Unrelenting Faith in the Midst of Conflict

Well, would you open your Bible and turn with me to Daniel chapter 6. Daniel chapter 6, verses 1 through 13. Says it pleased Darius to set over the kingdom 120 satraps to be throughout the whole kingdom. And over them 3 presidents of whom Daniel was one.

To whom these satraps should give an account so that the king might suffer no loss. Then this Daniel became distinguished above all the other presidents and satraps because an excellent spirit was in him. And the king planned to set over him the whole kingdom. Then the presidents and satraps sought to find a ground for complaint against Daniel with regard to the kingdom, but they could not find any ground for complaint or 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. Then these presidents and satraps came by agreement to the king and said to him, O King Darius, live forever. All the presidents of the kingdom, the prefects and the satraps, the councilors 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 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. 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 3 times a day 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 to the king, concerning the injunction, O king, Did you not sign an injunction that anyone who makes petition to any god or man within 30 days except you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions? The king answered and said, the thing stands fast according to the law of the Medes and the Persians, which cannot be revoked. Then they answered and said before the king, Daniel, Who's one of the exiles from Judah, pays no attention to you, O king, or the injunction you have signed, but makes this petition 3 times a day.

Would you, pray with me? God, I'm thankful for the morning and the chance to look at Daniel chapter 6 and, be reminded of the example of Daniel and be challenged in my own faith, in you and my, walk with you, God. As we look through this passage and, and study what it says, would you please just give each one of us a mind that's ready to receive what you have to say to us. Give us a mind that's ready to understand Daniel's situation and then apply that in our own lives.

God make us as a congregation strong. Make Cornerstone strong like Daniel was in his time. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.

Daniel was an exceptional man. In his intelligence, his wisdom, his commitment to God, his daily behavior. Throughout the book of Daniel, there are some pretty extraordinary things used to describe him. And in your bulletin outline, the first thing you'll see is it talks about Daniel, it says, the excellent spirit of Daniel.

If you're keeping notes on that, on those sermon notes, that's the first thing, the excellent spirit of Daniel. The following words though are used to describe him throughout the entire book. It says he is of good appearance. It says he is skillful in wisdom, educated in knowledge, understanding and learning, resolved in keeping convictions.

Understanding in dreams, skillful in all literature, light and understanding are found in him. And he's able to solve problems. Those are some pretty excellent qualifications. If you or I could put that and accurately claim that on a CV or a resume, we'd be in a pretty good, situation, right?

If you were to build a mental picture of Daniel, I'd ask you to do this. Think of the most honest person you've ever known. OK, if you can identify that person and then think of the hardest working person you've ever known. I've got a coworker right now that I think of that, it is just long days, hard work, all the time.

And then combine that with the wisest person you've ever known. Put all three of those people together and you've got a good mental picture of Daniel. In verse 3, we see that Daniel became distinguished above all the other presidents and satraps. It's, it's cool because it tells us that Daniel didn't arrive on the job, perfect and already as accomplished as he could be, but he, he developed while he was in that position.

It's actually a, a participial phrase, if we're going to identify it and it, it indicates recurrent reciprocal action, an ongoing gradual process. That he demonstrated his capability above the others who ruled in that same position. He was continually distinguishing himself above the others. Understand this meant that he was becoming the most accomplished man in the largest kingdom in the world at that time.

Babylon had been a very significant kingdom under Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar, but the Persian Empire that, that we're stepping into with Darius here. that overtook the Babylonians was the dominant kingdom in the world. I have a, I have a map here for you to see, the outline of what would have been included in that Persian Empire. Now, you see Media and you see, Babylon which was taken over by Persia and, this is during Cyrus.

So this gives us a good picture of about what it would be like under Darius, that all of this area would have been covered. And Daniel was distinguishing himself among all the rulers as the man. This is also, just, just to give an example of the things that they were accomplishing at that time in building. this is a gate, the Ishtar Gate that they would have a replica of it that they would have had as one of the gates into the city.

and if you can see it, the tiny little dot in the middle of the gate, that's a person. So you can get a picture for the fact that this is, this is a huge gate, and beautiful architecture that they were building at that time. It's interesting that we see Daniel set himself apart and became distinguished by his spirit. It says, because an excellent spirit was in him.

That this has been such a great instruction to me personally as I've spent time in the book of Daniel, because usually when I think of something that I want to go out and accomplish, I think of, OK, what is the list of action items that I should begin following in order to accomplish this. But that's not the way that Daniel set himself apart. One thing that I think of too is with my kids, if I'm, if I'm trying to do something in parenting and I see some type of behavior in my kids that I want to address, usually I think of, OK, what's the book that I need to read?

What are the activities that I can do with my kids?

What are some of the people that I can get them to interact with? Instead of stopping and saying, what is in my behavior and what is in me as a person that can affect or should affect my kids. Daniel became distinguished above all the other wise people in the kingdom of Babylon and Persia because of who he was internally. Those internal traits and characteristics set him apart and made him distinguished and led to his success.

It was not sleight of hand, activity, or political maneuvering. It was his internal being. It's interesting that term excellent spirit, those two words side by side. This is the only place in the Bible where that term is used in the book of Daniel.

It's used several times in the book of Daniel. We're, we're familiar with the word spirit. you might remember even from the beginning of the, the series that Pastor Milton has on Genesis that he talked about spirit in the beginning of Genesis, and that's the, Hebrew word rubach, which is, spirit, wind, breath, the life of, or the spirit of a person. They're being But that term excellent.

If you transliterated it so we could say it in English, it would be yat. Yatir would be the word. And it means excellent or you could say extraordinary or exceeding. We're, we're in the land of superlatives with this word.

They're saying above and beyond anybody else, Daniel had an excellent spirit. That also means he was not a jerk about his accomplishments. Have you ever met those people? very smart, very accomplished, very wise, and they want to make sure that they are very smart, very accomplished and very wise.

And that was not Daniel. He was respectful and kind, demonstrated in the previous interactions. If you look back earlier in the book of Daniel, you see that in his previous interactions he demonstrates a character of respect and kindness. and methodical following of God.

He had a beautiful humility about him, and he didn't even take credit for himself, what he knew accurately belonged to God. You see that earlier interactions with kings, in chapter 2, for example, after no other wise man in the kingdom could interpret a dream for Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel comes before Nebuchadnezzar and Nebuchadnezzar says, Are you the one able to make known to me the dream and the interpretation? And Daniel says, no wise men, enchanters, magicians, astrologers can show the king the mystery, but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries.

And not because of any wisdom that I have more than all the living, but in order that the interpretation may be known to you. He didn't take credit for himself and get high on his own abilities. He gave credit where credit was due to God. Daniel's spirit was so excellent that Darius was even willing to trust him with the entire kingdom.

Did you see, did you see that in the, in the End of that section. And that Darius planned to set him over the whole kingdom. You have to trust somebody. Pretty intensely to do that, especially at this time in history which was pretty volatile.

Kingdoms were rising and falling and, and there's all kinds of fighting for control and for power and for Darius to be able to say, yeah, I trust this guy enough. I'm gonna put him over the entire kingdom. Daniel had demonstrated his trustworthiness and excellent spirit. It goes on further to describe Daniel in verse 4 as being faithful or trusted or trustworthy.

You see that in verse 4. They could find no ground for a complaint or any fault because he was faithful and no error or fault was found in him. The way that is worded, no error or fault was found in him, includes both faults of commission and omission. So he didn't, he didn't go out and actively plan anything bad or do any evil things, purposefully and proactively.

And it also means he didn't omit or shirk any responsibilities that he was given. He was faithful with every responsibility that he was given, and he followed through. And did what he was responsible for. Sometimes you may have noticed it pays to be honest and hardworking.

And sometimes it doesn't seem to pay in the here and now, and Daniel is about to see. That is not going to pay off in the here and now in a big way. Many people, and this brings us to our second point. The plot to destroy Daniel.

Many people outright hated Daniel. What do you think would cause a person to hate someone who is honest, hardworking, intelligent, and wise? Well, for starters, he was honest, hardworking, intelligent and wise. And sometimes that just makes people hate you.

In our culture too, we see that being spotless just isn't really cool. We want somebody that we can relate to. Or that has a little bit of dirt on them so that we can feel like they're a normal person, right? Now, granted, Daniel was not a perfect person.

He was not Jesus Christ. He was not God. So surely he had his faults, but he set a very high standard in his behavior. And as a result, Daniel's enemies really hated him, not just so much that they wanted to remove him from, from the position of power.

They didn't, they didn't just want to say, you need to be removed from this position. We don't want you to be part of our little club. They hated him so much that they wanted him to die. They wanted to kill him.

They wanted to watch lions eat him. That was the hatred they had for Daniel. So This turned into the ultimate witch hunt. It's only one sentence there you see, it says, then the presidents and satraps sought to find ground for complaint.

But there's a lot of action indicated by that, isn't there? That's a lot of work that they undertook to find a way to get Daniel. We see the same thing today. People love, love a good witch hunt.

They love to watch a good person fall. They love the juicy details. If you can tarnish the reputation of a good man, if you can find dirt on a good man, you can just lower the standard a little bit for the rest of us. And If you can keep that person from setting a high standard, we all feel a little more comfortable.

But if that one guy throws the grading curve, And keeps getting the 100%. Everybody has to work on the same standard. Imagine the threat of that specifically for these guys. Think of these men who realize Daniel's about to be put in charge of all of them.

He says he's gonna be over the whole kingdom and in charge of even those presidents and satraps and you've been keeping two sets of books and you've been arranging things for your own comfort and your own prosperity. And soon you're gonna have a man with ultimate integrity and hardworking, and he's gonna be in charge of you. It's a little bit intimidating. Suddenly standards are going to increase.

But Daniel's enemies come to the end of the witch hunt and all they can find is let's find a conflict of values. There's no fault. We can't find it in Daniel. Let's just look for a place where Daniel's values conflict with the values of the Persian Empire.

It says 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. Let me ask you a question that I had to ask myself studying this passage. How closely Are your actions aligned to your values? How carefully do I follow the commands of scripture in my daily life?

Daniel's greatest critics and detractors knew that the best place to catch him. was to lay a trap in a conflict of values, and where did they lay the trap? They, they decide that it's going to be conflict of values and where do they choose? Dan, Daniel's enemies put their money on prayer.

Of all of the practices, of all the commands in scripture. Of all the habits of Daniel. The one place that his enemies are gonna take one shot to bring him down and they say this is the spot we can take him. They choose prayer.

So they go and they lie to the king. They say all the high officials of the kingdom, the prefects and the satraps, the councilors and governors are agreed. The king should establish an ordinance and enforce an injunction. No petition to any god or king except you, O king.

If somebody was to evaluate my life or your life. And say, this is the spot. This is where we can catch him. Take it to the bank.

He's gonna do it every time. What would it be? In this case, Daniel's enemies relied on his faithfulness to God in prayer, the vanity of Darius. And a flurry of activity.

You can see the, the satraps, and the presidents came by agreement to the king. That, that's that word by agreement. it carries this tone of in tumult or to throng as a mob. I know it may be difficult to imagine, but just bear with me.

Imagine if a group of powerful people were all caught up in a frenzied tumult or stirred up about a particular issue. Can you imagine that? That's how they came to the king. They came in a tumult and said, Look, King, you need to consolidate power.

We hear from all the precincts reporting all over the kingdom that, you just got to make a strong statement and you got to say, hey, you are the man in charge, so, so let's do this. 30 days, prayers only go to you. You got to make a strong statement. After that, everybody goes back to their own gods.

They can do their own thing, but 30 days, O King, and, and just establish power, make a strong statement. And Darius willingly agrees and signs the document and injunction. So now the ball is in Daniel's court. The man who's soon to be the 2nd most powerful man.

In the greatest kingdom on earth. The ball's in his court. The document's been signed. The rule is in place.

What will he do? And so we look at Daniel's response. To his enemies Verse 10. This is the key to the whole passage, verse 10.

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 3 times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God as he had done previously. At his core In the moment of greatest conflict. When his success and his very life was at stake.

Daniel had an unrelenting commitment to God in prayer. I have to remind myself that Daniel must have been an extraordinarily busy person, right? Behind the king, he was the most important person in the kingdom. He ruled over rulers and he was the most competent of all of them.

So surely there were a lot of demands on his time. While I'm not the most important person in any kingdom, I struggle to find one time a day to spend reading the Bible and praying. And yet Daniel says that he made time 3 times a day. you can see it's, it's a very consistent thing.

He says he got down on his knees, so there's some time involved. He's setting aside specific time. 3 times a day And prayed As he had done previously. He had a pattern of turning to God, asking for help, thanking God.

Daniel's time at this point, Daniel's time is money. But he still recognized that even as powerful as he was, as important as he was, the best way he could spend his time. was looking to God. Who had ultimate power and authority and could influence anything in the entire world.

He valued that time as being more important and in that there's, there's really a certain humility, isn't there? Recognizing he could have said my time is money, I'm too important. I don't have the time. But instead he said, I have to ask God.

And it seems like there are 2 things that Daniel's prayer consisted of. He prayed and he gave thanks. That word prayed could be translated as interceded. A very powerful man.

And stopping 3 times a day and asking for help and thanking God. So if I was, going to, to lift a, a heavy box and, and I stopped and I came in and said, hey, I need some help lifting this heavy box. I, I'm admitting first of all that I'm weak and I can't do it on my own, right? And I'm acknowledging there's somebody else that's stronger than me and they can help me lift the box.

Not only that, but then Daniel is acknowledging through his thankfulness, saying these things come from, from God. Anything good comes from God. And he stopped to acknowledge that and thank God for it. As a side note, when we're looking at Daniel's pattern of, of prayer here and asking God for help in things, All of us here at Cornerstone are in a really unique position to influence the next generation.

if I heard correctly at the annual meeting last week, in the, right after the service, we have somewhere around 100 kids. That are under 10 years old. Does that sound accurate? I, I, I don't know if that's right on, but if that, if that is about the right number, that means around 20% of the people here are under 10 years old.

That's a lot of kids. Whoever, whoever around here is having all these kids needs to quit it. But we are in a unique position as a church to influence that next generation and setting a pattern in our own lives, who we are as people, setting a pattern in our own lives. And praying and interceding and giving thanks for these kids is just an incredible thing that we could do.

To build that pattern. I, I'd, I'd ask you to, if you're interested, I'm, I'm gonna, try to make a list. This is one of, one of my action items from, the sermon, for myself is, I want to make a list of all the kids in our care group and then commit to one day a week choosing at least one of those kids to pray for, and, and just ask God to intercede on that kid's behalf and so I'd, I'd invite you to join me, in doing that with your care group. or I can give you the names of three kids that I would recommend praying for.

Daniel Prayed as he had done previously. It says. Earlier in the book in Daniel 2:18, when life, when Daniel's life was in jeopardy back then from King Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel asked his friends to seek mercy from the God of heaven. And then he gave thanks to God then.

So, in this passage, it says, He prayed and gave thanks before his God as he had done previously. It could be one of two things. It could be saying he had the same type of situation before and he prayed and he gave thanks back with this other life threatening situation with the Nebuchadnezzar. Or it could just be saying as he had done previously, this routine of 3 times a day of prayer.

Both of them seem pretty logical given What we've seen so far in his life. It's interesting he didn't modify a simple routine. You notice that? It's just a simple routine.

And he could have easily just made some modification in this particular situation. We know it's pretty routine because it says, then these men came by agreement and found Daniel. There was an agreement to go to that location to find Daniel and that word to find Daniel could, it carries with it the idea of going to get something. it's not like, oh, what do?

We stumbled across Daniel, but it's more so they came by agreement to go and get him, making petition. They know the time, they know the place, they know the routine. It's a known quantity. Go to this place to find Daniel.

It's almost like Daniel after finding out about the law said, hey guys, you can find me B12, room B12. I'm there 3 times a day, 8 o'clock, 12 o'clock, 4 o'clock. Let me know. He could have easily changed that.

Have you, have you ever done this mental gymnastics in your own walk with God? You could have said, God, I think I just need a, a really special place to pray for the next 30 days, free from distractions, maybe out in the hills all by myself, isolated so nobody can see me. He could have modified it and done the mental gymnastics to say, oh this is This isn't wrong. It's just I'm, I'm just changing my, my pattern.

I'm still praying. But he just continues on. There's, there's, there's a simple beauty to what he does. Over the years, I, I've personally thought through this in the context of one of the contexts that I've worked through is, praying at lunchtime, especially when it involves co-workers.

So, When you go out to lunch, my, my routine when I eat is I give thanks before I eat and then I eat. And I had to start thinking through. So if I go out with co-workers, do I carry that same routine or do I pray silently or do I pray out loud by myself or do I pray with them? Eventually, I, I came to the conclusion, well, I, if that's my pattern, I should just keep my pattern and just be me.

If, if this is the way I am on my own, I should act the same way regardless of who's present. And so now, it doesn't matter who I go to lunch with, if it's somebody that's far superior to me or with peers or with, With other Christians or with Jews or with people who openly hate Christ. I just say, hey, I normally give thanks before I eat. Do you mind if I pray for us?

And then pray. And it's fascinating the responses that I've gotten after that. Sometimes, I'll finish the prayer and people say, wow, Jonathan, that was just so meaningful. I, I thank you for doing that.

I really appreciate that you, that you prayed. And then, there have been other times where I'll open my eyes at the end and, and the cold glare tells me they wish they would have said, no, you can't pray for me. For you It might be The way that you talk And when you're at home or at church, you talk one way, and then when you're out with friends, you talk another way. It could be that you have one set of activities that you do when you're with Christian friends and then another set of activities that you'll entertain with non-Christian friends.

Daniel set an example. By just not modifying his behavior based on pressure. There's a beautiful simplicity. This was what he knew was important.

And he kept doing it. He made no secret of his place of prayer, and he made no effort to change it, even when it was dangerous. But at the same time, Daniel didn't grandstand. You see that?

He, he didn't make a big deal out of it. He just went and did it again. He wasn't obnoxious about prayer. He didn't try to get in people's faces and force a conversation about the validity of his prayer.

He didn't go post snarky comments on Twitter or post a selfie on Instagram with hashtag Insta prayer. He was respectful He knew the law had been signed. He knew that the rule must be enforced. And there's a simple beauty to his behavior in response to a life threatening rule.

God, Daniel knew that an alteration of his personal routine of prayer would communicate. A change in his priority of God over men. So I wonder What gives a man the confidence, the conviction of simple routine daily things. To continue doing that when that it could cost your job, your career.

Your money, your prestige. Your power And your life. Daniel knew where to put his attention. Look at verses 11 through 13.

This is, this is interesting. It says, These men, then these men came by agreement and found Daniel making petition and plea before his God. And they came near and said before the king concerning the injunction, O king, did you not sign an injunction that anyone who makes a petition to any god or man within 30 days, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions? The king answered and said, The thing stands fast.

And which cannot be revoked, they answered and said before the king, Daniel, who's one of the exiles from Judah, pays no attention to you, O king, or the injunction you have signed but makes this petition 3 times a day. Notice how that accusation is brought by the satraps. They make sure to slip in those key talking points to the king, right? Daniel, one of the ones, the exiles from Judah.

We were suspicious of him all along. Now he proved us right. He wouldn't pray to you, O king. They say He pays no attention to you, O king.

Clearly from the context of the passage, Darius knows that Daniel does pay attention to him. Darius is willing to put him over the entire kingdom. That's a lot of trust and you got to know that he's listening to you to do that. He knew that Daniel was honorable and respectful.

But The accusers still take that to DEFCON 12. He pays no attention to you. This, this is an interesting phrase too. It carries, it carries with it.

A sense of obedience or being under the influence of 11 maybe common slang way to put this, this is dangerous to do. I hesitate a little bit, but if you're going to put in, in common slang, you could say this guy Daniel, he's not drinking the Kool-Aid. They take this one act by Daniel and they overstate the situation as a complete disregard. For the rule of the king.

And while it's an overstatement, While they're overstating the case about Daniel, it is true. That he did not pay attention to that rule. And he did have his attention somewhere else. That name, Daniel, it means God is my judge.

Has a strong name. I, I met a, I don't know if he's here today. I met a Daniel last week. We were, we were talking, And that's the name of my second son as well.

We, we saw the example of Daniel in the Bible and said, man, we, we want our son to be like this, recognizing God as the most important judge. Daniel had some, some big influencers that helped him to identify God as being the most important judge and not man. Two particular things have stood out to me as I've worked through this passage and this book. Two things.

The first one is, Daniel had already been through a lot of conflict with previous kings. This was not his first rodeo dealing with a king laying down a law. By my count, this is Daniel's 5th, 12345, 5th direct confrontation with a ruler. And Daniel, you can write these down if you, if you want, to look these up later on.

In Daniel 1:8, he said, it says that he resolved he would not defile himself with the king's food. He said that to the chief eunuch, the guy that was in charge of all of them. That was the first one. Second one is in Daniel 2:16.

Nebuchadnezzar threatened to kill all of the wise men, including Daniel, and Daniel went and sought mercy from God and then talked to the king about the vision. The 3rd 1 is in Daniel chapter 4. Daniel had to stand in front of Nebuchadnezzar and tell him about the humiliation that he was about to endure. Face to face, man to man, say God is about to humiliate you and make you a beast.

Number 4 is in Daniel chapter 5, verses 17 through 30, and I have to, I have to give you the quote for what he actually says to a king because it's, it's so remarkable to think of standing face to face with a king and saying this. Daniel says, To Belshazzar, Nebuchadnezzar's son. The God in whose hand is your breath you have not honored, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting. Said that directly to your king.

So that progression of conflict is actually a little bit encouraging to me because it, it shows that he built over time. God, God trained him for those moments of conflict and gave him the ability. Psalm 46 has a beautiful way of describing. This understanding of kings rising and falling and God not rising and falling.

It says, the nations rage, the kingdoms totter, God utters his voice and the earth melts. So Daniel had experience in conflict. The second thing that really shaped him in helping him to see who the true judge was and where to put his attention is visions that he had throughout his life. Daniel, the book of Daniel, chapters 1 through 6.

Our timeline of Daniel's life and different events that happened. Chapters 7 through 12 tend to be, although there's, there's still some story in there, those tend to be visions that he had, and some of them were visions he had during earlier, earlier in his life, some later. but in Daniel chapter 7, particularly, Daniel chapter 7 verse 9 and following, it, it gives one of the visions that Daniel had. that surely affected him and gave him understanding.

This vision in particular in chapter 7, he saw during the reign of Bill Shazzar, so this was prior to Darius. he had this vision. And it says Daniel is seeing this. It says, I looked, thrones were placed, and the ancient of days, God took his seat.

His clothing was white as snow and the hair of his head like pure wool. His throne was fiery flames, its wheels were burning fire. A stream of fire issued and came out from before him. 1,000,000s served him, and 10,000 times 10,000, that would be 100 million, served him.

The court sat in judgment. And the books were opened. A vision goes on. I saw in the night visions, behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man.

And he came to the ancient of days and was presented before him, and to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples, all nations, all languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away. Put yourself in that place for a minute. You walk in to the throne room of God.

You actually see this and experience this yourself. You walk into the throne room of God, and you see God sitting on a throne made of fire, and you see 100 million people standing before him. The courtroom of God's judgment is called to order. And the books of the records of your actions are opened.

There will be that time that we each stand before God. And the record of our actions will be opened. Jesus phrased it this way in Matthew 10:28, do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

Yeah, if you experienced that. You have that picture in your mind. And then you come before somebody who threatens to put you into A little lion cage puts things in perspective, doesn't it? Yeah, I'll take the lion's cage.

Cause I know that on the other side of death, whether it be through the lions or old age or whatever it might be, I know that on the other side of death, I will be standing in that judgment. And I will answer For actions. Daniel understood the world better as a result of the visions that he had, and we're lucky that he shared those visions so that we can read them and for ourselves gain that perspective as well. And no, this is the context that we need to deal with.

So when the ruling came down, To Daniel that he was supposed to pray to the king instead of God to God. His understanding of man's power, and accurate picture of God's ultimate power. is what helped him to prioritize who would get his attention. And in the end, he decided it was better to respectfully keep his routine of prayer.

Than to change his behavior for an earthly king. So today we stop here, the end of verse 13. We could read on and read about Daniel going, being thrown into the lion's den and the miraculous rescue by God to keep him safe, but that's really not the point. For this morning's message.

Daniel didn't know that he was gonna be rescued when he made this decision. He just decided to continue in simple obedience. He just kept plodding on, praying as he had done previously. I hope that this period of time looking at Daniel 6 has been as valuable to you as it has been for me over the last month, just spending time in this passage.

And as a way of review, It might be helpful to just point out the four things that I'm walking away with from this passage as well. A few of the high points. First, an excellent spirit is what drove Daniel's distinguished life. Second, even enemies acknowledged Daniel's good character and resorted to a conflict of values to trap him.

Third, Daniel didn't let threats change his priority for prayer. And 4th, Daniel feared God more than men. I know that care groups have a variety of things that, that they're doing with the Super Bowl, And so as it may be a, a pregame show. You could do two things, to follow up from our From our message this morning.

First is, talk about how to build your own habits of time with God. Is there something that you need to do to, to improve your habits with God? Do you need to pray more? Do you need to spend more time in the word?

Do you need, any particular habit that you want to improve? And talk about that and be practical about it. I know that we can have these great conversations. I do this all the time where you really, excited about something, but then if I don't come down to the brass tacks of how am I actually gonna pull that off, so talk about that.

Talk about building habits and, if you want, again, I could give you three children's names to pray for. That could be part of your habit. Second thing is, talk about some strategies for how to gain a clearer picture of God. As more important and worth your attention more than man.

What can you do to improve that understanding and improve your fear of God over fear of man? You take those two things, if you can, work those into the conversation in the pregame show or maybe halftime, you turn off the ridiculousness and you just talk about these things. So, let's pray together and ask God for his help. God, we're thankful this morning for the example of Daniel.

I'm thankful for the time that you've given. Me looking at his life and, just being convicted in my own heart of how I want to be like that. I want for there to be, nothing in my life aside from that conflict of values that people would point to. And God, getting those routines, of prayer and time with you is just, sometimes it's, it's hard work and help us, God in that.

Help us to set aside the time and make it, possible for us to, to set aside that time and prioritize prayer as being an, an essential element of our daily routines. Help me to do that, God. Help all of us to do that. And God, make us strong as we rely on you.

God, I recognize that none of us are perfect. And that, and that truly our only hope is depending on Jesus. And make us, make us dependent on that, God, make us strong in that. We're thankful for your word.

Thankful for the encouragement and the challenge that it brings to us in Jesus' name. Amen.