 Everybody doing good? Awesome. How many of you are still fasting? Raise your hand. How many of you have not started yet? Okay, now's the perfect time. We're bringing this in for a landing this Wednesday night and we're looking forward to having on Wednesday night a united between both of our campuses, worship and prayer night here at our Richland campus. And so Portage, we wanna invite you to come. And those of you who are at Richland and even online, if you're close by, come and join us. It has been powerful. Every Wednesday night, this is our first year, we've done it at both of our campuses. We wanna all be together though as we worship and we pray and then right afterwards, we are going to eat the bread of heaven pizza. Come on, so, I mean, it's gonna be my first meal. Somebody asked me, what's your second meal gonna be? That's easy. That's Chick-fil-A chicken biscuit for breakfast on Thursday morning. Come on, somebody. And then I'm gonna wash that down with some meat Pueblo tacos for lunch. I've got it all lined up my next month. All that weight I've lost, I've got a plan for getting it all back on because I cannot be undernourished. So, anyways, hopefully you will join us and it's gonna be a powerful night, 6 30 p.m. Wednesday night. And if you have not been to one of our prayer meetings, noon at Portage, 6 30 p.m. here at Richland, we have one tonight here and then Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, noon, we are gonna have our prayer meetings. Make it a point to be at least one of them. If you've not been to one and if you have, join us for more of them. They've just been incredible. They've been a foretaste of what is coming in our future on a daily and weekly basis at our prayer, our prayer center, prayer room downtown. And so, we're looking forward to that. Turn with me in your Bibles today to Daniel chapter six. Daniel chapter six. This is the final part of our Daniel series that we've entitled Stronger. And hopefully in 2020, the very beginning of it, we're setting the stage to be stronger and our walk with God, stronger in our faith, stronger in our convictions. And today we're gonna be looking at Daniel chapter six, a well-known passage, Daniel in the lion's den. However, I've entitled this message, the lions of Babylon, the lions of Babylon. I think we probably are familiar with the story of Daniel in the lion's den. We're gonna look at it today from the vantage point of Daniel's prayers. And Daniel was a man of prayer. And as you know, Daniel, because of his prayer life was cast into a den of lions, but God delivered him. And so when we're talking about lions of Babylon, I think we have a picture of a ferocious lion. This is what, if they can put that up on the screen here, this is what Daniel would have faced. And I can't imagine being thrown into a cage with a bunch of hungry lions. That would be intimidating. This next picture, though, would not be as intimidating. I can handle being thrown into that den. That would not have made the Bible highlight reels. But today as we look at Daniel, the lions of Babylon, it may surprise you who the real lions are. Let's look here at Daniel, chapter six, beginning in verse number one. We're gonna read the first 18 verses. It says, it pleased Darius to set over the kingdom 120 satraps to be throughout the whole kingdom and over them three high officials of whom Daniel was one, to whom these satraps should give an account so that the king might suffer no loss. Then this Daniel became distinguished above all the other high officials and satraps because an excellent spirit was in him. And the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom. And then the high officials and the satraps sought to find a ground for complaint against Daniel with regards to the kingdom. But they could find no ground for complaint or any fault because he was faithful and no error or fault was found in him. Then these men said, we shall not find any ground for complaint against this Daniel unless we find it in connection with the law of his God. And then verse number six, it says, then these high officials and satraps came by agreement to the king and they said to him, oh, King Darius live forever. All the high officials of the kingdom, the prefects and the satraps, the counselors and the governors are agreed that the king should establish an ordinance and enforce an injunction that whoever makes a petition to any God or a man for 30 days, except to you, oh King, shall be cast into the den of lions. Now, oh King, establish the injunction and sign the document so that it cannot be changed according to the law of the Medes and the Persians which cannot be revoked. Therefore, King Darius signed the document and the injunction. Verse number 10, when Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber towards Jerusalem. And he got down on his knees three times a day and he prayed and he gave thanks before his God as he had done previously. And then these men came by agreement and they found Daniel making petition and plea before his God. And then they came near and they said, before the king concerning the injunction, oh King, did you not sign an injunction that anyone who makes petition to any other God or man within 30 days, except to you, oh King, shall be cast into the den of lions? And the king answered and he said, this thing stands fast according to the law of the Medes and the Persians which cannot be revoked or broken. And then they answered and they said before the king, Daniel, who is one of the exiles from Judah pays no attention to you, oh King, or the injunction that you have signed but makes his petition three times a day. Then the king, when he heard these words, was much distressed and said his mind to deliver Daniel. And he labored till the sun went down to rescue him and then these men came by agreement to the king and they said to the king, no, oh King, that it is a law of the Medes and the Persians so that no injunction or ordinance that the king establishes should be changed. Then the king commanded and Daniel was brought and cast into the den of lions and the king declared to Daniel, now may your God whom you serve continually deliver you. And a stone was brought and laid in front of the den and the king sealed it with his own signet and with the signet of his lords that nothing might be changed concerning Daniel. And then the king went to his palace and he spent the night fasting with no diversions that were brought to him and sleep fled from him. And if you continue to read the whole chapter which I encourage you to do, you see that overnight the king actually became Daniel's intercessor. I think that's interesting. Here's a Persian pagan king who loves Daniel so much that he has no entertainment, he cannot sleep and all night long he's praying for Daniel. And Daniel while he's in the lion's den is delivered from the mouth of the lion. The Lord or an angel of the Lord actually stands with him, shuts the mouth of the lion and the next morning the king comes, says roll away the stone and Daniel is unharmed in the lion's den. And so we know the power of God's deliverance. We know the power of God and his ability to shut the mouth of the lion, our adversaries, and to miraculously deliver us. When you read the story of Daniel in the lion's den there can be a tendency to think really in a very narrow fashion just about Daniel on a personal level being set free from the power of the lion's den in the middle of the Persian empire. But if you only look at this story through that lens you will miss the grander story that this is a part of. You see because all of the book of Daniel highlights one particular theme. It's this, it's when life seems difficult and when circumstances begin to spin out of your control you can trust that there is a God in heaven who is at work bringing all things together for his purpose. That God is all powerful in control and he is a sovereign God and he's working in your life. He's working in my life. He's working within all of the different threads of our circumstances, situations both good and bad and he's working them together for his ultimate purpose. You see the reason why Daniel was in Babylon first and then it became Persian, the Medo-Persian empire is because God had prophesied in the book of Jeremiah that Israel or Judah who had not honored the Sabbath letting the land rest every seventh year they had not done that for many generations, 10 generations. Remember in the Bible the number 10 is the number for testing, God had given them 10 generations or 10 cycles of seven to honor the principle of letting the land rest on the seventh year. They did not do that after 10 times God prophesied by Jeremiah, I'm going to allow an enemy, Babylon's gonna come in and destroy everything, take you exile into their land for 70 years. Every seven years the land is supposed to rest, they had not done that. For 490 years they had not done that. So now God is taking all of those Sabbaths he's saying if you won't voluntarily let the land rest I'm gonna remove you from it so that it can. Well Daniel knew that because Jeremiah had prophesied that. So Daniel knows this is why we're in exile. He didn't give up hope because in the same book of Jeremiah God also prophesied after 70 years I'm gonna bring you back. I'm gonna restore your fortunes. I know the plans that I have for you declares the Lord. How many know that scripture Jeremiah 29 that was not written for your daily devotional in 21st century North America even though it's greatly encouraging to us that was written to Judah just before they went into exile. God's reminding them yeah things are gonna get bad but remember this I know the plans I have for you. Daniel knew that scripture. It was that promise that enabled Daniel to not lose hope in the middle of crisis. And all throughout his many years of 70 years of being in Babylon and then Persia Daniel rose up through the ranks of influence. He never lost hope because he knew ultimately no matter how bad things get no matter how out of control things are God is bigger. How many know we serve a big God and God is smarter than we are. Anybody know that? God is smarter than we are. God is infinitely wise. And so oftentimes we need to be reminded of that that God is bigger, God is stronger and within evangelical Christianity there's oftentimes a lot of debate about okay is God sovereign and in control of everything determining everything which is typically called Calvinism or is it man's responsibility and God will only move when we pray or God will only move when we believe or when we have faith that's called Arminianism. And so you've got on one side people especially when it comes to things like prayer who will say well prayer really doesn't matter because God's going to do what he's going to do no matter what. And the only purpose that prayer serves is to comfort my heart and to connect with God and God's just going to do whatever he's going to do. That's called determinism or Calvinism. Arminianism says no prayer is actually God waiting on me so if I pray God will move if I don't pray God won't move that's called Arminianism. Oftentimes people ask me pastor what do you believe are you a Calvinist or an Arminian? My answer are you ready for it? Yes because both are true. Yes God is in control. Yes God is sovereign. And it's all about God's sovereignty and his divinity but yet it is also about human agency and human responsibility. We need to be able to sleep like a Calvinist but yet work like an Arminian. We need to sleep like it all depends on God and we need to work like it all depends on us. You do that and you will not mess up. You do that you'll live a life of influence. You'll live a life of an excellent spirit of virtue and faithfulness like Daniel did. And it was because Daniel understood that God was in control but that he also had responsibility that actually drove Daniel to be a man of prayer. See one of the qualities and characteristics of Daniel's life that I think is so admirable beyond his wisdom, beyond his ability to interpret dreams, beyond his excellent spirit, beyond his favor that was on his life was actually the secret behind all of those things. The reason why Daniel had great favor and influence. The reason why Daniel was able to make a decision in Daniel chapter one eight that he was not gonna defile himself even when it seemed convenient to do it. The reason why in the face of the lion's den he was able to stand against that pressure and that intimidation is because he was a man of prayer. Daniel was a man of prayer. Not a man who prayed but a man who had a lifestyle of prayer. And there is a difference. A lifestyle of prayer means it's become habitual in your life. It's interesting to me that one of the most difficult parts of being a Christian is struggling with our prayer life. Has anybody ever struggled with praying even though that you know you're supposed to pray? You know I'm supposed to pray. I'm a Christian, right? That's what I do. I know that God wants to communicate with me. He wants me to make my petitions known to him but yet one of the most difficult things that I've ever experienced over the years is wrestling with how do I develop a stronger prayer life? How do I develop prayers from being sporadic and having big gaps in seasons when I pray intensely to it becoming a lifestyle? Anybody experience that same struggle? Okay, I'm in the right church to them. Daniel lived a lifestyle of prayer. And it's interesting to me that when we look at Daniel's life, the apex story of Daniel at the end when he's an old man, when he's now third in control over the largest empire that the world geographically has ever known and extended from India all the way to North Africa, the Persian empire was massive. He was third, third or fourth in control over the entire government. He's a Judean, Torah keeping Jewish exile and he's risen through the ranks. He's 70 plus years old and yet when a law is passed by conspiracy against him, what does he do? The very first thing that he does is he goes to his house and he bows down and he prays as was his custom. This is his habit. Daniel is a man not who prays, but he's a man with a lifestyle of prayer. And I want to tell you today that the most powerful lifestyle that you and I can embrace is a lifestyle of prayer. Now I know that we're not great at prayer. I know that we're at our best week in prayer. I know that none of us pray as eloquently as we want to. I don't know if you've ever done this. I've prayed some things that after I prayed them go, that was pretty weak. I've prayed some prayers and go, I'm not even sure that's a legal prayer. Anybody prayed one of those prayers? It's like, I don't know if that's legal, but God knows my heart. I've prayed some prayers that I've got up off of my knees and praying and go, if God hears that prayer, he is merciful. I've been distracted in prayer. Anybody ever done that before? Where you're praying, oh God, and you're praying for somebody and the next thing you know, it's like you're talking about coupons at Meyers. And why you don't save those like you save your receipts. Why don't, there are discounts on those things. I should be saving. And if I did that at the end of the year, I'd probably have 15 extra dollars. You're just like, how did my mind go there? Squirrel. I mean, and then you feel bad. How many know the enemy's always available to tell you if you were a righteous man? If you were a godly person, if you were a intercessor woman, like your grandmother was my Lord, the world would be a different place each year, your fault. But can I tell you that even in your weakest prayers, God is thrilled. Because every day that you turn your heart towards Jesus and you say the trajectory of my life, I wanna build a lifestyle of prayer. Every time that you do that, God smiles and the devil frowns. Every time that you do, how many know if you go to the gym, the way that you develop a habit at the gym, the way that you make gains or you become stronger or you become healthier, it's not by going to the gym one time. It's not even by signing up at the gym, January 7th. It's like where there's no membership fees. You walk in there. I did this. You sign up and then I did not show up for a year. And the reason I didn't sign up for years, I felt so good when I signed the document. I'm just like, I feel fitter. The way that you get in shape is not by signing a document or joining the membership, it's by going to the gym every single day. And I've had seasons where I've gone to the gym very regularly and that's when you begin to get stronger and you feel better. Not every day at the gym though is a record setting day. There's some days you're just happy that you showed up and you get on an elliptical machine and you just stare at the thing and you maybe take two rotations every three hours, but you're at the gym. There are gonna be some times when you go to prayer that you don't feel like praying, you don't feel like God hears your prayers, but I wanna tell you that a lifestyle of prayer, intentionally building a lifestyle of prayer is the most powerful lifestyle that you can build. Look at Daniel 6.5, these men said who were conspirators against Daniel, they said, we shall not find any grounds for complaints against Daniel unless we find it in connection with the law of his God. Can you imagine that your enemies, if you had some, who were conspiring to bring you down after examining your life could find absolutely nothing to hold against you except how devoted you were in your faith? That's Daniel. I mean, they couldn't find anything and they're looking for it. I mean, they're going all spy girl, checking on Daniel, it's like, come on, maybe he's corrupt, maybe he's pocketing a little money, maybe he's got an anger issue, maybe he's not nice to his servants. I mean, they've gotta find something. Maybe he's looking at something that he shouldn't look at, maybe he's unfaithful to his wife. They can't find anything and at the end of the day, I'll tell you what I would love for at the end of my life, the enemy to say the only thing we could find to hold against Lee Cummings was he was too devoted to his God and that's where they start. They look at his habits because let me tell you something, the enemy when he wants to bring you down always starts with your habits, even your good habits. This is what they do with Daniel. It's like, if we're gonna bring any accusation against him, it's going to be his devotion to the Lord, translation his prayer life because if you'll look at the pattern of Daniel's life, it says that he had a prayer habit three times a day, three times a day, he would go up into his upper chambers and if you know Middle Eastern homes, they always had an upper on the roof room that had windows that were up high, lattice so that you could get the breeze in and he would pray towards Jerusalem. He did this three times a day. Somebody asked me, why are we having so many prayer meetings because the way that you develop healthy habits is repetition and I'll tell you this, if David said morning and evening, I will pray and if Daniel said morning, noon and night, I will pray and if it says in Luke 517 that Jesus often withdrew and went to a deserted place to pray, then we need more than Sunday mornings or Saturday nights to pray, we need habits in our life. How many know that we've got other kind of habits where it's like you're bored and you've got a few minutes, you pull out your phone and you start scrolling, don't you? It's like, oh, look at highlight reels of other people's lives, look at what they're doing. Oh, look at their cat, look at their dog, oh, look at their, they have a cookie, somebody's taking a picture of their food again and we scroll through that because we've got a few extra minutes. What would happen if we developed a prayer lifestyle? We're gonna have prayer at our downtown prayer room three times a day and so morning, noon and night, doesn't mean you have to come to all of them, you might want to, but I'm praying for 1,000 people out of Radiant Churches say I'll go to one prayer meeting, I'll go to one prayer meeting a week, besides church. I'm gonna go down there and I'm gonna pray for an hour. What would happen in our city, our generation, our families, our marriages, our businesses if God's people actually took prayer seriously and leaned in and said I'm gonna build a lifestyle of prayer? I'm gonna come, I'm gonna come and I'm gonna bow down and I'm gonna look out the window towards the east, towards at least for Daniel, he was looking towards Jerusalem and he prayed three times a day even when it had been made illegal. Now, the reason why Daniel prayed towards the east and he prayed in the direction of Jerusalem was not because he was just being religious, is because he was being filled with faith. Daniel prayed out of a place of faith. You see, he was praying that way based on a scriptural promise that had been made by King Solomon. In 1 Kings chapter eight, when Solomon is dedicating the temple, the same temple that had just been destroyed in 605 BC by Nebuchadnezzar, the same temple that was in Daniel's real view mirror when he was being forced to walk 700 miles to Babylon. The same temple that had been burned, destroyed, left as rubble is now the temple that he is praying towards because when that same temple had been dedicated, listen to the words of Solomon. He said this in verse 46 of 1 Kings 8. He's talking to God, this is Solomon's prayer. If they, that's your people, sin against you for there is no one who does not sin and you are angry with them and give them to an enemy so that they are carried away captives to the land of the enemy far off or near, yet if they turn their heart in the land to which they have been carried captive and they repent and plead with you in the land of their captors saying, we've sinned and have acted perversely and wickedly. If they repent with all their hearts and with all their soul in the land of their enemies who have carried them captive and they pray to you towards their land which you gave to their fathers, the city that you have chosen and the house that I have built for your name, that's the temple, then hear them in heaven, your dwelling place, hear their prayers and their pleas and maintain their cause and forgive your people who have sinned against you and all their transgressions that they have committed against you and grant them compassion in the sight of those who have carried them captive so that they may have compassion on them. This is why Daniel was praying that way. He's like, I remember Solomon said that if we were taken away captives, if we will repent and pray towards the city and towards the temple that God, you would hear us and you would forgive us and you would also give us compassion and mercy in the sight of the people who took us captive. Daniel was standing on a promise found in the word of God and saying, if God said it, I believe it, I'm gonna do it. Let me tell you something about Daniel. Daniel was positioned in high levels of governmental authority. He was the equivalent of either a governor of a state or a secretary of state. But Daniel believed that the highest calling of his life, the highest governmental position that he had was that of an intercessor for his nation. He interceded on behalf of a captive Judah. He interceded on behalf of Israel, the nation of God's people who were awaiting the fulfillment of his promise that after 70 years, he was gonna bring us back into the land that the temple would be rebuilt, the glory of the latter house would be greater than that of the former. Daniel did not get discouraged based on what he knew the circumstances of his life and of his future were. Daniel was a man of great faith who chose to see through the lens of God's word and not through the lens of his current situation or even of his past. His past was in rubbles. His past had been destroyed. The temple lied and ruins and there was no hope that it was ever gonna be rebuilt in the natural. By the way, the very same king that in this story, its name is Darius, but most scholars believe that it's probably a throne name for a man named Cyrus. That after he's delivered out of the lion's den, you read the rest of the story, he gets such great faith from the king that the king issues a statement about Daniel's God and it's probably this whole interaction that Garner's Daniel favor with that king and it's the same king who will in a few years issue a statement that the house of God should be rebuilt in Jerusalem. Do you wanna know where the favor came from? For that statement to be made, it was the devotion and the faithfulness of one man who prayed, who had convictions, who did not bow to the idol and was in governmental positions of authority that had influenced the king's heart so much that he saw the miracle working power of Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that he said that house needs to be rebuilt. How many know that he's a way maker, promise keeper, light in the darkness, that's who our God is? He's working it all together. Now Daniel didn't know that. Daniel didn't wake up one day and go, you know what, the temple is destroyed, Jerusalem's destroyed, I'm a eunuch, I'm a captive, I'm an old man, now they've passed a law that says I can't be faithful to my God and so my prayers aren't working, nothing's changing, it's time for a new generation, somebody more spiritual than I, I've just got my little job, I'll live my little life and live in quiet desperation and just go home to be with the Lord someday because there's no hope. He didn't also wake up one morning and say this, you know what, if I pray, I'll probably get thrown over the lines but God can shut the lines mouth and then the king will be impressed and then he'll sign another piece of legislation in about 24 months that will allow the temple to be rebuilt, he wasn't trying to manipulate the system, he wasn't trying to figure it all out, how it's all gonna weave together, it's not like the matrix where you're trying to figure it all out, he just knew this, if I do one simple thing with my life, if I pray, if I repent, if I believe God, if I stay steady in that, I can trust that God's working it all out, I can trust that God's gonna be faithful to his word and can I just tell you today, you stop worrying about how it's all going to work out, stop worrying and becoming anxiety-ridden about how you're gonna make all of your dreams come true, how you're gonna find that special someone, how you're gonna pay for your kids' college, you just be faithful to Jesus today, believe his word, pray like your prayers actually are heard and they matter, and the God of heaven is weaving it all together, Romans 8 where he says all things work together for the good of those who love him and are called according to Christ Jesus, he's working it out. What does Paul say in Philippians? He says, do not be anxious. How many of you know we're stressed out? We're worried all the time. God, it's not working, what's it? When you say it's not working, God says it never was your hope. I am your hope and when it isn't working, I am working. That's what God says. Do not be anxious with anything but in all things with prayer and supplication, make your requests known unto God with thanksgiving and the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your heart and mind. Notice what he says, pray. In the words of the great theologian MC Hammer, we got to pray just to make it today. We got to pray. That's why we pray, pray, that's why we pray, all right. Wake you up, all right. A lifestyle of prayer is the most powerful lifestyle that you can live and a lifestyle of prayer is also the most subversive action that you can take. The most subversive way of living, the most rebellious against the world system, the most in your face against your circumstances, the devil, your past and fear. The most rebellious thing that you can do is constantly fall to your knees and pray. To pray on a daily basis, say, God, I believe you over my past. God, I believe you over what I'm facing today. God, I believe you. I don't care what kind of laws man passes. I don't care what kind of legislation man passes. I don't care what culture does. I don't care what Hollywood says. I don't really care what social media is presenting as the facts. What I care about is you and you can live a subversive life. You know when we're teenagers, we all want to be unique and rebellious. It's like, I'm bucking the system. I'm not serving the man. I'm gonna be different. We're gonna change the world. We're gonna be revolutionaries. And then somewhere we just kind of settle in as adults. We just kind of find our notch and we just say that's it. God wants to stir that heart of a rebel on the inside of us again, not to be rebellious against God, but to be righteously rebellious. To rebel against the world system, to rebel against normal, to rebel against status quo, to rebel against people's expectations of us in the world, to rebel against the devil's accusations. And the most subversive way that you can live your life is to live a life of prayer. Look at verse 10. When Daniel knew, when he knew that the document had been signed, his first statement, he went to his house where his windows and his upper chambers were open towards Jerusalem and he got down on his knees three times a day. And he gave thanks before his God as he had done previously. This was nothing new. As he had done previously. He's 70 plus years old and he's done this every day his entire life. Oftentimes we think one day should change all of our history. And what we don't realize is the exact opposite. When we build a history, everything can change in one day. We overestimate what we can do in the short term and we underestimate what we can do in the long term. My great-grandmother, Wilma Norton, was 89 years old when she passed away. For the last 15 years of her life, she couldn't walk very good. She had one of those chairs that lifts you up and she had a walker. She had a little dog named Babe that was, you know, five pounds, sat on her lap. I would go over to her house every afternoon when I lived with my grandparents during the summer. I'd go see great-grandma, Wilma, and I would sit down with her and two things I knew were always gonna be happening when I walked under her house. Number one, well, three things. Number one, she had anise candy. You remember those little red candies? And I love those. So, number one. Number two, she had PTL on. Praise the Lord, the old PTL show on. And she always had her Bible and a Steno notebook on her lap. And I'd say, what are you writing, grandma? And she was either writing dreams and visions that God had given her or she had a list of prayer needs for other people and she would spend hours a day praying. Do you know that my grandmother went home to be with the Lord in the early 90s? But even to this day, we're still seeing prayers that I know she prayed being answered. She spent decades praying. And you would never have looked at her in that chair and thought, that's a subversive woman. Oh, but she was totally subversive. She was a pain in the devil's side. Because if we only measure the effectiveness of our prayers in the natural, we'll look at it and be discouraged. Oh, my words don't sound good. Nothing happened. They're bouncing off the ceiling. I don't even know if they're legal. We got those kind of prayers. They're soft. I don't know how to, huh, put a huh in my prayer. And so my prayers, I'm just a normal business guy. I'm driving down the street. I'm just a stay all mom. I've got really nothing to offer. That's if you appraise who you are according to the flesh. But Paul said in 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians chapter five, we no longer evaluate anyone according to the flesh any longer. Because if we could see who we are in the spirit realm, if we could see ourselves anointed with the armor of God on, if we could understand the power and the effectiveness of our prayers, our weakest prayers against the gates of hell, we would be shocked. Do you know that James says in James chapter five, it says Elijah was a man with a human nature just like ours. He was weak. But it says that he prayed and it did not rain for three and a half years. And then it says that he prayed again and it did rain. And then it says that the fervent, effectual prayers of a righteous person avail much. Fervent effectual prayers of a righteous person avail much. A righteous person is anybody who's been saved by Jesus. If you're born again, if you love Jesus, if you have accepted Christ into your heart, you are a righteous person. And you've got this arsenal on the inside of you that the devil wants to keep silent. Listen, the devil doesn't mind you studying the Bible all day long, that's great, just don't you ever pray. Just don't you ever pray. Let churches have all the productions they want to, you just don't get churches praying. Because if my people who are called by my name ever start praying, God will hear from heaven. He'll heal our land, he'll forgive our sins, he'll move in our generation. Revival really will come. If we will pray. Okay, okay, so who are the lions of Babylon? That's not who you think. You see because it says that when Darius comes the next morning and he says open it, the break of dawn, open, open the seal and he calls down, Daniel, Daniel, serve another living God as your God whom you serve, continually been able to deliver you from the lions. Daniel said, oh King, live forever, my God sent his angel and shut the lion's mouth and they have not harmed me because I have been found blameless by him. The lions that were in the den represent the voice of the one that Peter called the roaring lion, our adversary. You know the devil is pictured as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Peter says, be steadfast in the faith, resist him knowing that your brothers are experiencing the same attacks around the world. He says, be sober minded and be vigilant, watchful because the enemy is like a roaring lion. In your life, I want you to know that if you desire to live godly in Christ Jesus, the enemy is like a lion and here's how the lion works. A lion roars in the dark as he circles his prey and he roars because he wants to intimidate his prey so that his heart rate elevates and he wears himself out. Stress, worry and anxiety, but God shuts the mouth of the lion. God will shut the mouth of the accuser against you when you pray. Every accusation against you is submitted to the Lordship of Jesus when you pray. That situation that the enemy wants to use where it seems like all hope is lost becomes disarmed when you pray. When you bow your knee and you surrender to Jesus and you say, God, I trust you, the mouth of the lion is shut and then this, the life of a bold prayer warrior is spoken about in Proverbs 28, verse one. It says this, the wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are bold as a lion. See, the real lions of Babylon are not those that are in a den. The real lions of Babylon are not even the devil in his strategy to take God's people out. The real lions of Babylon that we've studied chapter one through chapter six are the righteous who would not bow their knee to idols, who would not lose their convictions, who would not surrender, but instead influence culture, and they would not stop praying even when it was made illegal. See, you are the lion in the middle of Babylon and the lion of the tribe of Judah, who is Jesus himself, dwells on the inside of you and every time you pray, hell hears a lion roar. Every time you pray boldly, God fills you with power. Every time you pray with faith and confidence, the very bars on the gates of hell begin to tremble and shake. Every time you boldly as a lion, do not back down away from the pressure that's coming against you, but you stand up courageously, things begin to change and God's sovereign purposes become established not only in your life, but in your family, your workplace, your city, your church, and your generation. How many know that God has plans and purposes for us, for our families, for our lives? And we're gonna pray, we're gonna lean into those purposes. We're not gonna be defined any longer by what the world says the future holds. We're not gonna be defined any longer by the accusations of the enemy against our soul. We are gonna be those who have made a decision not to become defiled and we're gonna live with deep conviction for the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen? Stand up with me on your feet this morning. My God, before I'll preach another message. I've got two of them up here, so. Would you bow your heads with me all over this room? Lord, would you make us a people of prayer? Make us a people of faith that believe. Make us a people that see beyond what's seeable, substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Lord, make us a people that have steel in our spirit, conviction in our heart and believe more through the lens of your word than we do through the lens of our worry. Make us a people of prayer. Today, before we leave this place, all over this room and at Portage and even online, I know that there are people listening that are on the fence in their relationship with God. Some of us are here today, and we've never made a decision, a decision to receive the greatest gift ever given, the gift of salvation, the gift of being made right with God. I'm not talking about something that we can earn or achieve. I'm talking about the free gift that God has offered because Jesus died in our place to pay our penalty for our sins. And God has now made it possible for any of us if we'll believe in Jesus, if we'll repent of being master over our own life and surrender to him, he will save us, forgive us, cleanse us of our sins and our past and put his spirit on the inside of us. Some of us today, you've never made that decision, and today he's calling you to surrender. Some of us today, we've grown up around church, we've maybe had a flourishing relationship with God in the past, but we've swerved off course. And we find ourselves now living for ourselves, living in the world, and it's not satisfying. We've been swept away by Babylon. And today, the Lord, the Holy Spirit's calling us to come home, to surrender, to come home. I'm not saying that you've sinned this last week. This isn't an issue of that. I'm talking about the direction of your life. You've walked away from God, or today you've never completely surrendered your life to Jesus. You know this, as you stand here, you know you're not right with God. Or you're not sure that you're right with God. Today, you can know that you're right with God. Today, you can be bold as a lion. You can become a righteous one. Say, how do I do that? Bible says number one, we need to publicly confess him. We need to say, Jesus, you are Lord. We need to do that before men. And I'm gonna lead us in a prayer to do that today. So all over this room, if you're here and you'd say, today I know I'm not right with God, but today I wanna be. Today I wanna be saved. Today I want my sins forgiven. Today I wanna come home. Include me in this prayer, Pastor Lee. If that's you, wherever you are, would you just right now raise your hand? Say, that's me. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I'm scanning the room. I'm looking for your hand. Just raise it if that's you. Thank you, ma'am. Yes, young lady in the back. I see that. Raise it high so I can see it. Yes, yes. I see that. Over there, yes. Thank you. Thank you so much for your courage. Would you put your hands down? I want everybody to join with me in this prayer today. This is a miracle that God can take broken human beings and fill us with life, give us a newborn against spirit, write our name in the Lamb's Book of Life. He becomes our Father, heaven becomes our home. We become saved. Everybody say this with me. Say, heavenly Father, I come in Jesus' name. And today I believe Jesus Christ is the son of the living God. Who died on the cross for my sins and was raised from the dead to give me eternal life. Today I bow my knee and I say, Jesus is Lord. I turn my back on my past. I turn my back on the devil. I turn my back on the world. And from this day forward, I live for Jesus. Thank you for loving me, saving me and accepting me. In Jesus' name, amen. If you just prayed that prayer, welcome to the family of God.