- if you take out your message notes, welcome to part four of ourseries called unshakable. how do you thrive no matterwhat they throw at you? and today, i want us to look at the idea of when you're asked to do the impossible. have you ever had a boss, or a parent, or a friend, or somebody say, i need you to do this for me, and you go, there's noway i can get this done.
i don't have the time,i don't have the money, i don't have the background,i don't have the talent, i don't have the connections. your boss walks in and says,i need this by tuesday, and you go, yeah, in the next life. many times in your life you'll be faced with an impossible situation. what do you do in that situation? i get the title from today's message
from daniel, chapter two, verse 10 and 11, where the advisors of thisbabylonian king, nebuchadnezzar, that we've been lookingat for several weeks, they say to him, "nobodycan do what you ask. "what you're asking is impossible." what do you do when you'reasked to do the impossible? i told you in previousmessage in this series that god always tests youbefore he blesses you. he tests you with stress beforehe trusts you with success.
before god gives you success, blessing, influence, power, whatever he wants to give you he first sees are you ready to handle it? and in the story of daniel, we're looking at ninemajor tests in his life. these are common tests thatyou're going to go through. he's already gone through three of them, each one he passed.
every time daniel passesa test, he gets promoted. remember, he starts out as a15 year old prisoner of war in a foreign nation,and by the time he's 85, 70 years later, he's thesecond most important man in the entire empire,and the babylonian empire was the number one empirein the world at that time. enormous power, enormous influence, and he gets promoted everytime he passes a test, and this is the test of when you'reasked to do the impossible.
now the story starts outin chapter two of daniel, and it goes like this,look up here on the screen. "in the second year of kingnebuchadnezzar's reign," now, that means that daniel at this point is like 17 years old. he's been in his program, wetalked about it last week, for two years, this trainingprogram of the king, that he had brought some pows in. "in the second year of kingnebuchadnezzar's reign,
"he had a recurringdream that frightened him "so badly he couldn't sleep. "so he called in all hismagicians and psychics "and fortune tellers and astrologers, "and demanded that they tellhim what he had dreamed." now, this is not an unusual thing. i told you that the babylonianculture was based on a cult and the wise men, the advisorsto the leaders in those days, were all these magicianguys, these mediums,
these necromancers, thesesorcerers and magicians and astrologers, not astronomers, astronomy is a legitimate science, astrology is a fake religion. and so he brings all thesepeople in, he says, i had this really bad dream and ineed you to tell me the dream. "the king said, 'i keep havingthis dream that troubles me. "'tell me what i dreamed,then tell me what it means.'" now, "the astrologersanswered, 'okay, just tell us
"'your dream, and we'lltell you what it means.' "but the king said, 'no way! "'if you can't tell me what i dreamed, "'why in the world should itrust your interpretation?'" good logic. you're a psychic, you can'ttell me what i dreamed, how in the world can i trustyou to tell me what it means? so he says, you tell me. if you can't tell me what i dreamed,
you're just a bunch of fakeswith no real power or wisdom. now it says, "then all ofthe king's fortune tellers," they're all joining intogether, and they said, "'nobody anywhere can dowhat you ask,'" to tell you what you dreamed withoutyou telling us about it, "'and no king in historyhas ever demanded anything "'like this from any magician,or medium, or astrologer. "'so what you're doing is '"you're asking us to do the impossible.'"
it's impossible. now, this madenebuchadnezzar furious, okay, he is really ticked off, andhe says, i'm dead serious. if you can't tell me what my dream was, i'm going to have youall so-called wise men tortured and executed and i'm going to have all your housesdemolished into rubble. that's going over the top, would you say? (laughing)
i'm going to assassinate my entire court because you can't tell me my dream. this guy's mad. now, the advisors beg, beg,"'just tell us the dream.'" because anybody canmake up a meaning to it, and if you tell us what itwas, we'll make up the meaning. "'then we'll interpret it!' "but the king said, 'no,'" nada, zip, no. "'you are all condemned as worthless,'
"and he issued a decree toexecute all his royal advisors, "including daniel and histhree hebrew friends." so they're obviously not involved in this, but they're advisors, they'reall going to get killed. this is what you call, friends, a crisis. the king is about to assassinate you. and they're all worriedabout what's going on here, why is he so upset? one of the traits of human behavior is,
we all want to know the future. you do, i do, you would love to know what's going to happen nextweek, next month, next year, the next rest of your life. and the reason why is becausewhen we think we can know the future, we think wehave a little bit more control over it, wecan be prepared for it. but god doesn't want you tohave control over your future, he wants you to trust him,
and that's why he doesn'ttell you the future. but we think, you know, knowing the future somehow gives us alittle grasp on control, and the more insecure you are in life, the more controlling you will be. anytime you see somebodywho's a high-control person, you can know they are ahigh-insecurity person. the more insecure youare, the more you try to control everybody andeverything around you.
if you're secure, you don'tneed to control anybody. hey, go on, you do yourthing, i'll do my thing, and we'll all be fine. now, today, 2,500 yearslater after this event in babylon, people are stilltrying to figure out the future and because they're desperate for control, and they're desperate for hope, they're going to allkinds of kooks and quacks and seances and teareadings and palm readings
and horoscopes and ouija boards and seances and mediums andon and on and on and on, trying to find out whatthe future's all about and how to hold onto it. now, before we look at howdaniel handles this problem, tell me my dream andtell me what it means, i'm going to just pause here, since we're talking aboutastrologers and mediums and psychics and seances,let me just pause here
and give you three thingsgod says about this. i want you to write these down. three things that god saysabout predicting the future. number one, you might write this down, is that god says, no oneknows the future except god. no psychic, no fortune teller, no medium, no astrologer, nobody, god says, knows the future except god. anybody who tells you theyknow the future is lying.
the day before the 9/11 attack happened, nobody would have predicted it. most of the things thathappen in your life that are major, you were surprised by, both the good things and the bad things. god says, nobody knows the future. anybody who tells you they know are lying. and that brings me to theseverses, ecclesiastes 8:7. "no one can tell the future."
you say, but i heard of a guy, do you really want toargue with god over this? no one, i can give you50 verses from the bible where it says nobody knows the future. i don't, you don't. ecclesiastes 10:14, lookup here on the screen. "fools claim to know the future "and they love to tellanybody who listens," especially if you'll pay them.
"but no one knows what's going to happen." you see, god wants to reveal to me only enough that i can obeyhim today in this moment, and all the rest, hewants me to trust him for. he reveals only what i needto obey him in the moment, he wants me to trust him for all the rest. now, here's the second thinggod says about the future. all psychics and mediumsare frauds and fakes. 100%, all psychics andmediums, fortune tellers,
astrologers, are frauds and fakes. i didn't say this, god says it, and again, i could probably give you50 verses in the bible where god says, theseguys are just conning you. they don't know anything,they don't know the future. they're, 100% of them,and in fact, god says that they're used bysatan to confuse people and to get them off base. let me show you a couple verses.
the bible says this inisaiah chapter 44, verse 25. god says, "i make fools ofpsychics and fortunetellers "and i frustrate thepredictions of astrologers, "because their wisdom is foolishness." let me show you a couple more. leviticus 19, verse 31,"do not rely on mediums "and psychics, for youwill be defiled by them. "i'm the lord your god." he says, i don't want youto look at anybody else,
you want to know thefuture, you come to me. you don't need to go tothese people out there, you're going to be defiled by them. in fact, this is so serious, we're not just playing around here, folks. here's what god says,look at the next verse, leviticus 20 verse 6. god says this, "i amagainst," god talking, "i am against anyone who goesto mediums or fortunetellers
"for advice, because that personis being unfaithful to me. "so i will cut him off." whoa! we just hit a tender spot with god here. if you're involved withany of this kind of stuff, and you say, oh, i'm just playing around, tea reading, palm reading,run from it, get away from it. god says he doesn't want younear it with a 50-foot pole, because you're tryingto control the future,
and on top of that, they're just fakes, they're frauds, they don't know, you're wasting time andyou're wasting money. in fact, if you want to study this, you can email me,pastorrick@saddleback.com, i'll give you a list of 50verses that you can study about psychics andastrologers, stuff like that, and it'll all tell youthe exact same thing, because in fact, in the bible,
in the book of deuteronomy,god tells us that anybody who was a false prophet shouldbe put to death in israel. that's how serious this thing was. and now here's the third thing i want you to know about the future, god says this. the test of a true prophet of god is 100% accuracy. that's who you know if somebodywho claims to be speaking the future, foretellingthe future from god
is they are 100% accurate. in fact, god, in thebible, gives us two checks by which you can check anybody out. they say, well, i predictthis is going to happen, he said, one of them is, is it accurate, does it always happen. he says, not 90% accurate, 10% false, he says, if it came fromme, it's 100% accurate. a true prophet is never, ever, ever wrong,
not 99% right and this, theygot that one a little off, no, god says they're always accurate. and he says it also always matches what i've already said in my word. let me show you two verses. deuteronomy 18, verses 21 and 22. god says this, "if youwant to know if a prophet "or his message is really from god," you know, you're tryingto test these guys,
here's how you test them. "if any part is false," anypart of what this guy's message or woman's message predicting the future, "is false or does not come true, "then he and his message are fake, "and you should pay him noattention, nor fear him." so the moment you mess up, onetime, you're a false prophet. one time, one little bit. in fact, god not only saysthat there's the accuracy test,
there is the bible test righthere, look at the next verse. isaiah 8:20 says this: "check their predictions against my word." read the bible and thenhear what they say. and he said, "'check their predictions "'against my word,' says the lord. "'if their predictionsare different from mine, "'it's because there's nolight or truth in them.'" whoa, so, by the way,
what nebuchadnezzar did withthose so-called psychics is the same way you can provethat every psychic is wrong, and here's how you provethem: don't tell them a thing. don't do their leading questions. anybody can pick up a book on magic and read these leading questions. i can get you to pretty much say anything if i know the right questions to ask, and you'll tell me, theni'll tell it back to you,
and you'll think, man,rick really knew that. no. psychics, never give them any information. they came to him andsaid, tell us your dream and we'll give you the meaning. he goes, no, no, if you're sopsychic, tell me the dream. you should know. and don't ever give anyinformation to somebody who claims to be a psychic,so if you're on the phone,
which you shouldn't be,to the psychic hotline, okay, and you're on the psychic hotline, and their first question is, what's your credit card number, you say, well, you should knowthat, you're a psychic. this is my test of you,if you're such a psychic, you should be able to read it,i'm holding it up right now. okay, if they can't read yournumbers, they're conning you. okay, if they have to ask for the number
that's going to pay them,well, they're not very psychic. and so, by the way, whyshould you pay anybody who tells you what you already know? like, you know, you go toa psychic and they go, oh, you, you, you've got a brother. yeah, i've got a brother,wow, that's psychic! and your brother is, isee it, a, no, no, a j, and they're watching youand see if you flinch, john, john, jim, jim.
yeah, i've got a brother named jim! 50 bucks please. why would i pay you forsomething i already know? that's not psychic, i already know that, i have a brother named jim. that's just kind of dumb. now, in this chapter thatwe're going to look at today, in the first part of the chapter, king nebuchadnezzar hasthis disturbing nightmare
and he keeps having itover and over and over, he calls all in all hisoccultic people, and he says, tell me what my dream isand tell me what it means, and they all fail, and so he says, well, i'm going to kill allyou guys, you're worthless. you know, you're out of here. and then about verse 14 to about 30, daniel shows up, he intervenes, he says, let me have a shot at this,
and he goes off and praysand he talks to god, god reveals to him in aprayer time the king's dream. now, this is supernatural. it's impossible to figure that out. they could have asked a thousand, guessed a thousand differentdreams and never guessed it. and god gives daniel not onlythe dream but the meaning. he tells it to the king,the king honors daniel, and daniel and his friends get promoted,
that's what we're going to look at. but what we're going to really look at is the eight things daniel did when he was faced withan impossible assignment. now, i want to tell you,from personal experience, for the last 36 years, ihave used these eight steps over and over and overand over and over and over and over as a leader, as i have led saddlebackchurch from very small
to the 16 campuses we have today. there were many, many timesin the history of this church where we have faced animpossible situation, financially, physically,spiritually, mentally, relationally, and i would dothese things that daniel did. you need what i'm aboutto teach you, okay? here's what you do. write fast, because they don'ttake a lot of time to share. number one: don't panic.
that's number one, don'tpanic or be afraid. now, in daniel's case, hehad a legitimate reason to be worried, i mean, ifthe government send somebody to assassinate you, you'd probably panic. but he didn't, and the biblesays in daniel chapter two, verse 14, and we're going to follow just through the whole chapter, "when arioch, the commanderof the king's guard, "came to kill them, danielhandled the situation
"with wisdom and discretion." now, once again, daniel's faith is tested and he passes with flying colors. this is an amazing youngman, he's only 17 years old. the most powerful man on the planet has ordered his assassination. the guy shows up to kill him,and he handles the situation with wisdom and discretion. not bad for a young teenage kid.
he did not panic, he did not be afraid. by the way, what are youpanicked about this morning? what, you know, that job opportunity, or that job problem, the financial situation, i'mnever going to get out of debt. i'm feeling bad and i'mwondering if it's really bad. i wonder if my health isgoing the wrong direction. what are you worried about, your marriage, your future, your dream.
don't panic. number two: ask why, and what i mean when i say ask why is you want to learn all thefacts and all the motivation behind the request. when somebody asks youto do the impossible, you need to find out why they've asked it. you need to get all thefacts involved and you need to find out the motivationfor their asking.
and if there's emotion, like there was with kingnebuchadnezzar, he's furious, what's fueling the fury? i mean, in this case, theking's clearly afraid, he has this recurringnightmare, he's scared to death, and new he's just kindof vomiting his fear out on everybody else and he'staking it out and saying, you've got to tell me here. when people are panickedand they're in a crisis,
they get emotional. now, maybe you're goingto go to work this week and your boss is going to come in, and he or she is gonnareally come down on you, and they're going to say,you've got to get this done by this day and you feel the pressure, you go, what's going on here? well, in all likelihood, they're probably beingpressured by their boss,
the supervisor, the owner, or whoever. and when they're feeling the heat, they just turn around and put it on you, and when they're feelingfear, i might lose my job, then they start talking toyou about you losing your job. so you need to know why, whythe people are asking you to do this impossible thing. that's verse 15, daniel asked. daniel asked arioch, this isthe captain of the guard, why?
"'why has the king issuedsuch a harsh decree?' "so arioch told him all that happened." you've got to get the facts. you might write this verse down. proverbs 23:23. living bible says, "getthe facts at any price." don't make a majordecision just on emotion, don't make a major business decision just on the way you feel.
feelings lie, get the facts at any price. and in this step, whatyou want to do is, you go, what do i need to knowto do what i gotta do? that's what you ask, whenyou're facing, you know, that deal is about to fall apart, that mountain of debt isabout to come in on me, what do i need to do toget what i need to do done? and so you ask thequestion, why, and what, and what is the reason?
what do i need to do inorder to get this done, what do i want to know? number three, third that you need to do is ask for time to create a solution. if your boss comes in,says, i need this done, and you go, it's impossible, you need to ask for timeto create a solution. now the reason why youwant to ask for time instead of just immediatelyget to work on it
is because, in a crisis, the greatest temptation youhave is to be impulsive. if you're in a car accident,when you get out of that car, you're not thinking logically. you're not thinking rationally. you're in a car accident,you're thinking emotionally, and you want to makean impulsive decision, you want to make it fast. it's more important tomake the right decision
than to make a fast decision. the wrong decision is the wrong decision, no matter how fast or slow you make it. and so, when you're facingan impossible situation, take a little time, stepback, take a deep breath. (breathing) calm down, talk to god. daniel is asking for some time, because there's no way i'mgoing to know the king's dream,
but god knows the king's dream, and so maybe i can find out from god. and so he's asking fortime to create a solution. he knew he was going to needto spend some time with god. and the bible says thisin verse 16, daniel 2:16. "daniel went at once to see the king "and requested more time so he could "tell the king what the dream meant." he's going to give it his best shot.
he's not going to say, that's impossible, like the other guys did. well, let's just see,maybe god will tell me. i'm going to give it my best shot, i'm going to die tryingif that's what it takes. he went to see the kingto request more time so the king could knowwhat the dream meant. now, notice, circle thephrase, "he went at once." while you want to taketime for the solution,
you want to make contact withthe person who's done this as quick as you can. you don't procrastinate,you don't dawdle around. now, this is pretty gutsy. here's a 17-year-oldkid, the king has ordered his assassination and what does he do, he immediately goes to seethe king, confronts him. that's pretty courageous. i don't know if i would havedone that as a teenager.
he goes immediately to thesource of his pressure. he goes immediately tothe source of his pain. he doesn't dawdle, hedoesn't procrastinate, he doesn't delay, you know, he doesn't postpone,he doesn't get distracted. he courageously faced the fear head on. question: what are you procrastinating, that you know you need to do and you've known youneed to do it for years,
and you still haven't done itbecause it could be painful? let me ask it another way: what are you pretending inyour marriage is not a problem? hmm. you know, oh, i know it'sthere, but yeah, i don't want to deal with it because itcould be mount vesuvius, a big explosion, so we justsweep it under the carpet year after year after year, and the more you sweep under the carpet,
it starts making a mound in the carpet, and pretty soon you'vegot a hill in your carpet and you're going to trip over it. what is it you're pretendingisn't a problem in your life? oh, i know i've got thisweakness, it's this thing that i do that i really don't like doing, it's not really an addiction but i do it and i do it over and over and over and i can't seem to stop it,
but, you know, it is an addiction. and you say, well, it'smy little faux pas, it's my little fallacy,it's my little fault, it's my little peccadillo, it's my little problem over there. no, you're procrastinating, and procrastination onlymakes problems worse. procrastination hasnever solved any problem. delay doesn't make itbetter, it makes it worse.
people say, well, time heals all wounds. that's nonsense. time does not heal all wounds. if you've got cancer, time'snot going to make you better. you've got to get surgery and you've got to getit as fast as you can. if time could heal everything,all you would have to do is go sit in the doctor's office and you'd get healed eventually,
because you're going towait a long time there. no, i don't even need to see the doc, i just sat here long enough, i'm well. it doesn't work that way. don't procrastinate, don't dawdle. don't panic, ask why, and then immediately goto wherever the source is and ask for time to consider the decision, to courageously create a solution.
move against your fear. the only way you get rid offear is to move against it. you can't argue out of fear, you can't talk yourself out of fear, you move against your fear, you do the very thing you fear the most. here's the fourth thing you do. daniel did this. enlist prayer support from your friends.
now, of course, daniel knowshe's going to pray about this a lot, in fact, he's goingto stay up all night, pray about it all night, but he knows this thing is too big. i mean, the kingdomhere is in the balance, the king's off his rocker, he's about to kill everybody in the court, all of his advisors, including us, and we weren't even involved in that
because we're not, you know,astrologers or mediums. and he goes, so, i've got to get some moreextra prayer support. i've got to get my prayer team going, and he needed other people praying, but here's what he does, inverse 17, up here on the screen. "then daniel went home,"after he's seen the king, "and he told his three friends, "hananiah, mishael, and azariah,"
we talked about these in a previous week, obviously they all live in the same house, these four young guysare bunking together, sharing a house, and he told his threefriends what had happened. and then he said, pray,and i probably admit that he probably said itlike that, you guys, pray! our lives are on the line,we're going to be killed if we don't figure out this dream.
"'pray that the god who rules from heaven "'will be merciful andexplain this mystery,'" you know, to us, "'sothat we," and notice, "'and the other advisorswon't be put to death.'" question: do you have any prayer partners? if you got in your car,going home today from church and you were in a major crisis,big accident or whatever and some people died, who would be the firstfive people you'd call
and say, i need your prayer? if you don't know who those people are, if you haven't lined them up in advance, i highly recommend thatyou build a prayer team, a personal prayer team,every man needs one and every woman needs one, before the inevitablecrisis comes in your life. because you're going tohave problems all your life, you're going to faceimpossible situations,
you're going to have dark days, you're going to get the phone call that changes the direction ofyour life, count on it. you need to know nowwho you can call to say, who are you going to call? who are you gonna call? he knew immediately, i'mgoing to go tell my friends, ask them to start praying. let me say it, phrase it another way:
who can call you this afternoon? who is it that you're close enough to that you've got five friends who can say, hey, i'm really goingthrough a tough time today, i had a crisis, i've got toface impossible situation, i need you to be praying for me. this is why everybody needsto be in a small group. the best place to getyour prayer partners, your prayer team, isthe people you meet with
in a small group every week. that's the best place. now, it's okay to have prayer partners who are in addition to yoursmall group, who are out there, that's fine, but you don't need a lot, you don't need 25 people praying for you, but you do need four or five, and every man needs four or five guys who are praying for him,
every woman needs four or five women who are praying for her, and you need to be able to ask for prayer the way daniel did. by the way, did you notice,look at that verse again. he went home, told his three friends, i need you to start praying so that we, and notice hesays, and the other advisors, circle that phrase,and the other advisors.
daniel is not justconcerned for his own skin, he's worried about his coworkers. he's not worried justabout him getting laid off, he's worried about the wholeoffice getting laid off, and killed. now, these other workers,they're not his friends. they're pagans, they'renot god-fearing people like his three best friends. they are these necromancers, and mediums,
and sorcerers, andastrologers, and psychics, all of this phony stuff thatthey're not even involved in, but daniel goes, i don't careif we disagree with them, we don't want them to die. that is the mark of a godly person, that you're praying forthe people in your life who have a different lifestyle than you, who have a different beliefor religion than you. daniel's going, nobodydeserves to die over this.
okay, they're not my friends,we're not buddy-buddies with these other people, but idon't want to see them killed any more than i want meand my friends killed. that's what a godly person does: they pray not just for themselves, they're not just worried,i might get laid off, they're worried about the whole office or 10 people might get laidoff if this rumor is true. so don't panic, ask why,
ask for time to create a solution, enlist prayer support from your friends. and then number five, this is a big one: pray and expect god togive supernatural help. when you're facing an impossiblesituation in your life, and daniel's going to teachyou how to do this, pray and expect god to give yousupernatural help in your life, and when i say supernaturalhelp, i'm talking about the kind of help that youdon't have on your own power.
it's not dependent upon your logic, your wisdom, your talent, you just go, this isn't going tohappen unless god does it. and you need supernatural helpwhen you don't have the money and you're deeply in debt andabout to file for bankruptcy. you need god's help when youdon't have the connections, when you don't have the education, when you don't have theanswers, when you don't have the ideas to take yourbusiness to the next level,
when you don't have whatthe competitors have, when you don't have, whenyou're not smart enough, you need supernatural help. you pray and you askgod and you expect god to give you supernatural help. now, here's the interestingthing about this: god wants you to do this. god wants you to ask, over and over and over andover again, in the bible,
god wants you to ask for supernatural help when you're up againstthe impossible problem, because it shows he loves to help you out. now, while daniel, this is2,500 years ago in babylon, while daniel is a young hebrewboy in babylon, as a prisoner of war, but he's beingtrained to be an advisor, there's another guy overhere in judah, israel, which they didn't takeeverybody as prisoners of war, they left some people there,
one of the guys who was leftthere was a guy named jeremiah. he was not a bull frog,he was a prophet, okay? and jeremiah lives at thesame time daniel does, and jeremiah knows what'sgoing on in babylon, and god says this to jeremiah,look at the next verse. he says this. "call to me and i willanswer you," god says this, "and i will show you marvelousthings," marvelous things, "and wondrous things that you could
"never figure out on your own." now, that's exactly what daniel needs. he needs god to show him what he could never figure out on his own, that he could guess for a thousand years and never guess the king's dream. and there's some things inyour life that you can guess and work and pray and try all your life and never figure it out.
what you need is to call to god and he says, i'll answeryou, and i'll show you the things you could neverfigure out on your own. imagine getting to heaven one day, okay, imagine getting to heaven one day, and you get up there, and you discover there's these giantcostco-size warehouses, and you go in these warehouses, and there are theseincredible gifts there,
you know, cars and boats and homes and all kinds of cool things and gadgets and then there's situations, marriage partners and relationships and spiritual situations,and there are blessings, and there are all kinds ofgood things, all these gifts, that the warehouses inheaven are loaded with gifts, and you go up to each ofthe gifts and you notice, every one of them has a little tag on it,
and when you look at the tag, you discover that everytag in the warehouse says the same three words, never asked for. never asked for. god never shuts his storehousetill you shut your mouth. god says, call to me, the bible says, you have not because you ask not. you have not because you ask not,
you know what hell would be for me? hell would be if i got to heaven, and god showed me all the thingsi could have accomplished, all the things i could have achieved, and all the things i couldhave had if i'd just asked god. you have not because you ask not. there are a lot of things inyour life god wants to give you but he's never given them to you because he's waiting for you to ask.
over 20 times in the newtestament, god says, ask. you're commanded over20 times, ask, ask, ask, ask anything in my name, askand it shall be given to you. the bible says, ask andit shall be given to you, seek and you will find, knockand the door will be opened. ask, seek, knock, that'sa-s-k, it spells ask. he's just saying the samethings, three different ways. ask, seek, knock, ask. i want you to ask, you havenot because you ask not.
so many things you havealready missed out in your life simply because you never asked god for it. god says, call to me, i'll answer you. some of those problems you thought, i'm never going to figure this out, well, because you didn't ask god. you could have said, god, showme the great and wonderful things that there's no way icould figure it out on my own. i have prayed that prayerthousands of times as your pastor.
when we were facing insurmountable odds, like buying land, orlaunching new churches, or facing major crisis inour church or in the nation, and i'm going, god, i'm notsmart enough to do this, i'm asking you, i'm beggingyou, and here's what i need, and i get very specific, and my life is a historyof answered prayer. and this is what danieldid: he comes and he prays, and he does, and he says, i'm going to,
i can't figure this out on my own. now, there's one condition on this: when you pray, notice i said, pray and expect god, that's faith, pray and expect god togive you supernatural help. if you pray and you go,i don't really think god's going to do this, i'm going to pray and say, god, i needthis, i need this money, i need this staff, i need this person,
i need this opportunity, i need this help, i need this answer, i need this solution, but i don't really thinkgod's going to give it to me. don't even bother, mailit in, because god says, i'm not going to answerthat kind of prayer. god does not respond to your whining. god does not respond to your griping. god is not ever moved by your complaining. oh, god.
but god moves instantlywhen you trust him. he moves when you have faith, he moves when you expect him to, why? because it honors god. he's your loving heavenly father. and the bible says, if you,being an imperfect father or mother, know how to givegood gifts to your kids, how much does god know howto give better gifts to you, and he's perfect.
as a father, and now as a grandfather, i love to give my kidsand grandkids stuff. i'd spoil them rotten if kay'd let me. i would, i would spoil them rotten, because i have the joy of giving and watching them enjoywhat i have given to them is the greatest thrill. you know, when i'm a littlekid and i'm immature, it's all about the presentsi get under the tree.
that doesn't thrill me anymore. the presents under the treeare the least important things to me at christmas. it's watching everybody unwrapthe stuff i got for them. and when my kids or my grandkids say, daddy, or papa, i trust you, don't you think i'd move heaven and earth to get whatever they need done? and when you come to godand say, daddy, father,
heavenly father, i'm goingto trust you, don't you think he'd move heaven andearth to get things done? the bible says that if he loved you enough to send jesus christ todie for you on the cross, solved your biggest problem,your eternal salvation, anything you bring to him is pretty small potatoes in comparison. it's pretty minor by comparison. why do you have enough faith to trust god
to get you to heaven butyou don't have enough faith to trust god to get you a car? which one's harder for god? one required the death of his son. the other is no problem,all your problems are minor by comparison, compared to god forgiving you of all your sins. so trust him! you've got to expect himto answer, as daniel did.
here's what the biblesays, james chapter one. "if you need wisdom," and daniel did, "ask god, and he'llgladly give it to you." now, he's not going to giveit to you if you don't ask, because he wants you to trusthim, he wants you to ask. he won't resent you asking. god, i don't know how to solve this deal. i don't know how tohandle this competitor. i don't know how to resolvethis marriage conflict.
i don't know how to deal with my child who's heading off in the wrong direction. he won't resent you for asking. "but when you ask him, "be sure that you expect him to answer," that's the prayer of faith. expect him to answer, "for adoubtful mind is as unsettled "as a wave of the sea thatis tossed by the wind." then he said, "people likethat should not expect
"to receive anything from the lord." so if you're not going to believe it, you're not going to expectit, don't even bother praying. you pray, and if you thank god in advance, that's called faith. if you thank god afterthe fact, after he giveth, that's called gratitude. god wants you to haveboth, faith and gratitude. thank you, god, that you're hearing me,
thank you, god, thatyou're going to give it, and then thank you, god, that you gave it. faith and gratitude. so that's the fifththing: you need to pray and expect god to giveyou supernatural help. okay, number six, this is a big one when you're facing an impossiblesituation in your life. the sixth step is: worship god. worship god.
let me explain what that means. a lot of people think worship is music. music is one way to worship, but there's thousands of ways to worship. worship simply means focusingon god, that's all it means. anytime i turn my attentionto god, that's called worship. when i express my love togod, that's called worship. you don't have to be in church to worship. you can worship god in your car,
you can worship him in thelocker room, at gym, at school, you can worship him outside, you can worship him at in-and-out burger, thank you, god, for this good burger. okay.(laughing) i'm really grateful for you. thank you for creating taste buds. have you ever thankedgod for your taste buds? come on, man, that's oneof the greatest gifts
you were given. god could have made everythingto taste like oatmeal. but he made in-and-out.(laughing) what a god, okay, all right? and god created sex, what a god, right? he created all those nerveendings that you have, and all that ability to feel pleasure. god said, i just think i'm going to make a packet with this one.
so you come to god, and you worship god. now, what that means is, iget the focus off my problem and i get my focus on god. i get my focus off the thingthat's scaring me to death and i'm tempted to be panicked over, and i get my focus on the solution. i stop looking at the difficulty,the impossible problem, and i start looking at the immutable god, the sovereign god, who noproblem is small to him.
he knows it all, he sees itall, and everything like that. so i worship god, andthis is what daniel did, after he asked his friends to pray, he then goes and hespends all night praying. and verse 19 says this,here on the screen. "during the night," itdoesn't tell us when, but sometime during the night, "god revealed and explainedthe mystery of the dream," nebuchadnezzar's dream,to daniel in a vision."
now what does that mean? he has got a picturein his mind, i got it, god just put that in my mind! i know what he dreamed, i saw it, he just put that thought in my mind! i got it, and not only doi know what he dreamed, i know what it means, god just told me, which means i know more thannebuchadnezzar, because i know not only what he dreamed,i know what it means.
that all came from god, hewas never going to get that on his own, and it says, "then daniel praised," that'sworship, "the god of heaven." circle the word praised. now, this passage shows youhow to pray in a crisis. you need to write this down. you're going to need this. when you're faced withan impossible situation, you need to pray the samethree things that daniel prayed
when his life was onthe line, he was about to get assassinated if hedidn't come up with the answer, and he's asked to do the impossible. okay, he's up all night,it says during the night, he's praying, by the way,before i give you these things, let me ask you this: have you ever prayed allnight about anything? in your entire life, ever,have you ever, ever, ever, ever, ever stayed up allnight to pray about something?
is there anything importantenough in your life that it's worth staying upall night to pray about? no? you see, prayer revealswhat's important to you. if it's important, you'regoing to pray about it, and if it's really, really,really, really important, you're going to really,really pray about it. if you're not praying aboutit, it's not that important. god goes, well, it's obviouslynot important to them.
they don't really careif they get that job, they're not praying about it. if they prayed about it, theymight even stay up all night to pray about getting that job. it reveals what you care about. prayer reveals what's important to you. now, granted, if you were being threatened with execution the next morning, you probably would stayup all night and pray.
but would it take that? does it take you being near death to have to stay up all night and pray? is there anything worthpraying all night for, like the direction of your kids, like the success of your marriage, like the fulfillment of your career, is there anything in your life that you would ever stayup all night to pray about?
god's going, i'm here, you can ask, you obviously don't thinkthis is very important, because i've said, call to em and ask. now, daniel shows how toworship when you're in a crisis. i want you to writethese three things down. when you're facing the impossible, first, praise god for who he is. i praise god for who he is, in other words, his character.
i focus on who god is, andi say, god, you're loving, you're kind, you're gracious. god, you know everything,god, you're all-powerful. nothing's too hard for you. god, you're faithful, you've been there when i've needed you. god, you're a forgiving god. you're a gracious god. god, you are omnipotent, all-powerful.
and you focus on theattributes, the nature, the character of god, youpraise god for who he is. notice here's what it says in verse 19. "then daniel praised god saying, "'our god, your name "'will be praised forever and ever! "'you are all-powerful,'"that's who he is, "'and you know everything!'" that's a good thing, becausei don't know what that king
knows but you do, youknow what he dreamed, so i'm going to need youto tell me what you know that i don't know. you will praise him for who he is. now, i want you to circlethe phrase your name. he says, when you pray, you say, god, i'm praising your name. what is such a big deal about god's name? i mean, in the ten commandments,
you know, the big 10, the top 10 in god's list ofthings you're supposed to do, or not do, right upthere with don't murder and don't commit adultery, he says, don't take the name of the lord in vain. huh? wait a minute, god considerstaking his name in vain as bad as adultery and murderand lying and cheating? yes.
what's the big deal about god's name? he says, don't take my name in vain. don't misuse my name, it's right up there with don't murder anddon't commit adultery. some of you need to stoptaking god's name in vain, and you need to tell god you're sorry for taking his name in vain,you need to break that habit. you need to stop using him as a cuss word, you need to stop using him as a, uh,
where you just throw itin there all the time. in the new testament, jesus says, i'm going to teach you how to pray. it's called the lord's prayer,here's how you should pray. our father, who art inheaven, hallowed be your name. huh, what's the big deal about god's name? hallowed be your name, thatmeans honored be your name, respected be your name, treatedwith value be your name. when jesus christ getsready to go back to heaven,
one of the last thingshe says to the disciples, his followers, he said,now i want you to go all around the world and iwant you to make disciples and you are to baptize them in the name of the father, and theson, and the holy spirit. what's the big deal about jesus' name, the spirit's name, the father's name? name represents character. god's name represents god's character.
god's name represents who he is. when we say about somebody,he's got a good name, that means he's trustworthy,that guy's legit. when you say, she's got a good name, what you're saying there is, she's reliable, she keeps herpromises, she's trustworthy, she says she'll do it, she'll do it. he's got a good name,she's got a good name. your name represents who you are.
god's name represents all he is, and so you praise god's name because you're praisingwhat his name represents, all of his character qualities. it's important. now, the second thing you do is you honor god for whathe does, write that down. you praise god for who he is, and you honor god for what he does.
there's a differencebetween god's character and god's actions. and now, the second part of your prayer, when you're in a crisis,first, you remember who god is, and second, you remember what he's done, his actions on your behalf, and in verse 21, this is the second partof daniel's crisis prayer. and he says this, "you, god,you control human events.
"you, god, give rulers theirpower and you take it away." you're in charge. "you, god, are the sourceof wisdom and knowledge. "you, god, explain the deep mysteries," which daniel really needsto know in this situation, what's the mystery of this dream? "you explain the deep mysteries, "because even the dark is light to you!" the bible says god is light
and in him is no darknessat all, and even in your darkest days, when youcan't see ahead, he can, because god is light and inhim is no darkness at all. god, you can see what i can't see, you can hear what i can't hear, you know what i don't know, you are god, you control human events, you know everything, and he says, "you are the god who wasworshiped by my ancestors."
he's praising god for who he is, and he's honoring god for what he's done, that's the second part. now here's the the thirdpart of the prayer. you need to pray this toowhen you're in a crisis. thank god for helping me, thank god for helping me. i praise him for who he is, i honor him for what he does,
and now the third part of my prayer is i think god for helping me. and in daniel chapter two, verse 23, the third part of his prayer says this: "now, god," he says, "ithank," there's the word thank, "i thank and praise you,god of my ancestors." i mean, you helped outmy dad and my parents and grandparents, and onand on, people in the past in the bible, "i thank and praise you
"for you have given mewisdom and strength." daniel needed both of those when he's facing an impossible situation. and, "you have told me what i asked of you "and revealed to mewhat the king demanded." so god, i'm so grateful, i'm so thankful. and that's the third part of your prayer, thanking god for what he'sdone for you in the past, what he's doing for you right now,
what he's going to do for you tomorrow. that's thanksgiving. now the seventh thing he does, after he has prayed this prayer, is he's now going to goback and give the solution. but i want you to write this down, the seventh thing is this, very important: use what god shows me to save others. use what god shows me,use what god gives me,
use what god blessesme with to save others. he's not, god wants to save you from your impossible situation, but he doesn't want to do just that. he wants to save other people. god doesn't want to just save you. god wants to save the whole world. god wants to save your family. god wants to save your friends.
god wants to save thepeople you work with. god wants to save your enemies. yup, because god has nevermade a person he doesn't love. god wants to save your competitors. god is not discriminating in any sense over sex or race or anything like that. he says, i want to save everybody. god so loved the world,not just a few people, god so loved the world,
and so he's going to say,now, i'm going to save you, daniel, but i want you,what i've just given you, to use it to save a bunchof other people too, because i care about them just as much. so, in daniel two, verse 24, it says this: "then," after he finished praying, he gets up the next morning, "daniel rushed to see arioch,"the captain of the guard, the palace guard, "who had been ordered
"to execute all the king's advisors." and i imagine him runninginto the palace and saying, "daniel said, 'call off the execution.'" i mean, can't you just see this? he runs in and, calloff, i got it, i got it, last night, i'm praying,i was up all night, god not only told me what the dream is, but told me the meaningof it, get me to the king! i know how to do this, i gotthis, call off the execution.
can you see how daniel's life would make an incredible movie? i mean, just this one scene, this is just one ofnine tests in his life. i don't know why hollywood has never, they always make noah and moses and abraham and david and jesus. nobody's ever made a movie on daniel. this guy, it's filled with intrigue.
can you see him running in the palace, goes, call off the execution,last minute saving. halt it, halt it all, igot it, i got the dream, i know what it's all right. god is not just interested in saving you, he wants to save others too. this is called witnessing. this is why we do the peaceplan at saddleback church, because we want to notjust save ourselves.
we want to save everybody. why do we keep growing? why does this church keepstarting more campuses? this week, we're getting ready to start saddleback san diego. okay, saddleback san diego and(applause) hopefully by christmas, we're going to startsaddleback san francisco. okay, now why, why?
because god has never madea person he doesn't love. he wants everybody saved, he wants everybody knowing him, he wants everybody to knowhis purpose for their life, and as long as there's one person who doesn't know christ, we'regoing to keep reaching out. and that doesn't mean, if wehave to do 50,000 services, we will do 50,000services, because god says, i want you to use what godshows you to save others.
i pray this prayer every week,i prayed it this morning. god, show me what will save some of you. i pray it every week, thereason why this church grows is because every pastor at this church, when they're getting readyto teach, they're saying, god, show me something that'sgoing to save other people, save them from disaster,save them from problems, save them from defeat,save them from conflict, save them from, god, showme something to save others.
god wants to show you stuff,not just for your benefit, but so you can save other people. that's your witness, that'syour mission in the world. now, he runs into the palace, and here's how the story continues, look up here on the screen, verse 25, so, "then arioch rushed danielto the king and he said, "'king, i have foundone of the captives,'" he didn't find him.(laughing)
he's claiming credit. arioch didn't, daniel found him. here, he's buttering up the king. "'i have found one of thecaptives from judah,'" the pows, "'who can tell you your dream "'and the meaning of it.'" and the king looks at this17-year-old jewish kid and goes, "'is it true?'" i mean, can you do this?
are you putting me on,are you pulling my leg? "'can you tell me my dream,'" that nobody else could do it,"'and also what it means?'" so there's a reason to be skeptical here. can you do this? all right, now daniel'sreply to the king's question gives us the eighth step, andi want you to write this down. when you're in a crisis,and you're praying, and you're asking god togive you supernatural help,
when you get the answer,you point people to god. point people to god. don't take the creditfor yourself because you didn't think up thesolution, god gave it to you. and so god says, okay, i'mgoing to give you this solution, i want to get the credit for it, i want the glory to go to me, not to you. and this is exactly what daniel does. he gives god all the credit.
and so here's what danielsays to the most powerful man in the world at that time, the king of the babylonianempire, verse 27. "daniel replied," okay, king, "'no wise man, nopsychic, no fortuneteller, "'no astrologer could possibly explain "'the mystery of your dream.'" so what i'm about to tellyou isn't coming from men. i didn't think it up,they couldn't think it up,
it was given to me by god. he said, no man could solvethis impossible problem you've given, but thenext line is, i think, one of my favorite versesin the entire bible, and it says this: "'butthere is a god in heaven.'" i am so grateful for that verse. there is a god in heaven. things may be falling apart in your life, there is a god in heaven.
your dream may be on the skids, but there is a god in heaven. you may be up to youreyeballs in alligators, you may be going down for the last time, and the weeds are pulling you down, and you're in deep guacamole, but there is a god in heaven, and that is what gives the world hope, because god can do what none of us can do.
none of these people couldsolve your problem, king, "'but there is a god inheaven who reveals mysteries, "'and he has chosen toshow you,'" nebuchadnezzar, what's going to happen in the future. i don't know why, buthe's chosen to show you "'and now, god has revealedthis mystery to me,'" not because i'm cool or i'many better than anybody else, he says, "'not because i'msmarter than everybody else,'" because he says, i'm not,
i'm a 17-year-old prisoner of war being trained by you to be an advisor. "'god has revealed this mystery to me, "'not because i'm smarter,but for your benefit, king,'" you can say this to your boss, "'so that you o king may understand.'" god is not interested in just daniel, he's interested innebuchadnezzar, the pagan king. now we're going to see hislife change in the future,
in another session. what a bold witnessthis kid has done here. and at 17 years old, hedoesn't take the credit. now, i don't know aboutyou, but if i'd been 17, and all of a sudden, i got the answer that's going to save hundreds of lives and make the king really, really happy, i'd probably want to take atleast a little credit for it. i might have said, you know,last night, i was praying
and god gave me the answer, but it's because i was praying, and god gave the answer, butit's because i was listening. and i would have liked to take the credit, at least a little bit of it, for myself, but what does daniel do? he points people to god. and if you'll do that,god will bless your life in ways you cannot possibly imagine.
if you will always pointcredit back to god, god can do great things through the person who doesn't care who gets the credit. who says, i'm going topoint it back to god. yeah, yeah, yeah, god usedme, but it's all about god. it's not about you. you ever heard that line anywhere? it's not about you, it's all about god. what a bold witness, he points to god,
this is true evangelism. the word evangelism simply means sharing good news, in greek,"evangel" is good news, evangelism is sharing good news. this is what it means foryou to be an evangelist, not some guy with poofyhair on tv, who says, baby! out, foul spirit of nicotine! no, no, this is a true evangelism, he's sharing the good news here,
and he's just pointing to god. that is what you're todo the rest of your life: you are to point people to god. you're in starbucks, point people to god. you're in the military,point people to god. you're on the work site,point people to god. you're with a bunch ofmothers of preschoolers, point people to god. you're in the hospital,point the staff to god.
that's your cause, and ifgod gives you any degree of success in your life, god has given you that degree of success to give you a platformto point people to god, and i want to tell youfrom personal experience the more you point people to god, the bigger god will build your platform. the more god will build your platform, and you will have influenceyou never thought possible.
now, these are the eight things he did. now, now he shares thevision, or the dream. i don't have time to really go into this, so let me summarize thenext 16 or so verses. daniel says, okay, king, i got this. god gave it to me and so, first,let me tell you your dream. he said, in your dream, yousaw a giant statue of a man, and it was very frightening, and the head was made out of gold,
and the upper body was made out of silver, and the midpoint, the bellyand the torso, thighs, was made out of bronze, and the legs of the statuewere made out of iron, and the feet were made outof clay mixed with iron. nebuchadnezzar goes,you got it right, buddy. that's exactly right. he says, but that's not all you dreamed. he said, then, in your dream,
you saw this giant rock,this giant boulder, cut from a mountain by supernatural means, and all of a sudden, itis hurled at that statue, and it hits the feet that are iron and clay mixed together, and it shatters the feet, and the whole statue falls over. and nebuchadnezzar, you got that right, man, this is amazing,you're telling me my dream.
and he said, and then whenthe statue falls over, it breaks into smithereens,into a thousand pieces, and the wind comes alongand blows it all away. and then he said, now, thenthat rock that was there, after it knocked the statue down, becomes a great mountain. this is like an lsd trip, you guys. it becomes a great mountain,no wonder he was scared, and that mountain covers the whole earth.
nebuchadnezzar goes, kid, younailed it, that's my dream. this happened 2,500 yearsago, with king nebuchadnezzar. you nailed it! he goes, okay, now i'm goingto tell you the meaning of it. god was showing you thefuture of the world, and he was showing you the empires that are going to come after you. he said, you know, the goldhead, he goes, that's you, that's the babylonianempire, it's a big empire,
the most powerful nation at this time. and he said the one that'sgoing to come after you is the silver, that's the persian empire, the medes and the persian,medo-persian empire. but it's not going to be,silver isn't as good as gold, so it's not going to be asstrong as your empire was. then he said, then, after that, he said, then you're going to have the bronze, and he goes, this is the third empire,
he's talking about alexanderthe great and the greek empire. he's predicting it, hundredsof years in advance. and then he said, but thatone's going to be then replaced by the iron empire, and ironis the strongest of all. that's the roman empire. he goes, that's going tobe bigger than all of them, including yours. and then, he said, but then the feet are iron and clay mixed together,
and he said, that's because that empire is going to eventually start crumbling, like the roman empire did, because clay and iron don't mix together, and some parts of the kingdomcan be very strong like iron and some parts will bevery weak like clay, and they don't mix and match, and that empire's gonna fall apart too. but he said, here's the big key.
that rock that turns into a mountain that covers the whole earth, that's the ultimate empire,that's god's empire, that's called the kingdom of god, and one day, god is goingto establish his kingdom, and all the man-made empires of the world are going to crash and burn and crumble and blow off like dust, andit is only god's kingdom that will never be destroyed,
that is going to cover everything, and nobody's going to conquer it, and it's going to last forever, and that's how history is going to end and god has chosen to let you know that. wow, what a witness. he said, nothing's going tokeep this from happening. now, what is nebuchadnezzar'sresponse to daniel when he gives him the dreamand the interpretation?
look up here on the screen. here's how the story ends, verse 46. "then king nebuchadnezzarbowed to the ground "before daniel," this is a king, the most powerful man in the world bowing before a 17-year-old teenager, bows to the ground beforedaniel, "and worshiped him," got that one wrong, daniel wasn't god, "and he commanded hispeople to offer sacrifices
"and burn sweet incense before him." so he still doesn't get it, imean, he's still a pagan king but he does get some right. and then he says, "thenthe king said to daniel, "'truly, your god is the god of gods,'" he's the real deal, he's the real deal, all these other fake, phony gods, "'your god is the god of gods, "'the lord over kings,'" including me,
"'he is a revealer of mysteries,'" obviously, he told you,because you could have never figured out my dream on your own, "'for you have been ableto reveal this secret.'" that's quite a testimonyfrom a pagan king. who's getting honored here,god's getting honored. you know, okay, i don'tknow how you did it, but your god's the realdeal, he's the true god, he's the god and thisking needs to honor him.
now, he later has some problems with this, we're going to talk about that next week. then, nebuchadnezzar givesdaniel a greater position, he gives him a promotion, and he gives him all kinds of possessions. and here's how the story ends,look up here on the screen. "then the king promoteddaniel to a high position "and gave him many valuable gifts. "now he made daniel ruler
"over the whole province of babylon." are you kidding me,this kid's 17 years old, and he's the mayor of babylon. what's going on here? this is called a promotion. every time you pass the test, god makes sure you get promoted. "he made daniel ruler overthe whole province of babylon, "as well as the chiefover all his wise men."
you know all those fauxfakes and phony psychics, you're now in charge of them. i'm sure daniel's going,thanks but no thanks. but he's now chief over all the advisors, and he's 17 years old. now, daniel's humble, he'sthinking about his friends, and, "at daniel's request,the king also appointed "shadrach, meshach, and abendego," you know, the three musketeers,
"to be in charge of allthe affairs of the province "of babylon while danielremained in the king's court." do you see why this wouldmake an incredible movie? this is just one of nine incidents, you do not want to missany in this series, because there's lessons for you. he's given a reward andgreater responsibility. he's given prizes and a greater position. but he doesn't forget his friends,
he brings them all along,so let me close with this. what is it that seems impossiblein your life right now? what's the thing that's got you panicked? what is it that god callsyou to stay awake at night? debt? you're out of work? when am i going to get married? when am i going to have a baby? when am i going to see my dream come true?
when am i going to get out of school? when, when, when, when. and all these impossible problemsare piling up against you, this is never going to work out, my marriage is never going toget any better, it's just not. really, really? have you stayed up allnight and prayed about it? what is it that seemsimpossible in your life? i got this big deal coming up
and it's such an opportunity,it's a giant contract, if i could close this sale, it would be clear sailingfor the next year, but it's impossible forme to get it done in time. have you asked god to help you out? and expected him to help you out? and trusted him to help you out? i'm a mother of preschoolers, i've got little ones allaround my feet all day,
and the work never ends. and if you're a mother of a preschooler, you haven't slept in six years. and i've got so much todo and i'm overwhelmed and i don't even know how, it's impossible to meet everybody's needsand take care of these kids. you need to do theeight things daniel did. let's bow our heads. would you say, dear god,
just say in your mind, i know that nobody knowsthe future except you, so i'm telling you right now, i'm finished, i'm done withlooking for other people to show me the future. no more clairvoyance, no more astrology, no more horoscopes, no moretea leaves or ouija boards or mediums or any of theother stuff that's out there, it's just all fake and fraud,
and they don't know the future. you only know it. and lord, you know not onlythe problem i'm facing right now but you know the big onethat's coming up this week and i don't know it, andyou know the even bigger one that's coming up next month, and you know the real big one that's going to come up in a year or so. so i'm not going to panic,
because although i don't know it, you do, and like daniel, i'mnot going to be afraid, and when i face the problem,help me to get the facts, to learn all i can about the problem, if my boss is putting pressure on me, help me to figure out hismotivation or her motivation, to ask why, and there's so much fury, and then, lord, help meto do what daniel did,
to ask for some time toconsider the solution so i can spend time talking to you, and then, lord, help meto enlist prayer support from my friends. i commit today to building a prayer team, of four or five guys if you're a guy, or four or five gals if you're a gal, that they know i will pray for them and i can count on them topray for me when i need it.
i'm going to build thatprayer support team today. from my small group, i'm goingto get in that small group. and then, lord, when the problems come that seemed overwhelming, help me to pray and expect you to give supernaturalhelp that i don't have. you've said, call tome and i'll answer you. you've said you'll show me things i can never figure out on my own, like daniel, i'm sorry,
i have not had because i have not asked. i need wisdom, and i'm asking you, and i'm expecting you to give it to me. and lord, help me to getmy eyes off the problem that i'm facing right now andget my problem focused on you. i want to worship you. i want to praise you for who you are, you're loving, you'rekind, you're gracious, you know everything, youmade me for a purpose.
and i want to honor youfor what you've done and what you do. you help, you answer prayers, you encourage, you support, you comfort. and lord, i want to thankyou for all the times you've helped me in the past, in gratitude, and i wantto thank you in faith for all the times you'regoing to help me this week, when i go back to workor school or wherever.
lord, whatever you show me,i want to use to save others. i don't want to just savemyself, just my family. help me to point peopleto god at the workplace. help me to point peopleto god in the marketplace. help me to point people togod on the soccer field, at the starbucks, in the grocery store, because lord, i know that ifyou see me caring about others, you just want to build thatplatform in my life even more. so use me to save others.
jesus christ, i ask you to save me, not just from sin, not just from hell, but i ask you to save me to be who you make me to be, save me from myself,save me from my habits, save me from my hangups and my hurts. and i pray this in the namethat is above every other name, your name, jesus, ipray this in your name, humbly, amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment