Allen Jackson - Dreams and Vision (Part 2)

July 16, 2025 | 28:35

Pastor Allen Jackson's mission is to help people become fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ.

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Allen Jackson Ministries | Allen Jackson - Dreams and Vision (Part 2) | July 16, 2025
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  • ♪♪♪
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  • Allen jackson: and i want to take the balance of our time,
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  • I've got a little bit, and use daniel.
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  • I chose daniel because he's a character that's familiar
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  • To many of us.
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  • And daniel had a series of visions and dreams and
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  • Understandings and insights that god gave to him
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  • That are still relevant for our lives.
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  • Can you imagine listening to the lord with such clarity that
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  • Hundreds and hundreds of years after you're gone, people would
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  • Still look to what lord showed you to bring direction
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  • To their lives?
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  • Wow.
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  • I think daniel knew how to take his stand.
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  • Is that fair?
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  • So i think there's some things we can learn from him.
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  • You know, in a very high level, daniel is a very unlikely hero.
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  • He's a prisoner of war.
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  • He lived his adult life as a slave, physically mutilated,
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  • And somehow, with those things being descriptive of him,
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  • He decides to honor god.
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  • One of the things in "let's do difficult" is
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  • You have to give up your excuses.
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  • You have to give up your excuses.
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  • I wasn't treated fairly.
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  • Whatever.
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  • Whatever.
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  • Prisoner of war, a slave, mutilated, he decides
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  • To honor god.
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  • He gained some influence in a foreign land.
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  • He really does.
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  • God intervenes, and he has kind of a meteoric rise.
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  • And he gained some influence.
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  • And then there's a leadership change.
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  • And once again, he gained some influence, and then there's
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  • An empire change.
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  • But through all of those things, through all the rise and
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  • The fall and the jealousy and the antagonism and the hatred
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  • And the threats and the death threats, daniel persists
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  • In his determination to do difficult things.
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  • And so it seemed like an appropriate snapshot for us
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  • To consider.
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  • His dreams and visions are presented to us in something
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  • Of a chronological fashion by daniel.
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  • He introduces them to us in that way.
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  • He tells us who the ruler is that he's serving under.
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  • It's certainly a historical marker, but i also think
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  • It's a reminder that he's persisting as a slave.
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  • Can you imagine serving god with your whole heart
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  • In circumstances that were so uncomfortable that
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  • You're described as a slave?
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  • That's difficult for me.
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  • Because i've threatened to withdraw from serving god if
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  • He just didn't give me the answers i wanted as quickly
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  • As i've wanted them.
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  • Amen or oh me.
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  • I'm sure we've all considered threatening god a time or two.
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  • Well, daniel chapter 7, in verse 1, it says,
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  • "in the first year of belshazzar the king of babylon,"
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  • So we got, it's the first year that belshazzar--
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  • You know, this is the guy that gets the handwriting
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  • On the wall, so.
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  • "daniel had a dream and visions passed through his mind as he
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  • Was trying--lying on his bed.
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  • And he wrote down the substance of his dream."
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  • Now, i left the whole dream out.
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  • I thought the closing conclusion of it was,
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  • For our purpose, sufficient.
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  • He said, "in my vision at night i looked, and there before me
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  • Was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds
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  • Of heaven.
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  • He approached the ancient of days and was led
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  • Into his presence.
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  • He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all
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  • Peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him.
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  • His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will never
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  • Pa--will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will
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  • Never be destroyed."
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  • Who did daniel see?
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  • Jesus.
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  • Daniel saw the lord.
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  • Now, many years ago, someone more mature and much wiser than
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  • I said to me that when you get big guidance, it's because
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  • You're gonna need it.
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  • And i decided pretty early on i was content with small guidance.
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  • I didn't need burning bushes or talking donkeys or angelic host.
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  • I thought, lord, you know, i just--and i read that again
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  • In preparing for the weekend.
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  • And i thought daniel.
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  • Imagine that hundreds of years before the birth of jesus,
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  • He saw the king.
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  • And are you gonna see the king one day?
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  • You will.
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  • And you'll get to have a conversation about your journey
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  • Through time.
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  • Can you imagine?
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  • And i just wanna plant a seed.
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  • When he ask you how it went, don't start,
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  • "well, it was pretty tough.
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  • Pastor was long-winded."
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  • You wanna give the lord your best.
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  • You can tell me the things in your life for which you've made
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  • Great sacrifices: to be a parent, for a relationship,
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  • To earn a degree, to gain an opportunity.
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  • Be certain before your strength is done that there's been a
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  • Significant effort in your life on behalf of the kingdom of god.
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  • And i'm not recruiting or collecting.
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  • I'm not talking about those things.
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  • I'm talking about taking your stand.
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  • Now, let's go on.
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  • Daniel's got a whole host of this.
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  • Next chapter, chapter 8 says, "in the third year of king
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  • Belshazzar's reign, i, daniel, had a vision, after the one that
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  • Had already appeared to me," so we're at least two years later.
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  • You know, sometimes i think we're a bit immature in the
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  • Directions we ask god for.
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  • We want god to give us like moment by moment instructions,
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  • Like the little annoying voice that gives you directions
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  • In your car.
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  • And every time they say rerouting, i wanna tear it out
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  • And throw it out the window.
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  • Right?
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  • If your directions have been more clear,
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  • You wouldn't be rerouting.
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  • And i think we have this imagination.
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  • We want god to do that.
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  • "go to the corner and turn left.
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  • Now, go straight for 150 yards and turn right."
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  • I think there's a more mature way to understand that.
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  • If i told you, i'd give you $1000 to deliver my bible to
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  • Little rock, arkansas and you agreed and i'll give you $500
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  • Now and the other $500 after the bible is delivered, and you got
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  • In the car and you called me from smyrna, and you said,
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  • “i made it to smyrna.
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  • What do you want me to do?”
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  • Well, i'd like you to deliver the bible to little rock.
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  • I might get another call from antioch.
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  • "i've got some real momentum going.
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  • I'm in antioch.
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  • What would you like me to do?"
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  • Then i get another call from dixon.
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  • I'd tell you to come home.
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  • You're not bright enough to make it to little rock.
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  • I wanna send somebody that'll finish the job.
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  • If you understand the assignment at the beginning, you don't need
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  • Course correction.
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  • And if you're an adult, you don't have to have affirmation
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  • At every stop along the way.
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  • "but i would like it."
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  • Duly noted.
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  • Sometimes we get some, and sometimes
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  • We're asked to persevere.
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  • In the third year of belshazzar's reign, daniel said,
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  • "i had another vision."
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  • Then i gave you a portion.
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  • Verse 15: "while i, daniel, was watching the vision and trying
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  • To understand it, there before me stood one who looked
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  • Like a man.
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  • And i heard a man's voice calling, ‘gabriel, tell this man
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  • The meaning of the vision,'"
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  • So who's he getting the vis-- the message from?
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  • Gabriel.
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  • You're gonna meet him later in the new testament, an archangel.
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  • "the vision of the evenings and mornings that has been given you
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  • Is true, but seal up the vision, for it concerns
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  • The distant future."
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  • So daniel's had a vision, and a significant portion of it
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  • Deals with something beyond his lifetime.
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  • What i was intrigued by was the impact it had on daniel.
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  • It concerns his dis--the distant future, "i, daniel,
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  • Was exhausted and i lay ill for several days.
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  • Then i got up and went about the king's business.
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  • I was appalled by the vision; it was beyond understanding."
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  • He recorded it.
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  • He made note of it.
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  • It took a tremendous physical toll upon him.
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  • He has an angelic visit and a revelation from heaven,
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  • And it leaves daniel exhausted for days.
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  • Do you have room for that in your imagination?
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  • Will you allow me just to suggest the possibility that
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  • We need kind of a different structure for what it means
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  • To seek god?
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  • I've been exhausted in my life.
  • 00:08:57.386 --> 00:08:59.355
  • I've been exhausted from digging post holes.
  • 00:08:59.355 --> 00:09:02.425
  • I've been exhausted from international travel.
  • 00:09:02.425 --> 00:09:05.995
  • I've been exhausted from studying all night.
  • 00:09:05.995 --> 00:09:12.668
  • How often have we been exhausted from seeking god?
  • 00:09:12.668 --> 00:09:18.708
  • Allen: hey we have a tool that i think will help you
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  • Allen: now we have a new king.
  • 00:10:54.637 --> 00:10:57.573
  • Belshazzar is gone.
  • 00:10:57.573 --> 00:10:59.742
  • Darius is king.
  • 00:10:59.742 --> 00:11:01.377
  • Daniel chapter 9: "in the first year of darius," this means he's
  • 00:11:01.377 --> 00:11:05.047
  • Got to start all over in that whole authority structure again.
  • 00:11:05.047 --> 00:11:08.784
  • Because when the kings change and the power structures change,
  • 00:11:08.784 --> 00:11:11.320
  • Daniel loses status over and over again.
  • 00:11:11.320 --> 00:11:13.589
  • Gotta start from the bottom.
  • 00:11:13.589 --> 00:11:16.992
  • "in the first year of darius the son of xerxes who was made ruler
  • 00:11:16.992 --> 00:11:21.564
  • Over the babylonian kingdom--in the first year of his reign, i,
  • 00:11:21.564 --> 00:11:24.066
  • Daniel, understood from the scriptures, according to the
  • 00:11:24.066 --> 00:11:26.202
  • Word of the lord given to jeremiah the prophet, that the
  • 00:11:26.202 --> 00:11:29.872
  • Desolation of jerusalem would last seventy years.
  • 00:11:29.872 --> 00:11:33.909
  • So i turned to the lord and i pleaded with him in prayer and
  • 00:11:33.909 --> 00:11:37.279
  • Petition, and fasting, and sackcloth and ashes," daniel,
  • 00:11:37.279 --> 00:11:42.685
  • In spite of empire changes, despite of gaining some freedom
  • 00:11:42.685 --> 00:11:47.256
  • And losing freedom, in spite of having a pretty dramatic
  • 00:11:47.256 --> 00:11:51.360
  • Spiritual life already.
  • 00:11:51.360 --> 00:11:53.963
  • I mean, he could point to his curriculum vita and say,
  • 00:11:53.963 --> 00:11:56.365
  • "you know, let me tell you what i've done for the lord."
  • 00:11:56.365 --> 00:12:00.302
  • In chapter 9, he says, "i was searching the scriptures
  • 00:12:00.302 --> 00:12:05.174
  • Even though i read through the bible last year."
  • 00:12:05.174 --> 00:12:09.078
  • And while he studied the scripture, even as an exile and
  • 00:12:13.182 --> 00:12:17.620
  • A slave, even after jerusalem has been destroyed, you know
  • 00:12:17.620 --> 00:12:24.260
  • How easy it would have been to imagine that god had let us
  • 00:12:24.260 --> 00:12:26.529
  • Down, that those people that taught us the bible had led us
  • 00:12:26.529 --> 00:12:32.101
  • On a pathway of fantasy about the superiority of the god
  • 00:12:32.101 --> 00:12:36.238
  • Of abraham, isaac, and jacob?
  • 00:12:36.238 --> 00:12:38.707
  • Looks like to me, the god of babylon trumped that god.
  • 00:12:38.707 --> 00:12:42.378
  • Do you know how easy it would have been to step away from
  • 00:12:42.378 --> 00:12:45.347
  • Any sense of biblical authority and have said, "no, i don't,
  • 00:12:45.347 --> 00:12:49.718
  • I don't think so.
  • 00:12:49.718 --> 00:12:51.086
  • I'm gonna make it my own way."
  • 00:12:51.086 --> 00:12:52.788
  • Daniel says to us, in those opening verses, in spite of
  • 00:12:52.788 --> 00:12:56.425
  • Another regime change, "because of scripture," daniel says,
  • 00:12:56.425 --> 00:13:00.529
  • "because of what jeremiah wrote down, we're going home."
  • 00:13:00.529 --> 00:13:07.670
  • We're going home.
  • 00:13:07.670 --> 00:13:11.373
  • He put such confidence in the word of god, as a slave,
  • 00:13:11.373 --> 00:13:16.879
  • All the stuff, the defeat, the heartbreak.
  • 00:13:16.879 --> 00:13:20.850
  • He said, "the bible says we're going home."
  • 00:13:20.850 --> 00:13:26.121
  • I can't hardly get my head around there.
  • 00:13:26.121 --> 00:13:31.760
  • And he begins to pray.
  • 00:13:31.760 --> 00:13:33.996
  • We're gonna close with his prayer.
  • 00:13:33.996 --> 00:13:35.331
  • I didn't put it in your notes there.
  • 00:13:35.331 --> 00:13:38.701
  • But because of scripture, daniel begins to fast and pray.
  • 00:13:38.701 --> 00:13:43.005
  • He begins to fast and pray, and god responds to him.
  • 00:13:43.005 --> 00:13:47.843
  • Now, daniel knows a little bit about seeking god.
  • 00:13:47.843 --> 00:13:49.612
  • He sought the lord before, and it left him completely
  • 00:13:49.612 --> 00:13:52.214
  • Physically spent.
  • 00:13:52.214 --> 00:13:54.650
  • So he's not into half measures.
  • 00:13:54.650 --> 00:13:58.387
  • He's not into convenient christianity.
  • 00:13:58.387 --> 00:14:00.256
  • Daniel's kind of ahead of us on this "let's do difficult" thing.
  • 00:14:00.256 --> 00:14:03.659
  • Same chapter, chapter 9, same season of his life,
  • 00:14:03.659 --> 00:14:07.863
  • Same narrative, we're just stepping down a bit so
  • 00:14:07.863 --> 00:14:11.000
  • Your notes didn't frighten you.
  • 00:14:11.000 --> 00:14:13.535
  • He said, "while i was speaking and praying, confessing my sin
  • 00:14:13.535 --> 00:14:16.238
  • And the sin of my people, my people, israel and making
  • 00:14:16.238 --> 00:14:19.742
  • My request to the lord my god for his holy hill--
  • 00:14:19.742 --> 00:14:23.045
  • While i was still in prayer, gabriel,
  • 00:14:23.045 --> 00:14:25.881
  • The man i had seen in the earlier vision,"
  • 00:14:25.881 --> 00:14:28.150
  • He remembered him.
  • 00:14:28.150 --> 00:14:30.085
  • Come on.
  • 00:14:30.085 --> 00:14:32.755
  • You again?
  • 00:14:32.755 --> 00:14:35.925
  • Last time i saw you, it rocked my world.
  • 00:14:35.925 --> 00:14:44.133
  • "he came to me in swift flight about the time
  • 00:14:44.133 --> 00:14:46.435
  • Of the evening sacrifice."
  • 00:14:46.435 --> 00:14:48.871
  • They're not having an evening sacrifice in babel.
  • 00:14:48.871 --> 00:14:52.474
  • That's a reference to what happened that used to happen
  • 00:14:52.474 --> 00:14:55.477
  • In jerusalem when the temple was in place, something that hasn't
  • 00:14:55.477 --> 00:14:59.381
  • Been happening for 60 years.
  • 00:14:59.381 --> 00:15:02.584
  • That's a long way removed, but not from daniel's thoughts.
  • 00:15:02.584 --> 00:15:08.891
  • "he instructed me and he said to me, ‘daniel, i have come, i've
  • 00:15:08.891 --> 00:15:12.194
  • Now come to give you insight and understanding.'"
  • 00:15:12.194 --> 00:15:16.332
  • Do you believe there's insight and understanding
  • 00:15:16.332 --> 00:15:18.000
  • That you can only gain with a spiritual heart?
  • 00:15:18.000 --> 00:15:20.869
  • "as soon as you began to pray, an answer was given,
  • 00:15:22.171 --> 00:15:25.374
  • Which i've come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed.
  • 00:15:25.374 --> 00:15:29.078
  • Therefore, consider the message and understand the vision,"
  • 00:15:29.078 --> 00:15:33.248
  • Gabriel comes to visit with insight and understanding.
  • 00:15:33.248 --> 00:15:37.086
  • As soon as you began to pray, an answer was given.
  • 00:15:37.086 --> 00:15:41.957
  • Your prayers initiated an answer.
  • 00:15:41.957 --> 00:15:46.495
  • What you're invested in studying the scripture and the awareness
  • 00:15:46.495 --> 00:15:49.765
  • That came to you and your response to that awareness
  • 00:15:49.765 --> 00:15:52.835
  • Elicited a response from heaven.
  • 00:15:52.835 --> 00:15:55.137
  • Do you believe that?
  • 00:15:55.137 --> 00:15:57.239
  • Do you believe that what the church and the earth does
  • 00:15:57.239 --> 00:16:00.242
  • Elicits responses from heaven?
  • 00:16:00.242 --> 00:16:03.145
  • Or that our failure to respond forfeits what heaven would do
  • 00:16:03.145 --> 00:16:07.483
  • In our generation?
  • 00:16:07.483 --> 00:16:09.585
  • May i suggest we raise our hand and say, "let's do difficult."
  • 00:16:09.585 --> 00:16:14.523
  • I'm not talking about bar-- i'm not--
  • 00:16:14.523 --> 00:16:16.625
  • Doesn't have to be great sights.
  • 00:16:16.625 --> 00:16:18.627
  • The investment in the king of god--in the kingdom of god.
  • 00:16:18.627 --> 00:16:21.897
  • If investing in the kingdom of god, and i don't mean your
  • 00:16:21.897 --> 00:16:24.533
  • Money, is loathsome to you, you need to consider the nature
  • 00:16:24.533 --> 00:16:28.203
  • Of the relationship you have.
  • 00:16:28.203 --> 00:16:34.843
  • Daniel chapter 10, next chapter, we got a new king.
  • 00:16:38.847 --> 00:16:41.784
  • So imagine that.
  • 00:16:41.784 --> 00:16:45.154
  • Daniel 10, verse 1: "in the third year of cyrus the king
  • 00:16:45.154 --> 00:16:48.223
  • Of persia," we not only have a new king, we've got a whole
  • 00:16:48.223 --> 00:16:50.225
  • New empire.
  • 00:16:50.225 --> 00:16:52.094
  • The persians defeated the babylonians in a day,
  • 00:16:52.094 --> 00:16:56.632
  • Whole new structure.
  • 00:16:56.632 --> 00:16:58.000
  • Whatever place daniel had, he started over, "a revelation was
  • 00:16:58.000 --> 00:17:00.235
  • Given to daniel," he's got a whole new name, "his message
  • 00:17:00.235 --> 00:17:04.006
  • Was true and it concerned the great war.
  • 00:17:04.006 --> 00:17:06.875
  • And the understanding of the message came to him in a vision.
  • 00:17:06.875 --> 00:17:09.178
  • At that time i, daniel, mourned for three weeks.
  • 00:17:09.178 --> 00:17:13.182
  • I ate no choice food; or meat or wine touched my lips;
  • 00:17:13.182 --> 00:17:16.485
  • I used no lotions at all until the three weeks were over."
  • 00:17:16.485 --> 00:17:21.990
  • This passage again begins with a chronological placement,
  • 00:17:21.990 --> 00:17:24.359
  • A location in history.
  • 00:17:24.359 --> 00:17:25.694
  • In the third year of cyrus, the king of persia, daniel,
  • 00:17:25.694 --> 00:17:28.497
  • Has been having an extended period of fasting.
  • 00:17:28.497 --> 00:17:31.100
  • He said for three weeks, i altered my whole lifestyle.
  • 00:17:31.100 --> 00:17:37.039
  • He began to seek god, not for a moment, not to begin his day.
  • 00:17:37.039 --> 00:17:43.512
  • He's taken three weeks and reordered his life.
  • 00:17:43.512 --> 00:17:45.614
  • In verse 12, he has another visit.
  • 00:17:45.614 --> 00:17:48.951
  • He says, "don't be afraid, daniel.
  • 00:17:48.951 --> 00:17:50.319
  • Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding
  • 00:17:50.319 --> 00:17:52.988
  • And to humble yourself before your god, your words were
  • 00:17:52.988 --> 00:17:55.624
  • Heard," we've heard that before.
  • 00:17:55.624 --> 00:17:57.993
  • We heard that in an earlier version in daniel's life.
  • 00:17:57.993 --> 00:18:00.195
  • When you began to pray, daniel, i was dispensed with a message,
  • 00:18:00.195 --> 00:18:04.266
  • Dispatched with a message, and it's repeated here, "your words
  • 00:18:04.266 --> 00:18:10.606
  • Were heard, and i've come in response to them.
  • 00:18:10.606 --> 00:18:12.741
  • But the prince of the persian kingdom resisted me for
  • 00:18:12.741 --> 00:18:16.545
  • Twenty-one days.
  • 00:18:16.545 --> 00:18:18.580
  • Then michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me,"
  • 00:18:18.580 --> 00:18:21.450
  • Michael is another of the archangels.
  • 00:18:21.450 --> 00:18:23.218
  • The scripture tells us that michael's assignment are
  • 00:18:23.218 --> 00:18:25.921
  • The things connected with the jewish people.
  • 00:18:25.921 --> 00:18:29.691
  • Gabriel said, “i was released with a message.
  • 00:18:29.691 --> 00:18:31.493
  • I knew the way you've rec--we've been, we've done this before,
  • 00:18:31.493 --> 00:18:33.929
  • Daniel.” but this time, there was a principality, and there's
  • 00:18:33.929 --> 00:18:39.034
  • A spiritual force of darkness over the persian empire
  • 00:18:39.034 --> 00:18:44.406
  • That stood between you and that message.
  • 00:18:44.406 --> 00:18:49.211
  • Now, there's lots of questions around that we can ask.
  • 00:18:49.211 --> 00:18:51.880
  • A spiritual force with authority over persia that resisted
  • 00:18:51.880 --> 00:18:55.384
  • A heavenly message?
  • 00:18:55.384 --> 00:18:58.220
  • I know what some of us immediately do.
  • 00:18:58.220 --> 00:18:59.922
  • Well, i don't agree with that.
  • 00:18:59.922 --> 00:19:02.624
  • Allow me.
  • 00:19:02.624 --> 00:19:04.326
  • The presentation is really not for you to agree or disagree.
  • 00:19:04.326 --> 00:19:07.829
  • It's informational.
  • 00:19:07.829 --> 00:19:10.332
  • It provides insight into spiritual activity.
  • 00:19:10.332 --> 00:19:14.136
  • Now, you can reject the message, but i would encourage you
  • 00:19:14.136 --> 00:19:18.807
  • Not to.
  • 00:19:18.807 --> 00:19:21.510
  • An angel arrives to explain to daniel what will happen
  • 00:19:21.510 --> 00:19:24.379
  • To your people in the future.
  • 00:19:24.379 --> 00:19:27.382
  • Daniel is seeking god on behalf of his people for something
  • 00:19:27.382 --> 00:19:30.752
  • That is not going to directly impact him.
  • 00:19:30.752 --> 00:19:32.921
  • He's not going back to jerusalem.
  • 00:19:32.921 --> 00:19:37.326
  • Are we willing to do that?
  • 00:19:37.326 --> 00:19:39.528
  • Are we willing to take a place, to take a stand, to take
  • 00:19:39.528 --> 00:19:43.799
  • Our stand against evil?
  • 00:19:43.799 --> 00:19:45.167
  • Because daniel's done that through the breadth of his life.
  • 00:19:45.167 --> 00:19:48.604
  • And understand that, even if we don't see the benefit, we will
  • 00:19:48.604 --> 00:19:51.740
  • Take a stand and hold the place in anticipation that there'll be
  • 00:19:51.740 --> 00:19:55.077
  • A generation beyond us that will know the benefit.
  • 00:19:55.077 --> 00:19:59.214
  • Come on, church.
  • 00:19:59.214 --> 00:20:00.849
  • Jesus gave himself on a cross so that all humanity
  • 00:20:00.849 --> 00:20:05.020
  • Could be different.
  • 00:20:05.020 --> 00:20:06.588
  • The people that knew him the best after he was gone, when
  • 00:20:06.588 --> 00:20:09.891
  • They were threatened, they said, "listen, whatever you think you
  • 00:20:09.891 --> 00:20:12.327
  • Need to do, you tee it up.
  • 00:20:12.327 --> 00:20:14.029
  • We're not stopping."
  • 00:20:14.029 --> 00:20:17.532
  • Now, it's time for the church to find a response.
  • 00:20:17.532 --> 00:20:25.974
  • Daniel has this pattern of searching the scriptures and
  • 00:20:30.112 --> 00:20:32.614
  • Seeking god regarding the future of his people.
  • 00:20:32.614 --> 00:20:36.051
  • This isn't some abstract, random intervention.
  • 00:20:36.051 --> 00:20:39.888
  • By this point in the narrative, i hope you can identify
  • 00:20:39.888 --> 00:20:43.091
  • For yourself that daniel has established a track record
  • 00:20:43.091 --> 00:20:45.927
  • Of doing difficult.
  • 00:20:45.927 --> 00:20:48.030
  • One last passage, same chapter: "so he said, ‘do you know
  • 00:20:48.030 --> 00:20:51.400
  • Why i have come to you?'"
  • 00:20:51.400 --> 00:20:54.069
  • This is intriguing. it's insightful.
  • 00:20:54.069 --> 00:20:56.238
  • “'soon i will return to fight against the prince of persia,'”
  • 00:20:56.238 --> 00:21:02.611
  • There is a spiritual opposition to the purposes of god
  • 00:21:02.611 --> 00:21:05.814
  • In the earth.
  • 00:21:05.814 --> 00:21:07.916
  • And he said, "daniel, i had the breakthrough.
  • 00:21:07.916 --> 00:21:09.685
  • I delivered the message, but that battle is ongoing."
  • 00:21:09.685 --> 00:21:12.854
  • I promise you there's a battle over the earth today.
  • 00:21:12.854 --> 00:21:17.426
  • I promise you a spiritual battle far more important than rockets
  • 00:21:17.426 --> 00:21:20.562
  • That fly and missiles that are launched and weapons
  • 00:21:20.562 --> 00:21:23.565
  • That are fired.
  • 00:21:23.565 --> 00:21:25.167
  • He said, "when i go, the prince of greece will come;
  • 00:21:25.167 --> 00:21:29.204
  • But first i'll tell you what is written in the book of truth.
  • 00:21:29.204 --> 00:21:32.874
  • No one supports me against them except michael, your prince.
  • 00:21:32.874 --> 00:21:38.113
  • And in the first year of darius, the mede, i took my stand
  • 00:21:38.113 --> 00:21:42.117
  • In support and to protect him."
  • 00:21:42.117 --> 00:21:46.588
  • There's some ways you can understand that.
  • 00:21:46.588 --> 00:21:48.023
  • My understanding is daniel's taking his place to support
  • 00:21:48.023 --> 00:21:50.525
  • The messengers and the purposes of god.
  • 00:21:50.525 --> 00:21:54.129
  • There's a spiritual conflict that remains even after
  • 00:21:54.129 --> 00:21:56.898
  • The message is delivered.
  • 00:21:56.898 --> 00:21:59.568
  • If you'll allow a bit of a historical note, the greek
  • 00:21:59.568 --> 00:22:02.237
  • Empire, which gabriel mentioned, was the empire that followed
  • 00:22:02.237 --> 00:22:04.973
  • The persian empire, a whole new principality over that region.
  • 00:22:04.973 --> 00:22:12.114
  • What do you imagine the spiritual forces of darkness
  • 00:22:12.114 --> 00:22:14.750
  • Over our nation look like?
  • 00:22:14.750 --> 00:22:17.719
  • We've redefined marriage.
  • 00:22:17.719 --> 00:22:20.055
  • We're confused about biological sex.
  • 00:22:20.055 --> 00:22:23.425
  • Major expressions of the christian church deny
  • 00:22:23.425 --> 00:22:25.761
  • The authority of scripture.
  • 00:22:25.761 --> 00:22:30.065
  • And on and on.
  • 00:22:30.065 --> 00:22:34.536
  • When god looks at our generation, let him find people
  • 00:22:34.536 --> 00:22:37.506
  • Who say they'll stand in the gap.
  • 00:22:37.506 --> 00:22:40.675
  • I brought you that prayer from daniel chapter 9.
  • 00:22:40.675 --> 00:22:43.912
  • I tweaked it to make it personal.
  • 00:22:43.912 --> 00:22:45.714
  • Daniel began to pray.
  • 00:22:45.714 --> 00:22:47.048
  • He wasn't praying some great historical prayer for things
  • 00:22:47.048 --> 00:22:48.784
  • That happened hundreds of years ago.
  • 00:22:48.784 --> 00:22:51.219
  • He was praying about a generation that he knew.
  • 00:22:51.219 --> 00:22:54.289
  • He knew the circumstances of their lives.
  • 00:22:54.289 --> 00:22:56.925
  • He knew precisely why they were learning foreign languages
  • 00:22:56.925 --> 00:23:00.495
  • In foreign countries.
  • 00:23:00.495 --> 00:23:01.997
  • And yet, when he began to pray, he wasn't praying with anger
  • 00:23:01.997 --> 00:23:04.566
  • About his parents and grandparents.
  • 00:23:04.566 --> 00:23:06.234
  • Or he wasn't praying with anger about the ill behavior of
  • 00:23:06.234 --> 00:23:09.171
  • The generation who preceded him.
  • 00:23:09.171 --> 00:23:10.639
  • He said, "forgive me.
  • 00:23:10.639 --> 00:23:12.841
  • Forgive us."
  • 00:23:12.841 --> 00:23:14.910
  • And if you're still angry at someone who's preceded you,
  • 00:23:14.910 --> 00:23:18.013
  • You're forfeiting the opportunity of your life.
  • 00:23:18.013 --> 00:23:21.850
  • You're caught.
  • 00:23:21.850 --> 00:23:23.885
  • Forgive.
  • 00:23:23.885 --> 00:23:25.320
  • Release.
  • 00:23:25.320 --> 00:23:27.889
  • Doesn't mean they got away with it.
  • 00:23:27.889 --> 00:23:29.224
  • They'll deal with an almighty god.
  • 00:23:29.224 --> 00:23:30.625
  • Nobody gets away.
  • 00:23:30.625 --> 00:23:33.428
  • But anger and resentment and bitterness and hatred hold you
  • 00:23:33.428 --> 00:23:36.498
  • In bondage, or me.
  • 00:23:36.498 --> 00:23:39.501
  • It's a wonderful prayer.
  • 00:23:39.501 --> 00:23:40.836
  • Let's stand together.
  • 00:23:40.836 --> 00:23:42.204
  • It's a little longer than the prayers we read typically,
  • 00:23:42.204 --> 00:23:43.705
  • But it's worth the time.
  • 00:23:43.705 --> 00:23:50.011
  • Daniel's the book where we learn so many of those stories that
  • 00:23:54.216 --> 00:23:57.285
  • We teach children, about lions's dens and lions that
  • 00:23:57.285 --> 00:23:59.454
  • Aren't hungry and furnaces that aren't hot.
  • 00:23:59.454 --> 00:24:05.093
  • Daniel saw some tremendous victories, and he continued
  • 00:24:05.093 --> 00:24:09.364
  • To seek the lord.
  • 00:24:09.364 --> 00:24:10.699
  • It's my prayer for you that only that you would know the joy of
  • 00:24:10.699 --> 00:24:14.803
  • Being birthed into the kingdom of god, but that you would know
  • 00:24:14.803 --> 00:24:18.673
  • The triumph and the wonder of seeking a living god, but being
  • 00:24:18.673 --> 00:24:25.113
  • Freed from the burden of pretending, and be set free
  • 00:24:25.113 --> 00:24:31.019
  • To the just the inestimable privilege of bearing the name
  • 00:24:31.019 --> 00:24:35.457
  • Of jesus in time.
  • 00:24:35.457 --> 00:24:37.659
  • We will see jesus when-- daniel saw.
  • 00:24:37.659 --> 00:24:39.661
  • You and i will see him, and we want to have lived in such a way
  • 00:24:39.661 --> 00:24:43.765
  • That anybody that remotely bumped into us thought,
  • 00:24:43.765 --> 00:24:45.901
  • "that is a jesus person right over there."
  • 00:24:45.901 --> 00:24:49.271
  • Because when you see the king, you'll be grateful for that.
  • 00:24:49.271 --> 00:24:53.275
  • And i haven't always been that.
  • 00:24:53.275 --> 00:24:56.311
  • I haven't always been that.
  • 00:24:56.311 --> 00:24:58.280
  • So i suspect there's at least some degree of possibility
  • 00:24:58.280 --> 00:25:00.882
  • You may not have always been that.
  • 00:25:00.882 --> 00:25:05.954
  • Daniel's prayer: o lord, the great and awesome god, who keeps
  • 00:25:05.954 --> 00:25:11.893
  • His covenant of love with all who love him and obey
  • 00:25:11.893 --> 00:25:15.931
  • His commands, we have sinned and done wrong.
  • 00:25:15.931 --> 00:25:19.734
  • We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have turned away
  • 00:25:19.734 --> 00:25:23.705
  • From your command and laws.
  • 00:25:23.705 --> 00:25:26.207
  • We have not listened to your direction.
  • 00:25:26.207 --> 00:25:28.977
  • Now, o lord our god, hear the prayers and petitions
  • 00:25:28.977 --> 00:25:33.615
  • Of your servants.
  • 00:25:33.615 --> 00:25:34.950
  • For your sake, o lord, look with favor on your people.
  • 00:25:34.950 --> 00:25:39.621
  • Give ear and hear; open your eyes and see the desolation
  • 00:25:39.621 --> 00:25:44.693
  • Of our day.
  • 00:25:44.693 --> 00:25:46.061
  • We do not make requests because we are righteous,
  • 00:25:46.061 --> 00:25:49.864
  • But because of your great mercy.
  • 00:25:49.864 --> 00:25:51.933
  • O lord, listen!
  • 00:25:51.933 --> 00:25:53.602
  • O lord, forgive!
  • 00:25:53.602 --> 00:25:55.570
  • O lord, hear and act!
  • 00:25:55.570 --> 00:25:57.706
  • For your sake, do not delay, because your people bear
  • 00:25:57.706 --> 00:26:02.477
  • Your name, amen.
  • 00:26:02.477 --> 00:26:04.846
  • Hallelujah.
  • 00:26:04.846 --> 00:26:06.815
  • God bless you, and thank you for praying for one another tonight.
  • 00:26:06.815 --> 00:26:13.655
  • Allen: you know, no matter what source of news you turn to,
  • 00:26:17.826 --> 00:26:21.196
  • It's hard some days not to be overwhelmed with despair,
  • 00:26:21.196 --> 00:26:24.699
  • The deception, the conflict in the earth,
  • 00:26:24.699 --> 00:26:27.669
  • The suffering that's taking place in so many places,
  • 00:26:27.669 --> 00:26:30.939
  • The struggling church in our own nation.
  • 00:26:30.939 --> 00:26:33.808
  • But there are reasons for hope.
  • 00:26:33.808 --> 00:26:35.310
  • God is moving in the most remarkable ways
  • 00:26:35.310 --> 00:26:38.313
  • But we need to have a plan, a method, even a tool
  • 00:26:38.313 --> 00:26:41.249
  • To help us give our thoughts and our hearts focused on god.
  • 00:26:41.249 --> 00:26:44.986
  • Well, i have a suggestion, it's a little booklet
  • 00:26:44.986 --> 00:26:46.421
  • We put together, it's called "awaken us."
  • 00:26:46.421 --> 00:26:48.590
  • It's a 30-day plan.
  • 00:26:48.590 --> 00:26:49.924
  • It's built by topic each day with a scripture,
  • 00:26:49.924 --> 00:26:52.794
  • A little devotional, and a prayer topically directed
  • 00:26:52.794 --> 00:26:56.031
  • To help focus our thoughts at an awakening
  • 00:26:56.031 --> 00:26:58.867
  • To god's invitations to us around that specific theme.
  • 00:26:58.867 --> 00:27:02.837
  • We're awakened every day for the challenges of that day.
  • 00:27:02.837 --> 00:27:05.407
  • Well, let's ask the spirit of god to awaken us
  • 00:27:05.407 --> 00:27:08.410
  • Consistently to what he would have us doing
  • 00:27:08.410 --> 00:27:11.112
  • In this most unique season.
  • 00:27:11.112 --> 00:27:13.014
  • God is moving, i want to move with him,
  • 00:27:13.014 --> 00:27:15.216
  • And i believe you do too.
  • 00:27:15.216 --> 00:27:16.551
  • And i believe "awaken us" will be a help.
  • 00:27:16.551 --> 00:27:18.353
  • ♪♪♪
  • 00:27:19.688 --> 00:27:19.688