Hello Saddleback. Have I told you lately that I love you? Really good to see you. If you'll take out two
things in your program, the message notes called The Kind of Prayer God Answers. And there's also a little commitment card. My commitment to pray like Daniel. About 6,000 of you filled out this commitment card last week. If you missed it I'll talk
about it in just a minute. But we're now coming to the
last message about Daniel. And in chapter nine we learned how to pray the kind of
prayer that God answers. I mean if you're gonna pray you may as well get a prayer
that God's gonna answer. You've prayed a lot of prayers
that God did not answer. So how do you pray the kind of prayer that God answers? In this passage we're
actually gonna look at how to pray in a crisis. Now I hope you're not
in a crisis right now. But you will be some day. So you need to take notes. Because some day you're gonna go, where are those notes that Rick told me how to pray in a crisis? And you're gonna wanna come back to this. To do what God tells you to do. Let's get right into it. There's six steps we see modeled in Daniel's life and in
the prayer in this chapter on how to pray a prayer that God answers. Number one, here's the first step. Let God speak to me before I speak to Him. Let God speak to me before I speak to Him. This is called The Listening Step. You listen to the voice of God. How do you do that? Well I'm gonna explain it. But there's a principle you need to understand first and it's this. God always makes the
first move in your life, you don't. God is always the initiator
of everything in your life and you are the responder. God never expects you
to make the first move. He always makes the first move. The Bible says that we
love Him, we love God because He first loved us. God loved you a whole long time before you ever loved Him. The Bible says that we serve God because God first served us. And He knew we had a problem. He sent Jesus Christ to
die on the cross for us long before we even knew we had a problem. He served us before we served Him. The Bible says we give to God because God first gave to us. Everything you have in
your life is a gift of God. The air you breathe, your life, your mind, your brain, everything you've
got is a gift from God. God will never ask you to do something He hasn't already done for you. God never asks you to do something that He goes, "Personally
I've never done this, "but I'm expecting you to do it." God always initiates, we always respond. And that's even true with prayer. The reason we pray, the
reason we talk to God is because God has first talked to us in this book. In this book, the Bible, written over 3,500 plus years, 66 different authors that God inspired to write these words down that He wanted written down. There are literally
thousands and thousands of promises from God to you, to you. And what we do in prayer is we claim the promises that He has said to us. You say "God you said this,
so I'm asking you to do this. "And God you said that so
I'm asking you to do that." So the Bible says that
prayer actually starts not with talking but with listening. You listen to God. Now how do you listen to God? By reading this book. Or if you don't like to read, listening to the Bible on
tape or mp3 or whatever. Logically you need to let God talk to you then you're gonna know how to pray, what to pray, where to pray, when to pray, and all those things. Daniel did this. Now as we start this chapter nine, Daniel's an old guy now. He's 85 years old. We started the very session on Daniel. He's 15 years old, the prisoner of war. He's now gone through
multiple changes in his life. Test after test after test after test. He keeps getting promoted
higher in authority, higher in power. He's now served three different kings. And we know that the Babylonians
defeated the Syrians. And then the Persians
defeated the Babylonians. And so now he's got a new boss. He survived every administration and no matter what the government
was going on around him, he keeps getting promoted. But he wants to go home before he dies. He's 85 years old. And he knows that God had
said in the book of Jeremiah that you'll be in Babylon for 70 years and then I'm gonna bring my people back, back to Israel. And he knows time's up. But he also know that
the people, Israelites, have not turned back to God. 70 years later they're still as messed up as they were before. And he goes, "We're not any closer to God "than we were 70 years ago. "And I'm afraid God's
just gonna leave us here "in Babylon and not
bring us back to Israel." So this is his crisis. And here's how it starts. Daniel 9:1. "It was the first year of
the reign of Darius the Mede "who was made king of hte
Babylonians by Cyrus," who was a Persian. Babylon is Iraq, Persia is Iran today. And he says, "During the
first year of his reign, "I, Daniel, was studying the scriptures. "And I learned from the Word of the Lord, "as recorded by Jeremiah the prophet, "that Jerusalem must lie
desolate for 70 years." It was destroyed and they said it won't be rebuilt until after 70 years you guys get to go back home. Now, I want you to circle
if you're taking notes, circle the phrase studying the scripture, and circle the phrase,
learned from the word. Study the scriptures, learn from the word. You will never pray effectively until you study the scriptures and
you learn from the word. Until you get into this
book every single day. Now the more you know
this book, the Bible, the more prayers you're
gonna have answered. If you're ignorant of this book, you don't know how to pray, you don't know what to pray, you don't know when to pray, you don't know the promises
that God has made to you. And so you gotta read a
little bit of this book every single day of your life so you can learn those promises
that God has made to you. Let me show you this. Here's what Jesus said,
up here on the screen. In John chapter 15 Jesus said, "If you stay connected to me "and my words remain in your heart." What's he talking about? The Bible. He says, "These words
remain in your heart." He says, "If you follow
those two conditions "you may ask any request
you want in prayer "and it will be given unto you." Jesus Christ. Whoa, that's pretty much
a blank check right there. You can ask whatever you want in prayer and it'll be given to you? Now, he says, notice this verse. If I'm praying and I'm
not getting an answer, the first thing I need to check is am I meeting these two conditions? Am I staying connected to God? God is there anything between me and you that's out of whack? Is there any fellowship broken? Is there something in my
life that I know is wrong and you know it's wrong, and you said for me to get right and I haven't got it right yet. That is a break in the
connection with God. But He said "If you stay connected to me, "you're in harmony with me." And He says, "My words,
this book is in your mind "it's in your heart, you ask
anything you want in prayer "and it will be done." So if I'm not getting the answer, that's one of the two problems. That's one of the two
conditions that need to be met. So Daniel is saying, "I'm
gonna study the word." I'm gonna have it in me. The more you fill your
mind with this book, the more you memorize some Bible verses, the more answers you're
gonna have in your life. Now this is so important to your life that I wanna help you. I wanna help you develop the habit of you never go to bed
any day of your life without have spending at
least a little bit of time, eve if it's a minute or two minutes, reading a little bit of the Bible and then talking to God for
a minute or two or whatever. Now last week we saw that Daniel did this three times a day. He had the habit. And I said, "Do you
think your life would be "any different if you had
a conversation with God "three times a day your entire life?" Which he did for over 70 years. Well no wonder he missed a lot of problem. No wonder he knew how to be wise. No wonder he kept getting promoted. He's talking to God every day. I do this all the time. As I go through my day, I don't talk to God once a day, I talk to God all the time. And as I'm getting
ready to go into meeting I go "Okay God, I'm gonna
need your guidance in here. "I don't know what you
wanna say to these people. "I don't know what they wanna say to me. "I don't know what the problem is. "Help me to know the right thing. "I'm depending on you
to give me the wisdom, "the guidance, and the
power, to do what it is." And I go out of that meeting
and I go to the next thing. And the whole day one of my
prayers is often two words. What's next? What's next Lord? What do you wanna do? And I'm always seeking
God, checking in with Him. Now I wanna teach you this habit of having a little bit of daily
reading the Bible and praying, talking to God
two or three times a day. At least three times a day. Because it will revolutionize your life. Men, it'll make you a strong man. It'll make you more confident. It'll make you less fearful. Same thing, women, it'll
make you a stronger woman. It'll make you more confident,
it'll make you less fearful. If you will develop a habit
of multiple times a day. You have a conversation with God. You let Him talk to you
and you talk to Him, you will handle your stress better. It will improve every
single area of your life, I guarantee it. I guarantee it. How many of you would like next year to be better than this year? Can I see your hands? All right, how many of you would like next year to be let's say
the best year of your life? I'd like that. Okay, I can guarantee it. If you'll learn the habit
that I'm gonna teach you. I'm gonna introduce today and teach you later at the end of the month. I'm gonna lead you and our church in learning how to do this prayer at least three times a day. Between November 21, which is the beginning
of Thanksgiving week. And December 25th which is Christmas Eve, that 34 days, I'm gonna lead you and all of our church in what I'm calling 34 Days of Seeking God. And I'm gonna teach you to develop a habit that will take at the most
15 minutes of your life. Three times a day you're gonna have a conversation with God
for about five minutes. I'm gonna give you the
resources and help you do this. Is it worth 15 minutes of your time for 34 days to get you ready
for the best year of your life? Yes. Yes it is. And if you'll make that commitment, then it will be an amazing thing. It'll strengthen you, it'll
prepare you for next year so you can have the
best year of your life. Now what you're gonna do is, and we talked a little bit about this. Is on this card I want you to just pick three five minutes periods. About 6,000 of you did this last week. I don't care. Pick Dr. Pepper, 10, two, and four. Or wherever. But you just pick three
five minute periods and I recommend you use
the same time every day. And then I'm gonna help you for 34 days develop this habit. One of the things we're gonna do is anybody who signs this, we're gonna send you Pastor
Tom's Drive Time Devotions. Drive Time Devotion is an audio listening to God's word. Being taught by Tom. As we go through the Bible and we go through key passages. It's four or five minutes long. It's not very long. And we're gonna listen to it. That Drive Time Devotions has been downloaded over 15 million times. So it's a big international thing. It just happen to be
developed here at Saddleback by our own pastor, Pastor Tom. And so we'll send that to you. And in one of those five minute periods you're gonna listen to
Drive Time Devotions. You're gonna hear it in audio. Then you're letting God speak to you. We're also gonna send
you my daily devotional, it's called Daily Hope. It's an email devotional. How many of you get Daily
Hope right now already? A bunch of you already do yeah. We're now over 800,000 people
get Daily Hope every day. 800,000 every single day. And so we're getting
close to a million people. I'm gonna send that to you. We're gonna give you other helps. I'm gonna walk you through this. Now, let me talk to the
guys for just a minute. Men, I've done a lot of hard things in my life. I've taken a lot of risks. I've fought a lot of battles. I've faced a lot of critics. I've done a lot of difficulties. I've been in situations
you would not wanna be in and have to handle with
other peoples lives. I've handled a lot of problems
and been in a lot of battles. But the most difficult
battle I face as a man is the battle to consistently have a conversation with God and read His word every day of my life. No battle comes close. Weak men don't do this. Weak women don't do this. It's a test of your character. Do you have the character
and the stamina to do this? Spend a little bit of
time every day with God. Not a lot of time. Now why is it so difficult? Because Satan knows that
if he wins this battle he's won every other one in your life. This is the linchpin, this is it. If you win in this area, you're gonna win in all the
other areas of your life. I guarantee ya. If you're having a conversation with God three times a day, spending
a little bit of time, not a lot of time. Just checking in with God. Afternoon, here I am God. You checking in with Him. You win that battle, all the other domino's fall in your life. Everything else gets better in your life. Satan knows if he can
keep you from this book and keep you from talking to God, you're a weak believer. You're not very strong. He'll knock you over. He can whip your rear end. He can push you around. You will be manipulated by moods, by critics, by the
approval of other people. People will whip. You'll have fears and
anxieties in your life. If you do what I'm gonna teach
you how to do for 34 days, your strength as a woman, as a man, will just soar. And so he wants to keep
you from doing this. So at the end of the service, I want you to pick a couple times. Or you can do it even right now. And then drop this in the basket. If you get registered we will
send you all of the stuff and I'm gonna help us do this for 34 days. Now let's go back to Daniel all right. In chapter one, Daniel is worried about the crisis in his life. And so he starts reading
this book by Jeremiah. Now here's the thing. Daniel and Jeremiah are contemporaries. They lived at the same time. When Babylon crushed Israel, Daniel's taken captive,
prisoner of war at Babylon, Jeremiah is left behind in a defeated broken city called Jerusalem. And in Jeremiah's book, God tells him, those guys are gonna
be there for 70 years. And Daniel reads this and
he starts getting hope. You wanna know what Daniel read? It's the next verse. Jeremiah chapter 29. When he said "I was
studying the scripture," here's what he was studying. "God says this to you: "You will be kept in Babylon for 70 years. "But then I'll keep my gracious promise "to bring you back to your home again. "For I know the plans I
have for you" says the Lord. "I have good plans for you, "not plans for your disaster. "My plans will give you hope and a future. "And in those days when
you pray, I will listen." Now if you've been around church,
fine, you know that verse. In fact, we even got a song about it. I know the plans I have
for you says the Lord. Plans to prosper you not to harm you. God says I have a plan for your life, it's a plan for your success, it's not a plan for your defeat. It's a good plan, it'll give you hope, it'll give you a future. God says this to you. We know this verse but we often leave off the last phrase which says, "In those days when you pray "I will listen." Now I want you to listen very carefully. God says this to you this weekend. I made you for a purpose, I
have a plan for your life, but it's not automatic. You can miss it. You can miss my plan and
purpose for your life. In fact most people miss God's plan and purpose for their life. He said there are two factors. I've promised a rescue I'm
gonna bring you back home. I'm gonna do the things
you need done in your life but, He said there are
two factors involved in you fulfilling your purpose in life. Write these down. God's timing and my praying. God's timing and my praying. And both of these have an important role in what God wants to do in your life. God's timing, when He's gonna do it and your praying when
you ask Him to do it. Both of these extremely important. So let me explain what that verse just said in Jeremiah. God says this. I got a plan for your life. I didn't make you without a purpose. I created you for a purpose and plan and my plan for you is good,
but it has a timetable. And He says to these guys specifically, "I'm not gonna cut short my plan. "You're gonna be in Babylon for 70 years." He said, but I'm not gonna
cut it one day short. You're not coming home one day sooner. You're gonna be there for 70 years. So that's my plan, that's my intention. But don't worry, it's a good plan. But He says, when the time is right for me to fulfill your plan. You're all gonna go back home, then you're gonna have to do something. You're gonna have to pray. And He says "And when
you pray, I will listen." Now I want you to notice this, it's a very important verse in the Bible. Here we see God's
sovereignty, He's in control. And your responsibility,
you got something to do. God determines the timing of His plan and purpose for you life, but when the timing is right you're still gonna have to pray 'cause
He's not gonna do it until you ask. He's not gonna force His plan on you ever. You have to ask. Notice this verse on the screen. James 4:2. "You do not have what you need, "because you do not ask God for it." So you're telling me
that God has some things He wants to do in my life that are cool, and good, and great? But they're not gonna
happen unless I ask for it? That's exactly what I'm telling you. God has timing, but you have praying. And some things not happened in your life because you never asked God for them. You've never asked God
to do them in your life. He says I intend to do it when I'm ready. That's timing. But you've gotta pray for it to happen. You have not because you ask not. Now this leaves a little
quandary in your life. You've gone through this before. How do I know when I'm waiting on God and how do I know when
God's waiting on me? It's a good question okay. You're like I really have
this big dream for my life and I really think this is what God wants me to do with my life but it hasn't happened yet. So am I waiting on God
or is God waiting on me? Well this explains it right here. What it means is this. If I've asked for God to do something really great in my life, and I've prayed about it and I've asked, and there's nothing between me and God. As far as I know I'm doing
what He wants me to do. There's no big sin that's
over here in this corner that I'm going "Yeah, I know God wants "me to do this but I haven't done it." If I've asked God and like Jesus said, I'm connected to God. We're all copacetic, we're
in harmony, me with God. And I'm in the Bible, I'm
reading the Bible every day. His word's in me. If I pray and I ask and that's all true, and I haven't had the answer yet, then I'm waiting on God. It has all to do with His timing. I'm just waiting for God. God says I'll do it,
but I'm just gonna do it in my timing. And I just need to be patient. On the other hand, if I have something really great that I would like for God to do in my life and I've
always wanted God to do it, but I've never asked. I've never asked God to do it. Never asked for God's help. Never asked for God's
guidance in my dream. Then God's waiting on you. If you haven't prayed about it, then God is waiting on you. You have not because you ask not. So let me just start with this first point by asking a very personal question. What do you really want in life? What do you really really want in life but you've never asked God for it? Did you know that the Bible says you can ask God for anything?! You can ask God for anything! First step, listen to God. I read a little bit. I let God speak to me then I talk to Him. Now here's step two. Step two is focus my attention on God. This is the second step
in the kind of prayer that God gets answered. So focus my attention on God. And in Daniel 9:3 it says this. "So I turned my face "to the Lord, seeking Him." All right circle the
phrase "turned my face." "I turned my face to
the Lord seeking Him." Husbands, let me talk to
you for just a minute. I'm gonna give you a marriage tip that will pay great dividends in your life the rest of your life. You're listening to a guy
who's been married 41 years. Here's a big tip for every husband. I have noticed, and I've
developed this habit. That whenever Kay talks to me, I turn my face toward her. (congregation laughs) Physically. Whenever she starts talking, I literally turn my face toward her. And you know what I've learned? She likes it. (congregation laughs) In fact, she loves it! Because when you turn
your face to somebody, it says you have my undivided attention. I'm totally focused on you. You like this.
(congregation applauds) Yeah, all the wives
are clapping right now. Okay, great great. Yeah okay. Everybody likes this. When you talk, you want people to turn their focus to you. Pity the poor substitute teacher who stands up in class
and she's trying to teach and nobody's looking at her. And it's like in the old Peanuts cartoon. (imitates trumpet) And she's just blabbering along. Nobody's tuned in, nobody's listening. Turning your face shows attention. When my kids were little they used to grab me by the face and
say "Look at me daddy. (congregation laughs) "You're not paying
attention, look at me daddy." They wanted eye to eye contact. That is the highest gift you give anybody is your attention. It's more important than
chocolate, roses, and money. Giving your kids, your wife your attention is the highest gift 'cause
your attention is your life. Now, did you know that you can actually do this with God? You can turn your face to God in prayer. How? Physically, just look up! God I'm here. I'm ready to talk. I'm checking in for my three
times a day conversation. You go outside and look up at the heavens and stare up. You just look up. And there's nothing in the Bible that says you have to close your eyes to pray. Nothing in the Bible that says you have to bow your head to pray. That's one of the ways
to pray, it's a good way. But many times in the Bible
people didn't close their eyes. They actually looked up
and they talked aloud. I like to pray aloud to God. When I close my eyes and
think, I go to sleep. (congregation laughs) I don't pray with my eyes closed. And I don't pray in my mind. When I'm praying, I'm praying aloud and I'm driving the car, or
I'm looking up or whatever. You could get in your Lazy-Boy chair and lean back and look up. God I'm turning my face to you. But it's a physical reminder that I am refocusing my attention. Okay, this is what Daniel did. Notice verse three in
the New American Standard version it says this. "So I gave my attention to the Lord "to seek Him by prayer." Circle the word seek. This is the second step of prayer. The first is listening, the second step of prayer is seeking. And now we're gonna talk a lot about this. I'm gonna teach you, I'm gonna
train you how to do this. You're gonna get really
good at seeking God. And during the 34 days of seeking God I'm going to teach you about this so I'm not gonna cover it right now. But let me just show you
some of the benefits. If you'll learn how to do this, it'll change your life. Your whole life is just
gonna get a whole lot better. Let me just show you three,
or four, five promises. How about this one up here on the screen. Amos 5:4, God says this,
"Seek me and you will live." In other words you're
not gonna just exist. You're not living life to the fullest. Some of you are just existing. He says, "Seek me and you will live." You're gonna learn how to really live. Proverbs 8:17, God says this. "I love those who love me, "and those who seek me will" what? Find me, find me. I can't find God, you're not seeking. You gotta seek in the right way. "Those who seek me will find me." Let me show you another one. Jeremiah 29:13 says this. God says, "You will find
me when you seek me" what? "With all your heart." That's serious, that's emotional seeking. We'll talk about that in a minute. You're gonna find me when
you really wanna know me. Not like, yeah I'd kinda like to know God. In my spare time. Between the football game and work maybe. No, when you seek me with all your heart then you're gonna know me. Now, Hebrews 11:6 says this. "God rewards those who
earnestly seek Him." Would you like God to
reward your business? Seek Him. Would you like God to
reward your finances? Seek Him. Would you like God to
reward your marriage? Seek Him. Would you guys like God
to reward your children? Would you like God to
reward your relationships, your boyfriend, your girlfriend? Would you like God to reward your future? Wherever you seek God,
God is gonna reward. Wherever you don't seek God, God says you're on your own. You're on your own. Let me show you another verse. This is a very familiar one. Luke chapter 12, Jesus says this, "Seek," there's that word again. "Seek first God's kingdom, "before everything else." God's kingdom is His priorities. Not your priorities, His priorities. "Before everything else, "and all the other things you need "will be given to you." Another one of those blanket promises. He says don't seek wealth. Seek God. He'll take care of what you need. Don't seek fame seek God. He'll take care of what you need? Don't seek pleasure, don't seek a husband, don't seek all these other
things you're seeking He says "Seek first me." And if I'm in first place, He goes, "I'm gonna take everything
else into consideration. "You put me first I bless the people "who put me first." So we're gonna cover this in detail in 34 Days of Seeking God. Basically between
Thanksgiving and Christmas. You have probably never realized this. But a lot of the pain you're in right now, the difficulties, the stress, the pressure you feel, the
troubles you're facing, the mess that's all tangled
up in relationships. Almost all of that stuff
that you're facing right now is the result of you not seeking God. Because you didn't ask God first. You didn't seek His guidance, you didn't seek His wisdom, you didn't seek His help, you didn't seek His permission, you just made a decision. And so you went out and
you bought something without even asking God. God should I buy this house? Should I do this job? Should I do this car? Should I get in this relationship? You didn't even ask God,
you didn't seek God, you just did it and now you're reaping the consequences of it. And that causes so much of
the problem in your life because you made a decision without talking to God first. You weren't having that
daily conversation with God. "God I'm getting ready
to go to Costco, help. (congregation laughs) "'Cause I don't wanna come home with "four giant jars of pickles
that I really don't need." In every area you ask God, you seek God, He'll bless your shopping. Now here's a very important point. Any time we ignore God,
we don't ask for His help, we don't ask for His guidance, we don't ask for His blessing, we don't ask for His permission, we don't ask for His wisdom, you know what God does? When we don't ask for those things, don't ask for His direction. God just backs off in your life. Fine, I only go where I'm invited. So God says to you "Burger
King, have it your way." (congregation laughs) Go right ahead. You didn't ask me if you should buy that. You didn't ask me if you should date her. You didn't ask me if you
should accept that job. You didn't ask me if that was a good goal. You just did it. So fine, have it your way. And God just backs off. I'll just go back to
heaven, hang out there and let you reap the results
of your dumb decisions. And then you got all kinds of chaos, and problems, and trials,
and troubles in your life. And then you cry out to
God, "God I'm seeking you." He goes, "Okay I'm coming back." And that's what happens when we reap the consequences of our sin. Let me show this on
screen, Hosea chapter five. God says this. When I don't seek God seek
God in every area of my life He says this. "I will return to my place on high "and I'll just wait. "And I'll just wait until
they," that's you and me. "Acknowledge their offenses." We didn't seek God. We didn't ask His
opinion in this decision. "And they feel their guilt, "and then they seek my face. "And then in their troubles and distress." Which is always getting our attention. "They will earnestly seek me, "saying, "Let us return to the Lord "so that He may heal us." Friends, that is a description
of what's happening in America and in the world right now. Because we have not sought God. We didn't ask God's permission. We didn't ask God's wisdom. We didn't ask God's help. We didn't ask God's guidance. We just did whatever we wanted to do and we're in trouble and distress. And that's in our lives, in our marriages, in our families, in our work. And finally it gets so bad
we don't change when we see the light we change
when we feel the heat and we say "Let us return to the Lord "so He may heal us." What needs healing in your life? God I need you to heal
me of my depression. I need you to heal me of my anxiety. I need you to heal me of my secret fears that scare me to death
that I'm panicked about. God I need you to heal my body. God I need you to heal the finances that I messed up because
of my own decisions. God I need you to heal my marriage. I need you to heal my relationship. God I need you to heal my nation. America needs healing. I need healing. My job, my career needs healing. I don't know where you need it but He says it starts with focusing my attention on God and seeking Him. So let me ask you a couple questions here. Is it possible that the pain you're going through right now is because you did not seek God but you just went ahead
and made a decision without checking in with Him? Highly probable. And now God said, "I could have saved you "a lot of effort if you just sought me. "Just have a conversation with
me two or three times a day "and I'll go eh red light. "Danger little Robinson, that's danger. "Don't go that direction." Is it possible? Yes that pain is because you did not seek God in the past. You made a bunch of dumb decisions and now you're paying the results of it. Question, let me rephrase
it in a more positive way. What are you really really
looking for in life? What are you really looking for in life? If you were to paint out next year and say this is the way I
want my life to be next year. This would be the ideal year for me. This would be the perfect year for me. I'd like to see this
things happen in my life. I'd like to see these changes in my life. If you painted out that picture what would it be? And I follow up that with this question. Is it worth spending 34 days at the end of this year seeking God to get you ready for next year? Yes. And it'll save you from an awful pain, and heartache, and discouragement. And that's where we're gonna go next. It's 34 Days of Seeking God. Okay here's the third step. The third step in prayer
to get answered is express my desires with emotion. Express my desires. When I wanna ask God for something I'm praying about God I need this. Whether it's a physical
need, a material need, a spiritual need, an emotional need. Whatever you're asking for God in prayer you express my desire with emotion. So many of our prayers
are just cut and dried. We just say these words and we don't even know
what we're talking about. We have these little
things we've memorized. Now I lay me down to sleep I pray the Lord my soul to keep. And If I should die before I wake I pray the Lord my soul to take. That means nothing. It's just a little thing. Or we sit down to food. Bless this food to the
nourishment of our bodies. Bless the gift and the giver. And there's no emotion,
there's no authenticity. It's just things you've learned. God doesn't care how
beautiful your prayer sounds. In fact, God doesn't even care as much about the words as He cares
so much about the emotions. Have you learned that you
can say the right words and the wrong emotion and
your spouse doesn't get it? Yes. You can say all the right things but you didn't. What do you mean by that? Because of the tone of your voice. And so he's saying God
is an emotional God. The only reason you have emotions, the good ones and the bad ones is because you're made in God's image. Human beings have emotions that none of the animals have. We have a panoply of emotions. Because God is an emotional God. The Bible says God gets happy. The Bible says God gets sad. He's sad when He sees a rape. When He sees a molestation. When He sees a war. God is sad when He sees what people do to each other out of selfishness. And the Bible says God gets angry. That's why you can get angry,
you're made in God's image. The Bible says God gets jealous. Why? And that's why you get jealous. Because when God sees you giving your love to something else instead
of Him that belongs to Him He gets jealous. The Bible says God gets frustrated. He looks down and He sees all of the stuff we're doing. He goes, "I told you not to do that "and you're doing it anyway." It's gonna mess you up,
it gets frustrating. Now, could God change it. Of course He could. He could turn us all into puppets. But God's gonna just
back out of your life. Have it your way. I'm not gonna force you to love me. I'm not gonna force you
to do the right thing. So you and I make selfish
decisions every day. And people get hurt. That's why there's sin, that's why there's evil in the world. 'Cause God gives us the freedom to choose. And so God just, okay I'll back off. Let you reap the results
of your own decision. But God says I'm an emotional God. Jesus dying on the cross
was an emotional scene. Highly emotional. Jesus dying on the cross was emotionally agonizing to Him. It was agonizing to God the Father watching His son die that way. But doing it for your benefit. It was agonizing to the
people who were watching. It's an emotional thing. And God is very emotional about you, do you realize this? God doesn't just go, I love you. No God loves you
passionately, emotionally. God has deep deep deep feelings for you. How much He loves you. If you don't know how much He
loves you look at the cross. I'm willing to die, I'm
willing to die for you. That's how much God has emotion for you. And so God says when I
have such emotion for you I want you to talk to me emotionally. Don't just do these little prayer things where you read a prayer and
there's no emotion in it. Let me ask you, does
tone make a difference when you make a request? Of course it does. I mean how about, guys, if you had said to your future spouse on a date. You go, I'd like you to marry me. (congregation laughs) Please, I want you to marry me. She'd go "Buddy, if you can't say it "with a little bit more
passion than that forget it. "That ain't gonna happen." Do any of you remember
when you were little and somebody was tickling you
and it was fun at the start and then it got too much? And when you wanted them
to stop tickling you you go, "Please stop tickling me." No you go "Please stop tickling me! "I can't handle it anymore!" And you are passionate. Passion, intensity, shows how
much something matters to you. Now if you ask God about something. God I really like this. But you're not passionate about it, God will go, how do I know? If you only pray about it once you're not willing to pray
about it more than once, and you never talk to God about. God I really need this, I gotta have this. I've gotta have it. Then God goes well what
is this a wish or a whim? Or is it really a true desire? And so the Bible says this. Here's the third thing Daniel did. Verse three the second part of it. He says, "I began pleading
with God earnestly in prayer." Circle the word pleading. Pleading means to ask with emotion. It's not cut and dry. It's more than a mundane request. I'm asking with emotion, I'm pleading. The Hebrew word there is baqash. It means an emotional request. It's a serious seeking, it's
searching with all your heart. It's earnestly begging. It's "I'm begging you, I'm begging you, "I'm begging you please please. "I'm begging you please
I'm down on my knees. "I've gotta have this." That's pleading. God listens to pleading. Makes me think about a
story I heard a while back where there was a kid, a young kid who at Christmas time he
wanted a Star Wars watch. And it was a really cool watch. It had Yoda on it. And so he was bugging his parents. "Mom, I want this Star
Wars watch for Christmas. "Dad I want this Star
Wars watch for Christmas." He just keeps on and on and on. Every conversation, every
meal he's mentioning about the Star Wars watch. And finally his dad goes, "Johnny, we got it. "If you mention this one more time "you're not gonna get the watch." Smart kid backs off. Doesn't do anything. About a week later the whole family is sitting at dinner and the dad says, "Hey you know what, "it's good for us to talk about the Bible. "So everybody just share
your favorite Bible verse. "Any Bible verse that
you know you could say." And so one of the kids goes John 3:16 'cause everybody knows that one. For God so loved the world. The teenager goes John
11:35, "Jesus wept." Shortest verse in the Bible, anybody can memorize that. Two words, "Jesus wept." Okay John 11:35, "Jesus
wept" that's his verse. So they're going around the
room and they come to Johnny and they said "Johnny
what's your favorite verse?" He said, "Well my favorite
verse would be Mark 13:37. "Where Jesus said "I told you once "and I say unto you again, watch!" (congregation laughs) Yeah. Smart kid okay. That's what you get for putting your kids in Saddleback Kids Ministry. They're gonna learn
Bible verses like that. Watch! He was all ready. Look at this verse. In the Message paraphrase Daniel 9:3 says, "I poured out my heart to God, "baring my soul to God." Have you ever done that? Have you ever poured
out your heart to God? Have you ever bared your soul to God? This is not wimpy weak praying. This is guts he's praying. This is gut wrenching praying. I'm pouring out my soul to God. God I gotta have your
help in this business. I gotta have your help in this marriage. God I am telling, I'm
pouring out my heart. I am being authentic, I'm baring my soul. It's kind of like Jacob
wrestling with the angel. I'm not gonna let go
until you bless me God. Now when was the last time
you ever prayed like that? Pouring out your soul to God emotionally? I can tell you. You may have forgotten, but I can tell you the last time you've prayed like that. As your pastor, friend, spiritual coach, the last time you prayed like that was when you were in deep deep pain. Because we don't pour out
our hearts to God like that when things are going great and we're skipping the hills of Jerusalem picking flowers and
talking about peace, love, and Bobby Sherman. Have a happy day and a smiley face. No, you pray to your God
when you are in deep pain. Is that the only time you
pour out your heart to God? When you're in deep pain? Can you do it any other time? This is called, praying with emotion, called "crying out to God." Some day you may wanna do a
study of this in the Bible. About all the times God talks
about "crying out to God." There are many many examples
of people of all sorts who cried out to God and
God heard their prayer. There are many many promises in the Bible about crying out. God does not listen to just complaints He listens to crying
out in emotion to God. Saying God I really need your help. Now, it says Daniel he said, he was pleading, he was crying out. What is he pleading? What is Daniel pleading with God about? He's going "God I wanna go back home. "I'm an old man. "I'm 85 years old. "I spent my entire life
serving Pagan kings. "I've done good, I stayed true, "kept my integrity. "In a Pagan world I didn't deny my faith. "I kept Getting Promoted. "I'm a pretty influential guy
in the whole kingdom here. "But God I wanna go back home. "I wanna die in my home country." Now Jeremiah, the other
guy at the same time had predicted that after 70 years Babylon would fall. And then that the people of God in Babylon would start praying and pleading, God let us go back home. Here's what it says. Jeremiah chapter 50. This was his prediction. He says, "Then my people
will join together in tears." That's emotional praying. "Though joined together in tears "to seek the Lord." 34 days of seeking God. "And they will ask the way to Jerusalem." Why? 'Cause it had been 70 years. They didn't even know
how to get back home. "They will ask the way to Jerusalem "and they will start back home again." That's one of the most touching and hopeful verses in the Bible. They don't know the way to get back home but they're gonna ask God in tears and they will start back home again. America needs to pray that prayer. We have gotten so far off
from where we started, we need to go back home again. You need to pray that prayer. You need to pray that
prayer for your own life. God I've gotten so detached from you. I've gotten so busy, I've
gotten so distracted, I don't even know the way to find my way back home to you. I haven't the slightest idea
how to get back home to you. I don't know how to get home to Jerusalem. But I wanna come back home. You need to pray that
prayer for your life. Some of you need to pray
that for your family. Our family is so out of whack. We need to come back home to you. Some of you parents need
to pray that for your kids. I've got kids who are out there on a limb. I need to pray they'll come back home. Some of you need to pray
it for your business. All of us need to pray it for our nation. It's a message of hope. Now when does God answer
that kind of prayer? Well notice that verse, it said, "When my people join together in tears." You might circle that. "When my people join together in tears." God says, "Then I'm gonna answer." Let me ask you a question. You see everything that I see. You read the newspapers, you watch TV, you see what's going on in our nation, you see what's going on in our world. Does anything break your heart? The stuff that's going around, does it break your heart what you see happening in our society, in our system. In our politics? Does anything break your heart? We see all the stuff going
on all around the world. Does anything ever bring
tears to your eyes? If not it means you've really pulled away from the heart of God. It's not something we just gossip about and tweet about. It's something that breaks our heart and in tears he said God
we need help in this area. All right, there are a couple more. Number four, the fourth key is this. Demonstrate my seriousness. Demonstrate my seriousness in prayer. How do you let God see how
important the prayer is to you? Tom is gonna come and teach
the next couple points. And he's gonna talk to you
about how do you do that. How do you show to God, God I'm really serious about this prayer. - So when you're praying is it like, just checking a box or
just covering the bases, or are you really serious about it? There's some things that we can do to demonstrate to ourselves and to God that we're serious about this prayer. Daniel showed some of these. As we read this next verse a couple things that he does here are
actually cultural things that they did in their day. But one of them is a spiritual discipline, a spiritual habit all throughout the Bible that people did to
demonstrate the seriousness of their prayer, of their commitment, of their trust in God. Look at this, Daniel 9:3. "And I started fasting
and I went without food. "To show my sadness I put on rough clothes "and I sat in ashes." Now those last two were the cultural ones. Sack cloth and ashes. They would sew grain sacks
together and they'd wear that. They put ashes on their face as a way of saying I'm in grief, I'm serious. In our culture there
was a time when people would wear black for an entire
year if they were in grief. It was a cultural way of
saying I'm seriously in grief. So that's the cultural part. But there's also the spiritual discipline. I started fasting. All throughout the Bible
people went without food. They fasted to say God I'm really serious about this before you. Moses fasted when he
received the 10 commandments. The Israelites fasted before a miraculous victory that they got from God. Daniel fasted when he
needed wisdom from God. Nehemiah fast before he
started a huge project. Jesus fasted as a part of the victory that God gave Him over
temptation out in the wilderness. The first Christians fasted when they wanted to know God's
wisdom for the new church. It's all throughout the Bible. It's just a way of saying, "God I'm serious about this." And so here's what we're gonna do. As a part of these 34 days
together of seeking God, we're gonna start it
with a day of fasting. We're all gonna fast together on one day. It happens to be Monday
of Thanksgiving week. Which that's great. That's a day without eating
before a day of more eating. But that's not the main reason for it, but it's a little Bit of
motivation, it doesn't hurt. The main reason is to say
God, we're serious about this. We're serious about this time of prayer. We're serious about seeking you. We're serious about wanting your love to be the most important
thing in our lives. We are serious. As one of those who signs
up for these 34 days we're gonna send you
Pastor Rick's brochure on what the Bible teaches about fasting. So you'll be able to
learn a lot more about it. Don't have time to go into all of it here but let me just remind
you of a couple of things. Fasting the Bible says demonstrates the depth of desire that you
have when you're praying. It's a way of saying God this emotion that Rick was just talking about, I want you to see this emotion. Fasting gives you just
literally more time to pray. The time you prepare and eat and clean up from a meal, you take that time to focus on God. Sometimes we get too busy to pray. So you do a break, an
intentional fast to say "God I wanna focus on you." And Jesus taught us it actually releases God's supernatural power in our lives. I don't understand the mystery of this, but He said there's some things in life that only by prayer and fasting
can those things happen. There's something about
depending on God in that way. So whether it's through
fasting, through journaling, whatever way you do this, you say, "God I am serious about this." It's a part of the
prayer that God answers. And then the next one is number five. You thank God for His promises. Say God, I am thankful for the
promises that you've given. You've reminded yourself
at the very beginning that the only reason this
prayer is gonna be answered is because God is gracious. And God is gracious. He wants to answer your prayer. He's given promises that say He's going to answer your prayer. You're not forcing Him to answer it. He is a loving and promising gracious God. Daniel 9:4. "And then I prayed to the Lord "and I said "Lord, You are "a great and awesome God. "You always fulfill your promises "of constant love to those who love you "and keep your commands." This is the attitude of Thanksgiving that needs to be a part
of our lives year around. God I'm thankful that
you're answering this because you want to, because you love me. You're not going to God saying "God I hope you'll answer it." I'm thankful that you will answer it. You're not going to God saying, "God I know you'll answer it because "I'm such a good man, such a good woman." Who could pray that? No I know you'll answer it
because you're such a good God. I'm thankful for who you are. In any circumstance we
can depend on God in that. Daniel 9:9 Daniel said,
"Even though we have rebelled "against you, you Lord are
merciful and forgiving." So you go to Him based on that. You depend on Him based on that. All right, Rick's gonna come back and share number six which is number six is right in this. I humbly confess my sins. - Yeah this is the last step. I humbly confess my sin. God doesn't listen to
prideful complaining. But He does listen to humble confessing. God responds to humility. He says, God resists the proud but He gives grace to the humble. Now some of you think, if I admit my sins to God
I'm gonna get punished. Oh hang on a minute. First place God already knows them all. You're not gonna say "God
I did this and He go, "Oh really? "How did I miss that one? "Didn't see that one coming." God already knows every stupid thing you've done in your entire life. He just wants you to admit it. It's for your own humility. How does God respond when
I humbly admit I blew it? With punishment? Never! When God hears you be humble, He responds not with
punishment but with blessing, with forgiving, with mercy, with grace. It's not like I come and I admit it and then God's gonna take me down. No, no, you're gonna get taken down by your own pride. God says, you come to me humbly and you just admit hey I blew it. You know that stuff I said yesterday, it wasn't right. The way I talked to my
kids that was not right. The way I did this. And they just admit it to
God, He keeps short accounts. This is the 6th thing you do. I humbly confess. Now the word confess in
the Bible, the Greek word is the word homologeo. Homo means same. Homosexual, homosapien, homogenized milk. Means it's all the same. Homo same. Logeo means to speak. And so to confess simply means to speak the same thing about God. You're right, that was a sin. I don't excuse it, I
don't make excuses for it. I don't say God that
was a little Faux pas, it was a little weakness. No it was wrong, it was sin. It was rebellion against you. I did it, you told me not to do it but I did it anyway. And that kind of thing God
responds to with grace. Now in Daniel 9:5, he says this, "We've sinned
and we've done wrong." Okay, this is the sixth
part of the prayer. I humbly confess what I've done wrong. "We've sinned and done wrong." But he doesn't stop there. He gets very very specific
and you need to too. You don't need to go "Oh God forgive all "the sins I did yesterday but
I'm too busy to name them." God wants you to be specific 'cause then He wants you to be able
know what not to do again. And so I want you to circle. I'm just gonna read
these verses real quick. I'm not even gonna comment on them. And I want you to circle the verbs which are the sins. Okay he says, "We've
sinned and done wrong." And then he says, "We've
rebelled against you." That's one, rebelled, circle that. "We've rebelled against you." He says, "We've ignored your commands." Circle ignored. He says "We've rejected your laws." We made up our own morality. We've rejected your laws. He says, "We have refused
to listen to your servants, "the prophets refused
who spoke the message "to our kings and our
leaders, and our parents, "and everybody else in our nation." He says this is very specific. We're all at fault here. Every generation. It's not like one generation. In America, every generation
has got part of the blame. And then verse seven
and eight he says this. "We've brought disgrace and
shame on ourselves as a nation. "Because we've been unfaithful to you." He said you know what God, we've committed spiritual adultery. We gave our love to somebody else when we're supposed to
give our love to you. We've been unfaithful to you. And he said, "This is true of all of us, "including our kings, our
leaders, and our parents." Next verse, verse 10. "We paid no attention to you "when you told us how to live." You told us what's right or wrong. What's morally good what's not. This clear teaching came
through your promise. Verse 13, "But we kept on sinning, "we never gave you a second thought. "We were oblivious to the clear warnings." So God He says "You had no choice "but to let disaster loose "in our nation on us since we "persistently and defiantly ignored you." And then he sums it all up in verse 16. And He says, "And now all
the other nations mock us." Does any of this sound
vaguely familiar to you? I just read you a laundry list of America. I just read you the last 50
years of America right there. Now Daniel knows we don't
deserve God's blessing. But he casts himself on the grace of God. He goes "God, we could never earn this, "we could never deserve this. "We don't deserve to get back
to home, get back to you. "We don't deserve your blessing. "But I'm gonna cast myself on your mercy." And then the next verse he says this, "O God, O God, "listen to me, "hear my request. "We don't ask because we
deserve help, we don't. "We don't ask because we deserve "but because you are so merciful. "You're a good good Father. "And you are merciful." Now how does God respond
to this kind of prayer? The six things that we just taught you. Well, in verse 20 here's how God responds. Daniel says, "While I kept on praying." Let me stop right there. Circle the phrase kept on. Daniel didn't pray this prayer one time. He's praying it over and
over and over and over. God I need your help. He's praying this over and over. That's why we're gonna
seek God for 34 days. Is your future worth 34 days? Yes. Is your future worth having a conversation with God three times a
day about for 34 days before you start the New Year? Yes. He said I kept on praying. If you pray about something one time you don't care about it. He says "While I kept on praying "and confessing my sins "and confessing the sins of my people, "and pleading with the Lord." He's emotional in this. "Suddenly the angel Gabriel
appeared in my vision." Now you guys know who Gabriel is? There are three archangels. There was Lucifer, he
fell, he became Satan. There's Michael and there's Gabriel. Gabriel's the guy who
showed up at Christmas. Hello?! We actually know the names of these guys. And this is so important that God sends the angel Gabriel in a vision to Daniel. And he says "Suddenly while
I'm doing all this praying, "the angel Gabriel appeared in my vision "and said this, "Daniel, I've been
sent," obviously by God. "I've been sent to help
you understand God's plan. "Now the moment you began praying, "the answer was given. "And I'm here to tell it to you, "for God loves you very much." Now God doesn't have to send Gabriel to me and He doesn't have to send Gabriel to you because we have the
second half of the Bible that was written and
tells us all about Jesus. And so I can tell you right now what God will say to you. I love you very, very,
very, very, very, very much. I feel very very deeply, have deep feelings for you God says. I saw you born, I saw you
grow, I saw all the hurts, I saw all the happy times, sad times. I've seen everything in your life. And I have a plan for your life and I have a timetable for your life. And when you start praying
I heard that prayer. And I wanna help you understand
my plan for your life because I love you very very much. Now you say, "Well wait a minute Rick." This is God talking to
Daniel, I'm not Daniel. No you're not, neither am I. But I know this prayer will work for you. And the reason I know it will work for you is because the exact same formula is given in another part
of the Bible to anybody. It's to all of God's people. It's called 2nd Chronicles 7:14. One of the most famous
promises in the entire Bible. Now before I read this promise, I want you to understand, it's one of the most misused,
misquoted verses in the Bible. I've actually heard
politicians quote this verse as a promise to America. It is not a promise to America. It is not a promise to any nation. It is a promise to God's people. And God's people are in every nation. So this is not a promise for America. This is a promise for you and me and believers anywhere else in any other nation of the world. And it is for us, it's not for everybody. 2nd Chronicles 7:14, God says, I got four conditions. If you'll do these four
things I'll do three things. "If my people, "if my people who are called by my name." Are you called by my name? Are you called a Christian? That's being called by the name of Christ. So if you're a Christian, if
you call yourself a Christian. "If my people who are called by my name." And here are the four things. "Will humble themselves." That's confession. "And pray," that's pleading. "And seek my face," we're
gonna do that for 34 days. "And turn from their wicked ways, "then I will hear from heaven. "I will forgive their sins "and I will heal their land." All of the elements of Daniel's prayer are in that promise. And for 34 days we're
gonna claim that promise. Anybody with me? (congregation applauds) Anybody with me? Okay. Okay. God says I don't know
what you need healing in. Healing in your mind,
healing in your heart, healing in your body,
healing in your business, healing in your finances, healing in your relationships, healing of your fears. Your business needs healing,
your family needs healing, your marriage needs healing, your nation needs healing. "If my people "who are called by my name," God says. "Will humble themselves." I blew it Lord, I just blew it. And pray. I'm pleading God. I did not seek you and I made a bunch of dumb decisions
and now I'm paying for it. Will humble themselves and pray and seek my face. You got my attention God. I'm looking at ya. And turn from their wicked ways. Then I will hear from heaven! I will forgive their sins and I will heal their land! Period, done, that's it. We need a revival in America. (congregation applauds) I'm not just gonna invite
our church to do this. I'm gonna start using social media to invite other people to join us in 34 Days of Seeking God. And I got seven million
followers on social media. So we're gonna tell the world. And we're gonna use Daily Hope Radio and everything else like this. You do not want to miss out on what God wants to do in
your life and your family. Now we're gonna end with two prayers. If you have not signed
up you need to sign up. Everybody signs up I'll send you all the information on it. We're ending with two prayers. First I'm gonna pray for you personally through these steps. And then I'm gonna ask
at each of our campuses, I'm gonna have one of our pastors come out and lead us together in
a prayer for our nation. Because our church is international. Multinational. And so Saddleback members in Argentina are gonna pray for their country. Saddleback members in China are gonna pray for their country. And Saddleback members
in Germany and Berlin are gonna pray for their countries. And we're gonna close with that. This prayer, Daniel's prayer can be prayed for national spiritual revival anywhere God's people are. Now let me just say a
word to you, America. I know we're in election season. This church has never and
never will endorse anybody. We don't, we stay out of politics. We don't take sides, and
never have and never will. But I will tell you about
this elections unusual because for the first time in history, polls show that about 60% of America don't like any of the
presidential candidates. Okay, they don't.
(congregation applauds) That's unusual. And I would tell you this. I've actually heard some Christians say, "Well you know what, I don't like any. "I may not even vote this year." As a Christian, you are called by God, commanded to be a good citizen. You can not not vote! Sorry, you don't get that choice. Not if you call yourself a Christian. Now, it's a free country. You don't have to vote
for any of the above. You can write your own
name in if you want to, I don't care. But somebody died to pay
for your freedom to vote. You better not abuse it. (congregation applauds) There were wars fought and blood spilled to give you the freedom that much of the world does not have. Now you may not like any particular candidate on any particular. And I'm not even gonna advise you on this. You do what God tells you. You seek God on this. But I will tell ya, that even if you choose not to vote for one of the presidential people. There are a lot of other things to vote for in this election too. That are extremely important too. And so you are called as a
Christian to be a good citizen. God actually commands us to do that. So let's pray. I'm gonna pray for you and then we're gonna have a pastor come and pray for our nation. Dear God, I thank you that you're
a good and gracious God. And as we get ready to
together as a family to claim 2nd Chronicles 7:14, and as we begin to go
through in a couple weeks the 34 Days of Seeking You, that we will make a habit out of having conversations with you and reading your word every day. You've promised that if
we stay connected to you and that if we have
your word in our hearts, that we can ask what we
will and it will be done. I thank you for these people who are here. They love you, they're good people, they wanna do what's right. If they weren't interested
in doing what's right they could have stayed
home and watched TV today. But they're here. And it says that their heart
is in the right direction. So I ask you on their behalf to hear their prayers for Jesus' sake. Now you pray. Say God, I wanna learn to seek you. I wanna be a part of
34 Days of Seeking God. I wanna build a habit. That I don't ever go to bed at night, even if I've only read
the Bible for one minute and prayed for one minute. I don't put my head on the pillow without at least one
conversation with you. Help me to see that your plan for my life involves your timing and my praying. And that many times I have
not because I ask not. Teach me how to focus my attention on you. God it's so easy to get
distracted in this world. I wanna turn my face to you. And Lord teach me how to
talk to you with emotion. To be authentic and real. Not phony and fake. How many realize that my tone and my heart are more
important than the words. Thank you that my prayer
doesn't have to be beautiful and sound great. It just has to be honest and real. Lord break my heart over the
things that break your heart. Teach me to pour out my heart to you. And yes, even if tears come so be it. God I've wandered away. And I'm not as close to you
as I've been in the past. I wanna start back home again today. Help me to demonstrate my seriousness. They're even willing to go without food to show as a symbol as
a sign that I'm serious about what I'm praying about. Thank you for loving me God. Thank you for your promises. Thank you that you are faithful when I'm unfaithful. You're consistent when I'm inconsistent. Thank you that when I come and I humble myself to you and I admit
what I've done wrong and I admit my rebellion
that you don't punish me. But you forgive me and you wrap me in your embrace. God we ask you to work
in our hearts and lives. If you've never invited
Christ into your life, say Jesus Christ I ask
you to come into my heart and life right now. Make yourself real to me. I wanna learn to trust you. And I want you to be the
manager dear Jesus Christ. The manager of my life. And I pray this humbly in your name amen. In a minute after we
have this second prayer I'm gonna ask you to
finish filling this out and drop it in the basket
as we give our offerings. And so now I'm gonna ask
Pastor Matt in this service to come and lead us in
a prayer for our nation. So Matt. - Let us stand together
and let's pray together. Would you pray with me? Heavenly Father, that we recognize that you are the author God and the giver of life. And God that you have not only created our world but God you hold it together. God we also recognize that we live in a broken world and a broken nation and we too have broken lives. And so many of us are coming here today broken and feeling a
sense of hopelessness. And so we come to you now asking for you to step into our lives and to bring us hope. And to bring us peace
that we can trust in you. And so we humbly come now
as Daniel did before you and we put our attention and our gaze and our focus on you. And so we seek you. So Father God we stand before you and we pray for the people of our nation. We are grateful for the
freedoms that we've been given for the price that's been paid. Really God even the price
that's being right now we say thank you to be able to enjoy these freedoms. God we also know that true
freedom from our bondage comes from you and is found in you. So God we pray that you would bring people to you God throughout our nation. God we ask that you bring hope to the people of our land. God we know that through your word even in Psalm 71 it says that
you are a strong refuge to which we resort to continually. That we can put our faith in you because you are our rock and our fortress. And that we can find our hope for you. And so God as we approach election day we pray for out nation and we
want to pray for our leaders. We pray for our leaders of this country and those that will lead this nation that you would open their hearts, and their minds, and their souls to you. And we pray that they would
lead like your Son Jesus. That rather taking a position
of authority and power. That they would take
a position of humility and serve our country and our people well. Father, may you give them eyes to see and ears to listen. And may their hearts break
for what breaks yours. And God I pray that we would live with the same posture in our lives. And not just demand it of our leaders. That as we lead in our families, and our business, and our communities that we would humble ourselves and serve and love those around us. That we would serve and love
the people of this country. God we realize that our hope can not be found in government or even in business or where we live but out
hope can be found in you. So God fill us with your spirit, fill our leaders across this
country with your spirit. So that together we may live with hope. Not only for today but for eternity. And Father God I pray that you would show us the way back home. In Jesus name amen. - Amen.
