1 Peter Lesson 6 | Wade Branch

Good morning everyone. It's good to see everyone who's

here today. We're thankful that you can be

here. We're thankful that our God is

still on his throne and thankful that all the words that we've

sung about and prayed to him are true and heard by the Father

that's in heaven. This morning.

I, as I prepared for this study, I, I have to admit to you, my

brain was a little scattered throughout the week.

As I'm sure many of you, you had a lot on your mind and, and a

lot happened this week and that's going to work its way

into my lesson somehow. It can't not.

But as we begin, I just want you to know that I'm not talking

from a political perspective. If you hear anything come up and

maybe you you've heard things regarding the events with

Charlie Kirk or maybe you have opinions about things.

It's really not about any of that today.

But it is valid to be weighted down by the things that happen

because the the backlash from everything has created quite a

stir in opposition to Christian beliefs and to the foundations

that God has established in his word.

And that is what set Charlie Kirk apart for many people in

his realm was, was his, his faith and his his groundedness

in the word of God. And so that feels like it's

under attack because of that. And some of the things we read

today are applicable because of that.

And, and I take, I hope you take it as far as that.

And if you have any questions or any disagreements that that we

would have a chance to talk after services.

But there is a backdrop this morning that has relation to

what they were going through during this day in in this time

that the letter of first Peter was written.

And I think it's a perfect time to, in light of all those

things, read what we just finished studying in first Peter

1 Peter 3 · chapter mention

chapter 3. We're going to pick up in verse

8. And these are verses we already

covered, but I think they are the recipe.

They are the same words that are true for every situation, He

says Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for

one another, Love his brothers, be tender hearted, be courteous.

Not revile, not returning evil for evil or reviling for

reviling, but On the contrary, blessing, knowing that you are

called to this, that you may inherit a blessing.

Do not restart now. It's always picking me.

I don't know why. Verse 10 For he who would love

life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil and

his lips from speaking deceit. Let him turn away from evil and

do good. Let him seek peace and pursue

it. For the eyes of the Lord are on

the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayers.

But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.

And who is he who will harm you if you become followers of what

is good? But even if you should suffer

for righteousness sake, you're blessed.

And do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled.

But even if you should suffer for righteousness sake, you are

blessed, and do not be afraid of the threats, nor be troubled.

I think we just read that verse, verse 15.

But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and always be ready

to give a defence to everyone who asks you a reason for the

hope that is in you with meekness and fear.

I'm not going to rehash what we already talked about last week,

but I think this verse has enough to get us through

whatever might be an art in front of us.

That the answers you need to have aren't a debate.

The answers you need to have are not a retort that's going to

make someone look foolish. The answers you need to have are

in your heart. The answers you need to have are

a sanctified heart, a heart that sanctifies God.

Because when we will put God at the forefront and let Him be our

focus, everything else is going to work out.

And it's going to lead us to give a defence to people with

meekness and fear, to provide a reason for the things we have

with the right attitude that will not inflamed or antagonize

anything besides providing truth.

The Lord has first place. Verse 16, having a good

conscience that when they defame you as evil doers, those who

revile your good conduct and Christ may be ashamed for it is

better if it is the will of God to suffer for doing good than

for doing evil. I think all those words would

bring very true today. And here's where we left off.

We're going to call this lesson 6.

Remember, we're in the end of chapter 3 and we've just kind of

split it up wherever we've landed each week trying to make

some clean breaks. We'll continue on in chapter 3,

verse 18, he says for Christ also suffered once for sins, the

just, for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.

So with everything that's going on right now, there's a lot of

injustice everywhere. You don't need to draw any lines

of politics that you don't need to draw any lines of who's doing

what. There's a lot of injustice

everywhere and Jesus suffered. He was the just and He suffered

for the unjust. It hurts though, to see that lie

right in front of us. It hurts to see that play out

right in front of our eyes in a gruesome way.

But this is nothing new. We just get to see it, maybe for

the first time in many of our lives, that He might bring us to

God. Now the Bible says that the just

for the unjust suffered once. Now Christ suffered one time for

sins, and that was a picture laid out in the Old Testament a

long time ago. If you remember, back when Moses

was told to strike the rocks one time, he was told to strike the

walk. The rock and water would pour

out of it, and he was only told after that to speak to the rock.

Why? We later learned because that

rock was Christ. And here Peter is affirming that

truth. He says he only suffered once

for sins. This Saviour is not going to

continue to be beaten. And if we only remember him as a

beaten saviour, we're missing the picture because he was only

to be beaten once and to be respected and revered throughout

all of eternity, past and present and future as a result

of that. And may we not only have that

picture in our minds of a beaten Saviour.

I would almost guarantee that 98% of the images you've ever

seen of Jesus images quote UN quote, right?

We don't know what he looked like, but it probably wasn't

white. All the images of his Jesus are

a forlorn, beaten and dishevelled man.

But I want you to know from pictures that the Bible paints

in Revelation and many other places and even here, and we're

going to get to in a few verses, He's at the right hand of God.

He only suffered once. That's not what defines him.

I don't want to be. I don't want to remember my

grandpa for his last moments when he looked his worst.

He looked empty of life and weak.

I want to remember him for for all that all the other things.

And Jesus only suffered once. That's not all He is.

He is the one who's now sits at the right hand of the Father.

He is surrounded in revelation by the elders and the angels and

all who would worship and give allegiance to Him as the King.

He only suffered once for sins. But why did he do it?

That he might bring us to God? That's an amazing thought.

Because He wanted you that bad that he would suffer just so we

can get you from point A to point B.

God wants you and Jesus wants you so bad He wants to bring you

from damnation into into salvation so deeply.

He wants you to bring you out of darkness into the presence of

the Father, so bad that he would suffer in our place, that he

might bring us to God. That's how badly He wants you,

that he would suffer being put to death in the flesh, He says,

but made alive by the Spirit. Oh sure, Jesus was put to death

physically, but He is so alive today because of the Spirit.

By the Spirit that word Spirit is capitalized, I believe

because this is the Spirit of God, who who raised him from the

dead by the spirit in which also he went and preached to the

spirits in prison. The ESV and other translations

say preach to the spirits now in prison who formerly were

disobedient, when once the divine long-suffering of God

waited in the days of Noah. So it is by that same spirit,

here's the flow of thought, the same spirit that allowed Jesus

to be raised from the dead. It is by that same spirit that

he has not only preached to people now and tried to save

people now, He was preaching to people a long time ago.

As you read the Old Testament, I love how we've been studying and

trying to find Jesus in the Old Testament.

Look for it, it's everywhere. He is Spirit was back then

teaching to the people who are now in a spiritual prison.

Who is that? It's the people who have died

and who are unfaithful back then, according to what time

verse 20, who formerly were disobedient when once the divine

long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah.

He's referring back to times like then where God's judgement

was poured out on the people in Noah's day who did not hear the

preaching that God had had led to them.

And because of those people who did not respond, now they are in

prison. And some people want to make a

really complicated analysis of this passage, like Jesus somehow

went to the the demonic realm and preached to them.

And they say things like, well, he was preaching, you know, see,

you're wrong. I don't really see that here.

I see him saying he preached even back then.

This Jesus has been alive and the Spirit of God has been alive

and working throughout history. And he preached to the people

even who are now in prison. They all got the message.

It's not like they missed out and God was long-suffering with

them. Don't think for a second God has

just, he's not making a way for people and he's already got his

picked out and you know, and if you want to hear it, too bad he

didn't have you picked out. He says God was long-suffering.

He says Jesus was suffering but also God the Father, the Godhead

was suffering for a long time as they waited in the days of Noah.

The SV says the the long the long-suffering of God continued

to wait that patience endured for so long trying to get people

to to come to this because Jesus wanted even to lead them to God

that badly. It says while the ark was being

prepared in which a few that is 8 souls were saved through

water. If you don't remember that

story, we're going back now when the world was that bad.

God told Noah to build an ark and prepare an ark, and he had

to build that ark for the destruction of the world that

was coming. That world was going to be

destroyed by water, not by fire like we're going to see in the

future. It was a world destroyed by

water. But God told him to build the

ark, and he was a preacher of righteousness.

He tried to show the way, but people were unwilling to hear.

And the result was Noah, his wife, his three sons and their

wives. Eight people were all that were

saved. There's a lot of people in the

world right now who would love to hit a button and remove all

the opposition, remove all the common phrases, all the

liberals. Are you sure?

Are they sure they really want that to happen?

Are we sure we don't want the long-suffering of God in our own

lives? Are we sure that we want all of

our family members or our friends or our neighbors to be

gone just like that? That's not good.

God did not want to do that. This is horrible.

And so maybe we'd be careful as we evaluate and as we process

what's going on right now that we would not adapt this mindset

because even God was holding back for a long time and he had

the button. He had the button to press.

And may we never adopt that mindset because God is

long-suffering toward us. And I think we want that.

We want that patience with our current sins we struggle with.

But it happened back then. And the scary part is it's going

to happen again someday. But Jesus is always trying.

He's always been trying. He's always provided the message

and He went and He preached to them back then.

And this is the ESV. Like I said, the patience of God

kept waiting and there was just a few souls that were saved

through water. Now this is going to flow.

So don't lose that thought. Verse 21.

There is also an antitype which now saves us.

Baptism, not the removal of filth of the flesh, but the

answer of a good conscience toward God through the

resurrection of Jesus Christ. What is an anti type?

We don't use that word very much an anti type.

An anti type means the fulfillment of an earlier truth

laid out in Scripture, maybe as a picture that had its fullness,

it had its full message come out in a later event.

And this is the anti type, the anti type.

This is the the thing that corresponds, he says in just a

minute, he says baptism in the ESV corresponds to this.

And he says in this way, not the removal of dirt from the body.

So what is baptism? You might, you may have heard

this before, many of here have heard this, but baptism is not

even a translated word. It's a transliterated word.

What that means is they took the word in the original language

and either couldn't find an equal or more careful, so

careful to not try to mess it up.

They just brought it in and made it an English sounding word.

But it comes from the Greek baptizo, which means to immerse

or to plunge. This is not a a getting wet.

This is a immersion. If I say I immersed my chicken

nugget and ranch, you don't think I just flicked some ranch

on there? You think I went full down in?

That's the wrong way to dip. Don't dip immersion in in ranch.

That's going to be too much for the ratio.

But the Greek is just baptizo, and it's not the removal of the

filth of the flesh. It's not getting clean on your

outside. It's not wiping off the dirt.

And some people want to say that's the filth of the flesh

spiritually. I don't.

I don't think that's what he's saying.

It's not the removal of the physical dirt on your body.

It has a spiritual significance and the spiritual significance

is this answer of a good conscience toward God.

Now in the new King James, I think this is a little muddy.

I don't think it's the most easy to understand in the wording the

answer of a good conscience. My conscience is answering a

good. It's kind of weird.

So I like it better how it says in the ESV, and I think it's a

more clear translation. It says not the removal of dirt

from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience.

That's the spiritual significance.

It's not that you're wiping dirt off your body, It's that you are

making an appeal to God. I'm ready to be clean.

I'm coming to you. Please let me be clean in your

sight. I don't want to have a clean

conscience. I don't want to be dirty

anymore. I don't want to be burdened

anymore. But it's not because I'm trying

to save myself. It's not because I'm trying to

earn my salvation. It's not a work of salvation.

It's an appeal through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

It's not my power. It's only because I surrender

that the resurrection of Christ can lift me up.

And there are people who want to tell you that baptism is a work

of salvation. No, it's not.

I don't do anything. I lay down.

It took three of us to baptize Ray the other day.

Ray did absolutely nothing. Poor guy.

He was doing everything he could, but he did nothing.

He was just heavy and and weightless.

But he got baptized. Did Ray earn his salvation?

No way. It is an appeal to God for a

clean conscience, for a conscience that is right with

God. All you do is lay down.

You relinquish control and yes, somebody else get you out of the

water because you'd drown if they did it.

But it was Jesus and his resurrection that pulls you out

of the grave. And because of that, don't let

anybody tell you this is a work that you're trying to save

yourself. It's the perfect picture of

submission that says I can't do anything.

You usually cross your arms. This is an appeal to God for a

clean conscience. If anything, baptism is more

akin to outwardly showing you are poor in spirit than it is

you are trying to merit salvation.

Why? You're admitting you're poor in

spirit. I surrender.

I can't do anything. It's a lot more close to that

than emeritus salvation work. We surrender, but you know, this

is nothing new. This pattern of being baptized

or being saved through water. This is a pattern.

God does it a lot in the Bible. He does things that are similar

and you start to notice what happens.

He just referenced Noah's day, how the few souls were saved

through water. We talk about, you know, how we

are saved today. You just mentioned through

baptism, but even in Moses day in 1st Corinthians 10, it

references this event. It says, moreover, brethren, I

don't want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under

the cloud. What is cloud?

The Bible said the waters above the cloud is water.

They were baptized in the cloud, under the cloud.

All were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.

All ate the same spiritual food and all ate the same spiritual

drink. This is not new for God's

people. They were surrounded on every

side by water from above, by the cloud, the moisture, by the

walls of water in the Red Sea. They were surrounded.

That is a type or a form of baptism.

God's. God's got patterns.

You start to see this everywhere and it's through the

resurrection of Jesus Christ that this reaches its

fulfilment. It reaches its full picture,

anti type verse 22, this Jesus who is resurrection, who is

resurrected, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand

of God, angels and authorities and powers having been made

subject to him. Angels are obviously spiritual

beings, they're messengers of God.

But it appears throughout scripture there are some form of

rake, there are archangels, there are authorities and

powers, maybe with different levels, and they're all under

him. Doesn't matter if you're an

Archangel, doesn't mean if you are.

AI don't know what kind of angels there are underneath

that, but Jesus is over all of it.

They're subject to him. He suffered once, but he is now

on the throne. Going on to chapter 4 now.

First Peter chapter 4. Therefore, since Christ suffered

1 Peter 4 · chapter mention

for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same

mind. You can actually have the mind

of Christ. You know, in my life how many

times I've heard the phrase you're never going to be like

him, you're never going to be perfect, you're going to never

going to, you're never going to, you're never going to.

The Bible doesn't talk about that.

The Bible says you should have the mind of Christ.

Now it's an obvious you're not going to be perfect, but you can

have the same mind as Christ. Yes, that is God's intention for

you. Don't submit to a mind that says

I'm always going to be I'm always going to be miserable,

I'm always going to be hopeless. No, that is not that's counter

biblical. You know, there's a commercial

set of commercials you probably remember from back in the day

where Michael Jordan was out and everything was be like Mike and

it was obvious. Just you know, it's a it's a

marketing thing. They, they weren't trying to

really say you're going to play basketball like Michael Jordan.

If you have his Jordan shoes. It was, but you get him, you're

going to be like Mike. You drink Gatorade, be like

Mike, right? And there was even a movie where

this kid put on Michael Jordan's shoes.

He became like Mike. That's all silly.

The mindset of Christ, the mind of Christ is not a joke.

The mind of Christ is. You can have the same mindset as

Jesus Christ. That got him to the point that

he did things that he did, that he thought about people like he

did, that he loved the world like he did.

It's a command to arm ourselves with this same mind.

We have all fallen short in the past, but Scripture never

undermines your future. We have all, Romans 323 says,

fallen short of the glory of God.

There's no Scripture that I can think of where God undermines

your future potential. All expectations of your future

potential are Christ, whether to live is Christ or to die is

gain. We are going to be like Christ

in the future. We are going to arm ourselves

with Christ's mind and we are going to, as some people have

said this week, pick up where he left off.

We're going to have a mindset that doesn't let Jesus

principles go by the wayside, but that are picked up right

where he left off. Jesus power is so great that it

can even influence you. Some people say Jesus power is

so great that you're never going to be like it.

I disagree. Jesus power is so great that he

can make you like it. That is the power of our

Saviour. Arm yourselves also with the

same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased

from sin. You know what?

There's a lot of suffering we could talk about here, but the

general principle is when you suffer in the flesh, it gives

you a different mindset toward what sin is and why you have

one. Have nothing to do with it.

Now, what does he mean? What's suffering the flesh?

I think most directly he's probably talking about the

suffering that was caused upon them by other people.

And when you go through suffering for your faith, it's

like, well, I've been through that.

Why would I give in the temptation?

I'm already going through so much already, I might as well

stick this thing out. But I think the principle is

that suffering can come from a lot of places.

It could come from other people it come from it could come from

suffering. We endure and are fighting

against sin because whenever you oppose a sin, there's some kind

of suffering that happens in your body that I don't want to

give in to this temptation to backbite, to let my body indulge

in that sin. No, I engage in a little bit of

suffering because that hurts to fight against what I want to do,

to be what God wants me to be. And when you go through that

process, that suffering, it's like, hey, we don't need sin

anymore. I'm not here for my own

pleasure. I've suffered either at the

hands of other people or I've suffered inside.

I'm not going back to that. I'm done.

I'm done with it. Sin.

Once you've tasted steak, Skittles are not the same.

Once you've tasted the good stuff, the cheap is not the same

anymore. Because what you do is you have

chosen. I would rather hurt myself than

to hurt God. You can do that.

There's not a whole lot you can do in your life to do something

great, but you can choose that. I would rather hurt myself than

to hurt God or others. And when you do that, what is

sin? It's cheap.

Verse 2, that he should no longer live the rest of his time

in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.

Now I'm not going to claim I've suffered in the flesh that much,

but this scripture is commanding me that I should welcome

suffering because it's going to produce in me a lifestyle for

the rest of my life, hopefully that will surrender to God.

May I surrender to the will of God for the rest of my life and

have that mindset. Verse 3 For we have spent enough

of our our past lifetime and doing the will of the Gentiles,

enough is enough. When we walked in.

Lewdness, lust, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties and

abominable, abominable idolatries.

Most of these are pretty straightforward.

Lewdness is kind of a strange word, but basically lewdness

means with no moral restraint. Sometimes we think of it as a

sexual thing. Yeah, but are you showing

restraint in wherever you're at right now?

You may be in a position where you've put up enough boundaries

where certain temptations don't hit you anymore.

Great. But where are you showing moral

restraint? Where are you using that muscle

in your mind that says I'm going to pull against what I want and

show restraint against my flesh? Because we all have it.

If we don't have it, we're probably asleep.

We're probably sleeping. We don't want to be at any point

in our life not actively opposing sin and showing

restraint. Lust that could be lust of the

flesh, lest of the eyes. Drunkenness pretty

straightforward. Revelries, parties, drinking

parties and abominable disgusting of of horrible

idolatries. Putting something else ahead of

God or worshipping something else.

In regard to these these things you just listed.

They think it's strange that you do not run with them in the same

flood of dissipation speaking evil of you.

What is dissipation? It's it's an empty, it's a

disintegrating, it's a squandering, it's kind of almost

an oxymoron. It's a flood of dissipation.

It's a, it seems like there's so much, but it's really so much of

nothing. You're emptying yourself when

you show go along with the same flood of dissipation as they

speak evil of you, verse 5. They will give an account to him

who's ready to judge the living and the dead.

It's kind of like when we were little and our parents, you

know, we'd be getting us in trouble.

We'd be pointing at them. You know what they did they and

they would say, I'm not worried about them.

Focus on me. I'm talking to you right now.

Let's focus on you. That's the message to get from

God. God's going to they're going to

give an account to God. You don't worry about them.

It will be taken care of. Keep your eyes on me.

Keep your eyes off of off of the rest of that flood of

dissipation. He's ready to give, ready to

judge the living and the dead. How is he ready?

He's prepared. He knows his scripture.

He knows what's right and wrong. He's in a position of authority.

He has the authority to judge. It's long overdue.

He's been patient for so many millennia, and he's even in some

ways motivated with wrath. The Bible talks about the wrath

of God. He's ready.

Don't you worry about them. Verse 6.

For this reason, the gospel was preached also to those who are

dead. He's referring back, I believe,

to the same people in the last chapter.

The gospel was preached to those people.

For what reason? For the reason that he's about

to be judging them. God, Jesus preached to those who

are now dead. He preached to them back then

because they're going to be judged and he's ready to judge.

So he preached to them to try to bring them all out from a bad

judgement that they might be judged according to men in the

flesh, but live according to God in the Spirit.

That's His ultimate goal with the judging is that He wants you

to live in God. He wants you to be made alive

and not condemned. Verse 7.

But the end of all things is at hand.

Therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers.

You know, we are kind of unique in this time period in life.

Not everyone has been able to say that.

If you go back to the Old Testament, they couldn't say the

end is at hand. What does that hand mean?

I mean, it means it's right here.

It's at almost at your arm's length away.

The end is right here, the end of everything.

Before Jesus came, there's a lot of things that had to unfold.

There was, there was empires, there was prophecies, there was

maybe covenants to work through. And so there was a lot of things

to happen. It wasn't right there in front

of you. For the Christian in the

Christian age, though, he says it's right there.

He could be coming today. It's this close to us that we

could touch it. And we uniquely can say that in

this dispensation. He says, therefore, because it's

right here, be serious and watchful in your prayers.

Why be so serious? Sometimes we're like this man

walking through a battlefield oblivious to the war that's

going on around us. Not that you need to live

paranoid. Some people take it to a

different level of of, you know, everything is the Illuminati.

That's not what I'm talking about.

I'm talking about living in light of the spiritual war

that's going on. So why should we be so serious

in our prayers? Maybe you're this guy who's kind

of oblivious, or maybe you're this guy who has purpose, but

you're oblivious to the real fight.

Whether you are not are just distracted or whether you have

purpose is just not the right focus.

Why so serious? Because of our tasks.

If you look at the responsibilities in your life

like they don't deserve serious attention from a spiritual

perspective, they're going to be sorely lacking.

Throughout this letter, he's taught us how to be submissive

and good to our employer, to our employers, to the government, to

to be loving and and submissive. There's a lot going on in every

one of our tasks at work with family or responsibilities.

That's why because our tasks are that important that we would

need to be serious and watchful as we pray about how these

things are in a spiritual fight. Where do my tasks fall into the

spiritual fight, the war of the worlds, the spiritual war, the

strength to do it with all your might?

Scripture say takes a seriousness to give glory to God

#2 what about my weaknesses? Why be so serious?

Because I have weaknesses. And if I'm not closely watching

those and praying for help in those weaknesses that identify

in my progress along the way, I'm not going to make any

progress. I have to be serious and

watchful of those things and keep an eye on how I'm making

progress. Why be so serious?

Because of the enemy, he's going to say later on.

The devil's walking about like a lion.

That's why we need to be serious and watchful.

If there was a lion in this building, you'd keep your kids

behind you. You'd be watchful.

That is life verse. Or then maybe #4 why so serious?

Because of those who need us. He's talking about being serious

in prayer, right? So there are people who need us

to pray for them. There are people in under our

sphere of influence that need us seriously.

But also for new frontiers. Because we're going to see in

this chapter that we are often sorely lacking on taking on new

ground for Christ throughout the Old Testament.

They wanted to stay put right where they're at, get

comfortable, build a tower and God said go.

You and I want to get comfortable right where we're

at. We want to get easy.

We want to get a autoplay, autopilot, Tesla self driving

car and we want to let it do the work.

That is not the biblical way. We need to take a risk.

We need to go out and seek new frontiers of maybe those who

need us, maybe service to others.

Maybe there are needs that you need to be feeling that you just

don't see yet. I love the words of this song

that kind of hit on this principle.

This song in the chorus says, give me your eyes for just one

second. He's speaking to God in this

song. Give me your eyes so I can see

everything I keep missing. Give me your love for humanity.

Give me your arms for the broken hearted, the ones that are far

beyond my reach. Give me your heart for the ones

forgotten. Give me your eyes so I can see

there are frontiers of our faith we need to wake up to.

I'm going to try to get through this next section because we're

still talking about prayer. So as we consider prayer, I pray

that a serious and watchful Frank has covered prayer

recently. I just want to give you a

different set of scriptural guidance on this.

Daniel is a good example of prayer in Daniel 6, verse 10.

Daniel 6:10

At this point, Daniel has just been told that there's a decree

that's gone out to catch him, to trip him up, and to get rid of

him. A plot was made to get rid of

this man, to get him killed. And when he hears about it, the

decree said, if if anyone prays to you the king, instead of or

prays to God instead of you the king, we're going to put him to

death in the lion's den. Now, when Daniel knew that the

writing was signed, he went home.

And in his upper room, with his windows open toward Jerusalem,

he knelt down on his knees three times that day and prayed and

gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days.

If you don't do this, are you sinning?

That's not what I'm saying. But if you seek a relationship

with God that is close and serious and watchful, here's a

good example. What are some tips?

There's a lot of things in this set of verses that Daniel did

that we can learn from #1 He had an eye toward his goal.

He had his window open toward Jerusalem.

Why? Because they were in captivity,

Him and others were in a nation. It wasn't theirs and He.

They were trying to get back to the Holy Land.

That was their goal, Mountain Zion, the city of the living

God. The scriptural pictures were of

Jerusalem. They wanted to build a Kingdom

for God in Jerusalem. Now today we have the spiritual

Jerusalem we're looking for, but He was looking toward His goal

of Jerusalem. So that's how He prayed with an

eye toward His goal #2HE prayed with consistency.

It says this was his custom since the early days.

If you are trying to develop a prayer life or you want to now

develop one, consistency is the hallmark of men like Daniel.

Since his early days, it was frequency three times a day.

It says that was his custom since he was early aged.

Now, when we say frequency that many times, we're not talking

about, you know, I ate three times, I prayed 3 times, I ate

four times, I prayed 4 times. That's not what we're talking

about. He went to a secluded place.

The upper room was a place that was secluded in their houses

during that time. We don't, I don't have our upper

room, but that's what theirs was.

It was a secluded place where he was now talking to God, not

talking to himself in the form of a prayer.

He was talking to God in a secluded place.

He had a posture of prayer. Now, and it's true Frank's

mentioned it, there is no required posture of prayer.

But if you were struggling with some prayer ruts, try some other

stuff. Maybe you struggle with mindless

prayer. Maybe you struggle with looping

the same phrases. Your mind disengages.

Maybe you are having some phantom prayers where you're

like, was I praying? I forgot when I started, ended

my prayer. Maybe you have distracted

prayers. Some things you can do to be

intentional about pulling your mind and your spirit into the

right place is having a posture. Try it.

Try the posture that Daniel tried.

Try another one next. His routine was not built to

show people or hide from people. It says this was his custom

since his early days, and so he wasn't trying to show.

That's why he went to his upper room, a secluded place.

But at the same time, when push came to shove and the people

were watching, he didn't hide. He's not afraid, but he also

didn't start the practice to get people attention.

The origin of his prayers. Next, if you're trying to build

your own prayer life, the origin where it started did not start

when all these wonderful things happened in Daniel's life.

You read about the miracle, the miraculous gifts he had to

interpret and tell dreams. It says this was his habit since

early days, since probably before all these wonderful

things happened. So if you're waiting for

something big to happen in your life, don't make it your custom.

Make it your habit. And what's funny is we talked

about that dangerous lion. God literally shut the mouth of

the lion as a result of his prayers, as a result of his

faithfulness to God, the the lion's mouth was shut.

These are some of my prayer rats.

I don't know if you have some of those.

The the me prayers where I start the prayer talking about me.

I, I ask him for things for me. I thank him for things for me.

Remember, it's not all about us. And if you are looking for some

things to try, maybe try some of these suggestions in addition to

others. Maybe write your prayers down

like David did. We learned that David was an

inspired man of God, but maybe there were motivations inside of

him that led him to write them down.

Sometimes when I write my prayers, they don't feel so

abstract. Sometimes they just they, they

feel concrete. They feel real when I put them

on paper so I can see them. Maybe they'll help you.

Maybe you should pray it out loud like Jonah.

Many times in the Bible when they cried out to the Lord, it

was a verbal prayer. Sometimes when you only pray in

your head, we have a lot of ADHD in our world and we can get

caught between a lot of different things.

So saying it out loud, your brain can focus more easily on

one thing. Maybe, maybe we need a system

like Paul. You know, Paul is mentioned in

the letters as saying, I consistently, every time I pray,

I'm praying for you. He had a habit of praying for

these people over and over. I'm like, man, Paul was Paul was

on it. I need to get better at that.

And so maybe we need a better system.

Maybe you need a prayer bank. Maybe you need a list of people

to pray for, struggles to pray about, maybe challenges for the

future or hopes for the future. Make a list, make a Bank of

those items, and then you can, if you forget to what to pray

for, draw from that list and it may help you have a more full,

engaging prayer life. Maybe it'll give you a rotation.

I need, maybe I need to pray for people in this congregation

today. Maybe I'll pray for specific

people on another congregation tomorrow.

Try some things that may help your prayer life grow.

You may expand your prayer horizon by praying the prayers

of others. I think that's why God gives us

the Psalms. It's because we can get stuck in

our own words, but we use the words of somebody else and it

helps lift our hearts to God. Maybe we need to remember the

things we tell kids when we're talking to kids.

We are children of the father. And one of the first things I

always tell Charlie when he's spinning off and he's asking for

things but not really asking, he's just kind of like saying

stuff. I'm trying to give it to him and

he's not even paying attention. I say, Charlie, look in my eyes

because it gets his attention to see that I'm listening to you,

but you also need to talk to me. You're just talking.

You're not even asking anybody. You're just talking in the air

and so I have to tell him, look in my eyes.

You're asking me directly. Now I'm listening to you speak.

Sometimes we need to reproach God that way, to remember to

start our prayer by looking into who we are really talking to.

We're going to pause here where he says, but the end of all

things is at hand. Therefore, be serious and

watchful in your prayers. And he's got some really good

instruction coming next, but we'll have to push that maybe to

another lesson Today we've learned what it takes to be

saved. It told us just a second ago in

the scriptures it said that we are saved.

We have an anti type that now saves us baptism, but how do you

get there? How do you come to the point

that you want to be baptized? Well, you could write it out in

a very detailed set of steps like this, or you can use a

little bit of common sense too. I there's no way I can surrender

to something that I don't believe in.

How am I going to believe it? I got to hear it first.

And really surrendering does not just mean being baptized.

It means I'm going to repent of my whole life.

I'm going to turn from my will to do God's will, and I'm going

to immerse myself in that life, and I will immerse myself in the

waters of baptism to be saved. If you've already done that, but

you need to get your life right and you haven't lived

faithfully, we can come together and support one another in

prayer today and petition on God's behalf on your behalf to

God that we would be forgiven and restored.

Or if you need prayers of the Saints for any other reason,

we'd be happy to take care of that while we stand and see.