In the Word

Mike Warren: So turn to chapter nine, put your finger there in verse one. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word this evening and just all that it means to us. Because we know, Father, and we completely understand that these are your words, as it were, God-breathed. As you moved upon men to put pen to paper under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that we might have in a written form, your word.

We thank you, Father, tonight that 27% of it is prophetic in nature. And as we come to chapter nine, there's probably no greater chapter in all of the Bible as far as prophecy goes than chapter nine. But the first half of it, the first 23 verses that we're going to look at this evening, they really don't have to do with prophecy, but they have to do with something greater than prophecy, I think personally.

We'll get to the prophetic part of it next week. But man, these first 23 verses... Lord, may you by your Spirit speak to our hearts. Because I can't think of a group of verses put together that are more applicable than these to the time we're living in. And so we're going to take a look at that. May you speak to us tonight, we pray. In Jesus' name, we would ask, and all God's kids would say, amen.

There's a book that I'm going to recommend that you buy and read. I looked it up; it's like $7 on Amazon. You can get the paperback version. It's 364 pages, so you can read it in an afternoon, or maybe if you want to divide it up into two. You need to get the book. Next week, I will print out an excerpt from that particular book for those of you that come out on Wednesday nights. I'm going to hand-deliver to you Sir Robert Anderson's mathematical formula as to how he figured out the thing that we're going to be studying about next week when we come to Daniel chapter 9, verse 24.

The book that I would recommend that you get, keep in your library, and read is *The Coming Prince*. Now, I believe he wrote the book in 1901. He was a turn-of-the-century author. He was... well, there was a lot of things he was. But I think the book was put in print in 1975, *The Coming Prince*. And Sir Robert Anderson was knighted by Queen Elizabeth for his work in the chronology of the Bible. So great book to get.

As we go through it next week, we're going to go through it, and so if you have questions, I'll give you the printout, and then you can reference his book and you can figure it out because it is a complex mathematical formula. And we're just going to touch on the main points of that. But it will bring us to the conclusion that the Old Testament saints, listen carefully, if they would have just studied the prophecies of Daniel, they would have known the very day that Jesus would have entered in through the Eastern Gate in his triumphal entry as he presents himself as the Lamb of God who will take away the sins of the world. And as it were, that Lamb would have to be presented and examined for five days and then crucified. They could have known the very day.

Again, get the book if you will, *The Coming Prince*. Read it, study it. The formula's there. I will hand out the formula to you next week, those you come on Wednesday night will get it. It's interesting as we now move into the first part of this. You have to understand, Daniel has had some visions and they're disturbing to him. As we looked in chapter 8, he sees the coming of the Antichrist, he sees how the Antichrist is going to make war against the saints. And listen, all of this now is a reference to Israel.

Chapters 2 through 7, we know, were written in Aramaic because it's the fingerprints of the Holy Spirit warning us and telling us it has to do with the Gentiles. But now as we move into chapters 8, 9, and through the rest of Daniel, it has to do with Israel. It has nothing to do with the church. And so when Daniel has these visions that disturb him, he says that he has these cognitations, these things are stirring in his mind because he sees the Antichrist come to the fore, as it were, and he sees it make war against the saints. And he's prevailing, as it were, until the Ancient of Days shows up. We studied that a couple of weeks ago.

And so Daniel is still stirring in his heart about what this means. And he tells us now in the first year of Darius, the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made the king over the realm of the Chaldeans. Very important because we're getting a timeline here. Darius is not the king of the Mede and Persians; Cyrus is at this time. But as Cyrus conquers, as it were, Babylon, as he leaves to do other business, he leaves Darius in charge as a vassal king to watch over this area of the realm of the Chaldeans. He sets him up as a vassal king in Babylon to rule over them. And in the first year of his reign, which we would know would be 538 BC.

This is an important date. And I think this is why the Holy Spirit gives us this timeline, because this is about three or four years before the 70-year captivity of Israel will be fulfilled. Because God pronounced a judgment on his people because of their idolatry, because of their sin, because of their not listening to the prophets that were speaking in their day. God had sent, 100 years before he brought judgment in 605 BC, when he brings Nebuchadnezzar down to lay siege of Jerusalem because of their wickedness, 100 years earlier, he sent Isaiah the great prophet to warn them.

And when they wouldn't listen to Isaiah the great prophet, he sent Jeremiah and he sent Ezekiel, which are contemporaries of Daniel, to warn them. But especially Jeremiah. He's the weeping prophet. He's the one who wrote the book of Lamentations. Not only did he pray over and warn Israel, but he wept over them. In fact, God will tell Jeremiah, "You don't have the right to pronounce judgment on anybody that you don't weep over." And so as these things came and went, as God brought judgment, we're getting close to the end of that 70-year captivity.

And Daniel knows it for two reasons... well, he knows it for one reason, but he's going to respond to it in another. So there's two really important points in verse 2 and in verse 3. Listen carefully. In verse 2, he says, "So in the first year of his reign," that is the reign of Darius, this vassal king that Cyrus had set up over Babylon after he had conquered it. And by the way, Daniel was there when Cyrus came into the gates of Babylon, reminded him of what Isaiah the prophet said about him over 100 years earlier in Isaiah chapters 44 and 45. And because of that, Cyrus spares Jerusalem and doesn't destroy it.

And so he's there in the first year. He's in the courts, as it were, of Babylon. There's now being a transition of governments. The Babylonians are no longer in control, but the Medo-Persians are. And so we see now that Daniel is there in the court in the first year. And Daniel understood, listen carefully, he understood by books the number of the years whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet that he would accomplish 70 years in the desolation of Jerusalem. Point number one, Daniel was a man of the word. Daniel studied the word. Daniel searched the word.

Daniel was a student of prophecy. He's studying the prophecies of Isaiah. He's studying the prophecies of Jeremiah and of Ezekiel. He's looking through the Bible, as it were, to get clarity for what is going on in the time that he is living in. He is a man of the word. And any man that God uses has to be a man of the word. He's a man of the word, he's searching. And in his searches, as he's searching the scriptures, as he's feeding his soul and spirit, as it were, he no doubt came to Jeremiah chapter 29, and we're going to look at it this evening, verses 10 through 14. And I think that's what he's referencing here.

Listen to what Jeremiah the prophet, and no doubt Daniel is musing over this. He's meditating on this. He's getting understanding from this. As he's in the word, no doubt as a prophet, the Spirit of God is upon him and God is leading him into a great truth here. Three or four years now, the captivity will be complete. He's reading and studying in Jeremiah chapter 29. And no doubt when he came to verse 10, he heard these words, "For thus saith the Lord, that after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon, I will visit you." You see, Daniel is a one who takes God's word literally.

As he's reading the prophets, he understands these words are inspired of God. This is prophetic and he's going to take God literally and he's going to take him at his word. So as he's studying this prophet, he comes to this place where he understands that the prophecy against Judah, those two southern tribes when they fell into idolatry, is that God was going to lead them captivity into Babylon. And listen, no doubt Daniel got out his abacus and began to figure it out. 605 BC, we know that Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem on his way back from the Battle of Carchemish where he defeated Pharaoh Necho. So from 605 BC, let's figure it out, and we're at 538 BC now. So 67 years have gone by.

Three or four more years and this judgment of God upon his people will be complete. And God's promise is that when the 70 years is fulfilled, that he will visit you and perform my good words toward you, and causing you to return to this place, to Jerusalem. Rebuild the temple, rebuild the walls, and reinstitute that place and reconstruct that place where God's presence resides. I think Daniel's getting excited. He said, "For I know the thoughts that I think of you." This is God speaking to the prophet of Jeremiah. He forewarned them that they were going to go into captivity for their sin, but the captivity or the punishment for their sin would have a beginning, middle, and an end.

And it's just like us, when we go through those difficult times where God has to correct us. There's always a beginning to it, there's a middle, and there's an end. It doesn't go on forever. And then God promises when the correction is complete, when it's run its course, when it's done its job, then he says, "Then I will visit you again and I will cause you, as it were, to return to this place. We'll reconstruct the temple, we'll rebuild the walls." And then God says to his people, listen carefully. And maybe this could apply to you tonight, because maybe you feel like your life has been destroyed.

That place of God in your life, the temple, has been destroyed. The walls that once protected you are now in heaps of rubble. And it feels like maybe you've been vanquished or banished and you're in captivity someplace and it's been a long, dry season. Well, what you need to know is that there's a time coming, if it's not already arrived for you, that God will visit. And he will perform what he promised, and he will cause this place of his presence to be restored. And then God says through Jeremiah to his people, listen carefully, "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord. They are thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end," a sure, as it were. The idea is a sure, a definite end, an end that you can hope in.

"Then shall you call upon me." After the correction, after God disciplines, after there is this time of breaking because we have been stiff-necked, as we're going to see Daniel's going to confess it in the second part of this, which is prayer. When that humbleness, when that brokenness, when the correction has done its work, he's telling us, "Then shall you call upon me, and you shall go and pray unto me, and I will harken unto you." I love that word for harken in the Old Testament because it's not the word for hear. If you get a translation of the Old Testament and they change the word harken to the word hear, that's a bad translation.

Because it's more than hearing. The word harken has the sense in the Hebrew language to bend in, to listen carefully with the intent to be obedient to what is being said. And here we have God, as it were, when we've been corrected, when we repent, when we call upon him, he tells us that he will harken unto you, unto us. "And you shall seek me, and when you seek me you shall find me, when you shall search for me," that is, "with all of your heart." Because it's always an issue of the heart. God has to discipline because our hearts get cold.

And there's always a trouble with God's people because our hearts don't tend, listen carefully tonight, they don't tend to be a fruitful place. They tend to be a wilderness. And if you don't think that to be so, Isaiah used this example of a garden to deal with God's people in Isaiah chapter 5. He says the Lord planted a vineyard. In fact, he planted it in the choicest of places. He found the most fertile ground and he cultivated it. And he planted the plants in it. He watered the plants. In fact, he put a fence of protection around these plants and he built a tower in the middle of this vineyard.

And God said, "I expected these vines, these grapes, this vineyard which I planted, which I cultivated, which I watered, which I protected, I expected that this vineyard at some point in the future would bear good fruit." He said, "I looked for good fruit and what it brought forth were bitter grapes." And then the Lord asks two questions: "What more could I have done than I did not do? And why? Why did it bear bad grapes instead of good grapes?" And the answer is obvious, that we don't tend to be fruitful. Left to ourselves over a long period of time, we can grow cold.

Thus, there is constantly the need to wait on the Lord to renew our strength, to have our hearts circumcised before him and our hands clean. And here, God is speaking through the prophet Jeremiah and he's telling the people, listen, you're going to be punished for your sin. Jeremiah is correct. It's going to be a 70-year captivity. The Babylonians are going to come and they're going to carry you away. But what you need to know when that time is accomplished, I'm going to perform my promises, my good word toward you, and I'm going to bring you back to that place. Because what you need to know, all of my correction, listen, it's not punitive.

God doesn't correct us because he's trying to punish us. He's trying to correct us because he's trying to make us better, healthy. "For I know my thoughts toward you," the Lord would say. "I know. And what I think about you, saith the Lord, they're thoughts of peace and not evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall you call upon me, then shall you pray unto me, and I will harken unto you. You shall seek me and find me when you search for me with your whole heart. And I will be found of you, saith the Lord, and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all of the places whither I have driven you, saith the Lord."

This is a dual prophecy. It's talking about what's happening right now, but when he says "all of the nations," because they're only in captivity to one nation, Babylon. But there's a time that the prophet Daniel, although he didn't understand, God was speaking to him that there would be another time in the future where they would be scattered as well for their rebellion into all nations, as it were, and they'd be gathered back again in the last days. So he said, "I will bring you back where I have driven you, saith the Lord, and I will bring you again unto the place whence I caused you to be carried away from."

I'm going to bring you back to a very important place. Because then he tells us in the next verse, and I didn't have them put it up on the board, because his eyes are on this place. On the place of what? The place where the blood sacrifice of the Lamb was to be offered. What does that mean to you and me? We come back to the cross. And it's at that place where we get restored. It's at that place where God fulfills his promises for us. So in a very interesting way as he starts out, he says, "You know, I was studying. I was reading the prophets. I was in the word. I was thinking them through. I trusted that what God said, he meant, and I took it literally."

"I know that the prophets were inspired of God, and when they wrote, it was the inspired word of God. And I was looking through these books, no doubt Isaiah and Ezekiel and Jeremiah, and I understood as I studied these books the years of the captivity of Israel, the judgment that God pronounced upon his people. And I understood that it was 70 years." And then as he did the math, he understood that that 70 years is coming quickly to an end. We're three or four years away from now, in 538 BC, from the time when God will fulfill this promise that he will restore Jerusalem, he will restore the temple, he will bring us back to the land, he'll place us back in there when we've learned our lesson. He will harken to our prayers, he will listen to what we have to say. We'll be with him and he'll be with us again.

So what do you think Daniel did? When he's in this time of captivity and he realizes it's coming to an end, listen to verse 3. You know, because I believe with all in my heart this is the most applicable thing that we can hear. Because, you know, again as a pastor, I have a lot of people vying for my attention, a lot of people asking my opinion. Some are vomiting on me, some... because we're living in a stressful time, are we not? And what I find more than anything else is either we want to have a rally and we want to rah-rah-rah the Republicans and down with the Democrats, or you got to get Trump back in office. These are Christians.

Is that what we should be doing in the time we're living in? Or should we be complaining? Or should we be looking at the political environment around us? Or should we be praying for God's judgment? It's not his will that he would judge the Medo-Persians. He's using the Medo-Persians. Daniel saw the vision back in chapter 2 that these four kingdoms would come and the Romans would come at the end and what God had planned. This is dyed in the wool. You know, we do everything, I think, listen carefully, I think sometimes we as Christians, we do everything in times of stress but what we should be doing.

And that's why I think the first part of Daniel chapter 9 is as important, if not more important, than the last part of Daniel chapter 9. Because I believe that the last part of Daniel chapter 9 would have never happened, this information would have never been given to Daniel if there wasn't the first part of chapter 9. Because you have a man who from a teenager was ripped from his homeland, from his mother and from his father. He was taken to a foreign place and he was made a eunuch, stripped of his manhood, as it were, and placed in the court of a wicked king. And there subject to his rules.

And yet, God uses this man to not only, I believe, bring Nebuchadnezzar to the faith and change the direction of the whole kingdom of Babylon, but he will carry over into the Medo-Persians and have an effect on that empire. And through it all, and Daniel's an old man now, many scholars believe he's well into his 80s at this time. He's still in the service of the king, he's still in the king's court. But as an old man, guess where he still finds himself? In the word. Studying, searching, learning, understanding, asking, desiring, seeking. And because he was doing these things, God began to reveal to him, "Daniel, in a very short period of time, the prophecy of Jeremiah is going to come to its fruition. It's going to come to an end."

"And the promises that I made back then, almost 70 years ago, are going to come to the fore again. You're going to go back to... you might not go back as you're an old man, but you're going to see, you'll probably live long enough to hear at least the decrees to go forth. We're not really sure it's in that period of time, because we know there's a number of them and we'll look at them next week. Decrees made to go back. We've got to find out which is the right one so we could do the chronology. But you're going to be here when you're going to see the fulfillment of God's correction and again as God's hand begins to move upon his people."

"And again, they're back in the land as Ezra and Joshua go back to rebuild the temple. Zerubbabel is there and they hear words, it's not by might, it's not by power, it's by the Spirit that this will be restored. And listen, one day you'll set your hand to it and your hand will put the capstone on it and you will say, grace, grace to the Lord about it. God is a promise-keeping God, he fulfills his covenants, and we're almost on the brink of this, Daniel. We're almost there. You've served the Lord faithfully all of these years now in this place of captivity. But I want you to know because you're a man of the word, I'm going to reveal to you something incredible. In fact, in a place it's said that if I would have told you before how incredible, you'd have never believed it."

And so when Daniel hears these words, verse 3 says, "And I set my face unto the Lord God to seek by prayer and by supplication, by fasting, and with sackcloth and ashes." In a very humble way, I set myself to seek him. You know, the problem with America today, can I just tell you, if I'm going to be political, let me just be as political as I can possibly be. The problem with America today is not the Republican party, it's not the Democratic party, it's not the independents, it's not even Washington.

Do you know why this world, and more importantly, the United States is in the condition that it is in today? If you want to lay blame to it, do you want to know who's at fault? Are you got an inquiring mind? Do you want to know? Look around. It's the church. I'm not saying this church or you. Of course not, you know, we're staying the course as best we can. But we allowed it to happen as the church. We bought into the world system as the prophets told us we would. Paul said this would happen, that in the last days there would be an apostasy.

And do you know that God already gave us the answer for the time we're living in, what we should do? It's the same thing that Daniel's doing. Can I read it to you from 2 Chronicles chapter 7, verses 14 through 16? Listen carefully. "If my people," are we his people? Are we his people? Yeah. So this is applicable to the time we're living in. "If my people, which are called by my name," are you a Christian? Are you called by his name? Are you Christ-like? Yes, we are. "If my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves..."

Have a broken and contrite spirit about them. "And if they would pray in humility." We're going to get a wonderful example of that tonight in Daniel's prayer. It kind of goes right along with the prayer that Nehemiah prayed in chapter 1 when God was calling him to complete this work. Ezra, Zerubbabel, Joshua the High Priest had already gone back to Jerusalem in some of the first waves of exile going back to the promised land. And they had started the work on the temple. Finally, when the temple is done, then Nehemiah comes to rebuild the walls and restore Jerusalem as God promised he would.

But here in 2 Chronicles chapter 7, verses 14 through 16: "If my people which are called by my name would humble themselves and pray. Stop complaining, stop being political, forget the rallies, the flags, the Trump signs and all of that stuff. Listen, if Trump became the president again, Trump is not your savior. I'm not looking for America to be restored. I know it won't be, I know it won't be from prophecy. I'm not looking for a man to restore the greatness of America because her wings have been plucked. She's not in prophecy and we're living in the last days."

I'm not looking for a man, I'm looking for Jesus Christ, my Messiah. Because I know he's coming back and he's going to take me from this place to be with him. I'm not even looking for the Antichrist, although I think he possibly could be alive and well somewhere on planet Earth today. I believe that with all my heart. I think the things that are going on in the world today in the political realm are a battle against light and dark, against evil and good, against the god of this world and the God of heaven. And by the way, the god of this world will have his moment, he'll have his 15 minutes of fame, but God will have his day.

Because we read in chapter 8, this stuff will continue until the Ancient of Days is seated upon his throne and judgment comes. So in times like this, what should God's people be doing? I think they should be praying. "If my people who are called by my name would humble themselves," and by the way, most of our prayers are not humble. I know sometimes mine are not. I know when I go up to pray, I start off praying and pretty soon, you know, God just says, "Okay, we're done with you asking for things and we're done with you praying for other people. Now, Mike, I want to talk about your heart."

I'm going to tell you, I pray a lot. I go to the mountains a lot, you know that. And I spend sometimes several days just praying and fasting. Sometimes I'll leave on a Thursday when I get off work here and I'll go up in the mountains, spend Thursday night, all day Friday, Friday night, come home Saturday, and it's in prayer and fasting. And I'll tell you, a lot of times my prayer will start out talking about, "Lord, we need this at the church and we need that, and this person's marriage needs to be fixed and this person needs to be healed." And I'm praying about things. And I'm not saying it's bad to pray about things, we should. We should pray for one another.

But it's not long, and thank God, that the focus goes on my heart. "Okay, enough of that. Do you love me with all your heart? Is sin exceedingly sinful to you? Are you praying that my Spirit would convict the hearts of men and they would get saved? What are your... are your prayers directing me or are they directed to me?" Because here in 2 Chronicles it said, "If my people... my people would humble themselves." The idea is be broken and contrite before their God and they would pray.

If they would seek his face, if they would turn from their wicked ways. What is going on in the church today that shouldn't be going on? What is it that we need to repent of? What have we allowed to creep into the church that shouldn't be here, that really stifles God's ability to pour out his Spirit without measure upon us? What is it that is grieving the heart of the Father? And I'm not talking about Gold Country Calvary Chapel, I'm talking about this church age, this generation of believers. Why are we not seeing the power of God that he promised?

Listen, we're going to find out as we go through this prayer of Daniel, it's... the problem is never with God, it's with us. The problem is never with him, it's always with us. And we're going to see that in this prayer. And here in Chronicles it says, "Listen, if they would repent of their wicked ways, then from heaven would I hear. I would forgive their sins, I would heal their land. Now mine eyes shall be open and my ears are attentive unto the prayers that are made in this place. For now I have chosen and sanctified this house, that my name may be here forever. And my eyes and my heart shall be there perpetually."

Because it was the place of the shedding of the blood. It was the place where his Son was honored, it was the place where the sacrifices came to the fore. And so here Daniel is studying Jeremiah and he comes to that passage and he's moved and he's broken. He realizes that it was because of sin and idolatry and wickedness that God's people were in this mess. But the time of their discipline is almost over and the time of the promises of God are coming. And so we find him in verse 3, "And I set my face."

And the idea to set your face, it's a Hebraism, it means you are determined. "I set my face unto the Lord God." Man, I was going to seek him and nothing was going to stop me. "To seek by prayer and by supplication with fasting, with sackcloth and ashes." And in those days when you were mourning for something, like we should be mourning for abortion, and for everything that's going on in this transgender gay world, and all of the lies and the deception and the corruption. Don't you feel like sometimes you're living in a cesspool?

Don't you feel like you need to go home and take a spiritual shower? And aren't there some days you just want to pull the covers up over your head and not even get out of bed? You just want to curl up in a ball and pray all day? Because you know the moment you get out of bed, and if you turn on even Fox News, you're going to get slimed. You know when you go to work, you're going to get slimed. Listen, we don't belong here. I want to teach and not preach, but I feel preachy tonight.

He said, "Listen, I set my face toward the Lord God to seek by prayer with supplication, fasting, with sackcloth, I'm renting my clothes, I'm grieved, my spirit is vexed by what I see." Now let me ask you this. Can you watch movies you shouldn't watch and your spirit's not vexed? What is going on in the church that we can participate in things and not be moved to the core of who we are about what's going on? There are things that should anger us, did you know that? You know Jesus got angry. The Bible doesn't say we can't get angry; it says we're not to get angry and sin.

But there are some things that should anger us. When Jesus went into the temple and he saw his Father's house being made a den of merchandise, did you think he might have got a little upset when he formed a scourge and start turning things over and beating people out? And what did he say to them? Oh, they challenged him, "By what authority do you do this?" And what did he say? "Destroy this temple and in three days I'll raise it again." Now, they thought it was the brick, stone temple that they were standing in, or the courtyard thereof, because they knew it was over 40 years in the construction. And they didn't understand he's talking about his body.

And I'll raise it again. And then he said to them, "Listen, don't you make my Father's house a den of merchandise, because my Father's house shall be a house of prayer." And it's the last thing we do. The smallest service attended in this church is the prayer meeting that happens on Thursday morning. And yet that's the most powerful service we have. Because everything that happens on Monday nights and Tuesday nights and Wednesday nights and Sunday mornings, everything that happens in this church... Todd giving his life to Christ a couple Sunday nights ago, we've seen somebody born into the kingdom, your life's changed, your life's healed, that work of the Spirit as God takes his word and deals with our hearts... all of that, as it were, is won in those two hours where 15 or 20 people meet on a Thursday morning in prayer.

It's like Jehoshaphat when he was told that the enemies were coming for him and he knew the enemies that were coming for him were greater than he. And so he declared a fast and a time of prayer. In fact, when you read that section, it's so funny because he made the dogs and the cats fast. Everybody fasts. I mean, do you think he might be serious about seeking the Lord when everybody fasts, even your pets? My dog meets me every morning. What a dog. I don't mean that in a good way.

That dog is the most useless dog on the planet, but he will meet me every morning. When I come down the stairs, he is there jumping and wagging his tail, whining because he knows he gets a dog bone every morning when I come down there. He's not there to meet me because he loves me; he's there to meet me because I'll have this dog bone in my hand. Sometimes like this morning, I put it in my pajama pocket, and the smell was on it, and he kept sniffing both hands and he's whining. Then he sniffs my pocket. And he doesn't look at me, he's looking at my pocket. He doesn't want to look me in the face because he's not seeking my face; he's seeking what's in my hand.

And I think sometimes I can be just like my dog. When I go to the Lord, I'm not seeking his face; I'm seeking what's in his hand. And it grieves me that I could be that way. But we're told that when Jeremiah... those words burned in Daniel's heart, that he said, "I set my face to pray." Because that's the only thing that's going to change anything. I love what our Pastor Chuck used to tell us pastors when we were young in the ministry. And you know, the more those words of Chuck, and I can hear them in his voice, they resonate in my mind. You know, I miss Chuck. I miss him terribly.

But Chuck, in only the way Chuck could do it with that wonderful smile that he would put on his face, that he'd look out over... and I got involved in Calvary Chapel when the Calvary Chapel pastors conference, there were 100, 150 pastors; now there are thousands. But we'd sit in a room in kind of a circle around Chuck, and he would sit on a stool. And as only Chuck could do, he would look at us and he would say, "Listen, guys, you can do nothing but pray until you have prayed. But you can do more than pray after you have prayed." Prayer should be the first thing we do and not the last. It should be the thing that we start the day with and not the thing that we end the day with. Oh, you can end it with it, but it better be what you start the day with.

"If my people called by my name would humble themselves and pray, seek my face, not my hand. Turn from their wicked ways, examine themselves, be broken and contrite for the sin that is in their lives. Then from heaven would I hear and I'd heal their land." Now as Daniel is realizing through the prophet Jeremiah that the end of God's time of correction is almost there and God's going to begin to turn back in a way of blessing to them, he said, "I set my face to God to pray with sackcloth and ashes and humility."

Now listen to his prayer. Incredible. Incredible. I've read the ink off of this and it's incredible. Because, you know, sometimes I listen to my own prayers. How many have sat alone when you're praying? And when I go in the mountains, I pray out loud. I go for prayer walks. Sometimes I'll stand outside my camper with a cup of coffee and I'll pray out loud. Sometimes I sit in my chair and pray out loud. Sometimes, and I was telling the elders at our board meeting, sometimes I'll get in my camper on my knees and pray. And there are other times where nothing seems... nothing seems more right. And I'm glad my wife... my wife bought me this camper I built, she bought me this wonderful rug. It's so soft and comfortable.

I told her I didn't need a rug, the linoleum would do that I put in there, but I realize I need that rug. And I'm not a... listen, I'm not a Muslim, but I like prayer rugs. Because there are times I'm so broken that I just have to get on my face. And it doesn't feel low enough. And cry out to God, "Have mercy on me. Have mercy on your people, Lord. We are sinners, Lord, and we need your grace, we need your mercy, Father." If God's people would be so broken that way and pray for this nation, I think God would send revival we've yet to see.

And this is what Daniel is saying. Listen carefully. "I prayed unto the Lord my God and I made my confession." What's the first thing he does? He's confessing. He will confess... we're going to see the word "we" all through this. He's not confessing other people's sins, he's not confessing the sin of God's people at large, he's not confessing the problem with the priests or the prophets who may have failed Israel. He's confessing his own sin and he's saying "we," "we as your people have failed you." That's why we're in this mess. We know it, we get it, we understand it.

He's not praying, "Lord, you know, heal America, Lord, bless our finances, we want to see $2 a gallon gas again." He's broken. He understands Israel is in the condition she's in because they walked away from their God and they didn't listen to the warnings and they didn't humble themselves and they didn't confess their sins and they didn't keep their relationship close and right with the Lord. They walked away. And God said, "If you do that, this is what's going to happen. But if you'll turn back, listen, this is what's going to happen." And 70 years are going to be rough, but there's going to be a beginning, middle, and an end to it and I will restore because my thoughts toward you are good to bring you to a certain end. But I won't build on your rebellion and I won't build on your sin. I can't bless that. But I'll bless a broken and contrite spirit.

In fact, Isaiah signs off in that great letter, by the way, looking forward to what God was doing with Ezekiel and Jeremiah. He's a contemporary, as it were. He signs off his letter in chapter 66 when the people are saying to him, "Lord, we're going to do this for you, we're going to do that, we're going to build this." And the Lord said, "What could you build for me? What could you do as a human being that would impress me as God? Really? You're going to do what? I'm God. In fact, let me let you in on a clue: the heavens of heavens can't contain me. The heaven is my seat, the Earth is my footstool. It's what I put the dirty part of my body on."

And Jews would have understood that. You don't expose your feet to people because that's like the worst thing. And he says, "You know what, you guys, you're my footstool. You can't impress me. But to this man will I look. You want my attention? To one who is of a broken and contrite spirit and who trembles at my words." And Daniel is such a man. Listen carefully. "And I prayed unto the Lord my God and made confession and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God." What he's telling us is that the fear of the Lord has captured Daniel's heart.

I say to you tonight that that's the thing that I pray the most about. I've told people this before that my greatest concern, my greatest concern for Mike Warren is that I never lose the fear of the Lord. And I have to be very careful because there's things that I will say, but I understand because I don't know how else to say it that I don't like, like I don't like calling my heavenly Father, the King of glory, "Dad." Yet he is my dad, he is Abba. There's an intimacy there, there's a tenderness there, there's a relationship there, but he's still almighty God.

You know, I had a wonderful father, even though he wasn't a believer. And I got to lead him to Christ before he passed away, got to pastor him the last six years of his life. I loved my dad, but I also feared my dad. Not in a bad way, because my dad was a man of few words, but what he said he meant. And listen, he would not repeat himself. If he told you to do something, he wouldn't say, "If you do that again..." No, he would say, "If you did that, go to your room and we're going to have a conversation," and then he would lay out what the penalties were and they came. I feared my dad.

When you come to Acts chapter 2, they'll put it up on the screen so you can read as I give commentary to it. When you come to Acts chapter 2, verses 42 through 43, as the church is being birthed. Listen, because that's what we're talking about tonight. I don't know if we're going to get... I don't know how far we're going to get. We'll get where we get. But as the church is being birthed, listen carefully. This is so important because I want the church to end, that's my prayer on Thursday mornings, the way it began in the power of the Holy Spirit. But there's... there are precepts and principles that we see rooted in the DNA, as it were. They're woven into the fabric, as it were, of the early church.

And there are five things that we see that the Holy Spirit puts pen to paper and records for us. As Luke is listening to what Paul has to say and he's recounting for us that we can have what the acts of the apostles were, what the continuation of Jesus' ministry was. Because you know Luke, he was given to Paul as his physician when he was just before they went into Europe. No doubt by a man named Theophilus. And so Luke reports back to his former master Theophilus. And when he writes the Gospel of Luke, he says, "O Theophilus, let me tell you about the things that Jesus did." And when he writes the book of Acts, he says, "O Theophilus, let me tell you what continued on after Jesus." He's reporting back to his former master.

And when he comes to Acts chapter 2, verses 42 and 43, he records five things that were woven into the early church. He said, "And they continued steadfastly in these five things." In fact, I would challenge you to measure this church. In fact, I would ask you, judge this church. Judge me as your pastor. Please do that tonight. To see if we are doing these five things. Because if we are not, I want to repent. Because I don't want to get off track. I want to make the main thing the main thing.

I don't want the smoke machines and I don't want to make this place look like a nightclub with the lighting and all of this stuff. I don't want the slick band up here so that you're looking at the band and not what the band is supposed to make you look at, the Lord. I want real worship, I want the Holy Spirit, I want God's presence, I want his word to be honored. I want the moving of the Spirit. I want to see Pentecost every time we come in here. Not the weird stuff that they've made it today, but the real stuff.

Because you remember what happened on the day of Pentecost, don't you? That rushing mighty wind came in and moved the dust and the stillness from those disciples, those 120 disciples' life, and then it lit them on fire. You remember the fire dancing? Man, they were on fire for the Lord. And then Peter has a boldness he's never had before and he stands up and he speaks a very simple message. He cobbles together some Old Testament verses. And listen, there were thousands that were listening to what he had to say. And the Bible says they were pricked in their hearts and they cried out, saying, "What must we do to be saved?"

That's what I'm talking about when I talk about Pentecost. I'd like to see that. I'd like people to leave this service and never say, "Oh, that was a good message," or, "The worship was good, I kind of enjoyed the songs." Listen, we should leave this place saying, "Of a truth, God is in that place. He's there." Oh, the short, used to be fat but now skinny guy, who cares about him? We met God, and God met us. And he spoke to us. And he wrapped his loving arms around us. And he took our heart in his hand. And he looked us in the face, as it were, and said, "Listen, I got this. I know the pain, I know the tears, I know the brokenness, I know the sorrow, but I love you. You're my son, you're my daughter, you're my child."

"And I am the God of all hope, I'm the God of all comfort, I'm the God of all healing. I'm your God. And I know you've gone through some rough times," and Daniel saw it in chapter 8, bothered him. "But Daniel, I want you to know that my eyes are upon you continually. My thoughts toward you are good." And here's what you need to do. Here are the five things. Listen carefully. "And they continued..." and we'll have to end with this tonight. "And they continued steadfastly..." and then we'll tie a knot in it. And they... would you guys stop interrupting me so I can finish this? "And they continued steadfastly in," number one, "the apostles' doctrine."

They studied and taught the word of God faithfully, line upon line, precept upon precept. Do we do that here? Do we honor God's word here? I think to the best of our ability we do that. Secondly, fellowship. Do we fellowship with one another? Or are we just staying home and watching the service on a screen? Because the Bible never said, "Don't neglect the sitting home and watching the service on a screen as a manner of some have done." Does it say that? See, I think COVID really messed the church up because we think that that's church. Church is not your living room with your coffee in your hand, your slippers on, your pajamas on, and your feet propped up on the coffee table watching us on a big screen TV.

Now, that's there for the people who can't be here, and we have 18 satellite churches that we know of that are listening right now. We have people all over the nation that we know that listen to us. That's for them. And it's for you if you're sick, because we don't want you coming making us sick. Stay home, livestream. But if you're able-bodied, you should be here because there's something that takes place when God's people get together and they rub shoulders with one another and they encourage one another. And they weep with one another, and they rejoice with one another, and they bear one another's burdens. It can't happen any other way.

I need you, you need me, we need each other. Look around. You can pick and choose your friends, but this is your family and you are stuck with it. And listen, let me let you in on a little clue: where there's a body and we're called the body of Christ, where there's a body, there is body odor. How do I know that? Because I did take a shower today before I came to the church and I do this thing where I rub this stuff on under each one of my... so when I hug you, you don't smell me, you smell that wonderful stuff my wife buys me. And I even put a little aftershave on so... and then, you know, sometimes I know when I speak a lot my mouth, and I'll have to drop a something in my mouth before I pray for you guys. Sometimes I don't and you know, I can see it on your face.

Fellowship. The breaking of bread. What does that mean? Communion. Where we remember the sacrifice of our Messiah for our sins. "He was wounded for our transgression, bruised for our iniquity, the chastisement, the punishment for our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed." We gather around that table and we say, "Lord, thank you for your body and your blood." Do we do that here? Fourthly, prayer. I think this is where we lose it. Corporately, I think this is where we lose it. And if we lose it, then the fifth never happens. "And the fear," that is the fear of the Lord, "came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were wrought by the apostles."

The fear of the Lord. Daniel, as he addresses God in this prayer, begins in verse 4 by saying, "I prayed unto the Lord my God," personal, intimate, "and I made my confession." I want to get right with him and said, "O Lord, great and dreadful God." I fear you. "Keeper of covenants, Lord, I know that you keep covenants and mercy to them that love you, 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 the departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments. Neither have we harkened unto your servants the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, and to all the people of the land."

"O righteous," here he's saying the problem is not with you God, it's with us. "O Lord, righteousness belongs to thee, but unto us confusion of face," the idea is shame of face. "As it is this day, to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to all them of Israel that are near and to those that are far off through all the countries whither thou hast driven them because of our trespass that they have trespassed against thee. O Lord, to us belong shamefulness of face, to our kings and to our princes and to our fathers because we have sinned against thee. To the Lord our God belongeth mercy and forgiveness though we have rebelled against you. You still are merciful and forgiving."

"Neither have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God to walk in your laws which you set before us by thy servants the prophets. Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law even departing that they might not obey thy voice. Therefore the curse," read Deuteronomy chapter 28, did he not warn them? "If you keep my law then I will bless you. If you don't, not so much." And he says this, "Therefore the curse of the law is upon us and the oath that you have written in your law, the law of Moses," Deuteronomy 28, "the servants of God because we have sinned against thee. And we have confirmed... and he hath confirmed his word. Lord, you are faithful to your word which you spake against us and against our judgment, Lord. We are deserving of this and we are telling you that what you're doing is right by judging us because we deserve it."

"And against our judges and against the judged us by bringing upon us a great evil. Under the whole heaven hath not... hath not been done as had been done unto Jerusalem. You destroyed it. You allowed it to be destroyed because of our sin. You allowed this great destruction to come because of the sin of your people. And it's written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us. Yet," I want to get to this point, "yet made we not our prayers before the Lord our God that we might turn from our iniquities and understand thy truth."

What does it take to get... what does the Lord have to do to get his people on their face? I think he's doing it. Just strip it away. Watch every hope in man crumble before your eyes. Didn't he tell earlier on as Daniel is writing to Nebuchadnezzar, he allowed Nebuchadnezzar to go out and live like a wild animal in the fields, eating grass, hair growing long like feathers, fingernails like claws, for seven years. He lost his mind. And when God restored him, Daniel the prophet says that he may know that there is a God in heaven that rules in the affairs of men. And sometimes when he needs to discipline, he puts the basest sort, ring any bells, in places of leadership until we would know there's a God in heaven.

"If my people." And our prayer ought to be, "Lord, search our hearts, try us, see if there's any wickedness in us, Lord, that we might confess it and turn from it. Help us by the work of your Spirit not to be a defiled people but to be a holy people." Amen? Does that scare you? Because holiness is more of an attitude than is an action. And I'll tell you if you walk in the Spirit you don't lust against the things of the flesh. If you're walking in the Spirit, those things don't attract you anymore. And I will tell you, there are times in my life where I can walk in the Spirit, but they're short and far in between. It just seems like this world drags me right back down. Anybody have that experience?

Man, you know, you've just... you know today you've set the whole day to pray and you're on your way up the prayer and some... I won't say idiot because we're not supposed to use that word, but some inconsiderate person will cut me off. And I'm no longer in the Spirit, I'm in the flesh. At least that used to be the pattern; I thank God that he's healing me of that. But you look around today and there's one solution: God's church has to get serious. It has to be single-hearted, it has to be in the word, it has to be broken and in praying. Amen? Would you agree with that? Would you agree with that? Wow. Would you... did I put you to sleep? Would you agree with that?

Okay, then tomorrow morning, that room over there ought to be full. Amen? That room over there, the children's ministry room, should be full of people praying. Amen? You want to see God move? And listen, I think things are dyed in the wool. We're going to see that through Daniel's prayer. Daniel knows certain things have to happen. He gets it because God said it. We know certain things have to happen. But how many of you would love to see God so move again in this nation that there is, as it were, a revival where men are being saved, women are being saved, marriages are being healed, people are repenting, people are getting back right with the Lord and restoring the things they have broken? How many would love to see that?

Then you know what the... what is... what is required. "If my people." And it starts right here with your pastor. "If my people would humble themselves and pray." Those who come on Thursday mornings, you know I beg God every Thursday for an outpouring of his Spirit. I beg him. I beg him to heal you, to fix you, to fill you with his Spirit, to move in our midst. Because if God you don't show up, there's no reason for us to be here. Amen? How many need something healed in your life that's broken? How many feel like the temple of your life has been destroyed and trampled underfoot of very wicked people and the walls are broken down and you feel God's like way off there and you're in bondage way over here? How many have ever felt that way?

"If my people would humble themselves and pray, seek my face, turn from their wicked way, I would hear from heaven." Father, thank you tonight. I know this is a difficult message to hear because we liked a comfortable Christianity. Lord, we like in America especially, and I'm not talking about this church, but I'm talking about the church at large, we like a Christianity of convenience. Lord, we like a Christianity that has no cost to it, Lord, where there's no demands on it. We love the free part of it. "Lord, give us that free grace and that free forgiveness and justification." And I like it too, don't get me wrong, Lord, I like free.

But I know now that you set me free from the god of this world that I might serve the God of heaven. And part of that, Lord, is that I need to be praying. I need to be praying once again that your Spirit would move. And that place, as Daniel is praying, of prominence where the tabernacle, the presence of God was there and the walls of his protection were around his people would be restored. And so Father, I pray, put it in our hearts. Only you can do that. I wouldn't want anybody to respond to anything that I've said; I want them to respond to everything you have said. And by the work of your Spirit, Lord, gather us together.

May, Lord, as we move forward as a church, as we're looking at the last days, may we be a people of prayer. Because the fervent prayer of righteous people avails much. We can do nothing but pray until we have prayed. But we can do more than pray after we have prayed. But we need to pray. And so Father, we pray to you, Lord, put it in our hearts, and we ask it in Jesus' name. And all God's kids would say, amen.