 Amen, so keep your place there in Daniel chapter 9. We're talking about prayer and famous prayers in the Bible, and we're looking at Daniel's prayer tonight. So Daniel's prayer in Daniel chapter 9, we're actually going to look at Daniel's prayer in Daniel chapter 10 as well. Now Daniel chapter 9 is a very famous chapter in the Bible. I preached on Daniel, this is where we get the prophecy of Daniel's 70 weeks, or the 70 weeks of Daniel, and especially the 70th week of Daniel, I've preached on that in the past. I'm not going to focus on the prophecy at the end of the chapter, but I'm going to look at the prayer that Daniel prays at the beginning. And what Daniel is praying here at the beginning of Daniel chapter 9 is he's referencing Jeremiah chapter 29, look at verse number 10. So he's referencing, he's knowing, he says at the beginning, he says at the beginning of Daniel chapter 9, he says in the first year of Darius, the son of Asaharis, the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of Chaldeans. You turn to Jeremiah chapter 29 while I'm reading this. He says in the first year of his reign, I Daniel understood by the books of the number of years where the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish 70 years in desolations of Jerusalem. So what he's referring to is, of course, who was Jeremiah? He's talking about Jeremiah, Jeremiah was the guy, was the prophet that was screaming to the children of Judah, screaming to the nation of Judah, his whole prophecy career of getting them to turn away that they were going to be taken over by Babylon. Of course, nobody listened to Jeremiah in his life. That's comforting as a pastor, by the way, because sometimes you think nobody's listening to anything that I say. I'm wasting all my time, well, Jeremiah wasted his whole life if you want to look at it that way, because nobody listened to him, end of kidnapping him at the end of his life. It's really a terrible story when you think about it. Anyway, look at Jeremiah chapter 29 and verse number 10. This is what Daniel is noticing. Of course, Daniel's no dummy. Daniel knows his Bible, Daniel knows the scripture, and in Jeremiah chapter 29 and verse number 10, the Bible says, for thus sayeth the Lord, that after 70 years be accomplished at Babylon, I will visit you and perform my good word toward you and causing you to return to this place. So basically, there's all kinds of things we could look at here, a reminded of Jeremiah chapter 24, where Jeremiah gives this, I guess you could call it a parable of the figs, saying that the figs are going to be carried away and then the good figs will be brought back, but the evil figs will be taken away into Egypt and things like that. So basically what Daniel is noticing here is that he's noticing that Jeremiah said that they would return. Jeremiah said they would return, and specifically in Jeremiah chapter 29, he said that they would return after 70 years, and Daniel is realizing, hey, this is accomplished. This is time for this. So Daniel sets himself down to pray to the Lord about, you know, getting this nation right and getting ready to return back to Jerusalem out of exile. Of course, the Babylonian Empire is gone. Now we're in the Persian Empire. Daniel became, he rose to the top of two empires. I mean, it's just quite a story Daniel's life in general. So look down at Daniel chapter 9 in verse number 3. Now that we have some context of what Daniel's praying about, what he's realizing, what he knows, let's look down at Daniel chapter 9 in verse number 3, and let's see what we can learn from Daniel's prayer. I want to give you three points tonight about Daniel's prayer that we can learn about our own prayers. That's the whole point of this sermon series is that we look at these great prayers in the Bible and then we can apply that. I mean, what's the point of preaching and learning the Bible if you can't apply it to your life? So the first, we're going to look at three aspects of Daniel's prayer that we can apply to our lives. So the first one is this. Turn to Isaiah chapter 58 as I read for you Daniel chapter 9 in verse number 3. And I set my face unto the Lord God to seek by prayer and supplications with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. So Daniel is doing some things here to show his sincerity to the Lord. He's doing some outward things. He's doing some outward things. He's fasting. He's in sackcloth, meaning he doesn't have his regular clothes on. He's got these humble clothes on and then they would put ashes on their head to just show the humility of their state is what they would do. Okay, look at Isaiah chapter 58 and look at verse number 1. So Daniel here, he's showing some outward expressions of his sincerity, of his prayer. Okay, that's the very first thing that we need to learn from Daniel's prayer. Now we'll see the same thing in Isaiah chapter 58, but it's not being done right in Isaiah chapter 58. So in Isaiah 58, look at verse number 1. The Bible says, cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet and show my people their transgression in the house of Jacob their sins. That's just a very famous verse that's not really applying to what we're talking about. I'm going into verse number 2 for the application this evening, but look at verse number 2 here. It says, yet they seek me daily. So he's saying, you know, show the people their transgressions and look at verse number 2. It says, yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways as a nation that did righteousness and forsook not the ordinance of their God, they ask of me the ordinance of justice, the ordinances of justice, they take delight in approaching to God. So that sounds pretty good right there, okay, but you've got to, I mean, if you read the Bible and just don't like blast through every verse, you can see a couple like warning signs here first of all. It says, yet, first of all it says cry aloud, go tell these people what they're doing wrong and then it says, yet they seek me daily and then it says as a nation that did righteousness. So it's like, he's saying they're not a nation that does righteousness, it's like they seek me and they pray for me, almost like they're pretending to be righteous is what he's saying here in Isaiah chapter 58, okay. So Daniel showed some sincerity. These people are trying to do the same, but there's a problem, okay, as a nation that did righteousness and forsook not the ordinance of their God, I mean, look, if you just skim that over, it sounds pretty good in verse number 2, okay, and in verse number 3 is the same. Wherefore have we fasted, say they, so now God is like pretending like he's the people speaking. Understand who's saying what here, okay, so he says, wherefore have we fasted, say they, I mean, you could reword this and say, they said we've fasted, Lord, that's what they're saying, right, and thou see us not, wherefore have we afflicted our soul, that means like humbled your soul, brought yourself low is a point of fasting, we'll talk about that in a few minutes, and thou take us no knowledge. So here these people are saying, now we see, and then we're getting some more hints that something's wrong with these people. So they act like they're a nation that's doing the right thing, and then they're saying to God, they're saying, we've fasted, we've afflicted our soul, and you're not hearing us, and you're not hearing what we're saying, thou take us no knowledge, and now God responds, when it says behold, this is when God starts speaking back to these people in this conversation, he says, behold in the day of your fast you find pleasure, and exact all your labors, all your labors, you know what God is saying there, he's saying that your fast is not sincere, he's saying when you're praying you're fake about it, is what God is saying, this is the problem why he tells Isaiah in the first verse like, hey, you got to get these people right, cry aloud, spare not, these people are half hearted, look at verse number four, it says, behold, again this is God, he's God, God's like responding to these people, okay, and he's saying behold, you fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness, he shall not fast as you do this day to make your voice to be heard on high, God's like you're doing it wrong, you're doing it wrong, he's like you're fasting just to like say that you're fasting, he's like you're fasting with not the right heart is what God is saying, go to Psalm chapter 35, go to Psalm chapter 35, so look the Bible, the Bible shows that Daniel is sincere, we see that just doing the deed of fasting with the wrong heart is, you know, is what Isaiah chapter 58 nation is doing, and it's half sincere, God recognizes it, and it's a cause for problems for them, okay, look at Psalm chapter 35 and verse 13, the Bible says, but as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sat cloth, I humbled my soul with fasting, it doesn't say that, you know, I just did the fast, okay, you know, they humbled their soul here in Psalm chapter 35 and verse number 13, with fasting, and my prayer returned into my own bosom, so this is kind of like the same concept of the of the money sermon that we talked about on Wednesday night, it's like fasting is like one of these outward things that you do to show your sincerity, okay, but look if your heart's not right about it, it's no good, it's actually very similar to the tithing service, so sermon, so what he's saying here is that you need to have the humble soul and an outward show of that is fasting, okay, but you could do it with pride, you could do it with a prideful soul, a prideful heart, so we need to just keep that in mind, Daniel did not do that, okay, turn to Matthew chapter 6, you know, what the people in Isaiah chapter 58 were doing was what Jesus talks about in Matthew chapter 6, that the Pharisees were doing, okay, they were they were fasting just to like show people that how Godly they were and to just outwardly show that they were fasting, all right, look at Matthew chapter 6 and verse number 16, verse number 16 of Matthew chapter 6, the Bible says more over, when ye fast be not as the hypocrites of a sad countenance for they disfigure their faces that they may appear unto men to fast, verily I say in you they have their word, look, the point of fasting, the point of spiritually fasting, we're not talking about dieting here, okay, the point of spiritually fasting is to show something to God, not to men, so if you ever really get in a situation where you want to spiritually fast, which is very biblical by the way, we're going to see Daniel doing it, I mean it's something that you should do, it's a good outward expression to show God that you are sincere, that you're humbling your soul, so, but the Bible says here in Matthew chapter 6 and verse 16 and we also see in Isaiah chapter 58, if you're doing it just to cause strife and debate and just to show how Godly you are, now let's look, it's just nothing, just don't even do it, you know, it's you shouldn't come into church and be like, you know, sorry I can't I can't have lunch, you can't, you shouldn't come into church next week and be like I can't have lunch because I'm fasting for, you know, spiritual reasons, you shouldn't do that, I mean, because look, if you want to fast, be quiet about it and just do it and humble yourself to the Lord and, you know, just it shouldn't be something that you're trying to do to outwardly show how spiritually, you know, sound you are or whatever, right, because the whole point of fasting is to humble yourself and to do that is just completely taking away the benefit that's why the Bible says, really you have, they have the reward, it's like God's just not going to listen to that because you wanted to get, you wanted to get men to be impressed by what you're doing, so that's what you got and that's what you have, so that's it, so basically, you know, what is fasting, all right, we see several, we're not going to go into great detail on this, but Daniel, Daniel, go to Daniel chapter 10, go to Daniel chapter 10, so Daniel does some different types of fast, but look at Daniel chapter 10 in verse number two, Daniel chapter 10 in verse number two, so the Bible says, in those days I, Daniel was mourning three full weeks, he says, I ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh nor wine into my mouth, in my mouth, neither did I anoint myself at all, till three whole weeks were fulfilled, so Daniel in this case, he just, like, he took away the pleasant things from his diet, that's a, you know, like a partial fast of some kind, he gave up things that gave him pleasure, that, you know, the good bread and this type, and then he didn't do these things, so also, you know, a fast could be just things that, you know, he just didn't anoint himself and, you know, it could be things that you eat, things that you drink, and things that, you know, you do, actually, you know, things that he's sacrificing, so this was kind of a partial fast, I mean, there's different, turn to Esther chapter four, we'll just look at one, but I mean, there's complete fast where you just eat or drink nothing, you know, you just eat or drink nothing, in Esther chapter four, Esther is going to go and she's going to go and she's going, she talked to Mordecai and she's going to go into the king, she's going to go into her husband, you know, not the lawful way, and she's taking a risk, and so she asked the people too fast, she asked the people to pray to the Lord and to fast, and it's just a complete fast in this case, look at verse number 16 of Esther chapter four, the Bible says, go gather all the Jews that are present in Shushan and fast ye for me and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day. I also and my maidens will fast likewise, and so I go in unto the king which is not according to the law, and if I perish, I perish, so that was just a complete like, we're eating and drinking nothing for three days, okay, so I mean that's a pretty extreme fast, also Paul saw when he got knocked off and he got blinded by the Lord Jesus Christ, in Acts chapter nine the Bible says that he didn't eat or drink for three days, okay, so he fasted completely as well, so look, it's just an outward way to show your sincerity and your humility when you come to the Lord with a request, and it's, if Daniel does it, it's a good thing to do, okay, it's a good thing to do, so look at, go down, go to Daniel chapter 10, go to Daniel chapter 10, look and here's another thing, Daniel was very consistent in his prayers, so Daniel, Daniel was serious, he was sincere in his prayers, but he was very consistent, I'm gonna read for you Daniel chapter six, Daniel chapter six, verse number ten, the Bible says in Daniel six, ten it says, now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, this is the law, he went into his house, they're trying to catch Daniel, you know, and get him to get in trouble for praying, so he knew that, you know, you couldn't pray, you couldn't pray, and he went into his house, this is his response, with his window being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he did a four time, so Daniel was just kind of like, this was the new princes of Darius, and they wanted to catch Daniel, so they made a rule that you can only pray to the king, and Daniel just, what did he do? Just like the same thing he always did, so the Bible says that he did what he did a four time, which he just, he was very consistent in his prayers, turn to Daniel chapter ten, turn to Daniel chapter ten, so he was sincere in his prayers, and he showed that in an outward way of fasting, which is a good thing for you to do, if you want to show the law that you're sincere, but it's not to be seen of everybody, so don't go, you know, bragging about it, it's just something between you and God, but Daniel was also consistent, in verse number two of Daniel ten it says, in those days I, Daniel was mourning three full weeks, he was praying and he was fasting for three full weeks, I mean Daniel wasn't this kind of guy that was like, oh by the way God, can I have this right now? Daniel had a prayer life, Daniel was a, was a prayer warrior if there ever was one, and in this case, he's praying for three weeks about this, he's mourning for three weeks, but look at Daniel chapter ten in verse number twelve, this is super interesting, because Daniel you're like, you're like man, he's, he's praying for three weeks, and like he had, look God didn't answer him, he prayed for three weeks before God answered him, look at verse number twelve, so he gets visited in Daniel chapter ten in verse number twelve, he gets visited by an angel and he says, then he said unto me, fear not Daniel, for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before God thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words, so we know, we know that Daniel was sincere, okay, so we can kind of equate Daniel chapter ten in verse number twelve, we can kind of equate that first day to the beginning of that three weeks, but if we were Isaiah 58 people, it just wouldn't apply, because maybe we didn't get serious until two weeks in, and then that's when the Lord hears us, so it didn't say when you started praying, it says, you know, it says, from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, from the first day he had his heart right, when he started praying to God, that's when God heard him, okay, but look, he prayed for three weeks, turn to Psalm chapter 27, so you say, he prayed for three weeks, but here's the thing, the Bible says that God heard him on the first day, and that is super important, so you say, okay, God heard him the first day, but why didn't he answer him until three weeks, well, I mean, there was a reason that the angel gives in Daniel chapter ten, but the point I want to make to you is that Daniel was patient, Daniel was patient, so Daniel was sincere, Daniel was consistent, but Daniel was also patient, you say, he prayed for three weeks, why was this necessary, you know, God heard him the first day, but turn to Psalm chapter 27, look at verse 14, I'm going to show you why it is necessary, that you know, sometimes God may not just answer you right away, God may not just answer you right away, but because here's the thing folks, maybe you need patience, maybe you need patience in your life, look at Psalm 27 in verse number 14, it says, wait on the Lord, why would the Bible say that, why would the Bible say that, if the Lord just answers you like immediately, like all I have to do is get my heart right, humble myself, fast, pray, bam, and it's done, why in the world would the Bible say this, the Bible is saying this is because God wants us to wait on him, God wants us to be the type of people that wait on him, why, why, it says, wait on the Lord, oh, here we get the answer, right here, be of good courage, so I mean, that takes some faith, does it not, does it not take faith to be sincere, to pray to the Lord, let's just put ourselves in Daniel's position, or in the position of anybody asking for anything from the Lord, you're gonna, you got your heart right, you're humbled, you're fasting, sackcloth, ashes, the whole thing, and you're praying to the Lord, and he doesn't answer you, and you just have to keep praying, and keep praying, and keep praying, look, that takes some courage, that takes some faith to know that, you know, God's gonna answer you, but look at what the Bible says here, it says, be of good courage, and it says, wait on the Lord, look, if you wait on the Lord, and you're of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart, and then he says again, wait, I say, on the Lord, so here's the thing, maybe the reason that God isn't answering your prayers is because you need patience, because you need courage, you need that faith in you, that courage in you to know that God's gonna answer you, because the Bible says, turn to Isaiah chapter 40, look, there's lots of Bible on this, but there is a definite tie here, the Bible in Psalm chapter 27 verse 14, it says the word wait twice, it says wait, wait, meaning there's a reason God's not gonna answer you right away every time, there's a reason for it, it says be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart, look at Isaiah chapter 40, and look at verse number 31, so here's the point, maybe you need some patience in your life, maybe that is one of the things that God is trying to teach you is that you need patience in your life, look at Isaiah 40, 31, look what the Bible says, it says, but they that wait upon the Lord, so what do we see in Psalm 24 or Psalm 27 verse 14, it said wait twice, and it said, and he shall strengthen thine heart, but look what it says here in Isaiah 40 verse 31, it says, but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their what, their strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint, look God is trying to teach us something here, he's saying wait, wait, be patience, be patient on me and that will equal strength, that is what God is saying, God's not saying he's not gonna just, he's not gonna answer you, he's saying that waiting on him and becoming patient will make you strong is what the Bible is telling us, so look that's a pretty important lesson right there, that we need to have patience with the Lord, don't be these people that's like hey, you know if God doesn't answer me right away, why isn't God doing this, don't be that guy, because God's trying to give you patience and that will build your strength, that's why God is doing that, there's a definite correlation there in the Bible, that's why God wants us to wait on him, so we get strong, God doesn't want a bunch of weaklings down here, like it's gonna, he knows, God knows that living this life following this book is gonna take some strength, that's what God knows and we can see that, we can see that even in our lives that, that you know, we're not going through great persecution, great tribulation here but I mean, what in the world, I mean it takes some strength to walk this Christian life, it takes some strength, especially when like less and less people seem like they care about the Bible, it takes some strength, so so far, what do we see, look here's the thing folks, I mean the Bible says everything about what we're going through, persecution, tribulation, you know, having that head knowledge of what to do in the Bible is one thing, but if you don't have the head knowledge at all, you have no chance, and I'm trying to convince you to be patient on the Lord tonight, so look at Daniel, from the first prayer, from the first prayer, he's showing his sincerity, he's an extremely consistent prayer warrior, if you want to call it that way, he's consistent in his prayers, just in Daniel chapter 10 in that one prayer, he prayed for three weeks, he prayed for three weeks and God heard him right away, he didn't answer him right away, but he heard him right away, so don't be that guy that just needs an answer from God right away, alright, so he shows sincerity and he shows consistency, we see so far, go back to Daniel chapter 9, go back to Daniel chapter 9, here's the big one, here's the big one, Daniel chapter 9, look at verse number 4, now Daniel goes into a long narrative about just acknowledging what God has done to them, look at Daniel chapter 9 in verse number 4, it's very easy to see the state or the humility of Daniel's heart with the way he speaks here, look at Daniel chapter 4, he says, and I prayed unto the Lord my God, and made my confession and said, oh Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments, we have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled even by departing from thy precepts, and from thy judgments. Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, Jeremiah is a perfect example, which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, our fathers, and to all the people of the land, oh Lord, righteousness belong unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces as at this day, to the men of Judah and unto the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel that are near and that are afar off through the countries where thou hast driven them, because of their trespass, that they have trespassed against thee. Look down at verse number 11. Then he says, go to verse number 10, he says, neither have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God to walk in his laws, which he set before us by the servants the prophets. They're at the end of the captivity here, and he's just saying it was all our fault. Look at verse 11. He says, yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, even by departing it, departing that they might not obey thy voice. Therefore, he's saying, because of this, therefore the curse is poured upon us, and that oath is written in the law of Moses, the servant of God, because we have sinned against him. And he have confirmed his words. Look, God told him, God told him, and by bringing the judgment, the captivity on top of them, all God did was confirmed what he said he was going to do. And that's what Daniel is acknowledging here, which he spake against us and against our judges that judged us by bringing us upon us a great evil, for under the whole heaven had not been done, has been done upon Jerusalem. As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil has come upon us, yet we made not our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities and understand thy truth. Therefore hath the Lord watched upon the evil and brought it upon us, for the Lord thy God is righteous in his all his works, which he doeth, for we obeyed not his voice. And now, O Lord our God, that has brought the people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, that has gotten thee renown at this day, we have sinned and done wickedly. O Lord, according to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee. Let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain, because for our sins and for our iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us. It's like we just become a broken people. We're just an embarrassment to every other nation. Verse 17, now therefore, O God, hear the prayer of thy servant and his supplications and cause thy face to shine upon the sanctuary that is desolate for the Lord's sake. So what's the last thing that Daniel does? The last thing we're going to learn about tonight that Daniel does is, number one, he's sincere. Number two, he's consistent. And number three, he acknowledges God's judgment. He acknowledges God's judgment. This is a hard one. This is a hard one for people to do. But here's the thing. You're saying the 70 years is up. The 70 years is up. Who cares? But here's the thing. Acknowledging God's judgment is key to getting out of it. That is what Daniel is doing here. And look, he's sincere. He's sincere. So sincerely, acknowledging God's judgment on the nation, on your life is key to getting out of God's judgment. Boy, if people, and look, here's the thing. This needs to be a self-assessment that you do. We're not to be Job's friends walking around and something bad happens to somebody and be like, I don't know brother, what's wrong with you? This has to be a self-assessment. And in order for you to do this self-assessment, so who wants to be under God's judgment? Who wants to be under God's chastisement for like the rest of their life? Raise your hand. Nobody wants that. You're all going to be under God's chastisement at some point. Every single one of you, if you're saved, are going to be under the chastisement of God at some point in your life. And you want to get out of it as soon as possible. And the way to get out of it is to humble yourself, to recognize it yourself. Because look, I mean, you know, if you want to come and ask me things, whatever, you know, that's fine. But really, it's best if you're humble and you recognize it happening to you. That's the best thing. And here's the thing. I mean, first of all, like I said, we're not to do this to other people. We're not to be Job's friends because, quite frankly, bad things can happen to people for a multitude of different reasons. Just because bad things happen to somebody doesn't mean Job's a perfect example. That's why Job's in the Bible. Just because bad things are happening to somebody doesn't mean that they're under God's judgment. I mean, it could be tribulation. It could be persecution. It could be other things. But only that person themselves, that they humble themselves, will be able to know if they're under the chastisement of God. So acknowledging judgment is key to coming out of that judgment phase, to coming out of your captivity, so to speak. And look, turn to Proverbs chapter 16. Pride is what will stop you from acknowledging God's judgment. Pride will stop you from even recognizing it on your life. Can you imagine? Being under God's chastisement. I mean, just think of us as saved people. Okay? Think of us as saved people. Being under the chastisement of our Heavenly Father and not even noticing it. Yes, that can happen. All we have to do is be prideful. This is what I was telling you. Look at Proverbs 16.5. This is what I was telling you this morning. Pride is always bad. Only wicked people would embrace a wicked trait. Pride is always bad. Look at verse 5. Everyone that proud in heart, that is proud in heart is what? Isn't that a funny word that is used by about pride? Everyone that is proud at heart is an abomination to the Lord. Though hand joined in hand, he shall not be unpunished. Abomination is the strongest language. It's the strongest language. So it's like wicked people embracing a wicked trait. The last thing we want to be anything near is pride or prideful as saved believers. Okay? We don't want to be prideful. Mainly, turn to Galatians chapter 6. Mainly because, mainly, no, don't forget what I said, Galatians chapter 6. Turn to Psalm or Proverbs chapter 29. Mainly because it will blind us to God's chastisement. That's the main reason that we don't want to be prideful. I mean, that's the worst place you could possibly be. In a place where God is chastising you and you don't even know it. That's a really bad place for a Christian to be. That's the opposite of Daniel. Okay? That's the opposite of Daniel. Daniel here in Daniel chapter 9 is just acknowledging every single judgment that has been done. And look, it may not have been done. Daniel was one of the good figs. If you read Jeremiah chapter 24, there's two baskets of figs and he's a good fig. And he's sitting there still just acknowledging and admitting everything for the nation. That is the opposite of a prideful person. Look at Proverbs 29, 23. I mean, apply this to the Christian right here. This applies to anybody, but apply this to yourself. Proverbs 29, 23. A man's pride shall bring him low, but honor shall uphold the humble in spirit. So, God's, if you're prideful, what the Bible here is saying is God's going to give you some trouble. God's going to bring you down. God's going to bring you low. So, we need to recognize that. Look, this is the problem, folks. This is a problem with the prosperity gospel right here, what we're talking about. What we're talking about. The problem with the prosperity gospel is this. Okay? I mean, the prosperity gospel, it works in some circumstances. But the problem with the prosperity gospel is that every good thing that happens to you is not from God. And every bad thing is not of Satan. And unless you're humble, you will not recognize what is what. Say, I mean, let's, you see, what are you talking about? Here's a, here's a, here's a good one. Every good thing is not of God. Let me give you some examples. Every, and I put good in quotes. Okay? Maybe that makes it, makes it a little bit more sense. But everything that seems good to you, how's that? Everything that seems good to you in your life is not of God. And, and what people, I mean, you would think that this is a simple enough concept that people wouldn't get mixed up in it, but I see it all the time. People get mixed up in this all the time. Here's the thing. Satan is going to put things that look good in front of you that seem like blessings. He's going to do that to you. Guaranteed in your life. You must recognize this. If you're not humble, you won't. You won't recognize this. And here's, you say, how do I know? How do I know what, what's what? Because here's the thing. The Bible, there's nothing in the Bible that contradicts itself. That's why it's a miracle. There's nothing in the pages of this book where one page says one thing, then the next page or 500 pages over, it says something that contradicts that. God does not contradict himself. So basically, anything that is put in front of you that stops or hinders your, your first works, your spiritual life is not good. I mean, some people think, oh, every opportunity is a blessing from God. No, wrong. Wrong. That's not true. Anything that takes away from the first works in your life is not good. Turn to Hebrews chapter 10. The Lord, and look, these are the Lord's simple commands to you. Every single thing that comes in front of you, you should just ask yourself, is this, is this good for my spiritual life, or is this bad for my spiritual life? Is this, you know, I mean, jobs is a good example, just circumstances in your life, people that you know in your life. Is this person good for my spiritual life? Is this person bad for my spiritual life? And if it's something that takes away or harms or hurts your spiritual life, it's not of God. It's not good. Because God doesn't contradict himself. He never will. A perfect example of this is like your church life. Your spiritual life, your church life, soul winning, all these types of things. Look, here's the thing. If you're not doing the first works, you're not going to recognize things that hurt the first works. That's another, it's kind of a catch-22, and you think about it that way. If you don't have much of a spiritual life, you're not going to recognize things that attack that spiritual life. Does that make sense? Think about just the simple thing of church. Hebrews 10.25. Look down at Hebrews 10.25. I mean, this is a verse that we read a lot. As Bible-believing Baptists, we read a lot. Look, if you don't go to church as a Bible-believing Christian, you're not right with God. Because Hebrews 10.25, it's very clear here. Okay, look at the Bible. It says, not forsaking the assembly of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much more as you see the day approaching. So it's saying here, it's saying like, hey, you know, as things get worse and worse and worse, which they definitely are, you need more church, not less church. This is what the Bible is saying. It's really interesting, because so basically, we just apply this right here as like anything that would hurt that. We're talking about good things, right? Quote, quote, good things. Anything in my life that seems good, but that is hurting this is bad, is not good. It's not of God. Okay? Here's a funny thing. Look at Hebrews 10.25 one more time. It says, but we're not supposed to forsake the assembly, but exhorting one another. So notice, this is one thing that I don't think a lot of people think about, right? But notice Hebrews 10.25 here, it says exhorting one another. So exhorting means to exhort, the word exhort, if I was to exhort you, it means to strongly encourage you. You know what this is saying? Is that you going to church, is it just about you? Is what this is saying? This is about one another, meaning a two-way street of different people together. So I mean, I really like, like, I like coming to church, like every time. Don't take this the wrong way, okay? But I really get excited about Sunday mornings. I do. I get excited about Sunday mornings. I get excited about, because Sunday mornings we spend a lot of time doing follow-ups on Saturdays. We go soul-witting Saturdays. Sunday mornings are like the best chance that we'll have a visitor to the church, and that's something that I just really look forward to, and I get excited about. And you know, I actually get excited, and I'm strongly encouraged by seeing you all here, too. So I'm kind of preaching to the choir tonight. I get this, you know, you're all in church. You're like, I'm in church on Sunday night. I'm not yelling at you, okay? I'm just saying that, that the idea of coming to church, it strongly encourages the person sitting next to you. Because everybody likes coming to church and seeing their brothers and sisters in church. The opposite's true, though. The opposite's true. Where, if like, nobody comes to church, then it's kind of like discouraging to people. Okay? Like, I'm just like, hey, if my family shows up, I'm happy. That's kind of where I'm at, you know? But the bottom line is like, the Bible is saying we need more church, and not less. Look at verse 24 even. Go back one verse. Go back one verse where it says in verse 24, Hebrews, I'm not even in the right, it says, and let us consider what again? What again? So by, by not forsaking the assembly, we're considering what? One another. So I mean, coming to church is not just about, I think people mess this up a lot. I think people mess this up a lot. I think people think that like, coming to church is like, and like, if you ever come to church, because you think, I want you to come to, look, I want you to come to church. But if you're coming to church, you know, for my sake, that's the red flag, you should be coming to church to strongly encourage your brothers and sisters is what the Bible here is saying. You know, I mean, even the kids, right? Even the kids, they strongly encourage, I mean, do the kids like it when there's less kids in the church or more kids in the church? They're, they're encouraged by each other. All right, so look, anything back to the point of the sermon, back to the point of the sermon, anything that, that cuts out these first works, even though it may seem good. Boy, you know, people can get some, you know, my son has had some jobs put in front of him, and it's just like, it seems like a pretty good opportunity sometimes. And then you look at how it's going to affect that spiritual life, and you're like, I just, you know, and I, look, I don't have to tell him this. I'm not going to act like I'm telling, you know, my 20, he knows this. I mean, some things come in front of him, and it's like, this is pretty good, but let's just do this simple little measurement stick right here, and then it's like, no, it's not good. That's not a good thing. It's not a good thing. All right, so just do that with everything that comes in front of you, so you can't say that everything that looks good is of God, is all I'm saying. Okay, let's go back to chastisement. Let's go back to chastisement. Let me, let's do the flip side of this coin. Turn to Hebrews chapter 12. Turn to Hebrews chapter 12. So everything that looks good is not of God. Okay, everything that looks good is not of God. You're going to use a measuring stick against your spiritual life. It's the same thing with ladies. I gave you an example of church, but just take ladies. So ladies have first works, right? I mean, yeah, we all have first works that come into church and go on soul winning and all these types of things, but, you know, like my wife teaches the kids. My wife teaches the kids. I don't think it's wrong for a woman, a wife, to start a home business. I don't think that that would be a bad thing, a wrong thing, but if it takes away from her doing her first works, like she can't teach the kids anymore, she can't homeschool, she can't take care of the home, she can't do the things that she's supposed to do, as the Bible says, as keeping the home and teaching the children and all these things, then it's not good. It's not good. It's not a blessing. Okay? It's not of God. It's Satan trying to pull you away slowly from those first works that God wants you to be doing. Okay? So everything that seems good to you, you have to do that measurement in your life. Okay? Look at Hebrews chapter 12. Now on the flip side of that coin, every bad thing that happens to you is not of Satan. Every single bad thing that happens to you is not just persecution of Satan, all this. Turn to Hebrews chapter 12. You say, what are you talking about? These are horrible things that I'm going through. Look at Hebrews chapter 12 and verse number seven. The Bible says, if you endure chastening, God dealeth with you as sons. Do you know that you have been adopted in God's family? You are a son, lowercase S of God, or a daughter of God. For what son is he whom the father chastened it not? He's like, it's not a good father that wouldn't punish you. But if you be without chastisement, where all are partakers, then you are bastards and not sons. Look, a sign of a saved person is that you will not get away with things. You should explain this out soul-winning. You should explain this to people out soul-winning, this idea that you will be adopted into God's family. This was super critical to me getting saved right here, that someone explained this to me. That someone explained, because I'm sitting here and somebody's telling me that all you have to do is trust on the Lord Jesus Christ and you can never lose your salvation. I'm like, okay, I'm gonna trust the Lord Jesus Christ and go be a drunk and beat my wife. You know, this is the Catholic answer. People will say this to you at the door. This is what you need to tell them, that you're adopted into God's family and you will not get away with anything anymore. Your life will change in that way. Your life will change in that way. It's true. Okay, look down at verse number verse number nine. It says furthermore, we've all had fathers of our flesh which corrected us. So if you're a good father, you will correct your kids. And we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the father of spirits and live, which is interesting. He's saying and live. He's like relating it to your life on this earth. And if you look at verse number, I'm just going to read for you verse number 26. Go actually, go back to Hebrews 10. Go back to Hebrews 10. We're talking about like not forsaking, you know, the fellowship of the believers so we can exhort one another. We can strongly encourage one another. Okay, look, it's more important for us too, we're a small church. Just hate to put that on your shoulders, but there's some bricks for you. Okay, it's more important. I mean, we're not a 300 person church here. Right, so it's encouraging to see people faithful to the house of God. But look at what the Bible says verse 26. It says, for if we sin, this is in the context of coming to church. It says, for if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, the remaineth no more sacrifice for sins. What does that mean? What does that mean? You know what that means? That means that if you just listen to what God says, these simple commands, and then you just don't do it, it's like Jesus is not going to come die on the cross for you again. You're like, so what's going to happen? Well, let's keep reading. Look at verse number 27. But a certain fearful looking for judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries. It's like God's going to punish you. That's what it's saying. So like simple commands, simple command in the Bible is like, and if you don't do it, you're just saying like, you know, I know that, but I'm not doing it. It's like, here it comes. That's what the Bible is saying here. This isn't, you know, this isn't a code. This is just saying like, fiery indignation is coming. All right. So look, there's two types of chastisement that I want to explain to you tonight because I want you to recognize this chastisement. Okay. So we're saying every bad thing is not a Satan. Sometimes the bad thing is God punishing you. Right. And that's what Daniel acknowledged just to kind of bring it all back around. Okay. So Daniel acknowledged God's punishment, God's judgment. So we need to be humble. We need to be sincere. And then we will recognize God's judgment. But I want to give you two. I put, I put God's judgment, God's chastisement in your life in two categories. Okay. Here's the two categories that you need to look for. Okay. The first one is this, correction. All right. The first category in your life to look for for God's chastisement in your life is just correction. Say I just get, I get prideful in my life. What does God have to do to me if I get prideful? What does he have to do to me? Look, if I'm in this Christian life and I'm leading a church and I'm out soul winning and I'm leading soul winners and I'm, look, you know, it's important that I stay in this role. It's important that I don't get puffed up with pride, become an idiot and go destroy myself. Would you agree? It's important for you as a soul winner, as somebody that's faithful to the house of God, as somebody that's being profitable to those around you, bringing people to church, discipling people. It's important that you don't get prideful so what does God have to do? He has to bring you down. Just like the Bible said in Proverbs it said bring you low. Look, this is correction. Hey, God's not trying to, God's not trying to destroy you. He's not trying to just smash you into the ground and kill you. Hopefully it doesn't get to that point. Okay. But He's trying to correct you. He's trying to get you back on track. This is the person that just gets back-slidden. Okay. This is a person that just like they just get wrapped up in thorns as the parable the sower talks about. They just start getting wrapped up in, what does it, those of the Bible say, the cares of this world as the Bible says, they start getting wrapped up in mammon. They start getting wrapped up in money and cars and life and just all of these things. And their spiritual life, because that will quench your spiritual life. The Bible calls it thorns. It'll choke the word. You won't want to read the Bible. You start watching a bunch of stuff. You won't want to read the Bible. You won't want to study the Bible. You just get back-slidden. God's going to correct that. Why? Because He loves you. Why? Because He not only loves you, but He loves the people around you. He loves the people that you're going to affect when you go out next Wednesday, when you go out next Saturday morning. He wants you back in the fight and He's going to correct you because He loves you. So the first thing is correction. This is the best type of chastisement right here. Look, you should- I don't want to be chastised. But look, I get chastised. I get chastised and I thank God that I get chastised. And I thank God that I recognize it. I thank God. Every single- Here's another philosophy for you. You should write this down if you're writing stuff down. Every single bad thing that happens is not necessarily chastisement from God. However, you should do a check on yourself to see if it possibly could be. Like say something bad happens. Say somebody's persecuting you. Say like bad people are coming after you and just like- Because guess what? God can use bad people to chastise you as well. You should always do a check on your life. Whenever anything bad happens to you, check your life. What am I- Am I into something? What am I- Am I- Have I done anything wrong? Have I sinned? And just get that right as fast as you possibly can because it could be correction. Okay? So, correction is the first category. That's the one that if- When you get into- When you get into chastisement, that's the one you want to be in. You don't want to be in chastisement, but if you're going to be in chastisement, that's the one you want. You can recognize it. You stay humble. You recognize it. Oh, oh, prideful. Get humble. And just get out of chastisement as soon as possible. But here's the second one. Here's the second one. And this is what the children of Israel were dealing with. Just straight up punishment. You don't want to be in that one. Just straight up punishment. Think about this nation. Just 70 years. Punishment is what they were in. This is what Daniel was talking about. They turned from the Lord punishment. God warned them. God tried to correct them, right? That's Jeremiah's life. Jeremiah's life was the correction phase. They didn't listen. So if you ignore the correction phase, you go into punishment. And that is one- Because look, that's just- Turn to 2 Kings chapter 23. Turn to 2 Kings chapter 23. We see this all over the Bible. Look, these are people that have turned from the Lord. They ignored the chastisement. These are people that fight against the Lord. These are people that would fight against the Lord's church. These are people- What they're going to deal with is punishment. They're not going to deal with correction. They're going to deal with punishment from the Lord. Look at 2 Kings chapter 23. 2 Kings chapter 23. Then we're talking about Josiah here. We're talking about Josiah. So Josiah was a king that came after- He was the grandson of a man named Manasseh, a king named Manasseh, who was the son of a king named Hezekiah. Hezekiah was a great king. I don't care what people say about him. Hezekiah was a great king. All right, he made a couple silly moves. But he was a great king, the Bible says. He had a son named Manasseh, who was a wicked king. Yeah, Manasseh got right later on in his life. But then Manasseh had a grandson named Josiah who did great things. He found the law, he just started cleaning house. He was just cleaning house, doing things right. But look at 2 Kings chapter 23. And look at verse number 26. Look at verse 25. It says, And like unto him, there was no king before him, talking about Josiah, that turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul, with all his might, according to the law of Moses, neither after him arose there any like him, not withstanding. That, you know what that says? It doesn't, all that being said is what this means. Not withstanding, the Lord turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath, wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah because of all the provocations that Manasseh had provoked him with all. So what he's saying is, Manasseh was sacrificing children, sacrificing his own children, and you know, people of the land were sacrificing their children to these false gods. They were murdering children. You're like, oh man, you're connecting some dots, yeah. There's judgment coming to our nation. There's judgment coming. There's not correction coming to the United States of America for the abortion holocaust. There is judgment coming for that. And look, it's great if we can go out and do great things and preach the word of God and no matter what happens, hold fast the profession of our faith. That means speaking the Bible, speaking our faith, speaking the gospel. It's great if we do that, but the judgment is still coming. And that is like, in our personal Christian lives, we don't want to go into the punishment phase. We want to recognize correction, fix it, and get back with our spiritual lives. That's what we want. But I mean, the punishment stuff is like, you do the crime, you're doing the time. Say it that way. That's the way it works. Manasseh did that? Look, Manasseh, he got right at the end of his life, but God's going to judge it. So look, you don't recognize correction, you keep going, and you're going to move into that punishment phase. That's where you don't want to be. So we got to assess our situations. All that to say this, we got to assess our situations in our lives and Daniel acknowledged judgment. We need to be able to acknowledge God's judgment. Once you realize it's correction, once you realize you're in punishment, once you realize God is, you know what? He's punishing you for things. Look, you can also tell, you can also tell if you're, here's another hint for you. And when you get humble, and you realize, okay, God was maybe correcting me here, God's kind of a poetic justice kind of guy. He'll kind of punish you with things that, you know, you were sinning with. Like if you have an idol, if you have something that you've put in front of the Lord, he will crush that thing. I mean, so that's how you can recognize, like it's one of the ways to recognize God's judgment. But look, the bottom line is, if you are humble, you will recognize this. So don't get prideful as a Christian. Assess your situations. Being proud will cause you to miss all of these things. Back to Daniel. So we see, we see the physical aspects of Daniel's prayer. He was fasting. He was very serious. He was very sincere about his prayer. So he wasn't just physically doing this stuff. His heart was in the right place. God knew this. Second thing he was, he was consistent. He was patient. And as the Bible says, wait on the Lord, wait on the Lord, wait, wait, wait. Daniel waited. Daniel waited for three weeks. And guess what? The Bible says, if you wait on the Lord, you will get strength. Who doesn't want strength in their Christian life? So that's an important thing. And the third thing he did was he was humble enough to acknowledge the judgment of God. So look, humility will be able to cause you to recognize the judgment in your life. So he was serious. He was fasting. He was consistent. And he acknowledged the judgment of God. Which, guess what? Got them out of the judgment of God. And then God, I mean, just look at what God did in Daniel chapter 9 and Daniel chapter 10. God just blessed him with all these prophecies. Just blessed him with all these, all these, all this wisdom. Daniel is a perfect example of how we need to be in our Christian lives when we go to the Lord in prayer. All right? Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.