Joke's on you. You're the ones in trouble. I'm not in trouble yet
because I ain't said nothing can be used against me in the court of
law. Hey, good morning, Mary Sue. How you doing, huh?
I'm already getting ready for this section over here,
right? Hey, good morning. How we doing,
everybody? Good? Guess what I got. That's what I thought
right this morning.
We're going to be talking about a very, very
famous Bible story. This chapter
contains one of the most well known stories in the
Bible. And I remember growing up, my parents
had all these children's books of Bible
stories and it had this little gilded edge on them and they had
like paintings and stuff of the characters. I guarantee my mom
still has Daniel in the lion's den in a brown toy
box in the back room of her house. I'm probably going to try to dig
it out tomorrow when I go over. But I gre. I mean, I grew up
on these stories and they were fantastic and they were big and they
were grand. But it doesn't have the same glory and nuance that
it does now that I'm an adult and I understand a little bit more. And
as I was preparing for this message, I'm like, God, this is like.
This is like Sunday school. Like, we all know this. He said, no, they don't.
Everybody doesn't know this story. Not everybody knows this story.
You think just cause you grew up hearing it and understanding it that
everybody has grown up understanding it? I said, yeah, I live in Tennessee. Like,
we all know these stories. No, I don't. I said, okay,
Lord. So he said, here's what you need to do. You need to teach those
that don't know it, and you need to remind those that do of my goodness
and my power. So, okay, well, that's what we'll do. So if you've never heard
this story, buckle up. It's wild. Okay, we're going to talk about it this
morning. If you have heard this story, don't disconnect. Because God wants to remind
you of his glory and his power. Amen.
Story includes political jealousy, the
vanity of a king, God's miraculous power,
and justice and violence. So if you would stand with
me if you're able. And we're going to read a
passage at the very end of the chapter and then we're going to back up
and go to the front. Okay? Are we ready? 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. Father, we thank you
for your word. I thank you for this day. I thank you for
waking us up this morning, keeping us in our right minds and giving us a
reason to live. And today I pray that those under the sound of my voice
would be taught or reminded by your Holy Spirit, not by me,
but God. I pray your anointing would be all over me and that you would
use me to convey the message to your people that our eyes
would be open to see your miraculous life giving power in
the pages of your word. God, we love you and we thank you. It's in
Christ's name I pray. Amen. And amen. You guys can be seated.
So by the time, by the time we reach chapter
six in the book of Daniel,
Daniel is somewhere in the neighborhood of 70
years old. Did you know that? Probably didn't know that,
right? You might have thought, coming on the heels of the story with the Hebrew
boys, that Daniel might have been a teenager, a young adult. And I know if
you're 70, you're like, hey, back off, bucko. And the fact
that bucko was your term of disrespect shows
near 70. Okay?
Daniel's in the neighborhood of 70. Ish. Okay?
When this happens, that's about the age where you've pretty
much got your mind made up, am I right? If you're 70, you
know, I'll give you exhibit A. Earlier this
year, Pastor Ronnie got up here in a Beatles T shirt
and, and made something to the lines of, I don't care about fashion.
This shirt is comfortable to me. But then he pointed out my
shoelaces match my hat. So I was like, are you really not
concerned about fashion? Because I see what you did there,
bud. I like what you got going. Then
a pastor friend of mine sent me a video. Pretty scary video. There was
a scene where somebody was attacking a crowded place and
there was gunfire going on and people were running everywhere. And at the
end of the video, there's this seasoned guy just.
And there's people running and there's gunfire and he's just walking. And
me and the guy that sent me, both of us said, that's Fred Jones right
there. God forbid something ever happened. Wherever he's
at, he's like, it's my time. I'm just, you know what, whatever, not getting in
a hurry. I'm not running for this. Right.
It's not that they don't care. It's that they are
settled in their spirit. Age can
make you cynical, or it can make you settled. You
can get old and you can be cynical about things, or you can just be
settled in your spirit. And Daniel was
at that age to be settled in his spirit. Let's pick up the
chapter. This is one through three. You don't have to read it with me. I'll
read it to you. It pleased Darius. Darius
is the 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 an account so the
king might suffer no loss. Did you pick that up? What's happening? No, you didn't?
I'm going to explain it. The king doesn't want to lose money, so
he sets 120 provincial rulers
over the kingdom. And then over those 120,
he sets up three big dogs. And then over the three
big dogs, he. He's got one big dog. Got it.
Then this Daniel became distinguished above all the other
high officials and satraps because an excellent
spirit was in him. And the king planned to set
him over the whole kingdom. See what's happening here? There's
120 satraps over the kingdom,
provincial rulers. Daniel is the leader in the
clubhouse. Why is Daniel the leader in
the clubhouse? Because he had an excellent
spirit. An excellent spirit. This is a
Hebrew word meaning exceedingly or
extraordinary. Basically, Daniel
was above reproach. I want to remind
you of something. Daniel is in Babylonian
captivity. Do you know what that means?
The people of the Babylonian kings came and took all the
Jews from Jerusalem and. And said, you are all coming with us.
And now you're going to live here in Babylon and you're going to be slaves
to us. And we will appoint some of your smart guys to
be as our officials. And if you. If you don't like
what we're doing, if you don't bow down to this statue, we'll just throw you
in a furnace. But this is not like they just moved
to Tallahassee. Right? That's for you.
This wasn't a choice they had. They didn't say, hey, guys,
we're retired. Let's get an oceanfront view. Are you hearing
me? They are captives
in another country. And Daniel still chose
to operate with an excellent spirit. Here's what I want you to understand,
ladies and gentlemen. Ooh. That wasn't supposed to happen.
What I pushed. Oh, my gosh. I done messed it up.
Y' all gonna do it for me? Here's what I want you to understand.
Your circumstances should never determine your
character. Your circumstances
should never determine your character.
Daniel didn't have a choice about his environment. Here's where it's
different. Circumstances are things that are happening to you that are outside of
your control. Some of us are complaining about our situation,
but we keep putting ourselves in a bad situation. If you
hang out in the barbershop long enough, you can't complain. When you
decide to get a haircut, nobody held you. I was complaining
about getting a tattoo. Marva's like, I feel bad for you. You chose that.
Like, thanks for the compassion, lady.
It hurts so bad. She said, you signed up. It's not like
you were kidnapped and they put you in a van and was like, tell us
what we want to know. That's not
how that happens. It's a choice, right? For me. Wasn't a choice
for some. Daniel didn't choose. Daniel
didn't choose to be in captivity. What he did choose was how
he was going to operate, given his situation and his
circumstance. And he chose to operate with an excellent spirit.
Daniel's integrity made him the subject of attack.
Daniel. Daniel wasn't sinless. He was
upstanding. And upstanding means that
despite your circumstances, that you are going to operate
differently. You got it?
Let's keep reading. Then. The high
officials and the satrap sought to find ground for a
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. They had no dirt on
Daniel. Let me ask you a question.
If you guys wanted to run for political office right now,
how far would they be able to go back before they found something on
you, huh?
Find you on World Star Hip hop, right? You're on a
bus. And they're like, yeah, got him right here. Look. Pastor Justin
wiling out, right? And the reason why everything's
filmed right away is because this is always in your hand.
So they got it ready. I said this challenge to the first service. I'm gonna
put this challenge to you. And I regret it. Cause I'm gonna have to do
it. You married folk in the room. I'm talking to you. Married folk. Look up.
Listen up. I want to issue a boredom challenge to
you next time you're at a restaurant or you're out on
a date or doing something with your spouse and there's A moment where
your spouse gets up to go to the restroom.
Do not pick up your phone. Be bored for
30 seconds. Five minutes, however long it takes.
Next time you're in the doctor's office and you're waiting on
somebody, stop scrolling. I need you to pick up the Highlights
magazine. It's a miracle that they are still in business.
I mean, I thought they would have never survived, but here they are in every
doctor's office across the planet. They going to be like, Mr.
Burkett, it's your time for your appointment. You'll be like, I can't find a shoe.
You got to hang on, right?
Man, people used to have magazines in their bathrooms and books
and everything. When I grew up, you had to read the back of the
cereal box. Do nothing
anymore. Why? Because we constantly gotta have entertainment. We gotta
constantly be entertained. So it's no wonder that everybody's got all
your dirt on camera. Praise God they didn't have
ring cameras in the 90s.
I wouldn't even be on this stage.
The other day, somebody tried to say I was a convicted felon. I said, the
devil's a liar. How dare you slander my name like that.
How dare you say that I was a criminal.
You can't prove it.
Somebody gonna do a background check? Like, I'm a Metro officer, I bet I can
find it. Go ahead. Good luck, big boy. Go ahead and check that
live string out from December, okay? You'll see how big God is.
They didn't have no dirt on Daniel.
The only way they could get Daniel to slip up was an attempt
to compromise his faith. Look what they said. We shall not
find any ground for complaint against this Daniel unless we find it
in connection with the law of his God. The only way they
was going to get Daniel to mess up was to get him to try to
compromise his faith. And when you're a man of integrity, and
you're a man of excellent spirit, that means you operate that way no matter what.
And they know that the only way they can get you is get you to
compromise. Enemy got me to compromise.
Yesterday, I lost my mind on
my kids. Two in particular,
over some pepperoni pizza.
I said. I mean, I yelled, screamed. What
are we doing? What is the problem?
We'd been in the house exactly seven seconds.
Seven give you the scene. We get out of the car. I've got
all the kids. I give one of them my key. I say, go inside,
heat up the pizza. I'm going to bring the rest of the stuff inside.
By the time I get inside, two of them are coming at me like,
dad, dad, whatever. I said, absolutely not.
This is not what we're gonna do. What is
the problem? She grabbed a piece and the crust
fell off. And so she put it back and grabbed another piece. I'm
like, why did you do that? That's your piece.
And you, why are you being so bossy? And the other three are just
like on the out's perimeter. And I'm just going
off. I'm yelling, I'm yelling and I'm loud. Anyway,
I didn't yell for your benefit just now. But I'm yelling at
them over some pepperoni pizza
now. But I wasn't yelling at them over the pizza.
I had become fed up that they were bickering because they'd been
bickering for days and weeks and months. And I let all
that frustration build up and spill out onto somebody else.
Sometimes when somebody's blown up on you, it ain't what you did. It's that
they've let it just build up and build up and build up until it overflows.
If I was Kevin, he'd have thrown something on you right now.
Like, man, Milky Ways water bottle. I can't do this church right now.
Like, it's a 4D experience. It's like Disney World.
Watched a guy take a Milky Way to the eye socket last week,
Dead serious over a glasses cot, rubbing his head.
And then I realized he wasn't that bad off. Cause I saw him open the
Milky Way. I said, man, like. I was like, yeah,
I see what's happening right now. Don't listen.
You better not say nothing out there with caramel in your teeth.
Man, I lost my mind and I had to walk. I did one of these,
walked off, came back and said, guys,
I'm wrong. I didn't say I'm sorry,
but I said, dad was wrong. Dad should not have lost
his temper like that. Dad should not have yelled at you like that. What you
did didn't warrant my level of response. I'm sorry, I'm wrong. Will you
guys forgive me? I didn't say I'm wrong, but I'm
tired of you bickering. You guys are arguing all the time. I said, I'm wrong.
And then I let the air settle for about 19 seconds.
I said, now let's address the issue
that we didn't get resolved. But just cause I blew up and
repented doesn't mean we just don't have the issue resolved.
And so we resolved the issue. And it's important that children
see that. That you are quick to repent. Because I'm
not raising kids that aren't quick to repent.
Excellent. Doesn't mean Daniel was sinless. It means he operated
with integrity. And I want to raise young men and women that operate with
integrity. So we say, hey, my dad was w. But one thing
he did get right was when he got it wrong, he made it right by
repenting to the Lord. Confession is important,
ladies and gentlemen. So
we don't order pizza anymore.
There was a lot. We don't do anything. Pizza's not just a go to. That's
one of those lazy parenting acts like I don't care. It's 8:30. We gotta feed
them according to the law or. And I'm not cooking
omelets for nobody tonight.
The only way they could get Daniel to slip up was an
attempt to compromise his faith. You know, that's always the
playbook. Compromise. Compromise is always the
playbook. It's always the playbook. And Pastor
Kevin's message where he had the big boulder out here and then he had the
little stones. And if you weren't here, I'm gonna remind you, he said it's never
the big stones. It's always those little ones that get
you. Okay. Nobody wakes up and has an
affair that starts way down the road
beforehand. How? Compromise. Cuz
compromise always leads to more compromise. If you find the
children of Israel in Judges chapter one, they are
conquering Canaan land and they let one small group
of Philistines in a valley because they quote
unquote had iron chariots. Basically what that meant was
they were hard to defeat. That's a hard,
tough battle. I'd rather just not deal with it. It's not
gonna hurt if we let 150, 200 of them stay.
What it did was move the line that God had set.
And when you move the line and you move the line, you'll keep moving the
line. Because compromise always leads to more compromise. So that
in chapter one, they compromise once by chap.
They're married to their women, they're worshiping their gods, and they're
enslaved to their kings. Now I know it's not consequential order. It's like 1,
2, 3, 4. There's a time period that happened, however,
that's the progression with sin and compromise.
And when you begin to compromise, it is not always sin at first,
but it'll lead you there. Because eventually,
if the line's here and you move it here and you move it here and
you move it here, what happens when it's moved to here.
You see what I'm saying? That's the only way they could get Daniel. Let's get
him to compromise. Because one thing. He will
either mess up and we got him, or he will have
to abandon his faith.
Look what they do in verse 10. Oh, I didn't finish it. I
didn't finish it. Oh. The only way we
can find it is in connection with the law of his God. So this is
what they do. Then these high officials and satraps came by agreement to the king.
He said, oh, King Darius, live forever. Flattery.
Anybody starts a conversation with me, oh, Pastor Justin, live forever. I'm like, what
do you want, dad? You're so strong.
We love you, dad. You're great. I'm thinking.
Listen. All the 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 30 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, an injunction. His own vanity
allowed him to be tricked into signing an ordinance that nobody could
worship any God or any man except for him,
according to their law, for 30 days.
For 30 days.
Daniel wasn't dumb.
He knew that the document had been
signed. And so what does he do? He goes to his house where
it had windows in his upper chamber open towards
Jerusalem. He got down on his knees three times a
day and prayed and gave thanks before his God as he had
done previously. So Daniel's not an
idiot. He knows what's happening because he's on the official
court. Right? Like,
if I was just as surprised as you about chairs being in
here this morning, that might be a problem,
right? I knew that we had new chairs. You might not have. I bet you
didn't know. There's card readers in that corner, little tap to pay.
Yeah, you just put your. That's. I just want to see how many people is
going to do that next Sunday. Like Pastor Johnson said,
should be right here. And then I guess what, I will be at breakfast. I
will be in trouble for that. You can't tell people that. They believe you.
So Daniel's a part of the official court. Daniel knew
what was happening, and in this moment, he's confronted with a test
of loyalties. I love the king. I honor the king.
This is my job. I'm good at my job. I'm
supportive of the King. I'm doing what he's asking me to do. I'm
embracing my situation. But I'm also loyal to Yahweh.
I'm also loyal to the Lord. And this has put me in a
tough spot because I'm not trying to dishonor the King. I'm not
intentionally disobeying him. But I answer to a higher
standard. There's a higher call on my life.
And so I know you're telling me to bow only to you, but I
simply cannot. But he doesn't just go into the
royal court. Where does he go? Back to his house,
in his room, as he had done before?
Daniel didn't say, well, you know what? This is bad. I need to start
praying 50 times a day. He also didn't
say, this is bad. I. I'm giving up. And pray zero
times a day. It says he prayed three times a
day. As he had done previously. He just. He
kept doing the same thing he'd always been doing.
But not only does he pray, look at this. He got
down on his knees.
He changed his posture before the Lord. And
some of us are standing here at the Lord like this, and all he's
waiting on you to do is change your posture before him. Him.
As Jesus changed his posture in the garden, as
Stephen changed his posture in the Book of Acts, the very first
martyr. Do you know about Stephen? Stephen was martyred. He was stoned
to death after laying out the gospel. They couldn't
handle it. And as he's on his knees, we
see Jesus posture change. I want you to know, saints, that
everywhere in the New Testament, when you find Jesus position
after the Ascension, he is always mentioned as being
seated at the right hand of God. When
Stephen's posture is like this and he's being stoned,
the first martyr, the posture of the king
changes. And it says, I saw Jesus
standing at the right hand of the Father. You mean to
tell me that the Son of God's posture was changed and so
moved because his posture changed? And what did he say?
The same words, forgive them, God. They don't know what they're doing.
Forgive them, God. Daniel changed his posture
the same way Peter and Paul did in Acts.
So they set a trap for him.
The traps spy on Daniel. I don't know how they saw
him. And they go and tell the king what he's doing.
And they remind the King of the decree he signed.
Bunch of snitches
just Ratted him out for no reason. No, they had a
reason. 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.
Darius was displeased with himself. He
realized he'd been tricked. He had that. Ah, what have
I done? They got that. This was the. They got
Daniel. They got to me to get to Daniel. I was a
pawn. The king became the earthly king,
became a pawn in the devil's game, right?
Nobody's above you might think your power and your influence and your
authority or something. No, no, no. You're still a pawn in this
game. This is a cosmic war,
okay? And even the king of Babylon was like,
oh, you got me.
For all you that was Daniel's age, shucks, right?
I'll buy breakfast. I promise.
Darius was displeased with himself, and he took the blame
for it. But just owning it wasn't enough.
Now he has to determine, am I going to follow through with the
decree that I set up according to the law, or am I going to follow
my heart and set Daniel free? And that's going to cause all kinds of problem.
So there was no option except for him to follow through and
toss him into the DIN Alliance. And this is one thing that gets me. Like,
where do these people come up with this stuff? Like,
do you think they just had a board meeting? Was like, guys,
what are the ways we're going to come up with how to torture people?
Right? And it was like, what about we poison them? No, that's not good enough.
What if. What if we. What if we stab them with a bunch?
Nope, I don't like that either. And one guy's in the back. I got an
idea. Let's dig a big old hole and put wild
animals in it, and we'll throw people in that and the
animals eat them. And I was like, that's a great idea.
I'm just trying to read this from a human. Like, how did we come up
with these ideas? And you
notice something here. Daniel didn't even try to defend himself in the scripture. If you
read the scripture, Daniel did not even try to defend himself.
Stop being so defensive all the time, Saints. Stop
trying to feel like you got to always defend yourself, especially from the
world. Let me tell you. Let me give you a little information. If you're in
the wrong, you don't have a defense anyway. I was in
the wrong over that pepperoni pizza, was I not? Don't you
dare answer that.
I'm Asking the one I offended. I was in the wrong,
so I didn't have no defense. I could have come in there and say, well,
I did yell at you, but you made me mad, or, you did this. No,
no, no, Because I was in the wrong. So if you're in the wrong, you
don't have a defense anyway. If you're in the right, right will defend
itself. Jesus was silent before his
accusers. He was like, I don't have to
defend myself to you. You don't think I got the power to let you go?
You have no power except, I mean, a boss move. You have
no power that hasn't been given to you by my Father in heaven.
In the.
So this is what happens to Daniel.
Daniel's Daniel is thrown into this pit.
Then the king commanded, and Daniel was brought and cast into the den
of lions. And 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.
Then the king went to his palace and spent the night fasting. No diversions
were brought to him. And sleep fled from him.
Throws him in the pit. Now, I don't know what you got in your mind,
but I imagine it, like, being, like, down in a well. And he's
thrown Daniel in there, and he's like, hey, good luck, man.
Hope God. What does it say? They cast him in the
dinner lines. And then he declared to Daniel, may your God whom you serve continually
deliver you, Punishes him, and gives him a little pep talk on the way
down. You got it, bud. You
got this. I love that phrase,
though. Whom you serve continually.
The same God who he watched over here
rescue the three Hebrew boys, Hananiah,
Azariah, and Mishael. And I will campaign for them.
Because if we're not calling Daniel Belshazzar,
Dadgummit, Shadrach, Meshach, and
Bendigo will forever be known by their Hebrew names.
He'd seen that fourth man in the fire.
He knew he served God then. He's serving God now.
And no matter what had happened, he was going to continue
to serve the Lord. Daniel was
settled in his spirit. And this is what caused him
to be settled in his spirit. It's what makes Ronnie and Fred and even
you, settled. Daniel had seen so
much. He'd saw that fourth man in the fire. He had
seen Nebuchadnezzar sentenced to wander like a beast
by decree of the holy watchers, for claiming to be God,
he interpreted dreams and visions, and among it all,
he served the Lord continually in captivity.
So all night long, the king is a wreck. What
does it say? He spent the night fasting.
They didn't bring him anything to cause him comfort. And he couldn't sleep.
Sleep fled from him. Okay, he's a wreck
because he knows what's going to happen to Daniel. You notice he sealed it with
his signet ring. Do you know why that's important? Because the
signet beared the image of the king, and it held the
backing of the king's armies. So that was an official decree.
And he probably put that there for two reasons. One being, if
anybody saw Daniel still hanging out in the den, they might have
tried to take matters in their own hands. And for two,
so that nobody would come and undo what he had already done.
It's official. It's done. It bore the image,
the king. And as image bearers, you bear the image
of God, and the armies of heaven are your backing.
King is a wreck. He goes back in at
daybreak, and you know what he's expecting to see? Just a
mess down there. Just a mess.
And so instead of that, he finds Daniel safe
and secure. Can you imagine? They roll the
stone away. They roll the stone away. Listen. They
roll the stone away expecting one
thing, and instead,
they roll the stone away expecting a dead man, and
instead, he's alive and well.
God, you can't make this up.
This was written thousands of years prior.
I couldn't get five of y' all to write a story right now and be
on the same page. Think about it.
They roll the stone away. It's like, oh, Daniel. Daniel. Daniel's like
King Darius. Y' all remember when Forrest is
waving on the side of the boat? That's what I imagine
in my head. Lieutenant Dan, Right? He's waving at
him. He's like, I'm good. And Darius is like, look, remember, it's a. Well,
what happened? Right? And they have this little interchange, like, get up.
Let's go to breakfast. Cause neither of them have eaten all night. They didn't sit
him down there with a lunchbox. Okay, now that's
speculation. Don't say that they went to breakfast, please. Cause
I'll be at breakfast tomorrow. I already know it's gig is up. I'm just gonna
lean in. Okay,
so he's yelling down the hole. They
have this interchange. He says, bring him up. But then
something horrible happens. And we read these letters, like,
oh, this. Oh, and Then. And then this. And you're like, oh, it's not that
bad. He took all 120 satraps
and their wives and their children
and threw them in the hole. And the scripture
says that the lions devoured them before they hit
the bottom. It's a lot of people, y'. All.
That is a lot of human beings.
That is a lot of human people
that God loves that were affected by the
decisions of their fathers.
And we sit in here with some level of spiritual
audacity and think that because God's
merciful hand has not destroyed us, that we are
immune to the scripture that says sin leads to death.
Because you didn't physically die. Because I didn't physically
die, that that scripture is not
fulfilled. God is not mocked. He is very kind and
merciful. Now, I know that it wasn't
those children's fault, and I know that God wasn't the one that sentenced them to
that. So we can't put that on his back. But what I'm
saying is there are real world consequences to your actions. You
better think before you just get all outside of your mind. It's one
thing to yell at my kids over pepperoni pizza. It's another thing to lead them
out into traffic.
This story has so many parallels in the Bible.
So many parallels. I just gave you one right there. They rolled a stone away
expecting a dead man and said, he's living.
I was reminded this past week, these last couple of weeks,
as I've been preparing for this lesson,
as I've been sitting under Barbie's teaching in the
midweek gatherings. Midweek gatherings are fantastic, y'. All. This
Sunday morning. I love this. This is a wide net. There's some of you guys.
This might be your first time at church. And, like, this is amazing. Or I'll
never go back to church, depending on what God has done here. And
then there are some of you that have been in here for years, decades even,
and it's hard to dig and go a little deeper. And you're going to get
some truth. You're going to get some nuggets. Midweek is an intentional decision. If you
got the capacity, hey, I want to dig a little bit deeper if you
have the capacity. Some of you guys don't. Your sports families or things like that.
But if you can come be here and sit under Barbie's teaching, you'll
be blessed by it. She starts talking about
Joseph, she starts talking about Joseph, and I was
instantly drawn. I was like, where have I heard this
before? Where have I heard this? And I'm
like, oh, it's right here. Joseph's brothers
resented him because he was favored by his father.
Daniel was resented by the satraps because he
was favored by the king. The plan
for Joseph was to strip him of his coat and
throw him into a pit. And they were going to tell his father he was
eaten by wild animals. What?
Daniel was stripped of his position and title and
cast into the den of lions. The pit of lions.
Why is this the playbook? Let's falsely
accuse them, strip them down and cast
them to the lions. Because it's always
the playbook. It's been happening since the
garden. Satan resents us because of the favor of
our Father. Why do they get to bear the image? Why do
they have dominion on this planet? The thief comes to steal,
kill and destroy. He stole Joseph's coat and
Daniel's position and tried to steal your birthright. He tried
to kill both of them using the pit. And God delivered them both
from the pit. But the method for our delivery required the king
to go into the pit.
Jesus said, no sign will be given to you except the sign of
Jonah. And they're like, what? And he said, okay, well, let me break
it down. Just like Jonah had to be in the belly of the fish for
three days. The Son of Man has to go into the belly of the earth
for three days. He had to go into the pit.
He had to go into the pit so that you can come out of
it. I love what I
skipped over this, but I love Daniel's response
when the king's like, are you okay? This
is what Daniel says. I'm good.
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. Why did he say it like that?
His angel. His angel. That's not. He didn't say an angel.
He said his angel. And I probably looked up 17 different
Bible translations. I was like, surely that's not what they mean.
Every one of them, Every one of them say, my
God sent his angel. That kind
of messed me up. I did a teaching earlier this year
in a wild card series on the angel of the Lord.
Y' all can link that here, here, little
YouTube. There's about three people that watch YouTube, right? And
they're like, they do this in the corner, right? I looked. I didn't look at
y'. All. I looked right at the camera. I hope they link it.
It's a good teaching. It was a good Teaching. Right. Not because it was
me, but because the Lord has a way of doing stuff on
midweek gathering man.
And in that teaching I shared how I believe that the scriptures
point us to the conclusion that the angel of the Lord in the
Old Testament is Jesus pre incarnate. Now I made a case
for it. You don't have to agree with me. You can go watch the sermon
here
or what you can do is you can study the Scriptures.
Just take my word for it, study the scriptures and maybe you
come to a different conclusion and we can have dialogue. Because theology should be worked
out in community, not on top of a mountain. You can't go to the top
of a mountain, talk about God taught me how to be the kindest person on
earth. And then you go down to the valley and you're unkind to everybody. You
didn't learn kindness. You learned about kindness. So
theology's worked out amongst the brethren.
My assertion is that I am making a case for Christ. What
if it is his angel? What if that fourth man in the
fire is the same one that was in the pit with Daniel?
It's not a stretch. It's in the same. It's in the same book.
Does that not change the story to know if it was the angel of
the Lord that's in there with Daniel communing
Jesus descended into the pit of hell on
our behalf to shut the mouth of the one who roams about like a roaring
lion. Daniel was found blameless before him.
So God shut the mouth of the lions
so that we can be found blameless before the King. I don't care. If
you give me enough time, I will make every story about Jesus Christ.
I thought we was talking about Daniel lions then. We are. But you gave me
enough time to get where I needed to get to because it's all
about Jesus. Every story is about Jesus.
This whole book is about Jesus.
He was and is and is to come.
He is the greatest story ever told.
Everything points to him. Everything points
to him. Worship team, you can come
on out. They're on point this time. I kind of gave
them a hard time. I got done early. I was flying in early, gathering and
then I said, worship team, you come out and it was a ghost town.
And it was like, what are you doing? What are you doing to us? You
know when you don't want them to come out, they start playing that soft. Get
off the stage. Grammy song. Give me that.
Yes. And that's how you know the time's winding down. Right. You don't know what
Time it is. Don't look. Don't look, because you're not supposed to have your cell
phones because you're engaged. Highlights magazine, right?
I said, hey, guys, come on out. Gone. And.
But they're here. As we minister and close out this.
This message this morning. The story concludes with a
declaration from King Darius. And it's the one we read at the beginning. I just
want to read it again because this is how the story ends. After everything we've
just read and everything that happened, this is how the story ends. I meant
to put that up. I got fired up. I'm sorry.
This is what the king said. 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.
It opens up, and Darius is the king, and he's trying to do the right
thing, and he points people to help him. And these people are snakes.
And they try to trip up Daniel. They hate Daniel for no reason
other than the fact that he served the Lord. But guess what? The king
didn't know the Lord, but Daniel did.
The king didn't honor God, but Daniel did. And so they
devised a plan to trick him. They go to the king. He
signs a document that for the next month, nobody can worship
anyone but me. And then they go and trick him and get
Daniel caught up. And he's distraught, what have I done?
And he knows that when he throws Daniel into that lion's pit,
that he's not coming out. And yet somehow he's
having a conversation with him afterwards. And
that led to this.
This is the God that Daniel knew the entire time, but
it took the pit for the king to learn it.
Have you ever considered that this story is not about Daniel? That it
was about getting to the heart of that king? For him to understand
there is no God but the God of Daniel. He is the God.
This is a king declaring his kingdom shall reign
forever. His dominion is to all the earth. Kings did not
do that. He bent the knee. But it took
Daniel going into the pit for him to see it. Have you ever thought that
the things that the pits that you're in aren't for you, but they're for someone
else to see an excellent spirit in you,
for them to see God's miraculous power in your life
to be changed? And that decree went out to all
the kingdom. It
took that pit for him to know it. What Daniel already
knew. What will it take for you to know?
Why are we sitting around waiting on God's miraculous power
when it's been evident the whole time? You waitin on a
lion's den moment and he sustained you and you see
miracles? God, I seen a miracle with my own
eyes this last week. One of
my best friends in the entire world had a. They label it
a widowmaker heart attack.
No reason why he had a heart attack. A
hundred percent blockage. Do you understand what 100% means?
Totally blocked. And the man's having a conversation with the doctor.
A conversation. What happens is your heart, the
arteries get blocked, your heart stops pumping and you lay down
and die. His heart's blocked.
He's having a conversation with the doctor
at 5 o'. Clock. And by 9 o', clock, I'm sitting on the edge of
his bed swinging my legs. I'm like, man, what a day.
My friend Ashley and Katie, they go off script. An
unsanctioned women's event. When I say
unsanctioned, it's not like an official thing. And they set up a
weekend for women. And over 27 women
get set free. Five of them baptized.
Years of trauma, years of addiction, years of abuse.
Set free. In a moment. When they go under that water and when they
come up, that stone was rolled away and there was a dead person they thought
was going to be in there. And what came out was somebody was living.
Talk about living in an excellent spirit. Somebody. The world
is waiting on you to see you walk out what you already
know. Stop waiting on a lion's den moment to show them.
But it may take a lion's den moment. This lady at the front desk said,
I've been here 20 years, I ain't never seen so many people come in here.
And now we all know his name. Lonnie.
What's it gonna take for you to get it? Are
you settled in your spirit? Are you bowing to the
king or are you bowing to the king?
And are you going to pray for the Lord to get you out of these
pits? Are you going to start inviting them into it with you?
Cuz that pit Daniel had to go into wasn't just for Daniel.
He needed that king to get to this point. If I could have all
my people that are going to come pray down here this morning. If you got
hurts and pains and, and hang ups and you got ailments and any of those
things that celebrate recovery is for, or if you need physical
healing in your body. Or if you. If you're saying to yourself, I don't know
that I've ever seen God's power. I want to
see God move. Then go talk to somebody. Go talk
to Dave. Go talk to Ashley. Go talk to Barbie. Go talk to Doug.
Come talk to me. We'll do it over
pepperoni pizza.
How? Guys, I just want to get to that place where people say,
man, listen, the only way we're going to be able to trip him up is
by trying to get him to compromise his faith because he's just living out what
he says he believes. Man, I just want to get to that place, and I
want you to go with me. Guys, it's a sharpening session.
We can learn so much from this, but right now, it's
time to do business with the Lord. If you got a hurt, if you got
a need, if you got a pain, if you got something, if you want to
go find a dark corner of the room, go do it. If you need to
change your posture before the Lord, then now is
the time. And I pray that God's power will be
manifest to you. Let's worship
gift.