Summit Life with J.D. Greear

Have you ever wondered how prayer works? Of course, we won’t ever have all the details, but as we continue through the book of Daniel, this passage gives us a behind-the-scenes look at how prayer works and demonstrates why prayer is so important.

As we continue our walk through the book of Daniel, Pastor J.D. highlights the most undervalued resource of the church—prayer. Discarded by many, prayer is the vehicle through which the blessings of God are released and the promises of God are enacted. In Daniel 9, we not only see five principles that make for effective prayer; we also get a one-of-a-kind glimpse into what happens in heaven as we pray.

How would you describe your attitude toward the future? Is it an attitude filled with peace, or one full of overwhelming stress at what might happen? As Pastor J.D. moves into the prophetic portion of the book of Daniel, he shows us how it’s Daniel’s prophecy about the future that makes the difference between those two attitudes.

As we continue our walk through the book of Daniel, Pastor J.D. tackles two of the most obscure prophecies in the entire book. Although the imagery can be confusing—lions and beasts and fiery thrones—the message is as timely as ever. What God says to Daniel he says to believers in every generation: If you are going to faithfully shine in the present, you need to have a crystal clear vision of the future. There’s two ways to look at the future–a stress-producing way and a peace-producing one.

What was it that gave Daniel so much courage in the lion’s den? Is there a way to have that same courage in our own lives? Pastor J.D. tells us what the source of Daniel’s confidence was—or rather, in whom Daniel’s confidence was placed in.

The most famous story in the book–Daniel in the lions’ den. Daniel provides an incredible example of courage in the midst of adversity. But as much as we make of Daniel’s night with the lions, his courage was actually forged long before that fateful night. Courage is not summoned in a moment; courage is developed through a lifetime.

Have you heard the phrase “The writing is on the wall?” It usually means that something bad is about to happen; that your fate has been sealed. That phrase actually comes from Daniel, Chapter 5. Belshazzar is hosting a party when suddenly a mysterious floating hand appears and begins to carve a message into the plaster on the wall. Talk about terrifying! It begins etching 3 mysterious words into the wall, and then just disappears? The 3 words were “numbered,” “weighed,” and “divided.” And they brought in Daniel to help interpret what these words could mean.

Today on Summit Life, we come to another story of God taking down a prideful, rebellious, selfish king. You’re like, wait, didn’t we JUST hear this story on the program? Hang on, today we come to Belshazzar, the grandson of King Nebuchadnezzar. We’re going to see that this problem is much bigger than just one king.

Last week on the program we talked about the roots of pride. The first root is the failure to recognize everything—everything, every breath you take—is a gift of God; and the second root is, the foolish assumption that it will last forever. In this message, we’ll take a look at what God has to say about pride’s fruits and pride’s cure. It’s something we all need from time to time, so let’s dig in.

It’s a tricky thing, pride. Just when we think we’ve overcome it, we’re super proud of ourselves for accomplishing it! In fact, scripture is pretty clear about it when it says, “Pride comes before a fall…” Just when we think we’ve nailed it, it creeps in and can destroy us. Just ask the character in our teaching. He learned some pretty serious lessons about the sin of pride and its consequences. Where are the roots of pride in your life?