As He Did Aforetime | Pastor Paul McGee

We come to praise Him. We come to praise him.

Lift his holy name, Lift his holy name.

Can we raise a hand? Clap right now unto that great

God. We love you, Lord.

I never shall forget the name. When all the burden to my soul

rode away, He made me help be glad and free.

I'm going to shout it for He's everything to me.

Many years ago, wait out at sin, I had no hope, no peace within

and turn into this inspiration. Now praise God, I remember.

I'm so glad that the Lord saved me.

I'm so glad that the Lord saved me.

Had it not been for Jesus, tell me where would I be?

I'm so glad that the Lord saved me.

Hello. Can't no party do me like Jesus?

Can't nobody do me like Lord? Can't no party do me like Jesus?

He's my friend. Can't no party do me like Jesus.

Ain't nobody ever, ever do me like to learn.

Ain't nobody do me like Jesus. He's my friend.

Nobody won't do me like yeah, yeah.

Nobody, Nobody, nobody, nobody. Body of doom.

And like Jesus, he's Then we go way back and say, well, Jesus on

the main line, tell me what you want.

Jesus on the main line, tell me what you want.

Jesus on the main line, tell me what you want.

Jesus on the main line. Tell me what you want, Call him

up, tell him what you want. Call him up.

Call him up, Tell him what you want, call him up, call him up,

tell him what you want. Jesus on the main line now call

it. Just bless his name.

Those are just songs that we used to sing, dance to them,

pray to them, pray for people through them.

People got the Holy Ghost during them.

I guess it's probably because I was over here on drums tonight

and I haven't been on drums for years and used to be the drummer

at the church when those type of songs were sung, when you just

had like steady 4 or 4 beats and stuff like that and stuff.

So there's probably some people think tonight he needs to just

keep with preaching and you're right, but God is good.

Amen. Shoo Daniel 6.

I suppose before we turn it to this inspiration, take up

another offering. Daniel chapter #6 going to reach

us a few verses of Scripture, folks.

I don't have. There's nothing, there's nothing

in my estimation that's that's profound here tonight.

This is like not on a high shelf.

By no means this is on a shelf that everybody should be able to

reach here this evening. Daniel chapter #6 and verse #7

passage that may be familiar to some.

I just seen that this was Brandon's like favorite past or

book of the Old Testament, Amen. We're glad to have Zach tonight

back there. Zach's glad to have you here

this evening, Amen. The House of Lord.

Josh, it's good to see you tonight, Amen.

In the House of the Lord, Amen. And Carolyn, that's here, Amen,

as well. Brendan, Kyle, that's here,

Amen. All of you.

It's made your way. Daniel 6.

And starting with verse #7 the Bible says all the presidents of

the Kingdom, governors, and the Princess, and the counselors and

the captains have consulted together to establish a royal

statute to make a firm decree that whosoever shall ask a

petition of any God or man for 30 days, save of the of the O

King, he shall be cast into the den of lions.

This should ring a bell even if you haven't been to church since

you were in Sunday school. Now, O king, established the

decree, signed the writing, that it be not changed according to

the law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not.

Wherefore King Darius signed the writing and the decree.

Verse 10. Now when Daniel knew that the

writing was signed, everybody say he knew it.

He went to his house and his windows being open in his

chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three

times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God as he did

a four time now. My son was trying to make a

slide tonight. He said, Dad, what does a four

time mean? King James language, right?

Let's just state it then like this, as he did before.

And I think the sweet spot for us tonight hinges on that last

phrase as he did a four time or before.

Amen. Let's pray today, Father, we're

thankful, Lord, for your spirit. We're thankful God, for your

people that have congregated together, Lord, on this Sunday

evening, Lord, to once again pull ourselves up to Lord, the

table of your word. I pray Jesus that you're able to

inspire, encourage, instruct God help and aid Lord, through your

word tonight. God, we Lord, submit ourselves

to you. God for God, bless us, the Lord

Jesus in this aspect and instruct us.

Lord, I pray God for our tomorrow in the lovely name of

Jesus Christ that I pray Hallelujah and Amen of the

church say Amen, Amen. God bless you tonight.

You may be seated in Jesus name as he did before we we come here

this evening on the 1st Sunday night service of a new year and

we're only four days within the calendar of a new year.

And with that comes as we approach this January the 1st

and now January the 4th. As we approach it, there is a

sense perhaps of relief for some because as we typically as

Americans approach a new year, it's as though we approach a

clean slate that is that is before us.

It's as though as an artist, having a new canvas that we can

sketch our intended year's work upon every January of each year

offers us a fresh start in our minds.

Understanding as a matter of fact, whenever Julius Caesar

reformed the calendar and started the new year with

January 1st, eons of time, it would seem now ago the month of

January was named after Janice, the Roman God who had two faces,

one of them facing forward and the other one that was facing

backward. And it's ever since that time of

Julius Caesar until now that humanity has stood at that

dividing line of the changing of a year, thinking and pondering

on what has been and what possibly could be in the future

months to come. And it's at that threshold, I

don't know about you that we may be overtaken with a myriad of

emotions could rush into our life in that moment right before

the clock strikes midnight. Perhaps some of us are

entertaining ideas and feelings of regret over things that we

should have done the past 12 months of the previous year.

Yet there may be others that stand there.

Have a sense of gratitude for what they did to or what was

accomplished within the calendar year.

There's some of us with our hair all bedazzled, if you will, and

just kind of like we've sticked our hand into a light socket and

it's just, we're just thankful that we survived the year of

2025 and hoping that perhaps the next year will be a little

different perhaps than what our feet had found the previous

year. And so it's in that moment that

we become very introspective about about about life, about

ourself, about the decisions that we made, about habits that

we have kept and some that we have let go of.

We are very introspective about failures that we may have

approached and dreams and aspirations that have been

fulfilled and others that we just let go of.

It's a practice just as owed, if you will, as as Babylon itself,

the very place that Daniel at one time had lived in and now

lived in Medo, Persia. As a matter of fact, as far as

the Babylonians go, they marked their new year with a AA12 day

festival called Akita It. It wasn't really their new year

as much as it was their new agricultural year.

And it was during that celebration that they would make

vows and they would make vows to themselves.

Not to themselves, but rather to the gods and the Pagan multiple

gods that they served. And the vows that they would

make to these gods is that they would promise to pay their debts

and they would return anything that they had borrowed.

And they would have a new loyalty that they would submit

themselves to the king. And these are some of the

earliest records that we have historically of New Year's

resolutions that were made even back in the times of Babylon.

Centuries later though, in the religious world, we would hear

of people like John Wesley who formalized a time of repentance

and recommitment to God on a service the last night of the

last year that they called watch night services.

And, and even in the Pentecostal ranks over the years, has

anybody ever attended a watch night service on the very last

day of the year where where you sing every song, you know, you

know, because you're trying to make it to midnight and you have

4 to 5 preachers that preach. And sometimes you break for a

potluck and eat some fried chicken before you go back and

hear some more preachers preach and some testimonies are given.

And everybody's watching the clock and wondering, like Lot's

wife, they're looking back and they're seeing if they're going

to be able to get, you know, out of this incarcerated type of

situation of a watch night service.

But we've seen some great things over those years that that

midnight hour people are praying out the old year and they're

praying in the new year and we even Bishop have some scriptural

precedence. The Bible tells us of how we

should be conscious and watchers of the night.

The psalmist even said he said weeping may endure for a night,

but with bated breath they're waiting for a new day because

joy comes in the morning. The psalmist also said my soul

waited for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning,

making the comparison of someone that is watching in the night.

As a matter of fact, the word watch was the word that Jesus

gave his followers and his disciples.

He says because you know not the hour of my return.

He sets a watch. He says because it could be at

even or it could be at midnight, or it could be at the cock

crowing or the coming of the morning.

The word was to watch. As a matter of fact, in the Old

Testament scripture, like in the book of Exodus, the Bible

declares that when God delivered Israel from Egypt that he said

into them again, it was not their beginning of their normal

calendar year. But he said this month shall be

the beginning of months to you because what's going to happen

in this month, your status is going to change from being an

enslaved people to a free people.

And as a result of that, there's blood up on the lentil and on

the doorposts of a lamb over their households in Israel.

Amen. With anticipation, with the

robes on, news on their feet that the staff in their hand,

they are watching through the night, waiting for what could be

in their future rather than a legacy of 400 years of bondage

that their families had known. You understand there is a

watchfulness, there is a resolution, there is hopefully a

alteration, a change with the changing of year. back in

December, the 31st of 1862, the African Americans were gathered

in churches all across the nation because they had a

promise from their president that in the year 191863 was

going to be the emancipation of the Proclamation.

And it'll be all the Afro American families and their

churches that waited on that night for the changing of the

year. And they would forever call it

Freedom's Eve because they knew when the clock struck midnight

that everything that had been spoken to them concerning their

enslavement was now going to be unlifted.

And they were hoping or a better tomorrow, a deliverance from

yesterday. And so throughout the history of

our known world, new beginnings have carried, if you will,

somewhat of a new resolve to do better, better.

But somewhere along the way, resolutions have had changed to

a certain degree. Instead of being God oriented,

they've become very self oriented.

Today, most resolutions revolve around health and habits and

finances and eating less sugar and going to eat less gluten

and, and going to exercise at least three times a week and

going to be more productive. And studies tell us that nearly

80% of all resolutions fail by February.

I'm sorry, I, I, I know I just brought the great dark cloud in

here. Amen for us.

But about nearly 80% of them fell by February.

And the reason why is because most resolutions are just

chasing a moment, then cultivating a pattern, new

behaviors, but no deep roots to support the behavior.

But that's where our dear friend Daniel enters the picture.

Daniel was facing a day in his life, an hour unlike any other

hour. There was coming a change, an

alteration from what he had formally knew.

It was not the end of the year and the beginning of another

year, but it was the beginning of something new is the

beginning of a new circumstance in the closing of a door of

something that he had known. We do not have Daniel.

He's not congregating at this time in Daniel 6.

He's not congregating in a watch night service somewhere.

He's he's not waiting for Brother Fred the proverbial ball

to fall at at Medo Persia Central or anything like that.

What's happening though? He he's not even sitting there

scratching out a list of goals. Amen for this new season, this

new year even wasn't emerging per SE in his time.

It's just new circumstances that were coming down the dusty Rd.

He was facing a change from what was normal compared to his

yesterday. He's facing a change.

He is embarking again on the day unlike one that he has had

before hit. The Bible says that a decree has

been signed. Daniel is still yet a captive.

Right now he's a captive in a foreign land, Amen.

It's foreign, at least to him. And there's been a decree made

by that king that's been sealed with the King's signet, Amen,

Making that as so, Amen. And in this, this decree was the

words that no one should pray to any man or any God for 30 days

unless they would seek out, if you will, the face and the

audience of the king. And so Daniel wasn't facing the

challenge of trying to form a new habit or abide by some new

pattern of life for 30 days, but he was being pressured to

forsake a pattern he had already had established and had forged

over a lifetime of practice. And so whenever David stood or

Daniel stood at this crossroads, he was standing not at the

crossroads of a calendar, but he was standing at the crossroads

of his own convictions and what he was going to do about it.

I want you to understand tonight that whenever I speak to you

about the Daniel that's right here in this chapter, this is

not some adolescent young man. This is not some young man that

is wet behind the ears. This, this is not some immature

individual standing here. As a matter of fact, Daniel is

probably at least in his 80s. He has already endured on my 70

years of captivity in Babylon. And now here he is with the new

empire of Medo Persia. He is a man that's been around

for a long time. He has lived through the

heartache. He has lived through the despair

of Babylon. He has served the kings of these

foreign nations with the best of ability and the best spirit that

he could serve them. He has been promoted during this

time of captivity, from lower places to higher places.

He's getting trust from others. He has been respected before

these individuals. But with all of that said, he's

still a captive in a land not his own.

Daniel is standing though, here at a moment.

He's not like the great African Americans of oath.

He does not have a freedom's eve that he is entertaining.

There's been no national revival in Medo Persia or in Babylon.

He's not had a mass repentance of the leaders or the kings like

Jonah had in Nineveh. He hasn't seen a grand

deliverance like Moses did of the children of Israel.

Amen. Out of Egypt.

But he's been there day in and day out, and he's been serving

and he's been keeping the right spirit, and he's kept his focus

upon God. Babylon has remained Babylon.

Vito Persia has remained Vito Persia, but Daniel has also

remained Daniel, the story goes. Years of time have passed,

Brother Fred, promotions have come.

His influence in the communities in which he has lived no doubt

have increased, but the environment has not changed.

Israel, Israel struggling spiritually.

She's where she is because she struggled spiritually.

As a matter of fact, when the hand of oppression is finally

been lifted from her and the Israelites are allowed to return

home, there's a lot of them that don't.

When they have the chance. They don't because they have

grown accustomed to their surroundings.

They've grown accustomed to their environment.

And even those that did return home and had a mind, we're going

to build the House of God. They just get a few years in it

and then quit. This is the hour in which Daniel

Amen lives. But you know what he's doing at

each ticking of the clock, at each appropriate time that he

and they custom in his life. When things have been bad, he's

praying. When the day didn't go like he

thought, he's praying. When he's been promoted, he's

praying. Whenever the adversary and the

voices of those that would be against him are coming, he's

praying. He's prayed through every

chapter of his life. He's prayed through the

jealousy. He's prayed through conspiracy

and now he's at the door front of having to pray through a

death sentence. He's in his final chapter.

So what does Daniel do? The Bible says in verse 10.

Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed.

In other words, what we see precipitate after this is not a

Daniel ignorant of what has taken place.

When he knew the writing was signed, he went into his house

and his windows being open, which is a fantastic phrase,

they're already open. The windows being open in this

chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled down upon his knees

three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God as he

did a four time. What that tells me, Sister Cox,

is that Daniel is not praying in this moment because a decree has

been passed that says for 30 days you should not pray to any

the other God. Daniel's not praying out of a

spirit of rebellion. He's not praying out of a spirit

of I'll show you Daniel is praying because Daniel had

prayed. Daniel prayed many days before

this, weeks before this, years before this.

And Daniel just has the mindset, whatever is said, today's not

going to change the practice of what I've already been doing.

I'm going to go back on my knees, I'm going to lift my

face. I'm going to cry out to God.

He's not praying because of the law.

He's praying despite what the law has been said.

And so this was not a protest on Daniel's part.

By no means. This was just us looking at

Daniel in a regular ebb and flow and rhythm and practice of his

life. It wasn't defiance.

It was a discipline man doing what he always had done.

He's not reacting to what the king is.

It's just his natural reflex each day, three times a day, to

go to God in prayer. What I'm saying is this whole

crisis didn't create Daniel's prayer life.

This crisis just revealed the prayer life Daniel already had.

There's not one iota from what we can see in Scripture, Brother

Fred, there's not one iota that Daniel backed up and said, well,

I'm going to take in consideration what has been

spoken and I'm going to see how I can, how I can maneuver this.

I'm going to see how I can, you know, change this a little bit

or alter this a little bit to make it a, a, a little bit more

agreeable with what's been said. No, we don't see that at all.

We see Dave, but we see Daniel on board calling David probably

a few times a night. But we see Daniel.

He goes in and he assumes the same posture.

Hey, man, Yeah. He's like, I'm not going to, I'm

not going to stand when I've always been kneeling.

I'm I'm going to go in and I'm going to kneel.

He doesn't hide his face. He's always faced toward

Jerusalem. He said it's going to be that

way. He's not whispering over here.

I got to keep this quiet. I got to be a lower tone because

of what said. No, no, he's just going to speak

his words as he's always speak his words.

He doesn't change his place. The windows are still open, the

direction was still set, and his heart is facing home.

He's not changing his pattern three times a day, morning, noon

and night. This wasn't convenience, this

was custom. Daniel didn't resolve to pray,

he just refused to stop praying. Now look.

Daniel, though, doesn't stand by himself in the portals of

Scripture. The Bible says that whenever

Isaac faced famine in Genesis 26, that unlike what God said

some different times to even some of his ancestors, God told

him don't go down into Egypt. Instead, the Bible says that

Isaac did something intentional, and it records that Isaac builds

an altar here. He calls up on the name of the

Lord here. We've studied this in our

Genesis study where we won't rehash it, but he went back and

he re dug some of the wells that his father had dug there.

You know what Isaac's doing? He's saying in these uncertain

moments, I'm not on the verge of trying to invent something new.

I'm just going to reopen something that worked in a

generation before me. We're just going to go back and

do something that was done a four time that worked.

Listen, please understand me tonight, folks.

I'm not against resolutions. By no means make them.

Keep them. But here's one thing I know in

the church world, it's not all about coming up with some new

gimmick or newfangled thing. It's just about going back to

the things that are tried and true.

It's already been mentioned in this building and it's some of

the things that our mind should be on at the beginning of the

year. Just take me back to a prayer

closet. Take me back to a Bible reading.

Take me back to a fast day. Take me back to worship, take me

back if you will, to arrive in a little early before church and

calling on the name of the Lord. Just do what you did a four

time. If you've lost touch with it, if

you disengaged with it, if you forgot about it, if you've

neglected it. What's about the Bible says

whenever Jacob found himself afraid of Esau in Genesis 35

that this is what God told him. He says, Jacob, he says, I want

you to go up to Bethel. Jacob's not like, oh, that's a

great idea. Never been to Bethel before.

We'd love to go there. Check it out.

No, God was telling him to go back to a ground that his feet

has touched before because Bethel was the place that he

went to before he exited from his mother and father.

On his way out, he stopped at Bethel and that's where he had

an encounter with God. So in this moment of having a

little trepidation about going home and meeting his brother,

God doesn't say go somewhere where you never been.

He says, how about going back to Bethel where you had an

encounter with me and go back to that altar that you made there.

Go back to where you were a four time.

The Bible says when the prophet Elijah stood on Mount Carmel and

he's facing all the prophets of the bell and the prophets of the

the Grove here he has all of these hundreds of prophets

that's in opposition to him. Israel is in the balance.

They're in between of what they want to do, whether or not

they'll give their allegiance to God or whether they'll give

their allegiance to other things in their life or even to the

world. Elijah stood there as a lone

man, it would seem, on the top of Mount Carmel.

And here are the prophets of Baal.

They're crying out to their gods.

They're cutting their skin. They're asking him to come and

answer their prayer. Amen.

And I just say, perhaps your God is asleep or perhaps he is on

the journey. And the Bible says when they

have done all of this, you know what the Bible says?

It doesn't say he goes and finds 12 new stones and makes a new

altar next to theirs. No, it says that he repaired the

altar of the Lord that was broken down.

He says, you know what, we've used this altar before and we've

heard the voice of God. I don't need anything new.

Just let me go back to something that I've done a four time and

let me restore something that's old and perhaps fire will fall.

I'm convinced if we want the fire of Mount Carmel, no pun

intended, we just need to grab a hold of some things that were a

four time brother McGee. OK, if Jacob isn't enough,

Elijah isn't enough for some of these people, Then let's

consider the Lord Jesus Christ, who the Bible tells us a New

Testament scripture as He's facing the greatest pressure of

his earthly ministry and His earthly life in the Garden of

Gethsemane, sins of the world being put upon his shoulders

that he would bear in His body. The Bible tells us he went to

that garden. He goes to that place in Luke

23. The Bible says he went there as

He was. Won't you know what that means?

He went to a place that he typically went.

He went to a place that he had went to a four time.

And so as this pressure of Calvary is coming up on his

life, he's just let me go find a place that I know I've been to

before and where I offered prayer before.

Let me go to a customary place of prayer because here's what I

know about heaven and about God. God doesn't just respond to

moments of passion. He responds to patterns of

faithfulness. No, no, no, you don't understand

me quite yet because I've stood in the church, sat in the

church, participate in the church too long for people that

have been disengaged from God, Amen.

For people that's turned their back upon God, people that only

want to show up for God whenever God's doing something for their

life. And I've seen those people come

in and the right song being sung and the right beat on the piano

and the guitar and the drums being played, and they'll start

dancing and shouting. They're having a passionate

moment for God, but that doesn't sustain them for three months

afterward because they need more than a moment.

They need a faithful pattern in their life.

They. Someone say man, and I'm all for

it. I'm not preaching against those

moments of passion. We need them, but we don't just

need them by themselves. We need the undergirding of

passionate moments, undergirded by faithful patterns of repeated

patterns that are honorable in the sight of God.

Because that's what's going to carry you.

When you can't jump, you can kneel.

When you can't jump, you can whisper the name of Jesus.

Hey, man. But all that kind of raises an

important question, doesn't it? Because some of us, as he did a

four time means that we're returning to something we once

did. For instance, there there was a

season of time in your past that prayer was consistent or there

was a moment in your past where the windows were open or the

discipline was intact. So the call today, if that's us

is to go back as you did a four time.

But what does that mean for those of us that have no point

of reference for an afford time? We don't have an afford time

yet. Then I'm telling you my message

to you tonight, it's not a message of condemnation.

My message to you is a message of opportunity.

My message to you was a message of assignment because before

something can be done a four time, it first has to be done it

with attentionality on purpose. Anybody know Bruce Lee?

Not like personally you shook hands and you sparred with him

or anything. But Bruce Lee said once he said

he did not fear the man who practice 1000 kicks in one day.

He said he feared the man who practiced one kick a day for

1000 straight days. Listen to pastor on this

beginning of the year. I'm not worried about you

reading 20 chapters of the Bible a day.

I'd much prefer you read a chapter for 20 days.

I'm not worried about you praying one hour tomorrow

morning. I just hope you can pull off

maybe 5 minutes to start with for a few days in a row.

Because you know what I know When you foster a relationship

with God, even at an infant level, you'll start praying

more. You'll start reading more.

You'll start gleaning more. There'll be an empowerment come

upon your life. There'll be a desire.

I'm not asking for you to read it all tomorrow.

Just every day, every day. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,

Thursday, Friday, Saturday, holiday vacation.

Just every day, every day. Get in your spirit.

Every day get in your So start where you need to start.

If it's a verse, start with a verse.

Just start where you need to start and continue.

Continue. Why?

Because power just isn't built in one moment of intensity.

It's built through repetition. That's how resolved gets formed

through repetition. There's many of us.

We don't need a spiritual overhaul, so to speak, although

most times are great. We just need a repeatable

pattern in our life. What does it look like?

Sometimes it's just already putting the chair in the quiet

room. Sometimes it looks like just

putting the Bible where you eat your breakfast.

Sometimes it's just deciding 5 minutes is OK for today.

It's all ready for me to start. Not because 5 minutes is

impressive, but because 5 minutes is sustainable.

Again tomorrow. Just start today.

Studies tell us, I've read them. They used to tell you that it

takes 21 days to form a habit. That has really been altered in

some situations with newer studies, because newer studies

tells us that roughly it takes 67 days to form new neural

pathways in your brain. See, we have default spots in

our brain that get triggered. For some people, if they're

watching TV, they'll eat. It's the default gutter that you

go to. In order to alter that, you got

to combat what your default is and your brain, The scientists

tell you there's a plasticity to the brain.

It can change, but it takes a repeated pattern in a different

direction. That's the reason why whenever

we say, and I know we usually mean it in a negative sense, but

whenever you talk about somebody's mind being in the

gutter, it's a pathway that's been forged over time.

You know how ruts are in the road.

If your tire even gets on the edge of them, it's going to pull

right in there. But we need new repeatable

patterns where we're doing a path.

Maybe it's not a rut yet on day one, but if you're travelling

again on day 2, it might be a very grassy area path that you

walk on day one. It might be stomped down a

little bit over a month, but if you keep it up, there's going to

be bare ground there because you've done a repeated path.

You say I can't do it from a Yeah, you can.

By the power of God's Spirit, you can.

You can do it today, you can do it tomorrow.

You it'll change your mind. You'll change your mind.

Not because I emotionally thought of it, no.

But through consistency, it changes.

Daniel didn't start praying when the decree was signed, but he

had started somewhere, somewhere in the past.

And so here's what I know is that what you faithfully do

today will be the afore time for your tomorrow.

It'll be the thing that you did before if you'll do it today.

So whenever pressure comes and circumstances change, not going

to rise to the level of your emotion because they can't be

trusted, you're going to fall back on the level of your

discipline because humanity is. I don't feel like it.

Sister Jen Crews have been crazy week.

I don't feel like praying today. I got a long list of things to

get accomplished. I don't feel like reading my

Bible today. I got a lot of stuff to do

Alert, alert. From experience, you won't have

enough time if you don't read for sure.

Everything and everybody's uncle and every other.

It will come on the plate and knock out what you even had

planned. My wife told me of the things

she was going to fix this week. I don't want to miss that day by

fasting. That's my favorite meal.

You understand what I'm saying? If we go by feelings, we have

the ebb and the flow in the up and down.

Because your feelings can't be trusted.

I don't feel like worshipping tonight.

It's been difficult. It's hard.

I got a headache. My feet are sore.

My feet sore right now. I'm getting old.

But Mother alone, when I start reading things like thy word,

have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee?

That's enough reason to trump my feelings.

You hear what I'm saying whenever I read things like that

and I, I, I take things in like that of the promises of God.

That's enough to trump all those things and lean on my discipline

because you're not always going to feel like praying and you're

not always going to feel like fasting and you're not always

going to feel like showing up for church.

But we can garner a Daniel's spirit and say I'm just going to

do as I did, a four time stand with me.

See, I told you I wasn't going to be bad on you.

Mark this down. I've told the people for years

that if I go long in one session, I'll go shorten the

other. It'll all balance out.

No one though. Take the times of all this year

and see what the average is. OK, but I'm just saying.

So he's saying tonight, I'm saying this for some of us.

God is calling us to return. You say it wasn't yesterday, it

wasn't last week, no, but can you look in the past of your

life and say there was an afore time where I had it right where

I was doing it faithful, where I was disciplined and it was

intact when it wasn't an option. It was the process of my life.

Then do as you did afore time, like crowded it out, pressure

replaced it, whatever it may have been.

The called in for us with that type of history is simply this.

Go back to it. Go back to the place you want

knelt. Go back to the practice where

you were reading your about whatever it is, go back to it.

What you did a four time. But if you don't have a point of

reference to go to, then your call tonight is start today.

Start small. If you need to start

intentionally though, start consistently, set a time you can

keep. This is very practical tonight,

I understand, but if you don't work well in the evenings, it's

probably not the best time for you to pray and read your Bible.

This is being real practical if mornings and I get, I believe

you know that we've preached for years and if you don't do it in

the morning, it won't get done, you know, but I've had pastor

friends, the time that they pray is at night.

That works absolutely better for their makeup, their personality.

And if that works, do it. Years ago, I, I don't remember

what it was. I was trying to fight their day

for my life, The gentleman said said the best plan is the plan

that works. I'm not trying to stand here,

compare myself to Sam or Reese, compare himself to Ray about

time and situation. And if it works, if you get it

accomplished on a daily consistent means, stay with it.

I'm trying to give somebody hope here tonight.

Here's why I say that, because I think we've cut a lot of

people's feet out from under them, thinking that if it

doesn't look exactly like this, then you're wrong.

People slaughtered on the pews because they couldn't live up to

somebody else's plan. Let me tell you what the plan

is. Do it consistently, whatever

time of day you can find it and it works.

Do it if it works for you. It's a great plan in the Kingdom

of God for you. But Daniel didn't survive the

lions because of one prayer. They closed their mouths because

he had a repeated pattern of opening his mouth days before

the moment was ever needed. So I heard you tonight, either

return or begin, Do it again or do it for the first time, but

live in such a way that whenever the pressure comes, it can be

said of you. It can be said of us.

They did as they did before. Have you ever just been on the

sidelines of someone's life and thought, I don't see how they're

making it right now? How did hell know what they have

set up in their life? A repeated pattern that pleases

God, that's faithful to God and life happens, but they just do

as they did a four time. The old preachers used to say

when you don't know what to do, keep doing what you have done

because there are times you just don't know.

I'm just going to talk to God again.

Just going to read my word again.

Look at Daniel, he has no answer.

Nothing has changed for him for years.

Promotions, yes, but he's still in captivity.

I'm just going to keep praying. I'm going to just keep talking

to God, just going to keep faithful to God.

Folks, sometimes that's just what it comes down in this

Christian life. And I'm not trying to make this,

you know, just, I know, elementary this evening.

Sometimes it just comes down to you.

Just practice the faithfulness of God because whenever things

are sewn up, someday it will be my good and my servant enter on

into the joys of the Lord. Corinthians, I believe it says

one thing is required of a steward, and this could be

steward over money, steward over anything, a steward, a manager

of things. One thing is required of a

steward that they be found faithful.

So tonight can we on this first evening service, it is the only

time I can say this this year, first evening service of this

year, just find a place to talk to God.

And if somewhere in your journey of last year you've become

separated from a moment that was faithful and true and consistent

and honorable on the side of God, then go and return to that

a four time make a pact with yourself and the determination

in your life. I'm going to do as I did that

moment, you know, you hear me? Some people might have some

wilted papers on your prayer room wall that you used to pray.

That's not been touched in a long time.

Just go back to the aforetime. Touch all those names again.

Let the tears fall on that carpet again.

If you've not done that tonight, you have a great opportunity.

Look at all of these days, 361 of them ahead of you.

I won't put the Bible on the kitchen table tonight or

whenever you need to do it. Crack it open and just oh, and

the Lord spake unto Moses saying command the children of Israel

that they bring to thee pure olive oil beaten for light to

cause the lambs to burn continually.

Even if it's those just two verses you take those, read them

a couple times that day and just think about what God is saying.

Everybody done right. It's just about reset button.

It's about reset. But let me tell you what Bible

reading did for you. Again, I said this morning,

you'll bring conviction in your life outside of service time.

You know what else you'll do? It'll give you greater

understanding when you're in church.

I told you before, we need to start.

We need to start a book club centered around the Bible.

Sometimes you step here and that guy, I know that guy's preaching

to me. I just don't know what he's

saying, some of the causes, because we've never read what

he's saying. The more you familiarize

yourself with your Bible and you read it, you start picking up on

names and stories, and before long, stuff starts piercing

together from the Old Testament, the New Testament.

You start seeing intersections of stuff that comes together

just because you've read it over and over and over and over

again. I said you don't have to read it

all this year. Take three years to read it.

I don't care. Just read it.

Even if you got to read those good old genealogies, we are the

most technological advanced society in the world.

You got a phone that will read it to you and you can follow

along. We have no excuses.

I mean, my grandpap is trying to sound out Bartholomew and, you

know, I got somebody to say it in the language that's Indian or

in a language that's I'm just, you know, they've got an accent

and they can have it. Talk to me like that.

We have no excuses. I open these altars tonight.

Open these altars tonight. Can we be introspective?

I know we're already four days in, but can we be introspective

tonight? God, are you calling me back to

something or you calling me to something?

God, that I've, I've never, I've never successfully started.

If so, that's the pool, that's the call, that's the

opportunity, that's the assignment.

That's the assignment for our life.

That's the assignment for our life and we we, we, we just

raise our voices over this great Daniel story of how against all

odds those 30 days he kept doing Amen.

Praying folks. That was that was the results of

a man that had spent a lifetime doing that prior to that moment.

The success of those 30 days we're in, the success of 80 some

odd years of just staying with something, being faithful to

something during the strong winds and during animosity and

during raging, if you will, enemies.

It's just staying with something.

God's calling you tonight. God's calling you to himself.

This isn't a this, this isn't about necessarily this is about

forging a closer relationship with God, forging a closer

relationship with God. And there will be several perks

and byproducts that will come out of that.

But your number one priority need to needs to be forging that

relationship with God. The other perks that comes,

that's just a great byproduct, but that's not my, that's not my

focus. That's not my goal.

My goal is my relationship with God.

And as I pursue that through these disciplines of prayer and

fashion and Bible reading and attendance to the House of God

and worship and all these things, God is just going to

open up the windows of heaven and pour out upon you blessings

that you have not room enough to receive.

Because God honors His word. He honors His promises, even in

your life if you're just starting or if you're going back

as you have done a four time. Hallelujah.

Let's talk to Him.