DANIEL 6 - Jesus in the Lion's Den | Pastor Daniel Gouveia

[Music] so [Music] so um [Music] morning [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] foreign [Music] 33 these are all new songs [Music] [Music] so [Music] foreign [Music] um [Music] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] i want to welcome all of you here to the fresno central church and welcome to all of you at home who are watching online and sharing in our church service from the safety of your home hopefully soon these restrictions that try to separate us will be rolled back but we know that god's presence is always with us we're all together as one family regardless of any separations they may try to impose upon us from the outside and as we think about our family and the extended members i have a list here of some of the various uh requests for prayer and the situation there and i'll share and read those that we can all uh know what's going on and remember in our personal prayers and lives the individuals in our church that have issues that are hurting that are sick lois emerson uh has been a member here in the past grandmother of amy merriam and amanda nettles she died february 19th so remember those families in our prayers rose alvarado the mother of vanessa greer which is soon to be officially a member here was hospitalized again so we want to remember her in our prayers the reynolds family the isa family the greer family the cuvier family cervantes family jeanette lewis i understand that she came off of her chemo but she's going to be restarting another round of chemo tomorrow so that goes on she sent a note to the church that she understands what's going on she's of good spirits she's hopeful and dressful in god that she prays for each of us and she's very appreciative knowing that we all remember her and her prayer in our prayers amy butler and deborah holland also on the list here as especially needing our prayers so remember them as well um the announcement your 2020 receipts from last year if you're here today they're in the back there in a little box with uh alphabetized index there you can remember to pull those out and take them home with you you're gonna need them for your taxes uh if you're at home uh just send an email to pam medulla or some of the church staff and they'll see that we put those in the mail to you at home if you would prefer to receive them that way remember that is for those of you that come here there is a donation box in the foyer there where you can put your ties and offerings and if you're at home you can go online as well and i think and there's a box up here in front as well yeah so there's those boxes there um pastor goovey i would like to share some thoughts on his heart right now about the ties and offerings here thank you dr teske hello church good morning happy sabbath nice to see you all and nice to see you at home really good to be back in person at the church amen now um i want to share a few things today i'll try to make it short but this past week i've been trying trying it's not easy not an easy job especially for me i'm not a person that is very savvy with finance um in our home we have this agreement my wife is very good with finance so when we got married i said honey you take care of it you know and i've been blessed and happy but when it comes to the church i like principles i like that to to help guide the church with the principles of the word of god and the way we deal with money amen now i've been trying this past week actually i've been trying for a long time but this past week there was something that came up and i really needed to have a clear picture and idea of the financial situation of our church now i am i'm gonna have a meeting with the finance committee is coming up this week then i will schedule a meeting with the board of our church actually we're going to have an extraordinary meeting this month by the grace of god and keep me accountable we're going to have a business meeting we can meet in person again so we're going to have a business meeting those who are at home will try to have a a way for you to join online and still also give us your feedback but we are hopefully going to have a business meeting we did not have one at the beginning of the year we had a pastoral transition it was covet it was everything was happening but as soon as possible i want to have a business meeting where i will share with you exactly how we are where we are in terms of money at fresno central my policy as a pastor has always been 17 years of ministry 16 and a half to be entirely transparent okay this is how much money you have this is how much money comes in every month this is how much we spend and in what we are spending okay so this is coming up please please keep me accountable if you don't see that business meeting being advertised or published or announced in two or three weeks come and talk to me and ask me pastor what happened okay but i want to have it soon but this being said there is one thing you can start doing to support your church okay and i'm gonna say it after i read something in the word of god and i'm gonna read what you normally hear in an appeal for offerings everybody is used to hearing malachi chapter three but then i'm gonna read two verses in chapter two okay so you're ready are you ready malachi chapter 3 says this will a man rob god yet you have robbed me but you say in what way have we robbed you in tithes and offerings remember that tithes and offerings are two different things they have two different purposes right you are cursed with a curse for you have robbed me even this whole nation when god speaks through malachi in chapter 3 he is speaking to the whole nation right then it says verse 10 bring all the tithes into the storehouse where should we take the tides you know some people say i'm not happy the way church is handling money so i'm going to put my money elsewhere that is not biblical i'm sorry that is not biblical you may not be happy with the way that the church handles money you may not be happy with the tr with the way that the world church handles money or the division handles money brother and sister hear me out god is not going to ask you an account of what the general conference is doing god is not going to ask you for an account of what the division is doing god is not going to ask you for an account of what the union is doing or the unions god is not even going to ask you for an account of what your conference is doing with tide money god is going to ask you what have you done with the money that i gave you right that is what god is going to ask you and of course you are told that you are to give tides whenever we receive our salary that is very clear my wife does handle finance at our home but we are both in the same page we have decided when we got married our priorities are going to be tied ten percent are a percentage of offerings that most of it goes to the church to the church budget and a small percentage of offerings that we use to help people in need and what we want to save every month yes you need to save money okay that's prudent you should do that that's our priority and then we use the rest to pay the bills we have a budget and you say the bible says bring all the tides into the storehouse that there may be food in my house we want to preach the three angels messages it is good to support different ministries in the local church it is good to support ministries that are preaching the tree angels messages we should but there needs to be sustenance and there needs to be money in the house of god in the church there is where your main offerings should be amen then it says bring all the tides into the storehouse that there may may be food in my house and try me now in this says the lord of hosts if i will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will be will not be room enough to receive it this is what we read in offering appeals now let me tell you that the same author in the same book has written something else that should encourage you in case you sometimes feel frustrated the way the money is handled at church it is possible you know i sometimes have looked at certain church uh uh institutions and say that's not how i would have done it but that's not for me to judge god is the judge right look at this if you read malachi chapter 2 i'm not going to read the whole chapter but god speaks to the priests look at chapter 2 verse 7 and 8 for the lips of a priest should keep knowledge and people should seek the law from his mouth for he is the messenger of the lord of hosts but you have departed from the way you have caused many to stumble at the law you have corrupted the covenant of levi says the lord of hosts the priests were corrupted when god inspired the words of malachi and still god said to the people bring the tithes and the offerings to the storehouse because god is going to judge the priests too believe me if i as a pastor do not handle my salary correctly god is going to judge me if we as church leadership do not handle the monies of the church correctly god is going to judge us but you and i as individual believers we need to be faithful in bringing the tides as tight you know there's no way i can know if you are faithful in your tithes and if you are eligible for church positions if you do not put your tithe in an envelope and say this is tied you know and this is my name daniel govaya tired you need to do that okay some people say i want to be do it anonymously because i don't want people to know how much i give that's fine you have you are you have the right to do that okay but that doesn't help us as a church to organize things i'm sorry so please strongly considering prayer giving your tithings with your name and identifying yourself and nobody's saying oh this person gives more and this person gives less there's no conversation like that i've been a pastor here for two years and a half we never had that those kinds of conversations friend we're all a family we're all trying to do our best amen and bring your offerings and here i want to say a word of caution to the church okay bring your offerings now we are going through a little bit of a hard time and if you are giving specifically to a fund which it's okay and you should and it's good but if we come to a tough position that we have to pay bills we have to pay bills every month and there's a lot of bills come to the business meeting we're going to show you there's a lot of bills that need to be paid if we come to a tight position we need to pay bills we cannot pull money from a fund where you donated to evangelism or to community services and pay for electricity we have to respect your intention in donating when you donate to a specific account okay but let me tell you that right now and has been for years and i'm i'm coming to the point of realizing what's happening for years it is actually in the church budget that we struggle so the best thing you can do is to give your offering your main offering you can give to other ministries and locally internationally but your main offering please consider in prayer give it to the church budget because if we have to pull money from the church budget to give to evangelism or to community services we will but we cannot pull from these separate funds to pay for the church builds you understand what i'm saying right so please friends take it to heart i don't like to speak about this no pastor likes to speak about this but i am going to start showing you exactly where you we are we are not you or i we where we are in terms of finance i want to share it transparently to the church and i'm going to start asking you to support the church when where exactly where we need to be supported right now that is church budget thank you for your patience i love you all god bless you happy sabbath i just want to make a little bit of clarification on the 2020 receipts if you would like your 2020 receipt please send me either a text or an email you will not find it in the box unless we have heard from you we are not just printing up everybody's receipts this year we have to hear from you because there's a lot of receipts that people do not pick up if you want it mailed to your home please i must have your address because we have a lot of incorrect information so please send me yes i would like my receipt here at the church i will pick it up or i would like to have it mailed to my home with an address please thank you now as we prepare to enter into god's presence in a deeper closer way focusing upon him there's a text that has come to my attention and thoughts and i'd like to share it with you uh out of hebrews chapter 10 and i'm going to read just a couple of verses here from the passion translation now we are brothers and sisters in god's family because of the blood of jesus and he welcomes us to come into the most holy sanctuary in the heavenly realm i mean that's an amazing thought right there he invite welcomes us to come into the most holy sanctuary in the heavenly realm boldly and without hesitation for he has dedicated a new life-giving way for us to approach god for just as the veil was torn into jesus body was torn open to give us free and fresh access to him and since we now have a magnificent high priest to welcome us into god's house we come closer to god and approach him with an open heart fully convinced that nothing will keep us at a distance from him that's where we are at right now that's what god has opened to us and he's begging offering it's wide open uh we live in a world right now that is increasing its distance and rebellion from god and we become more and more aware that we cannot be part of the world and part of this heavenly kingdom at the same time we have to go one way or the other and you know as adventists we have a prophetic insight into the events of the last day and the close of probation that is coming so close and so soon and we're not given a prophetic date but we are given a prophetic event and we understand that a national sunday law will be the final test where the line will be drawn but jesus gave a special parable for seventh-day adventist living in this time among the parables it's often referred to as adventist owned parable the parable of the ten virgins that were sleeping they were virgins meaning they were part of the god's true church they were they had lamps by word they had the bible and we have the bible and they were asleep and we were saying but some were wise and some were foolish and the one difference between the wise and the foolish was the oil did they have oil this extra oil the holy spirit has the spirit filled them when the cry goes out behold the bridegroom cometh go you out to meet him it was too late to go get oil but today it's not yet too late that event hasn't happened the call hasn't gone out it's not too late yet but now is our opportunity to separate from the world from everything that it has it's our opportunity to heed this invitation this open way into god's presence not just in the church service today but every single day start off every morning and throughout the day aware of your presence in god's kingdom and of god's presence in you christ in you this is the secret this is the mystery of godliness christ in you and it is in revelation 10 it says at the time of the sounding of the seventh trumpet as the trumpet was beginning to sound the mystery of god would be completed god's will for his church is to be his temple to he can dwell in us he asks us to come and dwell in his temple and he will come and dwell in our temple at our invitation so now is the time let's kneel together if we can and at home there join together and going into god's presence our father which art in heaven we are so full of gratitude for your love your gracious invitation your welcome into your presence we are so thankful to you jesus for opening that way for us as you have provided your sacrifice forgiveness for our sins but also regeneration recreation and sanctification where we can become transformed into citizens of your kingdom ready to walk through the gates into the kingdom in the future in person but through you we enter today into that kingdom into your presence and confirm our allegiance to you in every aspect of our life and lord we ask that you send your holy spirit now a spirit to discern what is in our lives that may be separating us from you what may not be under your authority of your kingdom of your word your laws your advice your counsels in scripture and in the advice and counsels you especially given to us in the last days in the spirit of prophecy may we see those may we read those and may your holy spirit show us let its light shine into our heart that we can separate ourselves from anything that is not part of your kingdom that we can wholly and totally be committed surrendered yielded to your presence so that you can come and fill us come and fill each one of us we yield our hearts to you we surrender to you we give up whatever it is that you convict us of should be given up we realize that you are the one that will do this in us that you will bring your transforming grace that just as you did your healing miracles and healed one paralyzed and healed one that was blind so you can heal those synapses and those circuits in the brain that have developed habits of sin habits of attitudes that are not as you would have them lord we ask you we yield that to you and we ask for you to come in and make those transformations in our lives today lord we pray for all of those with whom we come in contact those you would like to reach through us that we may be sensitive to your spirits leading and speak your words to them that you will be in us speaking through us and we will be to those as you would have us to be that we will speak your words and lord we pray for our larger church its witness in the world its position we ask that your providence and guidance and spirit be over it we know that you order all things according to your will and so we uh let's let you know that our attentions and thoughts also follow them we hear that the general conference session is now rescheduled another year into the future in 2022 and lord again we leave all of these in your hands knowing that your providence guides over everything that is being done here in your church lord now we ask your spirit in a special way to be on our pastor as he gives his message to us that your words will speak through him and touch our hearts that we will be convicted of the truths that he has studied and that you have given him to present to us we pray all these things in the precious name of jesus who gave himself for us and opened up his way into heaven [Music] amen [Music] so [Music] now is the time for our children's story i was told that auntie carolyn has our story this morning she's usually right here on the front row i don't see her there nobody has seen her then it was just pastor has a story he would like to tell and in in respect to the governor's orders we're not going to have all the children come forward we're be law-abiding citizens here and uh try to follow these instructions here in public for a little while longer yes one way or another will hopefully uh change the current situation but pastor has some words and a story for the kids thank you thank you dr teske all right today i want to tell you a story that is found in the bible in the gospel of luke chapter 18 and it's such an important story jesus actually uh told this story for the time that we are living for us today okay so if there's any kids out there and at home please pay close attention to this story hear me out because it's a very very important story it's the story of a widow a lady who was a widow you know what a widow is a lady who is a widow is a lady whose husband died so she was a lady that had no husband her husband had died and somebody an evil person probably an evil man hurt this lady maybe he took away her money or he did something very very wrong to her and this lady went to the house of the judge to try to get the judge to give her justice and put the bad guy in prison so she went and she knocked once and the judge was probably you know eating and he said i'm having lunch i'm not gonna go to the door and she started yelling if i'm outside i'm you know adding a little bit hey mr judge give me what i need from you help me you need to put that bad person in jail he took away my money he hurt me and the judge did not want to go it's like no i'm i'm having lunch and i'm not going to go no no it's not time for me to work i'm not going to do it and the next day she came and she knocked again on the door of the judge mr judge hear me out you know sometimes ladies can be very persistent and they're like please help me and the judge was cutting his lawn that day is like no i'm not gonna know i'm not don't want to help you you're just a poor widow you probably don't have any money to pay me anyway and the next day she came again mr judge help me this evil man keeps doing real things to me you need to help me and the judge didn't want to help her but she kept coming and knocking and knocking and knocking and one day the judge was so tired they said okay i'm just gonna help her out because i want her to stop coming i can't stand this woman knocking on my door anymore and jesus told this to his disciples look at what this evil unjust unkind judge does to the widow because he just can't stand her anymore you know you have a good judge in heaven which is god our heavenly father is a good judge do you think that he will not hear you if you come and knock on his door oh yes he will hear you and he will give you justice he will put satan away into a prison for 1000 years and then he will destroy satan but if you want to be ready to see that and to be with jesus forever you need to be like that widow not knocking on the door of a human judge but you need to learn how to pray over and over and over and over again you need to knock on heaven's door you need to say lord hear my prayers help me because i want to be like jesus i want to preach the gospel i want to give my life for you and i want to see jesus face to face amen so let us all learn with this widow to pray without ceasing amen let us pray dear jesus thank you for the children you have given to fresno central seventh-day adventist church each and every one of them is precious please teach us to pray and teach us to teach our children to pray we pray in the name of jesus amen [Music] longeth [Music] to worship me you are alone are my strength my shield do [Music] you alone are my heart [Applause] [Music] you're my friend and you are my brother i love you more than any other so much more than anything i want you more than gold or silver only you can stand [Music] you you alone are the real [Music] joy [Music] my you alone are my heart's desire and i long to worship [Music] and i long to worship thee [Music] that was beautiful amen thank you john and cozman thank you um dr testy thank you pam for this little announcement you made and thank you to our thank you to all of you for joining us online and thank you to all of you who came in to church today to worship the lord but i want to thank god first and foremost for his great great mercies toward us the fact that in this world in this life exactly where we are i can still stand in a pulpit freely and preach the word of god according to what are the dictates of my conscience is a blessing a privilege we should not take it for granted our freedoms can be taken away very very quickly and i think um the last few months or the last year has shown that to us so we should be very close to jesus right now amen let us pray our father in heaven i want to thank you for the privilege of coming together as a church to worship you we still cannot do everything as we would like to we would like to have our congregation singing with our whole hearts and voices to you and we do want to acknowledge and recognize that there is a health crisis in the world and in this country but we also want to be prepared for the great trials ahead and i pray that the holy spirit can speak today that he may find an open door in the heart of every listener and that he may take possession of my heart and my mind and my words so that jesus may be honored and that every heart may magnify the name of his or her savior may they forget about daniel gove may they forget about everything else right now may they look unto jesus through what we are going to read in your word today i pray in his name amen friends we continue to study daniel chapter 6 and we came to a very very very important and widely known chapter of the bible daniel 6 with the story of daniel and the lion's den now i heard a very very famous preacher in the seventh-day adventist church say one day that he was converted and he started preaching so fast after his conversion that the first sermon he preached was on david on david in the lion's den now the title of my sermon today that was a mistake by the way if you didn't know that you should right that was mistake but the title of my sermon is not a mistake and the title of my sermon is jesus in the lion's den okay jesus in the lion's den now i want to challenge you to do something today if you have a paper and a pen take it put it close to you or if you have an ipad or an iphone or or a phone or a tablet or whatever if you have something that you can take notes put it close to you because i'm going to be reading daniel chapter 6 looking at what really happened in the life and history of daniel and the story of daniel and i am going to be drawing some parallels with the life of the remnant people of god in the last days of earth's history but i want you to do something while i do that okay i want you to pray i want you to hear what i'm gonna say of course but i want you also to think what parallels can we draw between the life of daniel and the life of jesus especially when we read daniel chapter 6. if you look at the whole book you probably can look at something more but especially daniel chapter 6 that tells the story that is so famous i was brought up hearing the story of daniel and the lions then maybe you were brought up hearing the same story or you have heard that story many times before let's think what parallels can we see some are pretty obvious but others maybe not that obvious what parallels can we see between daniel in this story in this passage in this particular episode of his life between daniel and jesus okay think about that make some notes because at the end of the sermon i'm going to share my notes on that topic i found 10 parallels that i could think of between the life of daniel and the life of jesus so let's start daniel chapter six verse one it pleased darius to set over the kingdom 120 satraps to be over the whole kingdom and over these three governors of whom daniel was one that the satraps might give account to them so that the king would suffer no loss then this daniel distinguished himself above the governors and sea traps because an excellent spirit was in him now this is the third time that a chapter in the book of daniel is emphasizing the same thing there was an excellent spirit in this daniel and the king gave thought to setting him over the whole realm whoa that's pretty impressive daniel was probably around 85 years of age we would not expect daniel that was so important at a certain time in the kingdom kingdom of babylon under nebuchadnezzar now to be very important after babylon fell to the middle persians and now you had various the mede now there's some debate about this darius some people actually some serious bible commentators actually believe that this darius was actually cyrus and you say well but darius was a mead and cyrus was a persian well there's actually historical sources that call cyrus the king of the means okay and when you come to daniel chapter 6 the last verse verse verse 28 that says so this daniel prospered in the king of darius and in the king of cyrus the persian it presents it appears to present them as two different persons but actually in the hebrew you can actually read king darius that is the reign of cyrus the persian so various could actually be one name for cyrus or not we will never know probably until we get to heaven okay but the truth is you would not expect to see daniel somebody that at a certain point was a slave that was brought from judah that was important in the court of babylon now when the medes and the persians rose to power you would not expect to see daniel at such a high position especially at 85. if anyone here is 85 you will you will relate to what i'm saying sometimes i forget stuff and i'm 41. i'm 41 and sometimes i forget stuff you know but look at what is said about daniel get this verse four so the governors and state traps sought to find some charge against daniel concerning the kingdom but they could find no charge or fault because he was faithful nor there was any error or fault found in him do you understand what they are saying here they were trying to find a way to criticize and demote this daniel because he was so good right and you know if you're really good the people around you will hate you that's the truth let's be honest here when you have somebody that is really really good that people are promoting because he or she is so good the others around him or her will sometimes feel very uncomfortable and these governors were feeling terrible because this daniel was not even made not even for media not even from persia he was from judah he was an israelite he had been a slave he came into babylon as a slave and now babylon falls and in in the great kingdom great empire of the medes and the persons this daniel is so important that the king and he's so good that the king is thinking that he is going to become the prime minister above all the other ministers in charge of the whole realm they hated daniel they could not stand that somebody like that would be in that position was better than they were and probably was going to become their boss they could not stand that so they searched for everything they could find they looked into the into the financials they looked into everything that was under daniel they looked and they scrutinized everything and this 85 year old man was without fault and everything that related to the kingdom in his personal life and his relationship with the king and his work they could find nothing nothing that's very powerful isn't it so they were jealous jealous you know that the bible says that in the last days of verse history eight people certain people on earth will keep the commandments of god because they have the faith of jesus you cannot keep only nine commandments or eight you need to keep all the ten commandments right and if you are keeping all the ten commandments now get this keeping all the ten commandments according to jesus you just read the sermon on the mount it's not only not to commit adultery is not to have lust in your heart there is a people living in the last days of earth's history that will have the law of god written in their hearts that are really obedient not because of their efforts but because of the faith of jesus they believe in jesus in a way that many other people don't believe many people believe in jesus and they do whatever they want but these people will be putting their faith in christ in such a way that they allow christ through the holy spirit to live in their hearts and to write the law of god in their hearts and their characters are starting to shine and other peoples around them will hate them and persecute them because it's it's uncomfortable to be around someone that is living a life that condemns your life not by their words but by their example well we continue verse 5 these men said we shall not find any charge against this daniel unless we find it against him concerning the law of his god they understood something about daniel they saw that the pillars of daniel's life were his life of prayer and his life of communion with god his adherence to the principles he had as a believer in the true god and they thought this is the way we we're gonna get him if we're gonna get him somehow is through his faith his religion the law of his god of course here law the word in hebrew was probably referring more in a general sense to the torah to the first five books of moses and all the regulations not only the moral law but all the things that a jew should live by and of course they thought this is where we're going to get him so these governors in saitraps throng before the king actually the word actually means some agitation okay the word thronged has this connotation of agitation the throne before the king and said thus to him king darius live forever now you know they are going to enter the king's presence three times this is the only time that they say what they were supposed to say king darius lived forever this time they say it okay remember that live forever all the governors of the kingdom the administrators and state reps the counselors and advisors have consulted together and lie daniel was not there right all the the governors all the administrators all accounts everybody everybody to establish a royal statute and to make a firm decree that whoever petitions any god or man for 30 days except you o king shall be cast into the den of lions now o king establish the decree and sign the writing so that it cannot be changed according to the law of the needs and persians which does not alter therefore king darius signed the written decree now get this these men lied to the king they were they were using lies right they were also doing something else you know the the the medo-persian emperors or the the kings of mead of of the empire of middle persia they were pretty respectful of other religions and of the people that they would conquer i mean you look at cyrus he allowed first one of the first things he did was to allow the jews to go back to their nation and restore their worship in jerusalem so why would darius sign a decree like this well first of all because they lied of course second of all because they appealed to his ego okay the appeal to his ego in order to trap and frame daniel and kill daniel so you have people with murder in their hearts okay you have people that are lying and you have people that are appealing to the ego of the king can we find somebody in the bible that is described as having a great ego who is a murderer and a liar john chapter 8 verse 44 jesus said you are of your father the devil and the desires of your father you want to do he was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him when he speaks a lie he speaks from his own resources for he is a liar and the father of it ellen white wrote the following in patri prophets and kings page 540 in the conspiracy thus formed satan had played an important part the prophet was high in command in the kingdom and evil angels feared that his influence would weaken their control over its rulers it was the satanic agencies who had stirred the princes to envy and jealousy it was they who had inspired the plan for daniel's destruction and the princes yielding themselves as instruments of evil carried it into effect meaning evil angels satan and his evil angels inspired those men with jealousy towards daniel and inspired them to come up with that plan that would appeal to the ego of the king so that the king would sign a decree and the laws of the medes and the persians back then when the king would sign it was unchangeable could not change it and that particular government in that kingdom so they he signs this decree inspired but because men were inspired by the devil okay in the last days of our sistery the bible is very clear that there are powers that are inspired that are sponsored that are led by satan right you just read revelation chapter 13 and it says concerning the second beast that arises from the earth that has two horns like a lamb but speaks like a dragon how does the devil speak he deceives the whole world he is a liar and the father of it meaning that this power will be lying to its people right well you need to learn the truth the truth shall set you free that truth is jesus and jesus is revealed here this is what i believe you can tell me all sorts of ideas if the bible does not teach that i cannot live by it i cannot accept it amen yes we will come to a point when people inspired by satan will come to the rulers of the nations this nation first where we live and then other nations as well and inspired by satan they will influence these rulers to decree laws that are against the law of god see this law that darius signed was against the first commandment the first commandment says you shall have no other gods before me when you say you cannot pray to a god or to a man for 30 days except to the king what are you saying you're saying you cannot pray to god for 30 days that is against the first commandment god is the one that we are to pray to god is the one that we are to depend upon whom we are to depend upon we are to have our being in our existence so connected with our creator that we cannot spend 30 minutes without praying how much 30 how much more 30 days if you want to do that that's up to you but you cannot enforce that upon people that is against religious freedom and one day unfortunately laws will come that will try to make us worship in a certain way and prevent us from having religious freedom and we should be careful to promote the agenda of religious freedom in our day and age so we can preach the gospel amen however we are also to know we should know that one day laws will come to try to force us into worshiping the image of the beast and when that comes we ought to obey god rather story verse 10 says now when daniel knew that the writing was signed he went home and in his upper room with his windows open toward jerusalem he knelt down on his knees three times that day and prayed and gave thanks before his god as was his custom since early days now this is very important the bible says that when daniel knew that the writing was signed he went to his room and he prayed if we would just have this we would think wow he was almost kind of challenging them right oh yeah you want me not to pray i'm gonna pray that was not the spirit okay that was not it i'm sorry that's not that was not it it says as his custom was since early days he did not go out of his way to obey the new decree okay he also did not go out of his way to show rebellion against authority daniel performed his daily duties and at the appointed time he went into his room like he normally would go every day three times a day and he prayed the bible says evening and morning and at noon i will pray and cry aloud and he shall hear my voice psalm 55 verse 17. he did not try to pretend that he was not praying he prayed like he normally would pray with windows open toward jerusalem why well you just read first kings chapter eight remember when solomon dedicated the temple he prayed a long prayer okay so i'm sure you know sometimes i preach long sermons and sometimes i do long prayers but just read the prayer of solomon right that was a long prayer but it was inspired by god and he prayed by the ending of the prayer he prayed that if the people of god was unfaithful if they would be led into captivity if in the land of their captivity they would pray facing jerusalem and facing that temple that god was to hear from heaven and forgive and give them mercy in the presence of the people that were bringing them into captivity so daniel was doing exactly what the word of god told him to do and daniel would not go out of his way he kept his windows open because that was part of his religion that was part of the word of god that was part of his faith and he knelt down three days you know there's a jewish tradition that says that this was instituted by the patriarchs that abraham instituted the morning prayer that isak his son instituted the afternoon prayer and that jacob instituted the evening prayer i don't know if that's true or not but i know that this is a good habit see we should live in prayer we should walk every day and go about our business and do everything in communion with god but it is also good to stop at certain points in the day in the morning of course most important jesus was was uh would get up really early the father would awaken him like we just read in isaiah um chapter 50 this morning verse 4 it was a prophecy concerning christ jesus would wake up even before the sun would arise and he would pray he would receive power from god the father to share the good news of salvation that he was with the people right we need to pray in the morning but let me tell you friends i do it i don't do it every day unfortunately but many days i do it many days in the middle of the day after before or after i i eat lunch i go into my office or wherever i am if it's here at the church wherever i stop to pray a little bit and i still try to pray throughout the day but it would be good for us to have set times to just be alone for a little bit with god right to present our petitions and at night of course before i go to bed i pray and he gave he prayed and he gave thanks before his god he would pray and he would give thanks now get this he was with the threat of the death decree he knew what the consequences were and still he goes to his room he kneels down he prays knowing that death would knock on his door very shortly and he gives thanks listen to your prayers when you have a big problem in life when people are accusing you persecuting you when you go in to pray do you give thanks friend if you are in jesus you have eternal life no matter what people can do to you here on earth you can still give thanks to god every day because of what jesus has done for you because of his bloodshed on the cross because of his mercies that were revealed throughout your life and because of the eternity that he bought with his own blood for you you could give thanks you should give thanks why why did daniel go into his room when there was a death decree a king that he respected admired and that respected him and admired him signed the law and daniel would not comply with that law why the law of god was written in his heart and because for daniel his prayer life was not just a duty it was not not just something he would have to do every day and then continue with his life prayer life for daniel was communion with his god that he loved above everyone and everything else prayer was more important for daniel than life itself because for daniel the source of life god was his best friend and daniel would not put away his friendship with god for any law friends is prayer so important for us today and when i speak about prayer it's not just prayer will not save you but is this relationship with god because prayer is opening your heart to god as a friend being with him spending time with him talking to him hearing him in the word of god studying the bible and praying the bible listening to what god wants and has to tell you is this more important for you than life because today for things that are of way less importance than a death decree like we're very busy we're very tired we have too much to do we have you know there's i have a problem in my life i can't focus my my mind is drifting there's so many things that we use as an excuse not to pray as we should daniel had a death decree prayer for him was so important that even a death decree could not stop him from praying are you praying with all your heart private prayer is the secret of spiritual strength we do not look to jerusalem physical literal earthly jerusalem today but yes we can look to another jerusalem can we not can we not look up to heaven do we not have a sanctuary in heaven where our high priest is interceding for us are we not to worship god and to pray to god knowing that jesus is interceding for us at all times hebrews chapter eight verses one and two now this is the main point of the things we are saying we have such a high priest who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the lord erected and not man amen chapter 4 verses 14 through 16 seeing that we have a high a great high priest who has passed through the heavens jesus the son of god let us hold fast our confession for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses but was in all points tempted as we are yet without sin let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need friends why is this important for us today because when a decree comes that is against the law of god when a decree comes sanctifying a day that is not sanctified by the word of god those who will be faithful are the ones that are used to entering the most holy place by faith every day having communion with god and with christ knowing that he is all powerful and that men can decree and say whatever they want god has the last word those people who have that intimate connection in in relationship with christ who are filled with the latter rain power of the holy spirit they are not left alone the holy spirit will strengthen them to go through that time of trial amen but you need to develop that relationship today today yes it is important to know what the bible teaches about the true sabbath about the ten commandments about the grace of god that changes us and writes the law of god in our hearts about justification by faith you need to know the theory but you need to experience the practice of these things the love for god the love for your neighbor nobody will go to heaven without love in their hearts are we really loving god above all things and above all people are we loving people as ourselves are we willing to sacrifice for others are we forgiving are we being patient and long long suffering like god is those are the questions we need to ask we receive spiritual power through prayer and we need to pray like never before therefore brethren hebrews chapter 10 that dr teske read having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of jesus by a new and living way which he consecrated for us through the veil that is his flesh having a great high priest over the house of god let us draw near draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith you want to have power to face the lions right draw near to the creator of the lions amen draw near to the one that holds everything in his hands let us draw an ear with a true heart in full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water prayer does not save you i'm going to say this again you are not saved by the amount of prayer in your life you are not saved by kneeling down three days three times a day prayer does not save you god saves you through christ and if you are to be saved you are in communion with god if you are to be saved you have to talk to god you need to speak to him to tell him that you love him that you accept the sacrifice he has done for you you need to open up your heart to confess your sins you need to thank him for the things that he's doing in your life no prayer does not save you but if you are saved you will be a man or a woman of prayer amen well then these men verse 11 assembled and found daniel praying and making supplication before his god and they went before the king see the contrast here daniel is speaking to the king of kings and these men to frame daniel go before the earthly king friend if you fall before the king of kings you will not fall before human kings amen they go before the king and spoke concerning the king's decree having have you not signed look if they didn't they don't say oh can't live forever they were just trying to you know get the king to do what they want want it now they just say have you not signed the decree that every man who petitions 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 is true according to the law of the medes and persians which just which does not alter so they answered and said before the king that daniel who is one of the captives from judah they didn't say one of the governors here with us no no one of the captives from judah does not show due regard for you o king or for the decree that you have signed but makes his petition three times a day and the king when he heard these words was greatly displeased with himself and set his heart on daniel to deliver him and he labored till the going down of the sun to deliver him the king kind of got off dumb so dumb that i was and then he tried to save daniel but he couldn't then these men approached the king and said to the king now get this this this time their words almost sound like a threat to the king no o king that it is the law of the medes and the persians that no decree or statute which the king establishes may be changed so the king gave the command and they brought daniel and cast him into the den of lions but the king spoke saying to daniel your god whom you serve continually he will deliver you it says this is impressive brothers and sisters a king of a pagan nation again he saw that with nebuchadnezzar but now again because of the faithfulness of daniel the king of a pagan nation was expressing faith in the true god friends remember we will have a lot of surprises in the end times a lot of people in high positions in the world that we thought were completely lost and under the influence of satan will be converted to the truth because they have true hearts honest sincere hearts and god will call them when the time is right and a lot of people that we thought were so great in the work of god will leave the ranks of the true god let us be careful not to judge one another well or other or people in high positions well then a stone was brought and laid on the mouth of the den and the king sealed it with his own signet ring and with the signature of his lords that the purpose concerning daniel might not be changed now the king went to his palace and spent the night fasting and no musicians were brought before him also excuse me his sleep also his sleep went from him then the king arose very early in the morning and went in haste to the den of lions and when he came to the den he cried out with a lamenting voice to daniel the king spoke saying to daniel daniel servant of the living god has your god whom you serve continually been able to deliver you from the lions then daniel said to the king o king live forever my god sent his angel and shut the lion's mouths so that they have not hurt me because i was found innocent before him and also a king i have done no wrong before you now the king was exceedingly glad it was sad during the night but it was glad in the morning for him and commanded that they should take daniel up out of the den so daniel was taken up out of the den and no injury whatever was found on him because he believed in his god the bible gives us two reasons why daniel was not hurt what re what are those two reasons first of all he says i was found innocent i have done no wrong second of all he says because he believed in his god faith and faithfulness faith and obedience do we see these characteristics in the remnant of god those who are obedient to the commandments of god they keep the commandments of god and have the faith of jesus they trust god and that through jesus christ they are saved and through jesus christ they have the power to be obedient and because they are obedient to god and because they have this intimate relationship of trust in jesus they go through the time of trial and they come out of that time unharmed amen this is pretty powerful right and then god is exalted various uh send asks for the man who condemned daniel to be brought with their families they're all thrown into the den of lions they all die before they reach the end of the cave because in the end the enemies that are trying to persecute and kill the remnant people of god will actually themselves be destroyed by the glory of jesus and god and christ will be glorified forever amen now what parallels can we draw between the life of daniel in this episode and the life of christ remember that jesus is the center of scripture all the bible is about the lamb of god that was slain since the beginning of the world actually if you read daniel chapter 6 verse 4 the word that is used for daniel being faithful is actually the word maheman that is coming from the same root as the word hamad and amman is the word that in greek is rendered amen right i should probably say amen i should i say amen just to try to sound american but i'm portuguese and in portuguese you say amen so i'm probably going to start saying amen okay amen that's the right word why is this important who is called faithful and a true witness and the amen jesus revelation 3 14. the beginning rk the beginner of the creation of god the one who created us right daniel is a type of christ as daniel prayed and gave himself to god every day god made his life a reflection of the life of christ look at this psalm 22 verses 12 and 13 and 16 concerning christ it is written one thousand years before he came to earth many balls have surrounded me strong bulls of bashan have encircled me they gaped at me with their mouths like a raging and roaring lion on that cross jesus was put in a den of lions jesus was thrown into the fires of hell for you and me verse 16 says for dogs have surrounded me the congregation of the wicked has enclosed me they pierced my hands and my feet daniel was not hurt in the lion's den but jesus was hurt by evil angels and men inspired by the devil that framed him and that orchestrated his condemnation in debt death and look at the details i found 10 parallels okay daniel was a target of jealousy by his peers because the king gave thought of putting him over the whole kingdom jesus was given authority in heaven and on earth all heaven and all earth is under the authority of jesus and he was the target of jealousy in heaven by lucifer and on earth by the religious leaders in jerusalem the bible says in mark 15 10 that pilate knew that they were delivering jesus out of envy envy parallel secondly daniel was investigated by men who wanted to find fault in him but they found nothing the gospels are filled with references of men that were sent to spy on jesus to try to you know catch jesus with a wrong word they would get they would throw hard questions at him but even when jesus was tried at his trial the false witnesses could not agree in the stories in their stories because jesus never did anything wrong amen jesus never committed any sin thirdly daniel was framed and accused because of his intimate relationship with god and obedience to god jesus was framed and accused considered worthy of death beaten and eventually sentenced to die because the high priest asked him under oath if he was the christ the son of the living god and jesus spoke the truth about his intimate relationship with the father amen fourthly daniel was faithful to the law of god and condemned to die because of a law made by men jesus was always faithful to the law of god and condemned by men made laws remember john 19 7 the jews answered pilate and said we have a law and according to our law he ought to die because he made himself the son of god this was false jesus said your law talking about the old commandment says you are gods and you are condemning me because i say that i am the son of god and actually i am five darius was impressed by the faithfulness of daniel and tried to deliver him but could not because of the laws of his kingdom his position demanded that he take action against daniel even though he knew daniel had done nothing wrong pilate recognized many times during the trial of jesus that he found nothing that was worthy of the death penalty he was impressed by the innocence and demeanor of jesus and tried to deliver him but was not capable because of his allegiance to caesar his position kind of demanded i know there's differences but kind of demanded that he take action against jesus even though he knew that jesus was innocent because they were crying out if you free him you are not a friend of caesar number six darius spent a night without sleeping and entertainment he was sad suffering for his beloved friend daniel with whom he had such a relationship of trust that he was going to set the whole realm under his care god the father suffered with christ he was in christ reconciling the world to himself and he experienced an eternal pain that will never be understood completely by human beings as the sun went down to the grave crushed by the weight of our sins for god so loved the world number seven daniel was sentenced to death he was put in a den of full of lions and a stone was brought to cover the entrance of the den and the king sealed the stone with his ring jesus was sentenced to death and killed he was put in a grave a big stone was brought and covered the entrance to the grave and the roman governor sealed it with his roman seal number eight daniel was protected by an angel in the den of lions and came out unharmed because he was innocent before god and man and because he trusted in god the king gave the command to take daniel out of the den jesus was called by an angel of god god gave the command to call his son because jesus was innocent he never committed any sin against god or men and he came out of the sepulcher of joseph of arimathea god raised him from the dead freeing him from the agony of death says says acts 2 24 because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him number nine when daniel's enemies plotted and eventually almost were able to put him to death they revealed their terrible character and lost the sympathy of darius completely when darius took daniel out of the den the first thing he did was to condemn his enemies when satan and his angels plotted and through evil men killed jesus on the cross they lost the sympathy of heaven forever they completely lost the sympathies of the heavenly host they were completely expelled of communion and contact with heaven and the destruction of satan was assured when those men made darius sign that decree they didn't know but they were actually signing their death degree when satan crushed jesus on the cross he was not aware hatred was blinding him but he was signing his death decree because through the cross satan is condemned eternally lastly the story of daniel in the lion's den has made daniel and mostly his god known in all the world billions of today read the story of daniel and are inspired and they come to faith in god because they believe that god is powerful to save them from the lions of their lives through the conviction trial murder of jesus through the death the execution of jesus on the cross and through his resurrection jesus made the character of god known throughout the whole universe that god is love and that god is willing to suffer for his creatures jesus became the one before whom every knee shall bow one day amen so we can draw parallels between the story of daniel and the story of jesus now god wants to draw parallels between your story and the story of jesus daniel lived a life of prayer and faithfulness and because of that the whole world can know more about jesus today through the story of daniel god wants the whole world to know more about jesus through you and through me will we learn this example from daniel will we kneel down every day will we give our hearts to god every day will we have god and jesus and the holy spirit living in us and giving us the power to live in him let us pray today father in heaven i want to thank you that you made daniel faithful to you because of the power and for the glory of jesus christ i pray in the name of jesus that as you use daniel in the past you may take each and every one of us into your hands today take our hearts and make of us men and women young men young women children of prayer may we have such an intimate connection and relationship with you through jesus that our lives may become a reflection of the life of christ on this earth so that we may be ready to see him coming in the clouds of heaven we pray these things in the name of jesus christ who suffered and died for us amen [Music] so [Music] [Music] jesus so my you

Channel: Fresno Central Seventh-day Adventist Church

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Id: AGQCNU5iO0U

Length: 108min 46sec (6526 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 07 2021