Salt and Light

Sign up later on this week please please please just make plans just to do it and sign up and claim that spot because you know it really helps us administratively now we're going to have our worship service at 8 00 a.m and then we're going to be leaving for projects at nine and also the shirts are in so if you ordered a shirt and you're ready to get that make sure that you pay and pick that up that's right out here at the table in the old fellowship hall a little over a month away we're gonna have apologetics sunday we've got dr rob phillips that'll be in from the missouri baptist convention he's going to give two presentations one in the morning and one in the evening and we'll also have at 3 30 a guy from the apologetics network Adam cochran come in and give a lecture on covenental apologetics and then we're going to have a potluck and then we'll have dr phillips give his final lecture for apologetics now apologetics does not mean to apologize it means to defend the faith and so if you've ever had questions like if God is good then why is there suffering that's apologetics the answer for that if you've ever asked a question of you know what is well if evolution is true how can we believe the creation account and we will talk about those kind of things as well and dr phillips will also have several books available for purchase at that time and we're just really excited to welcome him with us I don't think that we are going to have lyrics this morning it doesn't look like I don't even know where is austin did he run away oh is he down there he's he's down there he's praying right now on his knees but the Lord has a funny way of using these opportunities of you know gremlins in the system to really make his presence known

And what I would invite you to do is maybe you're here and you have something that maybe a brother or sister can pray for you about what I would ask you to do is you know if you're comfortable you don't have to but if you're comfortable having someone pray for you if you would just raise your hand say I'm just a brother or sister that just needs some prayer or encouragement this morning and what we're going to do is we're going to ask for folks to come around and pray for you as we get started in our service today so if there's anyone here that needs prayer just look for a hand that was just lifted up ready anyone we've got a couple of over here what I would ask for our congregation to do is that if you are willing get up and go and pray with people whose hands are up because it's good and it's right and actually the Scripture commands for us to pray for one another the Scripture commands during worship to lift up hands the Scripture commands for us to make his name great and so right right now right where you're at you may not feel like making his name great but God is worthy of making his name great this morning amen and he is worthy of having his name great in your mouth amen oh gosh amen what I want to ask you to do is bow your heads and close your eyes with me and ask the Lord just right now to minister to your heart and worship if you're here and you need the Lord to reveal himself to you maybe you just haven't seen his kind hand and you say God can you just reveal that to me today could you do so this morning let that be a prayer for you as well okay Lord we gather here today to praise you for who you are

Lord we know that we are the body of Christ your hands and feet on the earth to be the salt and light to the world but Lord we also know that it's not our life that we shine but yours God we ask that your glory would be reflected through our actions that your glory would be displayed in how we treat one another God we ask that you would help us to be more like you that you teach us to love like you love to give grace like you give grace God we ask that you'd help us to fulfill our purpose here on earth which is to glorify you and to be who you've called us to be and it's in Jesus name and by the power of his cross and by the grace given through his blood that we pray amen well you all may have noticed that we have some technical difficulties this morning and that's okay actually you didn't just notice cody told you so it's going to be a little bit of a strange worship service but here's the thing you also most of you have smartphones and the cool thing about smartphones is you can look up things like lyrics on the internet pretty easily right and guess what they're free it's awesome so I'm going to invite you to look up the song come praise and glorify [Music] I'm going to give you a second to do that and if you don't if you don't have a smartphone if you don't find it well first off I'm sure there's someone near you who would share

[Music] but if you don't find it I'd invite you to just to listen to the words sing those that you know and affirm with us the truths that we sing this morning also the lyrics of this song can be found in Ephesians 1 but that's a different thing so please stand and join me in worship whether we're singing or not we can worship together we can glorify the name of our Lord and Savior together this morning amen [Music] come praise and glorify our God the father of our Lord in Christ he has in heavenly realms his blessings [Music] eternally to the praise of your glory to the praise of your mercy and grace to the praise of your glory you are the God who saves come praise [Music] in him God has been known to us the mystery of his will that Christ should be the hell of his [Music] purpose to the praise of your glory to the praise of your mercy and grace to the praise of your glory you are the goddesses [Music] come praise and glorify our God for we believe the word [Music] the spirit of the Lord the spirit guarantees our hope until until we've joined in endless [Music] grace of your glory to the praise and your mercy and [Music] the grace of your glory

To the praise of your mercy and grace [Music] he is the God who saves amen this morning and every day next we're going to sing together is he worthy it's one that we've kind of gotten to know and love over the past year or so straight out of the book of revelation [Music] do you feel the world is broken we do you feel the shadows but do you know that all the dark won't stop the light from getting through we do you wish that you could see it all made new [Music] we do [Music] is all creation groaning [Music] is a new creation coming it is the glory of the Lord to be the light within our midst it good that we remind ourselves of this [Music] is anyone worthy is anyone home is anyone able to break the seal and open the scroll the lion of gina [Music] is [Music] is [Music] and does Jesus our Messiah hold forever those he loves does our God intend to dwell again with us he does is anyone worthy anyone able to break the seal and open the scroll the lion of judah

Who conquered the brave here's David's root [Music] [Applause] [Music] he has made us a kingdom and priest to gods to reign with the is he worthy of all blessing and honor and glory is he worthy [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] let's continue to praise him in his everlasting unending worthiness this morning praise the Lord his mercy is long [Music] stronger than darkness his mercy is more [Music] what love could remember no wrongs we have done [Music] mercy is more praise his mercy is more stronger than darkness [Music] he welcomes the weakest divine [Music] his mercy is Lord praise the Lord his mercy is more stronger than darkness there are many his mercy [Music] we could never afford [Music] his mercy is Lord praise the Lord his mercy is more [Music] his mercy is more praise the Lord his mercy is more [Music] stronger than darkness

[Music] his mercy is more our sins they are many [Music] amen [Music] let's sing his grace together [Music] to sing thy grace [Music] [Applause] [Music] redeeming God [Music] precious [Music] how [Music] love [Music] prone to wonder Lord I feel it [Music] [Applause] [Music] seal it for thy core amen so Lord we ask that you would take our hearts that are prone to wander and bind them unto you Lord help us to shake off all the distractions and temptations in our lives and run headlong after you because God you're worthy you're worthy of all of the praise we could ever muster God and you're worthy of so much more Lord help us to be worshipers wherever we go help us to shine your light into this dark world amen well if you have your Bible and I hope that you do please turn with me to Daniel chapter six we're wrapping up this series today called salt and light

This is arguably one of the most famous passages in all of Scripture and it's inspired many famous pieces of art probably probably one of the most famous pieces it's by a guy named britain rivier he is actually a french artist but he lived in england his parents had immigrated there and actually he painted two pictures on the subject matter and I would like to show you all one this one is called Daniel in the lion's den preston you mind going to Daniel in the lion's den the first slide thanks so this is that picture that I wanted to show you guys I like the kind of posture that he has because he's not like recoiling in fear you know he's just kind of confident he knows that the Lord has him in this situation you know actually if one looks afraid it might be that one on the far left or even that one in the middle the lions he's just kind of calm self-assured he's older love that because at this point in time in Daniel's life he is much older probably in his mid to late 80s and so yeah I mean he's he's up there this is the second one this is called dance Daniel answers the king and you can see kind of the slope to go down into the lion's den there him answering to king darius you can see some human bones there along the ground look I love the way that ren riviere kind of depicts him once again in the same posture just hands behind his back but you know he's balding he's older he's kind of frail looking if you were to look at him he's not someone that looks particularly intimidating

But there's a calmness in there there's there's not much there's I mean you know the lions are looking at them which would be terrifying in and of itself unless you know you don't believe that God has you in that situation for a purpose so before we get to this picture to this passage though I wanted to take some time and talk about faithfulness because if we look at this whole story just kind of a bird's-eye view we might be tempted to think about it being Daniel's faithfulness towards God as kind of the big push that's what we should learn about is Daniel's faithfulness towards God but really it's about God's faithfulness towards Daniel and one of the attributes of God is that he is faithful to you he knows you he loves you in spite of all the things that he knows about you and me he loves you to be faithful means to have an undivided loyalty to someone and this is part of who God toward you undividedly loyal and that's a weird thing for us to think about God being what to us because oftentimes we think about our loyalty to him he is holy and completely this way and you can write these references down with pen pencil lipstick mascara whatever you got you know that would first corinthians 1 9 I'll have them on the screen for you too God is faithful by whom you were called into the fellowship of his son Jesus Christ our Lord second Thessalonians 3 but the Lord is faithful period he will establish you and guard you against the evil one first corinthians 10 13 no temptation is overtaking you that is not

Common to man God is faithful he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability but with the temptation he will provide a he will also provide a way of escape that you may be able to endure it Deuteronomy 7 9 know therefore that the Lord your God is God the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keeps his commandments to a thousand generations Hebrews 10 23 let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful psalm 86 verse 15 but you o Lord are God merciful and gracious slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness and I don't know about you but I need to hear about that this morning I look at Daniel and many times I can't relate to Daniel because he's just so righteous and good like I put myself in those situations like diet let's just start at the very beginning with the very first thing like diet could I even do that I don't know I don't know if I can just being honest with you I don't know if I could but I'm many of us were tempted to see God's faithfulness toward Daniel as a result of Daniel's faithfulness but second Timothy chapter 2 verse 13 says if we are faithless he remains faithful for he cannot deny himself and I need that this morning and I hope that you do too that doesn't mean that we should be unfaithful but it does mean that if you are struggling with sin if you're struggling with an addiction whatever temptation or advice might have its clause in your life that God's love for you is abounding

That his grace toward you is unending that his mercy is new for you this morning and every single day and that his faithfulness towards you remains even now amen now we're saved by faith alone not by our works it's the work of God but true faith will lead to good works just what happens it leads to good choices leads to increasing faithfulness on our behalf and so we're going to look at nine choices that Daniel made today and you know maybe we can apply those to our own lives so if you would if you're able this is a long passage if you're able to stand with me in honor of God's word please do so if you're not it's okay Daniel chapter 6 verses 1 through 28 the Scripture says this it please Daniel to set over the kingdom 120 sat traps darius excuse me yes please darius to set over the kingdom 120 sat traps to be throughout the whole kingdom and over them three presidents of whom Daniel was one to whom these set traps should give account so that the king might suffer no loss then this Daniel became distinguished above all the other presidents and sad traps because an excellent spirit was in him and the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom then the presidents and the satraps sought to find a ground for complaint against Daniel with regard to the kingdom but they could find no ground for complaint or any fault because he was faithful and no error or fault was found in him then these men said we shall not find any ground or complaint against this Daniel unless we find it in connection with the law of his God then these presidents and sat traps came by agreement to the king and said to him

Oh king darius live forever all the presidents of the kingdoms the prefects and the sat traps the counselors and the governors are agreed that the king should establish an ordinance and enforce an injunction that whoever makes petition to any God or man for 30 days except to you o king shall be cast into the den of lions nothing suspicious about that now o king establish the injunction and sign the document so that it cannot be changed according to the law of the medes and the persians which cannot be revoked therefore king darius signed the document and injunction when darius or when Daniel excuse me knew that the document had been signed he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward jerusalem he got down on his knees three times a day and thanked and prayed and gave thanks before his God as he had done previously then these men came by agreement and found Daniel making petition and plea before his God then they came near and said before the king concerning the injunction oh king did you not sign an injunction that anyone who makes petition to any God or man within 30 days except to you o king shall be cast into the den of lions king answered and said things stands fast according to the law of the medes and persians which cannot be revoked then they answered and said before the king Daniel who is one of the exiles from judah pays no attention to you o king or the injunction you have signed but makes his petition three times a day then the king when he heard these words was much distressed and set his mind to deliver Daniel and he labored till the sun went down to rescue him then these men came by agreement to the

King and said to the king we know o king that it is a law of the medes and persians that no injunction or ordinance that the king establishes can be changed 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 the stone was brought and laid on the mouth of the den and the king sealed it with his own signet and while the signet and with the signet of his lords that nothing might be changed concerning Daniel then the king went to his palace spent the night fasting no diversions were brought to him and sleep fled from him then at break of day the king arose and went in haste to the den of lions as he came nearer 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 then Daniel said to the king o king live forever my God sent his angel and shut the lion's mouth and they have not harmed me because I was found blameless before him and also before you o 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 and 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 and 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 and fear before the God of Daniel 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 so this Daniel prospered during the reign of darius in the reign of cyrus the persian and so God we do thank you that you do reign that even right now that you are faithful to us even in our fickle minds and hearts Lord that are changing with the seasons God you remain constant and unchanging thank you for your nature thank you for your goodness thank you for loving us and dying to redeem us we ask for your peace we ask for your blessing we ask for you to work in our lives today in Jesus name amen well king darius he sets about managing the babylonian empire that he has acquired just recently just as a reminder this is how large the babylonian empire was on this map here thank you and you can see it's just it takes up all that fertile crescent you guys may remember that from your history class all the way up the euphrates and the tigris rivers all the way down into egypt and the nile and when babylon fell which it fell in the matter of hours this is how large the medo-persian empire was and so king darius he decided you know I can't rule all this by myself I need 120 guys sat traps is the persian word for it that means like a

Governor or something like that and over those governors that the king chose those 120 sat traps he chose three to hold them accountable so that the king wouldn't lose a bunch of stuff because government got corrupt it got corrupt real quick back in the ancient times and so Daniel he set himself apart very quickly did he do so because and if you have a Bible I would underline this I would highlight this the reason why he set himself apart was because there was an excellent spirit that was found in him this means that Daniel he was an exceptional person in mind and attitude and loyalty the spirit of God rested on him he was an old testament saint who was saved in his hope that Christ would come and redeem him this so much so that Daniel he was to become a kind of prime minister if you would for king darius and so the word gets out about Daniel people are starting to understand well he was one of the three and now he's going to be kind of like the head guy right underneath king darius and we have got to do something about that and so the high officials those three the sat traps the 120 they got together and they conspired against him and the first point I want you to write down from this passage is conspiracy conspiracy there's all sorts of conspiracy theories out there isn't it we got to know a lot of folks that believed in conspiracies during the pandemic it was fun it's good to talk with people but these guys this was a real conspiracy

They were trying to figure out how do we remove Daniel how do we get rid of this guy and this is what evil people do in the face of godly character how do we how do we get him out of here so they campaign they align themselves with other like-minded fleshly people find a ground for a complaint but Daniel he is so full of character and goodness that they can't find anything to accuse him of and why is that you can circle this in your Bibles because he was faithful and no error or fault was found in him and these are the characteristics of being Christ-like so they what they have to do they couldn't find anything existing right now to accuse him of so they had to make up something new they had to create a brand new law in order to find him guilty in regard to the laws of his God so they literally had to change the law to accuse Daniel and these people over 120 of them they conspired together and they come by agreement to the king these people are manipulative and they are conniving and they're willing to meet in closed rooms and politic against godly people develop plans do whatever it takes to kill Daniel and you might not ever have like your life on the line as a result of this but you might have your character on the line you might have your reputation at stake our character could be assassinated and what do these sad traps and officials say oh king darius live forever all of us the high officials of the kingdom the prefects the satraps the councilors the governors we are all agreed that the king should establish this ordinance did you catch the lie that was in there it's all it's the aramaic word coal which

Means all-encompassing everyone everything we all 100 percent agree on this and so the king he signs it without a second thought well if all of my advisors agree with this then it's probably what's for the best interest of my kingdom but these are ungodly people looking out for their own preferences and their own wants and their own desires in the Bible it gives a list of the works of the flesh in Galatians 3 19. You can look that up later but it's the works of the flesh and here's just a few of them immorality I think lying is enmity that's hostility strife it's conflict there's jealousy rivalries dissensions divisions envies and things like these and so we look at these men that have deceived their king the one whom they are to owe all their allegiance to and they fulfill each and every single one of these to the t they're worldly they're ungodly and so are all who live in this way but God is faithful and he beckons even if we struggle with that even if we are rebellious and even if there's people that struggle with this his faithfulness to you is still new and he calls you to repent as well now Daniel he learns about these new laws and he's oh he's done what he's always done for all these many years he gets down on his knees and he prays and this should cause Christians to maybe stop and ask the question and it's one of the questions that I think that we've all wrestled with from time to time over the last two and a half years or so is what laws should Christians obey anybody asked that question in the last two and a half years okay there's like three of us you all need to ask yourselves better questions

Guys what laws should Christians obey because here you have a godly person directly disobeying the law we don't oftentimes use that sentence together a godly person disobeying the law but we ought to we ought to ask that question and churches they walk through this during the pandemic people are asking that question in regards to marriage and things like that and we've wrestled with these and so we know that romans 13 1-7 is true you can look this up on the screen and we can go through it together it says let every person be subject to the governing authorities true 100 for there is no authority except from God and those that exist have been instituted by God it's kind of a tough thing to read isn't even the people that you disagree with they are there by God and those who resist will incur judgment for rulers are not a terror to good conduct or at least they're not supposed to be but to bad would you have no fear of the one who is in authority that little at least they're supposed to be that's that's what I said it's not in God's word just once you'd be tracking with me okay then do what is good and you will receive his approval for he is God's servant for you that word servant is the same word a deacon diaconai just a little tidbit for you but if you do wrong be afraid for he does not bear the sword in vain for he is the servant of God an avenger who carries out God's wrath for the wrongdoer therefore one must be in subjection not only to avoid God's wrath but also for

The sake of conscience for because of this you also pay taxes means you should pay your taxes for the authorities or ministers of God attending to this very thing pay to all what is owed to them taxes to whom taxes are owed revenue to whom revenue is owed respect to whom respect is owed honor to whom honor is owed but we also read this that gives us a more balanced approach in acts chapter 5 verses 28-29 the high priest they are talking to the apostles we strictly charged you not to teach in this name yet here you have filled jerusalem with your teaching and you intend to bring this man's blood upon us talking about Jesus but Peter and the apostles answered we must obey God rather than men and so we learned there is a tension that as long as laws do not contradict the word of God we must and are constrained to obey the law of the land but if it does contradict God's command then it is incumbent upon Christians to obey and we may still suffer even Peter and the apostles after they said we must obey God rather than men they said okay we're gonna beat you they said fine we'll we'll do it for the glory of God and they were beaten and the church grew Daniel what he does is he prays and he did so three times a day not out of an attitude of rebellion but because that's what he did it's who he was he was a prayer and this leads to the second point of corroboration these men second time this is mentioned they came by agreement and so not only is this law a champ but these guys together they want to ensnare Daniel and I wonder if Daniel

Prayed an imprecatory psalm you guys anybody familiar with that term imprecatory psalm and imprecatory psalm is like dash the teeth of my enemies kind of psalms it's not one that we typically sing in worship maybe we should I don't know but psalm 69 is an imprecatory psalm and it says in verse 4 more in number than the hairs of my head are those who hate me without cause mighty are those who would destroy me those who attacked me with lies I think that kind of Daniel could really relate to that in verses 14 and 15 it says deliver me from sinking in the mire let me be delivered from my enemies and from the deep waters let not the flood sweep over me or the deep swallow me up or the pit close its mouth over me I think he could really relate to that and then verses 22-25 talking about those who would try to ensnare him let their own table before them become a snare and when they are at peace let it become a trap let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see and make their loins tremble continually pour out your indignation upon them let your burning anger overtake them may their camp become a desolation let no one dwell in their tents of course that's all speculation Daniel could have prayed those things I imagine that Daniel did indeed pray for God to intercede on his behalf but I do want to point out nine choices that Daniel made to be salt and light to babylon the first thing that he chose is that he chose obedience to God over opulence in the world opium opulence means great wealth and luxury think about what he has at stake he could easily just not pray for 30 days and he becomes prime minister of like one of the largest empires in

History that's a pretty big temptation for a lot of folks and the Lord he commands us to pray to him and so Daniel he hears about this law he has a choice to make obey God or enjoy his position of power and so we must not compromise when it comes to obeying the Lord second thing he chose faithfulness to God over the favor of the king Daniel he could have prayed to the king and the king could have taken from his vast storehouses blessed him with so many material goods and blessings but Daniel would have lost the intimacy that he had with the Lord Daniel he chose faithfulness to God over the favor of the king thirdly he chose steadfastness to God over the silver of the king to be steadfast Christians ought to be firm and secure instead fast in the Lord because our salvation is firm insecure and steadfast in the Lord our house is built on the solid rock and since that's the case we should not look to the world's goods to be a blessing to us fourthly he chose bowing before God over backing down before his enemies he chose bowing before God over backing down before his enemies he could have closed his doors and prayed he could have hid his light that he was supposed to be to babylon but what good would that do aren't we called to be salt and light aren't we to have encounters and experiences with people for the sake of the Gospel aren't we to create opportunities to share the joy and the hope and the love that we have in Christ we are called to live for God's glory and when Christians back down when Christians seek compromise on issues that God has already clearly spoken about then what

We do is we just surrender territory to our spiritual adversary the devil what God has laid claim over we proclaim and we say thus saith the Lord this is what God's word says end of story fifthly he chose a good testimony over worldly goods he didn't change his spiritual habits in order to become more palatable to the laws or the culture of the land he did what he always did and so we look to this example as someone who is bold for the Lord someone for us to emulate as someone who is uncommonly blessed and when we look to God working in incredible ways we have to really understand that there's always a season of spiritual preparation in our lives hey we even see that in Scripture David he spent many of his young years doing what was d David before he became king he was a shepherd yeah and he fought lions he fought bears took the lamb out of their teeth even you know he fought those things and that prepared him to be able to stand before the giant goliath that's the path that God had for him to be king Moses Moses knew that he was called to deliver israel even before he saw the burning bush he knew that's what the book of Hebrews says and Moses he was raised in Pharaoh's house and so he tried to take his calling into his own hands and as a result he goes out to midian spends 40 years out in the middle of a desert as a shepherd and God called him Joseph he spent years as a slave until he was raised up to be the second in command in the land of egypt even Jesus spent 30 years in relative obscurity he was he was Christ for even those first 30 years Christ

From the womb he was the promised one the deliverer and even after and he just he kind of laid low letting John the baptist prepare the way and even after he was baptized what did he do he spent 40 days in the wilderness preparing for the next three years of ministry and even when he was in ministry he spent a lot of time withdrawing to the wilderness to be with the father sixth he chose commitment over compromise Daniel he could have said you know I've been faithful for like over 80 years guys I'm just tired of this fight I'm so tired of it and many of us we might feel that way I'm tired of the culture wars I'm tired of the fight I'm tired of constantly having to repeat myself it's only for 30 days surely God will understand that I save my life if I don't pray to him for 30 days Daniel didn't think like that he prayed with faith he prayed with obedience seventh he chose fidelity to God over freedom the choice was clear according to the law you can either pray to God and die in the pit of lions or you can pray to the king and live and Daniel he is quite literally putting his life on the line by praying to God and of course you know it made me ask the question would I be willing to do that would I be willing to die for the Lord would I be willing to you know through obedience died for the Lord and then you know there was just kind of this check in my spirit just like you know am I willing to live for the Lord before I can say that I'm willing to die am I willing to live for the Lord eighth he chose love for God over love for life

Luke chapter 9 verses 23-26 says and he said to all if anyone would come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me for whoever would lose who for whoever would save his life will lose it but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it for what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits his soul for whoever is ashamed of me and of my words of him will the son of man be ashamed when he comes in his glory in the glory of the father and of the holy angels do we really believe that do we really believe that in order to gain our lives we've got to lose it do we really believe that we must suffer for the cause of Christ nine last point here is he chose Christ's likeness over comfort he chose Christ's likeness over comfort you know we look at first corinthians chapter 1 verses 27 through 29 it tells us that God chose the foolish things in the world to shame the wise God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong God chose what is low and despised in the world even things that are not to bring to nothing the things that are so that no human being might boast in the presence of God you know when it comes to being Christ-like or comfortable let's be honest as 21st century americans we struggle with that don't we struggle with the idea of being comfortable we're looking as we're redoing the constitution when things you can how was that phrase it was like a first baptist church exists for the comfort like that was like one of the lines that we're and we get it we want it to be comfortable in here but we struggle as 21st century americans with comfort we want to be comfortable

And we want you to be comfortable but do we exist for comfort maybe it's a different definition I don't know but we look at Daniel and many times we may not be like Daniel many of us struggle making like regular decisions that glorify God many of us choose to back down because we ask is the fight really worth it I mean it is a fight we're in a spiritual battle and so for believers we could learn a lot about priorities from this passage and when we read this passage it's tempting for us to just see these nine decisions and go great I'm just gonna you know do these things and then I'll be blessed but I don't I don't necessarily think that's just about that because Daniel he was he was faithful and God delivered him but Jesus is the greater Daniel Christ he was more faithful than Daniel and God poured out his wrath onto him and just as Daniel withdrew to pray we see that over and over in Christ's life withdrawing to be with God just as Christ was murdered out of jealousy Daniel was attempted to be murdered out of jealousy the king he set his seal on a stone of the grave and here we see pilate set his seal on the tomb of Christ at dawn Daniel he was delivered and at dawn on the third day Christ rose again Daniel is what theologians call a type of Christ not that he is Christ but that he is a type not that in Daniel he was he was a sinner just like us he had things that he wrestled with but his life pointed to what a fulfilled life in Christ looks like but Daniel's in quite the pickle though

He has chosen to side with God which means that he has set himself apart and opposed to the world the world is ungodly the ones who hate God will come against him and the king realizes that he's been duped and so when these 120 sat traps and leaders they come to him they accuse Daniel of praying in petition three times a day it's completely unthinkable king yes we know that this is what he does all the time but this is worthy of death and the king he's distressed he knows that he's been duped he knows that he's been deceived and there's no way for Daniel to be delivered out of danger by the hands of any man anyone ever seen the truman show it's a great great movie it's great film jim carrey stars and it's about this guy who lives in a studio his entire life and so everyone gets to see everything about his life all of his habits all of his victories and all of his failures and I wonder what would people gather would be a spiritual habit in my life or in your life if people were to watch us for a week like would they be able to count on catching us praying three times a day would they count on seeing us fasting regularly or studying God's word sharing the Gospel what would people see if they were to just see your spiritual habits or is your spiritual walk and spiritual disciplines kind of marked by fits and starts and I'm going to do this and I'm going to do it well and you start out for like three days and then something falls apart once again for the third time these manipulative and conniving people they came by

Agreement and they reminded him that the law of the meats and persians is absolute this is important because in this culture the king had laws to abide by he couldn't just pardon people the law had to be honored it had to be fulfilled look at verse 16 third point is conviction these last few will go pretty quick the king he commanded and Daniel was brought and cast into the den of lions stone was laid over the lion's den which was surely Daniel's tomb darius is destroyed which is totally understandable he doesn't need it all that night he doesn't get any entertainment I wonder if he prayed to the one true God but we've all been there where death clings at our doorstep you don't know how the night's going to turn out every Christian is on a dangerous journey and there are many lions that will seek to devour but as Christians we can walk the path that the Lord has on us has for us with confidence humbly seeking the Lord seeking those next steps and sometimes that path might lead right into the line den it very well could it can it might be hard it might be unpopular it could be scary but if we live we live to the Lord and if we die we die to the Lord so whether we live whether we die we are the lords and that's the best place that we can be and darry as he leaves his palace right when the sky begins to lighten up I mean it's just right at the crack of dawn and he runs to the lion's den and calls out in a tone of anguish because he knows that Daniel has an excellent spirit Daniel servant of the living God has your God whom you serve continually been able to deliver you out of the lion's

Mouth oh king lived forever my God sent his angel and shut the lion's mouth and they have not harmed me at point number four here is a celebration it's a celebration the king he probably jumped for joy he was shouting the guards get the rope get Daniel out of that den and God he used the supernatural means of protecting Daniel and God sent an angel to protect him and watch over that saint because and even today there are ministering spirits called angels that are ministering to you as well every day they watch they listen and they serve on our behalf for us to grow draw closer to the Lord and these guards they pulled Daniel up out of that den they looked them over and there's not even a scratch and they probably thought back to when dan hananiah michelle and nazariah were pulled out of the flames not a not a Mark was on them their hair wasn't singed they didn't even smell like smoke however not everything is wonderful in this story those who accused Daniel were judged them and their families it's kind of a tough thing for us to read isn't it's kind of scary that 120 families were fed to the lions women and children you see the devastating power and effect that sin has far-reaching repercussions got to think that the night before these conspirators probably felt pretty good he's gone he's gone we can finally do things the way that we

Want them to be done psalm 35 says for without cause they hid their net for me without cause they dug a pit for my life let destruction come upon them when they when he does not know it and let the net that he hid and snare him and let him fall into it to his destruction see these people they were not protected by the supernatural power of God those lines they overpowered them and they destroyed them and the fact is that apart from the protection of God we cannot be safe or saved either we must come to him alone in faith to be saved he promises that he will receive us that save us when we turn to him because ungodliness will always be revealed and judged by the Lord and they'll be judged harshly if it's not covered by the blood of Jesus Christ the fifth and final point is the commendation the commendation this is a bit of a doxology for the end of this part of the book Daniel this whole chapter kind of serves as a reminder this last few verses from darius kind of serves as a capstone if you would for the book of Daniel it joins together chapters one through six and it reminds us of what we learned about God that the Lord our God is one that he is the true and the living God when we talk about God he's the triune God existing eternally his father son and Holy Spirit and each member of the Trinity is eternal and endures forever and so will his kingdom and heaven and earth will pass away but not God's kingdom in the meantime God works even right now by delivering and

Rescuing my question is has God done that in your life has he delivered you has he rescued you from death and sin has God worked those wonders by transforming you by his power and by his grace where you cried out in repentance father save me and he redeemed you by his hand has that ever happened if it has praise the Lord if it hasn't we want we want you to settle that in your heart today to know that you're saved one last thing that one last way that we see Daniel as the type of Christ is actually here in this declaration by darius see it's a message to the whole world about the goodness and the power of God and in Matthew 28 we're commanded and commissioned to go and make disciples of all the nations telling others about what God has done in our lives and how he has redeemed us by sending his son to save us and so let's do it head hand heart head I want you to know that God protects those who trust in him he protects people over and over in the old testament and now God he has sealed us with the Holy Spirit so that we can walk in faithfulness to him do you trust the Lord even right now today if you struggle find a friend find a friend that can pray for you to trust in the Lord more and more this day and every day and I want you to develop regular spiritual habits if you're if your spiritual walk is marked by fits and starts and you start really well but it just doesn't go very far listen as parents grandparents we get to set a spiritual legacy for children to

Follow and they will remember your habits and so I ask for you to settle in your heart maybe the discipline that you need to practice on this week and find a friend find someone to hold you accountable in it and heart I want you to believe that God he is faithful he loves you and you might be going into the lion's den or maybe you've been there for a while or maybe things are great it doesn't matter where you're at if you're a follower of Christ he is faithful toward you and he loves you so much and so God I do thank you for this great day that you've given to us we thank you for your mercy and Lord help us to bask in your faithfulness to know you more and more each and every day and to declare your glory and your mercy to all creation and as we stand and we worship together may you be lifted high in Jesus name amen let's stand and let's worship together [Music] come thou found out every blessing tune my heart to sing thy grace streams of mercy never ceasing call for songs of loudest praise teach me some melodious on it sung by flaming tongues above praise the mountain fixed upon it mount of thy redeeming love here I raise my neverneaser hither by thy help I'm come and I hope by thy good pleasure

Safely to arrive at home Jesus sought me when a stranger wandering from the fold of God he to rescue me from danger interposed his precious blood [Music] oh to grace how great a deader daily I'm constrained to be led thy grace Lord like a fetal bind my wandering heart to thee prone to wonder Lord I feel it prone to leave the God I love here's my heart Lord take and seal it seal it for thy courts above [Music] prone to wonder Lord I feel it prone to leave the God I love here's my heart Lord take and seal it seal it for thy courts above [Music] good to see each one of you today glad you came my name is steve I'm one of the deacons here pray with me as we're dismissed dear heavenly father I do thank you for today and just thank you for the opportunity to rise up and come into church and be with fellow Christians fellow believers Lord as we worship together thank you for that opportunity to open the Scriptures and hear as you've spoken to pastor cody and as he has preached and taught us that we may take these things to heart

And live by them just be with us today and be with us throughout this week as we keep our eyes open for those opportunities to serve you to teach and to preach others about you and to be that light in the dark world Lord and help us to shine for you in Christ's name amen okay