Full Service | Saturday August 7, 2021

good evening everybody let's all stand together if you're in the foyer make your way in i just want to start us out tonight by a reading from a psalm psalm 100 that says uh make a joyful noise unto the lord all ye lands serve the lord with gladness come before his presence with singing know that the lord is god it is he that hath made us and not we ourselves we are his people and the sheep of his pasture enter into his gates with thanksgiving and then to his courts of praise be thankful unto him and bless his name for the lord is good his mercy is everlasting and his truth endureth for all generations these are some awesome promises that we're going to sing out right now and praise the lord just like this psalm says so let's all sing together eyes are turning to you we turn [Music] in your presence all our fears you are the god who saves us you're worthy of all our faces [Music] jose [Music] we welcome you here lord jesus [Music] sound of our hearts returning [Music] you may call [Applause] [Music] in your presence all our fears you are the god who saves us [Music] lord jesus [Music] among us we welcome you here lord jesus and tonight we'd like to share a new song with you one that we wrote and it's just a simple song about his goodness and his mercy and how our salvation comes from the lord and even in this psalm that peter wrote just read it talks about singing to the lord lifting up his name with a shout and dancing under the lord and that's what we're singing about so let's sing that together when i'm on my own when my actions prove that i am weary i am nothing without you [Music] [Applause] [Music] my heart rejoicing i will trust in your salvation i will dance before the lord for he is good i will trust in your mercy let your light shine down on me i will sing unto the [Music] lord [Music] [Applause] [Music] me [Music] and i cannot move [Music] for years [Music] [Music] is [Music] you got me through you are a refugee [Applause] [Music] i will trust in your salvation i will dance before the lord [Music] [Music] [Music] all our sins and griefs [Music] [Music] it's all because everything that god [Music] me [Music] take you to [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] oh it is [Music] [Applause] [Music] he bled [Music] [Applause] and an empty grave is there to prove that my savior [Music] is [Music] and life is worth [Music] enjoy [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] is across there go with me is is [Music] is [Music] oh yes lord it's true we acknowledge that you're the resurrected lord lord apart from the resurrection we wouldn't have any hope at all like paul the apostle said if if he didn't raise up from the grave that even our preaching is in vain but because you live lord you ever lived to make intercession on our behalf lord you you are our defense attorney you paid the price for our sins lord and you dealt with us you've loved us lord we we're so thankful that we serve the resurrected savior i pray that that life that you give us lord that we wouldn't just take it for granted but we'd be rejoicing lord as people knowing that we have eternal life and heaven to look forward to it's because he lives lord and i pray that you'd bless this congregation with new life lord you tell us you you came to give us life and life more abundantly lord just to walk with you and to serve you is the way to go and i pray that tonight as we get into your word that we would draw closer draw nearer and that our walks would mature and grow even as we study this text tonight so bless this evening we pray in jesus name amen amen amen thanks guys nice work and why don't you have a seat get all situated there hey don't forget tomorrow night we have sunday night worship uh the worship team is going to lead us and we're going to have prayer communion worship we'd love to have you join us for that that's going to be great tomorrow at 6 00 pm uh will be sunday night worship and guess what we're starting a brand new book right now are you guys ready for that yeah the book of daniel yes why don't you grab your bible turn with me to the book of daniel it was in 1715 that uh king louis xiv uh of france died after a rain of 72 years it's a long reign especially in those days um he called himself the great king louis the great um it always gets me a little suspicious when somebody calls themselves the great uh it makes you wonder but um he became famous and he also was known maybe you remember studying in history he said i am the state remember that uh if you did your history when you're in school but his court was the most magnificent in all of europe um and so was his memorial service his funeral service was this uh big hubbub and people came from all over and it was a big fancy deal but as it turns out you know as his body laid in state in a golden casket they made for him golden casket um one of the things they said is they you know he he wanted this before he died he said i want my cast to be gold and i want the lights low and i want a candle over my casket and i want that candle just to keep burning uh to remind everybody of my greatness and all this and so that's what was happening they had the big memorial service the casket the candle everything well as it turns out um when the service started thousands waiting in hushed silence as the priest the bishop bishop macelon came to give the sort of the funeral service as he began to speak he slowly reached down and snuffed out the candle and he said only god is great [Music] that's that's that's i don't know if they offed his head after that i don't know but but um i don't know the rest of the story there but you know uh really we we get tangled up in humanity and and all of our greatness and you know we we we've got the term you know you're the goat poor simone bile says uh she went to the olympics everybody calling her the goat the goat the goat the greatest of all time and she carried that weight on her shoulders and so much did it stress her out psychologically that she had to hang it up she couldn't even you know compete because of that pressure and the mental you know thing it was kind of a weird situation nobody knew what to make of that you know and and you know it it's it's too much pressure for any human being to be called the greatest of all time i think that's that's probably uh only a detriment to a person but when it comes to god we know he is the greatest of all things that's why we worship him he's only worthy to be praised but in the bible we do have some great bible characters jesus of course is the greatest but he's also god so that goes without saying but what about bible characters of all the bible characters there are some greats and you know you could talk about david or abraham moses you know um those guys though david abraham and moses they go down in history as sinners they were they were they were great in some ways but they're also big sinners just like you and me remember moses lost his temper and called everybody morons and the lord said you can't go into the promised land like he blew it there david committed adultery and murdered a dude and uh you know his his kingdom was never the same after that um abraham you know he kind of thought it'd be okay to sleep with his wife's handmaid and that didn't work out we're still paying that price with the arab israeli conflict today um like there's there's goofs that these guys made you know but as it turns out there's there's three of my favorite bible characters that um somehow we know they were sinners we know because they were people but somehow they made it through the bible unscathed without any real record of sin and i'm talking about guys with big press you know like you can't you can't include little dudes that had like two sentences given to them in the bible i'm talking about people who got huge chunks of the bible like like joseph of genesis man the whole last section of genesis is about this guy named joseph who there's no record of sin or wrongdoing in his in his life now why is that i think there's a reason uh the joseph is an amazing picture of jesus christ the messiah himself and we've done studies on that and it makes the picture easier to understand because there's no record of sin on joseph's life same with job job gets a whole book a long tedious book and some people say well he sinned when he was questioning what was happening you know and talking to his friends i don't know about that it's okay to ask the questions i think but job never cursed god that was the whole thing you know satan want to have job curse god because of his affliction but that never happened job was an amazing guy it goes down and the lord rewards him for that but maybe just maybe one of my favorite bible characters of all time in this the righteous list of guys is daniel himself daniel has a whole book 12 chapters we hear the story of his life but there's not any record of sin in his life and he's not really a picture of jesus christ he's just a dude and and what sets this guy apart what makes daniel truly great he was in fact one of the greatest guys in the bible and i want to show you that over the next 12 weeks as we go through the book of daniel i think you're going to be blessed by this book it's full of all kinds of things prophecy stories that are awesome but i'd like to start this whole thing out tonight not doing an introduction to the book of daniel we'll do that on wednesday night but i'd like to give an introduction to daniel himself the man uh let's talk about dan the man are you guys ready for that a little just let's just think about daniel and i'm gonna do a quick survey of some of my favorite descriptions of who this guy really is and uh and hopefully we'll grow and learn from that we'll start in chapter one but we're going to flip around through this book so be ready uh to flip through the chapters i'm not going to put the scriptures on the screen i do that sometimes but largely i love for us to look in our bibles and see on the page where those scriptures are so you can be familiar with the scriptures as it's written in your bible i think there's value to that so the first thing that we're going to look at this guy daniel notice with me and this might be one of his greatest attributes daniel was a man of purpose he was a man of purpose now you say oh the whole purpose driven life right uh is that what you're talking about well yeah rick warren wrote a book about the purpose-driven life you don't know my you know my biggest complaint you know now that it's what 20 years i don't know how long ago he wrote the book but churches replaced their bibles with the they did 40 days of purpose and stuff like that i thought that was a mistake i i really recommend the bible over every other book in my personal opinion um one reason i'm not a big fan of the purpose-driven life is because there's a page in that book that says bible prophecy is a waste of time he's rick warren's one of those pastors that just doesn't like to talk about bible prophecy he's one of those guys i talk about you know they rip out one fourth of the bible and don't even talk about it i'm sorry i'm just telling you the way it is uh rick's done some nice things and stuff but that's one of his huge mistakes and he even said it in the purpose-driven life but if i if i pin down the problem that i have with a purpose-driven life it's the title itself should you and i be driven by our purpose think about that for a second what what should we be driven by and if you look at it biblically what should drive you and man i could make some other arguments that i i probably will as we go through the book of daniel um you know the scriptures talk about how it's the love of christ that compels us or drives us love is maybe better than purpose uh being love driven or just driven by the power of the holy spirit there's another we can make an argument there but i think the purpose-driven life is is not necessarily uh the right exact uh description of what we should be doing now don't get me wrong where you know it is important is purpose as it turns out is something you and i should have it's something we should let be our guide you know purpose is great at keeping us on track it's not the thing that should necessarily drive us are you guys with me on that do you understand i'm not i know some people say well brett you're just picking apart these things i'm just telling you uh what what is associated with words that have been thrown around in christianity for the last 20 years but daniel is the best example of a of a believer who has a sense of purpose and this is the best description of what purpose for the believer looks like what was what was the deal well picture the scene you're a 15 year old kid you're living in jerusalem you've got a nice set of mom and dad parents and they're they're god fearing you know uh you know pentateuch believing uh believers and they've taught you from the youngest of ages uh the torah and and the the the levitical laws and and the the scriptures as they knew it then and even your name is a hebrew name which we'll get into on wednesday night that's so cool and and you know raised in jerusalem suddenly in 607 bc suddenly the babylonians come and they attack jerusalem now they don't crush jerusalem in 607 but they take some people kill them and then take other people and they drag them off into captivity but then they let jerusalem function kind of back into normalcy and you remember it wouldn't be until 586 bc that the babylonians would finally crush jerusalem and destroy it all together but daniel and his buddies shadrach meshach and abednego they would be taken in that first wave of three of the babylonians now we don't know what happened to daniel's parents most scholars believe if the babylonian technique was um you know up to par of what they were known for um they probably killed the parents and dragged daniel and his friends off to babylon now why would they do this this is an interesting practice by the way historically of the babylonians the assyrians were the opposite you hear me talk about the assyrians they were kind of an empire uh you know 150 years before the babylonians were really on the scene the assyrians were famous for their horrible cruelty you know when they attacked somebody they would just kill everyone or or they would kill everyone that was a man and they would rape the women and make slaves out of the children and they would often kill the men in the town in the most horrible way skinning people alive using their skins to upholster their furniture like literally archaeological digs have found these assyrian you know things that had human skins over them uh and it was their enemies the assyrians had piles of skulls outside their city gates to warn anybody you mess with the assyrians this is not a way to get ahead sorry i got a light in the mood with the beheadings and stuff so they had the piles of skulls outside just so you don't mess with the assyrians well all that to say uh that was the way of the syrian you just kill everybody or you enslave them the babylonians they did it totally different and by the way this worked really well for the babylonians what they would do is they would conquer a people group kill most of them in battle or you know around the city but they would hand pick the best of the best the smartest the best looking the the ones that were in shape the young people and they would they would scoop them up and say you're coming to babylon with us and they would even you know chain them up and stuff like that but they would bring them to babylon and then when they got to babylon they let them loose and say check this out look at look at this great city and babylon was an amazing city during the time of daniel babylon was incredible the one of the seven wonders of the ancient world was the hanging gardens in babylon it was a beautiful city bigger than washington dc is today babylon was big for bible times and it was fortified and it was plush and prosperous and you could stay in that city for 20 years under siege and live large the whole time like like it's an amazing thing that babylon was kind of the perfect place to live you know and so what they would do is they'd bring these captive people from other cities and nations and bring them in and then the kids would say sign us up oh babylon like suddenly they're all into babylon because it's so awesome jerusalem looked like hicktown compared to babylon and really most of the uh enemies of the babylonians would assimilate and become good babylonians until daniel daniel comes as a prisoner but they put him up in the highest levels because he's better than all the other people and so they say hey you daniel shadrach meshach and abednego you guys are going to come to the prince of the eunuchs and we'll talk about what that was all about on wednesday night but they say hey check out babylon and we're going to feed you with the king's meat and the king's wine man we're going to dress you in the babylonian attire and man it's going to be awesome and you're going to live large here in babylon that was the way they did it and they would win people over by the way if you didn't assimilate babylonians would then imprison you or kill you so it was dangerous to sort of not get into the babylonian vibe if you know what i mean it was a dangerous thing to sort of push against that they didn't like that so then daniel's there in babylon they they bring out the king's meat and the king's wine and this is where we start to see daniel as a man a young man at this time 15 years old a man of purpose let's check it out it says here in verse 8 of chapter 1 but daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with a portion of the king's meat nor with the wine which he drank therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself daniel knew that he would be defiled by the king's meat and the king's drink that that's not what a good jewish boy would be drinking and eating and what have you and so daniel he says i don't want to do this i don't want to be defiled by this i'm not going to do this why did he do this because he had purpose he'd purposed already that's the thing about purpose it's not just a decision you make in the heat of the moment it's something you thought about long before one of the biggest problems today with with we christians is we don't think through scenarios um we had a training by the way uh with our whole staff we have a large staff and our security team did a great great thing and something churches probably should think about what do you do if there's an active shooter um and one of these a really great sheriff here locally came into this sort of class for our whole staff and kind of in our security team they've got you know all the plans and what to do and all that stuff but one of the things the sheriff said most people freeze when something like that happens and you know you can even see videos of active shooter situations where most people just freeze and they get shot or just don't do anything but as it turns out if you've thought about it beforehand and you've actually thought okay if i ever find myself in a situation where somebody starts shooting what do i do um statistically if you've actually thought about it and thought about your game plan of what you would do in that horrible situation then you will do better like the stats are alarmingly better that you'll do so much better you know if you've actually thought about it um you say bro that's a horrible thing to talk about well that's kind of the days we're living but as it turns out i think that's true in your christian walk as well you've got to think about what happens if that girl that i work next to in the office um wants to go out and get drinks after work well i'm gonna say you know what i'm not really into that i'm married happily married to a wonderful wife and and i wouldn't i really don't do that that's just not something i'd ever do no or would you go well you know i don't want to be perceived as not nice and people drink they go out and have lunch and stuff so maybe if you hadn't thought about it man he who what is it you know he who fails to plan plans to fail daniel was a guy who had already purposed in his heart long before he's got the king's meat and the king's wine in front of him he's like i've already purposed in my heart i'm not going to defile myself with that stuff so it wasn't a you know just say no as nancy reagan back in the 80s said you know just say no to drugs that didn't work because you might say no today but tomorrow you might say yes and just just saying no doesn't work you have to actually say just say never and think about it long before any of those temptations happen you know it's interesting because this is what the bible teaches you and me to be people of purpose that is purposing we're not going to do certain things there's lines we will not cross and what happens if i get tempted by the evil one do i have scripture ammo ready to go see because every time jesus was tempted by satan he had scripture that he just spoke out that was his ammo he spoke the word of god which is the sword of the spirit and he knew what to say when that temptation came what an important important thing that is for people to understand now it's interesting because daniel could have drank the wine he could have eaten the meat but he knew that that wouldn't be the best thing for him why is that well you know i wonder if daniel knew what solomon had written you know years and years earlier quoting his mother when in proverbs 31 solomon wrote this it is not for kings o lemuel for kings not to drink wine nor prince's strong drink lest they drink and forget the law and pervert judgment of any afflicted give strong drink to him that is ready to perish and whine unto those that be of heavy heart let him drink and forget his poverty and remember his misery no more daniel got to say i'm not going to defile myself with the king's wine because i want to be a prince i want to be a leader i don't want to let my mind be fogged you know with the king's wine you say well brother are you suggesting that we can't drink wine not suggesting that um but if you want to be a prince and you don't want to forget the law then you probably shouldn't do that well brett i believe we can we can uh drink wine if we want to oh you're totally right first corinthians chapter 6 says all things are lawful unto me but not everything's expedient or profitable all things are lawful for me but i will not be brought under the power of any you know what's so great uh like i i can boast on this one there's other sins i might not want to boast so heavily about uh but this one i boast i've never tasted alcohol in my life i'll tell you why because long ago i just said never i'm just not going to do it it's not because i'm legalistic and i don't think people can have wine with their dinner it's not that at all i just said never a long time ago because my dad would always tell us the story at the table a true story when he was in uh right out of high school a bunch of his best buddies uh called him and said hey let's go out and break a canyon road in southern california and they had hot rods back in those days in the uh you know early 60s and they were you know in the car clubs and all that stuff let's go out and you know they were going to go out my dad chose not to go out that night with all of his friends they all went on this and they all packed into one of their hot rods and they were drinking and um down breath canyon road they got in a crash and they all died all of his friends in one night um and my dad at that point saw that man i don't want any part of that and and before he was even a christian he was like alcohol is not something i really want to be a part of it just he just had no taste for it um but i remember him telling us those stories when i was a little kid and long before i was even you know old enough to even think about drinking i remember thinking you know that's something i'm just not gonna do and then at the ripe old age of 12 i decided to be a pastor i really wanted to be a pastor when i turned 12. and um and i remember reading in first timothy chapter three it says that for the bishop the episcopal which is the leader of a church elder pastor bishop kind of an interchangeable word um is not to be given to wine it says that now i've got my pastor friends now brett you know don't be legalistic about that uh we can drink wine it's just not to be given to much wine or not to be drunk with wine and i'm like yeah you can you can push the limits as far as you can and still do all that that's great all things are lawful but for me i learned long ago i'm just not going to do that and you know what's even more legalistic about us athy creek staff and leadership we've all decided hey we're going to be tea totalers and it's not because we think if you have alcohol you're a center we don't believe that there's no legalism on this it's more of a get to we get to be pastors and elders in this church that say we see so many people struggling with alcohol and alcoholism that we want to be on the side of just safe and just try to set an example for those that are struggling and we're going to be on that side of it that's the decision we've made we did that long when nathan creek first started now there's churches that think where the athena creek's a bunch of legalists you know you can go to churches today where they're getting a little tipsy after their home groups they pull out the coors and the coolers that's wrong that's sinful to be drunk with wine biblically is off but daniel you know he could have drank the wine if he wanted all things are lawful not everything's profitable daniel was a guy who said you know what i am not going to do that and he had a reason that was already established in his heart that's what it means to be a person of purpose so that scripture there you know in first corinthians 6 12 all things are lawful for him not every everything's expedient i think daniel knew the value and saying i'm gonna abstain from that and he already had purpose for that in his heart if you fail to purpose in your heart to not defile yourself with this world the world is gonna push on you all the time i hope you understand that you know that's one of the things i think we're going to love about going through the book of daniel daniel was a 2021 kind of guy the same pressures that he had back in babylon to become more babylonian is the exact same pressures you have today to be less biblical to be more like the world the world is trying to stuff you and me as christians into its conformity the world is trying to say hey don't be so weird you don't guys don't need to meet as churches you got online and there's a horrible deadly disease and so everybody's going to die if you meet and the world the world said okay but here's the thing once the bible kind of says well you're not supposed to forsake the assembling of yourselves you know we we we might you know stop for a little while just to see okay what's this disease everybody's saying but you know when nathan creek saw well the numbers aren't really what they said and guess what we're not going to forsake what the bible tells us to do see that's that's something that we've already purposed in our heart long before the coronavirus ever came um i hope you understand that there's things that the world is trying to do to christians today to say man you've got to be like us and we're saying well the bible we live different we think different and if you don't fit in with their narrative they will call you names and they'll get all mad at you and they get you know they push back pretty hard i'm convinced christians listen this is important daniel's the book we need to go through right now because i'm a little worried just to be honest a lot of us as christians we've become weak in the knees and we just sort of follow what the world's telling us to do well i guess they know what they're talking about i guess they know what they're doing and well they know science science everything's you know science now even though it's kind of not science now the bible says in the last days they'll do things that they call science but it's science falsely so-called we're seeing those things happening daily but i love where daniel says i'm not going to let myself get into this stuff i love romans by the way you can jot this one down as well romans chapter 13 verse 14. paul the apostle kind of talks about this idea of the having that kind of purpose um and and i hope you understand this is the way to do it he says in romans 13 14 but put ye on the lord jesus christ and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof see the purpose in your heart is the purpose saying i'm going to purposefully not allow myself to be in a situation where i'm going to be tempted to fail i'm thinking about it ahead of time i'm not just going to well as things come we'll just take it as it comes don't do that you'll get taken in a moment of weakness you'll get tempted when you're not even thinking about it as a temptation but if you purpose in your heart and you make not provision to fulfill the lust of the flesh you'll be like daniel and in the midst of even possible death he said guess what i'm not going to eat the king's meat nor am i going to drink the wine he had already purposed in his heart i love that you know for me the alcohol thing's never been in temptation because um when i was a kid i already decided i'm not going to do it it was already the decision made so clearly and it's not like i said it's not a legalistic thing but it's been so freeing to me i don't have to sit around and wonder no have i had too much to drink should i drive i'm so free i i don't have to worry about that um you say well brett well good for you oh i've got my things you know if i'm walking through safeway i'd say you know i'm i'm going to purpose in my heart not to eat ben jerry's cherry garcia but then i walk down that ice cream aisle and i say you know what i'm going to walk down the aisle just to prove my self-control and as i walk down the you know what i'm going to do i'm going to actually take it out of the ice cream freezer put it in my cart and bring it home to debbie because i know debbie likes the ben and jerry's and you know i'll bring it it's all for debbie i love my wife and so i'm going to do that but i'm going to prove that i've got conquering my as i dabble with the ben and jerry's and then on my way home you know i wonder if it's still frozen i better check as i'm driving home and pretty soon you know i get home and debbie's like why do you have ice cream coming out your nostrils brat uh no that's never happened but uh it could it could but you know it's there's things you got to do to say you know what i'm just not gonna i'm just not gonna do that stuff so we all have our things i hope you understand that i'm not trying to portray a the creek or me as any better than anybody else but i do love that the alcohol thing's never been a temptation for me because a long time ago i just said never for me uh i'm just not gonna do that i'm so free i'm the freest person i know on that by the way uh i wish you you could understand that you know sometimes what we think is you know legalism oftentimes is the most freeing thing daniel was free when he went to babylon because he knew what he was going to do and he said you know what i'm just not going to defile myself with the king's meat daniel man of purpose that's number one number two daniel was a man of prosperity now don't get me wrong there was a false teaching in the 80s and kind of you know the name and claim it blab it and grab it prosperity preachers totally not into that you know um sometimes the lord doesn't allow you to be prosperous just ask jesus you know what i mean like jesus you know in a lot of ways practically you say man he had no place to lay his head everything he had was borrowed like he wasn't mister name and claim it blab it and grab it as the prosperity teachers a lot of the christians over the ages have suffered horribly but i do want to show you that daniel was prosperous and and i want to show you that because this is against all odds he's a jew who wants to remain a jew and not get sucked into babylon and he's going to be in babylon as a jew but the lord says guess what i'm going to bless his socks off and i have seen this where the lord honors the person who hungers and thirsts after righteousness jesus said this on the mount of beatitudes he said blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteous for they shall be filled daniel is going to live a very filled blessed prosperous life and you know what's even more cool about daniel is the world secularist all the worldly people around him they look at him and go what is the deal with this guy like his prosperity was a testimony of god's glory and daniel was the shining example of what a godly person how the lord would prosper them check it out daniel chapter 1 verse 20. uh nebuchadnezzar's marveling after looking at daniel you know hannah and i michelle and azariah the you know shadowed me nebby's like check these guys out he says in verse 20 in all matters of wisdom and understanding that the king inquired of them he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in his realm and daniel continued even into the first year of king cyrus so through the reign of nebuchadnezzar nebby was just like wow daniel he's 10 times better than the chaldeans the suits there who are these astrologers and what have you babylon was known to be the academic center of the world at that time the chaldeans the soothsayers the magicians these are all the wise men of babylon and we're going to find these guys to be very jealous of daniel because daniel's 10 times better than they are and everybody knows it but isn't it something that the lord prospers daniel he gives them favor with god he gives them favor with man and one of the things i've noticed and you can take this and use it how you will but i've noticed the christians that kind of mouse behind walls and things i don't want to make waves i don't want to i don't want to be too offensive in my faith and i don't want to make no problems or anything they end up offending everybody but the person that's kind of bold and just says you know what i'm going to be bold i'm going to be set aside i'm going to follow the lord and i'm going to do this the way the lord wants me to do i've watched the lord prosper people that do that people that just say i'm just i'm not gonna you know the the proverbs talks about the the wicked person flees when no one's pursuing but the righteous are as bold as a lion daniel is bold as a lion he's bold and saying you know what i'm not gonna eat the king's meat i'm not to eat drink the king's wine and i'm going to eat what god wants me to eat and so they start doing that and then nebuchadnezzar says wow look at this guy he found favor with god favor with man because he was faithful sometimes the world almost they'd almost rather see an on-fire christian than a lukewarm christian the world has a field day with a lukewarm christian um they can they can find fault easily but the person who's like a daniel a man or a woman of purpose oftentimes the lord will say guess what i'm going to make that person prosperous because of their boldness we see that in daniel we learned that about daniel in daniel chapter 1. he was a man of prosperity not only daniel 1 20 but also daniel chapter 6 verse 28 in the next kingdom after nebby's gone long gone and the medes and the persians roll in in daniel 6 28 he gets the same it wasn't just nebuchadnezzar having favor with daniel but in chapter 6 verse 28 so this daniel prospered in the reign of darius and in the reign of cyrus the persian so the means of the persians also looked at daniel said wow this dude is squared away so daniel was a man of first of all purpose second of all prosperity thirdly i want to show you something that some of you that are good at the first two sometimes you're not so good at the third one this is where daniel's a a a well-blended individual he was a man of praise a man of praise one of the things i've noticed that bold people and people that are doing stuff and on fire praise who's got time for that giving honor and glory to god one of the big mistakes that a person is prosperous and a person of purpose one of their mistakes is they forget where all glory and honor really comes from and they become very prideful and and arrogant that's what happens i think sometimes to pastors and churches where there's this sort of the whole arrogance and and sort of a kingdom mentality like like it gets ugly it really gets ugly we have to remember who gets all the credit and we have to remember uh that god alone is the one who puts us and raises men up and puts men down how do i know that about daniel well daniel chapter two do you remember the story nebuchadnezzar has a dream he suspects his magicians chaldeans and soothsayers are total wacko like he's suspicious that they don't know what they're doing but he's got this dream but he can't remember the dream so he says okay you guys all the wise men of babylon including daniel by the way in shadrach meshach and abednego all you guys need to figure out what this dream was uh or else i'm gonna cut you up into pieces and make your houses into piles of manure nebuchadnezzar liked that that was what he said all the time i'll cut you into pieces make your houses into piles of manure so everybody's freaking out somewhere daniel doesn't get this memo and he's just kind of chilling and the guys are freaking out nobody can figure out the dream that nebuchadnezzar can't remember and so they're all thinking we're all gonna die and then finally they go daniel don't you care like don't you know dad's like what's going on well the king says you gotta tell what the dream is daniel says okay and he gets with his buddies shadrach meshach and abednego and they go and seek the lord in prayer um and and and then the lord gives to daniel the answer tells him the dream and the interpretation and so what does daniel do oh quick daniel you got the answer run go tell nebuchadnezzar and you alone have the answer i alone mr nebuchadnezzar have the answer to your dream is that what daniel does no let's take a look it's daniel chapter 2 verse 19. there after getting the answer from the lord the first thing daniel does i love this let this be a lesson to us in daniel chapter 2 verse 19 then the secret was revealed unto daniel in a night vision then daniel blessed the god of heaven daniel answered and said blessed be the name of god forever and ever for wisdom and might are his you know daniel could have hey i alone have the answer to the dream i'm pretty squared away as a prophet you loser shadrach meshach bendigo i'm the no he didn't do that that's what we see people do do they try to take credit by the way i think there's no end to what god can do through a man or a woman as long as they don't care about who gets the credit um it's it's a it's a slippery slope once we start look what i am doing i alone daniel doesn't do that daniel's a man of real character and oh lord help us all to be like this and he gives glory where glory is due he says oh blessed be the god of heaven for all glory and wisdom and mind are his verse 21 and he changes the times and the seasons he removes kings and sets up kings let that be a reminder to you about our president the lord raises kings up and puts them down that's the lord who does that he giveth wisdom to the wise and knowledge to them that no understanding he reveals the deep and secret things he knoweth what is in the darkness and the light dwelleth in him or with him and then he says i thank thee and praise thee o thou god of my fathers who has given me wisdom and might and has made known unto me now what we desired of thee for thou s now made known unto us the king's matter daniel could have bolted told nebby and said hey i got the answer to your dream but he takes real time and and like this is such a beautiful expression of praise that daniel offers and we'll study this in in depth because there's so much to this little expression of praise uh we need to meditate on that we'll do that on a wednesday night but i love that daniel even when it wasn't convenient even when their lives were on the line they said it's more important for us to give glory to god and praise his holy name than for us to bolt and tell nebby the answer to his dream i hope none of you are those people those christians that say you know what we're into bible teaching and we're into activity and action serving the lord and doing this and that but you know the idea of worship what a waste of time do we have some marthas in the building tonight some of you love to do do do and you're running around and you even look down your little busy nose at people that are into worship brett you mentioned sunday night just worship prayer communion what a waste of time we could be out politicking we could be out um you know working earning an extra buck we could be out doing our hobbies and things you know but as it turns out remember jesus what he said to mary and martha when martha was busy doing the work mary was there worshiping at the feet of jesus and jesus said she chose the better thing daniel was a guy who was busy serving did some of the greatest things that ever humanity would ever do but he still found reason and opportunity to worship and praise the god of heaven um we need balance if you have a bent more towards theology and teaching and doing don't ever forsake watch out for that propensity that might be in your dna that's just not really a worshiper you got to fix that um you want to know how i know this so well some of you like brett speak for yourself well i am i'm not a worshiper i'm just going to tell you it doesn't come naturally for me well you're a musician you're one of them worship leaders yeah i think the lord he said how do we get brett to worship and he and he gave me a guitar when i was 12 years old and i started playing guitar and and and then and then i there was nobody else leading worship so i started leading worship but it's almost like the lord said brett this isn't the way you really work and so i'm going to make you to be that and and now i've learned the value of worship even though it goes against my natural tendency to lift hands and sing songs of praise to the lord that doesn't naturally teaching's natural talking about theology's natural worship's a little harder prayer is even harder and because of that i need to push harder on all those things daniel was a man of of praise and i love that may we be the same number four on the list of things daniel was a man of purity um go to chapter six verse four the enemies of daniel you know daniel's mr goody two-shoes now he's interpreted dreams and he's done all this amazing stuff so in daniel chapter six they were looking for anything that could find dirt on daniel get some dirt on daniel so we can we can ruin his career surely we'll find some scandalous affair or some you know adulterous situation or surely we'll find you know some embezzlement or something isn't it amazing how it's not hard to find dirt on people today and man if you run for the president of the united states good luck with that people are gonna dig and look in every little dark nook and cranny of your life and if you've done one little thing you're gonna be toast that's what they were wanting to do with daniel so they dig and check it out this is great uh chapter 6 verse 4 then the presidents and the princes sought to find occasion against daniel concerning the kingdom but they could find none occasion nor fault for as much as he was faithful neither was there any error or fault found in him i love this that daniel was a guy who was just dialed in he wasn't running around you know sinning and he was he was blameless i love that we need more of us christians to stand our ground and i know that we're saved by grace and yes when we make mistakes lord forgives our sins i know that and that's what we believe here at the creek but sometimes i worry that we didn't get the memo from paul when he said should we continue in sin and like grace abound god forbid that's what paul said god forbid in other words hey we could party down and send because we can just say we're sorry tomorrow and we're good to go grace you know it's like grace is the doormat that you wipe your feet on as you get into church and we act like it's all okay to sin because we're because god's gracious but you got to give it to daniel daniel he was he would say you know what i i'm going to be pure i'm not going to do sinful stuff i'm not going to have a bunch of weird stuff going on behind the scenes so he was a man of real character and that he was a man of purity i love that may the lord help us all with that as well so he's a man of purity there's no mention of sin in daniel's life and they when they looked for it they couldn't find it i love that um number five on the list daniel was a man of prayer a man of prayer daniel chapter 6 verse 10 when when they couldn't find any dirt on daniel they said well what we what we do see him do is he's always praying let's get him in trouble for praying so they came up with this solution to make prayer illegal no prayer in schools no prayer for daniel and we'll get him so daniel what does he do well daniel chapter 6 verse 10 it says now when daniel knew the writing the law was signed he went into his house his windows being opened in this chamber toward jerusalem he kneeled upon his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his god as he did before he wasn't doing this as a show of rebellion he did this the same thing every day before the law was signed there's certain things you do because you just do them and no matter what the law says there's certain times as a christian you don't do what the law says it's illegal to pray to your god daniel dan's like yeah i'm going to do like i did before and pray well brett it sounds to me like daniel's being like a muslim praying three times a day kneeling on his knees toward jerusalem the muslims kneel toward mecca and pray is daniel stealing that i'd like to just remind you that islam didn't even start until 600 a.d the muslims stole this from daniel i hope you understand that it's kneeling toward mecca no the jews when were they supposed to kneel toward jerusalem as it turns out we'll see in first kings uh they were told there uh chapter 8 verse 44 they were told that when you're in captivity as jews kneel toward jerusalem and pray for the healing of jerusalem so daniel's just doing what the bible told them to do by kneeling three times a day praying toward jerusalem but i love that he saw the importance of prayer daniel was a great man because he was a man of prayer and he saw the value even when it could cost him his life what is the law that they would pass that you would say oh i i'm not gonna i'm not gonna do that even if it would cost you your life can you imagine that by the way remember i told you how you should be thinking about things before they actually happened if you want to be a person of purpose what happens if they were to do like in canada where they've burned down 64 churches in the last year and they've arrested certain pastors now have you seen this in canada they're arresting bastards as they're driving down the road they'll pull them over arrest them throw them in jail because they were talking about lgbtq issues and stuff like that i do wonder if that's happening you know or it's going to happen in america and i wonder sometimes where we're headed but what would you do like if you ever thought if you were cassie bernal what would you have done cassie bernal i hope you all know that name she's the one in the columbine shooting years ago with those two dudes with their black trench coats and their weapons and they came in and they just started asking kids students do you believe in god yes or no and if they said yes boom kill them well cassie stood there and watched several of her classmates shot dead there i think it was in the library if i remember right and they came to cassie and they said to her if you say yes to this we'll pull the trigger um do you believe in god and cassie boldly said yes i do and they pulled the trigger and killed her one of the modern-day christian martyrs here in america that happened um but what would you do see i worry that we're a little bit weaker than maybe cassie i i kind of almost picture people say well i'm going to say no and then after all say sorry lord i was at gunpoint you got to forgive me yeah you know but there are some people that actually have conviction enough to say i would rather die than to say i don't believe in jesus christ i wonder if you've actually thought through that because if anything ever like that did happen god forbid but if it did would you be ready to answer that question i'm not trying to freak everybody out like brett this is really depressing but actually i think this is the kind of thing you know my dad always taught me to find um you know be almost like a glass half empty person be a pessimist and try to figure out what could go wrong that's just the way i was raised and it's actually served me pretty well you kind of try to think about what the problems could be before they actually even happen as christians i think we need to be purposing in our heart to say what would happen if persecution really happened to that level in america would i be willing to be a a person willing to risk my life because daniel they said if you pray you're going to be thrown in the lion's den and dan said well get the lions ready because i'm going to pray that was that was what daniel did daniel was a man of prayer daniel 6 10. also daniel chapter 9 verse 3 is um is is another place where daniel he gives one of the greatest prayers and maybe the whole bible well i can't wait to get to daniel chapter nine it's one of the most beautiful prayers but it says in daniel 9 3 and i set my face to the lord god to seek my prayer and supplication with fasting and sackcloth and ashes daniel was a man of prayer when he was 80 years old he starts fasting and praying who does that at 80 years old ben i've kind of lived my life done my ministry daniel excuse me at 80 years old fasting and praying and the lord reveals to him one of the greatest prophecies of all the bible because he was a man of prayer daniel a man of prayer number six number six daniel was a man of power of power now you know there were maybe more powerful dudes in the bible you might argue that elijah was maybe one of the most powerful guys in the bible i mean can you imagine being elijah calling fire from heaven that's a pretty good thing um or or killing 450 prophets of baal raising people up from the dead like uh you know elijah did some pretty big powerful things but i love the power that daniel has because it's more of a relying on the power of god in his life um and and this is how it shakes out like in daniel chapter 6 verse 22. when he's um darius comes running out and and says daniel did the did the lions eat you um and daniel gives this answer in daniel 6 22. it says um there it says my god hath sent his angel and hath shut the lion's mouths that they have not hurt me for as much as before him innocency was found in me and also before the o king have i done no hurt i'm innocent god shut the light the lion's mouth when i was in college at southern oregon university i had a goofball professor who was saying the book of daniel's great book and he we read it read the book as a literature uh class secular but he made the comment that the lions were probably likely not hungry i was shocked that he was giving credit that the actual story happened he just didn't believe the miracle that god shut the lion's mouths and i had to comment i had to say you know that's a nice theory and everything but do you understand the babylonians this was an art form for them death how you kill people and and lion feeding was one of their favorite ways to watch a person die and they would get these lions to levels of starvation so that when the person was thrown in they would tear the person up like that's just historically known archaeologically practically that's what they did but not only that in the narrative here of daniel this professor at southern oregon um was making the case well the lions must not have been hungry well how do you explain that after they pulled daniel out they threw the people who accused daniel in and the bible says before their carcasses even hit the ground the lions ate them like their bodies didn't even touch the ground the lions were so hungry like feeding mcnuggets to a you know like little people to like this is the lions had no problem tearing these other people to shreds it was god's power that preserved daniel it was god's power that protected daniel through all these kingdoms whether it was the babylonians or the medes and the persians um god was powerful in daniel's life powerful because of prayer powerful because daniel was a man of purpose of purity of praise prosperity man the lord powerfully worked through this man may that be true of us we need to have people of power today not by might nor by power but by my spirit saith the lord of hosts that's how we're to operate in the power of god you know the bible says trust in the lord with all your heart lean not on your own understanding in all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your paths daniel had power because he trusted in the lord number seven last but not least daniel was a man to keep our final ps going here daniel was a man of prophecy he was a man of prophecy god in the first six chapters of daniel are about kind of his story and the narrative and some of the cool things that happened but chapters 7 to 12 gives us some of the most radical prophecies of the bible ones that people didn't understand until fairly modern times why is it that prophecy we get better understanding the closer we get to the end this is something you should understand because there's a group of people like rick warren who would say prophecy it's not you know it's all figurative and none of it's to be taken literally and it's all most of it's already happened like these guys that don't believe in bible prophecy uh of the bible where did that come from well it came from you know 100 years ago israel didn't even exist as a nation you know 500 years ago during martin luther you know israel was scattered all over the world and there was no jews in israel so when they read the bible and saw books like daniel which daniel the prophet talks mostly about jerusalem and israel and the jews in israel like these are what his prophecies are all about jerusalem and israel the jews so when they read the book of daniel like who can figure it out by the way even daniel it was hard for him because he's talking about jerusalem and it's about to be crushed by the babylonians so when daniel hears these prophecies check it out daniel chapter turn to daniel chapter 12. there um a lot of times after daniel would receive a prophecy he was astonished and he didn't understand what he was hearing and seeing that's what the bible says but he just kept going about the king's business that's what it's constantly said of daniel we'll see that as we read the story but um check out daniel chapter 12 it says in verse 4 it says but thou o daniel shut up brett that might be a word for you a prophetic word for you i'm almost done but thou daniel shut up the words and seal the book even to the time of the end many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall be increased what is daniel supposed to do shut up the words of his book the book of daniel till the time of the end look at verse 9 and he said go thy way daniel for the words are closed up and sealed until the time of the end the book of daniel was not meant for people of daniel's day and i would even argue even during jesus day largely none of daniel's prophecies have anything to do with that the prophecies of daniel have to do with the tribulation period and the rapture from the rapture to the second coming of christ daniel's prophecies are going to be amazingly intricate he's got a couple prophecies about jesus in his first coming we'll see that but most of it's about jesus in the second coming the reason people didn't see it is because daniel's prophecies are so literal about israel and jerusalem that for centuries people said it can't be literal because jerusalem doesn't even exist but today you and i read the book of daniel and by the way they you know scholars call daniel the key that unlocks bible prophecy some refer to daniel as the book the key that unlocks the book of revelation and i would have to say that's a good description of what daniel does it unlocks the book of revelation for us and it makes it all come together and you can start to really get understanding now because i think we're living in the times of the end daniel's coming to life as we speak one of the only books of the bible that says it's going to be sealed up until the time of the end daniel does anybody remember what it says at the end of the book of revelation john was told to what do not seal the words of this book see after the apostle john during the church age he left it open and say okay here it goes here's that prophecy of the end times the apocalypse and all that but i'm not going to seal up the words of this you see that's where daniel is unsealed once the book of revelation starts to be unsealed we see how it all fits together perfectly and we're going to see that as we go through the bible i love that daniel was a person who was into prophecy and he was one who believed that the lord knew what he was talking about sad to say of all the things on this list there's people in churches today that blow this one off altogether say ah prophecy schmaphessy i'm a pantheologist i just believe it's all gonna pan out so whatever is that what the bible says we're supposed to do no if you're in our prophecy update last night it says over and over again watch look behold be vigilant be sober jesus said that paul said it peter said it all warned us over and over again don't be ignorant concerning the end times the bible says that over and over again meanwhile much of the church today is like yeah whatever we're more into balancing our checkbook and having a happy marriage and you know church community and all this other stuff people love talking about uh there's more important things than those things that the bible says these are a priority daniel saw the priority of prophecy so with all these things as we wrap it up i just got a simple challenge for us as we go through the book of daniel my challenge is this dare to be a daniel or a daniella dare to be a daniel because you know what this guy might just be one of the greatest guys that ever walked on the earth the bible sure paints the portrait of daniel as a guide to emulate a model for us to follow um you know to be a a person who's so dialed in a person of purpose prosperity praise you know purity prayer power and prophecy these are the things daniel is good at and we're going to see this as we go through this book may the lord give us ears to hear what the spirit would say in jesus name let's pray if you would just with your heads bowed i wonder if maybe the lord's tapping you on the shoulder tonight for one of these things or maybe several maybe all of them maybe you've been sort of sucked into more of a babylonian mindset today where the world's trying to make you think worldly but you're realizing man i need to get back to being a purpose a purposeful christian i need to get back to prayer maybe you've neglected the study of prophecy this is a great time for you to sort of re-initiate and see what the bible says in the book of daniel one of the greatest books of prophecy in the bible is right before us um man we can talk about purity man maybe you've allowed just sinful junk in your life and you've made provision to fulfill the lust of the flesh daniel was the guy who said i'm not going to do that maybe maybe the lord would have you have a renewed hunger and thirst after righteousness but would you just between you and the lord right now ask the lord to help you with that one area or or all the areas that you feel like you need help with and and just a re renewed challenge to take it as a challenge to be like a daniel would you just ask the lord right now just in your heart pray that in right now lord how thankful we are for your word and the challenges your word gives to us we admit lord it's easy to become worldly you tell us not to be conformed to this world but to be transformed as we read the book of daniel transform us make us more like daniel even more importantly make us more like jesus i pray that your church would be pliable and shapeable and lord that you'd soften our hearts and give us a receptivity to the truth so bless these people tonight as we pack it up for the evening i pray that lord you just bless may the study of daniel come to life and i pray you do a great work in your church lord we pray in jesus name amen let's all stand together and joey went to lead us in one final worship song together [Music] my heart you hold cause you made this holy [Music] cause your glory is so beautiful i'll fall onto my knees and the heartbeat of my life is to worship in your life your glory's so beautiful your glory is so [Music] my life is yours [Music] my hope is in you only in my heart [Applause] [Laughter] [Music] oh [Music] your glory is so beautiful [Music] is to worship in your light cause your glory is so beautiful your glory is so weird [Music] so lord we just ask for that purpose that vision that direction lord for us to be prayers as daniel was for us to be pursuing you for us to be looking for your coming kingdom or in all these things we pray in your name amen amen hey god bless you guys and have a great rest of your weekend you

Channel: Athey Creek

Views: 17,356

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Keywords: Brett Meador, Bible, Church, Teaching, Study, Christian, Jesus, Oregon, Through the Bible, Athey Creek, Athey Creek Church, Athey Creek Christian Fellowship

Id: KZJOZLG1Zvk

Length: 78min 17sec (4697 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 08 2021