Lessons from the Lions’ Den | Daniel 6 | Gary Hamrick

we're chapter 6 of Daniel and if you take a church Bible from one of our Usher's that's page 875 in the church Bibles page 875 while you're finding your way there just a little bit of commentary before we read here from chapter 6 of Daniel we come now to one of the most famous and familiar stories in all of the Bible I'm sure that for people who don't even claim to be Christians and people who don't necessarily even go to church if if you were to ask whether or not they are familiar with this story they probably would be and this of course is the story of Daniel and the Lions Den the year of this story is sometime shortly after 539 BC the location of this story is the same location as all of the Book of Daniel we're in Babylon ancient Babylon along the Euphrates River in what is modern Iraq but the Babylonian Empire now has transitioned to the medo-persian empire and King Darius the Mede and King Cyrus the Persian joined forces to defeat the Babylonian Empire and that was our study last week at the end of chapter 5 Babylon the city which was the capital city the Babylonian Empire is still now the capital city of the medo-persian Empire and the palace that Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar once occupied is now being occupied by Darius the King who was basically appointed as a governor by Cyrus the king in this joint effort of the medo-persian Empire and Daniel is still serving there in the palace he hasn't left Daniel by the time we get here to chapter 6 is about 83 years of age and he has been faithfully serving one king after another for the past more than 65 years because remember he was taken captive as a prisoner of war along with thousands of other Jews living in Jerusalem at the time by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon in 586 BC actually Daniel his friends were taken earlier in 606 BC and then they were deported to Babylon where Daniel was some of his friends were trained and raised up to be at to the king and so Daniel has been serving King Nebuchadnezzar he's been serving King Belshazzar and now the Babylonian Empire is gone it's been replaced by the medo-persian Empire Darius the king is on the throne occupying the same palace in Babylon and Daniel is still serving him as well as an advisor sixty-five years more than he's been faithful to serve the various Kings where God has placed him but Daniel was most faithful to King God because Daniel was always most loyal and faithful to the God of the Bible the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob and that faithfulness to God is about to be tested and probably the biggest way here in Chapter six at the same time that said Daniel has probably never been more prepared for this test as he is here in Chapter six because he's been serving God for a lifetime and a lifetime of faithfulness to God has sealed him for this moment so I'm gonna read here from Chapter six about half of the chapter I'm gonna read down through verse 17 if you'll follow along with me in your Bibles Daniel 6 starting at verse 1 it pleased Darius to set over the kingdom 120 say traps to be over the whole kingdom and over these three governors of whom Daniel was one that the say traps might give account to them so that the King would suffer no loss then this Daniel distinguished himself above the governors and say traps because an excellent spirit was in him and the king gave thought to setting him over the whole realm so the governors and say traps sought to find some charge against Daniel concerning the kingdom but they could find no charge or fault because he was faithful not nor was there any error or fault found in him then these men said we shall not find any charge against this Daniel unless we find it against him concerning the law of his God so these governors and say traps thronged before the king and said thus to him King Darius live forever all the governors of the kingdom the administrators and say traps the counselors and advisers have consulted together to establish a royal statute and to make a firm decree that whoever petitions any god or man for 30 days except you O king shall be cast into the den of lions now O King established the decree and signed the writing so that I cannot be changed according to the law of the Medes and Persians which does not alter therefore King Darius signed the written decree now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed he went home and in his upper room with his windows open towards Jerusalem he knelt down on his knees three times that day and prayed and gave thanks before his God as was his custom since early days and then these men assembled and found David rather daniel praying and making supplication before his god and they went before the king and spoke concerning the Kings decree have you not signed a decree that every man who petitions any God or man within 30 days except you O king shall be cast into the den of lions the king answered and said the thing is true according to the law of the Medes and Persians which does not alter so they answered and said before the king that Daniel who is one of the captives from Judah does not show due regard for you O king or for the decree that you have signed but makes his petition three times a day and the king when he heard these words was greatly displeased with himself and set his heart on Daniel to deliver him and he labor till the going down to the Sun to deliver him and then these men approached the king and said to the king know o king that it is the law of the Medes and Persians that no decree or statute which the king establishes may be changed so the King gave the command and they brought Daniel and cast him into the den of lions but the King spoke saying to Daniel your God whom you served continually he will deliver you and then a stone was brought out and laid on the mouth of the den and the King sealed it with his own signet ring and with the cygnets of his lords that the purpose concerning Daniel might not change will pause there and pray and talk about this story today let's first pray Lord it's good to be in your house I thank you for all those who are here today and those who are watching online we just want all of this to glorify you from the moment we step into the building to the moment we leave may our fellowship may our worship may our time in prayer and may this time in your word bring glory and honor to You Lord so be glorified here we pray and use this passage to strengthen our hearts to draw us closer to you Lord challenge us and change us where we need it today as we just submit ourselves to you and to what your word says thank you Lord we love you and we praise you together in Jesus name and everybody said amen well as I said at the beginning of this study this is probably one of the more familiar and famous stories in all of the Bible but for those of you who are unfamiliar with this story I'm just gonna give you the spoiler alert right at the beginning so I'm sorry to spoil the whole story for you but Daniel is rescued by God and is unharmed that's the way the story ends and I give you the story upfront because sometimes we we read this story and we think of it as just something that is good for children's storybooks but you know it really doesn't have much relevance for us it's a really fun story some may not even believe that it actually happened and and people often dismiss this as just a fable but it's it's not a fable at all and it needs to be read and understood for what it is and that is a miraculous amazing intervention of God's power to rescue a man who would otherwise have suffered a very terrible death I mean I think we can all agree that dying by being mauled by lions is probably a significantly terrible death it ranks right up there I don't know what your list is of the terrible ways that you think about I don't want to die but you know for me it's things like you know being eaten by a shark dying at an airplane crash and being beaten alive by a clown those are the kind of things that that scared me and so you know when I think about being when I think about being mauled by line that certainly ranks right up there now I want to get a few things out of the way before we dissect this story together and I first want to talk about some of the liberal theologians and how they dismiss this story because they don't accept the miraculous part of what happened here and so you can read different commentaries from different liberal theologians who acknowledge the outcome the outcome of which is Daniel comes out of this whole thing unscathed unharmed but absent the miraculous how can we then explain it and so there are three typical liberal theological views on this story and here's the first one okay I'm not making this up here's the first one it must have been that the Lions were not really hungry I mean can you really believe that the Lions are not really hungry they already had a good meal right before they threw Daniel in and they just weren't hungry I mean please if you have a dog at home you know that any animal is always hungry all the time so that's the first thing they say another thing that liberal theologians say about this story is that Daniel must have hid himself in some crevice in the cave and therefore escaped being mauled by the Lions so I want you to picture dropping an 83 year old man into a lion's den and then he picks himself up off the floor and he scurries [Music] looky here there's a crevasse I'm just gonna sucker Mufasa you know I mean no that's ridiculous third thing that liberal theologians say about the story is that Daniel must have hid himself on the floor under straw it gets worse doesn't it listen I don't know about you I don't have the nose of a lion but I can tell you what if somebody throws a steak into a room and hides it under some straw I can find it I'm telling you right now I guarantee you I could find it so those are the views of some liberal theologians but like much of the Bible you have to be willing to accept the miraculous to accept this story if you don't accept the miraculous then you're gonna just kind of dismiss this as some fable best read in a children's storybook but it's much more than that now before we talk about the important points we can learn from this story I want to first say how we should not interpret this story the danger in preaching this story is to say that Daniel represents you and me and the Lions Den represents all of our trials and that God comes along and rescues us from all of our trials I think when it is preached from that angle that God always rescues us from difficulties unharmed it not only does a disservice to the text but it does a disservice to all of us God can and does rescue people from trials in fact Peter said in 2nd Peter 2:9 in the ESV the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment God can and does rescue us from trials but that does not mean that God rescues us from every trial every time this is a unique story with a miraculous outcome for the glory of God and God's unique ways the unique way that God operates is not necessarily a statement of a pattern but it is always a statement of a principle and the danger becomes when we want to look at unique ways that God operates in the scripture and adopt a pattern and say to ourselves this is the way God works in this occasion thus he must work this way in every occasion every time for all people that simply is not a good way to interpret Scripture God does unique things he often repeats those unique things but he is not obligated to do what he did once or several times every single time for every person the same way and it's a danger to us to go around reading this story thinking well when I get into my lion's den God's gonna always rescue me the fact of the matter is that this story is certainly a story of principle that in principle God can and does deliver us from our trials but even if we end up having to go through it God is with us in it and that's important to recognize in this story that God is still faithful to us regardless of the outcome because he is not obligated to work the same way every time for every person because he's God and so it is dangerous for us to always draw a direct parallel from every story we read in the Bible and say it worked like this for Daniel it's always going to work like this way for us I think what's important for us to see is in principle the way that God operates that he is always faithful to us no matter what the outcome in Daniels case the outcome was he came through it completely unharmed I wish life worked out that way in every circumstance it just simply doesn't that is no reflection on the faithfulness of God or the lack of it it is simply a reality of the world in which we live and God is faithful no matter what in all circumstances at all times so we trust him no matter what we're going through no matter what the outcome having said all that I think there are some important in symbols that we can glean from this story based on the four main characters of this story and the four main characters of this story are the instigators that is to say those people who are behind this plot to trap Daniel then of course we have Daniel himself in this story we have King Darius in this story and of course we see God in this story so let's review it and let's talk about how each of these four characters present something important for us to learn when we first open this story here in chapter 6 we find King Darius implementing a flow chart to help administrate the the medo-persian Empire and so it tells us in the opening verses of chapter 6 that Darius then chooses three governors and under these three governors are a hundred and twenty state traps or some of your translations might say princes some of your translations instead of governor says administrators and among these three governors Daniel is one and he selected as one of the three so you have this flow chart where Darius is king his direct reports are three governors underneath these three governors are 120 say traps between this whole structure they govern and oversee the medo-persian Empire well daniel has been chosen as one of the three governors at the top of the flow chart and the Bible tells us I'll give you the verse in verse three that Darius had it in his heart to make Daniel over the whole kingdom and so apparently Darius maybe spoke about it maybe talked about what he was thinking because word got out that Darius was interested in redrawing the flow chart and making Darius at the top Daniel underneath him then two of the governors then the rest of the say traps now when this news starts to leak can you imagine what the co-workers think alright in the office they just have heard that you have been selected at least this is the talk the talk is you've been selected to be promoted over all the rest of them how do you think they like that how do you think the rest of the co-workers like that they didn't like it and so what we find happening here is some of the say traps and these other two governor's obviously besides Daniel approached Darius and they float this idea and here's the idea they come up with they're like Darius listen darius darius darius darius we have an idea for you we think that you ought to be God for 30 days what do you think about that and Darius at first is like won't you know tell me more now this is actually not something that is that uncommon back in the day it was something called the divinity of the kings in Egypt they practiced this pharaoh was actually seen as divine in the Roman Empire the latter part of the Roman Empire they they also practice this with Caesar Augustus Augusto meaning the divine one so they would deify the leaders so these say traps and governors come up to Darius and they say we have a good idea not that uncommon in our world how about you become king rather God for 30 days and and here's how to work we just happen to have drawn up this document because we thought you might like the idea and if you sign it then you will be God for 30 days and so that's what they present to him that if anyone prays to any other God or it gives honor to any other God besides you Darius during that 30-day period then they should be put to death thrown into the Lions Den and Darius reads over the document says I kind of like him you wouldn't want to be God for 30 days you know what I think is so pitiful though that no not only does Darius say yeah I want to be gone for thirty days but that he only did it for 30 days I mean I mean seriously if you're that messed up that you want to be God for 30 days why stop at 30 days anyway he signs the document puts it in writing and he signs the thing and the Persian Empire operated under a different government system than did the Babylonian Empire before them the Babylonian Empire before them was an absolute monarchy meaning that Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar were authoritative despot they could do whatever they wanted it was an authoritative monarchy the Persian Empire the medo-persian Empire operated under a constitutional monarchy it was a different form of government Darius could not just do what he wanted when he signed something into law even he could not undo it these guys knew that they knew that when Darius signs something into law it would be law and it would be permanent and it was their way of trying to entrap Daniel it was clearly and solely an attempt to trap Daniel they were not content that Daniel should be promoted they didn't like that Daniel had favor with Darius but these guys weren't simply interested in having this 83 year old Jewish guy just kind of relegated to some retirement community and draw Social Security no they wanted him dead they wanted him dead and so they present this document to the king and the king signs it into law what was the motivation behind these instigators in even coming up with this plan well it leads us to point number one on our list lessons from the Lions dead the instigators jealousy plain and simple it was good old-fashioned jealousy they were jealous they were jealous that they got passed over they were jealous that someone else got something better than they they were jealous of Daniels position they were jealous of Daniels wisdom they were jealous about everything related to this guy the move that King Darius was about to make by placing Daniel in charge of the kingdom sparked a firestorm of jealousy in the hearts of these other officials and these other governors and officials turned out to be no friend of Daniel at all because they were just a bunch of insecure jealous backstabbing co-workers that's what it amounted to they were jealous of an 83 year old Jewish man and they wanted him gone they wanted him dead why because jealousy has a very destructive nature to it by the way jealousies twin is envy and it's very difficult even when you look at the definition of the two words to distinguish between the two basically Envy is wanting what someone else has it's like covetousness which it's a sin and jealousy is resenting what someone else has feeling like they shouldn't get that they don't deserve that and jealousy then took root in the heart of these guys and they put this plan forward and notice again the destructive nature of jealousy because again they weren't simply content and having Daniel go away they wanted Daniel dead because jealousy does some pretty irrational things there are some people in jail today because they acted on jealousy there have been some marriages destroyed because of jealousy there have been families divided because of jealousy there have been businesses that have folded because of jealousy there have been people murdered because of jealousy jealousy is a very destructive emotion not only to the one who possesses it but also to those who are the target of it it's terrible and the Bible warns about jealousy over and over again as something we must get rid of in our lives I'll read a few cases romans 13 verses 13 and 14 in the ESV it says let us walk properly as in the daytime not in orgies and drunkenness not in sexual immorality and sensuality not in quarreling and jealousy but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires notice there in Romans 13 Paul distinguishes between some acts of the sinful nature talks about sexual immorality it talks about a drunkenness he talks about quarreling and he adds jealousy with that group and he says now this is not to be something that characterizes God's people because he says on the contrary we need to put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh so what he's saying is things like jealousy that's all part of the flash that's not part of the Spirit that's part of the flash and thus we need to die to things like that and instead we need to put on the Lord Jesus Christ because Jesus Christ is the antithesis of those things jealousy being among them and so our lives should not be characterized by jealousy we should celebrate other people we should be happy for what other people can enjoy we should be happy for people's success or people's accomplishments or people's achievements we should be happy for where they are in life we should not be jealous of it we should not envy it we should celebrate it and be grateful about it first Corinthians 33 says you are still worldly for since there is jealousy and quarreling among you are you not worldly there in first Corinthians 30 paul says jealousy is a mark of the world not a characteristic of the church shouldn't be jealousy is also listed among the acts of the sinful nature in galatians chapter 5 along with things like sexual sin witchcraft drunkenness fits of rage it should not be jealousy in our hearts towards anyone or anything now a quick clarification before I move on to point number two the Bible does however say that God is a jealous God so let me explain that when it speaks in the Bible of God being a jealous God it means literally God is jealous for us not of us the difference is God's jealousy is a protective love whereas the emotion of jealousy of our flesh is a destructive emotion there's a big difference between the two God is jealous for us not jealous of us it's an it's a statement of his protective nature his loving protective nature of us whereas the jealousy we're talking about here in this story and hopefully something that is not in our lives but the kind of thing that is in the world is as of a destructive nature where we resent what someone else someone else has we resent who someone else is we resent what someone else has accomplished and therefore we have the sin of jealousy number two something we can learn from the story and a positive side learning from Daniels life is Daniels integrity Daniel is unfazed by this new law that is put in place when Daniel finds out that the king has signed this law he goes up into his room and he prays as he always has if you're looking into your Bibles at verse 10 in verse 10 it says now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed he went home and in his upper room with his windows open towards Jerusalem he knelt down on his knees three times that day and prayed and gave thanks before his God as was his custom since early days underlying that in your Bibles as was his custom I love that because it tells us that Daniel over the course of his life had developed what I'll call holy habits he had developed holy habits he was in the habit of doing what was right and what pleased God and he was going to continue to do that no matter who objected who was offended or what the personal consequences might be for himself because that's what integrity is integrity is doing the right thing not in a harsh abrasive unkind way it's just doing the right thing because you want to be a God please you're not a man pleaser and so you're gonna do the right thing even if people object or offended by it and even if you might suffer personal consequences for it because you know it's the right thing to do and by the way integrity by definition is doing what is right when no one else is looking either because Daniel was a man of integrity not because he put on a public display of integrity but because he was the same privately as he was publicly that's integrity the Bible speaks about him with words like in verse four if you like in your Bibles in verse four that he's described as without fault meaning no charge could stick against him it describes him as being faithful there in verse four and this particular section of your Bibles is written in Aramaic not Hebrew and it's the Aramaic word Amon and it means to be reliable and sure these are the words that describe Daniel he is reliable he is sure he's faithful no charge could stick against him doesn't mean he was a perfect man just means he was a man who was of incredible discipline and incredible principle a man of integrity and everybody knew it now what I find interesting about this story is that because he's a man of integrity he didn't take the easy way out you know what the easy way out would have been listen this edict this this statute was for how long 30 days 30 days I mean if Daniel weren't a man of integrity he was but if he weren't you know how easy would it have been just just to say you know Lord Here I am I'm 83 you know I've been trying to be faithfully all my life can I just have a month off that's all I want give me 30 days I just don't I don't need to pray to you I'll pick up the praying thing after 30 days are over I'll pick it right back up if I could you have 30 days off until I get through this whole statute thing because I really don't want to be you know meat for the Lion King I'm really not interested in being the circle of life you know can you feel the love tonight god I mean I really don't want to go that route you know and he could have asked for that but he didn't and why didn't he cuz he's a man of integrity he's like I'm not I'm not gonna say it's not like I'm gonna you know stop being faithful to God for 30 days I'm gonna pray as I always have prayed and I'll suffer the consequences whatever they might be cuz I'm gonna do the right thing if others don't or if others are offended by it or if I suffer for it that's integrity may God help us to be people of integrity we want to please God more than we want to please man you want to do what is right even when no one is looking because God is always looking you look at the book in the Bible in the book of Proverbs there's many verses that just talk about integrity I'm gonna read three proverbs 10 verse 9 he who walks with integrity walks securely but he who pervert his ways will become known proverbs 11 verse 3 the integrity of the upright will guide them but the perversity of the unfaithful will destroy them proverbs 20 verse 7 says the righteous man walks in his integrity his children are blessed after him so we have the instigators jealousy that we should not want to emulate we have Daniels integrity that we should want to emulate number 3 the third character in our story is King Darius we see King Darius as loyalty when King Darius found out that he had been played and he had been he was furious but he really couldn't do much about it he signed the law of medo-persian constitutional monarchy what is written is what is written and he was mainly fee with himself the text tells us he was angry at himself probably angry that he had been duped probably angry when he finds out that Daniel is is the one particularly targeted by this decree and so he's angry at himself and so it tells us in verse 14 that he was greatly displeased with himself he's angry at himself this pleased with himself and the rest of verse 14 says and he set his heart on Daniel to deliver him and he laboured till the going down of the Sun to deliver him now the Bible doesn't say exactly what that means how he laboured till sunset but what it implies is that he looked for some kind of loophole in the decree in order to free Daniel he couldn't find any but he tried as best as he could and so he reluctantly for 16 says he reluctantly has Daniel thrown into the Lions Den which is the first sign of his loyalty actually because he's loyal to his word a loyal person in friendship first needs to exemplify loyalty in other areas of his or her life he's loyal to his word he doesn't like what he's written he knows he's been played in some ways he's exhausted the loopholes he realizes there's nothing he can do so he has to carry out what he said and he has Daniel thrown to the Lions Den he's loyal to his word and we have to be people who are loyal to what we say in Psalm 15 verse 4 it says God honors the person who keeps his oath even when it hurts I better hurt Darius to have to do what he did because he was fond of Daniel but nevertheless he realized I'm gonna have to be faithfully I'm gonna be able to be true to my word so we see loyalty to his word but we also see in this story here loyalty to Daniel Darius was a true friend to Daniel short of going back on his word Darius did everything in his power to free him and when that didn't work notice at the end of verse 16 what the King said to Daniel as he had him thrown into the Lions Den he said this at the end of verse 16 your God whom you serve continually he will deliver you does this mean Darius is a believer by referencing the God of the Bible the god of Daniel no not necessarily it's unknown but what a dish does show us clearly is at the very least Darius is an encourage because that's what friends do for friends friends encourage one another and he's encouraging Daniel even though he realizes this could be the end of Daniels life at the very end he's like you know chin up Daniel God's gonna deliver you it's gonna be okay God's gonna be faithful in the situation and he encourages Daniel in this way and then the King then goes back to his palace where the rest of the story tells us he has a fitful Knife night he can't even sleep he tosses and he turns he's tormented by his friends condition he's wandering the whole time and he's longing for daybreak because he knows daybreak he's gonna be able to take the stone off the mouth of the cave and see if Daniel has been saved pick up the rest of the story with me in your Bibles at verse 18 now the king went to his palace and spent the night fasting and no musicians were brought before him also his sleep went from him and then the King arose early in the morning and went in haste to the den of lions and when he came to the den he cried out with a loud voice to Daniel the King spoke saying to Daniel Daniel servant of the Living God has your God whom you serve continually been able to deliver you from the Lions you know and I'm sure he's just perching they're listening like are you gonna talk to me and Daniel said to the king o king live forever my God sent his angel and shut the Lions mouths so that they have not hurt me because I was found innocent before him and also O king I have done no wrong before you and now the king was exceedingly glad for him and commanded that they should take Daniel up out of the dead and so Daniel was taken up out of the den and no injury whatever was found on him because he believed in his God some of your translations say because he trusted in his God you know Darius was not concerned that Daniel had technically violated the statute because Darius had a heart for Daniel he was loyal to Daniel he was favorably disposed towards Daniel and therefore he was loyal to him first thing he does rushes out in the morning opens up the mouth of the cave like you there Daniel that God take care of you yes that he was exceedingly glad because he rejoiced for a man who actually became obviously his friend which brings us to the fourth and the final point of this story we see God's sovereignty in all of this Darius ends up punishing the instigators of this whole plot it tells us between verses 24 and 25 that Darius rounded up the instigators along with their whole families and had them thrown into the Lions Den the Bible says that they were mauled and crushed to death before their bodies even reached the floor now you might think that that is cruel and unusual punishment but the same law that bound Darius's hand as to why Daniel had to be thrown into the Lions Den is the same law that required the death of these people because the medo-persians had a law that basically said on account of the guilt of one all of his kindred shall perish and so you live by the sword you die by the sword if you're found guilty it means your whole household has to die with you it was part of the medo-persian constitutional monarchy those guys along with their families were killed and Darius then makes this Proclamation about the sovereignty of God in acknowledging the hand of God in all of this want you to look in your Bibles at the closing verses verse 26 to 28 he says I make a decree that in every Dominion of my kingdom man must tremble and fear before the god of Daniel for he is the Living God and steadfast forever his kingdom is the one which shall not be destroyed and his Dominion shall endure to the end he delivers and rescues and he works signs and wonders in heaven on earth who has delivered Daniel from the power of the Lions and so this Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian so Darius goes out with this great proclamation here about the sovereignty of God we see of course the hand of God God steps in here into this scene in this unique miraculous way here and he glorifies himself in front of an entire nation entire kingdom by virtue of this decree that is issued by the hand of King Darius we can't always predict the outcome with God but we can always trust God with the outcome God is sovereign God holds our lives in the palm of his hands we can rest in that because even if we have to go through the trial instead of being rescued from it God is with us either in it through it before it after it all around it God is faithful in everything that we go through because our lives are kept in the palm of his hand in fact Daniel talked about the sovereignty of God when he gave some closing remarks to Belshazzar before Belshazzar died back in chapter 5 of daniel verse 23 when daniel said to him God is the God who holds your breath in his hand and owns all your ways God is sovereign he's always and still on the throne and we can trust him to see us through whatever we face as well even though the outcome may not be as clean as Daniels God is still faithful in all his ways may we always be sensitive to the will of the Lord may we guard against jealousy may we be people of integrity and loyalty and may we rest in the sovereignty of God amen let's pray together father thank you for your word a familiar story to most of us Lord no doubt but I pray that we might be challenged and encouraged in different ways today help us Lord to get rid of any jealousy in our lives when we resent other people in some way either because of what they have or who they are or anything about them Lord if we're jealous we know that's of the flesh it's not of the Spirit and so we renounce it a sin help us to deal with jealous hearts Lord it's destructive for ourselves it is destructive for those who are the target of our jealousy may we be men and women of integrity who do what is right even when no one is watching because it honors you may we be loyal people faithful to you loyal to each other encouraging one another celebrating one another and may we always rest Lord trusting in your sovereignty that you hold our very lives even as daniel said there in daniel 523 even the breath of our lives held in the palm of your hand even the ability to draw breath comes because you are sovereign and gracious and no matter what we're facing Lord we know that you will either prevent us from going through it or you will be there with us in the midst of it because you are always faithful you were always good to us so we trust you and all of your sovereignty Lord we trust you and we love you in Jesus name and everybody said amen

Channel: Cornerstone Chapel - Leesburg, VA

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Keywords: Cornerstone Chapel, Calvary Chapel, Gary Hamrick, Cornerstone Chapel Leesburg Va, Bible, Sermons, Teaching, Faith, Christian, Jesus, God, Holy Spirit, Gary, Hamrick, Calvary, Chapel, Biblical sermons, knowing God, salvation, evangelism, Leesburg, Pastor Gary Hamrick, Cornerstone Connection, radio, hamrick gary, teaching on daniel and the lions den, sermon on daniel and the lions den, sermon on daniel 6, daniel and the lions den sermon

Id: rGpIym41oXY

Length: 40min 46sec (2446 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 14 2019