Daniel: The Lions in Daniel's Den (#7) - May 6, 2020

if you were to rank the top five Bible stories of all time I just happen to believe that the story of Daniel and in the Lions Den would be right up there in the top five it's one of the ones that children learn about from the earliest days of studying the Bible whether it's in at the feet of their parents or in a classroom where a Sunday school teacher is sharing valuable lessons from Scripture Oh inevitably Daniel in that Lions Den is going to be one of the stories that little boys and little girls are taught and here's what I want all of us to understand tonight it doesn't matter how old little boys and little girls grow into big boys and big girls we never ever move beyond those basic lessons of faith that we are taught as children and this story is the one we're going to be looking at tonight however I want to present it a little bit different way and that is instead of calling it Daniel in the lion's den I want us to think about the Lions in Daniels Den and that's the title of the message because the favor of God on Daniels life Daniel owned that Lions Den and really the Lions were in his den rather than the other way around so I want you to turn with me in your Bibles to Daniel chapter 6 if you have a copy of the scriptures nearby and I'll be having the screens display your the scriptures that I'll be using right there on whatever device you're what you're watching but a little bit of the background is that the Persian Kingdom or the Medes and the Persians in an alliance have conquered the kingdom of Babylon and the king of Persia is someone by the name of King Cyrus and now Babylon rather than being a kingdom has been reduced to a province or a state within the new kingdom of Persia and Darius the Mede is someone who's mentioned in chapter 5 and verse 31 and then throughout chapter 6 we see Darius mentioned he is the one before whom Daniel appears he is the one who has favor in his heart towards Daniel now this is one of the most difficult references in the Book of Daniel because outside of the scripture there is no historical support for anyone who is referred to by darius the mede because of that many liberal scholars of scripture have said look there's a historical inaccuracy in the bible here is a man named Darius the Mede who's referred to as one of the rulers of the the Persian Empire and yet there is no extra biblical historical reference to him to be found in any ancient writings so we have to reconcile this with the fact that it isn't corroborated outside of Scripture so some scholars have suggested that this Darius the Mede is another historical figure who is referred to in a document called a Navin Ida scroll others have speculated that Darius the Mede is an alternate name for Cyrus himself who is the king of the new reigning Empire of Persia and then still others have suggested that this man referred to in chapter 5 and verse 31 as Darius the Mede is someone whom Cyrus appointed over his administrative affairs in the kingdom of Persia well far be it for me to try to solve the identity mystery of who Darius the Mede is but here's what I believe if he's written about in the scripture he was a real person and I don't believe he's the same person as Cyrus I believe he is someone with great power who was entrusted to serve as an administrator over the kingdom of Persia on Cyrus his behalf so that's just my little two cents worth but we see here that with the transfer of power meaning that Persia has overtaken Babylon the leader of Persia chose to salvage some of the officials who were in place in the Babylonian Kingdom that was awfully charitable of him awfully kind and generous of him not to just clean house but to take people who are who are already in positions of authority and give them positions of authority in his kingdom and so this man named Darius has tapped Daniel and has elevated him to be one of the three governors in this province of Babylon which is now under Persian control the kingdom of Persia so here is Daniel he is in his 80s and he's getting promoted now to be one of the three provincial governors and those who coveted the position that was given to Daniel their hearts were infuriated they they grew very jealous and envious of Daniel's promotion and what did they do they started plotting his downfall and ultimately their plot was successful and they were able to influence Darius to throw Daniel in the lion's den and that's the story that we're talking about tonight so as is our custom we're gonna have some main points and I want to walk through those with you and the first one that I want you to write down is this our faithfulness guarantees opposition our faithfulness guarantees opposition this is a principle that comes up over and over again in the Bible our faithfulness to God always encourages the enemy to attack us now the way to get out of that is to not be faithful to God to not love God serve God obey God share your faith with others if you want to be exempt from Satan's attacks just throw in the towel and and and become an unfaithful follower of God but that's not an option for us we're not going to become unfaithful but if we're faithful let's just realize there will be a price that we will pay and you know if you think about Daniel being in his 80s what that tells me is no matter how old you grow you never outgrow opposition if you if you love God and serve God you will never ever come to a place in your life where you will cease being attacked by the enemy let's look in these first five verses Darius the Mede decided to divide the kingdom into a hundred and twenty provinces so we appointed a high officer to rule over each province the king also chose Daniel and two others as administrators to supervise the high officers and to protect the Kings interest Daniel soon proved himself more capable than all the other administrators and high officers because of Daniels great ability the King made plans to place him over the entire empire you might call that the position of Prime Minister verse four says the other administrators and high officers began searching for some Fault in the way Daniel was handling government affairs something he was doing wrong but they couldn't find anything to criticize or condemn he was faithful he was always responsible and he was completely trustworthy so they concluded our only chance of finding grounds for accusing Daniel will be in connection with the rules of his religion ok so there are the first five verses the rules of his religion not just to trap him up in his own religion but to trap him up in the way the rules of his religion collide with the rules of the Persian Kingdom that's what they were aiming at now I just have to tell you something there is so much in this chapter that I want to bring out and I know I can't get to all of it I'm going to do my best to bring out what I consider the strongest points for our understanding Knight but as I have studied this my heart is so full my mind is so full of information having been meditating on this that I just feel like I'm speaking tonight out of the overflow of the power of this passage and I certainly don't claim to do it justice but my heart is on fire tonight with joy and enthusiasm for sharing it with you and I hope that comes across here's what I want to comment about first of all when we think about our faithfulness guaranteeing opposition there's there are some observations that we need to make in life that we learn from this this passage and one of them is about transitions transitions transitions are often a wonderful opportunity for opposition to present itself transitions just lend themselves to opposition and when you go back and you look at the times in scripture when the children of God have been opposed and individual people have been opposed many of those moments have been when the tide was turning when it was time to change directions when a difficult decision had to be made when there was a turnover in the leadership transitions are a wonderful a prime opportunity for opposition I want to bring out something else transitions are a time for people to show their true colors it's a it's a it's a wonderful platform for people to reveal who they really are and what kind of transition are we talking about well the transition is if you'll remember in the last chapter daniel was called into the palace of Belshazzar to interpret that handwriting that was on the wall and that very night while the palace was hosting the party and the writing was on the wall the Persians invaded the city and they conquered it and now the flag of Persia has been run up the flagpole of Babylon and Persia rules this is a transition there's a new king the old king is dead and this it's these kinds of transitions that open the door well I would put it as this transitions provide a void for people to insert themselves and so I'm just saying to you be watchful during the transition periods of life here's another thing I want us to point out under this under this main point number one and that is we can not only make some observations about transition points but we need to make observations about human nature you see these guys who work envious of the promotion that Daniel got what this is reminds us of about human nature is that jealousy is a part of human nature it is we don't even have to be taught to be jealous it is encoded into our fallen DNA don't ever think that you'll get to a place in life people aren't jealous of God's favor on your life jealousy is always lurking in the shadows of the Fallen human heart and add to that scheming is a part of the human condition and the human sinful nature scheming and plotting and devising plans to harm and injure other people not only that but deception is a part of the human condition and why do I say that because when these men came to Darius who whatever his title was he's called the King here when they came to him they said all of the officials who are part of this new Persian Empire ruling over Babylon all of us we've taken a poll and we've all decided there needs to be a rule about no one praying to anybody but the king they use deception because you know good and well not all of them had unanimously come up with this there were hundreds of them not only that but I believe that it's safe for us to observe in this passage that prejudice is a part of human nature you see I believe one of the reasons that they were opposed to Daniel is because Daniel was Jewish and they were Gentiles and they were they were harboring that ancient hatred called anti-semitism Hitler did not invent anti-semitism the Aryan Nation did not invent anti-semitism anti-semitism originates in hell and it has been part of human history since God put his hand on Abraham to become the father of the Hebrew people these were bonafide Jew haters in Persia and then not only that but manipulation is part of the human condition because let me tell you what these guys did they went to Darius the Mede they said oh you're so great wonderful they worked him like a like a puppet and that is the tendency of human hearts in the in our sinful condition is to work the system and to work people for our own self-serving ends well so there's so what I'm saying to you is we're just making some observations about transition there was transition in kingdoms it was an opportunity for attack we're making observations about human nature all of these attributes that these enemies of Daniel manifest they haven't gone away those things reside in every human heart in my heart in your heart and in the hearts of the people that we even love very much these things we must always be on guard against but I want to make another observation it's about spiritual attack itself which is really what this whole point is about here is Daniel in his 80s and he's being attacked which tells me you know I'm thirty years away from that I was hoping I could get to a point in my life where I wouldn't have to be concerned about being opposed or having spiritual assault come my way and what this passage tells me is the attack only ends when life ends and we're in heaven I hope that'll bless you aren't you glad you tuned in tonight in verse number five this is what the detractors said I want to call them the conspirators they said our only chance of finding grounds for accusing Daniel will be in connection with the rules of his religion now in Chapter three you may remember that there was some other conspirators remember when Nebuchadnezzar had that image of gold and he said when the band plays everybody bow down and worship the image of gold and Shadrach Meshach and Abednego did not and and the conspirators spied out on their civil disobedience their abiding by their convictions they went and threw him under the bus with the king and said O king you're awesome you're the best long live the king long live the king but let me tell you about three of those Jews who did not bow down it's the same song second verse little bit louder a little bit worse as the saying goes now let me let me wrap all this up when I'm talking to you about opposition and spiritual attack I believe that these detractors of Daniel who are looking for a way to bring accusation against him they are a symbol of unbelievers who hold Christians in contempt unbelievers who hate followers of God and the Lord Jesus Christ and and here's what they did they worked this King to establish a law that said for thirty days no one can pray to anybody but to you O king and can I tell you something that we look how far removed from this we are twenty-five hundred years have passed since this account took place and yet the same thing is happening today where unbelievers and ungodly people are using laws to coerce Christians into conformity to intimidate us to alienate us and I think it's only going to get worse they want to force us into compliance and if we refuse to be compliant they want to intimidate us into silence so we'll stop preaching things that convict them and things they don't agree with and things that they call hate speech there and if they can't get us into compliance and whip us into silence then they just want to eliminate us all together altogether and the stage is already being set today for a revival of this same type of abuse and exploitation of the legal system to silence and discredit and alienate followers of the true and living God and here's what I want us to know this will always be the case as long as we're in this world so we learned this from Daniel that our faithfulness is going to guarantee opposition that'll never come to an end until life comes to an end here's the second thing I want you write down you ready for this don't miss it don't miss it don't miss it ready it is impossible to outlaw prayer it's impossible you say impossible with me say it impossible that's right it's impossible to outlaw prayer the conspirators they went to the king they told him all the officials have gotten together to write this law for the next 30 days and if anybody violates this and they pray to anybody other than you O great king they'll be thrown into the Lions Den and the King said oh that sounds great because his ego got inflated sure I want everybody praying to me and he signed the law and in verse number 10 it says Daniel heard about the law that when the law had been signed he went home and what did he do he knelt down as usual in his upstairs room not in the basement not on the ground-floor but in his upstairs room with its windows flung open toward Jerusalem and he prayed three times a day just as he had always done giving thanks to his God and then the officials oh they went together to Daniel's house and they got it on their iPhones they made a little movie they took pics they found him praying and asking God to help him and what did they do they went straight to the king and they reminded him about his law all great king did you not sign a law that for the next thirty days any person who prays to anyone divine or human except to you your majesty Oh will be thrown into the den of lions didn't you say that didn't you say it why yes I did the king replied that decision stands it is an official law of the Medes and the Persians that cannot be revoked and then they said to the king well that man Daniel one of the captives from Judah he's ignoring you and your law he still prays to his God three times a day by the way did you see the disrespect there that man Daniel you hear the contempt in that that man Daniel and not only that but think about Daniel's distinguished service he had served under Nebuchadnezzar seventy years earlier he had served faithfully I mean he went in there and read the interpretation of the handwriting on the wall to Belshazzar right before Belshazzar died and the kingdom was conquered by Persia and now he's here serving at the beck and call of Darius who wanted to make him prime minister of Babylon and they are referring to him in verse 13 as one of those captives from Judah he was a lot more than one of those captives from Judah he was a man who served with excellence competence loyalty faithfulness but here how pejoratively they refer to him when they're accusing him and what was his crime his crime was prayer his crime was prayer now listen it always takes faith to pray but in this passage it takes courage to pray not just faith but courage because Daniel refused to comply with the law against prayer and just just to ask the question the man's in his 80s he's lived a long and full life even though he's been a captive and he's been a Jew deprived of life in his homeland living in a foreign and strange country away from the the place that belongs to the Jewish people by covenant promise we understand that that that there were many many ways in which Daniel suffered in his adult life but he still had a long and favorable life and and now he's in his 80s and here's the question I want to ask you what did he have to lose by praying what did he have to lose by disobeying this Kings decree I mean he's going to be thrown in the lion's den what's the worst thing that could happen he could be eaten by the Lions pulled apart limb by limb absent from the body present with the Lord here's a man who had nothing to lose because most of his life was behind him so to Daniel this was no this wasn't even a dilemma this wasn't even a debate they've outlawed prayer do I pray or don't I prayed Daniel there was no there was no temptation at all as to whether or not he should pray he went back and he prayed now and tell you something this is just a prayer I was looking at this last week and I thought this is a man who stands nothing to lose and by the way people who stand nothing to lose are very brave people he was brave and I asked the Lord last week I said Heavenly Father please don't make me wait until I'm 80 to realize that I have nothing to lose by obeying you please forgive me for looking at the risks and weighing the possible dangers for doing what is right for making the right decision even if it's unpopular God please bring me to a point where I operate so much by faith that it's as if I have nothing to lose because the truth is we really do have nothing to lose when we put it all on the line for God it's all his anyway Daniel prayed you know why Daniel prayed Daniel prayed because it was the habit of his life I love how the New King James translates it in verse number 10 it says he knelt down on his knees three times that day and he prayed and gave thanks before his God and look what I've underlined as was his custom since early date as was his custom since early days what that tells me is that this is a pattern of his life he done it since he was a teenager that he had knelt and prayed throughout the day for his entire life he was a man of Prayer so that's why he went home and prayed it's because he he'd always done it why stop now at the end of life's journey I'm gonna keep on praying and talking to my holy God you know something else he prayed because he was not he was not going to be intimidated by the laws of man he knew there is greater authority to which he submitted and it was not any kind of Prime Minister king prince potentate on earth it was to Jehovah God the true and living God before whom he knew he would one day stand he was not going to be intimidated by the laws of man and I just want to say something though I've tried so hard to stay on track in these live streams but Wednesday night is when I kind of I'm used to cutting loose and I'm used to having an Amen Corner over here I'm just gonna have to pretend somebody would be a mening me but here's here's what concerns me about where we are as a country I understand the need to quarantine I understand we need to social distance and we need to flatten the curve but we must never ever get used to the government telling us what to do we have been submissive we have been yielding we have been subservient to a government many of whom have no clue what they're telling us but we've bowed down anyway I'm not been opposed to distancing quarantine I'm not I'm not arguing with what we've done I'm just saying let's not get used to simply doing what the government tells us to do because that is not America and I want to say I cheer these people on who are protesting I really do I pray God gives them courage because otherwise this country is going to reach a point beyond which there is no return economically so that's just my little two cents and thank you for the amens that are popping up on the screen hallelujah thine the glory but here's what I want you to know the truth of the truth is this whether it's whether it's darius manipulated by these conspirators or any one today nine black-robed unelected unaccountable justices in a Supreme Court in Washington DC no one can outlaw prayer you say well they they've kicked prayers out of schools I heard someone say as long as there are tests there will be prayer in school now they have an outlawed prayer because we can pray anywhere anytime and however we choose to pray they cannot outlaw prayer in fact nobody has even know I'm praying I can be praying lips not moving I can be praying and not be kneeling down I pray all the time and I know you do so let me ask you this couldn't Daniel have just said okay well I'm gonna keep praying but I'm not gonna let anybody know it no that's not what he did you know what he did he went home and he got on his knees in the upstairs room and he threw open the shutters and he faced Jerusalem and the street was down there below and that's how these these these jerks saw him praying is because he was used to throwing the shutters open fixing his eyes in the direction of the holy city of Jerusalem and he did it three times a day whatever was on his schedule he went home went to the upstairs room of his apartment or condo or whatever you want to call it knelt towards Jerusalem they said I'm not changing now just so I'll be off the radar nobody will know I am pray and I want to ask you a question when it says that he prayed towards Jerusalem we read that a moment ago why pray towards Jerusalem well I'm not advocating that we have to pray towards Jerusalem but back in the Old Testament especially after the temple was built it was very common for Jews wherever they were to pray in the direction of Jerusalem in fact if you've ever read the passage where when King Solomon completed the construction of the Temple in Jerusalem he prayed a prayer of dedication and in first Kings 844 he said if your people Lord go out where you send them to fight their enemies and if they pray to the Lord by turning toward this city that you've chosen toward this temple I built to honor your name then hear their prayers from heaven and uphold their cause so there you see it if they pray to the Lord by turning toward this city you've chosen so even when he was dedicating the temple he said God for all the Jewish people wherever they're scattered if they turn in the direction of this temple in Jerusalem and pray please hear their prayer that's what King Solomon asked God to do and then you know before the temple was built solomon's father David he wrote one of the most beautiful Psalms about Jerusalem Psalm 122 verses 6 & 7 says pray for the peace in Jerusalem may all who love this city prosper o Jerusalem may there be peace within your walls and prosperity in your palaces and then I want to share this there is another Psalm that is in our Book of Psalms written by someone who is Hebrew who penned this beautiful Psalm during the time of Daniels life as an exile in Babylon under the kingdom of Babylon living as captives living as exiles during the same time in which Daniel would have lived and it's psalm 137 and the writer of that exile psalm says beside the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept as we thought of Jerusalem we put away our harps hanging them on the branches of poplar trees for our captors demanded a song from us our tormentors insisted on a joyful him they said sing us one of those songs of Jerusalem but the writer says how can we sing the songs of the Lord while we're in a pagan land and look at what he says if I forget you O Jerusalem let my right hand forget how to play the harp and may my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth if I fail to remember you if I don't make Jerusalem my greatest joy you see for these exiles Jerusalem and praying towards Jerusalem represented the longing of their heart to be restored to their homeland because I'm going to tell you something it is encoded in the DNA of every biological child of Abraham a magnetic attraction to the land God promised them as his people that is why after they were completely wiped away by the Roman armies in 70 AD and and and as a nation and as a people they were deemed extinct and yet in the middle of the last cent three they they were reborn as a nation and from that time in this very month of May in 1948 until now like displace pieces of metal they have been drawn back to the magnetic force of that Holy Land and so it's no surprise then that Daniel when forbidden to pray went home went upstairs and just as he had done as a child exile in Babylon so now in his 80s he threw open the window bowed towards Jerusalem and cried out to God here's the third thing I want to tell you though fear has no place in the heart of a believer fear has no place in this passage we're told that the king felt obligated because there was a custom among the Medes and the Persians and this is kind of a figure of speech now according to the law of the Medes and the Persians I don't know if you've ever heard that before but it basically means that once a law is enacted in the medo-persian Empire it was irreversible it could not be undone and in in yielding to the intimidation of these underling conspirators who were throwing Daniel under the bus they said O king you sign the law and the law of the Medes of the Persians cannot be reversed you've got to you're obligated to enforce this decree against Daniel and throw him in the den with the Lions so in verse 16 it says at last the king gave orders for Daniel to be arrested thrown into the den of lions and the king said to Daniel oh this is precious to me the king said to Daniel may your God whom you serve so faithfully rescue you he meant that with all of his heart he says I want you God to save you so in verse 17 it says a stone was brought placed over the mouth of the den and the king sealed the stone with his own royal seal and the seals of his Nobles so that no one could rescue Daniel and look what the king did the King returned to his palace and this King he's a pagan King he's a non-believer he's not a child of God he went to his palace and he spent the night fasting he refused his usual entertainment and he could not sleep at all that night do you see what I see here this King knew I've been manipulated I've been trapped my own ego which these guys fed to get me to issue this stupid decree that for 30 days no one could pray to anyone but to me my own ego and this foolish law enacted by my ego needing to be stroked and placated has landed this innocent 80 something-year-old man in a lion's den and his blood is gonna be on my hands this King could not sleep and I'm glad he couldn't sleep he needed to think long and hard about what he had done and yet before he threw Daniel into the lion's den he said Daniel I'm trusting in the power of your God whom I have seen you serve so faithfully I'm trusting that even though I'm throwing you in here against what I know is right I'm trusting your God to take care of you oh dear father in heaven how amazing is that and he's all night long worrying and I'm gonna tell you something I have loved reading in the Book of Daniel how God works in the hearts of pagan leaders God worked in Nebuchadnezzar's life God arrested the attention of Belshazzar in the last chapter who saw the writing on the wall God worked in the life of Cyrus the king of Persia and whoever Darius is God is working in the heart of Darius he's wrestling with his guilt over having thrown a man who serves the true God into a den of lions and he could not wait for the next morning to die the king couldn't wait and verse 19 says very early the next morning the King got up and he hurried out to the lion's den and when he got there he called out in anguish Daniel servant of the Living God was your God whom you serve so faithfully able to rescue you from the Lions and Daniel said long live the king my God sent his angel to shut the Lions mouths so that they would not hurt me for I have been found innocent in his sight and I have not wronged you your majesty the king was overjoyed and ordered that Daniel be lifted from the den and not a scratch was found on him and why for he had trusted in his God this is why the title of the sermon is not Daniel in the lion's den but the Lions in Daniels Den because he came out unharmed untouched I mean they had not even come close to him because God put a force field of protection around him God saved Daniel and do you know what the king did upon rejoicing and being so thankful that Daniel was spared the king said all those guys who brought accusations against you go round up them their wives and their children and throw them into the lion's den and all of a sudden the scripture says the Lions were suddenly hungry the Lions were suddenly hungry and all of these families were devoured by the Lions who did not put a scratch on Daniel the servant of the Living God and I want to tell you something there is a lesson in this story for all of us and that is be careful what you do to a child of God be careful about with with someone who belongs to the Lord David the king of Israel wrote in Psalm chapter 7 verse 14 he says the wicked conceived evil they are pregnant with trouble and give birth to lies they dig a deep pit to trap others and then fall into it themselves did you see that David said the wicked dig the pit hoping others will fall into it and inevitably the pit they dig becomes their own downfall the lion's den they had Daniel thrown into is the lion's den they were thrown into the difference is they got eaten and Daniel did not well Daniel tells us it was more than just a force field around him it wasn't just a case of there not being hungry Daniel tells us in verse 22 I want you to look at it he says my God sent his angel to shut the lion's mouth so that they would not hurt me did you see that my God sent his angel no man just tell you this that there are some people who have speculated that the same angel Daniel testifies to having seen who walked into that lion's den and gave those Lions a dose of divinely imposed lockjaw that perhaps that angel in the lion's den who intervened and spared Daniel from becoming dinner for the Lions is the same angel who walked into that fiery furnace with Shadrach Meshach and Abednego and could it be if that fourth man in the fire was a pre-incarnate manifestation of the Lord Jesus Christ who's to say that the angel who appeared in the lion's den to protect him from these hungry lions would not be the same pre-incarnate Lord Jesus Christ I've got good news for you whether these manifestations were preincarnate versions of the Lord Jesus Christ I will tell you this Jesus is with us in the fire or in the Lions Den and in any experience we face where we are being threatened where we're being intimidated where there is opposition where there's attack when our health is suffering when anything is happening in my life that causes me adversity I know Jesus is right there beside me and he's right there beside you what a glorious truth that is and if that's true or should I say since that's true why should we ever be afraid I'm preaching to me tonight not just preaching to you I'm breaching to me why should I ever be afraid if fear has no place in the life of a believer why do I so often allow fear to creep into my life and caused me to be anxious and paralyze me from moving forward and caused me to doubt and question God when the same angel that was in the furnace and in the lion's den if it be Jesus that same Jesus is not only with me but he is inside me well I want to give you one last little truth before I pray tonight and it is simply this God glorifies himself by blessing us he glorifies himself by blessing us when Darius comes forth from this experience of having the stone rolled away and bringing Daniel out and saying your God did save you well that's exactly what Darius had prayed may the God whom you serve so faithfully save you now he's saying the God whom you served so faithfully did indeed save you Darius issues a proclamation and let's read it beginning in the 25th verse it says then King Darius sent this message to the people of every race and nation and language throughout the world peace and prosperity to you I decree that everyone throughout my kingdom should tremble with fear before the god of Daniel for he is the Living God and He will endure forever his kingdom will never be destroyed and his rule will never end he rescues and saves his people do you see that Darius the pagan King says God rescues and saves his own people God saves his people he performs miraculous signs and wonders in the heavens and on the earth and now let me ask you this question why is he saying all of this this is one of the greatest confessions of faith you'll ever find in the Word of God perhaps in all of history why is he saying all of this why is he saying God is a great an awesome God God does signs and wonders God's kingdom never ends his rule will last forever why is he saying all of this well the rest of verse 27 tells us dari says because that God has rescued Daniel from the power of the Lions that's why I hope you understand what I'm saying Darius made all these proclamations all these confessions of God's greatness but what led him to say those things was what he had seen God do for Daniel and that's why I'm telling you tonight that God glorifies himself when he blesses us because other people see him bless us other people who are questioning his existence watch him take care of us watch him get us through tough times when God blesses us as his children he is setting us up to be a testimony a trophy of His goodness that he puts on display and says look how I take care of him look how I bless her if I can do for him if I can do that for her I can do it for you God glorifies himself by taking care of us and my prayer tonight is that you will understand that throughout the years of your life however young or old you may be you have been on the receiving end of some amazing and awesome blessings and could it be that other people have watched God take care of you smile on you protect you heal you do things that that that have defined your understanding or imagination has he ever overwhelmed you with his goodness yes he has could it be that there are people around you in your family among your friends among those who work with you and people who've known you your whole life and by watching God bless you it has caused them to take a step closer to him what a prayer we all could pray let's go to the Lord together Heavenly Father we thank you for the wonderful truths in this passage as I stand here preaching it tonight I feel I feel your holy presence in this empty room Oh God you are great and greatly to be praised above all kings and kingdoms and empires oh god I welcome your presence into this house of worship and although no seat is filled holy God you are here and how I pray that the sweetness of Jesus I feel right now would fill every living room every kitchen wherever there is someone watching this live stream may the presence of God be as real to them as it is to me right now because you are the god of Daniel and you're the same God to us today and I pray this in Jesus name Amen and amen god bless you

Channel: FirstBaptistAtlanta

Views: 3,702

Rating: 4.9384613 out of 5

Keywords: Daniel, Dr. Anthony George, First Baptist Atlanta, Anthony George, First Baptist Church Atlanta, FBA, The Book of Daniel

Id: E_myt6cRFPY

Length: 46min 43sec (2803 seconds)

Published: Thu May 07 2020