Kingdom of Men Unflinching Faith

Transcription

1 Transcript Aaron Brockett Daniel 6:1-28 Traders Point, how are you? It s great to see you. North campus, I hope you are doing great. And if you re a guest visiting for the first time or maybe you re just checking stuff out online, my name is Matt and I m one of the pastors here. Like we said earlier today, we re in part 4 of our series called Kingdom of Men where we re taking a look at the Book of Daniel. So if you ve got a Bible with you, go ahead and open it up to Daniel 6. And while you re flipping there, let me ask you a question: With a show of hands, how many of you like to be scared? You like scary movies? How many of you are like that? Okay, a couple of you. Now I know who the crazy people are. I can t stand to feel scared. I hate the feeling of being scared. Whenever I get scared, I get mad and I respond to fear with anger. Sometimes that s a good thing, sometimes it s a bad thing. Let me give you an example. Earlier this summer I was woken up in the middle of the night by a very, very loud bang coming from somewhere in our house. It immediately scared me right out of bed. I had no idea what happened, I had no idea where this sound was coming from. All I knew was that it came from somewhere upstairs, which is where my wife and I sleep and so do our three small kids. So immediately I m jumping out of bed. I m mad because I m scared. I don t know what s happening. Immediately I clench my fists, and my first instinct, the first thing I did without even thinking was to start yelling in a really weird way. I honestly sounded like Chewbacca. And I m not going to replicate it. I m not going to give you the satisfaction, so just forget about it. I don t know why I did that. I have no idea why I started to yell. Maybe I thought, Hey, I m going to let whoever or whatever made that noise, I m going to let them know I m here and I m going to scare them by awkwardly yelling because they scared me. I don t know why I thought that. But I jumped out of bed and I made a beeline for our door because I wanted to find out what happened. And if somebody broke into my house, it s about to go down. I m ready for this. Now, our bedroom has double doors and we leave one door open and one door closed. In the midst of my fear induced anger, you know where this is going, the fact that I m not completely coherent because it s 1:00 in the morning and it s pitch dark in my bedroom, I run straight, not through the open door, but face-first into that closed door. That really helped the situation. I have no idea what s happening. I m angry because I m scared. I m confused. The only thing I know for certain that is going on is my face is in pain. That s it. My wife, Kelly, being the bright one between the two of us had a brilliant idea. She had a brilliant idea. She flipped the lights on. She just turned the lights on. So we found out the sound had actually come from our laundry room, which is right next to our bedroom. What had happened was she had put the iron on the top of the dryer toward the edge, and right before she had gone to bed she had thrown a load into the dryer. Over time it had shimmied the iron to the edge, and it had fallen off into a plastic laundry basket on the floor. That s where the loud bang came from.

2 It wasn t from an intruder. It wasn t one of my kids. The sound that caused me to jump out of bed, scream like a wookie, and run into the door was the iron. Kelly, bless her heart, she patted me on the back and said, Good job, and went back to bed. That was a really proud moment for me. I really felt like I did my job protecting my family. What do you do when you re afraid? How do you respond to fear? We ve all faced fear. We re going to. We re going to face fear: fear that something is going on at home, fear that something is happening in the office, fear because of health reasons, or fear because of what we ve seen on the news. How do you respond to fear? How should we respond to fear? That s really where we re going today in chapter 6. And if you ve missed any of the series so far, let me catch you up really quickly. What s going on is Daniel and a group of his friends have been taken captive by the King of Babylon, this guy named Nebuchadnezzar. And he takes Daniel and his friends captive. He takes the people of Jerusalem captive and they go back to Babylon to live as exiles. They end up living there for about seventy years. During that time they are forced to live in this culture that couldn t have been more opposed to them. This is what s going on. And when they get there, they re given new names. Daniel and his friends are renamed. They don t get cool nicknames. They actually name them after pagan gods. It was a way to insult them and just to demean them. What Nebuchadnezzar does is he takes Daniel and his group of friends and he puts them through this three-year program that s really meant to indoctrinate them to everything Babylon. So really, at the end of this, they re going to have no ties with Jerusalem. They re going to have no ties with the Lord. At the end of this the goal is for them to look, talk, think, and act like Babylon, not Jerusalem. Not where they re true citizenship is. And you d think that going through this these guys would isolate themselves, they would hunker down. Guys, let s circle the wagons. Let s put our shields up so no one can get to us. We won t let anybody get to us. We ll just hold on and live this thing out. But that s not what they do. They don t isolate themselves. They don t protest in some destructive way. No, in fact they go head-first into the culture. They dive straight into it. In fact throughout the Book of Daniel they are looking for God to show them, God, give us wisdom. Give us discernment on what we re supposed to do. How are we supposed to live? How are we supposed to serve here? How can we best reflect You? And this humble demeanor overwhelms these guys and it becomes extremely attractive and winsome to the people in the culture around them. They re blown away by this. Why are these guys not isolating? Why do they serve us? Why do they treat us like this? Why? And one of the application points we see throughout the Book of Daniel (and Aaron hit on this last week) this is one of my favorites, this is what they re wrestling with, How do we live for God effectively within the kingdom of men? How do we do that? That s what Daniel, that s what Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that s what these guys are trying to figure out. The reason for that is missional, it s missional. We re called to be on mission. God s people are called to be messengers in culture. God s people are called to be ambassadors of His grace. People should look at 2

3 us and say, You know what? There s something different about those people. I can t quite put my finger on it, but there s something different about them. And that difference is supposed to be good. We re called to be servants. We re called to make disciples. We ve got to be right in the middle of where the people are. We ve got to be right in the middle of culture, not separated from it. Now if you ve got any church background at all, you ve probably heard somebody say something like, We need to be in the world, but not of it, in the world, but not of it. And that s a really tough balance. I ve not perfected this. I haven t. Now I don t know if I ever will or not, it s a tough balance. As Christians, we don t want to blend too much in the culture to the point where we re not recognizable. At the same time, we don t want to stand out for the wrong reasons. We don t want to stand out in a negative way. I m painting with a really broad brush here, but in our culture, as Christians we re known more about what we re against than what we re for. It s not supposed to be like that. Sure, there are some things we are against, absolutely. We re against the damaging effects of sin. We re against that. We re against biblical injustice. We re against abuse. That s what we are against. We are never against people. We re against the things that destroy people because all people are created in the image of God. But what we want to be known for is what we re for. We are for Jesus. We are for people. We are for people meeting Jesus. We are for our communities, our city, our country, and the world thriving. Men, women, kids, families, communities, cities, countries thrive through the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That s what we re for and we ll let that drive being in the world but not of it. That s what s going on in the Book of Daniel. And yes we re called to proclaim the gospel but proclamation is not the only thing we re called to. We re also called to be an authentic representation of the gospel. And we start doing that by serving, serving other people around us including the people who oppose us. Being in the world but not of it, it s just like grace and truth. Jesus balances grace and truth better than anybody else. He s the example of being in the world but not of it. After Jesus, I don t think anybody has done it better, inside the Bible and out, nobody s done it better than Daniel, being in the world but not of it. And today we re jumping in. Last week we were in chapter 3, today we re jumping all the way to chapter 6. So let me give you a 10,000 foot view of what happens in chapter 4, and then next week we ll talk about what happens in chapter 5. Chapter 4 is really the end of Nebuchadnezzar. His reign comes to an end, and what s going on is throughout Daniel so far, you kind of get glimpses with Nebuchadnezzar that maybe this guy s getting it. Maybe he s turning around. Maybe his eyes are being open to who God is, and then he says or does something and you re reminded that he s a little off still. Like all of us, Nebuchadnezzar really struggles with pride. If you pull back the veil on any sin, I don t care what sin it is, pride is at the root of it. Nebuchadnezzar really, really struggled with pride. And every single person who has ever walked the face of the earth and whoever wills, all of us, at one point are going to take a posture of humility before God, we all will. The good news is God gives us the choice. He says, I ll let you take that posture on your own, or I can help you with it I ve been helped more than once by the Lord with that. 3

4 With Nebuchadnezzar, he didn t take it on his own so God helped him take that posture of humility. He humbled him. But being humbled by God like that is an act of grace. He humbled him so He could open his eyes. Here s what s going on. Nebuchadnezzar loses his mind. He goes crazy and he goes off into the wilderness by himself for days, and days, and days. It says that he crawls along on all fours like an animal. He eats grass like a cow. His hair grows out long and nappy and his fingernails are just raunchy and long. Picture the nastiest looking dude you can imagine, that s Nebuchadnezzar in chapter 4. Then after a while God says, That s enough, and He gives him his mind back. And He says, Here, I want to humble you so you can see who I really am. Nebuchadnezzar, you re King of Babylon but you re kingship is temporary. My title is King of Eternity. And Nebuchadnezzar is transformed because humility is the pathway to transformation. Listen to verse 37 in chapter 4. This is the last thing we ever hear from Nebuchadnezzar. After this we never hear from him again. Daniel 4:37, Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, for all His works are right and His ways just; and those who walk in pride He is able to humble. Humility is the pathway to transformation. Then in chapter 6, a lot of us might be familiar with the story in chapter 6. You might be familiar with this but maybe you ve never heard the details that go into it or the context that is around it. So, look at chapter 6, verse 1. It pleased Darius, Darius is the new king, to set over the kingdom 120 satraps, to be throughout the whole kingdom; and over them three high officials, of whom Daniel was one, to whom these satraps should give account, so that the king might suffer no loss. Basically, these guys are the ones who collect money as a tribute to the king. Then this Daniel became distinguished above all the other high officials and satraps, because an excellent spirit was in him. That s important, remember that. And the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom. Then the high officials 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 for complaint against this Daniel unless we find it in connection with the law of his God. This is one of the things I love about Daniel. I want my character to be like Daniel s. His enemies go straight political on him. They try to start this smear campaign on Daniel but they can t find anything. They can t find anything against this guy. They can t come up with this commercial that runs over and over again on TV that depresses everyone about how horrible Daniel is. They can t do that because the guy is just faithful. Faithful to what? Well Aaron hit on this earlier in the series. Jeremiah 29 is a letter written to the exiles in Babylon. This is something Daniel would have taken to heart. So listen to Jeremiah 29, this is verse 12. This is God speaking. He says, Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord And that s something Daniel took seriously. He sought after the Lord. And this promise in Jeremiah 29, we see this throughout Scripture that whenever you seek God you will find Him. I love how God says it in James 4. He says, If you draw near to Me, I ll draw near to you. Maybe this is your first time in church. 4

5 Maybe you re not a Christian. Or maybe you re just trying to figure out, Does God even exist? Let alone that He loves me. That s way too much. I just want to know if He exists or not. If you seek Jesus Jesus is God, He is God if you seek Jesus you ll find Him. You will. And if you want to grow in your faith this is a promise that s in Jeremiah 29 and throughout the Bible. This is a promise that you will grow, you will have guaranteed growth if you seek after Jesus and you seek after Him with your whole heart. So here s the question you have to ask yourself: Who are you seeking? What are you seeking? What are you seeking? The reason that Daniel s character is rock solid, it s why he s about to get promoted again, is because of his excellent spirit. And the reason Daniel had an excellent spirit is because he faithfully sought the Lord. The more you seek Jesus and the more time you spend with Him the more your character and your spirit are going to reflect His. And we know this is true in every other aspect of our lives. We know it s true. We know the people you spend your time with are the people you become like. Like your character starts to reflect theirs, your attitude is like theirs, even your personality can reflect theirs. That s why my wife and I are already praying for our kid s friends and their friends in the future. Because you become like the people you spend your time with. So who are you seeking? Who are you spending your time with? Here is the thing about Daniel. Daniel was distinguished. He stood out, not because he was good at his job and not because he had success. The reason Daniel stood out was because of his excellent spirit. You are distinguished not by your success. You are distinguished by your spirit. We all know people who are successful. We all know successful people. And there are also people that nobody wants to be around. It s because of their spirit. As Christians one of the things we want to be known for is people who have an excellent spirit. That should stand out in us. Right now I m looking around the room and I m seeing faces. And that s how I would describe you: You have an excellent spirit, an excellent spirit. There re people at North right now. I know you guys. You guys have excellent spirits. That s something we want to have stand out about us. That s something people should notice in us as Christians. Look at verse 6, he keeps going, Then these high officials and satraps came by agreement to the king and said to him, they are conspiring. O King Darius, live forever! All the high officials of the kingdom, the prefects and the satraps, 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 thirty days, except to you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions. 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. Okay, so here s what just happened. Daniel just lost his religious freedom. It s what happened. It s a credit to his character that even his enemies knew he wouldn t compromise his character. Even his enemies knew, If we want to go after Daniel, we ve got to go after his relationship with God. They knew he wouldn t compromise. 5

6 They said, Hey Daniel, you re no longer free to follow your God or pray to Him. Either you choose Him or you choose death. They know he s not going to compromise because when you seek Jesus you will find Him. And when you find Him you won t want to flee Him. That s where Daniel is and he loses his religious freedom. So if you re a Christian, let s talk about this just for a second. I ve heard a lot about this in the last year or two and maybe you have too. That we need to fight for our religious freedom or we may lose it. There s certainly some legitimacy to that, and there is, but I also think there has been a lot of unwarranted fear that s gone with that. Not necessarily fear that it might happen but fear of what it would mean if it did happen. It is an incredible blessing that we have religious freedom. We should not take that for granted, not at all. I ve thanked God many times for that blessing. That s a blessing that many Christians in other parts of the world, they don t have. I love that about our country. But here s the thing we ve got to remember, and we see this in Daniel 6. The loss of religious freedom is not the greatest threat to the church. The greatest threat is when we lose faith in the fact of who is in control. That s the greatest threat. Sure, we need to stand up for our freedom. Absolutely, there is a time and place for that but we cannot freak out and we cannot be crippled with fear of what might happen. So what do we do? How should we respond when we face opposition to what we believe? I mean, do we respond with anger because we re afraid? Like me? Do we storm Capitol Hill? Do we lash out on social media? No. No we don t. People have tried that and it doesn t go well. In fact, I don t ever see Jesus or anyone else in Scripture take that approach. How does Daniel respond? How does he respond to this? To me, verse 10 is probably the best and most encouraging verse in this entire chapter. Listen to this: When Daniel 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 prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously. His response was to pray and to give thanks. When this document was signed, Daniel would have been right there to see it signed. He would have been part of that group who was standing in a semi-circle around the desk when Darius signed it and the palace staff was taking pictures. He would have been right there because he was one of the guys in charge. He is watching this law being signed into place that was meant to take his religious freedom from him and he knows it was targeting him personally. He knows it s about to get seriously tough for him. So how does he respond? Does he cause a scene? Does he grab the pen out of Darius hand and chuck it across the room? Does he grab the document and start ripping it up and throwing it everywhere, and then run out? Does he lash out at the Babylonian government? Does he go on this epic rant on social media? No. He quietly goes back to his house and gets on his knees because men and women of God first when they re afraid, when they re targeted, when they re accused, when anything goes wrong, when they face opposition men and women of God seek the Lord by getting on their knees and going to Him in prayer. 6

7 That doesn t mean we abdicate action. That doesn t mean that at all. There s absolutely a time for action, there is a time to stand up, there is a time to speak. Usually I get this part wrong. I m all for standing up, I m all for action. Let s do this. But our first response is to get on our knees because the most powerful weapon we have is prayer. Daniel knew this. And the thing that really convicts me is not only did Daniel immediately go to the Lord in prayer, but his prayer was to thank God. I don t know if that s what I would have prayed. I don t know if I would have said, You know what, God, thank You for who You are. Thank You for putting me where you put me. Thank You for what You have done, what You are doing, and what You will do. Thank You, God. I m not sure that s what I would have prayed. Maybe I would plead, which is okay. You can plead. Maybe I would complain or question the Lord, God, why are You letting this happen to me? Why is this happening, God? So here s the gut-check question I ve been asking myself and maybe you need to ask it of yourself: How much of my prayer time and energy is spent complaining and questioning God for my circumstances and asking for them to be different and how much of my prayer time and energy is spent thanking God for who He is, what He has done, what He is doing, and what He will do? Because the more you seek after Jesus, the clearer you will see Him and what He has already done for you, which makes it much easier as a default to go to Him in praise and thanksgiving, no matter what the external circumstances are. And then on top of that, if we lead out with thanksgiving and prayer, it s going to be much easier to see God s faithfulness in the past, which makes it so much easier to trust His wisdom, His power, and His sovereignty, especially when things are not going well. One of the things that I wrote in the margin of my notes last week that stood out in studying chapter 6 was: the cause and the response to opposition, they are the exact same things. The cause and the response, they are the exact same things. The cause for the opposition against Daniel was his excellent spirit, his faithfulness, his trust, his character, and his prayer. And the way Daniel responds to the opposition the exact same things: excellent spirit, faithfulness, trust, character, and prayer. If you are afraid somebody is going to take a shot at you, if somebody posts something on Facebook targeting you, or Christians, or your church, if you lose something or there is a potential to lose something because of your faith: a job, family dynamic, friend, promotion, whatever how would you respond? How should you respond? If you want to know how to respond, and anyone who calls himself a Christian should be ready to respond, our response should look like Daniel s. He s the model: an excellent spirit, faithfulness, trust, character, prayer. Verse 10 said Daniel had already been a man who had sought the Lord in prayer consistently. So when he faced opposition, when everything around him went south, his automatic default was to go to the Lord in quiet and calm prayer because he d already been doing it. Remember this: prayer today is preparation for persecution tomorrow. Whatever we see, whether it s good or bad, prayer prepares our hearts. If we re running into heartache, or loss, or suffering, or trial, or opposition to our faith prayer is what will prepare us for that tomorrow. That s what Daniel was already doing. For him, the traps that got set worked. He kept praying, he gets caught, and they take him to the king. 7

8 Here s what happens next. Look at verse 14, Then the king, when he heard these words, was much distressed and set his mind to deliver Daniel, because Darius really liked Daniel. Daniel had a great spirit. He was distinguished. 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, 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 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. So that s intense, thrown into a pit full of lions. But notice how Daniel responds to it. He doesn t lose his cool. He keeps his excellent spirit. He doesn t compromise his character. He remains faithful. Your spirit, your character, your response will impact the people around you. If you claim the name of Jesus and say, I am a follower of Christ, people are watching you. They re watching you. They re watching how you respond to good things and they are especially watching how you respond to negative things, or things that would be opposition. They re watching. They were watching Daniel. Some people will even try to bait you into a response so you respond in a way that s something that s nothing like Daniel, so you re response is nothing like Christ s. Don t fall for that trap. Remember this. It will help us so we re not blindsided if we ever face opposition. As a Christian, we are never promised a life free from suffering, loss, trial, or opposition. We are never promised that. Daniel is probably cleaner than anybody else in the Bible. Next to Jesus, he s probably the guy. And yet he still gets thrown into the lion exhibit at the zoo, despite his character, despite his faith, despite his excellent spirit. Excellent character, excellent spirit, incredible faith does not make you immune to suffering, loss, hardship, or opposition. It doesn t. And if you want to avoid opposition to your faith, the only way you can do that is to have no faith at all. We re never promised immunity to those things but, as Christians, what we are promised is that any kind of suffering, any trial, any loss, any opposition will never be in vain. It will never be in vain. Sometimes greater faith brings on a greater opposition, which usually means a greater display of God s power. Look at verse 19, Then, at 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, O 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, and how do you think people would have responded when they hear Daniel s voice? O king, live forever! My God sent His angel and shut the lions' mouths, 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. I don t know why but I really like watching those shows when animals attack. Have you seen those shows? I know this is a really weird transition, just follow me. I love those shows. I don t like the ones 8

9 where someone innocent gets hurt, and by innocent I mean a kid or somebody just taking a walk and a dog comes after them, innocent meaning unprovoked. The provoked attacks, that s a different story. Like the guy who is holding a rattlesnake and he gets bit. He is like, I can t believe that happened. No sympathy for that guy, no sympathy. Or the guy who goes scuba diving in the Bahamas and starts feeding bull sharks out of his hand and gets bit. He comes up and says, But they re gentle creatures. I can t believe that happened. What d you think was going to happen, bro? It s a shark. My personal favorite is the guy who voluntarily sticks his head in the mouth of a lion. Why would you do that? That is an apex predator. I don t know what this says about me but in those situations, I m kind of rooting for the lion, I kind of am. Whenever somebody starts off and says, Hey, watch this, they deserve whatever happens to them next. I ve got no sympathy. And we re going to clap for that! But Daniel, Daniel is innocent so you can t root for the lions. You ve got to root for Daniel. And this is the part of the story where a lot of us are pretty familiar with this. Daniel gets thrown into the lion s den. God shuts the mouth of the lions. Daniel walks out of the den alive, pretty awesome, the end. But is that all there is to the story? Is it just about how powerful God is? Is it about how to respond to suffering and opposition? Is it about prayer? Having an excellent spirit, and faithfulness, and trust, and character and watching God flex in a pretty miraculous way? Well sure, that s all there, absolutely. But there s more to this. Maybe you re asking the question right now: Hey Matt, if God is really in control of who is in control, couldn t He just as easily saved Daniel by closing the eyes of the men who found him praying? Just as easily as He closed the mouth of the lions? If He s really in control, couldn t He have done just that? I love it when you guys ask questions that are in my notes. The answer is absolutely, absolutely He could have. He could have prevented the document from being signed. He could have gone all Jedi-mind-trick with those guys so they don t even see Daniel or know he is praying. Absolutely. If God couldn t do that, He s not God. But here s what s true about Daniel and his relationship with the Lord, and it s true more often than not with us and our relationship with God: God is not as concerned about saving us from our trials as He is saving us through them. Trials, suffering, loss, opposition, nobody is volunteering for those things. They are not fun. But those things are some of the greatest catalysts for spiritual growth. They are some of the greatest things that can help grow us. Listen to Romans 5:3, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope Listen to James 1:2, Count it all joy 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. You don t have to go looking for trials. They re going to find you. We ve all faced trials and we all will. It s okay not to like them, they re not fun. But don t think that s meant to discourage you, don t think that s God s judgment on you. Don t think God is punishing you. Don t think God has forgotten about you, or 9

10 that He doesn t exist. If God would allow this (fill in the blank). If God would allow this to happen, then He doesn t exist. God will save and sanctify (that s a fancy word for grow). God will save and sanctify us through trials. James says that the trials actually make us complete. And maybe you re thinking this, Matt, what about all the faithful men and women who didn t experience the same fate that Daniel did in Babylon, throughout history, and even today? What about them? Were they somehow less faithful? Were they somehow less important than Daniel? Because they didn t get to walk out of a lion s den. Christians have been killed for their faith throughout history. In fact, more Christians were killed for their faith in the 20th Century than at any other point in history. We don t really see that in the United States but that s very true elsewhere in the world. What about them? Why did God let them die and why did Daniel get to live? Why? It s a great question. It s a great question and I can t tell you why something happened to one person and not another. I can t tell you why. Sometimes we get the answer to why, sometimes we will, but it is always okay to ask the question, Why? It s always okay to ask that question. Sometimes we ll get the answer to why, and sometimes we won t get the answer. Not on this side of eternity. And I think the best question to ask is not why, the best question to ask is, Who? Who is God? His character, who is He? I know that God is faithful. I know that He s just. I know that He s righteous. I know that He s holy. I know that He s loving. I know that He s caring. And I know that He s sovereign. So when I don t get the answer to why, I can take great hope and great peace in that I know who is in control. That s what s going on with Daniel. He doesn t know why God s letting him get thrown into a lion s den. He doesn t know why he was taken captive to live in captivity for the rest of his life. He never got to see his home again. He doesn t know why God let that happen. God doesn t say to Daniel, Hey Daniel, tomorrow you re going to get thrown into a lion s den. Don t worry bro. I ve got your back. I m going to take care of you. You won t even have a scratch on you. God never tells Daniel that. He has no idea why this is happening. But he never loses his excellent spirit, he never compromises his character, he never loses his faithfulness. Why? Because Daniel knew the answer to the question, Who? He knew who God is. He knew God s character. When we know who God is, we can take great hope and great peace in who is in control. And one of the things that is most overlooked in Daniel 6 is how much Daniel in the Lion s Den foreshadows Jesus and for Christians how much it foreshadows the final judgment. Just like Daniel, men conspired against Jesus because of who He is. Just like Daniel, traps were set for Jesus. Just like Daniel, men falsely accused Jesus because they were His enemies. Just like Daniel, Jesus is taken in front of a ruler, Pontius Pilate, who tried to free him but couldn t. Just like Daniel, Jesus is condemned to die a violent death. Just like Daniel, Jesus is thrown into a cave and then a giant rock seals that cave so that no human can intervene, and then just like Daniel, Jesus walks out of that cave alive. The only difference is Daniel lived and Jesus died. Not only did Jesus face the threat of death and didn t flinch, just like Daniel didn t flinch, Jesus could have stopped the whole thing from happening. Jesus willingly died, willingly died. He was completely innocent yet He suffered the fate of the guilty. 10

11 If you follow Christ, if you put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, then Daniel is a picture of us on that day when Jesus comes back. Because of our sin, because of our guilt we are condemned before God. And the final judgment that we have resting on us is an eternal death. But, but, because of who Jesus is, because He took on our sin, because He took on our guilt, because He took on our judgment and died the death that we are supposed to die, on that day when Jesus comes back, just like Daniel you and I get to walk out of the lion s den alive. So in light of all of that, in light of the fact that God is still in control, that Jesus walked out of a grave so that we can too, because God likes to save us through our trials instead of from them, in light of all of that, who do you fear? Who should you fear? Do you fear the one who can throw you into the lion s den? Or the One who has the power to walk out of it alive? Who do you really fear? Is there anything we really should fear in light of all that? The command we see throughout Scripture is to fear God, fear God, fear God. And that doesn t mean to be terrified of some grumpy guy who s going to lose his cool. That s not what it means. Fear of the Lord starts with respect and humility before God. It s like a young child who knows and fears the power of his father, but first and foremost he knows his father deeply loves him. My three small kids, we ll get on the floor and we ll wrestle. They ll run up to me, they ll jump on me, they ll drop elbows into my chest. I don t know why they do that. They ll get me in headlocks. I get hit in places I don t want to get hit. I ve let them win. But in the back of their minds they know that as their father, I have the power to end that just like that. They know who is in charge. They know I m letting them win. So knowing the power I have, why would they feel like they have that access to me that they could just run up to me, that they could hug me, jump on me, play with me? Why would they feel like they have that kind of access? Because as their father, they know first and foremost that I deeply love them unconditionally. As their father, I want nothing more for them than for them to thrive. That s where fear of the Lord starts. Proverbs says, Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. So know this, whenever things go south, if you re suffering, if you re facing a trial, if there s loss, if there s heartache, if you re facing opposition to your faith, just remember this: Fear God. He ll take care of the lions. What does that mean? How do we get to that spot? Matt, how do I get the point where my character looks like Daniel? My spirit is like his? How do I reflect Jesus with my spirit? How does my character look like Christ? My first reaction, just being honest, is not to go and pray. I m not there, so how do I get to that point? My group was actually talking about this on Friday night. It was actually Greg Anderson, our campus pastor at the North campus. He said this. He said, Guys, it goes back to Acts 2:42, prayer, the Word, and fellowship, that s how we do it. Prayer, we seek the Lord in prayer because it prepares us for tomorrow, whatever is going to come tomorrow. The second way is we see the Lord through His Word. If we want to know the answer to who God is, if we want to know His character, we ve got to be in the Bible. We ve got to be in it. The 11

12 Bible is God s revelation of who He is. He s basically writing a letter to you and saying, Here s who I am. I want you to know Me. If you re in a relationship with someone and you don t spend time with them, if you don t talk to them, if you don t communicate with them you re not going to grow in that relationship. That s what the Bible and prayer are. That s how we communicate, that s how we develop our relationship with the Lord. And then we solidify it with fellowship. That s why groups are so important. In groups, that s where we laugh together, we encourage each other, we teach each other, we disciple each other, we hold each other accountable, we care for each other, we serve with each other, then we multiply. That s how we grow. That s how we know who God really is. That s how we get a character and a spirit that reflects Christ. When we re there, we just have to remember: Fear God. He ll take care of the lions. He s got this. Now let s pray. Father, thank You. Thank You for being no less than God. Thank You for being in control. Thank You for being faithful, and just, and righteous, and holy, and sovereign. Father, thank You for giving us Your Son, Jesus Christ. Father, thank You for setting up a redemption plan that can redeem us from the effects of our own sin. Father, thank You for loving us deeply and unconditionally. Father, thank You for wanting us to thrive as one of Your children. Father, thank You for the ability to grow. Thank You that we have direct access to You through prayer. Thank You for giving us Your Word so we know who You are. Father, thank You for giving us each other, that we can get in groups together, that we can encourage each other, that we can grow together. Father, thank You for the church despite her imperfections, her flaws, and her shortcomings, it s the Bride of Christ that You love and You gave to us as a gift. Thank You for that. Thank You for convicting us. Thank You for encouraging us. Thank You for planting seeds in our hearts. Thank You for breaking our hearts. Thank You for a peace that goes beyond all understanding. That we know we can fear You. We don t have to fear anything else. You re still in control. You ve still got this. That You re not sitting on your throne saying, I didn t see this coming. I wasn t prepared for that. I ve got to figure something else. You re not panicking at all. Thank You for the fact that we know in the end You win. We already know the end of the story. Thank You for that. Thank You for loving us. Thank You for Your Son. It s in Jesus name we pray. Amen. So we re going to get into a time of communion right now. This might be the most important part of the service. If you re a Christian, this is a time for you to reflect on what Jesus did on the cross and then how He walked out of the lion s den three days later. It s a time for you to be quiet. You get to be quiet and reflect on the Lord. And if you re not a Christian, you can just let the trays pass. That s totally fine. Nobody s going to be watching you. Nobody s going to think anything of it. And if God s stirring in you, if He s doing something in your heart, if something is stuck in your mind, take that to Him in this time. Pray. You can say whatever you want to the Lord. He s not afraid of your emotions. He s not afraid of your frustrations. 12

13 He s not afraid of the situation you might be in. He s not afraid of the questions you might have for Him. Ask Him. Scripture tells us to pour out our whole heart, including our emotions, to Him. So just go and ask Him. Bring to Him whatever it is you re wrestling with. And then after, we re going to go back to the Lord in worship. 13