What to Do Under Pressure

Praise the Lord Twin Lakes Church. My name is Ricky and thank you so much for this privilege just to lift up the gospel of Jesus Christ and hopefully bring some encouragement from God's Word to you the great Twin Lakes Church. I want to send a special thank you to my good friends and colleagues Pastor René, Pastor Mark, Adrian and so many more that make Twin Lakes Church go.

I'm sure like us down here in the desert these have been difficult days, ups and downs that our whole nation is experiencing but I for one want to applaud you the good people of Twin Lakes Church for how well you have represented the gospel of Jesus Christ even in uncertain times like these. And as we go to the Word of God this weekend I want you to go ahead if you have your Bibles open them up and turn with me to Daniel 6:16 because as best I can I feel led to kind of encourage you with respect to all of the calamity that we're facing in this day and age.

COVID-19 pandemic, financial recession and disaster the likes of which this generation has never before seen over 40 million people out of work, the racialized climate that we are experiencing today, grave injustices and everything going on around those conversations and situations. I think it's safe to say that we are experiencing more pressure than what we ever before thought possible. Pressure financially, pressure in our families, pressure with respect to the fact that there's uncertainty about our future—pressure, pressure, pressure.

Here's the good news. God wrote a whole book about what to do in seasons of pressure and I think that God has to say something to us through the lens of the prophet Daniel when he was going through if you will his own quarantine moment inside of a lion's den. I want to talk to you about what to do under pressure. Let's go ahead and read now here at the word of the Lord Daniel 6:16. It's written by Daniel he writes to us these words. "Then the king commanded and Daniel was brought and cast into the den of lions. The king declared to Daniel may your God whom you serve continually deliver you. And a stone was brought and laid on the mouth of the den and the king sealed it with his own signet and with the signet of his lords that nothing might be changed concerning Daniel."

And then the king went to his palace and spent the night fasting. No diversions were brought to him and sleep fled from him. Then at the break of day the king arose and went in haste to the den of lions. As he came near to the den where Daniel was he cried out in a tone of anguish the king declared to Daniel, "Oh Daniel, servant of the living God has your God whom you serve continually been able to deliver you from the lions?" Look at verse 21, "Will you twin lakes?" Then Daniel said to the king, "Oh king, live forever. My God sent his angel and shut the lions mouths and they have not harmed me." Watch this now, "because I was found blameless before him. And also before you, oh king, I have done no harm."

Then the king was exceedingly glad and commanded that Daniel be taken up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den and no kind of harm was found on him because he had trusted in his God. And the king commanded and those men who had maliciously accused Daniel were brought in cast into the den of lions. They, their children and their wives and before they reached the bottom of the den, the lions overpowered them and broke all their bones in pieces.

Then King Darius wrote to all the peoples, nations and languages that dwell in all the earth peace be multiplied to you, "I make a decree that in all my royal dominion people are to tremble in fear before the God of Daniel." Twin lakes watch now the words of a pagan king, "For he is the living God enduring forever." "His kingdom shall never be destroyed and his dominion shall be to the end. He delivers and rescues. He works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth. He who has saved Daniel from the power of the lions." Verse 28 says, "So this Daniel prospered during the reign of Darius and the reign of Cyrus." The Persian Daniel 6:16–28.

Twin lakes I've read from the greatest book ever written and I bear witness this day that all of its words are true. Amen. Amen. Twin lakes if an oyster were preaching this message, the oyster would tell us that there can be no pearl without some pressure. If an oyster were preaching this message, that oyster would say there can be no pearl without some pressure.

You see any average elementary science school student will tell you that all times your average oyster lying beneath the ocean is constantly confronted with the problem of sand. Your average oyster beneath the ocean is constantly confronted with the problem of sand. At all times they're working furiously to repel sand from their crevices. But they tell us that every now and then what happens is that a tiny grain of sand will invade its interior and then cause unbelievable amounts of pressure. A tiny grain of sand will eventually slip through the cracks and invade its interior and cause unbelievable amounts of pressure.

Now for the oyster, this pressure is excruciating. It is seething pain. It is absolutely unbearable and try as it may time and time again to remove the sand. Eventually the oyster realizes that since it cannot remove the sand, it must figure out how to deal with the sand. Did you hear that? It kind of learns that since it cannot remove the sand, it must figure out how to deal with the sand.

So scientists tell us what happens is that the oyster isolates that grain of sand and begins to slowly secrete a fluid all around this grain of sand. Methodically and repetitively it secretes that grain of sand over and over and over again. The years pass and something called calcification happens and now the end result is whereas before you had this exorbitant amount of pressure, now you have this precious and pristine pearl. At the end of the day, all a pearl is is the fruit of a frustrated oyster.

As we come to Daniel 6, I say all that to say that we find the prophet Daniel as your proverbial frustrated oyster. But God's going to use his frustration to present a precious and pristine pearl of wisdom for us as to what we need to do when we figure out that we've got pressure in our lives that we cannot remove but must figure out how to deal with. As we come to our passage, what you need to know about the prophet Daniel is that he is a frustrated oyster inside of a lion's den and you thought you and I had problems.

He's in a quarantine if you will. He can't move. He can't freely move about but he realizes that since he cannot remove the lion's den, he must therefore opt to deal with the lion's den and in so doing he gifts to you and I Christ followers a wonderful what to do list for when we find ourselves under pressure in our lives. I want to talk about how God brought him through the lion's den and then brought him out of the lion's den and remind ourselves that maybe God who is entrusted to us this season of a proverbial lion's den with all of the calamity we are facing how he wants to bring us through and bring us out as well.

I'd like to talk about three things that I think are imperative if you find yourself in a season of pressure. If Daniel were here he would say don't forget about the fruit, don't forget about the faithfulness, and don't forget about the father. I'd like to tag this text what to do under pressure. Let's pray.

Father God I thank you that you are good and that you are true and that you are perfect in all your ways and regardless Lord God of the pressure and the frustrations and the things that we are facing right now in our lives and in our nation the good news is that God you are in complete and perfect control and I feel that you're saying to your church today is just as I was in control and Daniel's lion's den I'll be in control in the midst of what you're facing today only put your trust and faith in me.

God would you teach us and breathe into us the breath of life once again through the good news of Jesus Christ for we ask it in Jesus name every heart said together amen. Well Twin Lakes I got a lot of fish to fry I ain't got but a few minutes to cook it I think I got like a 30-35 minute time limit and what you need to know is that for the black preacher from Mississippi a 35 minute time limit is like kryptonite to Superman I don't know how we're gonna get through this but we're gonna trust God as we move forward to the word together.

What I want to do for a few minutes is go to the classroom and then I promise we're going to go to church but park with me in the classroom for just a couple of minutes because I want to talk to us about a word about Daniel I want to wrap our minds contextually about what's going on in this story we come to the passage we see he now an aging prophet Daniel he's in a faraway foreign empire these rival officials have betrayed him and set him up that his faith is now illegal and the king is now bound to put him into the lion's den he goes through this tumultuous ordeal and then comes out of that thing completely unscathed so much so that because God delivered Daniel the king now declares that God will be the god of this empire at least for a moment it's an awesome and epic story but it helps us understand a little bit about the heart of what I believe the Holy Spirit wants us to get today.

So let me give you a couple of words about Daniel and answer two questions first things first what is it that makes the book of Daniel special what is it that makes the book of Daniel special it's located in that genre of scripture that we call minor prophets not minor because their message is lesser but because their content is lesser it's they're not very long books and of course a lot of you who are Bible readers heard me say Daniel you're like oh whoa are you gonna get into something deep and are you gonna start talking about last day's kind of stuff and prophecy because we who are familiar with the book of Daniel know that it kind of has a lot of metaphor and symbolism a lot of things that are tough to understand you think about Ezekiel and Jeremiah and Isaiah and all those sorts of books because just like those books it is a book of prophecy but you've just seen what makes Daniel special right it's not just a book of prophecy it's also a book about a prophet.

Daniel goes through something Daniel has betrayal Daniel goes through difficult circumstances but God faithfully brings him out of that right it's not just a book of prophecy it's a book about a prophet and in so doing the book of Daniel becomes a story that you and I can readily understand and copy and paste the things that Daniel did into our own lives and experience the same victories that he did so at the end of the day what makes Daniel special is that is a story that we can copy and paste into our own lives and build up our faith in God that's what makes Daniel special.

But the second question twin lakes that I want to answer is this what then does Daniel teach us about pressure now twin lakes I want you to prepare yourselves because the answer to this question will be the most profound moment of this sermon academically astute philosophically brilliant this will blow your minds with the wisdom that is about to come out of my mouth so get your pins and pads ready for this awesome answer to this question and here it is what this Daniel teach us about pressure here's the answer pressure happens that's it that's that I think that that is the biggest lesson of this passage is that pressure just happens in our life.

I don't care how well you plan I don't care how hard you pray I don't care how great your hopes are at the end of the day Daniel is a reminder that none of us get to escape and enjoy a pressure-free life. God will sovereignly allow us to go through difficult seasons in order to perfect our faith in him and I want to encourage a lot of you who are going through pressure that God knows what he's doing he's gonna eventually bring you out but for some of you who've never gone through pressure in your life never had problems never had circumstances never had difficulty I want to encourage you as to what my grandmama would say just keep living just keep living pressure happens to us all the book of Daniel's just a reminder that you can't get away from pressure sometimes you just got to figure out what to do with.

And I say that because as you come to Daniel 6 if you're a Bible reader reading through Daniel you cannot help but be taken away and taken aback by the mundanity of the scene I mean here we are Daniel now we think it's 83 years of age translation he ain't no spring chicken but by the time we come to Daniel 6 here he is and another quarantine moment here he is and another altercation with the king here he is being betrayed by rival officials again here he is going through an impossibly difficult circumstance having to trust a miraculous God who shows favor to his children but as we come and wrestle with that theme of what it means that pressure happens I want you to look at Daniel 6 and twin lakes I want you to see what you do not see because what you do not see in the prophet Daniel is a lot of time in essence being wasted begging the question why God why me why now why this now at the end of the day there's nothing wrong with questioning God we see that all throughout the Scriptures.

What I want you to see is an 83 year old no longer spring chicken Daniel wasting a lot of time saying why God why me because he seems now at 83 to understand that pressure happens and the question Lord the question that we need to ask in pressure is way less why me why this why now and more so what God would you have me do in this moment to honor you and to build up the church around me did you hear that and are you smelling what I'm stepping in that we shouldn't when we before pressuring our lives waste too much time begging the question why but rather we should invest more time asking what what God do you want out of us and at the end of the day I think if Daniel were here he would give us this three things as to what God is looking for in moments of pressure.

Here's the first I think Daniel would say to twin lakes don't forget about the fruit, don't forget about the fruit when you hear the word fruit it's just a biblical metaphor for this idea that God has set purpose in our lives for our lives to count that that the end of the day as a believer in Jesus Christ my job description is to so live and so move and so interact with others here in the earth in such a way that everything I say everything I do and every move I make watch this now glorifies the name of Jesus Christ believer did you hear that because it's important it's everyone's purpose in the earth to live in such a way that everything you do and everything you say and every move you make glorifies God.

I like to say down here at Southwest Church we are to live in such a way so as to make Jesus Christ famous hallelujah to his great name that this is the purpose for this pandemic moment this is the purpose for this moment that we're going through in our country that believers would rise up that they would take their faith seriously no longer wear it on their sleeve but wear it in their heart and express it with their mouths to make Jesus famous and everything we do and in everything we say and everything we make my job description is to have a fruitful life and at this moment pressure okay has a way of enhancing fruit in its season.

I want you to listen to this the believer in Jesus Christ okay that the glory of God enjoys a platform in your seasons of pressure just like it does in your seasons of peace did you hear that for the for the believer in Jesus Christ the glory of God enjoys a platform in your seasons of pressure just like it does in your seasons of peace and here's the good news of the gospel according to this story and Daniel we know that God always has a purpose for your pressure God always has a purpose for your pressure.

Now the question is what was God's purpose for Daniel to get that answer we just kind of reverse engineer the text right we we fast forward to verse 25 Daniels out of the lion's den Daniels delivered out of the calamity that he was in the king who was perplexed as to this situation comes and he hears Daniel's testimony that God shut the mouths of the lion's den now what you need to know is that at this time this empire was large in charge basically when it says King Darius it means for the ancient the president of the whole planet okay plausibly millions of people under his purview but when he sees God delivered Daniel out of the lion's den he sets a whole decree in the world verse 25 and 26 and he says that all of our people are to believe that the God of Daniel is the living God that he endures forever that he delivers and rescues.

I want you to see that the purpose for Daniel's pressure so that God's fame would be made even more great in all the earth now at the end of the day what I want you to hear is that Daniel did have to go through the lion's den but because he served God in the lion's den people of the entire empire were pointed towards the true and living God let me come down to your neighborhood and say it this way you may be going through some pressure but God is gonna use your pressure to make his name famous around the people who are watching you live for God.

Now Ricky why does it always work out that way because I think human nature dictates that at the end of the day Jesus is compelling to others in peacetime but in wartime he's downright attractive did you hear that I think that we're in moments of prosperity and in peace and things are just kind of going great right like I'm driving a Cadillac I got a house on the hill and a boat on the lake a dog named spot and children that make nothing but straight A's and never get into trouble I think that our friends and our family members and our co-workers hear us talking about Jesus and they give the golf clap you know Jesus is great yeah you go to church yeah good but I think when we're going through hell and high water that when our finances are looking great not looking great that when our money is funny and our credit don't get it and when we're going through trouble in our marriage and when we're having trouble with our kids and when we too are suffering with the pandemic that everyone else is suffering with yet we are still focused on God that we're still living victoriously for him.

I think that whereas before Jesus was compelling he's downright attractive in this moment because everybody wants a God who can give them peace and a storm right now while you trust in God and he brings you peace who knows maybe he's using it to bring peace to those who around you but here's the encouragement of God's using your pressure to make him famous he's also promised to use your pressure to make you strong James 1:2 says count it all join my brothers when you meet trials of various kinds for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness and let steadfastness have its full effect that you may be perfect and complete lacking in nothing.

If God's gonna use your pressure to make his name famous here's the good news believer he's promised to use your pressure to make you strong on December 29th 1987 history tells us that Russian cosmonauts returned back to earth after having spent 326 days in space and too much everyone's surprise these Russian cosmonauts when they got back were in absolute complete and perfect health and this astounded scientists because any astronomer will tell you that any elongated time in space usually renders you completely unhealthy because at the end of the day you're in utter weightlessness and what happens is that your muscles begin to atrophy and your immune system it gets weakened however these Russian cosmonauts returned to space in an absolute perfect picture of health the question is why and history tells us that what these cosmonauts did was they wore these specifically designed space suits that had laced at every nook and every cranny these tight elastic bands which means that even in a season of weightlessness they still had to contend with pressure and because they had to contend with pressure they came back strong.

Are you hearing what I'm saying that God sometimes sovereignly allows resistance to keep you strong and I want to drop a word before I go on to the next point God hasn't allowed this pressure in your life because he's mad at you God has allowed this pressure in your life because he's invested in you wants to use you to be a part of making his name famous in this moment don't forget about the fruit but secondly I think Daniel would say to us don't forget about the faithfulness okay very important here to twin lakes don't forget about the faithfulness because at the end of the day when I'm going through pressure in my life and I'm going through some pressure right now okay I sometimes find myself begging the question Jesus what are you looking for out of me have you ever been there because sometimes you're just in a season and you just you're just kind of saying Lord man it's kind of time by time out on this season it's been a couple of months you need to hurry up and get me out of this what's going on and then that season of pressure continues to go on and on and you stop asking that question why and you start saying okay God what's up what you want me to do Lord because whatever I need to do whatever I need to learn however I need to grow I'm ready to do it because this pressure is not working for me and I think that the answer to the question what is God looking for out of us in a season of pressure I think it's this are you ready faithfulness God is looking for our faithfulness.

A lot of us wish we had answers for how to speak into the moment that we're experiencing in our country a lot of us wish that we had the wisdom to kind of help others navigate it but at the end of the day God's not looking for you to be brilliant he's looking for you to be faithful he's looking for you to be faithful I just want to drop a word here to twin lakes neighbor neighbor neighbor now is not the time for you to be unfaithful to God now is not the time for you to be unfaithful to God parenthetically there's never a time to be unfaithful to God but certainly in a season of pressure now is not the time.

Now why do I beg that question because at the end of the day there's just something about pressure according to my flesh that makes me get tempted to believe that I've got a license to live any kind of way on account of all the pressure that I'm going through and what ends up happening is that the believer ends up reacting to the pressure and an unhealthy and unrighteous and non-God honoring weight and so if you got some people in your life that are giving you pressure that are causing you undue harm and stress in your life when you're in pressure as a believer every now and then if they're going off on you and driving you crazy you are tempted to put this Bible down and pick up some choice words to tell them what you want to tell them can I get a witness right there but now is not the time to react now is the time to respond and a God honoring way.

Now why is it so important to be faithful I was mentored by a man named Reverend Dr. Crawford Larritz and he used to mentor us and he would say young preachers if you believe in the Bible and you preach the gospel of Jesus Christ you need to know it's going to get you in trouble but but when you are in trouble I want to encourage you young preachers that believing in the Bible and preaching the gospel is the only thing that's going to get you out of trouble what was he trying to say he's trying to say that at the end of the day faithfulness is what matters.

I want to encourage you right now be faithful in that marriage be faithful in that parenting be faithful if you still got a job be faithful in that work be faithful as a member of the community be faithful as a member of Twin Lakes Church be faithful as a believer of Jesus Christ because the devil and enemy all he would want to do is for us to take time off of faithfulness and put time on on foolishness and the people of God cannot suffer to do that in this moment be faithful to God.

Now I say that because when you come to Daniel 6 more than anything else is a display of faithfulness to God in times of pressure let's look at this real quickly and I want to answer this question just how faithful was Daniel what according to verse 5 and verse 10 the Bible teaches us that Daniel was so faithful to God that the only way these rival officials could have gotten him trapped up was to make his faithfulness to God illegal.

I love this okay and it's the lesson of dr. Crawford Louris it's faithfulness that got him in trouble but faithfulness got him out of trouble verse 5 verse 10 says that when they made his faith illegal look at verse 10 at the end he says he still knelt three times a day still prayed still gave thanks before God the word says as he had done previously translation he refused to allow pressure to give him license off of his faithfulness he was going to be faithful to God no matter what faithfulness got him in trouble but here's the good news it got him out of trouble as well verse 22 look down when the king checks on him after he had spent the night in the lions then he says his good news I was remaining faithful to God my God sent his angel and shut the lions mouth because I was found blameless before him that is the good news that he remained faithful to God.

Now real quickly I don't have a lot of time but I have to hear up and get through this point because I want you to understand what we mean when we say faithfulness what exactly is faithfulness okay I want you to hear this faithfulness has everything to do with your concept of integrity you're only going to be good at faithfulness insofar as you are committed to integrity in fact biblically speaking the ideas of faithfulness and integrity are two ideas that are inextricably connected so to know what good faithfulness is you got to know what good integrity is.

Let's do a word study real quick integrity comes from the root word integer okay and when we talk about an integer it's a mathematical term and so you you math nerds you three math nerds are gonna love the next couple of minutes for the other you know 97% of us I'm coming for you shortly okay but integrity comes from integer and an integer is the idea of any whole number as opposed to a fraction of a number an integer is any whole number as opposed to a fraction of a number Ricky tell me what integrity means then integrity means that you are being your whole self instead of a fraction of yourself.

Faithfulness means that I'm that I'm giving God my whole commitment instead of a fraction of a commitment integrity means that the same person I am before God in public is the same person I am before God in private can I go further to in lakes faithfulness and integrity means that the same husband I am when my wife is around is the same husband I am when my wife is away can I go further yeah integrity and faithfulness means that the same employee I am when my boss is looking over my shoulder it is the same employee I am when my boss is on vacation it means that no matter what's going on pressure or peace I am the same person before God that's what it means to be faithful as he come to the text what you see is that Daniel resolved in his soul whether or not I'm in a lion's den or whether I'm not in the buffet line at the Carnival Cruise I'm going to be the same person before God.

Let me illustrate this who remember who out there remembers real TV shows back in the 1980s okay I'm sorry Millennials I'm gonna lose you for the next couple of minutes I'll come back and get you shortly but I'm talking about before Disney Plus and before Netflix and before Hulu and Roku and habitu and all this kind of stuff I'm not about like like real TV back in the day y'all when we didn't have something called on demand you better sit down at the same time that the TV show is going to play and you better have something called a VHS cassette ready to record that mug because DVR was still a long way off.

I'm talking about when you actually had to sit and watch TV when they told you to not when you okay anyway yeah but but TV okay there was a there was a cop show back in 1980s Hill Street Blues whoo anybody remember that TV show Hill Street Blues straight lace hard-nosed cops and the star of the show was this guy named Captain Frank Ferrillo always had on this dress blues didn't play serious kind of guy but he had finally taken some time off work workaholic and his wife begged him and begged him Frank come take me out on a date he takes off the dress blues he puts on a coat and tie he takes his wife out to a cocktail lounge and she's just excited because she finally got Frank off work and they're gonna have a nice little time and they're gonna have the jazz and the drinks and it's gonna be wonderful and they're sitting down having a date and it's all good and then unknowingly a drug dealer approaches Frank to offer him to buy drugs.

Now his wife is looking at the whole ordeal saying don't do it don't you do this we got a date I finally got you here I finally got you here Frank takes a deep breath he pulls out a set of handcuffs parenthetically Frank wasn't the world you're doing with handcuffs at a cocktail lounge but he pulls out some handcuffs and it begins to arrest the guy and book the guy his wife is furious she looks up and says Frank you just don't know how to take a day off do you he looks back and sarcastically says I guess I'm just a driven kind of guy but what was he really saying he was saying that no matter what whether my uniform is on or my uniform is off I'm committed to be on duty did you hear that believer whether they can see me or whether they can't see me I'm gonna be faithful to God because that is my duty before him in this moment.

Ricky I'm struggling with faithfulness in marriage Ricky I'm struggling with faithfulness of gospel parenting my kids have lost their minds they have nothing to do it's hard Ricky I just want to just let them Netflix all day I'm hurting Ricky I lost my job Ricky you're talking to me about faithfulness at a time when it's hard what do I do because I don't feel like I have the power friend you never had the power but God says this invite him into your lack of faithfulness invite him into your marriage invite him into your parenting invite him into your finances and ask him to lead and guide you and ask for his spirits power to give you courage to follow him through the store.

Don't forget about the faithful let's let's go home don't forget about the fruit don't forget about the faithfulness finally I think of Daniel we're here he tell twin lakes don't forget about the father don't forget about the father I got a preach from my roots now and just say that I don't care how bad it seems right now in this moment a COVID-19 pandemic 40 million out of work at the current time right now we see protests and we've seen protests around the world injustices in all sorts of a racialized climate ups and downs bewilderment in the American landscape but I've come to say this I believe that our God will deliver us from the storm I believe he is able I believe he loves us I believe he has a plan for us and I believe that just like he delivered Daniel out of the lines and he will deliver us in his good time.

I just want you to remind yourself of the story Daniel did get out he had to go through it but he did get out of it because of God's great power moving in his life is an absolute miracle I mean he's literally surrounded by hungry lions okay it's like Mufasa up in there whoo and he came out completely unscathed why because of God's faithfulness in fact the old preacher used to say it this way Daniel trusted God and God got him out of the lions den because at the end of the day lions are flesh eating animals now some of you won't get that till you're on your way home wait wait a minute you already at home there was no flesh in him only the spirit and trusting in God.

Okay look at verse 22 real quickly says when the king checks on him he says my God sent his angel and shut the lion's mouth they have not harmed me because I was found blameless before him later on in verse 23 he says he was taken up out of the den no harm found on him because he had trusted in his God this is all I want you to see don't forget about the father because when the king asked Daniel his report I want you to see how Daniel addressed his deliverance he addressed his deliverance by giving his praise and the credit and the thanksgiving to the name of God alone.

When Daniel got the opportunity to confess and profess how he got delivered he gave God all the credit because he understood that only God could have gotten me out of this lion's den what I want you to see is what you don't see you don't see Daniel said oh King well I just had figured out this strategy and I read a few books on lions dens and I saw a webinar on zoom and it was great and I just navigated the vicissitudes of this moment no he's saying King nobody could have got me out of what I went through but God King you need to serve God King you need to love God King you need to tell your people that only God could do this translation he got out of the pressure but he then looked back and reflected on God as the pressure person who delivers us out of the storm.

This is the lesson David didn't just thank God privately in his heart he thanked God publicly with his mouth he didn't just thank God privately in his heart he thanked God publicly with his mouth in other words when God does something great for you give God great praise don't forget about the father but Ricky I'm not exuberant like you Ricky I see you kind of wanting to sporadically move around and be loud and boisterous at times I'm just a quiet person Ricky I don't say a man Ricky my a man is this hmm Ricky I'm just not that person and you're lying to yourself though you may not do that in church you certainly do that in culture because if we can go to a Sacramento Kings game or Lakers game or Dodgers game or Giants game or whatever the case may be you never thank your favorite team privately in your heart you thank them publicly with your mouth.

I mean when you're sitting there back in the day watching the Lakers Magic Johnson or gut rested soul Kobe Bryant do a killer crossover and come down the lane and you didn't think and say oh oh oh Kobe I just want to thank you in my heart for that wonderful athletic prowess know when he dunked on somebody you stood up and shouted you spilled your beer I mean you spilled your coke you spilled your popcorn and you gave him praise when you went to that steakhouse and you had oh a delicious 18 ounce tomahawk steak cooked to a perfect medium rare drenched in herbs and spices and juices overflowing accompanied by six beautiful shrimp scampi there's some green asparagus just too because we don't want to ruin that there's a beautiful blue cheese salad with crumbled pieces of bacon from a not not fake bacon that they made in a lab but real bacon from a pig that used to oink and your waiter is right there to service you and he's eloquent and he's pristine and he's helping you every step of the way filling your glass of wine I mean water just so make sure that you are well liquefied throughout the experience at the end of the ordeal you didn't think your waiter privately in your heart you thank them publicly with your mouth intangibly with your signature but something called a gratuity.

Here's the whole lesson when somebody does something for you give them the praise old church I pray that we'll listen to the words of an old gospel song don't wait till the battle is over shout now because God hallelujah it's going to bring us through this storm here's the lesson don't let nothing stop you from praising God when this pandemic started I walk around this building all the time to pray and we were fearful we were shutting down the offices we were going to our homes I was struck with fear but I walked and prayed and walked and prayed and I walked around this building with hands lifted up saying God no matter what I promise never to cease my praise because no matter what happens you are still that don't let nothing stop you from praising God.

At 1950s stories told of an elderly African-American lady in the deep south of Florida these are the days of course when segregation ruled the land and typically for that black white spectrum in South Florida you had blacks on this side of the tracks and whites on that side of the tracks but she felt led of the Holy Spirit to make an attempt at integration and she decided that this particular Sunday she wouldn't attend her regular all-black church but she would go across the tracks to that all-white church.

Now you need to know traditionally speaking she came from a charismatic church okay they believed in shouting a man and lifting up their hands and they were kind of charismatic without no seat belt but she decided and felt led to go to the all-white Presbyterian Church they weren't charismatic they were more so frozen chosen she felt like she wanted to go worship with those believers much to her enjoyment the ushers open up the doors of the church they greet her with love they welcome her on the inside inside this all-white church this elderly black mother is sitting down and join worship but they just happen to have an old country guest preacher that day who was just preaching the gospel and she was just sitting down and she's listening to the message and that whole that genteel southern voice the old preacher says Jesus died for our sins that elderly black mother couldn't hold back and she she she jumped up and said yes he did.

Well these two big old ushers these these two guys come down and say ma'am we don't shout in this church you gotta be quiet we don't do that in this church and in the old black lady said yeah but I didn't got legend and they said yes ma'am but you didn't get it here we need you to be a little more quiet she said okay I'm sorry I'll be quiet and she gets back into the service and the preacher is preaching and preacher says Jesus died on the cross the old black mother couldn't hold and she jumped up and said yes he did.

Those ushers come back says man we've told you you can't have that kind of thing happening in this church you gotta be quiet or else we're gonna take you out of here she says okay I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry that old preacher got wound up again and she's just rocking back and forth and then he says in early Sunday morning and that old black mother couldn't hold and she jumped up and said he got up he got up with all power in his hands and those two big old burly ushers got on that lady's arms side by side and now they are just carrying her out of the church but the whole time they're carrying her down the aisles she's still shouting thank you Jesus praise the Lord hallelujah and finally one of the ushers said ma'am why are you shouting now she said thank you Jesus they carry Jesus in on one donkey they're carrying me out on two praise the Lord don't let nothing stop you from giving Jesus the praise.

We're in a pandemic we're in a quarantine we're in uncertain times but God's people have been there before time and time again and God's got his people out time and time again what he does make sure that you give him the praise God bless you and God keep you we'll see you soon amen.