the earth and to see yourself better than others. But humility is to be the earth that other people can walk on the path of your life to get to God's destiny for their lives. It's to become a path for others. Humility is to be thankful and to be and to to remember what God has done and to become a path for others.

We become the earth, for others where we're low to the ground, meaning we don't think more highly of ourselves, but doesn't mean we think bad of ourselves. It means that we don't think that we're better than other people. And the goal is not to be better than somebody else is to be the best version of yourself. To be humble is to be made of earth, to realize that you're down to earth, to be a down to earth person, a person who you let God use you for other people to find the path, to find a path to Jesus, to find a path to kindness, to find a path to God's will for their lives. Don't you want that? Don't you want to be a path for somebody else? That's humility. And to and using that humility and that memory to remember it is he that gives it is he that gives everything good that you have came from God, that'll make you thankful. That'll keep you humble.