Lion Tamers Beware - Daniel 6:2-5, 10, 19-24

Hallelujah! Thank you, Jesus. Lord, we will walk with the blood surrounding us, knowing that we are protected on every side. Lord, there's an army of angels all around us. Lord, open our eyes to see that today. Lord, open our eyes. Lord, give us the eyes to see and the ears to hear. Lord, Father, I thank you for this precious moment. Lord, Lord, I thank you, Lord. Do what we can never do. We ask you to do it now, Lord. Father, bring glory to your name. We thank you for your presence, Lord. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Thank you, worship team. Church, you may have a seat. Good morning. Going to ask you to open to Daniel chapter 6. And that's all. Just stay there. And if you want to go back and listen again, because it's going to be a lot of different verses from different places, but Daniel chapter 6. The title of the message is "Lion Tamers, Beware." Lion Tamers, beware. Daniel chapter 6, starting at verse two.

The king also chose Daniel and two others as administrators to supervise the high officers and protect the king's interest. Daniel soon proved himself more capable than all the other administrators and high officers. Because of Daniel's great ability, the king made plans to place him over the entire empire. And then the other administrators and high officers began searching for some fault in the way Daniel was handling government affairs. But they, they couldn't find anything to criticize or condemn. He was faithful, always responsible, and completely trustworthy. That's a resume: faithful, always responsible, completely trustworthy. And so they concluded, "Our only chance of finding grounds for accusing Daniel will be in connection with the rules of his religion."

Now, if you remember the story, there's a decree that's made. If anyone prays praises to anyone but the king, they'd be thrown into a lion's den. And so in verse 10, when Daniel learned that the law had been signed, he went home and he knelt down as usual in his upstairs room with its windows open toward Jerusalem. He prayed three times a day, just as he had always done, giving thanks to his God.

And we know the Lord rescued him in that den. In verse 19, it says, "Very early the next morning, the king got up and hurried out to the lion's den. And when he got there, he called out in anguish, 'Daniel, servant of the Living God, was your God whom you serve so faithfully able to rescue you from the lions?'" Daniel answered, "Long live the king! My God sent his angel to shut the lions' mouths so that they would not hurt me, for I have been found innocent in his sight, and I have not wronged you, your majesty." The king was overjoyed. Or did that Daniel be lifted from the den, and not a scratch was found on him, for he had trusted in his God. Verse 24: Then the king gave orders to arrest the men who had maliciously accused Daniel. He had them thrown into the lion's den along with their wives and children, and the lions leaped on them and tore them apart before they even hit the floor of the den.

Proverbs 28:1 says, "The wicked run away when no one is chasing them, but the godly are as bold as lions." The righteous are as bold as lions.

Now, the translation says, I want to share just for a few minutes with you today about a, a warning to those that are trying to shut the church up and an encouragement for us never to be quiet in prayer or worship. And so we're going to go through a whole bunch of places where we worship. The first one is, we worship in spiritual attack. The devil doesn't want Christians to know who lives in us and the power that's inside of us. The Bible says that he that lives in us is greater than he that lives in this world. And then it goes on to say, the devil is like a lion. He's not a lion, he's like a lion. Always imitating God, he always counterfeits. We know that we have the Lion of Judah. He is like a lion.

Now, when do we worship in spiritual attack? The example is Balak and Balaam. We know that Balak is an evil king. Balaam, Balaam's a compromised prophet. Prophet. And what happens is they try to hire Balaam to curse God's people. They try to get them to, to come for hire and curse. And, and so there's a few times that they bring them up to a, a high place to look down on God's people, and he can't curse them. It's impossible. And what's amazing is that if you look at how the Israelites would be encamped, God's people, they would actually form the shape of a cross. There would be over 100,000 this way, this way, this way, and this way, with the Ark of the Tabernacle right in the middle, with, with God's presence at the center of their lives. And so Balaam would go up to that mountain, and it was impossible to curse them. As we behold the cross and worship with God at the center of our lives, He fights for us. There is no darkness more powerful than the victory on the cross.

So when do we worship? We worship in, in spiritual attack. You may be at your job. If you are a believer in Christ, you're walking honestly with the Lord, you cannot be cursed. You can't be blessed and cursed at the same time. And, and so when the enemy looks at you, he sees us encamped in the cross with the presence of God at the center of our lives, covered by the blood of Jesus. There's not a fear that's going to get hold of your heart that can overtake the power of God.

Deuteronomy 33:29 says, "How blessed you are, oh Israel!" Now, some theologically may say, "Are we spiritually Israel? Are we not?" Well, I got to tell you that this verse is for us. We are engrafted into the family. "How blessed you are, oh Israel! Who else is like you? A people saved by the Lord. He is your protecting shield and triumphant sword. Your enemies will cringe before you, and you will stomp on their backs." That is the promise for the people of God. Now, that's not physical enemies, but we walk in a victory. We worship when we're in spiritual battle. We worship when we will not be quiet. We will not be silent. We will continue to pray. We will continue to lift our hands. We will continue to worship. We will continue to praise God under spiritual attack, and we will trust God. God, that no weapon formed against His people will prosper.

Now, we worship before the battle. The walls of Jericho were going to come down, but God's people were given instructions: March around seven days, and on the seventh day, go seven times around, and when the horn is sounded, shout, for the Lord has given you the town. No battle yet, but worship first. That's why we come into this place worshiping. That's why we worship on the first day of the week, because there will be battles that we face this week, but we'll worship before the battle. Joshua 6:20 says, "When the people heard the sound of the ram's horns, they shouted as loud as they could, and then suddenly the walls of Jericho collapsed, and the Israelites charged straight into the town and captured it."

So before the battle, we are worshiping. We are already a people of worship. We come into this house worshiping God. We don't wait for the first song. We don't wait for the song leader to get up here and say, "Now stand up. Now begin to worship. Now lift your hands." It is something we do on the way. It's something we do at night. It's something we do when we put our head to bed. It is something we do when we get up in the morning, that we would lift our voice to the Lord. "That early in the morning, my soul shall rise to the Lord."

We worship in battle. King Jehoshaphat, in 2 Chronicles chapter 20, gets word that all these different armies are coming around to attack him. That's right. That's right. And so he doesn't know what to do. The Bible says he's terrified by the news. He begs the Lord for guidance. He orders the people in Judah to begin fasting. Some, some people from all the towns of Judah, people from all the towns of Judah came to Jerusalem to seek the Lord's help. And then the Spirit of God comes on a different man, and this man gets a word from the Lord. And listen to the word from the Lord. He said, "Listen, all you people of Judah and Jerusalem! Listen, King Jehosaphat! This is what the Lord says: Do not be afraid! Do not be discouraged by this mighty army, for the battle is not yours, but God's. Tomorrow, march out against them. You'll find them coming up against you, but you will not even need to fight. Take your position." Our position is worship. Our position is praying. Our position is standing in the love of God, knowing we are a child of God. We are blood-bought by the blood of Jesus on the cross. And so we stand there in our position and watch the Lord's victory. "And He is with you, oh people of Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid or discouraged. Go out against them tomorrow, for the Lord is with you."

And then Jehoshaphat consults the people. I love what he does. Imagine 50,000, 100,000, 300,000 army soldiers are marching up New Hampstead Road right to Grace Point Gospel Fellowship right now, and we have an army. But the instructions are, you know what? Send out Chris first. No weapon. Send out Abby. Send out the choir. Send out Harry. No drumstick. Send them out and have them march in front of the army, worshiping and singing and praising God. And the Bible says when they began to do that, the people, the enemy started to fight each other. Yes, there is a spiritual component to worship that we don't see with our natural eyes. And in the battle, we worship.

2014, true story of a 9-year-old boy from Atlanta. He was kidnapped from his driveway, and the kidnapper began to drive him around for three hours. Three hours in Atlanta. The news article says that he began to, to curse at the kid, telling him to shut up. And eventually he opened the door and kicked him out. Out. He was singing Hezekiah Walker's song, "Every Praise," for about three hours. That 9-year-old boy knew how to fight in the battle that the kidnapper couldn't take it anymore, and they kicked him out, they threw him out. The Bible says, "Judah, your hand will be around the neck of your enemy." PR Judah means praise. Amen. When we praise, we have the hand around the neck of the enemy. We are silencing the voice of the enemy. We are choking the enemy's voice, his lies, his condemnation. And so we worship in the battle.

We worship in the presence of our enemies. Luke chapter 7: One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to have dinner with him, so Jesus went to his home and sat down to eat. And when a certain immoral woman, this woman's a prostitute from that city, heard he was eating there, she brought in a beautiful alabaster jar filled with expensive perfume. And then she kneels behind him at his feet weeping. Her tears fell on his feet, and she wiped them off with her hair, and she kept kissing his feet, putting perfume on them. Jesus is, is at a table. You got to get the picture in your head. He's at a table, and remember, He prepares a table before us in the presence of our enemies. And in comes a prostitute. There's two things you know about the prostitute: one, she's unwanted at the party, and two, she lives with pain. There's no doubt about that. But God wants us to give Him our hurt and our pain and to heal our wounds. When we live with pain and we don't go to the Healer, we do crazy things. That's right. Some of you are in this place and you are thinking divorce. That's crazy because you're living with pain. You're, you're living with, instead of going to the throne of God and getting what you need, you're about to give up. You're looking to quit. Do not quit.

This woman sees a table in the presence of her enemies because there's no doubt that the condemning voice is, "You're dirty. You're no good. To go to that table, you have no right to worship the King." There's a good chance that someone that paid for her services is sitting in that room. But I wonder if she knew the verse in Psalm 147:3, that "He heals the brokenhearted and bandages their wounds." Because even though the voices of condemnation are there, even though she's looking to worship in the presence of her enemies, she sees a table. And when she sees that table, she makes a move. She goes to the table. And in Bible times, a woman who wanted to say that they were available, that they were, they were not in relationship, would wear their hair up. It was a way of communicating that. And what's amazing is that this woman sees the love of her life at that table, the one who can satisfy her soul, the one that can heal her, the one that can touch the part of the heart that no one can touch. And she puts her hair down because she begins to use it to wipe his feet. In other words, she's saying, "I'm coming in one way. I may be coming into the house of God one way this morning, but there's a table before me in the presence of my enemies." And the condemning voices try to push us away from the table. But instead, she goes. She puts her hair down. She says, "No longer am I available. Now I am taken." Just like we are the bride of Christ. Church, we are the bride of Christ. We are no longer available to the devil. We are no longer available to this world. We have a husband. We have someone that will take care of us, someone who welcomes us to the table. And what's amazing is that the uninvited guest gets the miracle. The Bible says in Luke chapter 7, she was actually forgiven of her sin, and her faith led her to salvation. You may be uninvited by man, but we're invited by God. Amen. There is a banquet table of provision in the presence of our enemies. Go to the table, church.

We worship before the victory. Jesus was dedicated at the temple shortly after being born. And there was a man there named Simeon. At that time, there was a man in Jerusalem, Luke chapter 2, named Simeon. He was righteous, devout, was eagerly waiting for the Messiah to come and rescue Israel. The Holy Spirit was upon him and had revealed to him that he would not die until he had seen the Lord's Messiah. That day, the Spirit led him to the temple. So when Mary and Joseph came to present the baby Jesus, uh, to the Lord as the Lord required, Simeon was there. He took the child in his arms and praised God, saying, "Sovereign Lord, he praised God, he's worshiping before Jesus's victory on the cross, before your situation changes. He's worshiping. He says, 'Sovereign Lord, now let your servant die in peace as you have promised. I have seen your salvation, which you have prepared for all people.'" It's for all people. If you're sitting in this house or you're streaming online at another time, salvation is available to you. You have the opportunity to choose to surrender your life to Jesus or not. And so you can spend eternity forever in heaven with the Lord. He says it right here: "Salvation which you have prepared for all people." Verse 32: "He is a light to reveal God to the nations and He is the glory of your People Israel." Simeon was excited for what God was about to do. He wasn't just worshiping because he got what he wanted. He was worshiping before the victory. We worship God for who God is, and not just for what He has done.

Matthew chapter 2: Jesus was born in Bethlehem. The wise men come. They have a meeting with King Herod. And at that meeting, they tell Herod, "We have come to worship Him." The star begins to lead them where Jesus was living at that time. And when they saw the star, they were filled with joy. They entered the house and saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped Him. Then they opened their treasure chest and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. They didn't, Jesus did not do anything for the wise men at that point. And so they are worshiping just because of who He is, just because of His character, because of His nature, of how beautiful He is, how lovely He is, how holy God is.

We worship together. 2 Samuel 21:15-17 talks about David. David, this is King David, the giant killer. David, who was sung about about the thousands that he had slain. This is the, the courageous, powerful, mighty king, the one who wrote the first songbook, the one who knew how to worship God and lead an army, the one who called a man after God's own heart. But here he is, a little older. In verse 15, it says, "David and his men were in the thick of battle, and David became weak and exhausted." There are seasons in our lives where we are strong. There's seasons in our lives where we're weak and we're exhausted. And the Bible says there was a giant named Ishbi-benob, he came and he cornered David and was about to kill David. This is the giant slayer, David. This is David that, that all the little kids grow up wanting to be like. This is David, the one that Sight and Sound spends all their time, effort, finances to, to create a production about. This is David. But now we read about David, he's weak, he's exhausted, he's about to get killed by a giant. But the Bible says in verse 17, "But Abishai son of Zeruiah came to David's rescue and killed the Philistine."

There are times that you will come into this house weak and exhausted. But let me tell you something, beloved. It's not a small thing when we say, "Lift your hands in worship." Which we, and you begin to lift your hands, or you come in, you're already lifting your hands in worship. You don't know what the person next to you is going through. You don't know how much that means to them. You may not know that they are on the, the last day and they're about to give up. But because you're praising God, because you have your hands lifted high, your voice is, is raised up, your mouth is open, it begins to strengthen the person next to you. We worship together. That's why lions, they pick off the weak. They go after the weak that's in a, that's in a herd. They go after those that are alone, those that are drifting alone. When we get into isolation, we try to walk this walk alone. The lion comes. And oh, the person that imitates the lion comes and tries to pick us apart. And they come after the young. They come after the young. That's why it's so important in this church that we protect the next generation. We protect the youth. Let me tell you something, to the older people, the, the, the older people that are in this room right now, you may be annoyed or bothered by how they dress or how they sound or what they do. But just remember this: when you were 15, they were annoyed about how you dressed and how you sounded and what you did. But we need a generation that's willing to protect the young, that we would protect them fiercely. And let me give a warning: if you're an older guy in the room and you're looking at the young girls and, and, and you're a predator, we will find you out and kick you out. And then when you repent and truly surrender into your life to Jesus, you are welcome back to this house, 'cause we will protect the young.

We worship in the testing. The Bible tells us of a Gentile woman who came to Jesus with an incredible need. In Matthew 15, the need was that her daughter was demon-possessed. But Jesus says nothing. Matter of fact, the disciples try to push her away and said, "She's begging. She's annoying us with all this begging. She's bothering us. Please get her out of here." Finally, Jesus does say something to her, but it's not a yes, it's not a no, it's a test. He says, "I was sent only to help God's lost people, the people of Israel." But the Bible says that because in the beginning, when she met Jesus, when Jesus came into the town where she was and she met Jesus, the Bible says she had an amazing prayer: "Oh, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter's dying!" All the things are there. She praised who God was. She acknowledged who God is. She's admitting her need. She's humble. She's humble to the Lord. You would think, "Wow, she hit all the buttons, and now we're going to see Jesus answer." Obviously, this is a serious need. But Jesus tests her. And in the testing, it leads her in verse 25 to do this: "But she came and worshiped Him, pleading again, 'Lord, help me!'" All the polish went out the window. All the polished prayers, all the prayers that sound like the King James version went out the window. All the, the posture we think we're supposed to have during worship. And let me get my seat, and let me put my stuff down over here, and make sure I stay neat and, and compose myself. I just did my hair this morning. I just put makeup on this morning. I don't want to cry during worship. I don't want to lift my hands during worship. What if somebody, I hit the person next to me or do something like that? All the polish went out the window, and she worshiped Him in the testing. And in the testing, her fancy prayer went to, "Lord, help me." That's all it was was, "Lord, help me." And some of us in this room, that's all we have left. It's, "Lord, help me." We may not even have all three of the words, four of the words, whatever they are. May just be, "Help." Yes. All we could do is mumble, "Help." But when the polish goes and the desperate cry comes out of our soul, it gets the attention of the Master. And it comes to a place where it's just, "Lord, help me."

When Lazarus came out of that grave, the Bible says that it says to, to Lazarus, "Unwrap him and let him go." But that's the same for us. We need to be unwrapped and let go. Some of us in this place, we've never lifted our hands during worship. You need to learn to lift your hands at home, at your workplace, in your car. You could put one on the wheel and one in the air. You need to lift your hands in this place. They unwrapped him so he could lift his hands. They untied his feet so he could walk in the direction that God has for him. And then they uncovered his mouth so they can use the, he can use his voice. But it's so we can be unwrapped so we can use our voice. We can use the hands that God has given us to praise and worship the Lord. Amen.

Worship and persecution and pain. In Acts 16, Paul and Silas, they're stripped and beaten severely for serving the Lord. The jailer was ordered to put them into the stocks, put the chains around them, put them in the dungeon. But around midnight, around midnight, when it was dark, when there was no light, probably 'cause remember, the jailer called for lights a little bit later, and that wasn't a light switch, those were those were fire, right? And so it was probably dark, probably mice, rats around them. Conditions are terrible. They've just got beaten severely. They're in pain. Some of you are in this room are in pain. I want to encourage you to lift your voice when you're in pain. They're getting persecuted, but they begin around midnight. They're praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners are listening. The Bible says an earthquake comes, the chains fall off, the door swings open. The jailer is about to kill himself. Paul says, "Don't kill yourself, we're all here." And then the jailer winds up giving his life to Jesus and his family.

Psalm 126:5-6 says, "Those who plant in tears will harvest with shouts of joy. They weep as they go plant their seed, but they sing as they return with the harvest." They go out in pain. They go out crying. Some of us are in those seasons now. Every day it's like we want to cry. And you know what? Don't listen to the other people that say, "About time, man up. About time, woman up. Where's your faith?" Don't listen to that. The Lord's not rushing your tears. If you have to cry, go cry. But keep walking while you cry. Keep praising God while you're in pain. Keep praising God during the persecution, because the Bible says now we get really excited. Remember, they left, they obey God, go to Macedonia, leads them to prison, suffer for others, and they're willing to follow God so another person can get saved. But when we read that story, we get so excited. I have too, so many times. Prisoners, chains fell off, prisoners, chains fell off. That's incredible. But the Bible doesn't say those people got saved. Only the jailer got saved and his family that wasn't even there. So in this church, it's like a, a person that comes to church, they sense something, feels good, things even begin to shake up. But we don't want happy prisoners. We want born-again people. We want people saved. We want you to leave this place, surrender to Jesus. We want your kids saved, your grandkids saved, your parents saved, your aunts and uncles saved, this community saved.

Worship in spirit and in truth. John 4: Jesus said, "The time is coming, indeed it's here now, when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, and the Father is looking for those who will worship Him that way." You know that when it talks about spirit, they're talking about passion. That there would be a passion inside of us. That we would be excited about being a Christian. It blows my mind that some people, and I know we have bad days here and there, but some people, they can go to church Sunday after Sunday after Sunday and look like they were baptized in lemon juice. There's no joy. Chris prayed about it before. There's joy. There needs to be joy in the house. This house. Amen. Not just the building, this house. That the joy of the Lord is our strength. And so this is a passion worship in spirit and in truth. That there would be a passion for Christ, a passion for souls. And it comes by the work of the Holy Spirit. It's not something we work up. Pastor Carter Conklin, overseer of Times Square Church, said something recently because they were going to have a prayer meeting, the church over at the, the United Nations, and at one point, it had to be unplugged. And I'll not quoting him exactly, probably, but hopefully close enough. And he said, "You know, when you, when you unplug the, then you find out if you have real power." We don't need smoke machines. We don't need flashing lights. We don't need certain colors and this and, and all this other stuff. We need the presence of God. We need the power of God that produces the passion of God inside of us. And then he said, "Truth." The Bible says, "Where there is no vision, the people perish." Leonard Ravenhill, from the author of "Why Revival Tarries," says, "Where there is is no passion, the church perishes." Even though it be full to the doors. We can be packed out in this place. It doesn't mean we're worshiping in spirit and in truth. The truth part is knowing who you worship. It's a knowing. It's worshiping the Jesus of the Bible.

In Exodus 15, Moses leads the people into the desert. And when he leads them into the desert, they're looking for water. They can't find water. You don't find water in a few days, you're going to die. And so it represents a people that are thirsty for the Lord, those who want that pure spring that Jesus promised. They're looking for it. And so Moses begins to pray. And it's amazing the instructions that Moses gets: "Get that piece of wood and put it in the water. Get the cross and make sure it's at the center of your worship." Then the water will be clean. Then you can drink from the fountain that Jesus has. But the cross has to be at the center.

In 1 Corinthians 10:21, it says, "You cannot drink from the cup of the Lord and from the cup of demons too. You cannot eat at the Lord's table and at the table of demons too." The Bible says that if we want to live in mixture, we want to live in duplicity, we want to live in a place where it says, "I will live two different lives," then our worship will not be pure. We will not be able to to drink from that pure stream of living water that satisfies our souls. We will miss out on Psalm 40:1-3, when it says, "I waited patiently for the Lord, and He inclined to me and He heard my cry. And He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and He set my feet upon a rock and He established my steps. He has put a new song in my mouth, praise to our God. Many will see it and fear and will trust in the Lord." A new song. And they will see it. A new song. And they will see it. I'm going to say it again, it's a new song, but they're going to see it. It doesn't say they're going to hear it necessarily, they're going to see the new song. They're going to see us with a life of worship. Worship is not only the 30 minutes in the beginning of a church service. And my wife is here this morning, and she can hold me accountable. Alana, tomorrow morning, remind me of this. There is a Monday morning service. It's not just Sunday service, this Sunday, 9, 11, and 2. But for all of us that are believers, when we wake up tomorrow morning, it's Monday morning service, and we are to serve the Lord as we serve our family, as we lift our voice, as we lift our hands, as we open up the word of God. There's a Tuesday morning service. And I'll go on and on and on. It's not just Sunday morning, 30 minutes. They see the new song because we have a life of worship.

Worship in the Greek actually means to turn and kiss. It's amazing that Judas chose that to deny the Lord, a kiss. It looked good. Judas's kiss. It felt like one, it sounded like one, but it wasn't love. A person can come to church and sing every song and never worship. The lady with bleeding pressure through a crowd, and I'm sure other people touched Jesus in that crowd. They were all pressed against Him, but He turned around and said, "Who touched Me?" Who touched Me? We could be in a place with a crowd. It doesn't mean everyone's touching the Lord. We worship in spirit and truth.

I'm going to ask the worship team to come back. The first time worship is mentioned in the Bible is Abraham and Isaac. It's when Abraham's about to sacrifice his son Isaac. He's about to take his life. The first time a hand, hand is raised in worship. There's no song, there's no choir, there's no worship team, there's no piano, there's no drums, there's no instruments, there's no singing. Their first time worship is mentioned in the Bible, but there's a surrendered heart. Abraham was willing to do what God called him to do, and that's why it was worship.

Now, the warning: Lion Tamers, Beware. Going back to Daniel 6:24. "And then the king gave orders to arrest the men who had maliciously accused Daniel. He had them thrown into the lion's den along with their wives and children, and the lions leaped on them, tore them apart before they even hit the floor of the den." They tried to tame lions to try to get them to take out the testimony of God. Instead, the same lions that they tried to tame turned around and destroyed them and their families. I want to encourage you that if you are in this place and you don't know Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, if you're online and you don't know Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, do not try to tame the lion. Don't try to tame these things that will destroy you. Repent and surrender to Jesus. We can't tame sin or the devil. The devil comes to kill, steal, and destroy. They thought they can tame the devil to work for them.

Would you stand with me, church? There's one more worshipper that I want to talk to you about before we close, and it's going to be a little longer close, so stay standing. There's another worshipper, it's called the "Too Late Worshipper." Philippians 2:10-11 says, "That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on Earth and under the Earth, and that every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." See, every one of us is going to bow our knee to Jesus. Every one of us in this entire world will one day stand before Jesus and bow our knee that He is Lord and confess with our mouth that He is Lord. But some will be too late. That worship, the decision to be born again, to go to heaven, to have your sins forgiven, to be in right relationship with God, to be made right with Him, for God's Spirit to live inside of us, has to be made before we stop breathing on this Earth. And so, before we go on, because there's one more part, I want to ask the question: If you're in this room and you don't know the Lord, I didn't say you know the songs, you don't know the Lord. You don't know Him. You don't know where you'll spend eternity. You don't know that if today or this hour or this moment was your last on Earth, where you will spend eternity. You have an opportunity to surrender your life to Jesus. Simeon said it, "His salvation for all people." The Lord wants you. He wants you. And so I'm going to ask, with every head up and eyes opened, before we move on to the next part, which is for the believer, because I don't want you to miss out. You can't get to the, the second part here if you're not a believer. You got to go through this first part. And so if you're in this place and you would say, "Pastor P, I don't know the Lord. I don't want to end up standing against the Lord, and the same thing I thought was on my side will turn around and flip on me and devour me. I don't want to be a too late worshipper. I want to worship now." If that's you and you want to be born again, you want your sins forgiven, your eternity secure, your mind made right, your heart made right with the Lord, just raise your hand wherever you are. Wherever you are, balcony, I see your hand. Wherever you are, anyone else? Praise God. Don't be ashamed. This is, this is, this is the most important decision you will ever make in your life. Anybody else that you didn't raise your hand and you want to raise your hand, you say, "Pastor, today, no more games, no playing around. I'm getting right with God. I'm surrendering to Him." Any other hands that I missed? Praise God. Those of you that raised your hands, I want you to pray a prayer with me. Is it my prayer that gets you saved? Absolutely not. But I want to help you articulate what the Bible says in the Book of Romans of how to be saved, how to be made right with God. And church, could we all pray together? Let's pray. Let's say, "Lord Jesus, Lord Jesus, I surrender my life to You. I surrender my life. I'm all Yours and You're mine. You're mine. Forgive me from my sin. Forgive me. I believe You died for me. You rose from the dead, and that You love me. I turn away from my sin and I surrender to You, Jesus. Be my God, be my Savior, be my Father, be my friend and healer. In Jesus' name, amen."

Now listen, we're not done. Remain standing.

Ezekiel 37: This is how we're going to close. In Ezekiel 37, the Bible says that he was taken to a valley filled with bones, and the bones were dry, but they were supposed to represent an army. And the Bible says that he tells Ezekiel, "Speak to the bones. Speak to them." And if you know the story, something happens. A noise begins to take place. They begin to rattle. But I said it to the young adults not long ago, rattles are for babies. Rattles make an obnoxious noise. I don't know what kind of parent gives a child a rattle unless they want to drive themselves nuts. We don't want rattles. Rattles just, it's, it's the preachers of self, the preachers of that they want prestige and their name recognized and they want to motivate people so the people get a little bit excited and they get a rattle and they go home as happy prisoners. But we're invited to a throne and a table. And at the table, we have the authority to silence every accusing voice that comes against us.

And so Ezekiel goes further, and Ezekiel's told, "Don't speak to the bones anymore. Don't speak to the people anymore. Speak to the wind, which represents the Holy Spirit. Speak to the wind. Speak to the wind." Because the Holy Spirit will do what we can never do in our own strength. He's the one who will get us to worship in the battle, before the battle, through spiritual attack. He's the one who will give us the power, the passion, the one to walk honestly and in truth with Him. Matter of fact, the Bible says in Psalm 91:13, "You will trample upon lions and cobras; you will crush fierce lions and serpents under your feet." Listen, church, lions don't belong in cages. As cute as they look at the zoo, the Lion of Judah doesn't belong in a cage. You need to let them loose. Hallelujah. You need to let the lion loose. And for some of you, that means to lift your voice when we sing, to lift your hands when we worship. But it's got to be the wind. It can't be me talking this way. It can't be a worship leader trying to get you to do this. It's the wind. It's the Holy Spirit. See, He says that if you're a, a flickering candle that's about to go out, He won't snuff you out. That's right. And if you bruise your reed, He won't crush you. A reed was used to make music, a wind instrument. And so if it was broken, they would pick up the reed and they would, they would toss it out. And for some of you in this place, that's how it feels. You feel like you're, you're a bruised reed. And Jesus says, "I will not crush you. I will pick you back up and I will breathe into you again so a song could come through you again. You can play a, a sound again that is pleasing to the Master's ear. I will breathe in you again."

And so I want to give an altar call. This is the altar call. It's not just power to not shut up. It's power to speak. It's power to worship. It's power to pray. But it's also for those who are about to give up and you say, "Holy Spirit, breathe in me again. Fresh vision, fresh life, fresh faith, fresh power. God, I need You. I need You." And so if the Holy Spirit is speaking to you, just come out of your seat now. You can come to the front of the church. We don't even need to wait for the first song. Come, slip out of your seat, come to the front, come to the altar. Begin to pray. Begin to ask the Holy Spirit, "Breathe on me. Fill me again. I don't want to rattle. I want the Holy Spirit to fill me." Would you come now? God speaking to you. Don't be afraid. Before we sing, come. I'm going to wait for you. I'm going to wait for you right here. I want to pray with you. Come. Praise God. Come. Anybody else? You say, "Holy Spirit, breathe. I'm not giving up this fight. I can't give up. There's too much at stake." Some of you, there's, there's too much at stake. Do you understand that? Our sons and daughters are at stake. Our families. The future. The plan that God has for us. It's at stake here. We need something beyond us. We need a power that goes beyond us. We will not be a lion tamer. We will not try to tell the Holy Spirit how to work in our lives. You will lay hands on people at your job. You will pray for your kids. We will see them saved. We will see miracles happen. We are going to fight, but it's going to be by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Now, I know there's more of you. As we sing, come. Come. Just come. From the balcony, to the bleachers, to here. We're not going to pray for you today. The elders, pastors, we're not, we're not coming around. Today is your day just to spend time with the Lord. That bruised reed, He won't crush. He wants to breathe in us again. He wants to breathe in us again. Abby, I know you, you probably have a song on your heart. I'm going to ask, can we sing, "This Is How I Fight My Battles"? Can we start from the beginning, from the table part? Is that okay? As they worship, come, come. The Holy Spirit's here. God's presence is here. We can, we don't have to leave the same. We don't have to leave the same. And as we worship, unwrapped hands lifted high, voices lifted up, lift that voice God gave you a voice. He gave you a voice. It's so important to Him. In the Book of James, it says we can use it to curse men and use it to praise God. And so many of us, we've all been guilty of that. But we're created to worship.