The Secret Place // Becoming a Person of Prayer // Pastor Josh Evans

And I just appreciate all of the music and our praise team, everybody that participates in that.

I know Bob spends a lot of time preparing and I really appreciate him preparing each and every week to lead us to the throne. You know, music is important and music prepares our heart for the preaching of God's Word. And so it's super, super important to every worship service that we do.

And I appreciate all that goes into that. If you have your Bible, go to Daniel chapter number six. Here today, Daniel chapter number six.

Daniel chapter number six. And we have been in this series on prayer over the last several weeks called the Secret Place. And I mentioned this in the announcements just a few moments ago that this is just a time for us to just look at the importance of prayer. And I think if we are all honest with ourselves, I think from time to time, we'll admit that you need to work on prayer and I need to work on prayer. I don't think even as your pastor, as I've been looking at this, I'm thinking, man, my prayer life has a long ways to go. I think at times, sometimes prayer is kind of the missing power that we are lacking in our churches here today. Billy Graham said this, I thought this was really good, the evangelist, he said, prayer is the most important thing that we could ever do. And then he said this, and don't miss this, he said, if I could do my ministry over again, I would have probably prayed more than I had preached. You see, prayer is really this thing that we do to call fire down from heaven, to call the power of God down to earth, to call and ask God's kingdom to come down here on this earth. But if that's true, and I think all of us would believe in all of that, that yes, prayer works, and yes, prayer is that opportunity to call God's power and his kingdom down on earth, yes, I would agree with that. So few of us actually get on our knees and ask for those things. Isn't that interesting?

We all want the results that praying gets, but few of us are willing to do what it takes to get those results. And today we are going to look at an Old Testament character, one of my favorite Bible characters, a character that you probably have heard preached from, and you probably remember going to Sunday school growing up and hearing about Daniel in the Old Testament. Well, when I think about Daniel, you probably think about a number of different things.

You probably think about the lion's den, right? And some of you maybe think about that, and some of the other things, some of you might go to Shadrach, Meshach, all of those things, and, but listen, Daniel, here's what I think of, because this was always true when I was growing up in Sunday school, we had, you know, a flannelgraph. How many of you remember the flannelgraphs? Okay, some of you, and any of you still use the flannelgraph?

Is that still a thing? Okay, and there are these things, if you're young in here, you might not have a clue what a flannelgraph was, and it was all of these little figures and these people that they would use, and they would kind of, as they're teaching, they would attach them to this board up up front, and it was crazy, and I can just remember that Daniel, his little figure that would be stuck to the board was always this guy that would be like on his knees praying, so I still remember that in my mind, so it stuck with me, so those of you who have used flannelgraphs, what you taught, it works, okay? Maybe we should go back to flannelgraphs, I don't know, and, but I remember the little figure that they would use, and he would always be on his knees praying, and so it stuck with me that when I think about Daniel, I think about prayer. I think prayer is probably the reason why the success of Daniel happened in the Old Testament. It's amazing that you see every time he goes through a difficult situation, he prays, it was routine to him, it was something that he did all of the time, and so we are going to be in Daniel chapter number six here today, Daniel chapter number six. I want to give you a little bit of background, just kind of refresh your mind on what has transpired up to this point. Well, if you look at Daniel chapter one, we know Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came into Israel, and he attacked it, and they won, and so what he would do, Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, is as he would defeat certain armies, he did this with Assyria, he did with a number of the different battles that he fought, he would actually go in and instead of just killing and wiping every single person out that is from the nation that he was conquering, what he would do is he would wipe out some of them, but he would take some of the youngest and the brightest and the best and the smartest and the good looking ones and all this stuff, and he would take them when they were young, and instead of just wiping them all out, he would take them and he would take them into his house, and what Nebuchadnezzar would do is he would teach them all of the Babylonian ways, and he would teach them to eat like them, act like them, and he would even change their name, he would change every single thing about them when they would come and live with him, and the reason why they changed, why he would change their names and all of that is because he wanted them to know that they are now owned by Babylon, they have a new master, Nebuchadnezzar, and that he is their boss, and so they would be taking really as like hostages, but it was a pretty good, good gig in some ways, so they would go to Babylon and they would live in the king's palace, that sounds pretty good, but what would happen is they would have to conform their life to the Babylonian culture, which was a pagan culture, so they would have to really defy God and start to worship the gods of the Babylonians, they would have to do all of this, and so here's the thing, you can imagine if you were taken as a young teenager, which is where Daniel found himself being moved into the king's palace, and Nebuchadnezzar, he is just raising Daniel to just be this incredible ruler, this Babylonian ruler, and as he's raising him, you can imagine Daniel, a lot of his people that he grew up with were probably killed, his parents, all this stuff, they would probably wipe all of them out, and Daniel's going to live in the king's palace, you can imagine that Daniel was probably tempted several times internally like, hey is this really that bad, what if I just conform my life to the Babylonian culture, I got a pretty good thing going for me, I get to be, I get to live in the palace, and I get to eat at the king's table, I get to do all of this extra stuff that sounds really, really good, but Daniel, in Daniel chapter one, he had purposed in his heart that no matter what situation was around him, no matter what path or road that the will of God took him down, he was determined, he was determined to stay true to the one true God of Israel, and so he did that, and so in Daniel chapter one, verse eight, I mentioned this, he resolved, he decided in his heart that he would not be defiled, and he stayed faithful and stayed true, and so let's pick it up in chapter six, verse one, and said it pleased Darius, the new king, to set over the kingdom a hundred and twenty princes which should be over the entire kingdom, and over these three presidents of whom Daniel was first, that the princes might give accounts unto them, and the king should have no damage, so in other words, here's what they're doing, they're creating this Babylonian leadership, like this org chart, so they're choosing these princes out of the 120 princes that they are choosing, these are the special ones, the ones out of all of the different people that are working there in Babylon, he's putting all them together, Daniel happened to be the brightest out of all of them, so he was the first chosen, out of all of them, verse three, then this Daniel was preferred above the presidents and princes because he had an excellent spirit that was in him, and the king thought to set him over the whole realm, then the presidents and princes sought to find occasion against Daniel concerning the kingdom, but they could find none occasion nor fault, so all of these guys, they were jealous, all of the princes and all these presidents, these high-ranking officials, they were all upset and they were jealous of Daniel, here this kid comes in when he's young and God just continues to use him, he's a bright young man, and here they keep elevating him higher and higher, and all of these guys, who some of them might have grown up there their entire life, and they were jealous of what God was doing there with Daniel, so they begin to look for things that are wrong with him, they begin to kind of search out his life and look at his background and look at everything about him.

When I was doing this, I was studying this, my son, he was watching YouTube and he was watching some things on YouTube and a political ad came on why he was watching this YouTube, and it was about a political officer running for something, and it was all of these bad things about the person, have you guys seen those political ads where it's like they researched tons of things, they stole from a child or stole a candy bar when they were 14 years old, don't vote for them, it was kind of one of those ads, and he looked at me and he said, dad is that person really that bad? And I was studying this and I was thinking that's what it was like when they were looking for things with Daniel, they were looking at everything about him, they were probably asking people that knew Daniel when he was young, like tell me something, give me some dirt on Daniel, I want to know something about him that we can take, that we could find fault in his life, and then continuing on in verse four, they could find none occasion nor fault, for as much as he was faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in him, he was a man of integrity, a man of character, then said, verse five, then said, these men we shall not find any occasion against this Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the law of his God. In other words, what the conclusion that they came is like, they're like, look, we can't find anything against his character, we can't find anything against his integrity, we can't find, you know, that he's done anything wrong, he's pretty, he's a blameless guy, the only thing I think we can attack and find something wrong with him about is his relationship with God. Let me say that you're in pretty good shape if that's all the enemy can find against you, and that's where he found himself that day, that the only thing that they could attack, they couldn't attack anything else in his life except for his relationship with with God. Verse six, then these presidents and princes assembled together to the king and said, thus unto him, King Darius, live forever. The flattering words, they're like, hey, they're praising King Darius, they're trying to butter him up for what they're about to suggest for him. And all the presidents of the kingdom, the governors and the princes, the counselors, and the captains have consulted together to establish a royal statute to make a firm decree that whosoever shall ask a petition of any God or man for 30 days, except of thee, O king, he shall be cast into the den of lions. Pretty serious decree. In other words, what he's saying is if anybody in the camp prays or inquires to a god other than King Darius, then the result will be they will be cast into the den of lions. We know the story, verse eight. Now, O king, establish the decree and sign the writing that it be not changed according to the law of the medicine and Persians, which alter not. In other words, that when they created a law, it was not going to be changed.

It was going to stay that way. Verse nine, wherefore King Darius signed the writing and the decree. Now, when Daniel knew this is the best part of this. Now, when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house and his windows being open in his chamber towards Jerusalem. He kneeled up on his knees three times a day and he prayed. He gave thanks before his God as he did a four time.

Now, when I heard this story taught and read growing up, I used to think verse 10, although it's an exciting verse where David, he just he was not going to listen. He's still going to pray, still going to do his thing. I used to think that it was kind of maybe he went back to his house a little arrogantly like, man, I'm just I'm going to show them I'm going to open my windows.

I'm going to wait till everybody's looking, you know, and and that's when I'm going to get before God and I'm going to pray so that everybody could see it. But then if you notice that the key verse or the key word that I want you to see in that verse is the last phrase as he did a four time. You see, this was not something where he he heard the decree and then he he went back to his house and and just kind of was I'm going to show them. It wasn't an arrogant response. It was actually just a routine response.

You see, it wasn't something where he was just going to prove a point. This was something he was going to do each and every day, something he had been doing each and every day, regardless of if a decree was signed or not. This was the routine response to Daniel.

And you can see this throughout his life that anytime trouble, anytime trials, anytime persecution, anytime anything bad came into his life. Daniel prayed. Daniel prayed. Now, if you think about Daniel's life, he probably had quite a few moments where he had to pray up to this point.

This was a pretty big deal. But up to that point, like as a teenage boy, if you think back, what King Nebuchadnezzar would do is he would go into a nation and and he would kill most of the parents. And he might have murdered the parents right in front of Daniel. And Daniel's a teenage boy. And and then Daniel now is getting hauled off, you know, to to Babylon and having to live in the king's palace. Can you imagine trying to go through something like that and being held into captivity?

And and that's where he found himself. Listen, he had had a ton of persecution in moments where he had had to go before God and pray. So this moment, although it seems big to you and I for decree or a law got signed where we couldn't gather here today, that would be a huge deal.

That would be major persecution in your life. What would be your natural response? What would be your routine response? If something like that happened in our world today, would it be said of you and would it be said of your family that all you did when you heard that or you saw it on the news, you did exactly what you have done before and you went before God and and prayed? Or would it say that when you heard the news, you did something that you never did before and you started praying? You see, this was a routine response.

This was the natural tendency. This was the go-to thing that Daniel that Daniel had was he prayed before God anytime he was found in in trouble. He was a person of of prayer and we know the story. If we continue down the story, we're not going to for the sake of time, but we know the story that God, he listened to Daniel's prayers. He protected him. He protected him and so he did that and sure enough, you know, those presidents and all the leaders in that day, they saw him praying and so they ran. You know, I can imagine as they went to King Darius, they were probably giddy with excitement. They were like, we found it. We got him. This is what we need now.

Hey boys, this is it. We now are going to be appointed into the position that Daniel was getting appointed into and this is going to be great and so they run to King Darius and tell him what Daniel had done and King Darius, although he reluctantly, he didn't really want to do this according to scripture, but he had to follow through with the the decree that he just signed and so he called Daniel in and sure enough, Daniel had to be thrown into a lion's den. Pretty significant penalty for for such a simple thing as praying to the one true God of the world. So he gets thrown into the lion's den and and we know King Darius that night was just up all night toiling. He hated this decision and he's he's just up all night and and and as he first thing the next morning when the when the sun came up, he ran down to to check in on Daniel. He opened the the den and sure enough, Daniel's just just down there chilling with the lions.

No harm whatsoever. In fact, King Darius, I imagine King Darius was up all night worrying about this and I bet Daniel slept as peacefully that night as he'd ever slept in his life. You see, why can why can he sleep that peacefully in the midst of of something so terrible? Why why can he go through such persecution like that and come out on the other the other side? I want to submit to you that the reason is because Daniel was a person of prayer. He was a person of prayer. The reason why he was not shaken when you know all of these things were happening around him. The reason why his integrity stayed intact. The reason why his character stayed intact. The reason why he was not shaken when all these bad things would come into his life. All this trouble would come into his life. The reason why he stayed consistent in his relationship with God was because he was a person of prayer.

You want to know the reason why I think our lives when when things don't go our way, why our lives tend to spiral out of control and our emotions just go all over the place? It's because we probably don't have, if you're honest with yourself and I'm honest with me, we probably do not have the prayer life that a person like Daniel really had. As I read this story, I want you to know as your pastor, this is the kind of prayer life that I want.

This is the kind of prayer life that I want for you. A prayer life so consistent, a prayer life so regular, so routine, a prayer life so powerful, that when life does not go my way, I'm not shaken one bit. My integrity, my character, that doesn't change. My emotions stay intact.

Everything about me stays intact. So when the world around me is shaking, I'm stable. The reason why Daniel was like that is because he was a person of prayer. I want you to be a person of prayer.

I want to be a person of prayer. And if you're going to be a person of prayer, we have to look to to Daniel's life to see what was different about his life compared to our life. And a person of prayer requires several things. Number one is this, prayer requires discipline. If you want to be a person of prayer, it requires discipline.

You look at verse 10 at the end of it, I think it's super important. Daniel, when he heard that the decree had been signed, he goes back to his usual place and his usual spot, his go-to place, and he gets down on his knees just like he had done a before time, and he continued to pray three times a day. Now it was custom for them to pray three times a day, for the Jewish people to pray three times a day. They would pray at 9am, they would pray at noon, and then they would pray at 3pm. We see that throughout throughout scripture. Psalms 55 17, David, he wrote this, evening and morning and at noon will I pray and cry aloud and he shall hear my voice. You see, throughout the Old Testament, it was Jewish custom that they would get before God and pray three times a day. We see it in the early church in the New Testament when they were going, Peter and John, were going into the temple. It was a routine for them to pray. You see, this was a routine response for them.

It was a part of their daily life. I want you to think about your life for just a moment and think about the time. Do you have a set time that you pray?

Think about it. Do you have a moment where you just get before God, maybe get on your knees before God, and you pray and ask him for for whatever it is that is on your your heart? Or are you using God just when you need him? Don't we do that from time to time? We we don't really go to God unless we're desperate and we have nowhere else to turn. It's not a routine thing in our world. It's not something that we do when things are good and when things are bad. It's actually something that we do when things go wrong.

I think that's true of of our of our world in a lot of ways. It takes some massive tragedy in our world for us to actually turn to God for about 24 hours and then and then we're back to our disobedient ways. Do you remember when I was growing up when 9-11 happened?

Such a tragic, terrible, terrible act. And I remember as a young boy, a high school kid, as I watched all that unfold, I watched our world you know kind of for a couple days look to God more than they've ever looked before. And then it wasn't long after that we kind of forgot all about that and and you know we're back to our own ways. It was true of the nation of Israel in the Old Testament.

Do you remember how they were? They would only look to God when things got bad. We don't have food. We better turn to God.

We don't have water. We better turn to God. And all of these things, they would only turn to God when they really needed them.

They didn't have a consistent time with Him. Let me say this, that if you want to be a person of prayer, it requires discipline. It requires discipline. It requires you taking some time, maybe stop doing certain things and fill it with time with the Lord. It might mean for some of you that your phone's not getting turned on until after you spend time in prayer. Or the TV doesn't come on until after you spend time in prayer. For some of you it might mean I need to get up just a few minutes early and spend that time with God. For some of you it might mean less time on social media and more time with the Lord. I don't know what your schedule, what your life looks like, but I'm telling you, if you want to be a person that is not shaken when the world around you is falling apart, then you have to have a daily discipline time where you go before God and you pray to Him.

You're not going to make it without it. You're not going to make it without that time with God in prayer. I referenced this earlier. Remember in Acts chapter 3, Peter and John, they went up into the temple to pray.

They went up during the ninth hour, which is 3 p.m., and it was very routine for them. And as they walked in to the temple, there was a man that every single day he couldn't walk, he would be laid there. And this man's begging for money. And remember the saying, it's a children's song too, Peter and John respond back to him, silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give I thee. In the name of Jesus rise up and walk. And so he goes walking and all this crazy, this incredible miracle. Thousands of people came to know Jesus as a result of this miracle.

It was an amazing, amazing thing. But oftentimes when I think about that story, I think, what if Peter and John, they did this three times a day. Every single day, this was without fail. And here's what's interesting, is that every day they would do this.

This was routine for them. What if that day, the day that the miracle happened, the day that this incredible thing that God used to draw thousands of people to salvation that day, what if they had said what you and I say so often, oh, yesterday was such a busy day, John, and you're not going to be able to pray today. Yesterday was such a busy day, John. Peter, you know, as he's texting John that morning, I was out late and the day before, and I just don't have the energy to go pray today. I'm going to use that time.

You go by yourself or find somebody else. I'm going to lay this one out. Have you ever thought about that? What if what if John had said, hey, listen, I spent the day, son, he was at the baseball field all day yesterday and I am exhausted. The last thing I have time for today, I just need to find myself in bed.

It's fine. I'm just going to lay this one, this one out. Perhaps if they had responded that way, then perhaps we wouldn't have a story like this even recorded. You see, I think the reason that they experienced such an incredible miracle and they got God, God was able to do something so incredible that day is because they consistently made it a point that even when they're exhausted, they're going to go to the Lord in prayer. Even when they're tired, they're going to go to the Lord in prayer.

Even when it's been a busy week, they're still going to go to the Lord in prayer because they believed so truly in their life that they were absolutely nothing without prayer, that they were nothing without it, that they can't continue on without it. Remember Matthew chapter 26 and remember the night before Jesus would die and pay for the sins of the whole world. What did Jesus do? The night before, he goes into the garden and he takes some of his closest disciples with him.

You remember the story? And he goes into the garden and Jesus, the son of God, he goes deeper into the garden. He says, you guys wait right here, goes deeper into the garden and what does he do? He prays. The night before he is going to die on a cross to take all the shame that everyone in that day had brought onto this world, but also every bit of the shame and brokenness and sin that your life and my life have caused, Jesus was about to go before the cross. So he goes into the garden and he prays and he comes back a couple times to his core, right?

The inner core of the disciples and this group of disciples that he had chosen to go on this deeper relationship with him and he goes back and what did he find? They were asleep. They were asleep.

This was at night. They were sound asleep and Jesus, he rebuked them, which would have been the worst rebuke ever from the son of God. He says to them, you couldn't even pray with me for an hour? And they're sound asleep and then fast forward in the story, Jesus gets arrested and everybody, Peter, he spent time in the garden that night. He was with Jesus as Jesus prayed and Peter just hours later, people were like, hey, that guy, he knew Jesus. I saw him with Jesus and what did Peter do? He's like, man, never seen the guy before. Never talked to him before.

I don't even know who that is. And he denied Jesus three different times. Perhaps, just a thought, just reading into this, would Peter have possibly had that night the courage and might have had the strength to admit that he knew Jesus and was a follower of Jesus had just hours before he had have been in prayer, but he couldn't stay asleep. You see, I think if we want to experience these moments where we're going to get persecuted and these moments where we're going to experience trials and we're going to experience tribulation, if we want to come out on the other side of those moments and we want to come out with integrity and we want to come out with character and we want to come out with the favor of God and the power of God in our life, then we have to be disciplined in our prayer. Even Luke chapter six, Jesus, before he chose the disciples, before he chose the twelve, you know what Jesus did all night? He prayed.

Luke chapter six, it said that he prayed all night before going out and choosing the twelve disciples. You see, prayer, it has to be in your daily routine. Some of you, you have a big routine. Some of you, especially if you have children, you know, like our routine is crazy. We got school and homework and ball games and all of these extra responsibilities.

I get it. You know, if you're retired in here, you have routine. You have things to do as well. My dad, he retired this past year and he's kind of, you know, he's new to retirement and so when I talk about how busy I am, here's what he says back to me. He just says, hey listen, in my life right now, every day is a Saturday and every night is a Friday night.

That's what he says. That's what he's enjoying in retirement. For some of you who are retired, you know what I'm talking about. He's living it up. You know, he's kind of not as much of all these routines and responsibilities and things that he's had for, you know, 65 years of his life. And so here's the thing, we have a ton of things going on and so do you, but so often we have our priority list and I think this is what happens as we say this is priority, this is priority, this is priority, I got to get this done, got to get this done, I got to get the kids here, got to do this, got to have this done, got to watch my show on Netflix because the new episode came out last night and all this stuff and then it's like if we get it, if we can fit Jesus into that, then we will.

But if not, then we, we won't. I think that's how we live our lives. Some of you, if you're honest with yourself and I'm not harping on anything because I'm preaching to the choir, preaching to myself, some of us are like, man I was so busy, I didn't have time with God this week. But tell me about your week. Well, Duke played Tuesday night and I had to watch my show on Wednesday night and then let's just be real, some of us, we say we are busy with things that we don't have time with God and here's the thing, we need to stop with some of these things so that we can make time for what really matters in our life. And that's what Daniel did and that's why Daniel came on the other side of such a shaky situation and he was just walking stable just like he had done before because all these things couldn't shake him because he had a relationship with God.

It was a discipline for him, three times a day. Start your day with prayer. Pray over your calendar, pray over everything you have to do that day. Listen, parents, pray over your family. Pray with your family. We need the discipline of prayer built into your home. You have to have it. You're nothing without it and I know that you want God to work in your family.

I know you do. You wouldn't be here if you didn't. Then pray.

It's the best resource that you have. The second thing, very quickly, prayer requires a God-sized vision. In Daniel chapter 9, we notice that in verse 17 through 19, we can see in Daniel chapter 9, several chapters later, God still continues to elevate him. God still continues to show that he had character and then he says as he's praying, now therefore, verse 17 of Daniel chapter 9, now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant and his supplications and calls thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate. For the Lord's sake, O my God, incline thine ear and hear, open thine eyes and behold our desolations and the city which is called by thy name. For we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousness but for thy great mercies. O Lord, hear. O Lord, forgive. O Lord, hearken and do. Defer not for thine own sake, O my God, for thy city and thy people are called by thy name. Let me say this, that prayer requires a God-sized vision.

You say, say, what do you mean by that? One thing that amazes me as I'll study in Daniel's life is this. Daniel noticed the gap between reality and where the world was and where God wanted it to be. And I don't believe that you and I, if you don't pray, then that gap doesn't bother you enough.

If you say, pastor, I don't really have a time of prayer, then the gap of where our world is today, where our churches are today, where our families are today, if you can't see the difference and the gap between where things are and where God wants it to be and that doesn't bother you, then you're probably not going to be a person of prayer. We have to get to the point in our church where that gap bothers us. We have to get to the point where our families and the destruction that is in our families and our world today, that that and where it is and where God wants it to be, that the gap between those two things bothers us so much that the only thing that we can do is go before God and pray. That's what you find in Daniel chapter 9.

Daniel saw the world for what it was. He was living in pagan Babylon and he's noticing, he's like, man, there are so many things wrong with where we are as a society. There's so many things wrong with where we are as a world. There's so many things wrong in our families and he notices all that and he's praying and he's begging God, saying, God, you can change it all around. God, you can send a revival. God, the gap between where we are and where you want it to be is way too wide. God, I want you to bring your kingdom down here on this earth and change everything about where we are as a society. See, prayer requires a God-sized vision. You have to be able to see, if you're going to get serious about prayer, you have to be able to see that the gap between where things are today and where God wants us to be is so far wide that it takes you to your knees every single day. But some of us, we complain about it.

We might get on Facebook and talk about how bad things are and we might talk to our friends about how bad things are. Why don't we stop doing that and talk to God about where we see the kingdom of God and where it's lacking in our world today and our families and everything else and we see that the gap, God, I want you to come and I want you to close the gap and I want you to bring your kingdom down on earth. That's what we got to do. That's what Daniel did.

That's what he had. He had a prayer requires a God-sized vision, requires discipline. Number three, quickly, prayer requires persistence. Let me ask you this, how valuable is prayer to you? Think about that.

You don't have to answer out loud, but how valuable is it really to you? Think about this from Daniel's life. Daniel was willing to be thrown into the lion's den before he stopped praying.

He was willing to be thrown into the lion's den before he stopped praying. I'll be the first to say this, I don't know if I would have had that strength. Some of you are thinking, man, I can do that.

Let's just be real with ourselves. I don't get too close at the zoo to those things, okay, let alone being told if I pray I'm gonna have to make my new home in there with them, right? Those are things like, no, I don't know if I would have had that kind of strength.

I probably wouldn't. I want that kind of strength. That's what Daniel had. Daniel said, hey, who cares? God's protecting me up to this point through captivity. He's done so much for me. He'll protect me through the lion's den and here's the best part. If he doesn't protect me and the lions eat me alive and I die, here's the best part about it.

The God that I've been serving for all this time, I get to live forever with him. You see, that's the point that I think Daniel understood is he's like, hey, listen, lions are not gonna stop me from praying. If captivity couldn't stop me, hey, listen, God's protecting me, I can get there. And then Daniel, he prayed for 60 years that the people would return from exile. 60 years for the same prayer and Daniel three times a day continued to pray that God would release them. You see, these are the things that we see from Daniel's life that we don't have. We might pray one time for something and then we stop. You might pray for God to do something and you get serious about it one time at an altar and then you leave and you stop.

I think our life, I think Daniel, he had such a persistent prayer life that nothing was gonna stop. He prayed for the same thing for 60 years. I was thinking when I was looking at this that my kids, you know, we have two kids, 11 and 8, and my 8-year-old especially, he's the kid in our home that asks the same thing over and over and over again. How many of you have that kid at your house? Okay, how many of you have two kids at your house like that? Any of you? Okay, a few of you. They really need our prayer time.

Put them on your prayer list, everybody, okay? But listen, like, my kids, that's what it's like. My 8-year-old, he asks the same things over and over and if he's not praying, he's not gonna pray over and over and if you're into something, if I'm reading something or if I'm watching something and he comes into the living room and this is my son, okay? Dad, you don't respond? I mean, he doesn't even give it time to sit long enough.

He just says, dad, dad, dad, dad. Is this annoying you guys yet? Because that's not the half of how annoyed I am every day, okay? And so he says, so, like, finally, I'm just like, what, what, what?

Are you gonna get apple juice today? That's all I was the whole time, like, that's it, you know? It's like, that, really?

And that's what you needed? But you know that persistence that children have with parents, if you're a teacher in here, God bless you. I couldn't imagine. I got a chance to, for career day, to go to our three and four-year-olds in our preschool and for career day, I got to talk to them about what it's like being a pastor because that's what, it's on every one of their minds, right? And so I go in there and, and all these three and four-year-olds and, you know, I, I feel like I'm a decent communicator but when I get in a room full of three and four-year-olds, it doesn't matter how good of a teacher you are.

It just doesn't at that point. They just talk and they don't stop and, and then they all want to raise their hands for everything. And then when you ask them, hey, you know, they're, you, you ask them a question, I asked them this just to tell you my story. I said, hey, real quick, before I get into this, I said, boys and girls, what do you think a pastor does? All these hands go up.

I'm thinking this is going to be so good, so refreshing. Calling the first one, hey, you were first, buddy. Tell me, what do you think a pastor does? Just looks at you, no response. I go to the second kid, no response.

Go to the third kid. I'm like, I wanted to say, wire your hands up, right? But I didn't. I didn't. But here's the thing, I don't even know where I'm going with this.

I'm trying to kind of bring it back around. I'm so far down the rabbit trail right now, I don't even know where I'm at, okay? But listen, you know, those kids, they, they just say random things all the time. I'm teaching and, I mean, they're shouting out stuff about their grandparents and all sorts of all good things, grandparents, by the way. And so they're shouting out stuff and all this kind of stuff. I could never imagine being a teacher, having those kids tell you stuff all day long, right?

I can only handle my own kids and them, I struggle even sometimes. But you know how persistent kids are, where they're just going to ask the same thing over and over. Daniel prayed for the same thing, that God would protect his people. They were in exile for 60 years and, and that God would, would take them out of this captivity. Prayed for 60 years over the same exact thing.

That's a lot. Three times a day, he's calling out to God. God, do this.

God, I need you to do this. And finally he saw that happen years after praying for 60 years. Some of us, we, we don't have near the persistence and prayer that Daniel had. We don't know what it's like hardly to pray for six days about something three times a day, let alone 60 years. Listen, Daniel, his life is something for all of us. If we want to be a person of prayer, we have to remember it takes discipline.

Do you have a time? Listen, three times a day, that's not the magical number, okay? That was Jewish custom. That's not what I'm saying that, oh man, I got, I only pray twice a day. I got to pray three times a day. I pray four times a day. Got to shrink it to three. Now, I don't want you to think that.

It's not about a number. Paul says in the New Testament, First Thessalonians, he tells us to pray without ceasing, to be in a constant attitude of prayer. But let me say this, if it's not a part of your daily routine, there's not a set time where you go before God and pray, that's your starting point today.

You got to start there. Pray that over your family. And then the second thing Daniel had, he prayed, he recognized where things were and where God wanted it to be. And he noticed the gap and he wanted God to come and bring his kingdom closer to their world. Some of us got to get serious about the churches, the state of our churches in our world, the state of our homes, the state of our children. We got to get serious about it. Instead of just complaining to everything about it, we got to get on our knees and start praying, perceiving the gap of where God wants it to be and where it is and saying, that gap's not good. God, bring your kingdom to this earth.

And then we got to be persistent. If you prayed for something for five days, keep praying. If you prayed for five years, you haven't seen a result, keep praying.

Keep praying to God because you have a God who loves you. One thing about Daniel's life that I always love to study and look at is this, is that Daniel is considered a type of Christ, which is something that is so important when we study. In other words, his story kind of points us to a savior. It points us to Jesus. And when we think about Daniel, we think how he was innocent, he did nothing wrong and he was thrown into the lion's den to die. And he walked out of that lion's den without a scratch on his body.

It's a picture of how Jesus came to this earth, just like Daniel who, I mean, with Daniel's sin, he did do things wrong, but he was blameless. But Jesus came to this earth without any sin in his life. And he got sentenced to death on a cross. And he walked out of the tomb for you and for me. Daniel had an unwavering trust in God's plan, no matter what it was. Jesus in the garden prayed, nevertheless, Father, thy will be done. He trusted in the Father's plan. Daniel walked out of the lion's den without a scratch. Jesus walked out of the tomb with the scars that purchased you and me. Here's the best thing about Daniel's story.

Yes, he prayed, but the reason he prayed is he knew who God the Father was. And I think some of us in churches, you might have been in church your whole life. I really don't care how long you've been in church, but has there been a time where you have trusted in Jesus for your salvation? That's where it starts.

That's where it starts. It's recognizing what Jesus has done for you. You want to be a person of prayer? It's go back to the gospel every single day and realize what Jesus paid to have your life and for you to experience eternal life. When you realize what he paid for you, what he paid to get you, and how he gave it all so that you could get it all. The truth is, once you realize that, that will take you to your knees in prayer more than anything else.

Daniel understood who God was, that he was the one true God of Israel, and he knew that one day God would send his son Jesus to pay for the sins of the whole world. Listen, if you have never been nobody like Jesus, there's absolutely no one like him, and there is nothing in this world that can save you or fulfill you the way that Jesus can. And for some of you who haven't prayed consistently for days and weeks and years, I just want to challenge you. Go back to the cross and realize what Jesus did for you, because few things will bring you to your knees more than that. Would you bow your heads with me? Let's all stand.

The instruments are going to play. I'm not going to prolong any of this invitation. I just want to ask you, are you a person of prayer? Are you a person of prayer? Are you a person of prayer?

Nobody in here knows that, because prayer, we entitled this the series The Secret Place. Prayer is personal. Prayer is something that is personal, and it's something that a lot of you, only you and God know about. You know if you're a prayer warrior or not. You know if you have a disciplined prayer life or not.

You know if you notice the God-sized vision between what is and what could be. You know if you pray for that or not. You know if you're persistent in prayer or not. I'm going to pray.

I want to invite you to come and make a decision. Father, we love you. God, I pray that we would be a prayer, a praying church, a church that that believes in prayer, a church that believes we are nothing without prayer, a church that that calls fire down from heaven. God, I pray, Lord, for revival. I pray for our world. I pray for our church. I pray for our families. I pray for our children. God, we need to call down fire from heaven, and we need to be people of prayer, like Daniel was, so that when the world shakes around us, we can remain stable. Help us be a people of prayer. We love you, for it's in your name we pray. If God speaks to you, you come. The altar is open, or you can pray right where you're at. Maybe you need to come down here and say, God, I need to be more consistent in my prayer.

I need to be more disciplined. We don't pray together as a family. I need to start praying together with my children and my spouse. It's a good start. I don't have a daily time or space or place to pray, and I need that. Come pray and ask God to help you with that.