Are you uh are you ready to receive the word? I just got to know if you’re really
ready or not. You want God to talk to you and you want God to speak to you.
And you know, a lot of times it’s not how good the preacher preach preaches, it’s how good we listen, how good we
hear. So God, give us today ears to hear. Give us a heart God to receive.
We boldly declare that our hearts are open. Our mind is ready. Make us better
God. Everybody say, “Make me better, God.” Make me better. By your word. By your word.
In Jesus’ name. In Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Do I need to do
something different before I let everybody sit down? Microphones are ringing.
In Jesus’ name, be healed. Okay, you may be seated today. God bless
you guys. Thank you to the worship team. Amen.
So faithful. In fact, thank you to everybody who serves at Champion Center. You’re the best. We love you. We’re
grateful for you. Today, we’re going to continue our series on pray it forward.
Pray it forward. And the real core of this message is how God goes before us
when we pray. Say with me the Lord’s Prayer as it goes up on the screen today. Say with me,
“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be
done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. and forgive
us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but
deliver us from the evil one. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the
glory forever. Amen. Amen. What a great 14 days it’s been of
prayer and fasting for our church. every morning, every evening, 7:14,
jumping online with everybody who can and I’ve watched and been a part of
every morning with our leaders and our couples and our just it’s been great.
Thank you to everybody who’s been a part of it. Amen. God,
you know, God hears us when we pray. Tell your neighbor, “God hears us when we pray.”
Amen. So, how God goes before us when you pray.
There’s a story in Ezekiel 37 where God through a vision transports the prophet
Ezekiel to a valley full of what is called dry bones. Dry, brittle bones,
like a a graveyard. But it’s exposed. There’s not underground. It’s above ground. And Ezekiel
walks around in that valley with hundreds of thousands of bones
that represent the current condition of the people of Israel who are in
exile. And that’s what it represented. And God God takes him there in a vision. And God
was saying to Ezekiel, “This is the current condition that my people are in.
They are physically alive, but they’re like zombies.
They’re like dead men walking. Their heart has been ripped out of them.
Their hope is gone. They’re so oppressed and beat down by
their enemies that they’re literally dead, dead
inside. But see, as God is doing that and he is
showing the vision to Ezekiel, the heart of God is that he wants to
restore his people and he wants to heal them.
He doesn’t want to keep them like they are. How many of you are thankful that God didn’t keep you where you were?
Amen. But God wanted them to become strong.
God wanted them to become powerful. And that’s where we’re going to pick up the story. Ezekiel 37:4.
It’s a little lengthy, but let’s read it. Let’s read it together today. Verse four. Then he said to me, “Prophesy.” So
God said to Ezekiel, “Prophesy to these bones. Say to them dry bones, hear the
word of the Lord. This is what the sovereign Lord says to these bones. I
will make breath enter you and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to
you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin. I will put breath
in you and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.
So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise,
a rattling sound, and the bones came together bone to bone. I looked, and
tendons and flesh appeared on them, and skin covered them, but there was no
breath in them. And then he said to me, said it again, like, “Prophesy to the breath. Prophesy, son of man, and say
it. Say to it. Everybody say, say, say to it. Say to it. Say to it.
This is what the sovereign Lord says. Come breathe. Come breath. Rather, come
breath from the four winds and breathe into these slain that they may live. So
I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them, and they came to
life, and they stood up on their feet, a
vast army.
Let me just clarify the word
what prophecy means. To prophesy is to
say that a specific thing will happen in the future.
And God’s telling Ezekiel to speak beyond the current
circumstances to speak the future plan that I have.
Ezekiel, speak my plan for my people.
Tell the dry bones to hear the word of the Lord.
Tell the dry bones to come together. Call for the wind
the winds to to to breathe into them breath of life.
Tell the dry bones to stand up. Stand up dry bones
and be a great and a mighty army. I know that’s not what you’re seeing
right now, Ezekiel. That’s not your current reality.
But I’m saying to you, prophesy.
And I wonder today on this Sunday,
what is it in your life that you need to stop talking about
and you need to speak to?
[Applause]
What kind of condition, what kind of circumstances
are not evident in your life, but they are not the will of God or the word of
God. They are not the promise of God. You talk about
how it’s messed up, goofed up, isn’t right, isn’t fair. And I want to tell
you today that is not changing anything.
So I want to encourage you in this message today. And here’s the first thing you can you can write down is
prophesy. When you pray, don’t just pray a problem.
Pray the plan and the promise.
Pray it forward means to speak God’s plan, to speak God’s promises
into the future. It’s why we’ve been praying, you know,
the the Lord’s prayer and a lot of people never realize. That’s why I call this the beginning of
this year, I just decided to call this series of messages pray forward because
a lot of people don’t realize that the Lord’s prayer is all about speaking God’s plan over the future.
When when when you say come your kingdom be done your will
and you say I want and I boldly declare that the kingdom would come
in my life. Kingdom come in my life. Doesn’t matter what the current circumstance is.
You’re calling the kingdom to come. Come your kingdom be done your will in
my family. Come your kingdom be done your will in my church.
Come your kingdom be done your will in my nation. What are we doing when we pray that way? We’re we’re praying it
forward rather than just saying, “God, our nation is in a big mess. Please help us
out. Please, God, these people are crazy. There’s so much strife. There’s so
much.” And and it’s like repeating the news and regurgitating it and calling it
prayer. When are you going to quit like just calling things that are already there
and start speaking to things that is God’s will for our future?
But pastor, my family’s messed up. Stop telling God. He already knows.
Your family is messed up, goofed up, screwed up, been that way a long time,
and God knows about it.
You see, the enemy wants to just keep us consumed with negative circumstances
that are around us and things that are even not just around us
but consumed with things that are in the past, right?
Things that are behind us. So many people are they’re they’re they’re praying present circumstances. They’re
praying past stuff. They’re
and the enemy if he can keep us in that space
where we keep it all alive. I’m talking about the past. We nurse it.
We curse it. We rehearse it. And then we have no bandwidth
to envision the future that God has planned for us.
Don’t let the past rob you of your future. I said, don’t let the past rob you of
your future.
Don’t let your Don’t let your past marriage mess up your new marriage. Don’t let the past church mess up your
future church. or your future experience in this church.
Don’t dwell on the past problems or the negative conditions around you.
Don’t don’t allow yourself to get so occupied, so tentative.
So, well, I’m just careful because, you know, you don’t know what I’ve been through. Yeah. Just stay that way and
you’ll never see God bring his will into your life for the for today and the
future. If you’re just staying cautious and careful based on your fears that you
have right now because of a bad experience in your past, one thing you can do is you can pray it
forward. You can begin to prophesy, God, victory over all those things that have held me
back. I pray faith over fear. I declare that I am fearless in the name of the Lord. I
declare that I move forward with courage. I live with confidence.
Speak in agreement with God’s plan for your future. It’s it’s really clear. You say, “Well, I don’t really know the the
plans of the Lord.” You do. He says it in his word. I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. Plans to prosper
you, not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and give you a future.
And my encouragement to everybody today is to speak in agreement with God’s
plan, God’s promises. Let’s prophesy restoration in the
future. Let’s prophesy salvation
in the future. Salvation in our family in the future. Y’all know my uncle
Pastor Ca ain’t no hope like
hella freeze over before he ever gives his life to God. Stop it. Let’s speak
it. Let’s say it. Let’s declare it. My family is coming to the Lord
cuz because that’s the will of God. Prophesy God’s church
growing and impacting the world. Stop talking negative about your church.
Stop finding fault as if there’s a reward for it.
I mean, fault is everywhere. You are not a great man of God or woman of God
because you point out something that’s wrong. That’s true. That’s true.
speak speak blessing over the future.
You know the the famous maybe not famous maybe some of you aren’t even aware of in the book of numbers it’s called the
priestly blessing and it just says Lord bless you and keep you. May his face
shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord turn his face toward you and
give you peace. Sometimes people I think I I’m pretty
clear on my message, but sometimes people are you’re not you don’t preach hard enough. You don’t preach straight
enough. And I always think, man, what’s wrong with you that you are all tied up
in wanting to be mean and rigid and legalistic and that you can’t just
understand the priestly blessing that says, “The Lord bless you and keep
you. May his face shine upon you.” I speak truth. Go listen to my messages
on True North. I probably speak it more clear than most people do. There’s no problem with that for me. But we don’t
beat people over the head. We speak hope. We declare their day of salvation.
We declare a day of new beginnings. We declare that God loves you and cares about you.
And in fact, what you may not notice about uh you know the entire Lord’s Prayer, there’s four demarcations in in
the Lord’s Prayer. It opens in praise, ends in praise, but there’s these four demarcations we call them. And we don’t
pray the problem. The the pro the problem is not what the Lord’s prayer is
about. It’s about praying the plan. It’s about praying the provision. It’s about
praying purification. It’s about praying protection. I think we have a a a
graphic on the screen today where it it all four of them. Just have a look. Your kingdom come. Your will be done. What
are we doing? We’re speaking out to the future. We’re praying the plan of God over our
life and our family. Give us today our daily bread. Is praying for God’s
promise of provision into your life. Forgive us, Lord, as we forgive. Is
praying God’s promise of purification over sin and unforgiveness. Lead us not
into temptation. deliver us from evil is praying God’s protection over the lies
and the deception of the enemy. It has a prophetic nature, a prophetic
tone. And you know, sometimes you can pray words and if you don’t understand the essence of of what it really the the
aiming of it, what what the intent is, you can say the word and you have the the wrong spirit as you say it. I’m
trying to give you the spirit of prayer right now. I’m trying to encourage you. Aim your prayers out into your life and
into your future and into your family’s future. Aim your prayers forward.
I do something that sometimes I I I’ll I’ll be in a store or I’ll be driving
down the road and I’ll see somebody and you know the Lord will quicken that person to my mind and that grabs my
attention and I notice something about it and I do this thing. I’ve been doing this for 25 years. I call it aim and
release. And so I may see a person who’s homeless. I may see a person that I know
it is like this morning come come on our way I saw a man bent over. That’s what
that’s what fentanyl does. It gets people they they’ll they’ll be bent over for 25 minutes and they don’t even
stagger fall under the influence of of this addiction. People are in trouble
and you can either you can either just gloat in the moment say he’s stupid,
they’re silly. You can you can speak all kinds of negativity over it or you can
you know you can say well turn turn a harshness toward it or you can aim and
release a prayer toward people that says God help that man in the name of the
Lord may somebody Yeah. may somebody somehow someway be able to speak into
their life in Jesus name. And you know what God, the one thing you can be sure of is God is reaching for everybody.
There are right moments, right time, right people for every person. There’s occasions and opportunity. And even when
they have overlooked the opportunities in the past, God doesn’t quit. And the more that that we speak out into the
future, I see people and hear from people a lot of times and I can tell they’re just so wrapped up in them, you
know, their their own negative view of light and and I’ll just I’ll just think in my heart in Jesus’ name. And
sometimes I get away from that person and I speak God in Jesus. I’m not trying to say I don’t get frustrated with
people because I do. But I know that the greatest power is when I begin to
declare a future over them that is different than the current circumstance.
It’s prophecy. It’s prophesying. So pray in agreement with God
who calls things that are not yet as
though they are. Some people don’t know this about about God, about his nature.
And so when we pray, remember that. Remember that he calls things that are
not. So when he talks to Ezekiel and he says, “Come on, man. Get on board with me.
I don’t want this for the nation of Israel. Use your voice.
Use your voice. Speak to it.” Now again, this was a vision, but there was a big time plan in
God’s mind cuz God was teaching his man, his prophet in that moment. This is what
we’re going to do from this day forward. This is a vision. And I want you to see the powerful outcome when you began to
speak over speak words of life over those who are oppressed,
over those who are held in bondage. I want you to see my plan for their future
and I want you to declare that. I want you to speak that. So he was saying,
“Hey, today see the vision, but after the vision, this is the way I want you to speak from this day forward. I want
you to declare when you preach to the people that are oppressed, I want you to
declare to them freedom. I want you to speak to the bones, the things that are dead in sight. I want
you to speak life. Life is coming. Life is in the future.
A new a a new thing is going to happen. God has a place for all of us. He’s not
going to keep us in exile, oppressed by our enemy forever.
Lift up your heart. Lift up your head. That’s the kind of thing that was that
was the outcome of the vision in the boneyard. And Romans 4, Romans chapter 4
tells us God calls things which do not exist as though they did.
God who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as
though they did. That’s Romans 4:17. Proverbs 18:21 says, “Death and life are
in the power of the tongue.” Death and life are in the power and it needs to not just well that’s when I’m,
you know, living my life. No, no. It’s when we pray as well.
Prayer prayers that are that are life prayers
have creative power. Words have creative power for the bad or for
the good. See, we don’t have the same level of creative power that God does.
You hear what I’m saying? But we’ve been chosen by God to be part
of his creative process. Everybody say, “My words matter.”
My words matter. Say it again. My words matter. My words matter.
One more time. My words matter. My words matter. Because we’ve been chosen by God as his
people to be part of his creative process.
Believe it or not, believe it or not,
it’s not all up to God. And it’s not all up to you.
He’s called for a partnership. He’s chosen this to be the way.
If my people which are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek
my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I
will hear from heaven. You see the partnership?
And I will I will heal their land. See the hope.
There was a time when Jesus looked at Simon Peter and he he looked him in the eye and this
is right before the crucifixion.
And he said to Peter, he said, you know, Peter was saying, I’ll never deny you. I’ll never deny you. And he looked at
Peter and said, well, you’re going to deny me three times.
But the next words Jesus said is that but I have prayed for you
that your faith would not fail and when you have turned back
strengthen your brothers.
Jesus was on the other side of Peter’s failure.
He’s saying, “I have already prayed your restoration.
I have all He’s praising it forward. I have already prayed.
I know you’re going to deny me. That’s that’s in that that’s what’s going to
happen. It’s not what I want, but that’s what you’re going to do.” But I’ve already got out in front of
that because I know how hard it is to make a comeback after a setback.
I know how hard it is when you feel the failure in your heart, to get up again,
and to carry on. So, I’m out there already, Jesus was saying. And I have
prayed for you that when you turn back, you not only make it back,
but that you when you turn back, that you would strengthen the people around you. That you would pour heart and soul
into ministering life to people who have failed and others who are hopeless. I’m
out there. Isn’t that awesome? So, so let me tell you today, let me
just tell you this today. Prayers have no expiration date.
They are not timestamped like the food in your refrigerator.
Not prayer. There’s no labels that say, you know,
this prayer is powerless after seven days.
No. Your prayers don’t expire, they accumulate.
All of us in fact are here because prayers that somebody prayed.
Could have been someone in your family history. How many of you know that right now? You had a mom, you had an uncle,
you had grandma, you got somebody in. It could be that or it could be someone who lived in
your neighborhood or lives in your neighborhood. Could be somebody like me aiming and
releasing in your direction who doesn’t even know you. It could be a people in
prayer meetings praying and declaring God people that are hungry for you that
they would know where we are as a church and they would come to you. You don’t know. But I’m just going to tell you, we’re all here because somebody pray it.
Prayer is powerful. Prayer’s powerful.
So remember, your prayers don’t expire. Everybody say, “They don’t expire.” Say it again. They don’t expire.
They accumulate. There’s a there’s a visual in the book
of Revelation, fifth chapter, where it describes the prayers of God’s people as being kept in golden bowls
of incense. Just like prayers kept in golden bowls of incense. In other words,
circulating eternally in the presence of God. Imagine
that they accumulate. Well, I already prayed for something.
Don’t stop. They accumulate. An angel visits a man named Cornelius in
in Acts chapter 10. And when he shows up to him, he’s like, here’s what he says to him. He says, “Hey, Cornelius, don’t
be afraid. Your prayers and your giving has come up
before God as a memorial. Your prayers don’t expire.
They accumulate. And he told him, “I’m here because God sent me here and he’s going to do
something special for your family.”
Prayers are like rain that comes down out of the clouds. No,
no water ever leaves the earth’s the earth’s atmosphere. No water ever leaves the
earth’s atmosphere. It just moves to another place on earth
and changes between solid and liquid and steam.
So the water that you see today will travel all over the world and come back again.
Now if science can convince you that’s true, why is it hard to believe that prayers circulate?
That’s great. If if if computers can log, you know, if
if you you know, if you ever wonder like, does God know where I’m at? Well,
think about this. Like try not paying your taxes and the IRS will find you.
Like and if the IRS has a way to find you, don’t doubt that God knows right
where you’re at. Like right where you’re at. Prayers
prayers never die. They’re like eternal incense. So what
are you saying, Pastor Kevin? I’m saying speak God’s promises over your children. Don’t be afraid to just speak.
Pray that they will be safe. Pray that they will be strong. Pray
Psalm 112 that they would be mighty in the land.
I’ve got an example I want to show you. An American educator,
Ae Winship was his name. He decided to trace back the descendants of the famous
preacher in the 1800s named Jonathan Edwards. And he decided to do this like
150 years after Jonathan Edwards lived. And and his findings are remarkable, but especially
they’re remarkable when they’re compared to another man from the same time
period who was known as Max Jukes. And I I got them on a graphic for you
because I want you to see the the two laid side by side. The offspring of
Jonathan Edwards family. Just look at the list.
Governors, dean of law school, college presidents, 30 judges, 60 doctors,
professors, military officers, hundred clergymen,
college graduates. And then you look over at Max Juke’s descendants and look how different it is.
Look how different the two are. Murderers and thieves and convicts and
people who were physically wrecked by alcohol. Now, the reason I’m saying this is because I do believe that they they
taught their children the word. I I I know that there were things that went alongside this, but you’ll never
convince me that you can have that kind of legacy if it’s not supported by the power of
prayer. If if there weren’t, starting with
Jonathan Edwards himself, prayers going out into the future, prayers over children and your
children’s children, prayers for their their salvation,
prayers that God would protect them from evil. Prayers for your children that they
would be mighty in the land. You see what I’m saying today?
Prayers go out into a future.
Says uh Bible says that children are like arrows in the hands of a warrior.
Often times when I think about I talk about I think about pulling back the bow, aim it in the right direction
cuz there’s a day 18 or somewhere in there you got to let it go. And by the
time they are 18, you’re aiming when you aim it in the right direction, they still may not know right now. But don’t
give up, parents. If you have a prodical son, prodal daughter, doesn’t matter. Your prayers are out there in the
future. Angels, come on. They are on assignment. They are on assignment. Let’s give the
Lord a great big hand today for prayers and the power of prayer working in us
and working in our future. Amen. Look at your neighbor and tell them, “Pray it forward.”
Come on, pray it forward. Can we stand to our feet right now? Can we just all over every every location
today? Would you just Let’s take a moment. Let’s just take a moment. No one
leaving, no one moving around. Just take a moment. And I want to act on what I’ve I want us to act on what I’ve taught you
today. Would you just raise your hands and begin to you can pray the Lord’s
prayer and just pray to God and declare good things over your
family. Pray the blessing of the Lord today,
over your business, over the future, over our nation in Jesus name.
God, we pray for our children today. God, we can’t do anything about our
history, but you have called us to speak to our legacy,
to stand in the gap, to be the one that changes things going forward,
to be the prayer, the prayer that declares and prophesies
that our children, our children are strong,
our children are world changers. our children live in the anointing and
the protection of Almighty God. We pray for the children of this church.
I pray for the next generations of our church family. I pray God that our children they would
overcome the power of the enemy. I declare them as victorious.
I declare wealth. I declare riches in the house of God’s people.
I boldly declare that the wealth of the wicked is laid up for the just.
We declare today no weapon formed against us is going to prosper.
And God, you know every person whose name we’re calling right now, you know every situation.
And I thank you that in the mighty name of Jesus. I thank you that you have promised us.
You have given us your word and we stand on it today. And we call the bones to live.
We call the life of God, the breath of God into the non-living, the
nonspiritual places of people’s heart that they would take on and take in the
breath of life today in Jesus name. In Jesus name
in Jesus name. In Jesus name
and their children. Let’s take another take another minute.
Come on. We’re not in too big of a hurry. We’re not in too big of a hurry.
What do you need to talk to today? Don’t just pray about it. Speak to it
today. We speak to the mountain today. around
the mountain with you in the morning
to the opposition to death and you are defeated in the
name of you. He is for you. God in Jesus name for you. He is for you.
God comes from the world in Jesus name. He is for you.
[Music] I speak to the discouragement today.
Any discouragement we call for courage today. We call for
the courage of God. Today, we declare to our hearts, be strong.
We declare to our hearts, be strong.
Do not be afraid. Trust in the Lord.
Trust in his favor. Trust in you. Trust in generations
in your freedom today. Thank you for freedom today. Thank you for freedom.
Thank you for behind you and beside you. Thank you.
All around you and within you. is with you in the morning, in the morning, in
the evening. He coming and going and
joing and rejoicing. He is for you. He
is for you. He is for you. He is for you. He is for you.
He is for you. He is for you. He is for you.
you speak to us today. Thank you Lord that you speak to us
today. That your word gives life. That your word gives direction. I thank
you for it today. We receive it all. We thank you for it.
We thank you for it in Jesus name. In the mighty name of Jesus.
Mountain be moved in Jesus name. Barrier be broken in Jesus name.
Harvest come forth in Jesus name. [Music]
Thank you Lord. Thank you Lord. Every head bowed, every eye closed. I want to call some of you
to reconciliation with God. Restoration and healing is in front of you. You’ve been broken.
You’ve been distant. You’ve been away. You’ve not known the Lord. Maybe never
known the Lord. Or you’ve gotten away from God. Today is your day for a new beginning.
I may not know you by name, but God does. The very hairs of your head are
numbered. That’s that’s the detail with which he knows you today. Cares about you. He
wants to bring you hope. And maybe you feel like you’ve been in a place of dry bones and it’s brittle and
no life, no spiritual life. You don’t have the hope of God living in you
today. And I want to give you a chance if you’re feeling it as I’m saying it. If you’re knowing, God, this is my
moment in my day, just to boldly raise a hand. I’m going to pray with you a prayer of new beginnings. And we’re going to usher you into a new future.
Come on. This is not about looking back. It’s about looking forward. This is not about dwelling in your in your sorrow
and your pain and your regret. It’s about looking to the father of hope who
brings a brand new beginning. Jesus Christ came that you might have life and have it more abundantly. Whoever you
are, just raise a hand. I see hands going up in this room and in Jesus’ name
all across our locations, a man, a woman, a young person, whoever you are, you say, “I need a new beginning. I want
to put my hope in the Lord today.” Come on. I want a fresh, brand new start. Just raise your hand boldly. Just raise
that hand up high in Jesus name. And keep it up if you would. Keep it up if you would.
And let’s all pray this. We’re going to pray this out loud with those of you whose hands are up. Say it out loud with
me. Say, “Lord Jesus, Lord Jesus, welcome to my world. Forgive me of all of my sin.
Come into my heart. Come into my life. and make me a new person.
Today I put my trust in you. Today I put my trust I put my faith in you.
put my faith in you. I boldly declare that you are my leader. You are my You are my Lord.
I don’t look back. I look back I look forward and I declare
I declare I’m an overcomer. Come on. I’m an overcomer. I can do all things through Christ.
who strengthens me in Jesus name. And everybody said a great big
welcome. Welcome. Welcome to the family of God. God bless you today.