June 11, 1997 Joni’s Mkt.

We’re talking about success and in the part II marami tayong sinabi about success but basically si Daniel we talk to him the last two parts he is a man of integrity and he is a man of prayer. This evening based on of the comments that I have receive in talking to a lot of people we would like to give you a truly simple thought this evening that will change your life forever if you follow it. Tonight we want to learn from this man Daniel, because prayer is the key to many things and yet so many people do not know how to pray. We strongly believe that meditating on God’s word coupled with prayer, those are the two simple basics of the Christian life and so let’s turn our bible and learn from the Master. Daniel 6, so alam natin na ipinagbawal nung hari yung prayer except to him and yet si Daniel even though he knew the decree, let’s start from Daniel 6:9-10, Therefore King Darius signed the document, that is, the injunction. [10] Now when Daniel knew that the document was signed, he entered his house (now in his roof chamber he had windows open toward Jerusalem); and he continued kneeling on his knees three times a day, praying and giving thanks before his God, as he had been doing previously. Here in this verse we will learn the secrets of prayer tips from Daniel. One of his key characteristics as found in God’s word is he was a man of prayer. Si Daniel great man of prayer. First tip, this is what you get when you meditate on a verse and if you learned this what’s the benefit? Look at v. 28, So this Daniel enjoyed success in the reign of Darius and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian. That’s why this chapter is a chapter on success, v. 10, we have many tips. Let’s pick the first one in order, Now when Daniel knew that the document was signed, what did he do? what are the tips on prayer? What’s the first one, where did go? He went home. Let me talk to you about that very briefly. Many people when they think of praying, where do they go? To the church, they will kneel down on the pew, it’s very solemn and stuff like that. Si Daniel saan siya nagpunta? Sa bahay. Now application time, see when you read the bible always application time, anytime you get the truth boom! Apply. Question, you in your home, is your home a house of prayer, is it a place of prayer? If I were to ask your children will they say, "Yeah! This is a house of prayer", do they see you praying there, is that where you pray at home? kinu-cultivate mo ba yon, we should. You see home, a home is where you can let your hair down, you can be yourself, hinde ka nakapustura okay lang, that’s where you feel relaxed. Many times, we are so relaxed at home God is not part of that but He should be, it should be a place where we open up to God, it should be the place where you feel dun ang shelter mo eh, punta ka ron kay God, God will be there you talk to God at home. Many times ang gulo ng bahay natin, sa dami ng nangyayari, wala, wala akong pag-asang mag-meditate dito or whatever, maybe, maybe not, you know why? Bakit wala, bakit napakagulo? Because we have not cultivated it, we have not deliberately said it out to be like that. If I ever re-design a house I will have a room of prayer, would you like that? Make your house a house of prayer, you go there you talk to your wife, you talk to your kids and you talk to God. See when Jesus when He go to the temple, pinaalis niya yung mga, nagalit siya… because they were turning the temple into a market place and yet He said God’s house is a house of prayer. God’s house is identified with prayer and you, you are the temple of the holy spirit. You should develop your home into a house of prayer. The young people who are getting married, I will strongly advice each of them should build a house with a prayer rooms. What else can we learn? Umuwi siya, pumunta siya dun sa kanilang bahay kasi dun sanay na sanay siyang to meet with God. Daniel 6:10 he entered his house (now in his roof chamber he had windows open toward Jerusalem); what can you learn from that? He had windows opened toward Jerusalem. I’d like to share with you what is the importance of opening its windows toward Jerusalem put your finger there and turn to 1 Kings 8:26-29, "Now therefore, O God of Israel, let Thy word, I pray Thee, be confirmed which Thou hast spoken to Thy servant, my father David. In other word God had told David something, Solomon is claiming the statement of God. [27] "But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain Thee, how much less this house which I have built! He built a truly beautiful temple and yet he understood the truth that God cannot be in the temple only. [28] "Yet have regard to the prayer of Thy servant and to his supplication, O LORD my God, to listen to the cry and to the prayer which Thy servant prays before Thee today; [29] that Thine eyes may be open toward this house night and day, toward the place of which Thou hast said, 'My name shall be there,' to listen to the prayer which Thy servant shall pray toward this place. What was his prayer? Is that you will hear the prayer if it is toward that place. V.30, "And listen to the supplication of Thy servant and of Thy people Israel, when they pray toward this place; hear Thou in heaven Thy dwelling place; hear and forgive. For example, in v. 37 he gets very specific, 1 Kings 8:37-39

"If there is famine in the land, if there is pestilence, if there is blight or mildew, locust or grasshopper, if their enemy besieges them in the land of their cities, whatever plague, whatever sickness there is, [38] whatever prayer or supplication is made by any man or by all Thy people Israel, each knowing the affliction of his own heart, and spreading his hands toward this house; [39] then hear Thou in heaven Thy dwelling place, and forgive and act and render to each according to all his ways, whose heart Thou knowest, for Thou alone dost know the hearts of all the sons of men, look at 1 Kings 8:41-45, "Also concerning the foreigner who is not of Thy people Israel, when he comes from a far country for Thy name's sake [42] (for they will hear of Thy great name and Thy mighty hand, and of Thine outstretched arm); when he comes and prays toward this house, [43] hear Thou in heaven Thy dwelling place, and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to Thee, in order that all the peoples of the earth may know Thy name, to fear Thee, as do Thy people Israel, and that they may know that this house which I have built is called by Thy name. [44] "When Thy people go out to battle against their enemy, by whatever way Thou shalt send them, and they pray to the LORD toward the city which Thou hast chosen and the house which I have built for Thy name, [45] then hear in heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause. See it is very, very biblical, in other words, the principle that we learn, the tip, the prayer of Daniel was base on the scriptures that he knew. Next, go back to Daniel 6:10, what’s the next thing Daniel is doing? What can we learn? He prayed kneeling down, what’s the significance of kneeling down? Is that a good posture to begin with? Why? It’s an out work sign that you are humbling yourself but what does God read? You’re getting down on your knees or your heart? Because even if you down on your knees but your heart is not there tama ba yon? Mali rin yon di ba, so but if your knees are bent because your heart is right and you want to humble yourself before God and that is a great posture to come before God lalo na when you are in times of crisis, of severe trial like Daniel see the situation is mabigat yung problema niya kasi his life is now at stake. You know there are many times when he will come to God he chat with Him like a son, he chat with him like a father, but there are other times when you are begging God, when you are asking for major things in your life like getting married. Should you spend a lot of praying for that woman or that man? Please spend one more than one day, you’re going to be married for a life time. Take a lot of time don’t hurry up, it’s better to take time now rather than regret later. Anyway, kneeling down, what else will he do? He prayed three times a day. There are many things that we can learn but some of the things that we can learn are : 1) If prayer is so important to you what should you do like Daniel? He made an appointment, a commitment to himself and to God that he would definite times of prayer. If it’s really important to you make it a definite time with God. The new testament say, pray continuously but he set times with God. and I think if it’s really important to us will we set the time? of course and then what will happen, there are benefits who set thing definite time. If you do it regularly, 1) you will not forget, it gets into your system and rather than plan your prayer time around the other important things in your life like your work or whatever you plan your work and other things in your life around your prayer schedule. All God wants from you is a little bit of time that you and He get to know each other better. If that is important to you do it and then let God take care of this the rest or your life. We try to take control of our life and then we leave God out, if you ever do that 1) you will age faster, 2) you will die quicker 3) you will not really accomplish very much. If it’s for God we do it we sacrifice sleep. If you follow that mentality put God in the center of your life, leave the rest to Him. Where do you find that in the bible? Psalm 127:1,

Unless the LORD builds the house,

They labor in vain who build it;

if you are trying to build your life on your own, what God is saying you are laboring in vain, you can only accomplish so much. Alam ba ninyo yung analogy ng guwardiya? Unless the LORD guards the city, The watchman keeps awake in vain. Ang trabaho ng guwardiya nung watchman would be in the tower, he would look if the enemy was coming ang sinasabi nito unless the Lord is the one guarding the city maski ilan pa ang watchman mo dun, maski hinde siya natutulog, can the enemy over take you? of course, maski alam mo na nandiyan yung kalaban that will never protect you only if God protects you tsaka ka magiging protected. Look at v. 2, for all the workers here, alam ko madaming workers dito, napakadaming gustong kumayod ng sariling kayod. What’s God trying to tell you?

It is vain for you to rise up early,

To retire late,

To eat the bread of painful labors;

For He gives to His beloved even in his sleep.

In other words the comparison is two people is two people, one gets four hours sleep, yung kausap ko kanina, looks tired, haggard, so ang sabi ko bakit ganyan ang itsura mo? Kasi I’m only got four hours sleep, umuuwi ako gabing-gabi na, Anong ginagawa mo? Nagtatrabaho ako sa upisina, bakit ka nagtatrabaho sa upisina? Kasi ang dami-daming deadlines kailangang tapusin. Anong kailangang tapusin? You choose to stay there, you don’t have to stay there do, you choose to but if you were to choose to tell your boss, "Boss I want to hire another person if you don’t hire another person… if you wanna do it, you do it but at 6:00 I will go… It’s not worth it, believe me I’ve been there and back. Will the deadline be still there tomorrow? Of course, matatapos ba yan endless deadlines of course. What I discovered when I became a Christian all the deadline were superficial. Sinong nagbibigay ng deadline? Ako eh, sasabin ko sa ahensiya, " O kailangang ma-air yan sa Lunes," then everyone is running around then I realized supposing it doesn’t air on Monday so what, I air that on Friday or next Monday, one week later so what!. If it’s a great commercial, it will be a great commercial one week later, who cares I’m not going to lose business in one week, I’m talking long term. Gago pala ako nun eh, pinapatrabaho ko yung mga tao ng kung ano-anung deadline ako lang pala ang napapagod diyan, because I have to be there in the recording studio hanggang 5:00 ng umaga, nagpupuyat ako. So, when I became a Christian, Bakit ako magpu-puyat, sbi ng bible matulog ako bakit nagta-trabaho ako. Ang Panginoong Diyos sabi niya, "To his beloved, does God love us?" When we’re sleeping does God sleep? No, what does he do? He makes things okay. Some of you, you just work too hard, your own power konti lang ang magagawa mo, what should you do? Pray, spend time in prayers, this is the best time you can do to improve your efficiency, I will guarantee you, you make a chart see when I do work management I teach people this and in two months I will guarantee that place that the productivity will go up for sure if you pray for the right God. You got the idea? Set the time, God is important, if you make God important in your life believe me aayusin ni God lahat yan. Who is better you or God? Siyempre si God, work hard but leave a lot of things for the Lord. As I keep saying where is God in your project list, if God is not there then sayang, leave the impossible to God. Are there impossible things in your job or seemingly impossible? Yeah!, then leave it to God, imposible mong magawa yan umuwi ka na, iwan mo na sa Panginoong Diyos. Whether you work in a bank or where ever the principle will always be true, you work better the next day. What else? Daniel 6:10, His prayer included thanks giving. You know this is so important. So many people pray to God without a thankful heart. The bible came to us and we need to listen to what the bible is saying, no matter what day it is, no matter what circumstances there are we should train ourselves to be thankful. How do you do it? There are many ways to develop a thankful heart that one good learns that I learned from the Chinese and from the bible is to give a thank offering to the Lord on a regular basis. How do you develop a thankful heart? The idea in a thankful heart is you must know what God has done for you, and therefor you should have a frequent reminder that God was done something truly great for you. Give offering to the Lord as a reminder that you are thankful then for you cultivate a thankful heart. You can have many kinds reminders one easy one is to have a notebook or a computer. Everything you do, do all for the glory of Jesus Christ, have reminders everywhere, be thankful, have notebooks, have your watches, what ever have beeper. What else do we learn from Daniel 10, he prayed to God not man, he went to God not to man. Oftentimes in this country of ours who do we go to? We go to creatures, we go to created beings rather than the creator. Pray to God not to man and it says there that Daniel when he prayed he was praying just as he did before. What does it say? Basically it should read, He prayed regularly not just when he was in trouble. Many times, kailan tayo nagdarasl? Pag may trouble, Do you think sasagutin ka ng Panginoon doon? If you are not in hammed of talking to God, why do you think God will answer you if you are in crisis. So regularity, pray three times a day not only when crisis comes but everyday. Make it a part of your daily life, it’s something important to you and then prayer was so important he prayed that risk of his life, in other words nakikita natin kay Daniel, he was willing to risks his life, ikaw what are you willing to risk so that you will pray? Your job, a few cents here and there, you meals, what are you willing to risk? Is prayer not important to you? because many people hinde niya itataya yung buhay niya kasi prayer is not important to him. In other words the point is Daniel was willing to sacrifice anything for prayer. Nothing could stop him not even then killing him. We pray that after tonight you can pick up some of this and start making your home a home of prayer. Pray regularly, set your times, give God your best time. So, today let’s practice, you are not forced to but let’s kneel as we pray. What I want you to do is first adore God, say a few words of adoration and then after you adore Him, you confess your sins to Him. Then thank the Lord, now while your on your knees give him your worst problem, supplicate, make a request on Him.