SPEAKER_00: You're listening to the road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.
SPEAKER_01: Is there an excellent spirit about you?
SPEAKER_01: You represent Jesus with excellence in everything to you.
SPEAKER_01: When you do your job, do you do it with excellence?
SPEAKER_01: Are you five minutes early and five minutes leaving?
SPEAKER_01: You know, after the bell, so to speak.
SPEAKER_01: You know, are you a hard worker?
SPEAKER_01: Are you giving your best?
SPEAKER_01: Are you 100% all there?
SPEAKER_01: That's an excellent spirit.
SPEAKER_00: At The Road, our mission is to empower people to change the world.
SPEAKER_00: For more information on The Road, visit theroad.org.
SPEAKER_00: We hope you are encouraged by today's message from Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so we've been looking at the power of prayer the last three weeks.
SPEAKER_01: Ominous times and the power of prayer.
SPEAKER_01: The first time we talked about 2 Chronicles 7.14, I shared the dream that God gave me, and I shared what I believe about 2 Chronicles 7.14.
SPEAKER_01: And then last week we looked at Hezekiah, a young, 25-year-old young man who grew up with a decadent father.
SPEAKER_01: He had a decadent father, King Ahaz, but his mother, we believe his mother discipled him.
SPEAKER_01: And I said last week, oh, praise God for mothers who love their children, who love their boys, who love their girls.
SPEAKER_01: When a dad's not being a spiritual leader, you have to lead.
SPEAKER_01: You have to lead.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody's got to lead.
SPEAKER_01: And somebody discipled into Hezekiah, and he was a great king, and he was a man of prayer.
SPEAKER_01: And we saw how through his prayer we took that letter and he just put it down before the Lord and he laid it out before the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Oh God, you've got to do something.
SPEAKER_01: And this is what this is all about, gang.
SPEAKER_01: See up here?
SPEAKER_01: This is from Wednesday morning.
SPEAKER_01: This is from every morning and Wednesday night, we've been coming and putting our prayers before the Lord like Hezekiah.
SPEAKER_01: And here's seven candles for the seventh day of fasting and prayer.
SPEAKER_01: And some of you have joined me in that.
SPEAKER_01: So laid out before here is everybody's prayers that have been coming.
SPEAKER_01: So I encourage you if you want to come at 5 a.m.
SPEAKER_01: I know it's a it's an undemonic hour, but um but at 5 a.m.
SPEAKER_01: we come and when we come we we wake up the demons.
SPEAKER_01: We really do, you know.
SPEAKER_01: Um do you remember that part in Lord of the Rings when they go into the cave and and and I don't I don't know which one of the little hobbits it is, but he's he's they're they're really quiet.
SPEAKER_01: They've gone through the cave, it's really dark and everything, and they know there's like orcs and stuff in there.
SPEAKER_01: And then and then um he that little hobbit knocks over that that one big mask and it falls way down into that big thing, and then and then it's attached to the armor and it goes boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, and then you hear ah, and the orcs start coming.
SPEAKER_01: So we like to like kind of wake up demons and stuff.
SPEAKER_01: So sometimes we do that.
SPEAKER_01: So um ominous.
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you a definition of ominous.
SPEAKER_01: Ominous is giving the impression that something bad or unpleasant is going to happen.
SPEAKER_01: Threatening and inauspicious.
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you Isaiah 26 9.
SPEAKER_01: With my soul I have desired you in the night.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, by my spirit within me I will seek you early.
SPEAKER_01: For when your judgments are in the earth, you guys know the judgments of God are on America right now.
SPEAKER_01: The judgments of God are over America.
SPEAKER_01: He's moving.
SPEAKER_01: And I shared on Wednesday night, judgment from the vantage point of scripture from a loving God is not condemnation.
SPEAKER_01: It's not condemnation.
SPEAKER_01: It's a loving father disciplining his church, disciplining his people.
SPEAKER_01: But nonetheless, Romans 1 is very clear that he gives us what we want.
SPEAKER_01: He gives a people what they desire.
SPEAKER_01: And all through the Old Testament you see it.
SPEAKER_01: Probably one of the most powerful places you can look in Scripture is the division of Israel and Judah.
SPEAKER_01: During that time of the division of Israel and Judah, you see how how evil kings lead the nation into evil.
SPEAKER_01: You see how important leadership is.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: And so and so you see when that happens, you either see prosperity or you see destruction.
SPEAKER_01: And I think we've lived in a time in our life where we've had so much blessing, right?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, we've just been we're so blessed.
SPEAKER_01: So much freedom.
SPEAKER_01: And then things have changed dramatically in the last four months.
SPEAKER_01: Like unbelievable.
SPEAKER_01: And it's like it's a tipping point.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm gonna explain this more on Wednesday night, but I think there's a tipping point.
SPEAKER_01: Either righteousness tips toward blessing, or sin and rebellion tips toward lawlessness.
SPEAKER_01: So we stand in the balance right now.
SPEAKER_01: We stand in the balance.
SPEAKER_01: It'll be up to the church.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you know that Congress does not have worship services?
SPEAKER_01: You know, how many of you know that in the IRS they don't have worship services before they start the day?
SPEAKER_01: Only the church does that.
SPEAKER_01: So it's up to us as those who would stand in the gap as watchmen over the city.
SPEAKER_01: I want Colorado Springs, and I think you do too.
SPEAKER_01: We want Colorado Springs to be a model city to the world of righteousness and love and justice.
SPEAKER_01: That is on our watch, and this is our city.
SPEAKER_01: And so what's being said here by Isaiah is when judgments are upon the earth, the inhabitants of the earth learn righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you have been, usually if you're married, this happens, you've been you've been married, and some of you that are going to be married, um, you'll learn this, that your wife or your husband will come to you and say, honey, you know, it really hurt my my feelings when you did da-da-da-da.
SPEAKER_01: And you then have a choice to say you're sorry, which by the way, that's the right answer 99% of the time, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Um, and and talk about it.
SPEAKER_01: And what do you do if you really care about the other person?
SPEAKER_01: You change, right?
SPEAKER_01: That's what he's saying.
SPEAKER_01: He's saying that even when judgments are upon the earth, those that are righteous will learn righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: Righteous people learn righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: And so God's disciplining his church because he loves us, because he's not done with America, because he wants to see a revival in America, he wants to see a kingdom of God revolution in America, he wants to see God move.
SPEAKER_01: There's more believers praying and fasting in this country than maybe any nation in the world.
SPEAKER_01: Only God knows.
SPEAKER_01: But maybe maybe China, you know, there's so many believers there, but I'm saying there is still so much good and so much righteousness and righteousness and so many churches that love God with all of their heart.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: I believe that.
SPEAKER_01: There's a time to fight.
SPEAKER_01: There's a time to fight in prayer, and that's what we're trying to do.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, listen to this.
SPEAKER_01: Number one Google search, number one Google search over the last five years is the word prayer.
SPEAKER_01: People are hungry out there.
SPEAKER_01: So turn in your Bibles.
SPEAKER_01: Well, yeah, turn in your Bibles to Daniel chapter 6.
SPEAKER_01: Look at Daniel chapter 6.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, here's our story.
SPEAKER_01: I feel I felt like after 2 Chronicles, you guys, 7.14, which is more of a principle about prayer and how God works in prayer, we needed examples of it.
SPEAKER_01: So last week we talked about Hezekiah, this young guy who grew up in a dysfunctional home, who chose to be a leader of righteousness, and he actually led the entire nation into a great revival.
SPEAKER_01: And we looked at the story of Hezekiah when he is ringed by the Assyrian army.
SPEAKER_01: It looks hopeless, and he cries out to God, and God's spirit moves.
SPEAKER_01: Well, in our story right now, we're looking at Daniel, and this is under the rule of Cyrus.
SPEAKER_01: Now I want you to look at chapter 5, verse 30 and 31.
SPEAKER_01: If you look back, if you look at verse 25, you see the famous finger on the wall writing, meeny, meeny, tekal, uparson.
SPEAKER_01: Written there.
SPEAKER_01: We found you wanting.
SPEAKER_01: And Belshazzar goes down as the king, he's slain.
SPEAKER_01: And then it says an interesting thing in verse 31.
SPEAKER_01: It says, And Darius the Mead received the kingdom, being about 62 years old.
SPEAKER_01: There is no historical reference of a Darius the Mead.
SPEAKER_01: Now, look at the end of chapter 6, verse 28.
SPEAKER_01: So this Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian.
SPEAKER_01: The translation in Hebrew of and in can be that is.
SPEAKER_01: So you might circle that and write that on the side of your Bible there.
SPEAKER_01: That is.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, it could be said, it could be read.
SPEAKER_01: So this Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius.
SPEAKER_01: That is the reign of King Cyrus of Persia.
SPEAKER_01: Now we've talked about Cyrus here in some of our discussions, and Cyrus is the Persian called, who was later called Cyrus the Great.
SPEAKER_01: He was called Cyrus the Great.
SPEAKER_01: Jot that down.
SPEAKER_01: Because in the Middle East, almost every leader that's come up in modern times has called themselves Cyrus the Great.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody wants to be Cyrus the Great.
SPEAKER_01: He was he was an amazing leader.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know that he was a, I don't know that he was a God follower, but he might have gotten converted right here in our chapter.
SPEAKER_01: We'll look at it in just a second.
SPEAKER_01: He certainly recognized and had a diplomacy about him of other religions that was very, very unique in antiquity.
SPEAKER_01: And many of you have heard some of the prophecies, Lance Walnow, probably being the most famous, who predicted that Trump would become president before he became president and called him a Cyrus-like figure.
SPEAKER_01: And what he's quoting from was Isaiah 45, 45th president of the United States, Isaiah 45, about Cyrus.
SPEAKER_01: Now here's the legend that's based in history, and this is written by Josephus, the great Jewish historian, who said that when this handwriting on the wall occurred, the Persians came in and took Israel without a fight.
SPEAKER_01: Basically without a fight.
SPEAKER_01: And in the process of doing so, Daniel, who's a higher up, he's like a governor over the land for Belshazzar, becomes part of the cabinet for Cyrus.
SPEAKER_01: And here's what Josephus wrote: is that Daniel sat down with Cyrus within the first year, and he showed him the prophecy in Isaiah 45 and said, You're the man.
SPEAKER_01: This is about this is you right here.
SPEAKER_01: This Cyrus is you that was predicted hundreds of years before that you're going to be used by God to bring the Jews back to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that amazing?
SPEAKER_01: So there was a relationship between Cyrus and Daniel that's already been established.
SPEAKER_01: And within the first year, if you know this historically, is that he did make an edict in which Jerusalem in which Israel went back, about 49,000 Jews went back to Jerusalem to rebuild the wall.
SPEAKER_01: That's Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai, Zechariah, all those books talk about it.
SPEAKER_01: That's under Cyrus.
SPEAKER_01: So you understand that?
SPEAKER_01: So here's what's interesting.
SPEAKER_01: So this is what happens, though, when a leader is too enamored with flattery.
SPEAKER_01: But how God protects his people as we walk in righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: So chapter 6.
SPEAKER_01: It pleased Darius, or you could put in there Cyrus, to set over the kingdom 120 satraps to be over the whole kingdom, and over these three governors of whom Daniel was one.
SPEAKER_01: So he's that close to Cyrus.
SPEAKER_01: That the satraps might give an account to them so that the king would suffer no loss.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just stop there and just say this.
SPEAKER_01: Men and women, when we talk about the seven mountains, which you guys have heard me refer to, you know, countless times, the seven mountains of culture, there is this, there is this misunderstanding about culture that it's evil.
SPEAKER_01: Culture is evil, culture is bad.
SPEAKER_01: You guys, culture is neutral.
SPEAKER_01: All that culture is, is an embodiment of what the people in a particular country believe in.
SPEAKER_01: That's what culture is.
SPEAKER_01: My degree is in missiology.
SPEAKER_01: My degree is in studying culture.
SPEAKER_01: One of the degrees.
SPEAKER_01: And so when I was in Japan, there were parts of the culture I loved way better than some of the culture in America.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, their commitment to family, their commitment to loving each other, their commitment to neighborliness, their commitment to being a community, Japanese, they're off the charts way better at those areas than Americans are.
SPEAKER_01: Americans, we're just, we tend to be very isolated, independent.
SPEAKER_01: So culture's not bad or good, culture's neutral.
SPEAKER_01: But God's called most of you in this room to a work as either a businessman, a gym owner, a banker, a mechanic, a construction worker.
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna be in different arenas, and God's actually called you to be a missionary there.
SPEAKER_01: He's called you to bring your faith into that arena.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say this: Matthew 28, 18, the Great Commission.
SPEAKER_01: Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.
SPEAKER_01: So God's called the church to actually disciple nations, not just convert individuals.
SPEAKER_01: The problem has been that we're more into converting individuals than discipling nations.
SPEAKER_01: And what I mean by discipling nations is that God's placed you somewhere with your skill and unique gifts to make an impact there.
SPEAKER_01: That's discipling a nation.
SPEAKER_01: Discipling a nation is teaching those you're around in your arena to observe all that Jesus has commanded us.
SPEAKER_01: So if your Christianity is just Sunday morning, but when you leave, you're just like everybody else, we're not discipling a nation.
SPEAKER_01: Well, Daniel's different.
SPEAKER_01: Daniel, because of his king, you're gonna see this in just a second, it's really a powerful passage here.
SPEAKER_01: I just love this.
SPEAKER_01: He is discipling actually a king.
SPEAKER_01: He's discipling a president.
SPEAKER_01: And here's how he's doing it, first of all, verse 3.
SPEAKER_01: Then this Daniel, this Daniel distinguished himself above the governors and satraps because of an excellent spirit within him.
SPEAKER_01: We need men and women with an excellent spirit, an honesty, a vulnerability, an authenticity of Christ in their life.
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna see how he did that here.
SPEAKER_01: That's amazing.
SPEAKER_01: This is like the fifth or sixth time in the book of Daniel that that's how he's described.
SPEAKER_01: He was a man with an excellent spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Do you have an excellent spirit?
SPEAKER_01: Is there an excellent spirit about you?
SPEAKER_01: Do you represent Jesus with excellence in everything to you?
SPEAKER_01: When you do your job, do you do it with excellence?
SPEAKER_01: Are you five minutes early and five minutes leaving, you know, after the bell, so to speak?
SPEAKER_01: You know, are you a hard worker?
SPEAKER_01: Are you giving your best?
SPEAKER_01: Are you 100% all there?
SPEAKER_01: That's an excellent spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Do people know in your office and where you work that you're not gonna gossip, that you're not gonna say things about people, that you're not gonna lie or cheat or try to get ahead and push people down?
SPEAKER_01: Like to me, I don't care about the little ichthus on the back of the truck.
SPEAKER_01: I don't care about it.
SPEAKER_01: The little, the little fishy thing.
SPEAKER_01: I just want when the plumber comes over for him to do a really good job.
SPEAKER_01: I want his I want his witness to be that he's the best plumber he can be at a reasonable price.
SPEAKER_01: Alright.
SPEAKER_01: Alright, so Daniel has an excellent spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 4.
SPEAKER_01: So the governors in Satrap sought to find some charge against Daniel concerning the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: But they couldn't find anything, they couldn't find any fault.
SPEAKER_01: Because he was faithful, nor was there any error or fault found in him.
SPEAKER_01: Then these means these men said, We shall not find any charge against this Daniel unless we find it against him concerning the law of his God.
SPEAKER_01: So he's got no girls, he's not stealing any gold, he's uh he's not sleeping around, he's not messing around, he's honest, he has integrity.
SPEAKER_01: So the only thing we can get this guy on, because they're all jealous, and by the way, everybody look at me.
SPEAKER_01: Success breeds jealousy.
SPEAKER_01: Just say it.
SPEAKER_01: Success breeds jealousy, even in the church.
SPEAKER_01: Success breeds jealousy.
SPEAKER_01: They can't find anything on Daniel, he's got integrity.
SPEAKER_01: So these governors and satraps thronged before the king and said thus to him, King Darius, live forever.
SPEAKER_01: All the governors of the kingdom, the administrators and satraps, the counselors and advisors, have consulted together to establish a royal statute.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that interesting that we had this today?
SPEAKER_01: Because we've got an executive order.
SPEAKER_01: So an executive order, everybody should wear masks.
SPEAKER_01: And to make it a firm decree that whoever petitions any God or man for thirty days and what?
SPEAKER_01: Oh, the executive orders for thirty days.
SPEAKER_01: Except you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions.
SPEAKER_01: Now, O king, establish the de decree and sign the writing so that it cannot be changed.
SPEAKER_01: According to the law of the Medes and Persians, which does not alter, therefore, King Darius, Cyrus, sign the written decree.
SPEAKER_01: Leaders love flattery.
SPEAKER_01: Oh king, oh president, oh governor, you're the man, you're the woman, you're the one.
SPEAKER_01: And so here he gets actually faked out.
SPEAKER_01: It's interesting.
SPEAKER_01: Cyrus actually gets tricked by his cabinet.
SPEAKER_01: He does what they say, he doesn't think it through, he just signs it.
SPEAKER_01: Now, when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home.
SPEAKER_01: And in his upper room, with his windows open toward Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees three times that day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since his early days.
SPEAKER_01: So here's a young man.
SPEAKER_01: He was a teenager at the time, if you know the story of Daniel, Daniel chapter one, who established himself in the courts of Nebuchadnezzar who never compromised.
SPEAKER_01: He never compromised.
SPEAKER_01: And it baffled Nebuchadnezzar.
SPEAKER_01: And and he was, and actually, those that were the kind of the trainers over him, the life coaches, as it were, over Daniel in Daniel chapter 1, disagreed that he was not going to eat the food of the king.
SPEAKER_01: He was not going to follow the dictates of the king, but he was rather going to do something else.
SPEAKER_01: And if you read the story, he did, and God blessed him.
SPEAKER_01: So he has built a tradition in his life of three times a day, he goes into prayer.
SPEAKER_01: And he actually just, he's probably up high because those who had money, those who had means, usually took the highest kind of apartments or homes at that time in ancient times because of the breezes that would come through.
SPEAKER_01: And he would open up his window facing Jerusalem and he would pray.
SPEAKER_01: And he'd call out to God, everybody could see him.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody could see him.
SPEAKER_01: And so he calls out to God.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't change anything.
SPEAKER_01: He actually is even bolder about prayer, which is the opposite of what the dictionary.
SPEAKER_01: Dictate is saying that he has to do because he's got an innate, built-in, over time discipled understanding of the goodness and the love of God.
SPEAKER_01: And it says here, he thanked God.
SPEAKER_01: So I don't know what Daniel did.
SPEAKER_01: We don't know you guys, but maybe he said, God, I just thank you.
SPEAKER_01: I just praise you for this dictate.
SPEAKER_01: I just praise you for this.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna not trust you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna trust you all the way.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna believe in you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to believe that you're working all things out for good.
SPEAKER_01: I'm believing, Lord, that you've got me in this place to be to be uh a righteous witness for you.
SPEAKER_01: And so he cries out to God, church, even as we go through what we're going through, I challenge you to be men and women of prayer.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I I thought when I when I said I was gonna fast and pray for 10 days and I was coming into the sanctuary at 5 a.m., I was pretty sure it was gonna be God and me.
SPEAKER_01: But then you guys started coming and started coming, and it's grown almost every morning, and this place is crazy.
SPEAKER_01: People are crying out to God, it's awesome.
SPEAKER_01: And these prayers are up here because of you.
SPEAKER_01: And so I believe now is the time.
SPEAKER_01: Now is the time for us to be men and women of prayer.
SPEAKER_01: And so this has not been a true part of your life that you, you know, you I know everybody believes in prayer, but I mean you don't regularly go to God in prayer.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what you need more than what's happening right now.
SPEAKER_01: And I would challenge all of us, maybe two, three, three times a day.
SPEAKER_01: So start in the morning, have a time in the morning where you either kneel or you or you have a couch, a quiet place.
SPEAKER_01: Doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_01: It's not the position of the body, it's the attitude of the heart.
SPEAKER_01: But to come before the Lord and say, God, um, today, as I go to work, as I go to school, as I do whatever I'm doing, Lord, I want to be a witness for you.
SPEAKER_01: I want to have an excellent spirit in all that I do, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: I commit my finances to you.
SPEAKER_01: I commit my car to you.
SPEAKER_01: I commit my family to you.
SPEAKER_01: God, I need the blood of Jesus covering all of it.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, I ask for the blood of Jesus to cover my children.
SPEAKER_01: Ask the blood of Jesus to cover this relationship.
SPEAKER_01: Should we get married?
SPEAKER_01: Should we not get married?
SPEAKER_01: What do you say to us, Lord?
SPEAKER_01: God, I'm asking you, God, and just and make it a war room.
SPEAKER_01: Make it a war room.
SPEAKER_01: War.
SPEAKER_01: Battle.
SPEAKER_01: There's demonic powers.
SPEAKER_01: They're trying to hold you down.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you have been depressed your whole life.
SPEAKER_01: You can't even remember when you weren't depressed.
SPEAKER_01: That could be a chemical imbalance for sure, but it's probably the darkness.
SPEAKER_01: And you gotta shout it out of your life.
SPEAKER_01: You gotta believe it out of your life.
SPEAKER_01: Because God can heal you.
SPEAKER_01: He's a God of miracles.
SPEAKER_01: You gotta believe that.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't believe it, it ain't gonna happen.
SPEAKER_01: You gotta believe it.
SPEAKER_01: And then maybe at noon, same thing.
SPEAKER_01: Just leave work, you know, for your lunch break.
SPEAKER_01: Go somewhere, go to a park, call out to God.
SPEAKER_01: It didn't have to be an hour, it could be five minutes, two minutes.
SPEAKER_01: Start somewhere.
SPEAKER_01: When I was learning how to fly fish, it was horrible.
SPEAKER_01: It was horrible.
SPEAKER_01: I I remember I spent more time untangling lines than I did catching any fish.
SPEAKER_01: I couldn't even get the line in the water.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't, that big old rod and everything, it was a mess.
SPEAKER_01: It was it was a disaster.
SPEAKER_01: And I remember I was I was on this stream and I was like the second time I've done it, and I'm like, I'm like, cut, I don't know what I'm doing.
SPEAKER_01: And I see this guy out there just boom, catching fish.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm going, he's the man.
SPEAKER_01: You know, and so I walked up to him and I said, dude, I've never fly fish before.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what I'm doing.
SPEAKER_01: Would you give me five minutes of your time?
SPEAKER_01: And he gave me 15.
SPEAKER_01: And I caught a fish just like that because he he showed me some stuff.
SPEAKER_01: Prayers like that.
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna feel like you're untangling your line all the time.
SPEAKER_01: But if you'll keep doing it and you'll ask God to teach you, if you'll keep coming to the road, if you'll keep coming to the stuff that we do, I'll teach you.
SPEAKER_01: We will learn how to pray powerfully together.
SPEAKER_01: And then when you're going to bed, pray three times a day.
SPEAKER_01: That's what Daniel did, and God begins to move.
SPEAKER_01: Then these men assembled and they found Daniel praying and making supplication before his God.
SPEAKER_01: So Daniel is bold about what he's doing.
SPEAKER_01: He's not intimidated by people.
SPEAKER_01: That's our biggest struggle, right?
SPEAKER_01: What are people at work gonna say?
SPEAKER_01: Now, by the way, I'm not saying go build a soapbox, stand in the office and preach to everybody.
SPEAKER_01: I'm talking about being sane.
SPEAKER_01: I'm talking about being, write down the word winsome.
SPEAKER_01: Winsome's a really good word here.
SPEAKER_01: We need more winsome Christians that come in and they're loving and they're kind and they're faithful and they're beautiful people.
SPEAKER_01: That's what we need.
SPEAKER_01: It'll open doors for you, left and right, I guarantee you, without compromising.
SPEAKER_01: And so this guy's he's winsome, but they are after him, and they've got evidence that he is not going to compromise his faith in God.
SPEAKER_01: And they went before the king and they spoke concerning the king's decree.
SPEAKER_01: Have you not signed a decree that every man who petitions any God or man with within thirty days, except you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions.
SPEAKER_01: I always thought that was funny.
SPEAKER_01: Like, I guess Cyrus was doesn't have to worship Cyrus, okay, during thirty days.
SPEAKER_01: The king answered and said, The thing is true according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which does not alter.
SPEAKER_01: So he's totally faked out by this because he has a relationship with Daniel.
SPEAKER_01: Probably it's one of his most trusted men.
SPEAKER_01: So they answered and they said before the king, Well, then, that that Daniel, that Jewish slave, who is one of the captives from Judah, does not show due regard for you, O king, or for the decree that you have signed, but makes his petition three times a day.
SPEAKER_01: And the king, when he heard these words, was greatly displeased within himself, with himself, within himself.
SPEAKER_01: He he he is kicking himself left and right.
SPEAKER_01: He's been tricked, basically, by his staff.
SPEAKER_01: And he set in his heart on Daniel to deliver him, and he labored till the going down of the sun to deliver him.
SPEAKER_01: So he doesn't want to do this.
SPEAKER_01: He he wishes he hadn't signed this.
SPEAKER_01: He it is distressing to him because he loves Daniel.
SPEAKER_01: Daniel's become a special governor to him.
SPEAKER_01: Then these men approached the king and said to the king, Know, O king, that it is the law of the Medes and Persians, because they can sense that he's kind of he's kind of wavering, but that no decree or statute which the king establishes may be changed.
SPEAKER_01: So the king gave the command, and they brought Daniel and cast him into the den of lions.
SPEAKER_01: But the king spoke, saying to Daniel, Your God, whom you serve continually, he will deliver you.
SPEAKER_01: Can you imagine a pagan king that tells this believing man who he loves so deeply, your God.
SPEAKER_01: I don't believe in your God, okay, but I know he can deliver you.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe he had heard the stories, you know, about the furnace and Shraddh, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and you're gonna learn that there's something here that Daniel has done for Cyrus.
SPEAKER_01: Really interesting.
SPEAKER_01: Then these men approached the king, da-da-da.
SPEAKER_01: So, verse 16.
SPEAKER_01: So the king gave the command, and they brought Daniel, and they cast him in the den of lions.
SPEAKER_01: But the king spoke, saying to Daniel, Your God, whom you serve continually, he will deliver you.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 70.
SPEAKER_01: Then a stone was brought and laid on the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with his own signet ring, and with the signets of his lord.
SPEAKER_01: So see, he's a follower of other gods.
SPEAKER_01: He's a he's polytheistic, he believes in many gods, his lords, that the purpose concerning Daniel might not be changed.
SPEAKER_01: Now look at verse 18.
SPEAKER_01: This is really, really fascinating, verse 18.
SPEAKER_01: Now the king went to his palace and spent the night fasting.
SPEAKER_01: What?
SPEAKER_01: A Persian polytheistic believing king is fasting for Daniel.
SPEAKER_01: No musicians were brought before him, also his sleep from him.
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
SPEAKER_01: So here's what's happening.
SPEAKER_01: Who taught him about the power of fasting?
SPEAKER_01: Daniel did.
SPEAKER_01: He had seen stuff in Daniel, and you're gonna learn if you read on in the rest of the book, especially Daniel 9 and 10.
SPEAKER_01: Daniel is a man who constantly fasts and prays for answers in his life.
SPEAKER_01: He cries out to God for answers in his life.
SPEAKER_01: And evidently, Cyrus had been discipled by Daniel to fast for answers in his life.
SPEAKER_01: And he he loves Daniel so much, and who knows what he's fasting to.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, he it sounds like he's got maybe he's got all the little idols in his office, you know, or he's got idols out there in the park, or wherever they put idols, you know, and stuff like that.
SPEAKER_01: But he's fasting for Daniel, and something in him, he knows that this God of Daniel is really different than his lords, his gods, because here's what happens next.
SPEAKER_01: Then the king arose very early in the morning and went in haste to the den alliance.
SPEAKER_01: He's really and by the way, who's worried here?
SPEAKER_01: Daniel's not worried.
SPEAKER_01: Daniel's not distressed.
SPEAKER_01: Cyrus is.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, the living God is his classification of the God of Daniel.
SPEAKER_01: And then Daniel said to him, O king, live forever.
SPEAKER_01: My God sent his angel, and he shut the lion's mouth, so that they have not hurt me, because I was found innocent before him.
SPEAKER_01: And also, O king, I've done no wrong before you.
SPEAKER_01: Now the king was exceedingly glad for him and commanded that day that they should take Daniel up out of the den.
SPEAKER_01: So Daniel was taken up out of the den, no injury, whatever was found on him, because circle this, don't miss this.
SPEAKER_01: He believed in his God.
SPEAKER_01: Church.
SPEAKER_01: When we start praying, when we start taking time to really seek the Lord, your faith will grow.
SPEAKER_01: You'll be able to believe God for things you could never believe him for before.
SPEAKER_01: This is this is not a this is not an easy situation by any means.
SPEAKER_01: However, you look at it, here's Daniel losing everything.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sure by this time, he's probably in his 40s or 50s.
SPEAKER_01: He's got a family, he's got children, he's got a 401k.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, he's set, right?
SPEAKER_01: He's been, this is part of the third, uh, this is the third administration that he's been under.
SPEAKER_01: He's got everything to lose.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't compromise.
SPEAKER_01: He's already decided.
SPEAKER_01: I think because of stuff that had happened in the past, if you read Daniel, there's this conviction in him that God can have my life.
SPEAKER_01: God can have, I'm crucified with Christ.
SPEAKER_01: It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.
SPEAKER_01: So there's this, there is this sense, I believe in Daniel.
SPEAKER_01: It was true in Shadrach, Meshach, and Nebednego earlier in Daniel, that they can take my life, but they're not going to take my faith.
SPEAKER_01: And if my life is in the way of them taking my faith, they can have my life.
SPEAKER_01: And there's power in the blood of Jesus, what does it say in Revelation?
SPEAKER_01: In the blood of Jesus and in the word of our testimony, and we do not love our life even unto death.
SPEAKER_01: So if you're willing to die for what you believe in, the devil ain't got nothing on you.
SPEAKER_01: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_01: The devil ain't got nothing on you if you're willing to die for your faith.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm telling you guys, it's important, that intimidates the enemy.
SPEAKER_01: And I'll use a theological term.
SPEAKER_01: It intimidates the hell out of the enemy.
SPEAKER_01: It really does, because the enemy, that's what he gets on Christians all the time is what's gonna happen with this, or what's gonna, you know, you keep your mouth shut.
SPEAKER_01: Don't say anything.
SPEAKER_01: Don't don't step into that cesspool, right?
SPEAKER_01: Just kind of stay at your desk and do your little thing.
SPEAKER_01: And I think sometimes God, not always, but sometimes God calls us to stand for righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, when David came into the valley of Elah, he didn't come with the idea that he was even gonna fight.
SPEAKER_01: He came to bring some cheese and crackers to the commander and to his brothers.
SPEAKER_01: And next thing he does is he hears, he hears the taunts of Goliath, and something in him, that worshiper within him, rises up and he says, I'm not gonna let.
SPEAKER_01: Well, what's the problem with you guys?
SPEAKER_01: That guy, that that uncircumcised Philistine is taunting the living God, and it's because he was a worshiper first and a warrior second.
SPEAKER_01: You see, when we become worshipers first in our life, we become men and women of prayer first, then we can we can sense greater and in deeper ways the works of the enemy, and something within us rises up.
SPEAKER_01: And I believe something's happening in Cyrus' life, too, because look what happens, verse 24.
SPEAKER_01: And the king gave the command, and they brought these men who had accused Daniel, and they cast him into the den of lions, them and their children and their wives.
SPEAKER_01: This king's pretty ruthless.
SPEAKER_01: And the lions overpowered them and broke all their bones in pieces before they ever came to the bottom of the den.
SPEAKER_01: Now look what uh Cyrus says To all the peoples, nations, languages that dwell upon the earth, peace be multiplied to you.
SPEAKER_01: Now I just say circle that.
SPEAKER_01: That is actually, listen everybody, that's actually what government is supposed to do right there.
SPEAKER_01: That's what the government's supposed to be doing in St.
SPEAKER_01: Louis.
SPEAKER_01: That's what the government's supposed to be doing in Minneapolis.
SPEAKER_01: That's what the government's supposed to be doing in LA, is multiplying peace.
SPEAKER_01: That's what we pray for in 1 Timothy 2.
SPEAKER_01: We pray for those in authority that we might lead a peaceful life.
SPEAKER_01: I make a decree that in every dominion of my kingdom men must tremble and fear before the God of Daniel.
SPEAKER_01: For he is the living God and steadfast forever.
SPEAKER_01: His kingdom is the one which shall not be destroyed, and his dominion shall endure to the end.
SPEAKER_01: He delivers, he rescues, he brings signs and wonders in heaven on earth, who has delivered Daniel from the power of the lions.
SPEAKER_01: That awesome! That's like a kingdom of God revolution.
SPEAKER_01: So, church, you that are part of the road, let us be known as a church that prays, a church that has made this place a house of prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Come at 5 a.m.
SPEAKER_01: Come on Wednesday night.
SPEAKER_01: In your own personal life, maybe consider, even if it's just five minutes, three times a day, to set aside, make your house a war room, make your office a war room.
SPEAKER_01: Don't don't just hold it in and get depressed and get discouraged over something that's happening in your life.
SPEAKER_01: Give it to God.
SPEAKER_01: Call out to Him, pull out your journal.
SPEAKER_01: I'm looking around, and almost 90% of you in this room have journals open.
SPEAKER_01: You're taking notes.
SPEAKER_01: It's awesome because we believe in so much in journals.
SPEAKER_01: So take your journal and cry out to God and then write down when you prayed and watch God answer prayer.
SPEAKER_00: You've been listening to The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.
SPEAKER_00: We hope you have been blessed by today's message.
SPEAKER_00: To connect with us further, visit theroad.org.
SPEAKER_00: If you are walking through a difficult time, we want to pray for you.
SPEAKER_00: Go to theroad.org, click on the ministries tab, and go to our prayer page to send us your prayer request.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks again for tuning in today, and be sure to listen to the next edition of The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.