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Jack Hayford
Jack Hayford (June 25, 1934 – January 8, 2023) was an American preacher, author, and Pentecostal leader whose calling from God transformed worship and ministry within the Church of the Foursquare Gospel and beyond for over six decades. Born in Los Angeles, California, to Jack Hayford Sr., a former military officer turned switchman, and Anita Dolores Farnsworth, a Bible teacher, he faced life-threatening illness as an infant and polio at age four, both miraculously healed through prayer, igniting his lifelong passion for God’s power. He graduated from L.I.F.E. Bible College in 1956 and earned a second bachelor’s degree from Azusa Pacific University in 1970, grounding his ministry in practical theology. Hayford’s calling from God was affirmed in 1969 when he became pastor of First Foursquare Church of Van Nuys—later The Church on the Way—growing it from 18 members to over 10,000 by the 1980s, serving until 1999 with a brief return after his successor’s death in 2003. Ordained in 1956, he preached a balanced gospel, emphasizing the Holy Spirit’s vitality, notably through his hymn “Majesty” (1978) and over 600 songs, alongside founding The King’s University in 1997 and serving as Foursquare president (2004–2009). His sermons and over 50 books, like Worship His Majesty, called believers to Spirit-filled living and unity across denominations. Married twice—first to Anna Marie Smith in 1954, with four children (Rebecca, Jack III, Mark, Christa), until her death in 2017, then to Valerie Lemire in 2018—he passed away at age 88 in Los Angeles, California.
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Jack Hayford leads a prayerful sermon focusing on the condition of the heart before God. He acknowledges the various states of the heart - from praising God's goodness to being stained by unworthy thoughts and pride, and the need for softening and renewal. Hayford prays for forgiveness for disobedience, neglect, and resistance to God's ways, asking for a heart that forgives easily, receives God's truth, and is shaped into His image. He seeks deliverance from hardness caused by duty, weariness, enemies, and hurt, desiring a heart softened by God's love and filled with His will and Word.
A Prayer
Lord God, Creator of all, Maker of my heart ... I bring it to You this morning. My heart ... which at various times has been lifted in praise to You, rejoices over Your goodness and giving to me. My heart … which also sometimes cowers in fear before people and problems—when I forget You are bigger than them all—has been stained by mediations unworthy of a child made in Your image. It has been lifted up in pride over attainments accomplished by Your hand alone. And, Lord, my heart is often hardened as well. I bring my heart to You this day for softening... … like a child's, softened to forgive quickly, easily, without judgment, prejudice, bitterness, or resentment; … like a field, softened to receive seeds of Your truth, that the fruit of Your Holy Spirit might be produced through my life; … like clay, softened, that I might be shaped today more completely into the man or the woman You want me to become. Forgive my hardness of heart when it results from my own disobedience, neglect, or outright resistance to Your ways. Deliver me, lest my heart shrink by reason of this dryness and hardening. Flow the rivers of Your life over my heart, and bring it to renewal, O Lord. And where my heart is hardened simply by the heat of duty, the weariness of work, the attack of enemies, the slings and arrows of the inconsiderate or crude … at those points, give me a vision of Your heart today, Lord. For although I have wounded Your love by my failures, You have never hardened Your heart against me. So, dear God, let my heart be softened today in the same way as Yours toward any who have done to me as I have to You. Deliver me from all temptation to smallness or hardness of heart, and fill my life this morning with Your will and Your Word. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my strength and my redeemer (Psalm 19:14). Through Christ, our Lord, Amen.
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Jack Hayford (June 25, 1934 – January 8, 2023) was an American preacher, author, and Pentecostal leader whose calling from God transformed worship and ministry within the Church of the Foursquare Gospel and beyond for over six decades. Born in Los Angeles, California, to Jack Hayford Sr., a former military officer turned switchman, and Anita Dolores Farnsworth, a Bible teacher, he faced life-threatening illness as an infant and polio at age four, both miraculously healed through prayer, igniting his lifelong passion for God’s power. He graduated from L.I.F.E. Bible College in 1956 and earned a second bachelor’s degree from Azusa Pacific University in 1970, grounding his ministry in practical theology. Hayford’s calling from God was affirmed in 1969 when he became pastor of First Foursquare Church of Van Nuys—later The Church on the Way—growing it from 18 members to over 10,000 by the 1980s, serving until 1999 with a brief return after his successor’s death in 2003. Ordained in 1956, he preached a balanced gospel, emphasizing the Holy Spirit’s vitality, notably through his hymn “Majesty” (1978) and over 600 songs, alongside founding The King’s University in 1997 and serving as Foursquare president (2004–2009). His sermons and over 50 books, like Worship His Majesty, called believers to Spirit-filled living and unity across denominations. Married twice—first to Anna Marie Smith in 1954, with four children (Rebecca, Jack III, Mark, Christa), until her death in 2017, then to Valerie Lemire in 2018—he passed away at age 88 in Los Angeles, California.