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Let us pray. Is not this the fast that I have chosen? To loose the bands of the wicked, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke. Isaiah 58 6 Heavenly Father, you have given me all the tools I need to be successful against the works of the enemy.
You are teaching me how to war against the powers and principalities in the spiritual realm that are taking your children into bondage. You take their deliverance seriously. Self-denial through fasting is a way to strengthen the Holy Spirit and weaken all the carnal indulgences and distractions. It is a spiritual discipline that quiets my soul so I can hear your gentle whispers more clearly.
Self-denial is a valuable part of Christian discipleship and puts my flesh in subjection to the Holy Spirit. As I decrease, your power increases, and it is that anointing that breaks the bondages of wickedness and destroys the heavy burden that weighs down your people. When the authority of Christ is declared and coupled with fasting, the oppressed go free and the yoke of their bondages are broken.
Spiritual warfare requires my mind to be focused on the Word of God and a dedication that is willing to deny self for the sake of others. This is the fast you have chosen and called me to, where I will see your miracles performed and those oppressed set free. Glory to the risen Lord.
Give me the strength and perseverance to serve you with such dedication that I will see your hand move in the land of the living. In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you for listening to today's daily prayer. For more inspiration and an incredible message from our feature pastor, stay tuned to Pray.com's Sunday service.
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Today we want to preach a series called Pray First because we are now in our series on fasting and on prayer. And I don't know how many of you have joined us on that, but we do it every single year at Inspired Church. We've been doing it for the last 15 years out of 21 years because back then I didn't know enough about fasting. We never practiced a lot of fasting when we were growing up. But then we realized that fasting, setting ourselves apart for God, put us in buildings like this.
It allowed us to reach more people for Jesus. Fasting and prayer has done miraculous things in personal lives and also in the life of our church. And I would highly recommend that you set aside even the last week of our fast. So you fast whenever you want. But I'm telling you right now, there's nothing like giving God first, the first part of your year, the first part of your finances.
the first part of everything, offer it to God and watch what God can do with the rest. So I've been on this fast with everybody else. For me, it's been more of a liquid fast for the first three days. Went liquid, here's liquid. I just drank water and one cup of coffee. Just drank water and I was like,
Wow, this is like... I was less worried about what fruit nut mix am I eating? What Daniel-friendly food can I have? I was not even thinking like that. I actually was thinking, I'm hungry, but I'm going to drink this water because I want to press into God because I need breakthrough in 2023.
And I want something powerful to happen in our church in mine and Lisa's life. So I'm going to do that. And so when we begin to set apart our lives for God and say, Lord, I want to give you my first part of my year. Fasting for some of you could be like if you got a real social media problem. Like I'm saying, if you're TikToking and if I take away your TikTok, you tweak. That's a problem. That's a problem.
That's a problem. You got a problem. So maybe you put that phone aside for two weeks and then you don't even touch it. You turn off all your notifications and it actually becomes a phone rather than a little computer and you check your social media. That might help. And actually watch what your mental health will be like.
After one week without your phone, right? What your mental health will be like. You feel better. You feel fresher. For some of you, you're going to do a Daniel fast. For some of you, like what's a Daniel fast? A Daniel fast is when the book of Daniel, where Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and his friends set themselves apart for God and decided that they would not eat of King Nebuchadnezzar's table. They were not going to eat the choice foods, the training. That was a training table. That's a D1 training table. They were giving them meats. They were giving them pork. They were giving them anything. They were trying to bulk them up.
And Daniel and his friends said, we're not having that. We're going to use this. And God found favor with them. And the fast that they went on, the food that they ate was lentils, beans, and vegetables. And that was it. And water. That's what they ate. And by the time of that examination took place, when they did the physical check, they said Daniel and his friends were 10 times better than everybody else.
in the kingdom at that time. So that's a Daniel fast. For some of you, that's no meat, no sweet, no sweets, no kinds of meat, all of that. And then for some of you, you're going to do liquid. Some of you are going to do juices. Some of you are going to do vegetables, vegetable juices. Some of you are going to do water. And so as long as you, here's the deal. As long as you pray, if you're fasting but not praying, you're just on a diet. Right?
Okay, and nothing wrong with the diet nothing wrong everything good about a diet, but everything good with prayer and fasting Let me tell you why because when Jesus came down from the Mount of Transfiguration with Peter James and John remember the part where the glory came the glory came and they heard the cloud of the Cloud and God spoke through the cloud by the way gee our Heavenly Father is the original cloud okay, not I cloud you know anyway God had the original cloud and he spoke from the cloud and
And he said to Peter, this is my son, listen to him. And when they descend from Mount Hermon, which is in Lebanon and Syria, that area, and come down to northern Israel, and they come down, and they have to decompress when they're coming down. When they get to the bottom of the mountain, what do they find? They find a demon-possessed boy throwing himself into the fire, and his dad can do nothing about it.
Can't do nothing about it. He can't handle it. He's at his wit's end. He's tried therapy. He's tried counselors. He's tried rabbis. He's spent money. He's given everything for the healing of his son, but nothing is happening. And the disciples are like, we don't know what to do. We tried to pray. We don't know what to do. And Jesus shows up on the scene, casts the demon out, and they go, how do you do that? He goes, this kind only comes out by prayer and fasting. Amen.
Sometimes you are only praying, but God says, "Good, pray." But now, why don't you add fasting to that and see what I can do with prayer and fasting. And so, you know, one of my favorite movies of all time, "Top Gun," the first one. Okay? Number two is even better. Like, oh my gosh.
And one of my favorite movies of all time was Top Gun, the first one. You know why? It's when they get in too close for combat and they're flying and all of a sudden you got Goose and you got, what's his name, Tom? What's his? Maverick, Maverick, Goose and Maverick. And they're flying, coming through, coming through, coming through. They're coming through, coming through. Oh, I'm too close, Goose, I'm too close. I gotta go to guns. I gotta go to guns. I gotta go to guns. Instead of the heat-seeking missiles, you gotta go to guns. And fasting is like going to guns. Anyway, so I'm Danieling just today.
Because Lisa said, please eat something. Please eat something. You're irritable. Eat something. I can see some of them, oh, I'm going to do that. I'm going to pull that. I'm going to get irritable. My wife says, eat something. So I'm Danieling today, and then I go back on my liquid on Monday. And here's the other benefit. I'm fitting these pants. Anyway, praise God. Are you ready to fast, everybody? Amen.
You know, every society, and about a year and a half ago when I started teaching this series called The Way Back, on how do we find our way back in Christianity, in the nation that we live in, in the state that we are a part of. How do we do that? How do we do that? And one of the books that I read was a book by Cal Thomas. And Cal Thomas is a syndicated radio columnist who is also an author. And Cal Thomas wrote about five years ago that...
that every nation or civilization has 250 years where it is at its zenith. If we were to look at the different nations and empires, the different kingdoms of this world in a 5,000-year period, according to historians, in a book that I read 30 years ago that came back to life about five years ago by Strauss and Howell called The Fourth Turning, we are currently in the fourth turning of this cycle that we talk about.
In that period of time, in this 5,000 years, in the 5,000 years of recorded history, there have been 26 kingdoms, empires, nations that really ruled the world at that time. 26 out of 5,000 years. But the thing about those nations, for 26 of them, all 26, their zenith of power was 250 years.
250 years. They still existed, but in iteration in a massive difference of what they were before. As a matter of fact, all of these 26 kingdoms, nations, and empires, you're talking about the Greeks, you're talking about the Romans, we're going to the Trojans, we're going through even Great Britain, even you name all of these that you know about, all of them, 250 years. 250 years. Why 250? I don't know why the number, but I can tell you this, how? It
was all rotting from within and it wasn't the enemy from the outside and whenever a nation is weak as a matter of fact whenever a nation is weak which leads me to this quote by the founder of dubai who built dubai his name is sheikh rashid i never normally wouldn't quote a person
in this fashion, but I'm going to quote it. He says, "My grandfather rode a camel. My father rode a camel. I drive a Mercedes. My son drives a Land Rover." It must be nice. "His son will drive a Land Rover, but his son will ride a camel." "Why is that?" they asked him. Well, the reason why is because he's obviously heard about the book of Revelation. Because in the book of Revelation, in the battle of Armageddon, in that valley,
In that valley in Israel, it will be so filled with carnage that they will be riding horses again during the final battle of the world. But then he goes on to say, hard times, you can put it all on one slide? Oh, we should have separated. Anyway, hard times create strong men.
Strong men create easy times, easy times create weak men, here we are, and weak men create difficult times, and many will not understand, but that's why you have to raise warriors and not parasites. We are in a season of difficult times created by weak men. But now is our time. Now is our time. Now is our time to believe that no matter what happens in 2023,
No matter what downsizing, dumbing down that you've done already because you've looked at what's happening in the economy, you've looked at your TD Ameritrade account, it's gone down. Whatever it is, cryptocurrency is worthless right now, but it's going to make a comeback one day. I don't know what you're looking at and what are the signs of the times. I don't know if you're seeing the decadence of our culture. I don't know if you're seeing the corruption that is going on. And I don't know if you're looking at what's happening with the hedonism in our world and especially in our country.
I can tell you right now that the sanctity of life, the birth of a baby is absolutely critical to this nation. I think our nation hangs on the balance of how we handle babies from now on, the unborn especially. But now, what I believe, that God can still intervene. The Bible tells us, 2 Chronicles 7, verse 14 says, if my people, you know this verse, if, everybody say if. That's a big if. If.
That's a big if. But if we, we can't speak for the nation, but if we, God's people, are called by my name, called by his name, will humble themselves and pray online and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven, I will forgive their sins, and I will restore their land. God wants to restore this land, forgive our sins as we seek his face and turn from our ways. But the big word is if. I believe you're here because you are if.
I believe you're in this room because we are if. But God gave us prayer. Our biggest weapon is prayer. We have other weapons. Don't get me wrong. We have fasting. We have prayer. God has given us a mouth. God has given us freedom of speech. We have other weapons. But let me tell you about the number one weapon, and it is the weapon of prayer.
That's why this message is called Pray First. So let me give you the priority of prayer that Jesus put into this. In Mark 1, verse 35, it says, Number one, Jesus placed a priority on prayer.
Because early in the morning is when he went to pray. Number one, there's a priority of prayer. Put a priority of prayer on your life. You can pray all day, but put a place, number two, a place of prayer. A place of prayer. Where's your place of prayer? Do you have one? Create one. Figure out which one is it gonna be.
Is it going to be on the side of your bed? Are you going to roll off your bed, go immediately to your knees? Thank you, God, I got breath in my lungs. Thank you, God, that I got family. Thank you, God, I have a job. Thank you, God, I got you as my heavenly father. Whatever it is, find your priority. Find your place. Where is your place to pray? The third one is there is a plan of prayer. And I'm going to run through this quick because I want to get to my main passage, the plan of prayer. So we find it in the Lord's Prayer. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come.
Come on, all my Catholics, let's go. Come on. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours now and forever. Amen. Good job. But what God gave us through that prayer is a pattern.
We find it in Matthew chapter 6. Here it is, the plan of prayer. Number one, our Father which art in heaven, paternal, paternal, hallowed be thy name, his presence.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. The priority. Give us this day our daily bread, our sustenance, our food from you, provision. And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors who trespass against us. God, forgive me as I forgive those. And as I forgive those, please forgive me. And as I continue forgiving, I need your forgiveness. And God, when I forgive, please forgive me. When they don't forgive and I still forgive and I need your forgiveness, God, forgive me. Forgive me.
He says, pardon. The next one, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Protection. And then the praise and the power. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen. Take out your phones. Take a picture of that. I'll step out of the way so you don't have to write it down. One person in the family, take the photo. Send it later on. Don't airdrop right now because it's going to pull you out of the zone. Okay, you got it? All right, here we go. I want to talk to you today about the power of bold prayers.
I think in 2023, we got to be bolder. Bolder in a lot of aspects of our life. Not as quiet as we might have been before. And I would like to translate that into our prayer life. To pray bold prayers. Don't pray timid prayers. Every prayer works. But I want you to know you can pray bold prayers. Come on, somebody say amen. The writer of Hebrews in chapter 4 says, so let us come what? Boldly. Boldly.
Boldly to the throne of our gracious God where we will receive his mercy and we will find grace to help us when we need it most. I think we can come boldly before God. As a matter of fact, there's a man in the Old Testament that prayed a bold prayer. It was audacious how you had the nerve to pray that kind of prayer. Who do you think you are? If you go through the book of 1 Chronicles and you get there during your devotions,
You should hit it in your daily Bible right around March, April. When you get to 1 Chronicles, it's after 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles. I'm going to warn you right now. Pastor already told you. There's going to be nine chapters of what you might get lost. Nine chapters. The first nine chapters of 1 Chronicles, you're going to go like, oh my gosh, I'm tired of this. Oh my gosh. You're going to read all about who begot who. Right?
Right? Who was the father of who. How many kids they had. You're going to hear all about that for nine and a half chapters. It's going to stall you for three to four days in your Bible devotions. And you might quit and say, I'm done.
I can't do this. I'm going to have to find something. Give me some Psalms. Give me some Jesus in the Gospels, whatever it is. I'm going to warn you right now. But I also want you to know that somehow, someway, in the middle of that nine and a half chapters, God knew that you would need an oasis.
God knew that we would need a drink of water. And he puts a young man who lived through adversity. And in this adversity, we find this young man. And his name is found in 1 Chronicles 4, verses 9 and 10. And it says, and you might know this, Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. And his mother, watch this online, named him, Buenos Aires, Jabez, saying, I gave birth to him in pain.
I first want to say, go on record as saying, what is wrong with his mom? Who would name your kid something like that? Like he comes out of the womb and automatically she goes, pain. What's his name? Pain. Are you sure? Yes, pain. What's his middle name? Double pain. What's his last name? He ain't got one. Like I'm telling you right now.
I don't know what's wrong with his mom to raise a boy and call him pain. But I can tell you this. We don't know if she died during childbirth. We don't know if she had morning sickness for nine months. We got it. You were a little literal when you did that. Whatever it was, we don't know if she didn't get no epidural. I don't know if she just didn't get a little bit. Whatever it was, when she gave birth to him, she called him pain.
Now, can you imagine growing up being called pain all your life? You go like, basically your name means pain. They look at you, they go pain. They're like, you got to go do your homework. Pain, go do your homework. Can you imagine the cloud of living under that? But I also can imagine that this kid probably had to fight. He probably had to learn how to fight. He probably had to learn how to scrap. He probably had to overcome all of his insecurities and inferiorities like we all grew up with and be like, what are you looking at? We have to get rid of that stuff that local Hawaii people grew up with. What are you looking at? What are you looking at my girlfriend?
And you know, all that kind of stuff. All of our insecurities. Get rid of that. And he had to grow up with that. But there was a time that the Bible tells us that he prayed a very bold prayer. But nonetheless, his name was Jabez. Jabez is a crazy name. I can tell you that. Can I tell you that it's important what you name your kids? Yes.
Okay? You're like, oh, I wish I did that. I got like three already. We gave them cool names. I don't know. That's okay. That's good. Stick with those names. Stick with those names. I'm not telling you to rename your kids. You know what I'm saying? I'm not saying. I've seen crazy names. I'm not crazy names. I've seen pretty awesome biblical names. I've seen them awesome. I've seen parents name their kids Shekinah. Shekinah.
And that's a good name. And don't worry, there's no Shekinah in our church. Just saying. But that's a cool name. It means the glory of God. That's a cool name. I've seen names. Never mind. It's just not coming to me right now. But I can tell you this, that it was important that when we had our daughters that we would pick a biblical name. It could have been a biblical concept. I've met girls named Precious. How awesome. The mom would say, I'm going to name you Precious. Definitely different from Jabez Payne.
So when we had this little girl sitting in the front row who just got married to Elijah on Sunday, do a little flash, put a flash picture up there. All right, all right, take it down. Can I tell you that when we gave, when Lisa gave birth to her, when Lisa gave birth to her, well, I was there. You know what I'm saying? I'm responsible, but we were there together.
And while we were there, and we were at the hospital, at Kapi'olani, and while we were there, it was taking forever. I'm like, oh, I'm going to get something to eat from the cafeteria. So I went to go get something to eat. I come back. I don't know where she is, so I'm going to sit down right here. I'm going to watch SportsCenter. Relax, it's 27 years ago. I was a different guy. And I'm watching SportsCenter, and I fall asleep, and all of a sudden, the nurse comes. Your wife's about to give birth. And I come in, and I come in. Hey, how we doing? We good? Let's go! Lisa looked at me like, what are you doing?
And I remember that when we gave birth to her, we had already picked up a name. The name that we picked was Rebecca. And the name, why did we pick Rebecca? Because when I was reading my Bible, I saw in the book of Genesis how Eliezer prayed for someone to meet him. Her name was Rebecca. She came out. She watered the camels. She was an answer to prayer. She had the gift of hospitality. And if you know Becca, she's like that. But she got my edge at the same time. Anyway, moving right along. It's important what you name something.
You know when the new year, the new year is a baby, but the old year is a father time. What are you going to name your year? Your baby. What are you naming your year? Remember a year ago, the commander in chief of our country said this will be a year of unprecedented death. And I said, I rebuke that in the name of Jesus. You don't get to name my year. You
You don't get to name by year. You can name it. I'm not going to receive it. And you have the power this day to name your year. If you don't name it, it's going to be default. You're already going to have a name layout. You're going to go three months in. Oh, it's been a terrible year. Well, you just name.
your year. This year you can be proactive and name your year. So one of my staff members, he said, my year is called Tenacity. I said, awesome. For me and Lisa, it's called the Year of Abundance. For the church, it's called the Year of Revival because I believe revival is coming to America and to Hawaii. I'm telling you, revival is coming. It's going to make the Jesus people movement look like a warm-up. I'm saying it's like a warm-up act.
Come on. I really believe God's going to do something. What are you going to name your year? There's no better time than this week to go and fast and pray. Honey, what are we going to name the year? This is what I think God is saying. Whatever it is. It could be one for you. It could be one for us as well. Name your year. Jabez.
flipped the script even though he was called pain. The thing that I love about Jabez, he says, oh, he was more honorable than his mother named him, saying, I gave birth to him in pain. But look in verse 10. Verse 10 says, Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory. Let your hand be with me and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain. And God granted his request.
Can I tell you that one of the most important things you could do is you could declare scripture that you read and put it in your name. Flip the script. Use that. God wants you to use it. You know the word of God is a sword? It's a sword called the sword of faith. It's called a sword of faith. Sword of faith. Sword of faith. Can I also tell you that if you got a little pocket Bible, it's called the dagger or the switchblade of faith. Butterfly. Butterfly word. Can I tell you that you can cut the devil with the word of God?
Can I tell you that you can pierce him while he's trying to destroy you? That you can pierce him? And that's why it's so important that we declare the word of God. Can I tell you that this is one of those verses that you're going to want on your mirror? You're going to write it down on some post-it note paper. You're going to put it somewhere where you can see it every day. And I'm going to give you the four... It's not a formula, but I'm going to give you four things. When we find out of this passage...
that pray that for yourself every single day and see what God does in Jesus' name. Somebody say amen. Okay, here it is. You ready for the first one? Number one, he says, oh, that you would bless me. Oh, God, that you would bless me. This guy brought up in pain with a name called pain says, oh, God, would you bless me? Number one, pray for God's blessing.
I love the song by Maverick City Music. It's called Bless Me. We need to sing it in this church. I love it. I love the word blessing. Sometimes we think it's only for food or Lord bless this food. Or we think about missionaries. Oh God bless the missionaries. Or God bless you when you sneeze. Blessing actually means the word prosper. Prosper.
The word prosper. God wants you to prosper. God wants to bless you. And I'm going to tell you why he wants to bless you. But before that, I need to tell you that God wants to bless you. I don't know what background you came from. I don't know if you came from a religious background that kind of overemphasized this area, who used the word a lot. Can I tell you that though God uses that word? Can I tell you it's a God-made-up word? It's not we didn't make it up.
God uses that word. God wants to bless you. Look at Psalm 5 verse 12. It says, God wants
wants to bless you. He wants to prosper you. He wants you to receive that. But I also want you to know that prosper means that whatever you get on your own, God will push it further. God wants to push further what he's already given to you and what you've already done for yourself.
God wants to prosper you. Look at Genesis chapter 26, verse 12 to 13 with the word. It says, then Isaac, Abraham's son, sowed in the land, watch this, and reaped in the same year a hundredfold. Look at that, a hundredfold in one year. That's crazy. A hundredfold blessing in one year. And the Lord blessed him. And then the man began to prosper and continued prospering until he became very prosperous. God uses the word three times in one verse.
to get to us, across to us, that he wants to bless you and he wants to prosper you. But a lot of these blessings, I have to tell you, they are conditional. They are conditional. In other words, God's love for you is unconditional, but his blessings are conditional. There's a big if in front of it, a big if. If you are obedient, if you are set apart, if you honor me with your first fruits, if there's a lot of ifs, God will bless you
God wants to bless you. Look at 3 John 1, verse 2. It says, Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health just as your soul prospers. So God wants you to prosper and be blessed 360 degrees, not just in your account, not just with your crypto, not just with your retirement, but with your soul, 360 degrees and your health.
Genesis chapter 12 verse 3. Why the blessing? Because all the families of the earth will be blessed through you. God wants to get it to you so he can get it through you. God wants to bless you. The reason why God wants to bless you is not because of you though. It's not because of me. It's not like I like Mike, I'm going to bless him. I think God says that to a lot of us. But I also believe God says I want to bless him because I want him to bless other people.
I want to bless her because I want her to bless other people. I want to entrust him with good things because I want to see what they do with the things that I give them. I don't want to see them hoard it. I don't want to see them just store it. Here's what I want them to do. I want them to give it. I want them to bless. And in the part of you blessing others, God blesses you. Can I get an amen?
He does. He does. Can I also tell you that God wants you to be a conduit, a conduit of God's blessing. He wants it to pass through you, and a conduit gets wet at the same time. Everybody say conduit. Say I can. Say I conduit. I conduit. You conduit too. You are a conduit of God's blessing. I've been preaching. I've been passing this church for 21 years, man. Every year it works. I can tell you this. God wants to bless you. Number one, he wants to bless you. Do you believe that?
Do you believe it? Is that 80% of the room believe it? The other 20% are struggling with that? Yeah? Okay, I understand. I know why you're struggling. You're probably struggling because you think you don't deserve it, right?
You're probably struggling because you probably, if God only knew what I did before, right. If God only knew that I'm really a nobody, right. Oh, check, check, check. You're right. But can I tell you, you are more than a conqueror through Christ Jesus. Can I tell you, greater is he who is in you than he is in the world. Can I tell you that when God sees you, he sees his righteousness. And God wants you to know that, hey, because listen,
Lisa and I used to have mad money fights when we were married. I mean, married in the beginning. We're still married. Of course we are. 29 years. Been the best 29 years of Lisa's life. You know what I'm saying? And I can tell you this. We used to have mad money fights in year one and year two. Mad money. Here's what happened. I had an ATM card, and I just didn't understand the value of... I did. I understood the value of hard work. I worked three jobs. And then part of me felt like I deserved to treat myself.
You know what I'm saying? I deserved it. Look, you got to wet my whistle every once in a while. You don't even know what that means. Anyway, some of you guys are like, you guys have no idea what I just said. I got to reward me. I got to reward me every once in a while. You know what I'm saying? I work in three jobs. I need to reward. Some of you guys, what's going on? I'm like, I thought you'd be in agreement. I feel like you're pulling back on me. And so I was ATM carding a little bit too much. And finally, Lisa's like, Mike, we don't have anything. What are you doing? I'm like, relax. Relax.
And then she put me on this allowance. I'm like, you put me on allowance. I will submit myself to an allowance. But you don't put me on allowance. Oh, I'm triggering some interest. I can see it. I love this. I'm going to help you guys out. She said, I'm going to put you on allowance. I said, I'm not going on allowance. I'm not going on allowance.
She goes, we have to. Allowance? My dad put me on allowance. My mom put me on allowance. Let's find a different word. That word ain't working for me right now. But whatever it was, it was $40 a week. I'm like, $40 a week. What can you get with this? I told Pastor Ralph. He was laughing. He couldn't stop laughing. He made a couple comments. It's going to be okay. You're going to do fine in the future. But here's the problem, though. I was overspending, and Lisa had a poverty mentality.
She did. I mean, she will tell you that. I'm not throwing her under the bus. Beep, beep. I'm not throwing her under the bus. My wife, she's... Because you know why? Because she came... She was an immigrant. She came here when she was two years old. And so that hard work that you'll never have enough, you'll never have enough, you'll never have enough, she grew up with that. She grew up with that. And me, I had this mentality. I'm working so hard, I deserve it. And we used to fight a lot.
But then we got counseling. Yeah. And God did the work. God did the work.
And then we understand what the word blessing and prosperity began to really truly mean. God wants to bless you. Okay, I've got to move on. Here's number two. Number two, he says, and enlarge my territory. Oh, God, that you would bless me, number two, and you would enlarge my territory. The worship team can come up. God wants to enlarge your territory. In other words, I want to give you another word. God wants to increase your influence. Influence. A lot of you have influence. In fact, we're all influential in some way, shape, or form.
You have influence at your workplace. You have influence at your base. You have influence at the shipyard. You have influence in the classroom. You have influence in the marketplace, in your business. You have influence with your teammates and your classmates. You have influence. But a lot of us don't realize the influence God wants to give you, and he wants to increase your territory.
Now, when Jabez said that, he was meaning land. He said, Lord, I need land. Increase my territory. But for us, even though I'm praying for you for land and for buildings, I'm praying for you for first-time homes, I'm praying for you for Mililani Malka, for Ho'opili, for Kamakana Ali'i, I'm praying for you for, what's the one up here in Waipio? What do you call that? Koa Ridge. Koa Ridge. I'm praying for you. I'm praying for you.
that God would do something in your life in 2023 even though your parents might have not been able to do it God says that you can do it too they don't have to get it first you can get it first and show them the way and I'm really believing for us for that for you so here it is oh would you increase my territory territory is more than land territory is influence and I pray that God increases your influence I want you to pray oh Lord would you bless me and may I stay blessable
Oh God, would you increase my territory and give me influence? And then here's the third one. The third one, oh Lord, would your hand be upon me? In other words, God, would you please give to me your presence? I need your presence. Moses cried out for God for his presence. He said, Lord, I won't go anywhere without your presence.
I'm needing a million people. I'm not going on my own. I need you to go before us in a cloud, pillar of fire by day, a pillar of fire by night, pillar of cloud by day. God, we need your presence for without your presence, we are nothing. God wants to increase his influence. God wants to put his hand upon you. He wants his presence with you and God wants to bless you. But then I also want you to know that there's one more element that you have to be aware of. And then he says, and then would you please keep me from harm?
Why would he slide that last one in? God, bless me, bless me. You know, increase my inheritance, my territory. Oh God, would you do that? But then at the same time, would you please protect me? Here's why. Because the more you get, the more the devil is going to be at you.
And I want you to know that you got nothing to worry about. Yeah, the battle belongs to the Lord. Yeah, you got to learn how to fight. You need to fight a spiritual war. You got to realize you're in a spiritual war now. Right? Once you give your life to Jesus, welcome to the war. We didn't tell you that at the beginning. We need to tell you from now on. Welcome to the war. Welcome to the war. You're in the Lord's army. Yes, sir.
Yeah, yeah. You are in the Lord's army right now. And when you give your life to Jesus, because there's been a war going on for you all this time. The devil's been trying to hold you back. God's been trying to get you to church. The devil's been trying to do everything for you to self-destruct, to take your life, to hurt somebody, to hurt yourself, to whatever it is, to self-medicate, to whatever it is, to the place where you don't need God because you've been turning to these things. And God says, no, no, no, that's the devil. I'm trying to get you. There's already been a war for you. You are already in a war. You are already made for war. Amen.
You don't realize that. But God was, the devil was already trying to get a war for you. I can tell you right now that the Bible tells us that the prince of Persia was withheld because they tried to get the body of Moses. And it was Michael the archangel that stood in the gap. There was a war in the heavenlies. And that's why he showed up to Daniel by the river and said, sorry, I was detained. I was held back by the prince of Persia.
because there was a fight going on and I want you to know get ready for the fight because the fight already happened before you came to Jesus and the fight has continued now you know you are in a fight more than ever before now you know that you're in the fight I had a pastor friend of mine tell me he was like can you believe it my people from my church are asking me to teach on spiritual warfare I looked at him I go you should you should why keep them ignorant let them know that the devil is real but let them know God is greater come on can I get an amen I didn't get it I love him I still love him
One of my best friends. See, 1 Peter 5, 8 says, the devil is like a roaring lion seeking who he may devour. He wants to devour you, but he can't.
He can't because why? Because Psalm 3 verse 1 to 3 says, "Oh Lord, how many are my foes?" David said. "How many rise up against me? Many are saying of me, 'God will not deliver him, but you are a shield about me. Oh Lord, you bestow glory on me and you lift up my head.'" That's why Jabez said, "And please protect me." You know why? New levels bring new devils. And every time you go to the next level,
You get another war. But do not let that stop you from taking more territory. Because I have friends who have told me, "We're tired of the spiritual warfare, Mike. We're just going to stay right here. We're going to stay right here. We're going to cruise. We're going to cruise. We're under the radar." You are not under the radar. You are under the influence. You are not under the radar. You're being subdued by the enemy. The enemy is going, "You good right there? You good right there? I'm going to go after this guy and sit. You good? You good? You good?" But you know what?
I'd rather step out in faith in 2023 for God. Pray a bold prayer. Oh, sorry about that. Pray a bold prayer. We need some plexiglass. Pray a bold prayer. That's why 7-Eleven still got the plexiglass. That's why I got to go to 7-Eleven. Can I get up behind the plexiglass, please? Never mind. All right. I didn't do that. I'm just making that up. Father, we thank you. Would you bless your church? I know you do. I know you want to. Would you bless your people?
Would you remove the barriers of words that we might not fully comprehend or words that have been abused like prosper? And would you just ask God, we ask, would you prosper your people in 2023? We want to bring a bold prayer. God, would you increase, would
Would you increase territory and influence over your people? Father, I pray, Lord, for opportunities that are mind-blowing. I pray for people to write down bodacious, audacious goals on their mirrors and on their walls. Father, I pray, Lord God, that when we put
pen to paper and we are naming our year that prophetically we are speaking what we see in 2023 not what the world tells us about 2023 father i pray lord in the midst of a crazy world we would keep our integrity we would be biblically sound father i pray lord that we would be strong in our walk we wouldn't give in to the culture god we would give in to the bible father we thank you lord god that lord we thank you for your hand and your presence is with your people and father we thank you lord god
that your protection is with us. We walk with authority. We walk with humility. We walk in the blessing and the favor of God. We give you the glory, the honor, and the praise in this congregation. And everybody said...
Amen. Amen. Keep your eyes closed and your heads bowed. Thank you. Keep your eyes closed. Hallelujah. Keep your eyes closed. Some of you, this might be your first time. I want to do a different kind of prayer and the prayer that I'm gonna pray is the most important prayer that is happening in the state of Hawaii right now. Possibly the most important prayer that is happening in America right now and this is a prayer of salvation. No matter who you are, where you've been, what you've done, no matter what your past was like, no matter what your upbringing was like, no matter how you were treated, no matter how you treated other people,
No matter what that. Right now if you are willing to surrender your life to Jesus, to have Him save you from your sin, to wash you clean as white as snow, to set you on a solid foundation because your foundation has been shaky lately. God wants to come into your life, change you from the inside out but you have to surrender. And if you are ready to surrender today to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, He's going to come into your life, wash you clean as if you never sinned before, as white as snow. He's going to cleanse you with the blood of Jesus.
He's going to pour out His presence on your life. He's going to do great things in you and then in your family and in your life and everything that you do. Right now, if that's you, if you're ready to surrender, if you're ready to repent, if you're ready to head in a U-turn, that's what repentance means, in another direction, then at the count of three...
I want you to raise your hand in this place. I don't want your inferiority. I don't want your insecurity to stop you from doing this. What I want you to do is just you and Jesus and nobody else. And the Spirit of God is touching your heart right now. If that's you online, you can click that hand. You can let us know right now, online family. But if that's you in this room here today, get ready 9 a.m. to raise your hand. The most important prayer in the state of Hawaii and possibly even America is going down right now.
now get ready one he will never let you down two for god so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life let's go one two here we go one two three
Hands up, hands up, hands up, hands up, hands up, hands up, hands up. Keep your hand up. Put your hand up. One, two, three, four. Right there. Five right here. God bless you. Six right there. God bless you. Seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen right here. Seventeen. God bless you guys. Seventeen right there. Eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four, twenty-five, twenty-six right there.
26, 26, 26, 26, 26, 26, 27 right here. God bless you. 28 right there, my brother. 28, 29 right there, sister. 29, 30 right there. God bless you. 31, 32 right there. God bless you. Anybody else? Anybody else that I missed? There's about 35 hands that have just gone up. Can we thank the Lord, everybody, before we pray? Here's what I want you to do. Would you all stand with me right now? We're almost done. I want everybody to repeat this prayer after me.
And some of you should have raised your hand. You know like, "I should have raised my hand. I wish I did." It's okay. You're gonna pray it right now. We're all gonna say it right now. And He's gonna come into your heart, change you from the inside out, send you to heaven when you die rather than to hell. Because there's only two places. Don't let anybody tell you otherwise. There's no purgatory. There's no reincarnation. You don't get a do-over. You're not coming back to this earth again. You're not gonna be a spirit hovering over. No, no. You're one shot at life. Then comes eternity. Then comes the judgment. And you're gonna pass through the judgment.
because God is with you. God is with you. God is working on so many of us today. I can feel it. Remain open. Remain open. Remain open to God. Come on, everybody repeat after me. Say, "Jesus, today I surrender, give you my life. Thank you for dying on the cross, shedding your blood that washes my sins as white as snow. I also thank you that when I die,
I'll be in your presence for all eternity. But while I'm here, be my strength for today, my hope for tomorrow, my ever-present help in my time of need. You're my God. I'm your child. The old is past. The new has begun. I'm a new creation in Christ Jesus, created to serve you and to bring you glory. So take me.
mold me, shape me, lead me, heal me, guide me, teach me, send me to fulfill your purpose here on this earth. Thank you for the new life you gave me. In Jesus' name I pray and everybody said amen. Come on everybody, praise God in the house of the Lord.
The podcast, The Bible in a Year with Jack Graham, is a moving and inspiring biblical audio experience that will help you master wisdom from the world's greatest book. In each episode, you'll learn to apply biblical principles to everyday life.
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