This sermon emphasizes the importance of surrendering to God through prayer, thanksgiving, praise, and worship. It highlights the need to seek the Holy Spirit's filling, study God's Word diligently, give thanks for everything, praise God for who He is, and become true worshippers in spirit and truth.

We first want to sing a chorus here, and since we all need a little exercise, I'm going to ask you to lift up your Bible with your right hand, and we'll just see the words, first of all we'll see the words on the, every, can you put that up? Now in the original it was every promise in the book is mine, we just changed it so it refers to the Bible, every promise in the Bible is mine, every chapter, every verse, every line, all are blessings of his love divine, every promise in the Bible is mine, it's no use singing it if you don't believe it, but if you believe it, you say Lord I want to claim it, every one of those, so, it's a very good thing to tell the devil, and to remind ourselves, so, if you don't have a Bible what shall you do, don't hold up your cell phone, cell phone has got many things which are not from God, and receives many things which are not from God, ok, every promise in the Bible is mine, every chapter, every verse, every line, all are blessings of his love divine, every promise in the Bible is mine, once again, every promise in the Bible is mine, every chapter, every verse, every line, all are blessings of his love divine, every promise in the Bible is mine, Thank you, please put it down, I hope you believe that, it's a wonderful thing, you heard me say, perhaps more than once, that one of the prayers I have prayed many times, Lord, before I leave this earth, I want to obey every commandment given for Christians, there are some commandments given for Israel, keeping the Sabbath, not eating pork and things like that, but every commandment given for Christians, I want to obey before I leave this earth, and every promise given for Christians, not to the Jews, given for Christians, I want to claim before I leave this earth, and if you are a serious Christian, I would encourage you to follow me in that, those two things, Lord, every commandment that you have given in your word, I want to obey it, and every promise that you have given, I want to claim it before I leave this earth, I believe it will make a lot of difference in your life if you are serious about it, and you study the Bible, seriously, to see if there are commandments given for Christians that you have not obeyed, and if there are promises given for Christians that you have not claimed, I often use the example of getting a check, if you get five checks one day in the mail, you will deposit all five in the bank, otherwise you won't get any money, so if there is a promise in the Bible that you don't claim in the name of Jesus Christ, you will not get it, so when we go to God in prayer, I told you in the last session there are four things in our relationship with God, prayer, thanksgiving, praise, and worship, so when you go to God in prayer, if you have a bad conscience, I want to mention this, Jesus said if you come with your offering and remember somebody's got something against you, before you settle that, don't pray, just don't pray, and I believe there are many Christians, I would say they should not pray, they should not pray because they have hurt somebody, and they have not settled it, and until it is settled, it's no use praying, it's a waste of time, it doesn't go beyond the roof, and I want you to see this verse in Psalm 66, Psalm 66, Psalm 66 and verse 18, if I regard sin as a sin, if I regard sin in my heart, the Lord will not hear me, so if there is sin in your heart, which you have not confessed and forsaken, as I say, the Lord will not even pick up the phone, he will not hear you, it's no use praying, and that is another reason why many Christians should not pray, I'm teaching people not to pray, when there's sin in your heart, not to pray when you've got a grudge against somebody, it's what Jesus said, and don't say that God is not answering my prayer, there's a reason why he's not answering your prayer, he's not even hearing it, so it's very important when we come to prayer, we first clear things that are obstructions, the line has been disconnected because of sin, the line has been disconnected because you have not settled matters with somebody, so you pick up the phone and talk and talk, it's like children talking on the phone, there's nobody on the other end listening, a lot of prayer is like that, a lot of all night prayer is like that, God is not listening, who are you talking to, you're talking to thin air, the other thing I want to say is, Jesus said don't think that you'll be heard because you're praying a long time, see Matthew chapter 6, I just want to say a few things about this, four things I mentioned about prayer, thanksgiving, praise and worship, in Matthew chapter 6 we read how the non-Christian prays, verse 7, don't use meaningless repetition as the non-Christians do, they think they will be heard for their many words, there are some, I've seen this in some CFC churches where they feel a bit ashamed because they say hey, some Pentecostal said, hey you guys are not allowed in your praise, so some CFC churches try to artificially make a lot of noise and say hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, as if that is the mark of being full to the Holy Spirit, when you keep on saying hallelujah, you know what you're doing, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, you're just disobeying Matthew 6 verse 7, let me tell you honestly, whoever keeps on doing that is disobeying Matthew chapter 6 verse 7, so you get up in a church and you disobey Matthew 6 verse 7 and say hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, just to sound Pentecostal, to impress the Pentecostals that we also say hallelujah, we also make noise in our church, what nonsense, whom are you trying to impress, whose honor are you trying to get, I don't want to impress any human being in the world and last of all the Pentecostals, I don't want that type of thing, I will not make a meaningless repetition, if you look in the Bible, you take a concordance and see where hallelujah is mentioned, nowhere in the 26 books of the New Testament, in the last book of the New Testament revelation, towards the end of revelation, it says hallelujah, Babylon is destroyed, yeah, that I'm ready to say hallelujah for, so always there's a hallelujah because, hallelujah because the Lord our God reigns, hallelujah because Babylon is destroyed, that is the right way to say hallelujah, not just hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, this is meaningless repetition that the Pentecostal teach people to say in order to make them speak in tongues, you never see that in the New Testament, don't use meaningless repetition because that is a non-Christian's thing that if they repeat something so many times, God will hear them, don't be like them, don't disobey what Jesus taught, God can hear very clearly, you can say it once but when Jesus said we must pray again and again for something, it's not just repeating like that, you pray and then pray again later during the day or pray the next day, very often we have to pray for something again and again and again before we get it, like victory over sin, you can't just ask one day for victory over sin and get it, it didn't happen like that for me, I persisted, persisted, persisted, I persisted for seeking the baptism of the Holy Spirit, so in prayer there is an asking with meaningfulness from our heart but not with blind repetition, very important, the second thing I want to say is that when you pray it must come out of a burden that God has given you, a burden that you know we can pray for anything, my child is sick, I can pray, definitely you can pray, you must pray, if your child is sick at home, your mother or father, you must lay hands on that child and in Jesus' name, mother or father, pray for that child that claimed the promise, they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover, that's the way your children will learn to have some faith, but otherwise when you are praying in general for some particular thing, I mean a lot of people tell me pray for this, pray for that, pray for all types of things, I'm not saying, if somebody asks you to pray for their sickness or for a job or for marriage, by all means, I will always pray, but other than that, general requests and general things, we must have a burden in our heart, when there is a burden in our heart and faith in our heart, prayer is answered, so I think of prayer like a circle, it starts from heaven, God gives me a burden in my heart, I pray that prayer with faith back to God and the circle is complete and that prayer is answered, but a lot of prayers we pray which are not necessarily a burden given by God, we can definitely pray for them, which is earthly needs that people ask for, definitely we must pray for them, but there are prayers which come out of a burden for something, a burden for revival in your church or a burden for the spirit of God to move among the young people in your church or some type of burden like that, that God puts on your heart, you have to lift it up in faith to God and that's what completes the circle of prayer, so think of prayer like that, a burden that God gives and if you pray back to God in faith, it's not a question of how long you pray, more than how much faith you have, we read in the Old Testament that the prophets of Baal prayed for maybe 6 hours, nothing happened, when Elijah was there challenging them, who is the true God, and Elijah prayed for one minute and the fire came, the important thing is not whether you prayed, the important thing is did God answer that prayer, see it says about Elijah in James chapter 5, verse 17, he was a man with the same nature like ours Elijah and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it did not rain for 3 years and 6 months, that was like a punishment, I'm not talking about asking God to stop the rain or rain in this type of situation, the rain that Elijah prayed against and for was a time when God was judging Israel by stopping the rain and then when they repented, when the fire fell, Elijah said ok, they have now repented, you can send the rain, that is the context of that, but he prayed earnestly that it might not rain as a judgment upon Israel and God answered it because it was a burden, God gave Elijah from heaven, he prayed it back in faith to God and it didn't rain for 3 and a half years, and then he prayed again verse 18 after the Israel had repented and the sky poured the rain, and in that context it says in the last part of verse 16, listen to this, the effective fervent prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much, if you are a righteous person, you are seeking to be free from sin in your life and you pray fervently to God, there is much that you can accomplish, those of you who preach the word of God, it is very important to pray that God will give you an anointing and utterance and clarity of mind and thinking and understanding of the burden people have to the people you are speaking, that way your prayer will be effective, so and you will get a result from it, a burden and you must pray, particularly when sharing the word of God, every time I seek to share the word of God, I pray that God will give me the gift of prophecy and anoint me, every time, I don't care how many years I have been preaching, I say Lord, if I go up there, depending on my past experience, I will fail, so these are some little bits of advice I can give you in the matter of prayer. Okay, the next thing I want to speak about is Thanksgiving, so that's the second step, we go beyond prayer to Thanksgiving and then we think of the story of the ten lepers, Charles can you give me that bottle of water, thank you, Luke chapter 17, Jesus spoke about the ten lepers, they all got healed and only one of them came back to give thanks Luke chapter 17 and verse 11 onwards, the ten lepers came and raised their voice in verse 13 and said have mercy on us and Jesus said go and show yourself to the priest and when they were all cleansed, one came back, is it important to give thanks to God, that is the question we want to ask here, he came back and Jesus didn't take it lightly, he asked the question, weren't there ten people who got an answer to prayer, where are the nine, where are they and you know that the Lord is asking the same question today about many many believers who claim to be his children, didn't that person come to me and pray for a long time to heal his child or to pass in an examination or do well in something or get a job and they got it, did they come back and thank me, no they forgot about it or they gave the credit to something else, I worked hard and I got good result or this medicine healed my child, then why did you pray, there is no need to pray if your medicine was enough, the Lord is asking that question about many many prayers that you have prayed in the past for different situations in your workplace, in your home, with your family, can you think back to times when you prayed fervently for something and the Lord says, what happened, where are these people whose prayers I answered, is the Lord interested in that, of course he is, that's why he asked them, where are the nine, only one person came, verse 18, to give glory to God, how can I glorify God, here is the answer, very simple way of glorifying God, when some prayer of yours is answered, learn to give thanks, it has to be a discipline, you don't need to have the discipline of praying when you are in trouble, you don't need any discipline there, automatically it will come, but you do need the discipline, after God has answered your prayer, to say now I have to discipline myself to go and thank God for it, that's a discipline, because there it was one out of ten who came back, I think today one out of a hundred will come to the Lord and thank him, so you examine your own life, look back over your life and think of times when you desperately cried to God for some difficult situation and God answered, and ask yourself, did I really cry to God for this, did you humble yourself and go to God and say Lord thank you for answering my prayer, thank you so much, I prayed to you with a loud voice, I will thank you with a loud voice now, and if you ask the church to pray and the prayer was answered, I think it's right to ask the church to thank God for the prayer was answered, but usually it never happens, usually we have many many prayer requests in the church, think of your own church, many people say please pray for this, pray for this, it's good, very good to ask the church to pray when you have a problem, any type of problem, sick child, examination time, or any time you need a house, you need this, any problems there are in this world, you ask the church to pray, fine. Many of you have sent prayer requests to your churches, my question is after the prayer is answered, how many of you send another note, please church please thank God with me, because that prayer I asked you to pray for two weeks ago has been answered, you can see in your own life, I've seen in my own life, it does not come naturally, crying out to God for help comes naturally, that's step one, Thanksgiving is the second step, it does not come naturally, so what does not come naturally, we have to discipline ourselves, see if you are overweight and you find the doctor says you should reduce your weight if you want to be healthy, you have to discipline yourself to do some exercise or some walking or something like that, and that does not come naturally, going to sleep comes naturally, but to do some exercise to reduce your weight does not come naturally, it's like the type of food that we want to teach our children to eat, vegetables or something and that's not something they like very much, they have to do it as a discipline because it's good for them, so there are certain disciplines we must have, and one of those disciplines is to learn to thank God when a prayer is answered, it starts as a discipline, it will become a habit, if you keep on doing it, it will become a habit, if you don't keep on doing it, it will never become a habit, you know I learnt something from Jesus, where Jesus said, if you give a cup of cold water to one of my disciples, you will not lose your reward, and what I learnt from that is, Jesus remembers even a cup of cold water, so I can imagine when Christ comes again and he decides to give out his rewards, he calls some totally unknown person from the crowd and says, I remember 2000 years ago, you gave a glass of water to Peter when he was thirsty after he finished preaching somewhere, and here's your reward, and you say what, 2000 years ago, somebody gave a glass of water to Peter, and the Lord remembers that, I say Lord, please help me to be like that, help me to be like Jesus, that years ago somebody did something for me, let me not forget it, I've sometimes written to people, said brother, I remember 25 years ago, when I came to your place and I needed to go somewhere, some distance away, and I could not get a taxi, you took me in your car, I'm very grateful for that, and you wouldn't even take any money for the petrol, thank you so much, I'm very grateful, 25 years ago, where did I learn it from, that Jesus said, if you give a cup of cold water, you'll not lose the reward, that means you'll at least get a thank you from the Lord, we are very slow in giving thanks to God, we are very slow in thanking God's people also, I don't know whether it's particularly Indian habit of not being grateful, now I'm not saying that, you know Westerners, they teach their children from childhood to say thank you, sorry, sorry uncle, thank you aunty, but it's pretty meaningless, it becomes a ritual after sometime, so I'm not asking you to do it as a ritual, but meaningful thank you, be thankful for your wife who brings you a cup of tea or coffee in the morning, I'm not saying you have to say it loudly, she may get a shock, this chap, what happened, 20 years he never said anything, all of a sudden, main thing is have an attitude of thankfulness, that's the main thing, you don't have to be formal with your wife, but have an attitude of thankfulness for cooking your food and washing up the dishes and cleaning up the house, and you children, I'll tell you, you children, if you learn to be thankful to your parents for the 101 things or 1001 things they do for you, it'll go extremely well with you, remember all your children, even older people, if your parents are alive, learn to appreciate them and thank them, because it says here that this man, the 10 people got healing from leprosy, but this man got healing plus salvation, how did he get a little more, it says here, your faith has saved you, verse 19, your faith has saved you, before he got only healing, now he got salvation, and that was because he came back to give thanks, do you know what you have missed in your life, by not coming back and giving thanks, so even if I can provoke you to give thanks for a selfish act, you will get something more from God, a bonus that you didn't expect, at least start like that, learn to give thanks, it's a very good habit to men and to God, and Jesus taught that very clearly here, then I want to go further, we were talking about thanksgiving, we've seen a little bit about prayer, thanksgiving, it says in Ephesians chapter 5, and it says in verse 20, this is an amazing thing, always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ of God the Father, now this is much more than what we are thinking of, in fact this is one of the marks of being filled with the Holy Spirit, many of us are seeking to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and Ephesians 5, 18 it says, be filled with the Holy Spirit, and one of the results will be, verse 20, always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, so I take that as, I say Lord, I know I am filled with the Spirit, one evidence of it is, that I will always give thanks, not necessarily in other tongues, but in my mother tongue, we can begin with that, now you know, when God gives us the gift of unknown languages, where we express syllables from our heart to our mouth to God, it is because we don't know what else to say in English, or we don't know how to give thanks to God in English, or whatever language you use, but if you are not even giving thanks in English, then the Lord will say, why do you need another language, with English itself we are not giving thanks, so why do you need another language, you don't need it, do you know in what atmosphere, the first 120 people on the day of Pentecost got the gift of tongues, I will show you, please turn to Luke's Gospel in chapter 24, Luke 24, the Lord said to them, before he went up to heaven, verse 49, Luke 24, 49, I am sending forth the promise of my father, that is the Holy Spirit on you, but you must stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high, and then he lifted up his hands, he blessed them and departed from them, and they went back to Jerusalem, and what did they do for the next 10 days, listen, they were continually in the temple praising God, and they went into the upper room, and they were praising God, Lord we thank you, we praise you, thank you for all that you have done for us, and we exalt you, and we praise you, and they ran out of words, of course they were praying in Aramaic, or whatever language they were using, and they ran out of words, how can we praise God, and God said, don't worry, I will give you another language to continue praising me, that's exactly it, and a desire to thank the Lord and praise him, and you don't know what else to say, and the Lord gives you another language, but if you are not using whatever you already have, why should he give you another language, not at all, now if you want to know how difficult it is to thank and praise God in your mother tongue, in English, even for one minute, 60 seconds, try sometime when you are alone in your room, to thank God for 60 seconds, to thank and praise him, ok, see how long you can continue, and you will find it even difficult to say for 60 seconds, what do you say, Hallelujah, thank you Lord, praise you Lord, we exalt you, it's only about 20 seconds, what do I say next, you are stuck, you try it, see if you can go one minute without repeating yourself, you will find in 20 seconds you are repeating yourself, and we leave it at that, and the Lord says, why do you need another language, your English itself, you are not using it to thank me, so there is no need for you, but these people were continually praising God, and in the midst of that atmosphere, they began to speak in other tongues, but if you are complaining and grumbling and criticizing and finding fault with this, that and the other, why in the world do you need a gift of tongues, you don't need that, you got the English language to complain and criticize this that and the other, I decided to finish with all this long ago, I said Lord, I want to, what we read in Ephesians 5, always give thanks for all things, be filled with the Holy Spirit, and give thanks always for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, you try doing that, try obeying Ephesians 5, 18, be filled with the Spirit, and verse 20, always for everything, give thanks in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that means even if something appeared to go wrong, you say Lord, I don't know why you allowed this in my life, but I want to give you thanks, to teach me, to humble me, I want to give you thanks, it says give thanks for everything, and the reason why we can give thanks for everything is because the Bible says in Romans 8, 28, that God makes everything work for my good, now if you are if something is definitely for your good, will you give thanks, for example you took a medicine and it healed you of a terrible sickness that you were suffering with for one year, would you give thanks, sure, because something good happened to you, or you one day went to the office and the boss said, I am doubling your salary today, oh, is it difficult to give thanks then, why is it not difficult then, because it is good, that was good, I was sick for one year and now I am completely free of that sickness, or I got an unexpected reward from my boss, he gave me double the salary, do you believe that every single thing God will make to work for your good, then you will give thanks for everything, it's not just doubling salary that we give thanks for, not just for healing from sickness, Romans 8, 28 says, God makes everything work together for good, now if it is written in Romans 28, God makes 90% of the things that happen to you work for your good, then Ephesians 5, 20 will say, give thanks for 90% of things, yeah, because the other 10% is not working for my good, connect Romans 8, 28 with Ephesians 5, 20 and you learn something, because God makes everything work for my good, therefore I give thanks for everything, and when you don't give thanks for everything, but you complain about something, your problem is not Ephesians 5, 20, your problem is Romans 8, 28, you don't believe Romans 8, 28, or the condition in Romans 8, 28 is not fulfilled in your life, because Romans 8, 28 is not for every person, it says, those who love God and who are called according to his name, fulfill his purpose, that means you love Jesus more than you love everybody else, which is a condition of discipleship, and you want to fulfill his purpose in your life, a true Christian will only want to fulfill God's purpose in his life, say Lord, I only want to fulfill your purpose in my life, that's all I want, and I want to love you with all my heart, I don't want to love a single thing on earth, I want to love you with all my heart, then God says, I will ensure that every single thing that happens to you, works for your good, works for your good does not mean that you'll get more money if you lost one job, no, he'll give you a better salary job, no, it does not mean if you couldn't marry one girl that God will help you to marry a better girl, no, that's not the thing, what is the good towards which God is working, the greatest good that God can do to us, is mentioned in the next verse, 29, to make us like Jesus Christ, so when it says God makes everything to work together for good, we can interpret it in a wrong way, we can say, oh, I went for that interview, I didn't get that job, that means God has got a better job for me, who told you, you may finally get a job with half that salary, but you'll become like Jesus, if you believe that is the greatest good that God can do to you, you'll be happy, you'll give thanks and everything, but if you think the greatest good God can do to you is to give you a high salary job and help you to marry a very pretty girl, then you haven't understood Christianity at all, you're like the heathen, because they're also looking for those things, and very often Jesus said, don't be like the heathen, don't be like the heathen, so the good is defined in verse 29 as the good which God has destined for us to become like Jesus Christ, so one of the things God has taught us in these years is what is the Christian's destination, whenever you get into your motorcycle or scooter or car to drive, you don't drive without a destination, always you got a destination, this is where I'm planning to go, and so whatever route I take I'm planning to finally reach here, so the Christian life has also got a destination, and that destination is mentioned here in verse 29, pre-destined, that means it has been decided beforehand what your destination is, just like when you get a train ticket, you got it 60 days in advance, it's written there Bangalore, it's already decided, so you go to the station and get into the train that goes to Bangalore, it's pre-destined, that is the meaning of pre-destination, so we also got a ticket, pre-destined to become like Jesus Christ, that is why I say, go to a church that will lead you to become like Jesus Christ, you don't go to a station and say, I like green trains, but a green train may not be going to Bangalore, where will you end up, you choose, even if it's a rusted old train is going to Bangalore, let's get into that, so don't choose a church which is according to size and beauty, no, no, no, will this church, like a train, take me to my destination, my destination is not clapping and singing and shouting hallelujah, no, no, no, no, my destination is to become like Jesus Christ, I want to be in a church that will help me to become like Jesus Christ, and if you are not in such a church, you should go and find a church like that, that will help you that every time you go there, it helps you to become a little more like Jesus Christ, today there are thousands of preachers on the internet and thousands of sermons, and you must listen to sermons that will help you to become like Jesus Christ, because that's your destination, why do you want somebody to push you in the wrong direction, going in some other direction, you will waste your time, you must have a clear goal, supposing you are taking a ride, you know there are people sometimes who stand on the roadside and say, can you give me a ride in that direction, and the cars going by, some of them will stop and give you a lift, but if that car is not going where you want it to go, why are you sitting in it, why are you sitting in a car which is not taking you a little further towards your destination, they are turning off in some other direction, why are you sitting in a church which is not leading you towards becoming like Jesus Christ, why are you listening to messages on the internet, which are not helping you to become more like Jesus Christ, why are you wasting your time, you get into that car, you want to go in this direction, you want to get into a car which is a nice Mercedes Benz, I like Mercedes Benz, I say this is great, I say it's better to get into a motorcycle that's going in the right direction, than to get this car going somewhere else, but people are taken up with these things, they go here and wander over here and there, waste time, while other people are pressing on towards the mark, Paul said there's one thing I do, I press towards the mark for the price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, what is that, to become like Christ, he said that's the only thing I do, he said that in Philippians 3, one thing I do, now if you can be a Christian like that, you see your goal, and then you say everything that happens along the way will work to make you like Jesus Christ, will help to push you a little further in that direction, that's why we give thanks, oh thank you for that problem you created for me, it's helped me to become a little more like Christ, and that financial difficulty you brought me into, wow, when I go through it finally, I say it really made me a little more Christ like, so I learned over a period of time to give thanks for everything, I can tell you numerous things in my life, which at the moment look pretty bad, but I said Romans 8, I live in Romans 8, first of all because I decided to love Jesus more than everything and everyone on this earth, I always wanted my wife to be second in my affection, and I wanted to be second in her affection, then only we can have a happy marriage, but Christ is first always, so if Christ is first, his purpose is most important, whatever may happen, it will work for my good, whatever may happen, I am a firm believer in Romans 8, because secondly, I want to fulfill his purpose for my life, if you can say these two things honestly today, I love Jesus more than any human being, I love Jesus more than my self-life, I'm willing to crucify my self-life a hundred times a day, because I love Jesus, I love Jesus more than all material possessions, I can guarantee you that every single thing that people do for you, or don't do for you, will work for your good. There's a beautiful story in the Old Testament about Joseph, where he helped a butler of Pharaoh's cupbearer to explain his dream to him, and he asked Pharaoh's cupbearer only for one request, you know, Pharaoh's cupbearer said, Joseph, you've been so helpful, because it really happened, it's going to happen, you said, what shall I do for you, he says, only one thing, please tell Pharaoh when you go there, that I have been unfairly put into jail, my parents are in Canaan, my brothers are there, please ask him to send me back, and do you know what the Bible says, exactly like Joseph explained the dream three days later, he went back to Pharaoh's palace, but for two years, he completely forgot about Joseph, Joseph was 28 years old, and God wanted him to be in jail for two more years, his training in jail had not been complete, so it was God who made Pharaoh's butler forget, and two years later, when Pharaoh had a dream, and nobody could explain it, then this butler said, oh, I remember now, the cupbearer said, there was this young chap who could interpret dreams, Pharaoh said, bring him here, and that was the right time, that he could explain Pharaoh's dream, and become the second ruler in Egypt, now have you ever thought when you read something like that, use your imagination a little bit, it says Joseph was 30 years old when he came up to Pharaoh, what would have happened if Pharaoh's cupbearer had not forgotten, two years earlier, as soon as he went before Pharaoh, he said, Pharaoh, I want to tell you something, yesterday, three days ago, this man explained the dream to me, he's been unjustly treated there, so please release him from the jail so he can go back to Canaan, what would have happened? Pharaoh would have said, oh really, release him, give him some chariots or something, drop him off in Canaan, and you'd never have heard of Joseph as the ruler of Egypt, and in the time of famine, many people would have died, his own brothers would probably have died, because they were also starving, so can you believe that even when you ask somebody to do something for you, and he forgot completely, can you give thanks, remember this story all your life, next time, somebody left a message for your wife, for you, with your wife on the phone, and she completely forgot to give you that message, very important message, and five days later, she says, oh, five days ago, there was a message for you, say, praise the Lord, it's wonderful, you want to give thanks for that, there must be some reason why God allowed you to forget it, can you really say that? Giving thanks for everything, even when people forget to do something for you, you really have to have faith, and that's why the Bible is written, so that we read these stories and have faith that the God who lived in Joseph's time is just the same today. I can tell you this, many people have done good to me, harm to me, reminded me of things, forgotten to do things, every single one of them, I don't mean 99%, 100% of them have worked for my good, I believe it. If it does not work for my good, it's because I don't love God, or I don't want to fulfill his purpose, I've got some other private ambition in my life, then it won't work for my good. But if I say, Lord, my goal is to become like Jesus Christ, that's the direction I'm going, then it will definitely work for your good, that is why we can give thanks always for everything. So we learned about prayer, thanksgiving, in not just the good things, every single thing, give thanks in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that's the second lesson we need to learn. So these are the few things that the Lord has been teaching us, what God has taught us about prayer, what God has taught us about thanksgiving, and the third is praising God. In prayer, we are asking God for things that we need, or listening to God, as I told you, which is also important, listening, what he has to say to me, you know, for example, you read, I'll give you one more quote, one example about listening, it says two verses, one is Isaiah 50 and verse 4, where it says, Jesus would wake up every morning to listen to what the father had to say to him, it's a verse I often love to quote, because God has spoken that verse to me many times, and it's good for you to know, that every morning he wakes me up to listen, so Jesus didn't wake up in the morning and start praying, when Jesus woke up in the morning, he said, Father, speak, you know what Eli told Samuel, the little boy to say, if you hear a voice saying, Samuel, Samuel, say, speak Lord, your servant is listening, very good thing to pray, if you wake up in the morning, unexpectedly, or at the right time, you plan to get up, say, speak Lord, your servant is listening, what do you have to say, listening, morning by morning, it says in Isaiah 50 verse 4, so Jesus also had the habit of listening, and let me give you an example from Luke chapter 6, in Luke chapter 6 we read, the only place in the Bible where we read that Jesus prayed all night, Luke 6 verse 12, all night he spent in prayer in the mountain, what was he praying for, when the day came, he called his disciples and he picked out 12, this is a very important decision, because he had to pick out 12 people who are going to run his church for the rest of the church age, and he wanted to be sure who these 12 people are, how was he sure, by praying for a few hours, sometimes we have to wait on the Lord for a long time, before we are clear about something, Lord, should I move from this town to that town, you are not going to get the answer in one minute, the Lord has ordained it, that major decisions you take a longer time, minor decisions, should I put this blue shirt or the green shirt today, that you can answer in 5 seconds, but major decisions, I am going to go here or go there, take this job or marry this person, the more important the decision, the longer you have to wait on God, please remember that, the more important the decision, the longer you have to wait on God, and here was the most important decision, to select 12 people who are going to launch the church, so Jesus waited whole night, and do you think he was speaking, speaking, speaking, speaking to the father the whole night, no, he was listening most of the time, thinking, father, there are 70 people I know, all those tossing around those 70 names in his head, which one should I choose, and little by little clarity comes, and you can say, why can't God just say, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, in one minute you get all the answers, that's not the way God works, it is not even the way he worked with Jesus, if Jesus had to wait all night to be clear in his mind as to who the 12 people were, don't be surprised if you have to wait on the Lord in a major decision in your life, but God will make it clear to you, if you are willing to be patient, and in the process, you will know God better, you will be a little more Christ like, some wonderful things will happen, that's why God makes it such that you have to spend time with him, I am not saying you have to be on your knees all the time, but you have to wait on the Lord, say Lord what shall I do, sometimes you have to pray and then you go about your work and you pray again the next day, and the next day, and the next day, it may take many days, not continuously in prayer, but you know, lifting the matter before God and waiting on him and clarity, like considering marriage for example, you think about it, think about it, and say Lord please show me, give me peace in my heart, that's the way we find God's will, Romans 8, 6 says, by the mind of the spirit is peace, great verse Romans 8, 6, so if I have peace in my heart, I know that is God's will, if I don't have peace in my heart, I say well I am not so sure, so prayer, thanksgiving, praise is, prayer is asking, thanksgiving is giving thanks, praise is, not for what God has done, what God has done is thanksgiving, I thank him, praise is, praising for who he is, praying is asking for what we want, thanksgiving is thanking him for what he has done, believing that everything works for good, praise is, Lord I want to praise you for who you are, holy, holy, holy, you know like Isaiah saw in chapter 6, it says he saw the Lord and all the angels covering their faces and saying holy, holy, they were not asking, they were not thanking, they were not thanking him for what he had done, they were not asking for anything, they were praising him, for who he is, praising him for his holiness, we can praise him for his almighty power, we can praise him for his love and goodness to us and all the person of God to, like in one song it says, Lord I will fall down before you for eternal ages and what rapture will it be prostrate before your throne to lie and gaze and gaze on the father of Jesus love's reward, what rapture will it be, rapture means such excitement to just gaze upon God, I am not asking anything, I am not thanking him for anything, I am just praising him for who he is, wonderful God, holy, eternal, loving, you know this is praising him in words, he praises you for who you are, praises you for the way you have led us through so many years and how you are faithful, everything, you are not thinking of a particular thing that happened in your life that you are thanking for, you have gone beyond thanks to praise and if you look at all the songs we sing, I told you we need to follow the words we sing in our songs, you know when we sing, let me give you a little instruction on how, when to clap, you can't clap for a song which is a song of confession or where you are asking God to help you to live in a particular way, you clap and you are praising God, there are songs of praise, by all means, those are the songs we should clap, not Lord give me light that I may see, you don't clap for that, you lift up your hands, Lord if I am doing something wrong, please give me light that I may see, so we need to be sensible, this meaningless clapping that you find in so many churches, particularly Pentecostal churches, meaningless, whether it is anything, they are confessing your sin or keep on clapping just because they are worried about the rhythm and the beat, it's like a worldly festival, but meaning, I believe in clapping, clap your hands it says in the Psalms and raise your hand, it must be meaningful and if it is too meaningful, I don't clap when I am confessing my sin, I don't clap when I am asking God humbly for guidance, I clap and I praise Him for who He is or thank Him for some wonderful thing He has done, so we must be meaningful in everything we do, there is so much of meaningless praying and singing in Christianity, it shows that people don't have any respect for God and they don't even think about what they are saying, so it is very, very important to be very serious about the words we say in our hymns, etc., when we pray to God, so praising is for who He is, like we sang, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty and all the verses that come there, all the earth trembles before you, so this is praise and we can't come to praise before we have learned to pray and learned to thank God, once we go beyond praise, we come to worship and worship is beyond, it doesn't even have to be words, in prayer there is words and it can be prayer can be also silent like a burden in the heart can also be a prayer, thanksgiving contains words and praise also contains words of praising God for who He is, but worship, some of the highest forms of worship can be silent, there is a verse in Habakkuk which says, the Lord is in His holy temple, let all the earth keep silence before Him, the Lord is in His holy temple, let all the earth keep silence before Him, you read in Revelation of a time when there was silence in heaven for half an hour, they were worshipping God all the time and sometimes they were worshipping Him in silence, so I want you to turn to John's Gospel in Chapter 4, in John's Gospel in Chapter 4 we read about worship in the spirit, it's very interesting that when Jesus spoke to a bishop, Nicodemus, he told him, you must be born again and when he spoke to a woman who was divorced five times and sleeping with somebody who was not even her husband, he told her about worship, it's crazy isn't it, one would think you should tell that woman about being born again and teach the bishop about worship, no, the bishop needs to be born again and this simple woman, Jesus could speak to her about worshipping God, amazing, God's ways are not our ways, this woman asked Jesus, what is the right place to worship, John 4, 20, our fathers worshipped in this mountain and you Jewish people say Jerusalem is the right place and Jesus said, it is not a question of place, in your house or in the church building, no, no, no, not in this mountain, not in Jerusalem, the hour is coming verse 23 and 24, very, very important words about true worship, this highest form of communication to God of worship, Jesus revealed to a sinful woman who had been divorced five times, it's amazing, showing us that you don't need to be a great scholar or bishop like Nicodemus to understand it, he couldn't understand it all, very simple lady, she was probably not educated and had been living in sin, but she had a heart that Jesus saw, that's why Jesus met with her and he said in verse 23 and 24, an hour is coming, that means not yet come, now is, it has come in one way, where the true worshippers will worship the father in spirit and truth and the father is seeking for such worshippers and when I read that verse, I say, Lord, are you seeking from heaven for people who worship in spirit and truth, please show me what that means, I want to be one of those, if the father is seeking all over the earth for true worshippers, I say, Lord, please, I want to be one of those, tell me how to do it, because God is a spirit and those who worship him in spirit must worship in spirit and truth, now to understand this properly, worship in the spirit, you need to go to 1 Thessalonians 5 and verse 23, where it says, man is spirit, soul and body, man is a trinity, like God is a trinity, God is three persons, father, son and holy spirit trinity, but man is one person, but in that one person is a trinity, 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 23, man is a spirit and a soul inside this body and it is pictured in the Old Testament tabernacle, where the outer coat was visible to everybody, like the body and there was a tent inside which there were two parts, holy place and most holy place, corresponding to the soul and the spirit, which is hidden, those two compartments were hidden under the tent, just like the two parts of our soul and spirit, two parts of us are hidden, so man is three parts, body like the outer coat of the tabernacle, everybody can see and soul and spirit which are hidden and in the Old Testament tabernacle there was a thick veil between the holy place and the most holy place saying, you cannot go in there, God dwells there, teaching us that God wants to dwell in man's spirit, but under the old covenant it could not happen, because there was a thick veil and the Jewish people did not know, what does this veil symbolize, they did not know, they didn't even know that the tabernacle symbolized body, soul and spirit, we know it today, but what does that veil symbolize, because if you don't understand what that veil symbolizes, you can't understand worship in the spirit, you only worship in the body and the soul, the old covenant people could worship in the outer coat and the holy place, that's all, that is the body and the soul, what does worship in the body mean, clap, raise your hands, shout, body, using my body, and soul is what, your emotions, intellect, you know with very eloquent words, that's my intellect and emotion and excitement, that's the soul, good, but it stops there, everything you read in the Psalms is clap and raise your hands and be excited and shout and praise and get the trumpet and all these musical instruments, work up your soul, good, but Jesus told the Samaritan woman, the time has now come when we must worship in the spirit, it is going to come, he said, in one sense it has already come, which means there is one person on earth who is already worshipping in the spirit, that is Jesus himself, that is the meaning of, our is coming, but now is, our is coming means the rest of you will experience it on the day of Pentecost, but now it is now because one person is experiencing it, Jesus, and on the day of Pentecost, before the day of Pentecost, on the day Jesus died, the veil was rent, and now you can go into the most holy place, into the spirit and worship God in spirit which nobody could do, so don't go to the Psalms and think that's clapping and shouting and all that is the most important part of worship, that is good and I am all for it, I am willing to do it, but if you stop there, it is old covenant worship, body and soul, but Jesus said the father is now seeking for those who will worship in spirit, what God has taught us, that is what I am trying to share with you, worship in the spirit, to worship in the spirit you have to go through the rent veil, turn to Hebrews in chapter 10 and there we read what the rent veil is, Hebrews in chapter 10 and we read now we can go into the most holy place, Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 19 and 20, we can enter into the most holy place, that is what it means by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he inaugurated for us through the veil, what does the veil mean, the Holy Spirit says the flesh of Jesus is the answer, the veil that is his flesh and that was rent and the way was open, now Jesus' body was not rent, it was not torn, it just had how many 1,2,3,4,5 holes in it, 2 in the hands, 2 in the feet and 1 in the side, 5 holes, it was not torn, not a bone of his was broken, he just had 5 holes in his body, that is not rent, so it's not talking about his body being rent, his flesh, it doesn't say the veil represented his body, so to understand the word flesh, we read in Galatians 5.17 the spirit fights against the flesh and the flesh fights against the spirit, then you realize it is what we call self-will, the spirit is not fighting against my body, no, his body is his temple, he will take care of it, he is fighting against the thing called the flesh and I have through years of study, I have discovered flesh means self-will, not sinful, self-will means, did Jesus have a self-will, he said in Gethsemane, not my will, that is his own will, but yours be done, he had to deny his own will in order to do the will of God, that is the thing that was torn, what was torn in Jesus' life, his self-will, he said in John 6.38, I have come from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me, have you seen that verse in John 6.38, that is a one line autobiography of Jesus' life, if you were to ask Jesus, what did you do in your whole life, he said, I will give it to you in one sentence, I never did my own will, but I always did the will of my father, but what about dying on the cross, that is also part of that, the whole thing was not my will, but the father's will, one part of it was dying on the cross, there were a thousand other things, but always it was not my will, but thine, so did he have a will of his own, yeah, when he was in heaven he could say, I do my own will, because it is the same as my father's will, but the moment he came to earth with a body, he got a will which was not the same as the father's will, it was his own, he had to choose, he had to deny it, Gethsemane is the classic example, you go to Jesus in Gethsemane and say, Lord what do you want, no I don't want to drink this cup, but what if the father wants you to drink the cup, then I'll accept it, but tell me honestly Lord, what do you want, I don't want to drink this cup, will you tell the father that, yes, I told the father, take this cup away from me, that is my will, but I don't want it, that is the crucifixion of the will of Jesus, which he practiced not only in Gethsemane, but all through his life, when his mother called him to do something, and he wanted to do something else, he had to crucify his will, doesn't your little boy have to crucify his will, if he wants to obey you, he wants to do something else, and you want him to do something else as a parent, Jesus would always obey, or when he had four brothers and two sisters, who were always irritating him, nagging him, troubling him, and you know how if you have six siblings, four brothers and two sisters, and you are the older one, they trouble you, nag you, nag you, nag you, nag you, and you are tempted to get angry with them, you think Jesus was tempted to get angry or not, of course, but he said no, this will, to do my own will, just to get angry, I will kill it, he never did his own will, and that is how the veil was rent in thirty-three and a half years, every temptation that he went through in thirty-three and a half years, one more stitch in the veil is gone, another temptation, another stitch in the veil is gone, another stitch, and there are thousands and thousands of stitches, torn, torn, torn, torn, finally, when he hung on the cross, and he said, it is finished, the last stitch in the veil is gone, and the father testified to it by tearing that veil in the temple and saying, now, the way is open into the most holy place, because Jesus denied his will in every single area of temptation, this is a mystery, the Bible says that, so if you don't understand it, seek God for the mystery, I did not understand it for sixteen years, you can hear it, you think you got it in your head, ask God to explain it to you, the proof that you have understood the mystery is, it will deliver you from sin in your life, if you haven't been delivered from sin in your life, you still haven't understood the mystery, this is the way into the most holy place, and Jesus says, it says in Hebrews 20, he inaugurated it for us, have you seen sometimes a new road has been constructed, and the minister comes and cuts a ribbon, for whom to walk, not for him, for everybody, so Jesus has opened a way into the most holy place, and that is the realm of the spirit, then I can worship God in spirit, so the only way to worship God in the spirit is if you decide to walk this way through the veil, called the new and living way, where you deny yourself in every single area, and that's why I said it, you don't have to open your mouth, you can worship God in silence, or in other words, you say to the Lord like this, in the words of the Psalmist, in Psalm 73, 25, Lord, I desire nothing on earth but you, I desire no one on earth but you, I don't want my will in any area of my life, I want your will in every area, and when I get to heaven, I don't want anything but you, I don't want a crown, I don't want a mansion, I don't want anything, I want you, if that is your passion, that you only want Jesus on earth and in heaven, you don't want to do your will in a single area, you will become a worshiper in the spirit, and you will know God in a way that 99% of so-called believers don't know him, your life will go to a much higher plane, you know sometimes in school they give you a double promotion, skip one class, this will be like jumping 10 classes and going right up to the top, if you decide you're going to worship God in your spirit. So, I have explained to you what prayer, thanksgiving, praise and worship, and you see how so many churches talk about praise and worship, that is not worship at all, it's a deception, what they call praise and worship is actually prayer, thanksgiving and praise, that's all, many of the songs are thanksgiving and praise, why not call it that, why call it worship, and people tell me, brother what does it matter, it's just a word right, yeah but you're missing the real thing, supposing somebody tells some person who does not know much about cars, and say listen, I have ordered a Mercedes Benz car for you in that shop, he knows that Mercedes Benz is a very expensive thing, but he doesn't know what it looks like, so he goes to that shop, he says somebody has paid for a Mercedes Benz car for me, and that chap gives him a bicycle, nice bicycle, he says this is Mercedes Benz, and of course he doesn't know, this is Mercedes Benz, great, the man has painted Mercedes Benz on the bar of the cycle, and he comes riding on the cycle and tells his wife, I've got a Mercedes Benz, is that Mercedes Benz, she says what does it matter, it's only a name right, it's not a name, there's a lot of difference between Mercedes Benz written on a cycle and a real Mercedes Benz, in the same way there's a lot of difference between calling something worship which is not worship, and real worship, as much difference and much more, I thank God that God has opened my eyes to become a worshipper, why is that important, because Jesus said without worship you cannot serve the Lord, Matthew 4.10, you shall worship, then you will serve, and I know in my life, I always said Lord I want to serve you effectively, then the Lord says you must be a worshipper in the spirit, and I'm absolutely convinced the reason why there's such a lack of anointing, a lack of fire, and lack of zeal, and anointing in so much of Christian service and boring sermons that I've heard, I know the reason, they're not worshippers, they will not be able to serve if you don't worship, in their private life they're not worshipping God, and they want to serve Him, you think God is going to back that up, never, I want all of you to serve the Lord, but you be a worshipper first, say Lord I want to be a worshipper, I want to walk this new and living way, it's a wonderful life, I'll tell you that, I wouldn't exchange it for anything in the world, nothing, absolutely nothing, this is how we build the church, and not only build the church, on that cross the devil was defeated once and for all, and you walk this way, I guarantee you Satan will be under your feet, I remember the Lord said that to me once, as Jesus is, so are we in this world, we got that verse downstairs from 1 John 4, was the devil afraid of Jesus on earth, yes, and the Lord says as Jesus is, so will you be on this earth, 1 John chapter 4, and I say Lord I'm going to live in that, if the devil was scared of you, he's going to be scared of me as well, many Christians are scared of the devil, I think some of you are, isn't it wonderful to switch from there, to where the devil is scared of you, do you believe you can live a life where the devil is scared of you, I can imagine, Jesus was going around the synagogues and casting out demons everywhere, supposing he was going to a new place, all the demons would say, hey, hey, he's coming here, he's coming here, and they're scared, imagine if they say that about you, hey, this brother is coming here, this brother is coming here, be careful, this sister is coming here, imagine the demons being scared, because you're going to visit somebody's house, because you're going to preach in some place, and the demons are scared, you don't have faith for that, I have faith for that, because of that verse in 1 John 4, as Jesus is, so are we in this world, if you don't have faith, you will not have it, you'll get nothing in the Bible if you don't believe, you won't even get forgiveness of sins if you don't believe, but if you believe all things are possible, I believe it, as Jesus is, so am I in this world, it's not because of me, it's because the Holy Spirit is coming to me, and so if the devil was scared of Jesus, he's going to be scared of me, that's how you and I are supposed to live, my brothers, that's how you and I are supposed to go back to your homes from here after this conference with a fresh vision to be an overcomer, ask God to fill you with the Holy Spirit, everything that I have said to you, you can get revelation on it yourself, if you go to God, I'm not special, the same Holy Spirit that taught me can teach you, may God help you, let's pray. There are many things that you have heard in these last 2-3 days, and I want to encourage you my dear brothers and sisters to pray to God that you will be filled with the Holy Spirit, get alone with God in your room by yourself, the best place to be filled with the Holy Spirit is not in a church meeting, the best place to be filled with the Holy Spirit is in your room, privately, by yourself, Lord, fill me with the Spirit and pray that fervently and make it, ask Him to fill you regularly, I pray regularly God will fill me with the Holy Spirit, and spend your time studying the Word of God, don't be lazy in that matter, study God's Word wholeheartedly, and I tell you, your life will never be the same, the next year of your life is going to be completely different from all the years you've gone by, if you decide that you're going to pray fervently from today to be filled with the Holy Spirit, you're going to study God's Word intensely, and you're not going to listen to useless sermons that don't lead you to become Christ-like, you're going to finish with all that listening to sermons and reading books that are not leading you to become Christ-like, you're only going to listen to and read that which will lead you to become Christ-like, you're learning, you're going to give thanks for everything because you believe in Romans 8.28, you're going to praise God for who He is, and you're going to be a worshipper, say Lord help me, I want to be that, Heavenly Father I believe there are a number of sincere people here, many, many, many, that's why you brought them here, and I pray that their lives will be transformed as a result of this conference, they'll never be the same again, let your hand be upon many of us Lord, fill us with the Holy Spirit, that rivers of living water will come out and flow through us, thank you Father, thank you, you've been good to us. Brothers and sisters, I want you to stand up now and let's give God an offering of praise and thanks, please raise your voice and your hands, and let's thank Him. Raise your hands and praise Him.