September 8, 2024, Message by P. Kevin Clancey

Amen. All right, we’re going through the Bible, people, chronologically, and we are almost done with the Old Testament. I think we got three more weeks, and we’ll be in the gospels.

As we’re going through this chronologically, you know, what I’ve been doing is just taking one of the passages during the week that we read and preaching on that. I made a mistake last week. I made a mistake. I actually got a week ahead. Last week I preached Ezekiel 47, which was this week. And so I had a choice.

I was going to either go back a week and cover the week before. I was going to do Ezekiel 37, the dry bones. But then as I was reading, I came upon Daniel’s prayer in chapter nine. I thought, no, I’m going to preach on Daniel’s prayer.

So if you want to preach Ezekiel 37, if you want to hear that preached, go back there, write a sermon, preach it to the mirror, and you will be edified. Or maybe another day you’ll get the dry bones.

How about those huskers? This is their year, man. It is.

It’s not a prophecy. It’s a prediction. It’s not a prophecy. It’s a prediction. But this is the year they bring all those heartbreaking years where you were so close and lost. Close games. This is the year. This is the year.

All right. There you go. That’s a prediction. Yeah. All right. Spoken to God’s ear. Yep. That’s right. Hey, you have not, because you ask not.

All right, so Daniel 9. We’re going to read the first 19 verses. It’s Daniel’s prayer.

1 It was the first year of the reign of Darius the Mede, the son of Ahasuerus, who became king of the Babylonians. 2 During the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, learned from reading the word of the Lord, as revealed to Jeremiah the prophet, that Jerusalem must lie desolate for seventy years. 3 So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and fasting. I also wore rough burlap and sprinkled myself with ashes. 4 I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed: “O Lord, you are a great and awesome God! You always fulfill your covenant and keep your promises of unfailing love to those who love you and obey your commands. 5 But we have sinned and done wrong. We have rebelled against you and scorned your commands and regulations. 6 We have refused to listen to your servants the prophets, who spoke on your authority to our kings and princes and ancestors and to all the people of the land. 7 “Lord, you are in the right; but as you see, our faces are covered with shame. This is true of all of us, including the people of Judah and Jerusalem and all Israel, scattered near and far, wherever you have driven us because of our disloyalty to you. 8 O Lord, we and our kings, princes, and ancestors are covered with shame because we have sinned against you. 9 But the Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him. 10 We have not obeyed the Lord our God, for we have not followed the instructions he gave us through his servants the prophets. 11 All Israel has disobeyed your instruction and turned away, refusing to listen to your voice. “So now the solemn curses and judgments written in the Law of Moses, the servant of God, have been poured down on us because of our sin. 12 You have kept your word and done to us and our rulers exactly as you warned. Never has there been such a disaster as happened in Jerusalem. 13 Every curse written against us in the Law of Moses has come true. Yet we have refused to seek mercy from the Lord our God by turning from our sins and recognizing his truth. 14 Therefore, the Lord has brought upon us the disaster he prepared. The Lord our God was right to do all of these things, for we did not obey him. 15 “O Lord our God, you brought lasting honor to your name by rescuing your people from Egypt in a great display of power. But we have sinned and are full of wickedness. 16 In view of all your faithful mercies, Lord, please turn your furious anger away from your city Jerusalem, your holy mountain. All the neighboring nations mock Jerusalem and your people because of our sins and the sins of our ancestors. 17 “O our God, hear your servant’s prayer! Listen as I plead. For your own sake, Lord, smile again on your desolate sanctuary. 18 “O my God, lean down and listen to me. Open your eyes and see our despair. See how your city the city that bears your name lies in ruins. We make this plea, not because we deserve help, but because of your mercy. 19 “O Lord, hear. O Lord, forgive. O Lord, listen and act! For your own sake, do not delay, O my God, for your people and your city bear your name.” (Daniel 9:1-19, NLT)

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight. O Lord, our Rock, our Strength, and Redeemer.

As I came upon this prayer, I thought, well, this is Daniel praying for his nation. Now, it is wrong, I think, to make a direct correlation between God’s dealings with his covenant people, Israel, and the United States of America. We’re not Israel. We’re not ancient Israel. We’re not old covenant.

We live in a different time. We live under a different covenant. We live under a new covenant by faith in Jesus Christ.

But there are things that are true, and one of the things that is true is the nature of God. God doesn’t change. God is the same, all right?

God still hates sin. God still loves obedience. God still blesses, and God still judges, and prayer still works. And so, though you can’t draw a one-to-one correlation between America and ancient Israel, you can draw many correlations between God’s interactions with His people then and His people now.

The Old Testament was written for us. It wasn’t written to us, but it was written for us, all right?

And it brings edification. The New Testament says that. And so Daniel’s prayer has a lot to teach us as we pray for our nation. I pray for our nation. Listen, I don’t pray for our nation because the United States is more holy than any other nation, or God loves American babies more than He loves babies of any other nation. Listen, I pray for our nation because it’s my home.

The Bible says, pray for the peace of Jerusalem. I think we should pray for the peace of Jerusalem, but I think that also means he’s telling it to people who live in Jerusalem.

Pray for the peace of America. Pray for Poulsbo. Pray for Kitsap County. Pray for the state of Washington. Pray for the United States of America. God bless America.

And so I pray for our nation, and I pray. I have been praying for 20 years for our nation, and I’ve been praying, basically, I’ve been praying these three things repeatedly and hopefully passionately for the last several years.

And it’s very simple what I pray. I pray for a great awakening upon our land. God has sent great awakenings upon our land. Revivals, great awakening, renewals, whatever you want to call them.

I came to the Lord in the late seventies because a bunch of hippies came to my high school. They had read in the Bible they were supposed to look like Jesus. And they took that literally. They had long hair, they had beards, they had sandals. They came to my high school with young life, and they introduced me to Jesus. All right?

Now, I don’t think Jesus drove a Volkswagen van, but otherwise. And there’s no reference of Jesus saying far out, but otherwise, they were like Jesus to me. They were Jesus with skin on.

Later, I found out that that was the tail end of a movement, a tail end of a revival. It was less than perfect. Anything that happens here when God moves is going to be less than perfect.

John Wesley, one of the great revivalists of the 18th century, said, Lord, send us revival without warts, without distractions, without distortions, without exaggerations, without sin, without fallenness, messing it up. But then he said, but, Lord, if that’s not possible, send us revival, warts and all.

And so I pray for a great awakening upon our land. I pray there’s 350 million people in the United States. So I pray that millions would come to faith in this great awakening.

And I pray that this great awakening would be so deep in our culture that it would bring about a cultural reformation. It may happen. It may not happen. I don’t know. But I put my request in. I put one more request in. I say, Lord, I want it to happen in my lifetime. I want to play in this pool. And I’ve had pictures.

I don’t know if they’re pictures of my imagination or pictures from the Lord, but I’ve had pictures in my mind of a sea of young people on the floor worshiping and seeking God and calling out to God and just crying out because of His power.

I’ve had pictures in the Bremerton church of people walking in that, you know, that little side door that’s so embarrassing to walk in when you come to church late because we don’t have a back door. Yeah, that little side door where everybody’s like, oh, 11:10, isn’t it? There you go.

So there it is. You know, this is much, much more friendly, right? You can just sneak in. And by the way, if you come at 6:10, we’re not even done with our Bible study yet, so you’re good.

But people. And just the power of God being so powerful, and they walk in the door there. I don’t know if that’s me or that came from the Lord, but I pray for it.

Daniel is praying for his people. And as you know, if you’ve been reading the Bible, his people aren’t even in Jerusalem. They’re not in Israel.

They’re not in Judah. His people are in Babylon. And he’s the highest servant in the pagan nation of Babylon because God exalted him in that place. Because he was faithful to the Lord. God protected him from the lion’s den. He gave him the gift of interpreting dreams to kings, and he was exalted.

But Daniel prays for his people. And let me tell you where his prayer springs from. His prayer springs from reading the scriptures. He’s reading the prophet Jeremiah.

Dear ones, we think prayer springs from us, and a lot of prayer does, and there’s nothing sinful about that.

Lord, I need a job. Lord, I need this. Lord, I need. Lord, I need this to stop hurting. Lord, I need this to be healed. Lord, I need my kids to straighten out and fly right. I need the prodigals to come home. And we pray from our need, from our brokenness, from our hurt. Nothing wrong with that.

Give us this day our daily bread. God knows you have needs. But even the Lord’s prayer, when Jesus taught us to pray, didn’t start with, give us this day our daily bread. It started in response to our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name.

I’ll tell you, you want an effective prayer life, read the Bible and then let the Bible thrust you into prayer. I’ve told you this before. One of the best ways to pray. Pray the Psalms. Pray the Psalms.

So Daniel’s reading the Bible, and he comes upon this prophecy from the prophet Jeremiah that the people in exile are going to be returned to Jerusalem in 70 years.

Now, actually, Daniel has three choices, because there are actually three exiles. I love what Daniel does. He picks the earliest. That’s where we’re marking our 70 years from God. And that was only a couple of years away. And Daniel’s not seeing it. He’s not seeing it happening.

Let me tell you something. When you pray from the Scriptures, you’re going to be called to pray for things that you don’t see happening. But, man, there’s stuff happening. You know, the devil’s the devil of bright lights, headlines, right? Shouting things at us, and God is the God of the undercurrent.

And then all of a sudden, it springs forth and everybody, whoa, where’d that come from? Where’d that come from? Daniel doesn’t see it happening, but Jeremiah prophesied it, Daniel prayed it, and a few years later, Darius declared it.

By the way, that’s how intercessory prayer works. We believe God has something in his heart, and we let that launch us into giving earth to heaven. Prayers, Lord, this, this. Do this, Lord. Do this, Lord. Send our people back. And then heaven answers. And when heaven answers, somebody has to put feet on that prayer or a word on that prayer.

And when you speak a word but you haven’t actually heard from heaven, that’s presumption. There’s a lot of prophetic presumption that happens, all right? And I’ve been caught up in it. However, that doesn’t mean that prophecy is illegitimate.

It just means that we’re not perfect at it. But when we intercede and we actually hear from heaven and we don’t put legs on it and we don’t speak it, that’s incomplete. We haven’t completed the circle.

A woman came to me years and years ago, pastor in the church. She came to me and her kids went to a particular school in a particular school district. She wanted to keep the kids in that school and school district, actually the school my kids went to. Wonderful Christian principal, good school. We like the school, we like the kids.

And this woman goes, she was a renter. She says, our landlords, who we’ve had for years, are selling the house and we have to leave. I want to, we can’t afford to buy a house. I want to rent another house, but I want to rent a house where I can keep my kids in the school. But I’ve kind of been priced out of that neighborhood. So, pastor, pray.

So I prayed. Week one, Lord, I pray the right house, the right price, and the right place. In Jesus’ name, go your way.

I prayed, earth to heaven. Week two, Lord, I’m asking for this dear woman. I’m asking. I haven’t heard anything. I’m just asking God for the right house at the right price in the right place. God, I’m asking.

Week three, same prayer. She walks away. She’s got two weeks left. Week four, she comes to me. She goes, I got one week left. I go, I know. And I begin to pray. And this time I’m stopped in my prayer. I hear the voice, and the gift of faith lands on me.

And it says, tell her I have the right house at the right price, at the right place, and you will have it this week. And I said, instead of praying, I just looked at her. I said it. I declared it. I said it. God is giving you the right house at the right price, at the right place. Go in peace, you know, God bless you.

She kind of startled, walked away smiling. The gift of faith that landed on me immediately left. I turned to the lady I was praying with.

I go, I hope that was God. Set that poor woman up. But sure enough, right, the next week she comes, big smile on her face. Guess what? I got the, you know, and ended up, she was like three, the block behind us, so our back fence and her back fence, so the other street, but, you know, and like two houses down, almost kiddy corner to us. She became, she was our neighborhood.

All right, so that’s intercessory prayer. Jeremiah prophesied it, Daniel prayed it, Darius declared it. Now, Daniel’s prayer is serious.

He set his face, baby, when Jesus is going to Jerusalem, the Gospel of Luke says, he set his face. He set his face.

Have you ever seen, all right, my wife is strong-willed, all right. My son describes my wife this way. He says, she’s like a football goalpost. On the outside, it’s covered with soft tinder, so when you run into it, you don’t hurt. But if you bump into it, you’re not gonna move it. I thought that is the best description of your mother I’ve ever heard.

You know, you won’t break a bone running into it, but you’ll be on the ground. It’ll still use. My wife sets her face. All right. I had a strong-willed daughter, man, my first daughter, she sets her face all right.

There’s like, hey, God, could you do this for me? Maybe. But there’s another kind of prayer. It’s like, oh, God, oh, God, until you tell me to let go, Jacob, with the wrestling match, I’m holding on. Bless me. Let go. Bless me. I’m not going to let go till you bless me. I’m holding on.

I have set my face. Jesus set his face on Jerusalem. It wasn’t easy to go to Jerusalem. He knew what waited him. Jerusalem. But he knew. That’s why he came. He set his face.

Daniel sets his face on this prayer. God. I read it in Jeremiah. I don’t see it happening. Here we go. It’s on. It’s on. There’s got to be. Listen, there’s nothing wrong with casual prayer. I’m not putting it down. I mean, I think we should have, you know, the Bible says pray without ceasing.

Well, I think a lot of that has to be casual prayer. You know, you’re walking down the street and you see a homeless person, and you might not set your face, that case, but you might just say, Lord, help that dear soul. Help him, Jesus.

That’s not a set your face prayer. That’s a good prayer. That’s a good prayer.

Years ago, I had a grandson who was diagnosed with leukemia. My wife and I did some set your face praying. You know, that’s the time for set your face praying. And then he fasted.

That’s a way to set your face. Listen, fasting doesn’t earn God’s answers, but it makes us pray. It makes prayer serious.

Dear ones, I do not give up food easily, all right? I like food. Anybody here not like food? I mean, you skinny people, you’re acting like, oh, no, I don’t. Listen, you just have metabolisms, all right? Don’t gloat. And I love you. And I’m not mad at you for it, though sometimes I do want to sit on you. Ooh, look, I can feel those ribs. And you know what?

Fasting, that comes tougher for you people with metabolisms. Cause you’re wired to keep that engine. you’re like, you get 12 miles to the gallon. Not me, man. I’m a hybrid. I’m built for it. I’m built for it.

But it doesn’t matter. Doesn’t matter. You know, and if you’re not good at it, don’t do ten days, do a day, do a meal. But, you know, the New Testament doesn’t really make fasting an option in terms of spiritual disciplines. Jesus doesn’t say, if you fast. He says, when you fast.

There ought to be times when we have set your face kind of prayers where we say, this is big enough not to eat, not to eat. And so he fasted, put on burlap, sackcloth, and ashes. That says he humbled himself.

I just read somewhere, praying on your knees, praying in a chair, and praying while you’re driving in your car are all different. And there’s truth to that. There’s truth to that. It doesn’t mean praying while you’re driving in your car is inconsequential.

If you pray in tongues, that’s a great place to pray in tongues, you know? And when you’re sitting, you can pray. But there’s something about the posture of your body when you hit your knees, because when you hit your knees, your body is declaring, hopefully, our hearts are constantly declaring: your God. I’m not. I bow before you. I come before you in humility, and prayer is 100% humble. God, I’m asking you for what I can’t do for myself. Daddy, I need you. Lest you be like a little child.

You know, my little grandson Theo, when he was three years old, we’d watch him a lot. And I just called him, I nicknamed him I want. I want, I want. Because he’s grandpa. I want, I want, I want, I want all day. I want, I want, I want.

Well, he wanted stuff. And you know what? It was too high in the pantry to get or too far back in the garage to find, to play with. And there’s kind of almost a bold humility about that. I can’t do this for myself, grandpa.

You got to help me. And, you know, he was persistent. I want. And sometimes I’d have to tell him no. And every time I did, I threw his mother under the bus. Well, your mom said I couldn’t give that to you. I would if I could, man. I’m on your side. But you know that mean lady? Yeah, I lived with her, too, for a long time. I get you. I feel your pain, but yeah.

All right. Here’s what Daniel did. He acknowledges God’s greatness, his justice, and his mercy. It’s a God centered prayer.

It’s not about us, and we feel like it’s about us. And there’s a natural reason for that. We are all self-conscious. And I don’t mean self-conscious in the shy sense. I just mean I don’t know what it’s like to be any other person in the universe but me. Right?

I can guess. you’re a human. I guess I can guess. We have common feelings, common experiences. That’s why we can communicate. That’s why I can talk to you. If I tell you something and you laugh, that means, oh, I get the joke.

I’m like you in that way. I can guess that there’s many ways we’re connected. But it’s hard not to put myself in the center of the universe because that’s my experience.

But as I read the Bible and as I am introduced to Jesus, as I meet the God of the Bible, I realize I’m not the center of the universe. That’s Job. That’s the book of Job. Job gets it. Job’s like, God, why’d you do this to me? Why? This is hurting me. God, this is no fair to me. God, you have to talk to me.

God, you have to answer me. God, you have to tell me why. And finally, God shows up, and he doesn’t answer any of Job’s questions. He doesn’t tell Job why. He doesn’t tell him why it’s happening to him. He doesn’t explain the whole mystery of why suffering happens to good people. He doesn’t give him any theology. He gives him nothing but this.

Hey, where were you? I’m God. you’re nothing.

And you know what? Job goes. you’re right. you’re right. I get it. I get it, God.

Daniel says, you are awesome and great, and your judgments on us are righteous and true. But I also know your nature is merciful.

And he prays to God about God’s qualities and God’s character. He prays God’s promises back to him. You know, there’s something in the Bible that’s effective about that.

I skipped that earlier, but about just praying the promises of God, it’s like some of the most effective prayers in the world. They pray this way. God, you said, you said one time, my nephew, you know, kids barraging you all day, right?

Mom, mom, mom, mom, mom. And my nephew was the youngest, and his mom’s, like, doing something busy, and he just comes, mom. She didn’t hear what he says. And she goes, sure, honey. And he goes, really? I’m the luckiest boy in the whole world? And she’s like, oh, my gosh. What did I just say yes to?

I forget what it was, but I was like, I just said, okay, yeah, we can go to Disneyland this weekend. Sure. God, you promised. He is an awesome God.

And he brought his people out of Egypt with mighty acts and signs and wonders. Remember that? Remember his history. Remember his awesomeness.

He is righteous and just. And he punished Israel according to the terms of the covenant he made with them twice through Moses and once through Joshua. Israel agreed to this.

Sometimes people read the Old Testament and say, oh, God is so mean and he’s so harsh, and look at these terrible judgments. And they were hard judgments, but it was all a part of the deal. He spelled it out. Obey my covenant.

Follow my covenant, these blessings will fall upon you and your land. Disobey my covenant, and guess what? you’re going to get exiled. you’re going to get taken away. This is going to happen to you. And you think God is harsh.

Ezekiel, the prophet, is told to lie on his side for 430 days to represent 430 years God had been sending prophets to Israel saying, you are disobeying my covenant. I said it last week. I’ll say it again. The prophets in the Old Testament are covenant lawyers, and their prophecies are presenting God’s case to disobedient Israel.

They’re prosecuting attorneys. 430 years. My kids didn’t get 430 years. My dad. Now this is a joke. My dad’s an Irishman. You got to understand. Or at least he thought he was an Irishman. But he never beat us. He never did anything. But he’d look at us and go, all right, what do you want, sudden death or crippled for life?

My kids didn’t get 430. Right? They got. Anybody else? Get this. Three. Right. Pick that up. No, one. Two. There were no two and a halfs. My kids got no two and a halfs.

You know, and I didn’t wait a long time. You know, I give them a little second at three to consider, but three’s coming. No, 430 years. God punishes Israel exactly according to the terms and conditions of the covenant that they agreed to.

And yet Daniel says, also forgiveness and mercy belong to you. Israel sinned. Daniel says they did not obey the voice of the Lord. They did not turn to the Lord, their God.

Sometimes when you’re sharing faith with people and you say, you know, everybody needs Jesus, Jesus is the way of the Father.

And here’s one of the people will dodge that. All right? They’ll dodge it with, my grandmother was a Baptist. We’re not talking about your grandmother, you know, but I’m a good person or anything.

But one of the greatest dodges is, well, what about people who never knew? And my deal was, you’re in America, man. You know, what about you? We’ll talk about what people who never knew later.

You see, you got no excuse. Even in an unchurched county like Kitsap County, there’s still a church on every corner.

There is tons of stuff on the Internet now, and some of it is even good. If you want to find great theology on the Internet, all you have to do is go to the firehousechurchpalsbow.com. No, I mean, everybody thinks their theology. Listen, it’s not arrogant to think your theology is right. It wouldn’t be your theology if you didn’t think it was right.

All right, humility is admitting I could be wrong. But really, nobody has an excuse in our culture for not gaining. Jesus said it this way. He left people without excuse. He said, listen.

He didn’t say dude, but almost, listen, dude. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be answered. Ask and it will be given to you. Turn your head.

He says in Romans that God’s revelation is in all of nature. His power, his glory. His revelation is in all of nature. And yet we decided to turn from him and serve created things instead of the creator.

Israel had the covenant, had the voice, had the prophets, had the history. And Daniel says, we’ve not listened to your voice. Listen to the voice of God, people.

And I’ve had people come to me and say this, and I believe God speaks. I believe God speaks to your heart, your head. I believe he can speak. He’s spoken to me through road signs. You know, he can never speak to my wife that way, but he can speak to me through.

She doesn’t read road signs. She doesn’t know they exist. She’s oblivious to them. She is. I mean, it’s true. It’s like, is there an exit coming up? Yeah, that little sign said I’m 1 mile. Oh, I didn’t see that.

What’s the speed limit here? The posted speed limit? Anyway, God has spoken to me through road signs.

But dear ones, I had a guy come into my office marrying him, his wife, and talking, great time. You do marriage counseling, you talk to him about Jesus, right. As a Methodist church at the time, great church for weddings. Nice center aisle, beautiful church. So we did a wedding business. I didn’t mind doing a wedding business. It was great. I get people coming in all the time. Can we get married in your building? Will you marry us?

You bet. Six hours. You got to spend six hours with the preacher for me to marry you. I’m going to tell you everything you need to know about being happily married, and the foundation of that is knowing Jesus Christ.

And they got the gospel. I don’t know how many of them took it to heart, but they got it all right. One guy says, well, man, God never talks to me. I say, you got a Bible? Yeah, I got a Bible. You ever read it? No. Well, how do you know if He talks to you?

Never opened your mail. I believe in prophecy, but people come up and they say, oh, pastor, give us a prophetic word. Read your Bible. Lots of words in there, you know. Oh, I just want a prophetic word. I want a prophetic word. Well, God will give you prophetic words. Sometimes it’s words you don’t want to hear.

Martin Luther, this may be legendary, but Martin Luther, you know, he was all, you know, God’s. And somebody said, Martin, you got an important sermon coming up this Sunday. Are you preparing? He said, the Lord will speak to me.

Somebody told him the next day, Martin, you got an important sermon coming. Are you preparing? The Lord will speak to me.

Third day, Martin, you got an important sermon coming up. Are you preparing? The Lord will speak to me.

And Martin said, I got up to preach Sunday morning, and sure enough, God is faithful. He spoke to me, and he said, Martin, you’re lazy. So read.

There it is. Listen to the voice of God. If God doesn’t speak to you prophetically, if he doesn’t speak to you through road signs, if he doesn’t speak to you through dreams and visions, try your Bible.

In fact, all those other ways that God speaks will become more clear to you and more accessible to you the more you are a person of this book.

We did not turn to the Lord our God. When I went to seminary, I thought everybody who read and studied the Bible was a deeply devout believer.

But I found out there were thousands of scholars who were deeply immersed in the scriptures but did not believe. They said, how is that possible? They did not turn their hearts to God.

I will tell you this. In my experience, unbelief is never a head thing. It’s always a heart thing. That’s why I love apologetics. But I find that the main use of apologetics is strengthening believers in their faith, not convincing unbelievers of their unbelief.

You know what convinces unbelievers of their unbelief? A praying grandma. Holy Spirit. Sic em. Get them. Get that prodigal.

Bring them back. Reveal Jesus. Reveal Jesus. But they did not turn their hearts. They did not repent. They did not repent.

Listen, repentance has not left the gospel message. Oh, God is love. God is grace. God is mercy. Amen. Amen. Amen. Great. No. Step in the river. Step into love and goodness and mercy. I will. But I still want to smoke weed and sleep around. Now that doesn’t work that way.

Those were my 1980s. Listen, young people, those things were around in the eighties. Those were my two objections.

Lord, I want to smoke weed and I want to sleep around. And he said, well, Kev, the weed makes you stupid, and there are no willing women out there. You keep striking out, dude.

You’re right. you’re right. So repent. So I threw my weed away and I stopped chasing women. And one called me up and asked me out. And 43 years later, I’m using her as sermon illustrations. It’s great. I’m so brave when she’s not here.

Lord, you’re great. Lord, we have sinned. Lord, forgive again.

Yeah, I want mercy, but, Lord, for your sake, he says, turn from anger and instead make your face shine upon your sanctuary.

Forgive us, Lord, not because we deserve it, but to display to all the world your great mercy. Lord, hear us. Lord, forgive us. Lord, act quickly.

I love that. That’s what I got this week, man. I’ve been praying. I told you, I’ve been praying those three things, right? God sent a great awakening on America. Lead millions of people to Christ, and let that awakening be so deep that it brings about a cultural reformation.

And Daniel just gave me my appendix to that prayer. Now every time I pray that, I’m adding this: Lord, hear. Lord, forgive. Lord, act quickly. Thank you, Daniel.

Lord, hear from heaven. Lord, my face is set. My heart is turned. I have fasted, I have humbled myself. Lord, hear from heaven. Lord, forgive our nation. Forgive me, forgive your church, forgive us, Lord. And Lord, act quickly.

Man. I want to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. And if I die before it comes, God’s smarter than me.

Okay, Lord, you know better than me. You answer prayers wiser than me. You get sent Jesus. Israel cried out for a Messiah for hundreds of years before the fullness of time came. I get it. You got a better plan than me.

But I also get that you adjust your plan to the passionate prayers of your people. How do I know that? Jesus at the wedding in Cana. Woman, it’s not my time yet. Yeah, let me go talk to your dad about that. Hey, do whatever he wants. I guess it is my time.

You don’t think Jesus knew the timing of the Father, and yet there’s such a faith in love, in Mary. It’s like the whole timetable of the revelation of Jesus. Well, we can work this out. We can do this because we just love this woman.

Why don’t you be that woman that so has the ear and heart of God that he says, yeah, we’ll do that. Lord, hear. Lord, forgive. I pray for revival upon America, Lord. Oh, Jesus. Not that we deserve it. God, the world’s number one leader in the exportation of pornography.

We don’t deserve it. But, Lord, if anything says we need it, it’s that statistic. Lord, we say we’re not pagans. We don’t sacrifice our babies to demons anymore, yet we just do it quietly before they’re born. Lord, forgive.

But, Lord, that’s why we’re praying for revival, that it would bring a cultural reformation and a repentance upon this land. And as the early Methodist preachers preached, that it would spread scriptural holiness across this land. Lord, hear. Lord, forgive. Lord, act quickly.

The final thing that Daniel does is he identifies with the sinfulness of Israel, not his own righteousness. Daniel did none of these things. He never sacrificed his kids to demon gods. He never made little idols and set them up in his household. In fact, he resisted idolatry in Babylon to the point of it threatening his own life. He and his buddies, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they would not worship the king. They would not worship idols. They would not violate their convictions to serve a pagan nation, and they were persecuted for it. Daniel was faithful.

And yet he doesn’t say, lord them. He says, lord us. He identifies with the people out of his great love, not only for God, but his great love for his people.

Now, I’ll confess to you my political ilk. Here’s a hint. My wife and I went and saw the movie Reagan last night, and I liked it. Okay. That’ll tell you where I am politically, right? And my guess is most of you are. I don’t know, but. And that’s not my point here. I’m not trying to convince you to be Republicans or anything, but.

But here’s the deal. But do vote, by the way. You got a great privilege. Do it right. Say your prayers, vote your conscience, cast your vote. My vote doesn’t count in Washington. If everybody who said that voted, it would. So just vote. All right?

I’m not going to tell you how to vote. I’m going to tell you what the Bible says, and that ought to shape how you vote. All right? But that’s not my point. My point is the US, and here’s the thing.

When Donald Trump was president, people of my ilk, I’d go to prayer meetings and, oh, there was passion. Pray for Trump, man. That wicked media is coming after him. Pray for Trump. They’re trying to bring him down. Pray for Trump. He needs our protection.

I had no problem with any of that. Here’s what I had a problem with. January 20, 2020. Those same people weren’t saying, pray for Biden. Pray for Harris. And I get it. It was harder, okay? Smite them, squash them, judge them. We want to win. Put them in their place.

What if their place is a place of being swept up in the mercy of God? Do you want that more than judgment?

Moses? Hard-hearted people. These people were a pain to Moses, dragging 2 million grumblers across the desert. We don’t have enough to eat. Here you go. Plenty to eat. Oh, it’s delicious. Week later. We want meat. Here’s meat coming out your nose. We don’t want meat. We want water. God’s provided you water. We want more water. We don’t want to fight them. We don’t want to go there. We don’t want to.

We don’t want to go. Here’s the land filled with milk and honey. you’re going to defeat your enemies. We’re scared. We don’t want to go. Okay? I got to spend 40 more years with you out in the desert, and God says, I’m going to wipe them out.

Man, you went up to the mountain for a month. They built a golden calf. They didn’t build a golden calf because they hadn’t experienced my signs and wonders.

They’re fresh off ten plagues that delivered them from the most powerful nation of the world. They had all that gold to build a golden calf because they plundered the Egyptians. They were rich and free because of my hand, and they built a calf.

All right, I tell you what. I want a people for myself, Moses. But I’ll kill all these, and I’ll just raise up a new generation out of you. And here’s what Moses said. Kill me too, then kill me too. And God says, you passed the test.

You don’t think that’s good enough identification for you? What about Jesus before John in the Jordan River? What does the Bible say? The baptism of John was specifically about the forgiveness of sins. One person in the history of the whole universe who doesn’t need that comes before John. And John’s going, this is blowing me away. This is confusing me. You should be baptizing me. And Jesus says, do it so that all righteousness may be fulfilled.

Do it because I’m so identifying with a fallen and rebellious people that I will be baptized in their place because I’m going to die in their place.

And so Daniel says, when you pray, pray for us, not them. We’re a part of the us. And it’s not just the us who thinks like me, dresses like me, talks like me, goes to church like me. If you want the us to be saved, then you got to love the us. You can’t hate them. You can’t hate them.

Now, listen, I’m not saying, oh, by all means, don’t become a wimpy, soppy, convictionless person. We got our quota of codependent niceness in our country. We don’t need that. That’s not what love is. That’s not love at all. That’s cheap and lazy.

You can call wrong wrong. And you can call broke broke. But you can’t hate. James and John, you want us to call down fire on Samaria? That’d be a show. That’d be a 4th of July show. Sodom and Gomorrah, baby. Here we go.

And Jesus says no, I don’t want you to call fire on Samaria. I came to seek and save that which was lost.

So, Heavenly Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus, you are awesome. And you are right in all your judgments. And, Lord, we have sinned. We have sinned, and we deserve judgment. We deserve, Lord, nothing from your hand, and we confess it. We have not heard your voice. We have not turned to you.

But, Lord, because of your great mercy and for the glory of your name that you would display to the world, that you are a mighty God of signs and wonders and of mercy and forgiveness, that you are a mighty God of salvation. That you are a mighty God who died on the cross and rose from the dead.

We pray for a great awakening in our land, Lord, that would lead millions of people to Christ and, Lord, would bring about a deep cultural reformation, not because we deserve it, but because we need it.

And we pray now. In the name of Jesus, God of heaven, hear, hear our prayer. God of heaven, forgive our sin. And God of heaven, we ask in the name of Jesus that you would act quickly. In his name, we pray for our land. Amen. Amen.

We got a God of mercy. On the night he was betrayed, he took bread and he broke it, the Passover bread. You know, I delivered you from death, I delivered you from slavery. That’s a picture of a bigger deliverance, because this lamb, that lamb, this bread, unleavened bread, it’s me.

I’m the hope of the Passover, and my body’s going to be broken, and my blood is going to be poured out. And in that, all the blessings of Psalm 103 come to my new covenant people. your sins are forgiven, your diseases are healed, you’re redeemed from the pit. He crowns you with love and compassion, he renews your youth like eagles, and he satisfies you with good things.

This is my blood of the new covenant that starts with the forgiveness of sins, but goes deeper and richer, as C.S. Lewis said, further up and deeper in.

And when you gather together, I want you to take this simple meal, but I want you to know that it’s my table and I’m there. I don’t want you ever to forget whose you are and what I’ve done. Be filled not with remorse for your sin. Yes, repent, but then be filled with gratitude and great joy.

Dear ones, I can’t say this enough. I hope when I’m gone, there’ll be Kevinisms you remember. All right, like a pack of dogs on a three-legged cat. You know, stuff like that.

But here’s one I hope you remember. I hope you remember this. We have inherited a great salvation, greater than we could know.

And so the Lord invites you to His Table. Take and eat the right. If you’re a traditionalist and you like wine, the redhead cup is wine. If you’re Scottish and Irish, that I am, and prone to alcoholism, the blue cup is grape juice, so, you know.

But come and eat, it’s the food of God for the people of God.