[0:00] We've made our way to Daniel chapter 6. Let's open up our Bibles to Daniel chapter 6 this morning. This will be our last week in the first half of Daniel. We're going to take a break for the summer and go through some Psalms together, and then in the fall we'll jump back into the second half of Daniel, Lord willing, after the summer. But when you've found Daniel chapter 6 in your Bibles, let's stand in honor of the reading of God's Word. Daniel chapter 6.
[0:37] It pleased Darius to set over the kingdom 120 satraps, to be throughout the whole kingdom, and over them three high officials, of whom Daniel was one, to whom these satraps should give an account, so that the king might suffer no loss. Then this Daniel became distinguished above all the other high officials and satraps, because an excellent spirit was in him, and the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom. Then the high officials and the satraps sought to find ground for complaint against Daniel with regard to the kingdom, but they could find no ground for complaint or any fault because he was faithful, and no error or fault was found in him. Then these men said, we shall not find any ground for complaint against this Daniel, unless we find it in connection with the law of his God. Then these high officials and satraps came by agreement to the king and said to him, O King Darius, live forever. All the high officials of the kingdom, the prefects and the satraps, the counselors and the governors, are agreed that the king should establish an ordinance and enforce an injunction that whoever makes petition to any god or man for 30 days except to you, O King, shall be cast into the den of lions. Now, O King, establish the injunction and sign the document so that it cannot be changed according to the law of the Medes and the Persians, which cannot be revoked.
[2:01] Therefore, King Darius signed the document and injunction. When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem.
[2:13] He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God as he had done previously. Then these men came by agreement and found Daniel making petition and plea before his God. Then they came near and said before the king concerning this injunction, O King, did you not sign an injunction that anyone who makes petition to any god or man within 30 days except to you, O King, shall be cast into the den of lions? The king answered and said, The thing stands fast according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be revoked. Then they answered and said before the king, Daniel, who is one of the exiles from Judah, pays no attention to you, O King, or the injunction you have signed, but makes his petition three times a day. Then the king, when he heard these words, was much distressed and set his mind to deliver Daniel. And he labored till the sun went down to rescue him.
[3:08] Then these men came by agreement to the king and said to the king, No, O King, that it is a law of the Medes and Persians that no injunction or ordinance that the king establishes can be changed. Then the king commanded and Daniel was brought and cast into the den of lions. The king declared to Daniel, May your God, whom you serve, continually deliver you. And a stone was brought and laid on the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with his own signet and with the signet of his lord's, that nothing might be changed concerning Daniel. Then the king went to his palace and spent the night fasting, and no diversions were brought to him, and sleep fled from him. Then at break of day, the king arose and went in haste to the den of lions. As he came near to the den where Daniel was, he cried out in a tone of anguish.
[4:00] The king declared to Daniel, O Daniel, servants of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to deliver you from the lions? Then Daniel said to the king, O king, live forever.
[4:14] My God sent his angel and shut the lions' mouths, and they have not harmed me, because I was found blameless before him. And also before you, O king, I have done no harm. Then the king was exceedingly glad and commanded that Daniel be taken up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no kind of harm was found on him, because he had trusted in his God. And the king commanded, and those men who had maliciously accused Daniel were brought and cast into the den of lions, they, their children, and their wives. And before they reached the bottom of the den, the lions overpowered them and broke all their bones in pieces. Then king Darius wrote to all the peoples, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth, peace be multiplied to you. I make a decree that in all my royal dominion, people are to tremble in fear before the God of Daniel. For he is the living God, enduring forever. His kingdom shall never be destroyed, and his dominion shall be to the end. He delivers and rescues. He works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth. He who has saved Daniel from the power of the lions. So this Daniel prospered during the reign of Darius, in the reign of Cyrus the Persian. God's word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. Let's pray once more. Father, we ask now again that you would teach us as we open your word. Give us clarity that we might understand it, Lord, and give us a heart that we might respond to you in worship and obedience. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated.
[6:01] Amen. This morning we have come to what is probably the most well-known passage in the book of Daniel, and maybe one of the most well-known passages in all of the Old Testament. Daniel and the lion's den.
[6:20] If you grew up coming to church, I'd be willing to bet that this was a familiar story to you growing up. It's excellent children's ministry material. There is a faithful, good, moral example.
[6:31] There's danger and a threat. There's an enemy. There's animals, and there's a happy ending, right? There's a lot of material here to work with. It's a wonderful story. You may have even grown up singing the song, Dare to Be a Daniel. Anybody know that song? Dare to stand alone.
[6:50] Dare to have a purpose firm. Dare to make it known. Daniel has come to be known as a model of faithfulness for us. He shows us. He shows us what it looks like to live faithfully as a citizen of the kingdom of God, living here in the kingdom of man. And let me just say, I want to be like Daniel. I want to follow his model of faithfulness. I want you to be like Daniel. I want this church to be made up of Daniel's.
[7:21] But what I hope to do this morning is to deepen our understanding of this familiar story so that we understand and we see that the point of this book and the point of Daniel's life, the point of Daniel chapter 6 and this familiar story of Daniel and the lion's den ultimately is not Daniel and his faithfulness. But that Daniel and the lion's den ultimately is about Jesus and his faithfulness and his victory over the grave and his kingdom and his glory. So to that end this morning, we're going to see three lessons in faithfulness. Three lessons in faithfulness. If you're taking notes, this will be our outline this morning. We'll see three lessons in faithfulness. First is that your faithfulness will be hated here in the kingdom of man. Your faithfulness to the Lord will be hated. Look there starting in verse one. Once again, we have a new king. We've been through this over and over again. We had Nebuchadnezzar and then we had Belshazzar and now we have Darius the Mede. A lot has changed over six chapters of Daniel. We've been through seven decades that have come and gone. Again, Daniel is now about 80 years old. But through all of this, Daniel has proven himself to be faithful. He's trustworthy. And once again, we see that he's rising up in power here in this fallen kingdom of man. In fact, we're told that Daniel was just one of one of just three high officials whom Darius set over the whole kingdom. In verse 3, it says that Daniel became distinguished above all the other high officials and satraps. Why? Because an excellent spirit was in him. And the king had plans to set him over the whole kingdom. Daniel was a man of character. He was a faithful man. He was a genuine man of God. He was an honest man. Listen to this. He was a trustworthy, God-fearing, honest politician. Okay? If you can even imagine such a thing.
[9:29] Verse 4, of course, tells us that that didn't sit well with the rest of the officials. Verse 4 tells us that the high officials and the satraps, they sought to find ground for complaint against Daniel with regard to the kingdom, but they couldn't because he was faithful. No error or fault was found in him. So they said, well, we won't find any ground for complaint against this Daniel unless we find it in connection with the law of his God. Don't you want that to be said of you?
[10:04] This is blamelessness. And they hated him for it. They did not like that he was a blameless man of God, that he, a Jew, had a position of authority in their kingdom, but they couldn't dig up any dirt on him and that just made them all the more mad. Now, I'll tell you a quick story because this is this is a real life experience here. There's a pastor who I know who had upset someone with a decision that he made, right? Imagine that.
[10:34] He hadn't done anything wrong, but the guy was mad and eventually the pastor found out secondhand that this upset individual had hired a private investigator to look into the pastor and try and dig up whatever dirt he could find on him so that he could turn and use that against him. And as I talked to him, you know, of course, we were, we were sad for the whole situation and sad for this individual that he would, he would stoop to that level, but we had to laugh because we just said, you know, this private investigator, he's going to be bored stiff because there's no scandal to be found. There's no secret life. There's no, no hidden agenda.
[11:15] There's, there's no secret affair, no double life. The investigator, if he was out there following this pastor around, all he would see was, was a man waking up, having a cup of coffee and going into his office, praying, reading the words, studying, meeting with members, going back home, maybe stopping for gas on the way, play with the kids, kiss his wife goodnight, wake up, do it all again the next day.
[11:37] The scheme didn't work because, because the pastor in this matter was, was blameless. And that's exactly what's going on here, here with Daniel. So these men, they had a bright idea that, well, we'll just use his faithfulness against him. We'll use his connection, his devotion to the law of God against him. So verse six, it says they came by agreement to the king and they, they start pandering to the king. Look at this, verse six. Now, oh, King Darius lived forever. All the high officials of the kingdom, the prefects, and the satraps, the counselors, and the governors are all agreed that the king should establish an ordinance and enforce an injunction that whoever makes petition to any god or man for 30 days, except to you, oh king, shall be cast into the den of lions. Now sign it, quick, right? Put it into law, quick, so that it can't be changed according to the law of the Medes and the Persians, which cannot be revoked. And we read this, we can see right through their plan, can't we?
[12:41] They're puffing up the king. They're, they're once again appealing to the pride of the king. And we've seen this with Nebuchadnezzar and with Belshazzar, the pride that runs through all, all of the kingdom of man. And now we see it again with, with Darius. He's, he's biting the hook that they've set with this bait of pride. And they're telling him that the king ought to set himself up in the position of God, that he should receive the people's prayers, that he should be the ultimate authority and judge of those who refuse him, that his word ought to be unchangeable and cannot be revoked. You see how they're, they're elevating this king into the position of God alone. And he takes the bait. He signs it into law. Their hateful plan is working. And here's the truth of it all. And we've seen this over and over and over again already, six chapters into Daniel, right? God's people will be hated here in the kingdom of man. Let me say that again. I want to make sure this is clear. God's people, if you're faithful to the Lord, God's people will be hated here in the kingdom of man. Why?
[13:57] Because by the grace of God, we no longer belong to the kingdom of man. Jesus told us in John chapter 15 that if you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. If you are faithful to the Lord here in the kingdom of man, people might hate you. Now I wonder, are we prepared for this?
[14:32] The enemy hates you. If you would be faithful to the Lord here and now in the kingdom of man, you will be hated here. Are you prepared for this? So here's what this might look like. It might look like maybe you used to go out every weekend with your friends and you would party and drink and drink yourself drunk and have a good time. But now you've, by the grace of God, put your faith in Christ and now you want to honor him with your life. And so you say, I'm no longer going to be a part of that. I'm no longer going to do that. Your friends may respond really well to that or they may hate you for that. They may resent you for that and say that you're now holier than thou and you think you're better than them and they may turn against you for that. I wonder if that's happened to any of you. Or here's another example and maybe you felt some of these tensions in the workplace.
[15:29] It's the last Sunday in May and in our country here in the year 2024, the month of June, is nationally recognized as LGBTQIA plus pride month. It used to be LGBT pride month. Now it's LGBTQIA plus pride month.
[15:49] And this is a real struggle for people who work, for Christians who work in the secular workplace. It presents some real tensions for those who interact in a daily basis here in the kingdom of man. That plus at the end of that acronym is a good indicator that is an ever-expanding and ever-increasing definition of what must be approved of and accepted or we're deemed to be hateful and bigoted and mean-spirited and non-tolerant and hypocritical. I wonder if we're prepared. What will it cost you to not participate in whatever pride month has for us in the month of June? God's people, we have to understand that faithfulness to the Lord here in the kingdom of man, it will earn us hatred. But it's times like this when the pressure is turned up. These times are times when our faith is tested and the genuineness of our faith is proved, which is the second lesson here. Second, our faithfulness here in the kingdom of man will be tested. I love how Daniel responds to all of this drama. Look there to verse 10. It says, when Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem, and he got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God just as he had done previously. In other words, this is a test of Daniel's faithfulness, and what does he do?
[17:31] Daniel doesn't change a thing, does he? He proves the genuineness of his faith here in this test, and I want to focus in here on Daniel's prayer for a little bit. We've talked a lot about prayer this year. I don't know if you remember at the beginning of the year, we said this was going to be a focus for us. We want to be a praying church. I don't think that anything we seek to accomplish by the grace of God is going to be accomplished apart from prayer. So let's learn from Daniel's prayer here.
[18:02] For one, this is a rebellious prayer. It's a rebellious prayer. Daniel's faced with a choice. Do I listen to the king, or do I listen to God? And again, we saw this. We faced this issue with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, didn't we? And what did we learn? We learned that we are called to obey, we're called to obey our earthly authorities, except, do you remember? Except in two cases, when they command us to do something God forbids, or they forbid us to do something God commands.
[18:38] We're called to obey our earthly authorities, except in the case where they command us to do something God forbids, or forbid us to do something God commands. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they were commanded to do something God forbids. They were commanded to bow down to an idol. Well, Daniel here, he's forbidden to do something God commands, to seek him in prayer. At first glance, you know, the reasonable thing might be, it seems like it might be, well, maybe I'll just lay low.
[19:09] Maybe that might be the approach you would take. It's just 30 days. Maybe I'll just go pray quietly without anybody seeing me. I won't open up the windows and go pray in public, but that's not what Daniel does. He doesn't let these threats and these laws change anything about his devotion to the Lord. He went up, opened up the windows three times a day, just like before, and he prayed.
[19:35] It's a rebellious prayer. And think about this. Daniel made the decision, he was resolved, that he would rather be thrown to the lions than to change anything about his prayer life for 30 days.
[19:49] I wonder if we feel the same way. This was a rebellious prayer. It was also clear this was a regular prayer. This was a regular prayer. This was a habit for Daniel. This wasn't a new discipline that he started up at this moment in response to the test. He just did what he had always done. He prayed just as he had done before. Daniel was prepared for this moment of defiant prayer. Why?
[20:13] Because he had flexed this muscle of prayer day in, day out, three times a day for something like 80 years. He was disciplined in prayer so that when this weight of resistance came against him, that muscle of prayer was so strong and so developed that for him it's lightweight. He just carries on just like he had done before. And I think it prompts us to ask the question, Christian, how regular is our prayer life? How frequent are we coming to the Lord in prayer? How strong is the muscle of your prayer life? Or let me ask it a different way. Would anything change about your life if you were told for 30 days you had to stop praying? This is rebellious prayer. It's regular prayer. It's also remembering prayer. Look how Daniel prays. Do you notice this? He opens up the windows and it says he prays toward Jerusalem. Now why in the world would he do that? The city of Jerusalem is in rubble.
[21:20] It's been destroyed. The temple is gone. His home is burned to the ground. Why is he praying in the direction of Jerusalem? Well, Daniel is praying, remembering God's promises. He's praying. In prayer, he would be reminded again and again and again and again that this earthly kingdom that he's a part of is not home for him. Now whoever happens to be seated on the throne in this phase of the kingdom of man, ultimately that the Lord is king. He's remembering the promises of God. His prayer is putting all things into perspective for him. You see, Daniel, he was successful in Babylon. He could have been comfortable. He could have had whatever he wanted there. There was only one or two or three guys in the whole kingdom that were more influential than Daniel, but here he is faithfully praying and reminding himself that this isn't home for me. That God has something better ahead of me that's not a part of this kingdom of man. He's remembering his true treasure. He's remembering his true hope. And, you know, that's one of the powerful effects of prayer, isn't it? Prayer helps us to maintain an eternal perspective regardless of what's happening here in the here and now. Whether you're extremely successful here in the kingdom of man like Daniel, or whether you have nothing whatsoever here in the kingdom of man. Prayer, it reminds us of our true identity and our true eternal hope. We're reminded of
[22:59] God's promises. So, lastly here, we see this was a responding prayer. A responding prayer. Verse 10 says, Daniel gave thanks to his God just as he had done previously. It's a prayer of thankfulness.
[23:22] A prayer of thanksgiving. You just think about this, right? If anybody had the right to pray a prayer of of panic or desperation, if anybody had the right to pray an anxious prayer, it was Daniel. What in the world did Daniel have to give thanks for? He's stuck here against his will in a kingdom that he does not want to be a part of. He has threats against his life. He knows that if he prays this prayer in public, he's going to be thrown to a den of lions. And yet, what's the posture of his prayer? It's one of thankfulness. Gratitude. Response to who the Lord is and what the Lord has done. Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. Give thanks in all circumstances.
[24:16] For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. This is what we're called to, church. And we're called to seek the Lord with a posture of thanksgiving. And you may not be going through any sort of testing of your faithfulness right now, but you will. So, church, let's commit right now that we will be a faithfully praying church. Will you do that with me? Now, I'll give you an application here. I just want to give you one application here before we move on. For the month of June, I want to give us sort of a reverse edict of Darius's command here. Okay? So, for 30 days, there's 30 days in the month of June. It starts Saturday, June 1st. This church, for 30 days, I want us to commit to pray. Three times a day. We will seek the Lord. This Saturday gives us a few days to prepare. Saturday, June 1st is when we start. But for 30 days, let's commit to one another.
[25:20] Let's commit to the Lord. Let's commit to ourselves that we will get on our knees and pray to the Lord three times a day. Is that a high ask for us? Let's commit that we will ask the Lord to save our neighbors. Let's commit that we will ask the Lord to grow His church. Let's commit that we will ask the Lord to sustain us through trial, whether we're in the midst of it right now or whatever might be around the corner for us. Ask that the Lord will sustain us through suffering. That we would ask that the Lord would magnify the glory of His name in the gospel of Jesus Christ among us here at Seawee Bay.
[26:06] And for 30 days, let's commit that we will give thanks to the Lord in all circumstances. Whatever it is that is going on in our life that we would remember His promises and give thanks for who He is and what He's done. Can we commit to do this in the month of June?
[26:21] If you will, here's what I want you to do. I want you sometime before Saturday, okay? We have a few days, six days to work this out. Sometime before Saturday, I want you to take pen and paper and I want you to write down some specific prayers that you want to see the Lord answer. And it's very practical here. Write down some specific prayers. Start with yourself. Move out to your family. Move to your church family. Move to your neighborhood and your community, to the world. And we want to pray physical things. Of course, that's important. But emphasize spiritual things. What do you want to see the Lord do spiritually in your heart? How are you asking the Lord to grow you and to change you more into the image of Christ? Who are you praying that the Lord would draw to Himself? What are the ways that this church needs to grow? 30 days of prayer. Let's see what God does.
[27:19] Pen and paper and then set three alarms. It could be on your watch, on your phone. Alarm clock at home. I don't really care what it is, but when those alarms go off, it's time. Whatever else you have going on. Pause. Put it off to the side. Commit yourself to prayer. Church, let's build up this muscle of prayer so that when trials come, we will be ready to simply do as we've always done. Amen? Church, our faithfulness will be hated. Our faithfulness will be tested. But third, and lastly, in the end, Daniel teaches us that our faithfulness will be vindicated. Our faithfulness will be vindicated. Our ultimate hope and our confidence is that although is hated here in this kingdom, our faithfulness to the Lord will ultimately be vindicated in the kingdom to come.
[28:14] Look there to verse 11. Verse 11, it says that these men, they came by agreement and they found Daniel praying and pleading before God. And so in their minds, their plan had worked. And they come to the king and they reminded him, hey, hey, didn't you sign one of these unchangeable laws that anyone who prays to a God but you would be thrown to the lions? And he says, yeah, that was your idea. I signed that law. And they told him, Daniel has rebelled. He doesn't listen to you. He continues to pray three times a day. And at this, to his credit, the king is distressed. He doesn't wish harm upon Daniel. He sets his mind to deliver him. He labored till sun went down to deliver him. But the men come again by agreement. And they say, well, oh king, let me just remind you that it's a law of the Medes and the Persians that no injunction or ordinance that the king has established can ever be changed. So his hands are bound. And verse 16 says, the king commanded and Daniel was brought and cast into the den of lions. As he goes down, he shouts, may God, whom you continually serve, deliver you. And a stone was brought and laid on the mouth of the den. And to everyone watching, Daniel was as good as dead.
[29:32] But, but, verse 19, it says, as soon as morning came, the king jumps out of bed and he rushes to the den of lions. And it says that he cried out in anguish, oh Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God whom you serve continually, has he been able to deliver you from the lions?
[29:52] And he hears a voice. It's Daniel's voice. And he says, oh king, live forever. My God sent his angel and shut the lions' mouths and they have not harmed me because I was found blameless before him and also before you, oh king, I have done no harm. Daniel was brought out of the den. No harm was found on him.
[30:18] Why? Because he had faithfully trusted in his God. This is a vindication of Daniel's faithfulness.
[30:29] It's because of his blamelessness. It's because of his trust in the Lord that the Lord delivered him from the sentence of death. This is a miracle. But not only this, once again, look, see what happens.
[30:43] Verse 24, the king commanded and those men who had accused Daniel were brought and cast into the den of lions, they, their children, and their wives. And before they even reached the bottom of the den, the lions overpowered them and broke all their bones into pieces.
[31:02] King Darius issues a new edict to all the peoples, nations, and languages, and all the earth. He says, in all my royal dominion, people are to tremble in fear before the God of Daniel, for he is the living God enduring forever. His kingdom shall never be destroyed, and his dominion shall be to the end. He delivers and rescues. He works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth. He who has saved Daniel from the power of the lions. Let's zoom out again of this familiar story for just a minute.
[31:35] The faithful are hated. The enemy tries to snuff them out. But in the end, they are vindicated, they are redeemed, they are exalted and promoted, and their enemies are judged, and God is praised in all the earth. Haven't we seen this story before? We're cycling again and again. This is the story of all of God's people here in the kingdom of man. This is our story. Daniel, again, is a model for us of what faithfulness looks like to the Lord here in the kingdom of man. But as I said at the beginning of our time together this morning, all of this is not ultimately about Daniel. All of this story is pointing us forward to the perfect faithfulness of Jesus Christ. My boys have a book. It's called Jesus in the Lion's Den.
[32:37] And it's meant to teach them that the story of Daniel, and all the Old Testament really, but the story of Daniel is ultimately pointing us forward to Jesus. It's not just moral lessons of how to act and how to be, how to be better, how to be like Daniel, how to dare to be a Daniel. Daniel isn't about Daniel. Daniel is about Jesus. And so the book, it has us look for what it calls Jesus moments. And this is, anytime in the story of Daniel that something is happening that points us forward to Jesus, and so on the pages, every time you see this image of a special lion on the page, you know that there's there's a Jesus moment that we're supposed to be looking for. I wonder if, as we read through Daniel chapter 6, if you heard any Jesus moments in Daniel's story. Any echoes of the work of Christ to come. Daniel was committed to faithful obedience to the Lord. Even though he lived here in enemy territory, he sought the Lord consistently, constantly, faithfully, so Jesus, the true man of God, fully and perfectly obeyed the Lord in every moment. Although he was tempted and tried in every way as we are yet without sin. Daniel was completely innocent in this matter, but the enemies of God hated his faithfulness. They conspired against him. They conspired and made a scheme to put him to death, much like Jesus, who never sinned, who was truly and totally innocent, and who was put to an unfair trial and condemned to death as a criminal, although he had done no wrong. Daniel was thrown to the lions, and Darius shouted out, may your God save you. Jesus was hung on a cross, and they shouted, he trusts in God.
[34:34] Let God deliver him now. They rolled the stone on top of the den of lions, and Daniel was as good as dead, but by the grace of God, death did not overcome him. God rescued him. He was vindicated. The very next day, he was brought out of the pit, and his enemies were judged, and no injury whatsoever was found on him because he had believed in his God. So Jesus faced the sentence of death. He took on the kingdom of darkness. Not a bone was broken, but there is a difference. Jesus didn't escape death.
[35:11] He took it head on for us, for our sin. And Jesus truly did die. He truly did bear the wrath of God against sin, not his sin, but our sin. But death could not hold him in. He had no claim on him. Jesus Christ alone was completely blameless. Jesus Christ alone faithfully obeyed the Lord all his life, and so Jesus Christ on the third day rose from the grave never to die again. He crushed the powers of sin and darkness, nailed our sin to the cross, destroyed the kingdom of man, emptied it completely of his power, and when he comes again, listen to this, all who put their faith in him will be vindicated, and all his enemies will be judged. In a way that makes this devouring of the mouth of the lion, breaking all the bones into pieces look small. The schemes of the enemy will be undone at last, and God will be praised in all the earth when our Lord returns. Friend, this story is about Jesus.
[36:27] So here's where we close. If you are not a believer, and you're here with us this morning, the response for you isn't to try harder to be more faithful to God.
[36:41] The response to you is not to try to be like Daniel. That will never work. If you're here, and you're not a believer this morning, the response for you is to put your faith in Jesus Christ. Put your faith in the one who totally, completely obeyed where all of us have failed, and totally, completely defeated sin, death, and the devil on our behalf, for all who put their faith in him. And as you live here trusting in him, believer, whatever test lies ahead of us, the response for us is cling to Jesus.
[37:22] Remain faithful to Jesus. Seek Jesus. If you have failed to be faithful to the Lord, and we all have failed to be faithful to the Lord, if you have failed, remember that you're standing before God.
[37:39] Your hope of eternal life is not based on your faithfulness, but on the perfect faithfulness of Jesus Christ. So cling to him. He has delivered us, and he will deliver us again when he comes at last.
[37:58] Let's pray. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we praise you for the good news of the gospel that we see so clearly here in the book of Daniel.
[38:16] Daniel, his faithfulness, his faithfulness, his obedience, his suffering, and his victory over the grave is just a small glimmer of the work that you have done.
[38:29] That's our only hope, God, is that you sent your son in our place to die, to live, to rise. And so we pray, Father, that we would live faithfully for your glory and honor, trusting in him completely to save us.
[38:43] We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.