Obeying God Rather Than Men. Pt 1 - Pastor Greg Simas 10.4.20

welcome everyone whether you are online or in person um we just we're happy that you're here or there or at home or here either way we're happy we love you guys um we're just gonna enter into a time of worship um this morning as i was praying and i shared this with my team in the back i just feel like the church and the body is in a place where the lord's just calling us to to come back to our first love to come back to a place where we can just really just be with him and be in communion to be with our best friend and there's a lot going on in our world and i think things are really crazy and there's just a lot of good stuff but there's also a lot of odd stuff happening and i just feel like the lord is just calling our hearts back and he's saying just trust in me and just trust that he knows how this story goes so i just want to take a little bit of time before we head into full-on worship just to just to sit or stand here and just be with him and just posture our hearts in a place where we can just receive and just be with our first love so father we love you lord we love you lord father we just pray that if things have felt distant or difficult lord i pray that i pray that right now your nearness your presence would just fall so heavily god wherever we are right in this moment right here right now god would you encounter us [Music] would you come in like a rushing wind would your presence feel like living water to our soul but just as the deer pants for the water so pants our soul for you lord [Music] would you sift through the chaos and the mess lord would you sift through the questions and would you just come in with your love god [Music] would you hold us [Music] hold us close father and like a father with with a child lord remind us that everything's gonna be okay lord would that be our confidence god that because you are good everything's gonna be okay we believe this we believe that everything's gonna be okay cause you're faithful cause you keep your promises [Music] you're the reason you're the reason why we came no agenda this morning no agenda this morning but to love you and to be loved by you [Music] but to love you and to be loved by you that's why we're here that's why we're here father [Music] that's why we're here that's why we're [Music] here all of the voices all the distractions they just fall away they just fall away they just fall away till there's nothing left but you and me and me and you and that's how it's supposed to be that's how it's supposed to be it's how it's supposed to you and me me and you that's how it's supposed to be you and me and me and you that's how it's supposed [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] you [Music] me [Music] let our voices rise [Music] joy with heaven's souls [Music] is [Music] [Music] i yeah [Music] [Music] it's like shooting stars [Music] is night [Music] hallelujah [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] this is jesus there's nothing better than you right now there's nothing better there's nothing better [Music] [Music] um we're coming back but coming back coming back [Music] nothing better than you my heart my heart burns free you can have jesus you can have all my love it's yours [Music] is [Music] [Laughter] [Music] in my heart in my heart in my [Music] in my heart [Music] in my heart [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] my [Music] [Music] higher [Music] bye [Music] hi [Music] [Music] god nothing else ah [Music] is in my heart in my heart and fears [Music] nothing else just me and you jesus [Music] cheese [Music] jesus [Music] i just [Music] [Music] no matter how much [Music] jesus i just want to move [Music] no matter how [Music] i just [Music] is [Music] and as if [Music] is [Music] tell is [Music] i [Music] no matter how much [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] i'm returning to the secret place love is found here in our sacred space i hear your voice i see your face i'm returning to this secret place just an altar and a flame [Music] love is found here [Music] in our sacred space i hear your voice i see your face you're still my [Music] you're still my first you're still my only one [Music] there's a table just for you and me break the bread and pour the wine perfect human and nothing in between i am yours and you are mine [Music] you're still my first love you're still my only one you're still my first love you're still my only [Music] you're still my only one you're still my only one it's all about you it's all about you [Music] my jesus love you're still my first love [Music] i feel my heart [Music] flame of my heart [Music] [Music] forever [Applause] [Music] um [Music] you're still my only [Music] my [Music] my [Music] my of my [Music] forever [Applause] [Music] oh just bring us back to our first is we just fix our eyes on you jesus our first love it's all about you it's all about you you deserve all my attention you deserve all of my worship [Music] is [Music] love is [Music] [Music] is i wanna stay forever [Applause] bring forever [Music] [Music] [Applause] the fire of your church of your bright god reunite the fire reignite the fire i just feeling pulling on your heart streams your love is [Music] is [Music] wild for [Music] your is for me is great so breathe on the embers of my heart let it burn [Music] let it burn let it burn and breathe on the embers of my heart god make this your cry this morning [Music] let it burn and breathe [Music] oh breathe [Music] [Music] of my heart [Music] of my heart [Music] [Music] to to play my oh let it burn and breathe is [Music] let it burn and breathe [Music] my heart thank you god father you're so worthy the lord reminded me of james 4 verse 8 says as we draw near to god he draws near to you i just sense us drawing near in near or near into his presence and he like a glove i see he's slipping his hand into us with praise like our praise is like a glove that he can put on and use and utilize [Music] and as i was talking to my son this morning i asked him last night i asked him tomorrow i'll ask you i told him last night tomorrow i'll ask you what you feel like the lord wants to say so i asked him this morning and he said i told you already remember and i said remind me and he reminded me that god wants you to know that he's working on your family today so lord we believe that even as we praise and we focus on you those things that matter most to us you're working on and father through everything we do we remember to put you first because you're worthy [Music] you're deserving of all honor praise and glory and we trust you with it all and we believe for great things [Music] we thank you jesus amen amen well good morning thank you guys for joining us today so good to have you with us worship team thank you for always leading so well right let's let's give them some honor [Applause] well my name's pastor andrew i'm one of the pastors here at convergence i'm just so happy you're with us today and um part of worship and what we do here is also expressed through our giving and there's no act of worship to the lord that he holds at a greater or lesser level we believe that our lives are fragrant offering of worship whether it's through song whether it's through action or even in giving so today we we're going to actually do a declaration over our lives over our families over our cities and our nation would you just say this with me i think the words are going to be pup there they go right on the screens let's say this together as i bring my tithes and offerings to god's storehouse he is opening the windows of heaven and pouring out abundant blessings he rebukes the devourer for my sake and he surrounds me with his favor as a shield he blesses the work of my hands the lord's plan is to prosper me to give me a hope and a future i am the lender not the borrower the head and not the tail and i give from my heart because god loves the cheerful giver and as i seek first his kingdom he provides all my needs according to his riches in glory in christ jesus and every good imperfect gift comes from above so i'll continually thank the lord for his blessings that overflow in my life amen father we believe that it is all by your hand that the the beauty that is in our lives that we've received it by it's not by our actions it's not by our striving but it's by your grace and your love and your favor and i thank you that you've chosen us to be your children and as your children we adore you because you're a good dad we love you jesus amen all right got a couple more announcements for you go ahead and point your attention to the screens how's it going converges family kenny here and today i have some more exciting announcements just for you so without further ado let's get into the announcements it's almost election time are you registered to vote we have registration stations in the lobby and voter guides available for all interested go check it out [Music] mark your calendars because next week is egroup week we love having our convergence family connect all over the bay and we hope you're connecting to a group close to you you can find out more about our groups by going to convergeshop.org [Music] do you have any prayer requests send us an email or comment in the youtube chat we would love to pray for you we will also be available for the prayer ministry zoom session after service so click the link in the video description below to join has god done something amazing in your life lately we would totally love to hear it comment in our youtube chat submit it on our website or tell us or our social media channels let's hear some good news all right that pretty much wraps up announcements now please welcome pastor greg as he brings us today's message well good morning good to be in the house of the lord all you are joining us on youtube uh so so glad that you're with us um just a couple quick things number one is that i don't know if we announced it but we do have awaken this saturday night uh so uh if you have not been a part of awaken ever come to awaken let me just tell you briefly what that is we're just taking worship and prayer intercession and the word outside so we're right out in the parking lot uh we've had two awakens and now we're awakened um and now we're going after our third awaken and i couldn't think of a more timely uh actual time to do it with the elections on the way and the nomination of a supreme court justice and our president that has we need to pray for him praise god about the good report that came out this morning he could be in the white house tomorrow and so uh just just uh praising the lord for him the first lady's doing great as well and so we thank the lord for that god is good and so we want to continue to pray for our president and for all those uh in our nation you know we are the uh we are the salt of the earth and that's a preservative as you guys know and that your prayers make a difference and so you just have to believe sometimes believers feel like you know their wimpy prayers don't matter or who am i and and i i that's uh that's actually an identity problem and so you are sons and daughters of the living god and he has a father he's a father in heaven and your your prayers carry so much weight we don't really quite understand how much weight our prayers even though there are 15 second prayers 10 second prayers do we just think about it we lift up a short prayer you're joining millions and millions and millions and you know hundreds of millions of prayers that are going up to heaven and filling the bowls and so we want to we want to continue to pray that's our number one priority is to pray and we want to pray more than then complain right so we don't want to be on the complaining wagon we want to be on the prayer wagon and we just want to continue to exhort and encourage and and pray and seek the father's heart and remember we're always we always want to respond to the father instead of react to the devil and jesus never reacted to the devil he always responded to the father because he only did what he saw his father do and so we as believers that's the model that's the model for us as believers is we need to respond to what the what heaven is saying and doing that means we have to actually i think the invitations in revelation chapter four says come up here that we need to go up and find out what heaven's doing just a simple simple question just say what's heaven saying right now we want to come into agreement with that what are you saying father right now what's on your heart right now i want to dial into that and then i want to i want to pray and release that on the earth simple ways of doing that instead of reacting to this news and that headline and this headline and all this kind of stuff i just would encourage you guys to make sure that we're we're hearing from heaven and we're releasing heaven to earth super key for us the other thing that's super key for us is that we we must in the body of christ stay unified and not fractured and not you know dismembered in any way we need to be unified we unify around what the father is saying and we run with that and so we're all pretty much mature adults pretty much because now everyone's an adult i'm not saying that everyone's mature that's not what i'm saying um but we need to yeah but we need to uh we need to really be responding to the father's heart i just want to i just want to encourage you also i just want to let you guys know that there's a number of prayer movements that have started prayer and fasting i know that lou engel is called 30 days of i think it's 30 days of fasting and prayer maybe 40 i can't remember lou always does 40 days but maybe it's 30 days and there's a number of prayer movements that are that you guys can engage in over the next 30 days leading up to the election and so we want to be people who pray who seek the face of god who actually you know someone's i think reece house said this years ago i know it's very familiar to a lot of prophetic intercessors and that is history belongs to the intercessor and so i just want to i just want to encourage you guys you know make sure that we're praying and if you don't know what to pray pray in the spirit pray in the spirit just begin to pray in your prayer language and it's always the perfect prayer and so just lift up that prayer language turn your car into a sanctuary for 15 20 minutes on your way to work just make sure you don't close your eyes while you're driving and get caught up but officer i got caught up yes but you are also going 90. you know so so don't get caught up and you know uh anyway so um just want to encourage you guys uh along those lines as well and so again awaken is this saturday this saturday october 10th at 5 30 p.m you guys can come early i don't know what the weather is like i i just pray all the smoke clears you know and i actually yesterday was a pretty good day wasn't it yesterday was a pretty good day but man like i mean it was as i walking out i was like here we go again you know the sun is orange you know i'm thinking of biblical prophecy you know i'm like it's not red yet lord but it's orange you know it's getting close so um just want to just want to just pray all that goes away and that we just have a great time you know we usually have over 100 people out and we'd love to see you bring the of course bring your chairs and all that kind of stuff you guys know the drill so that is when when is that this this saturday at 5 30 p.m all right so we're gonna we're gonna go for it and our team does an amazing job and worship today was off the off the chain off the hook it was i don't know what that second song was that kaylee did but dude i never heard that song before and that was like was that bethel worship or is that like upper room or is that like i'd have no it did someone else i don't know i know someone else wrote it okay but jordan's not up there he's okay so anyway uh find that song somewhere on your apple music or spotify and just keep just keep playing that song over and over again that that'll take you into the that'll take you into the the inner court for sure all right so um i want to dive into scripture today and i want to look at daniel chapter 3 so if you want to turn to daniel you can i want to look at daniel chapter 6 and then i also want to look at acts chapter 4 and 5. and so you guys are going to believe that i'm going to get through this in 35 minutes say amen amen all right so we're going to go ahead now here's the thing when when all this first started you know gosh way back in march um in all the you know the whether you call them lockdowns or whatever they they were one of the things that uh was brought up is that you know the question is must we always obey the what governmental or civil authorities say and so that has been a little bit of a controversy um regarding lockdowns and regarding you know when things should open up and and i just want to answer that question this morning i'm not going to be diving into romans 13 but romans 13 certainly does apply to these things so they're very familiar portions of scripture most of you are very very familiar with these passages except maybe the acts chapter 4 and 5 passage but and i also i do also because these are stories that are actually taught in sunday school it doesn't diminish the choices that these guys had to make i mean life or death choices based on whether they should disobey an order or not and so when we when we read these stories i i don't want you to read because i can tend to read to the story and say yeah yeah i i heard that but this morning in worship i i just was asking the lord make these make these stories um real to me like what these guys really had to face in the choices they had to make so the first one is shadrach meshach and the bendigo and everyone say shadrach meshach and abednego i know i'm not saying that totally accurate but that's the way bill now what are the veggie tales shaq rack and benny all right so if you know veggie tales and who and ronnie all right benny anyway um so let me just kind of set the stage for you guys uh nebuchadnezzar everyone say that nebuchadnezzar don't name your kids that's too long it's too hard to it's too hard to spell nebuchadnezzar was actually the king was though was was the man that was in authority and we see a lot of that in daniel daniel uh was a prophet um but daniel served three kings um he served in nebuchadnezzar he served cyrus and he served uh i think osiris and then darius so as you guys know daniel shadrach meshach and abednego abednego i bet anyway uh they were actually taking taken into captivity by the babylonians so everything that they were were raised with the culture they were raised with everything that they were brought in babylon goes ahead conquers judah and takes the the prized i can say that the prized ones and they brought them into babylon and they began to in daniel chapter one those who are ladies if you're if you're single and you're looking for a guy who loves god pray that god gives you a daniel 1 4. all right a daniel 1 4. so all of you are turning to that right now and so i'm just going to go ahead and read it daniel 1 4 young men in whom there was no blemish but good-looking gifted in all wisdom possessing knowledge quick to understand and you need that in a relationship quick to understand who had the ability to serve the in the king's palace and whom there they might teach the language and literature of the chaldeans good looking understanding walks in wisdom loves god you know like that's a pretty good beginning point right for all you single ladies so i always say when i was youth pastor pray ladies pray for the daniel 1 4 and then of course the guys pray for the proverb 31 woman so um which is i don't know if anyone can measure up to a proverbs 31 woman that list is daunting you know um which we're not going to go into right now we're just we're just not going to go into that right now all right okay so now they've got the okay wendy's talking to me um so so we have we have these these four guys who are brought into babylon into a completely weirded out culture so you are brought in from one culture right into another and they chose the prized ones and they tried to develop them in the in the manner of the babylonian whatever and four guys stood out shadrach meshach and abednego and daniel and so that's kind of the the pretext of what's and they were they were they they had the favor of god on them but they failed they failed to compromise or they i should say they did not compromise and they withheld their biblical convictions their jewish convictions in the middle of a culture that was hostile toward god and so what we see here in daniel chapter 3 is we see nebuchadnezzar sets up a 90-foot idol and i don't know how i don't know how tall this roof is but i'm six foot one or two i was six foot two in high school i might not be six foot two now but um so i'm thinking like that's about 30 yards and so that's how big this idol was and it says here that um that it says let's just pick it up in verse two of uh chapter of chapter three of daniel it says oh actually verse one nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold whose height was 60 cubits and six and with six cubits i'm reading new king james so that's why you see cubits he set it up in the plain of dura in the province of babylon the king nebuchadnezzar sent word to gather together the sat traps the administrators the governors the counselors the treasurers the judges the magistrates and all the officials of the provinces to come to the dedication of the image which king nebuchadnezzar had set up now some people thought that was actually an image of himself so the sat traps and the administrators and the governors and the councillors and the treasurers the judges the magistrates and all the officials in the provinces gathered together for the dedication of the image of uh that king nebuchadnezzar had set up and that stood before the image that king that nebuchadnezzar had stood up and the herald cried out to you to you it is commanded o peoples nations and languages that the time you hear the sound of the horn the flute the harp the lear the sultry in symphony with all kinds of music you shall fall down and worship the gold image that king nebuchadnezzar has set up and whoever does not fall down and worship shall be cast immediately into the midst of a burning fiery furnace right so so i just want you to know that there's no gray area here as soon as the music is played if you don't fall down and worship when the music's played before this idol you're going to get killed and i don't know if you ever burnt yourself but you're cast into a fiery furnace so those are your two options either you worship or you die either you bow down to the idol or you face a fiery furnace there's no court sessions there's no lawyers it's either you worship or you die or you face the fiery furnace no there was actu there's actually no middle ground whatsoever so at that time verse seven so at that time when all the people heard the sound of the horn flute harp and lear in symphony with all kinds of music all the people nations and languages fell down and worshiped the gold image which king nebuchadnezzar had set up therefore at that time certain chaldeans verse 8 came forward and accused the jews they spoke and said to king nebuchadnezzar o king live forever o king live forever you o king have made a decree that everyone who hears the sound of the horn flute harp lear and sultry in symphony with all kinds of music shall fall down and worship the gold image and whoever does not fall down and worship shall be cast in the midst of the fiery furnace there are certain jews i think they were actually set up personally because daniel was set up there are certain jews whom you have set over the affairs of the province of babylon so they were highly promoted shadrach meshach and abednego these men o king have not paid due regard to you they do not serve your gods or worship the gold image which you have set up then the nebuchadnezzar enraged and in fury i don't know what that actually looks like his face might have gnarled up gave the command to bring shadrach meshach and abednego so they brought these men before the king there's an order given and shadrach meshach and go ignore the order that's where we're at so nebuchadnezzar because there's always a cost involved you always have to measure the cost so nebuchadnezzar spoke saying to them is it true shadrach meshach and abednego that you do not serve my gods or worship the gold image which i have set up question mark now if you all if you are ready at the time you hear the sound the horned flute leer sultry and symphony with all kinds of music and fall down and worship the image which i have made good but if you do not worship you shall be cast immediately into the midst of a burning fiery furnace and who and who is the god who will deliver you from my hands shadrach meshach and abednego have no idea that god's going to deliver them but you can see the pride of nebuchadnezzar right so and he thought for sure based on on how he phrased the question that shadrach meshach and abednego will just go ahead and go for it and just they'll just fall down verse 16. shadrach meshach and abednego answered and said to the to the king a nebuchadnezzar we have no need to answer you in this matter that's brutal to say to a king if that is the case our god whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace and he will deliver us from your hand o king but if not let it be known to you o king that we do not serve your gods nor will we worship the gold image which you set up okay you have to have biblical biblical convictions if the convictions are in place the decision is easy when the convictions aren't in place decisions become much more difficult so did shadrach meshach and bendigo have a conference zoom call uh like what they should do i think that they had biblical convictions they had a conviction that we are served no other gods because that's how they were raised in judah which is trans you know translated praise in this place of praise they had a conviction that they serve god and they serve him only and we will not bow down though we're going to lose our lives that's the cost because when there's a biblical conviction there's certainly clarity that comes through that and then there's a choice and that choice is always measured that that choice always has a cost attached to it so they make the choice based on their convictions that they are not going to bow down and these guys know that their life is on the line this is real like we don't know if they're married we don't know if they have kids we know that they were young they're probably in their maybe late 20s early 30s but that's how old they probably are because they were taken young they were actually in this place of influence i think they were set up here but they had to make a choice and that is if we go we will not so the conviction is very easy the biblical conviction is very easy we're not going to bow down to this to this idol we serve god and serve him alone and that means if we die for it we die for it the nebuchadnezzar this is why i think nebuchadnezzar was going to like oh come on you guys are going to bow down right the nebuchadnezzar full of fury and the expression on his face changed towards shadrach meshach and abednego and they spoke and commanded that they heat the furnace seven times more than it was usually heated that's really hilarious to me a furnace is a furnace i mean if you're thrown into a furnace you're gonna die so that just tells you i mean the king's like heat it up seven times okay that just kind of tells you the degree of how ticked off he was and he commanded certainly mighty men of valor who were in his army to to bind shadrach meshach and abednego and cast them into the burning fiery furnace and then these men bound them their coats their trousers their turbans their other garments and they were cast in the midst of the fiery furnace therefore because of the king's command was urgent and the furnace exceedingly hot the flame of the fire killed the men who took shadrach meshach and abednego so they're approaching the furnace it's so hot that the guys that were bringing them in the mighty men of valor bringing them to the furnace were destroyed they were killed i don't know if they were like disintegrated i don't know if they melted i have i have no idea i don't know if the smoke got them the heat smoke but they died and these three men shadrach and uh shadrach meshach and abednego fell down bound into the midst of the fiery furnace then then king nebuchadnezzar was astonished he rose in haste and spoke saying to his counselors did not did we not cast three men bound into the midst of the fire and they answered and said true o king verse 25. look he answered i see four men loose walking in the midst of the fire and they are not hurt and the form of the fourth is like the son of god i mean we know who was in the fire and he's in the fire with you and he'll pull you through so what's amazing here in this passage is that nebuchadnezzar begins to praise the god of shadrach meshach and abednego lays out a decree that that's the god that we that we serve and then verse 30 then the king promoted shadrach meshach and abednego in the province of babylon an order was given simply stated an order was given an order was ignored all right daniel chapter six let's turn there i might not have time to develop it as i was thinking i probably should have ran through daniel 3 a little quicker so now daniel still part of the three you know jewish guys the hebrew kids right that are there in babylon there's a plot against daniel let's pick it up 6-1 it please darius to set over the kingdom 120 sat traps sound like mouse anyway to be over the whole kingdom and over these three governors again we're talking about governors of whom daniel was one that the sad traps might give an account to them that they would uh that that that so that the king would suffer no loss then then this daniel distinguished himself above the governors he distinguished himself above the governors and the south traps because of his excellent spirit that was in him and the king gave thought to setting him over the whole realm so that got out so the governors the sat traps sought to find some charge against daniel concerning the kingdom but they could not they could not find no charge or fault because he was faithful nor was there any error or fault found in him i mean to be a worker in the secular environment and do it well with excellence that no one in the company can find fault in you i mean the way daniel patterned his life in a secular culture where there could be accusation against him trying to find fault in him he had such an excellent spirit as a worker as a government official that they couldn't find any fault in him they i just encourage you guys in the workplace live and lead your life in such a way that people can't find accusations or charge against you so they actually had to create something in order in order to get daniel trapped so that's what they did verse five 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 sat traps thronged before the king and said thus to him king darius live forever king darius lived forever i don't know i just think that's funny all the governors of the kingdom the administrators the sat traps the counselors the advisers have consulted together to establish a royal statute that and to make firm a decree that whoever petitions any god or man for thirty days except you o king shall be cast in the lion's den now o king established the decree and signed the writings so that it cannot be changed according to the law of the medes and the persians which does not alter therefore king darius is not really smart right now therefore king darius signs the written decree verse 10. now when daniel knew that the writing was signed when the writing is signed it becomes law when the this is not just an order this is a this is a law so now when daniel knew that the writing was signed so daniel doesn't he understands what's going on he understands that this is now law he went home and in his upper room with his windows open toward jerusalem he knelt down on his knees three times that day and prayed and gave thanks before his god as was his custom since early days then these men assembled and found daniel praying in making supplication before his god so daniel hears about the law daniel ignores the law why because he has a greater conviction toward god and he knew that if i pray right now it's going to cost me so daniel goes he hears about the law he goes to the upper room he does not go and close the window and the blinds to the window and prays he leaves the window open everyone says he opened the window he know the scripture says the window was already open so he was already visible when he prayed and so these guys whoever these sat traps and governors are they're watching daniel because they want they want to frame him and they want to entrap him because of the law and daniel makes a choice and he recognizes that that choice is going to cost him potentially cost him his life but he makes the choice anyway based on his convictions of who god is so he does he goes inside he doesn't close the window and pray in secret which would be totally okay to pray because god's going to hear you anyway he leaves the window open as usual and he prays three times that day which is what his custom was so anyway verse 12 and they went to the king and they spoke concerning the king's decree have you not signed a decree that kind of go over this whole thing about the decree verse 13. so they answered and said before the king that daniel who was one of the captives of judah does not show due regard to you o king or for the decree that you have signed but makes his petition three times a day and the king when he heard these words was greatly displeased with himself and set his heart on daniel to deliver him and he labored to the going down of the son to deliver daniel but these men approached the king and said to the king know o king that it is the law of the medes and the persians that no decree or statue which the king establishes may be changed in other words they had him in a corner so the king gave the command and they brought daniel and cast him into the lion's den daniel knew what it would cost but the king spoke saying to daniel your god whom you serve continually he will deliver you wow that's amazing my voice changed then a stone was brought and laid on the mouth of the of the den and the king sealed it with his own signet ring and with the sickness of the lords that the purpose concerning daniel might not be changed verse 18. now the king went to his palace and spent that night fasting no musicians were brought before him and his sleep went from him then the king arose very early in the morning and went in haste to the lion's den so he he's he's mourning he's fasting no i mean i guess they had musicians play every night i don't want to talk to the musicians i don't want to see anybody i'm not going to eat anything i don't know what to do this really troubles me so he wrote he he awakens in verse 19 the king arose very early in the morning and went in haste to the den of lions and when he came to the den he he cried out with a lamenting voice to daniel thinking that he's dead 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 and to his surprise daniel said to the king o king live forever my god sent his angel the angel supported his decision my god sent his angel and shut the lion's mouth so that they have not hurt me because i have found i was found innocent before him before him capital h and also o king i have done no wrong before you now the king was exceedingly glad for him and commanded that they should take daniel up and out of the den so daniel was taking out of the den and no injury what no injury whatever was found on him because he believed in his god and i just feel sorry for the guys who tried to entrap them because look at verse 24 this is somber right here this is sober just thinking about this and the king gave a command and said and they brought the gave a command and they brought those men who had accused daniel and they cast them in the lion's den so the very ones who are trying to frame daniel the king is ticked off and he cast those men in the lions then them their children and their wives and the lions overpowered them and broke all their bones in pieces before they ever came to the bottom of the den then the king then king darius wrote to all the people nations languages that dwell in the earth peace be multiplied to you i make a decree that in every dominion of my kingdom men must tremble and fear before the god of daniel what a turnaround and then he says for he is the living god now this is a king right he is a 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 he rescues he works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth who has delivered daniel from the power of the lion so daniel prospered in the reign of darius and in the reign of cyrus persia shadrach meshach and abednego are promoted daniel prospered in darius's reign daniel shadrach meshach and the bendigo make a choice based on biblical convictions that they're going to serve god primarily and then they'll serve let's say the government what i love about shadrach meshach and abednego and daniel is that they all they tried to they served the government well they served secular kings well kings prospered with them in high places daniel shadrach meshach and abednego weren't violent and complaining toward the king they actually served him serve them to actually make them great and that for the kingdom to be successful but when it came down to what god says and what they say the choice was easy the cost was high the choice was easy the cost was high i don't think daniel honestly i don't think daniel hesitated one minute on whether he should actually close the windows and the blinds closed those windows in his in the up in that room or not he hears the decree he goes up the stairs and he prays and god delivers him so here it is i don't have time to get to the book of acts maybe i'll hit that next week because acts chapter four and acts chapter five are it's crazy you guys just go ahead and read the first five chapters actually the first six chapters of the book of acts this week in the book of acts we see prison we see threats we see beatings when i'm talking about beatings i'm talking about being flogged i'm talking about taking 39 lashes and i've had this i've had the chance to go through the book of acts at least twice in this season and i'm looking at it actually through a new lens persecution opposition jealousy envy title control like these things and these guys never back down from what god commanded never in fact in acts chapter 5 i think it says they counted it worthy to suffer for his name and that opens up some some things for us to at least consider moving into next week and that is that we have to when it comes down to order orders that conflict with god's commands we are to obey god primarily now you can look at that any way you want but but god is the higher authority in fact government is delegated by god to actually be entrusted to enforce good and not evil so when it comes to our decision on what god is saying we always always 100 percent obey god instead now you have to apply wisdom and you have to measure the cost in the choice but in the scriptures i don't see shadrach meshach and abednego like having a council meeting they could have but i don't see that i see that they make a stand i see daniel makes a stand not because they just want to make a stand they're making a stand based on conviction and what we see with nebuchadnezzar the end result is that nebuchadnezzar praises the god of heaven we see with daniel we see darius praising and decreeing the greatness of the god of heaven but it wasn't before the fiery furnace or the lion's den and there might be a time where we're gonna face the crucible of a lion's den or a fiery furnace god forbid that that would ever happen but we have to hold to the conviction of what god is saying and what god says and based on in fact i gotta roll i gotta wrap this up what's interesting i won't even say it that'll be next week because that's gonna lead me down this bunny trail and i just i don't want to i don't want to because i'll just go another 10 minutes 20 30 minutes whatever so we're supposed to pray right we're supposed to intercede it's our number one priority in this season it's our number one priority period but especially in this season we're supposed to hear from heaven and respond to what the father is saying we're also to understand the word of god and keep the word of god and the commands of god our highest priority in the middle of that season and there are some that are facing heavy persecution what we don't want to do is begin to say well you know they're doing this and they're doing that and that's the reason why they're getting if you're if you really i just challenge you to read through okay okay the first eight chapters of the book of acts all right [Music] because it says in acts chapter 8 verse 1 there was a heavy persecution they were dragging christians out of houses [Music] paul was doing it saul was doing it some were even killed and in acts chapter 4 what did they do they prayed for greater boldness they counted it worthy this is crazy they just got done being beaten 39 lashes that means there's blood blood on their backs this is peter and john blood on their backs they go back and they're with the church the ecclesia they're meeting with ekklesia and they're counting it worthy to suffer for the name jesus says if they hate me they will hate you now i'm not saying that's a badge that we wear i'm saying that the word of god will rub up against a godless culture always choose the word and we talked about this didn't we we talked about this i laid a foundation for three weeks of why god's given us the word it's because the foundation of the word of god is the love of god god is love that means every command in scripture is saturated in love which is seeking our highest good always always to protect and provide for us and that's the conviction we carry we want to bring the gospel to the world we want to give them the good news this is never about us for them this is about us standing for truth because sometimes the pulpit is the last thing standing for truth we stand for truth we stand on truth we preach fearlessly we live fearlessly we move with compassion we move with love we move with intercession and we serve people well [Music] but we don't compromise our stand out of love does that make sense out of love we can do this well in this season we can do this well in this season and many of us i would say i'll just say to all of you all that's not country but anyway to all y'all you guys have done so well in fact if you're at home with somebody watching service or you're here just turn to someone to say man you're doing this so well just go ahead just encourage someone next you're doing this so well yeah but you don't understand the struggle i've gone through you don't understand the pain of me you don't understand how angry i am at some of these things listen we haven't traveled down this road before this is all new territory but we do have the word which never changes you know someone says new roads require new maps that's true but the word of god never changes it's forever settled in heaven this is our anchor right here christ is the cornerstone that is where we go but when we make a stand when we have to make a stand let's make the stand not because of anything spiteful is we make us stand because we love jesus and we we understand who god is and i know shadrach meshach and abednego and daniel were old testament but nonetheless the stand is still there in the new testament just read the book of acts we need wisdom let's ask the lord for wisdom i just got done reading all the proverbs i'm so convicted when i read proverbs [Music] let's let's be wise but let's be courageous let's not use fear don't masquerade don't masquerade fear and say it's wisdom [Music] that makes sense [Music] and god has awakened the bride there should be an i mean amen on that god is awakened the bride and and so i think the greatest force in the world is the equity of god not the church as we have defined it is the ecclesia of god carrying the government of god the government is on his shoulder his government is on his shoulder this is governmental so we want to pray right we want to pray for our president we want to pray for the cabinet we want to pray for the governor our california governor we want to pray for the state you know legislature we want to pray and it's not uh prayer it's like god enlightened pray a good prayer saul on the damascus road going going to damascus to persecute christians he has an encounter changes his life forever so for those who don't know the lord [Music] all it takes is an encounter to change everything god is in control he's sovereign he's got us i want to encourage you with that right let your attitude smile a lot be filled with joy that's another thing i'm learning these people in the book of acts they were filled with joy and i'm like what are you you just got 39 lashes they were filled with joy how can you get 39 lashes and be filled with joy they were that's a good prayer for us it's a good prayer for us bring the kingdom this week bring the kingdom this week serve well love well have compassion if you can put your arms around somebody if you don't put your you know whatever they do these days you know fist bump don't hit him in the face but like a fist bump pray all right let's all sell stand those you even in your house if you want to you want to stand you can stand we're going to have ministry we'll have some ministry here we'll have ministry online you can go ahead and do a zoom link that's in the youtube go for that do that next week i really want to hit um acts 4 and 5 so anyway i don't want to give it away [Music] all right so father in this season that we're in we ask that you would give us wisdom fill us with the love of god god let it let it flow out of us into our culture into our workplaces it's your kindness that draws people to repentance let the kindness and the favor of the lord rest on us and may we deliver the good news of jesus to those that you have put before us lord we pray for these divine appointments this week god i pray for your people that you would fill them with hope you'd fill them with joy there'll be re refreshing from heaven in the name of jesus and god i pray from the overflow that we would impact culture regardless of the season and when the culture is antagonistic lord god may the light of your love just so permeate from us that would actually bring people into this place of conviction where they would come to know christ holy spirit we know that you're the one who draws people to jesus we just ask holy spirit that you would do this in so many places lord in california and the bay area and the nation in the name of jesus [Music] lord i pray that you continue to provide for your people i pray god that they would find this place this this this shadow this place under your wing where they they find their place of security in the middle of the storm may we deliver hope this week may we see many come to christ in the name of jesus amen amen well god bless you guys you may be seated if you want you can sit on the couch if you want the chair if you want you can totally do that um we're going to have people up front for ministry um and for those who are here and you're at your house um just give it a hug to someone you know in your home god's in control amen god bless you guys see you guys next week be reading the book through the book of acts one through eight that would be [Music] amazing [Music] hold me now [Music] [Music] lift it up [Music] you pulled me from the clay again [Music] oh out once i was [Music] [Music] you [Music] [Applause] [Music] come on is [Music] still [Music] [Music] me [Music] [Applause] [Music] me [Music] [Music] my [Music] me [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] okay [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] me [Music] me

Channel: Convergence Church

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Id: 7wuQvTa8m9Q

Length: 107min 27sec (6447 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 04 2020