Crisis Management

There's a quote attributed to a Steve Brown from Key Life Ministries.

Pastor Brown says something, it's not in the Bible, it actually might not be good theology, but it's something to think about. He says, I believe that for every non-Christian who has cancer, a Christian will have cancer so that the world will be able to see the difference. For every non-Christian who has a business failure, a Christian will have a business failure so the world can see the difference between the two.

For every non-Christian who has car trouble, a Christian will have car trouble so the world can see the difference between the two. Now, I don't know if that's biblical or not, but his point is we're all gonna go through crises, lost people, saved people who love Jesus, those who don't love Jesus, we're all gonna go through crisis. There ought to be a qualitative difference in the way that we who know Jesus handle our crises than the world who doesn't know Jesus, does that make sense? And so today, we're gonna look at several young men who went through a major crisis and how they handled that with tremendous faith in God. Look, I'm not trying to give you bad news, but y'all do understand, you look, you're either out to go into a crisis, you're into a crisis, or you're coming out of a crisis. You're really in one of those three areas and it's gonna be like that till Jesus comes back.

So how do you handle these crises? Well, turn, if you would, to Daniel chapter two. We've been going through the book of Daniel. We're now at Daniel chapter two, verse one. Keep in mind, these are four hostages, four young men kidnapped from their country, taken to the nation of Babylon. They're now being trained to be in leadership in this pagan country.

They are part of a group really called the wise men, the magi, who are the intellectual ancestors to the wise men, actually, who came to see Jesus. But Daniel chapter two, verse one. Now, the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams and his spirit was troubled and his sleep left him.

Let me ask you this. Does God still speak through dreams and visions? Okay, because there's a group, large group in Western Christianity called cessationists who say, no, no, God doesn't speak like that anymore. He spoke through dreams all throughout the Old Testament and even into the New Testament, but God doesn't speak through dreams today. Here's their logic. We have the Bible, Christians. We have the Bible so we don't need God to speak through dreams because we have the Bible. Now, that's actually really good logic, it really is. But there's only one problem with that logic.

What is that? It's not in the Bible. And so when the Bible contradicts your logic, you have to go with the Bible. The Bible never says God ceased speaking in dreams and visions. In fact, Acts chapter two, verse 17 and following says, in the last days, he's gonna give dreams and visions and the last day started there in the book of Acts, but how much closer now are we to the last days?

Here's my point. God does still speak through dreams and visions. Look, he does that to me periodically. It's kind of weird how God speaks to me and it doesn't happen a lot, but it happens sometimes. I will dream of a particular Bible verse.

And it happened a couple weeks ago. I was dreaming and all throughout the night, this one chapter in the Bible, I won't tell you the chapter, but the chapter kept popping into my head. I didn't know what that chapter was. All throughout the night, I was dreaming about that one chapter. I woke up the next day, read the chapter, realized it was a warning from God. I actually shared that with the pastors last week. God spoke to me through a vision, but it was connected to the word of God.

You with me on that? And God actually even speaks to non-Christians, like Nebuchadnezzar, in dreams. Do you know sociologists who are studying Christianity's growth in Muslim countries?

Do you know what they're saying? So many Muslims in the Arab world that are close to the gospel are now coming to faith in Jesus Christ because Muslims are having dreams and visions of Jesus. Do you know that? Even secular psychologists are talking about that, how in these Muslim countries, lost people, Muslims, are coming to faith in Jesus because they're having visions and dreams of Jesus. Dr. Michael Youssef talks about one of those. He talked about a high-level leader of ISIS. Y'all remember ISIS? Who had a dream of an envelope dripping in blood, but had a beautiful fragrance. And so when this high-level member of ISIS woke up, he actually found a Christian and met secretly with a Christian and says, I heard you Christians are into this stuff.

Let me tell you the dream I had. It was an envelope dripping in blood, but it smelled good. Can you tell me what that means? And the Christian said, well, the envelope means God has a message for you. The fragrance means it's a wonderful message. The blood means that that message has something to do with the shedding of the blood, and he shared the gospel with this high-ranking member of ISIS, and that member gave his life to the Lord Jesus Christ and got saved through a vision and a dream.

So God still does that. Now, I'll say this, be very careful. Don't go doing crazy stuff just because you had a dream.

It could have been the pizza you ate last night, okay? I met with a lady one time, she and her husband, she said, Chad, we're moving. I said, you're moving? Where you moving to?

We're moving to this state across the country. I said, oh, okay, did you get a job transfer? She said, no, I had a dream a few nights ago that we're supposed to move to that state, and the husband's there and he's just real quiet and his head's down. And I said, sir, you think you ought to be moving? He said, no, I don't think we should be moving, but she's insistent because she had this dream.

I said, ma'am, two things. Number one, don't uproot your life because of one dream. And number two, you're violating scripture. The spiritual leader of the family is saying, I don't think we ought to be moving, but you're counteracting that, so your dream probably is not from God. So I do believe in dreams and visions, but you gotta handle it carefully. Does that make sense?

All right, let's keep going. So look at verse five. So Nebuchadnezzar has this dream, but he forgets it. He can't remember what it is.

All he knows is it really bothered him. I'm about to make you ladies really mad right here. I'm gonna do a quick timeout.

I know y'all come with your shawls and your dresses or your coats and all this kind of stuff. I'm burning up, so let's turn the air down just a little bit, guys. Whoever's in charge of the air, let's turn it down because y'all gonna see pit sweat and all this kind of stuff here in a second.

I don't want you to see that, so let's turn the air down just a little bit. So look at verse five. So he gathers all the intellectual elites throughout the kingdom together, and he says, I had this horrible dream. I need you to interpret it.

Here's what they say. All these intellectual elites throughout the kingdom says, tell us the dream, and we'll give you interpretation. Here's what Nebuchadnezzar says. No, if you're so smart, you tell me what I dreamed and give me the interpretation.

And of course, they panic. They say, no, look at verse five. The king answered to the Chaldeans, the word for me is firm. If you do not make known to me the dream and its interpretation, you will be torn limb from limb and your houses will be made a rubbish heap. You will be torn limb from limb.

And he stopped just using hyperbole there. There was a form of execution of those days called dismemberment. Now that I've made the ladies offended, because I'm talking about how hot it is in here, I'm gonna make parents offended because I'm about to get a little bit gory here.

Y'all ready? Here's what dismemberment would do. They would tie a rope to the ankles and the legs of the person to be executed and tie them to four animals like a donkey or a horse, and they would pull that person apart. And it was not a quick death.

It took them a few minutes to bleed out. It's a horrible way to die. So here's what Nebuchadnezzar is saying to the intellectual elites. If you don't tell me the dream and you don't tell me the interpretation, I'm gonna kill you. But it's not gonna be a quick, clean death.

It's gonna be a horrendous death. So look at verse 10. The Chaldeans answered the king and said, it's not a man on earth who's able to declare the matter for the king in as much as no king or powerful ruler has ever asked about a matter like this or any magician or conjurer or Chaldean. Moreover, the matter which the king asks is difficult and there's no one else who could declare it through the king except the gods whose dwelling place is not with the flesh. Do you see what they're saying? They're saying, king, you are asking us an impossible task.

You're asking us to tell you what you dreamed and the interpretation. Because nobody can do that. Now, look at this. Verse 12. Because of this, the king became indignant and very furious and said for them to destroy all the intellectual elites, all the wise men of Babylon.

So the law went forth that the wise men were to be killed and they sought out Daniel, remember him and Shadrach and Meshach and Abednego, his friends, they sought out Daniel and his friends to kill them. You understand the crisis? I just told you, if you follow Jesus, you will go through crises. This is a crisis.

These guys are about to be executed in the most horrendous way imaginable. And so I want you to see how Daniel handles this crisis. Arioch, the royal executioner, goes to Daniel's house to kill him. Daniel knows why he's there.

He's not there to have a conversation. He's there to kill him. Look at verse 15. He answered, Daniel answered and said to Arioch, a powerful official for the king, for what reason is the law from the king so urgent? Then Arioch made the matter known to Daniel. So Daniel went in and sought from the king that he would give him time in order that he might declare the interpretation to the king. Then Daniel went to his house and made the matter known to his friends, Hananiah, Mishael, Azariah, or Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, so that they might seek compassion from the God of heaven concerning this mystery so that Daniel and his friends would not be destroyed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. Then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of heavens.

Daniel answered and said, let the name of God be blessed forever and ever for wisdom and might belong to him. And he changes the times and the seasons. He removes kings and he establishes kings. He gives wisdom to wise men and knowledge to men of understanding. He reveals the deep and hidden things. He knows what is in the darkness and the light dwells with him. To you, oh God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise for you have given me wisdom and might and even now you have made known to me what we sought from you for you have made known to us the king's matter.

Isn't that great? God gives Daniel the dream, which we'll talk about in two weeks, and the interpretation, which we'll talk about in a couple weeks. But I want you to see how Daniel handled this crisis. I mean, could you imagine that? You're in your house minding your own business, the president's executioner knocks on the door, he opens up and he says, hey, I'm here to dismember you.

I'm here to tear you apart limb from limb. How in the world did Daniel handle this crisis? I told you all last week, now this time Daniel's a little bit older, but Daniel's a young man at this time. He was 15 years old when we talked about him last week. He's just a little bit older than that now.

And yet Daniel's teaching me. He's 51. How old am I? I'm almost 50. 52 year old man.

You ever forget how old you are? He teaches me how to handle this crisis. And let me give you some insight on how Daniel handled his crisis.

Would you agree this is a crisis? You're about to be torn apart limb from limb. All right, number one, here's how he handled it. Jot this word down. Jot peace, P-E-A-C-E. Verse 15, the king's executioner storms into Daniel's house. He's ready to arrest him, torture him, and kill him. You know what Daniel says? Arioch, the executioner, sit down with me.

Let's talk about this for a few minutes. Daniel doesn't run, he doesn't scream, he doesn't hide. Do you notice the calmness with which he handles this crisis?

Arioch, let's sit down and let's discuss this matter. Listen, mature believers, I want you to listen to me. Mature believers handle a crisis with a sense of calmness. They don't run around like a chicken with its head cut off. They don't get panicked, they don't, no, no, no. They handle it with a calm sense of peace. That's how Daniel's handling this thing here.

In fact, Jesus in Mark chapter four, y'all remember this story? There's a hurricane on the Sea of Galilee. They're out in the middle of the sea in this boat. The storms are all over the place. It's lightning, it's thundering. In fact, last night, did y'all get that bad thunderstorm last night? We were coming back from visiting some family and we crossed the Jordan Lake Bridge.

And it was so dark and there were literally, I've never seen this before, there were waves on Jordan Lake and lightning's going all over the place. And as we're crossing that, I think about Jesus in a boat in that sea, they're all about to get struck by lightning, they're about to get killed, they're all about to drown. The disciples are losing their head. Where's Jesus?

He's in the stern of the boat asleep with his head on a pillow, it says. And do you remember they said, they woke him up and they asked this, Jesus, don't you care that we're about to die? You ever asked that Jesus before?

Jesus, do you even care that I'm going through this crisis? Jesus has this calmness in the midst of that storm. Wouldn't you love to have that calmness? Do you know what Jesus did with that kind of peace? Here's what Jesus did with that peace. John 14, 27, he says, peace I leave with you. Look at this, my peace I give to you. John was a follower of Jesus Christ. When you got born again, one of the parts of your inheritance is Jesus gave you the same peace that he had in the middle of that storm.

It's yours, you own it, did you know that? And then he says this, let not your hearts be troubled. In other words, you've got a role to play in this. When a crisis comes, you can lose your mind and panic or you can choose to access this peace that I have already given you, the choice is yours. And when a crisis comes, mature believers say, listen, the storms that terrify everybody else have no effect on me. I want that kind of peace. I got that, I keep saying I want that peace. I got that peace.

I wanna start using that peace. As an old country preacher, you know, I can't preach out if I'm not taken in. And so, you know, every couple of weeks, I'll listen to this preacher, the old country preacher. And he shared this story recently, I love this. He said, my best friend, his daddy, started a trucking company here in North Carolina. And he said, it grew and it was just prospering.

He said, the big role they played is they would haul high-end furniture for all these major corporations. And he said, he said, one day, the trucking facility caught fire. He said, the whole thing burned down.

The facility burned down, the trucks burned down, all the furniture in those trucks all burned. He said, the whole thing burned down. And he said, this young man just actually leveled him. And he had to get on the phone and call his daddy, the old man that started the company, and tell him the bad news. And he said, my daddy was fishing down the coast of North Carolina, doing some surf fishing. And he says, I called my dad while he's surf fishing. He said, hello? He said, daddy, I got bad news. And this guy's a strong Christian.

This old man's a strong Christian. He said, all right, what is it? He said, it's all gone. Hey, what do you mean it's gone? He said, the whole business, it caught on fire.

The whole thing has burned to the ground, we have nothing. And the daddy paused and he said, well, was anybody hurt? Young man said, no, nobody's hurt. Dad said, well, praise God. He said, son, the fish are biting real good here. I think I'm gonna stay here for a couple days and then I'll come on back and we'll figure out how to rebuild this thing. He said, y'all have had a long day, go to sleep. Lord gives, Lord takes away, bless be the name of the Lord. And he hung up the phone. Wouldn't you love to have that kind of peace that says your whole building just burned down, your house just burned down, you just lost everything.

Yeah, but the fish are biting real good, I think I'll stay here. That's the kind of peace that mature believers have when the storms come. So how does Daniel handle this crisis? Number one, peace. Number two, jot this word down, pace, P-A-C-E. Verse 16, Daniel, I love this.

The guy's coming to kill him. He says, time out. Can you give me a little bit of time here to think about this and pray about this? Have you noticed if you'll just slow down and give God time to work, God can do a whole lot through your just slowing down and letting him have time to work. See, our problem is when a crisis comes, we immediately shift to crisis mode.

We start running around, calling our lawyers, calling our friends, calling everybody, trying to just do something. Don't just stand there, do something. Hey, mature believers, it's not don't just stand there, do something, it's don't just do something, stand there.

You just stand there and you wait on God and Daniel says to this executioner, give me some time here. It's a great verse, jot this verse down. It's a great verse to memorize. Y'all want to memorize in scripture, start memorizing scripture, it'll help you. Galatians 5, 25 says this. If we live by the Spirit, let us, have you seen this? Keep in step or walk in the Spirit.

That term, keep in step or walk, I think it's like stokeu, it's a military term. How many former military do we have in here? Raise your hand, we're current military. Now, when you're in formation, marching with the other troops, if you lag behind, is your drill sergeant gonna be happy? No, he ain't gonna be happy.

But let me ask you this. If you run ahead of everybody else, is he gonna be happy? No, you keep in step. You don't lag behind, but you certainly don't run ahead. And a lot of times when a crisis comes, instead of keeping in step with the Spirit like Paul says, we run way ahead of the Spirit and we try to do the Spirit's job for him.

And Daniel says, give us some time here. See, this is something I've struggled with all my life. I have this impetuous spirit. Here's what I used to do. When somebody would send me a bad email, this witty zinger one-liners would pop in my head. And instead of just waiting, I'm like, well, if I wait, I wanna forget this witty zinger one-liners is gonna put them in their place.

I better go ahead and do this now before I forget. And I'd throw it out. You know what would always happen after I'd send that thing?

I would immediately regret it. Why did I do that? I didn't need to do that. Now the email has this thing.

I don't know if yours, ours has this function at the church. You can send it and it gives you about 10 seconds to unsend, okay? And that helps some. But here's my point. My point is you get ahead of God and you don't wait on the Spirit and you take matters into your own hands, that's generally not the best way to handle a crisis. You don't wanna lag behind the Spirit, but you certainly don't wanna run ahead of the Spirit. And so there's a couple verses now. Again, I'm getting really into scripture memorization. Jot this verse down, Isaiah 64 four.

Jot this down and read it later on. One of the versions says this, Isaiah 64 four. God works on behalf of those who wait. Crisis comes, you work, God waits. You wait, God works. Here's another one.

I love this. Isaiah 28 16. The one who believes will not make haste. He won't run around in a panic.

Isn't that great? How does Daniel handle this crisis? First of all, there's peace. He doesn't lose his head. He has his calmness. You say, I want that calmness. If you're a believer, it's yours.

You just gotta access it. Number two, pace. He waits and kinda keeps in step the Holy Spirit and then number three, jot this down. Here's how he handled a crisis. Jot this word down, partnership.

Partnership. Look at verse 17. Then Daniel went to his house and made the matter known to his friends.

Hananiah, Mishael, Azariah, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Here's what he says. He goes to his house where his friends are staying and he says, fellas, here's my problem. I'm part of this group of wise men. If we don't come up with a dream and interpretation, God's gonna kill us. Fellas, can you gather around me and let's just pray and see God's face together.

It's interesting. Already, you're starting to see Daniel pull ahead of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He's already becoming the leader but you don't see this jealousy. You don't see this jockeying for position.

Even though they know that Daniel is now emerging as a leader, they are all supporting each other and looking out for each other. Christians, listen to me. This Lone Ranger thing, if I can handle my problems by myself and I don't need my brothers and sisters in Christ, that is not biblical.

And take it from a man who for years had the Lone Ranger syndrome. I don't share my problems. I don't want to burden other Christians. Listen to me. Here's what the Bible says.

Bear one another's burdens and if you do that, you'll fulfill the law of love. God did not put you in the church by accident. He put you here on purpose. Fellas, you need to come to the other guys. The guys, I'm struggling my thought life. Fellas, I need y'all to pray for me. Ladies, you need to come together and say, look, things aren't going great in my marriage and I don't need y'all to gossip and tell all my Facebook friends what I'm dealing with.

I need some godly, solid women and maybe some older women in the faith who've been through this crisis to pray with me and carry this burden with me. Daniel did. Hey, he doesn't do this on his own.

He calls his friends together. I want to tell you something. One of Satan's greatest tactics is divide and conquer.

If he can divide you from other Christians when the crisis comes, he can conquer. In fact, I watched one video on YouTube. It was of this lion killing a water buffalo or something and I got into it so much. You know what, YouTube now is doing me. They're sending me all these videos of lions killing different things now. Somebody said, well, they have an algorithm. I'll be honest with you.

I'm not even sure what an algorithm is. I keep hearing people talk about, well, whatever it is. Now YouTube is sending me all these videos and I'm really getting into it. They are horrible, bloody videos. My wife the other day, she's in the other room, she said, what video, they're so crazy.

What are you watching? I said, it's a leopard killing a small deer. She's like, please turn that off.

It's driving me crazy. Actually, what bothers me is I've heard one time that the biggest sign of psychopathology is when kids love to kill animals and hurt animals. I'm not killing them, I'm not hurting them, but I love watching it happen.

I don't know what's going on. But anyway, every one of those videos, do you know what the lion, the cheetah, the leopard, you know what they always do? They separate one out from the rest of the pack.

If they can separate one out from the rest of the pack, they can kill it. And Satan, that's his tactic in these last days. Let me separate you from your brothers and sisters in Christ, and you're gonna feel like you're the only one struggling with this. You're the only one whose kid's going off the rails.

You're the only one. And we've gotta come together like Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, and say, no, no, you're not going through this alone. We're going through this with you. The closer we get to the second coming of Jesus, that's going to become even more vital. Hebrews 10, 25, not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together, as is the matter of some, but exhorting one another. You know what that means? Encouraging one another, and so much more as you see the day approaching.

Did you see that? The closer you get to the rapture of the church, the closer you get to the end times, as you see that day approaching, y'all don't separate. You come together and encourage each other. Let me give you two more here. How does Daniel handle his crisis?

Number four, jot this down. Prayer, do you see this? Verse 18, they come together, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, so that they might seek compassion from the God of heaven concerning this mystery.

You see what they did? They come together in the crisis, and they pray. Oh, God help us. I'm about to give you, I call them the yonder verses. You know what I mean by yonder verses? Oh, God, we've heard it so many times.

Okay, you've heard it, but why aren't you practicing it? Philippians, look at this. Philippians chapter four, verse six. Be anxious for nothing.

I looked up nothing in Greek. You know what it really means? Nothing. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God which surpasses all comprehension will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. They come together, and what do they do? They pray.

It's interesting, we've got some new believers coming to Cross Assembly now, I love seeing that. And when I say to you, when your problems come, your crisis comes, pray. You're like, great, I don't know what you mean by that. Do I go to the church, go to the prayer room?

What do you mean by pray? So let me tell you, let me give you an example right now. There's layoffs at your company, and it looks like you might be next. That's Daniel. He's about to be laid off by having his arms and legs torn from his body, but he's about to be laid off, okay? And he comes to his friends and he says, fellas, we need to pray about this. You're about to be laid off, here's what you do. Father, in the name of Jesus, I thank you for this job that you've given me.

It's a great job. Father, I hear, I'm about to be laid off, so in the name of Jesus, I just give this problem over to you. Father, I don't wanna keep this job, but maybe you have something better for me out there. I don't know.

But I do know this. Your word says you've never seen the righteous forsaken, your children begging for bread, so Father, I take this whole job situation right now, and I just turn it over to you in the name of Jesus. Father, I no longer have a job problem. You have a job problem, because this is your problem right now in the name of Jesus, amen. That's what I mean by pray. According to this verse, if the Bible knows what it's talking about, you start doing that, you start thanking God for his goodness, the peace of God that you can't even explain will come and guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Isn't that great? How does Daniel handle this problem?

Let's go back. He hits a major crisis, and he handles it with peace, calmness. He doesn't get panicked.

Number two, pace. He doesn't run ahead of God. He says to the king, give me a little bit of time here to pray about this.

A partnership. He brings other brothers and sisters together, and they pray, and they intercede. He handles it through prayer. He gives God this problem. And then number five, fifth thing, is praise. We won't read this all over again, but if you look at verses 20 to 23, you notice how Daniel and God breaks in?

Here's what Daniel does. He just starts praising God. There is some kind of connection between praise and your problems that changes the entire atmosphere. Go back to that Philippians four verse.

Don't worry about anything. Pray about anything with, do you see what word he puts there? You pray with what? Thanksgiving.

You don't, oh, God, I can't believe this. God, how could a loving God make me go through something like this? God, I've tithed to my church.

I bought Girl Scout cookies. I recycle. I do all this stuff, and you're letting this stuff happen to me? What kind of God? You don't do that. No, no, no. You begin to praise God and thank God in the midst of this, and it changes the entire environment. Listen to me.

Praise changes the environment. Darla, my wife, and another lady went to a Bojangles. I wanna tell you what Bojangles it is in case corporate hears about it and tells them to stop doing this, but she went to a Bojangles in another town a couple weeks ago, and she said this immediately. When I walked in that Bojangles, she's like, the atmosphere.

I felt it. There was some kind of wonderful thing, and she said, I didn't know what it was, and she said, I walk into this atmosphere, and I don't think it was the Bo Berry Biscuits or the smell of the chicken filet biscuits. She just said there was something in the atmosphere, and then she said, after a few minutes, I'm listening. She said, they're playing Christian music over the speakers, and I realize there's a connection between praise and worship and the entire atmosphere.

Listen, when the enemy attacks you, if you'll start praising God, the problems may not go away, but the atmosphere changes. In fact, I love this lady. Her name was Amy Carmichael. She was a missionary to India in the early 1900s, and she really rescued prostitutes and children from the sex trafficking industry, and she really came up against a lot of demonic stuff. I can't think of anything more demonic than sex trafficking little children, and she was in that environment, and she knew that singing praise, worship songs to God was spiritual warfare.

She said this. I have found that the devil cannot endure it, and he slips out of the room when we sing praises to God. Martin Luther said this. Music drives away the devil and makes people happy. We know that to the demons, music is distasteful and insufferable. In fact, my greatest favorite quote on this comes from Pastor Ray Pritchard.

He says this. Listen, music is a weapon of spiritual warfare, and the devil hates it when we sing. He hates our music because our singing rouses our souls, gives us courage, lifts our hearts, restores our faith, builds our confidence, unites our voices, and lifts us up in the name of the Lord like a mighty banner. Music, I like this. Music is not just preparation for spiritual warfare. Music is spiritual warfare.

When God's people sing together, we invade the devil's territory. That's what happens with Daniel. Daniel begins to praise God, and everything begins to change.

The environment begins to change. Beloved, Satan can't stand it. See, why, okay, you wanna know why you could be fussing, fighting with your family on Sunday morning, kids going at each other, mom and dad are grumpy, everybody's in a bad mood, you get to church, you're here for an hour, hour and a half or whatever, and you leave, and everybody's mood is different? You know why? Because you've now brought your family into an atmosphere where there's praise and worship and blessing God and celebrating the goodness of God, and the entire atmosphere now has changed in your life and family.

That's what happens with Daniel. I read about, you ever heard of the Navajo talkers? Back in World War II, the Japanese kept breaking all of our military codes. And we couldn't figure out how can we talk to each other over the airways without the Japanese coming in and breaking our codes, and then somebody got this idea.

They said, let's get some Navajo Indians who still speak the Navajo language, and let's let them talk to each other over the airwaves. And the Japanese had never heard that kind of talk before. And it confused our enemies. It confused the Japanese to hear Navajos speak, I mean, they intercepted, but they didn't know what was going on, because it confused the enemy. And it confuses Satan when he throws all hell against you and your family and your marriage, and he pulls out the stops, and he's coming at you, and you start speaking the language of praise and worship. The demons don't know what to do with that. Listen to me, praise is not preparation for spiritual warfare, it is spiritual warfare. And Daniel understood that. And he says, you can kill me, you can do whatever you want, but God is God, he is good all the time, I bless the name of the Lord.

I close with this. All throughout the Bible, you have seen God's people when they go into a crisis or they come through a crisis, you've seen the true, mature believers all do the same thing, they praise God. You ever do this, you ever hear old people pray like this? You know, in church, I remember old people doing this, oh God, we ask you for this and that and that, and God, please do this, and then they would always say this and we'll be sure to give you all the glory. Let me ask you something, when God does break through, are you sure to give him the glory? Or do you go your own way till the next crisis and you pray again? And God, I'll be sure to give you glory this time.

And you don't give him glory that time, you just go from crisis to crisis to crisis. Daniel says, no matter what goes on down here, it doesn't change the fact that he is on the throne, he is a good God and he is a loving God. And I don't care what I go through on planet earth, it doesn't change who God is and what he's doing.

Psalm 148 is one of my favorite Psalms. Scholars call it a post-exilic exile, which means it's probably written by Jews whose people were taken into captivity, into Babylon for 70 years. The houses are burned, their wives and mothers are raped, everything is destroyed back here, they go into exile and now they're leaving exile and they're going back to their homeland.

And imagine going back to the homeland, houses are burned, the memories of what happened to your ancestors are there, it's kind of a desolate place. But you've been let out of captivity and it's a new day. And instead of griping and saying, we're the people of God, we're God's chosen people. Why does this happen to us? Why do bad things happen to good people?

They didn't do that. Psalm 148, in the midst of all this desolation, they lift their hands and they say, praise the Lord. Praise the Lord from the heavens. Praise Him the heights above. Praise Him all His angels. Praise Him all His heavenly hosts. Praise Him, sun and moon. Praise Him all your shining stars. Praise Him, your highest heavens and your waters above the skies. Let them praise the name of the Lord for He commanded and they were created.

He set them in place forever and ever. He gave a decree that will never pass away. So praise the Lord from the earth, your great sea creatures in all ocean depths, lightning and hail, snow and clouds, stormy winds that do His building, your mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars, wild animals and all cattle, small creatures of flying birds, kings of the earth and nations, your princes and rulers of earth, young men and maidens, old men and children. Let them praise the name of the Lord for His name alone is exalted.

His splendor is above the earth and the heavens for He has raised up for His people a horn, the praise of all the saints of Israel, the people close to His heart. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.

Get every person going through a crisis right now. Lift your hands, lift your voices and praise the name of God who reigns forever and ever. Bless your Father.

Right now, just lift your voice. Praise the name of the Lord. Bless the name of Jesus right now. Praise the name of the Lord. We give You praise. You are worthy, Jesus. Oh, we worship You, Lord. You are holy, holy, holy, Lord. We'll sing a thousand generations. A thousand generations falling down in worship to sing the song of ages to the Lord. Thank you, Lord.

And all who've gone before us and all who will believe will sing the song of ages to the Lamb. Because Your name. And Your name is the highest. Your name is the greatest. Your name stands above them all, above all thrones and dominions, all powers and positions.

Your name stands above them all, and the angels cry, holy, all creation cries, holy, You are lifted high, holy, holy forever, hear Your people, hear Your people sing, holy, to the King of Kings, holy, You will always be holy, holy forever. Man, let's do this right now. We've got a few extra minutes. Can you right now get your mind off of whatever crisis you're going through right now? And can you turn your eyes upon Jesus and look full in His wonderful face and let the mess of this earth grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and His grace?

Can you do that? Lift up your hands right now and just focus on Jesus. Just bless the name of Jesus right now. Philippians 4 says, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving.

So let's do this right now. I want you to think of four different things God has done in your life, things God has brought you through, things God has blessed you with. I want you to think of four things right now and just thank Jesus specifically for those four things right now.

Just thank Him right now. Now I want you to take whatever crisis you're dealing with right now and say something like this. Father, I give you this crisis.

Say that, Father, I give you this child. I give you this financial situation. I give you this health situation. It's not mine anymore. It now belongs to you. I give it to you right now.

Say that to me. And y'all just obeyed Philippians 4. Thank Jesus.

You prayed and gave Him your problems. And now that the peace that passes all understanding just wash over you right now and guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. And in response, I think the Father wants to say to you, Yavarekah Adonai Ve'yishmerekah Y'er Adonai v'yav elekah v'kunekah Yisar Adonai v'navalekah V'yisim l'cha shalom which means God says in Hebrew, I'm going to bless you. I'm going to keep you. I'm going to make my face to shine upon you. I'm going to be gracious to you. I'm going to turn my countenance to you and I'm going to give you shalom, peace, holiness, mind, body, soul, and spirit because you're my child and I love you in my son Jesus Christ. You are beloved in my son. You are accepted in my son. You've been perfected in my son. You belong to me. God is for you, church.

What's the next part? I'm going to be against you. So go out of this place with a boldness and a confidence that God is on your side and everywhere you go this week, God is going to be with you. Can we lift our hands and voices one more time and praise the name of the God who reigns forever? Bless the name of the Lord. Elders, y'all come on down here. Y'all need prayer. If you need healing, the elders down here to pray with you. The rest of y'all go with the Lord Jesus Christ.