WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.320 Now, I'm very conscious today, in fact, I'm conscious most weeks, but I'm very conscious 00:00:04.320 --> 00:00:10.800 today that when we come to the sermon, indeed when we come to worship, not just the sermon 00:00:10.800 --> 00:00:15.919 but the praise, the prayers, the reading of Scripture, when we gather together, you need 00:00:15.919 --> 00:00:21.920 to take, we need to take something away. We do need to take something, and we recognise 00:00:21.920 --> 00:00:26.199 that and we recognise the need for the Holy Spirit and all to help that. You need to go 00:00:26.199 --> 00:00:31.919 away with some kind of clear vision of what it means to be a Christian and why it's worth 00:00:31.919 --> 00:00:38.560 carrying on being a Christian. You need to hear God's voice through His Word and through 00:00:38.560 --> 00:00:44.920 the preaching and through the songs and all that we do together. It needs to be, I sense, 00:00:44.920 --> 00:00:52.079 I feel, it needs to be vivid and not vague for you. And that's important that we come 00:00:52.079 --> 00:00:58.199 each week and we come to be refreshed and renewed and given a clearer understanding again of 00:00:58.199 --> 00:01:03.200 our faith in Christ and why it's significant. And so we're always praying that God will 00:01:03.200 --> 00:01:10.079 speak to us through the worship and through the Word as its preached. And one of the things 00:01:10.079 --> 00:01:15.039 we've been really trying hard to do with these stories is to understand the principles behind 00:01:15.040 --> 00:01:22.160 them and work out why God has recorded these stories and why they're recorded for us and 00:01:22.160 --> 00:01:26.200 what we need to, we recognise that they're out of our comfort zone, they're out of our 00:01:26.200 --> 00:01:31.400 cultural understanding, they're out of our time, but yet they remain what God wants us 00:01:31.400 --> 00:01:38.480 to know and wants us to understand about Himself as part of His own ongoing revealed 00:01:38.480 --> 00:01:45.200 picture. And part of what we've seen is that we recognise the importance of God intervening 00:01:45.200 --> 00:01:50.480 in our lives as He did in the lives last week we saw Shadrach Mishin and Gbennego and 00:01:50.480 --> 00:01:56.960 this week with Daniel. And that, in a sense, is one of the principles when we come together 00:01:56.960 --> 00:02:02.439 to worship, we're looking for God to intervene through His Word and through His person into 00:02:02.439 --> 00:02:09.039 our lives. So this must never be, and it ought never to be a lecture sermon, should never be lectures. 00:02:09.039 --> 00:02:13.719 They're not lectures, they're something much more significant in a sense than lectures. 00:02:13.719 --> 00:02:18.800 And the Bible says it's through the foolishness of preaching that God chooses to work and reveal 00:02:18.800 --> 00:02:24.240 Himself, not obviously just the half hour monologue from the pit, and because it's not 00:02:24.240 --> 00:02:31.520 a monologue, because you're all drawing out of me and God is working through it, but also 00:02:31.520 --> 00:02:35.439 as we just declare truth from His Word in any other context. 00:02:35.439 --> 00:02:39.680 But what I want to do this morning is just pose two questions from this story. Even as 00:02:39.680 --> 00:02:43.080 I'm reading it again, I realise there's lots and lots and lots that I'm going to be missing 00:02:43.080 --> 00:02:47.480 out and that's sad, but we only have half an hour and so I'm going to look at two questions 00:02:47.480 --> 00:02:51.760 particularly from this story from Daniel. And the first question is how do we live in 00:02:51.760 --> 00:02:56.560 the city of Edinburgh as Christians? Okay, we're from Edinburgh, we live in Edinburgh, 00:02:56.560 --> 00:03:00.400 we're Christians in Edinburgh. How do we live as Christians in the city of Edinburgh? And 00:03:00.400 --> 00:03:05.159 the second question is how can we face the unwanted in our lives? So when the unwanted 00:03:05.159 --> 00:03:09.480 things happen in our lives, how can we face them as Christians? How does God want us to 00:03:09.480 --> 00:03:15.040 face them as Christians? And I think we can learn at least some answers to both of these 00:03:15.040 --> 00:03:19.599 questions from the chapter that we read on Daniel. So how can we live in the city of 00:03:19.599 --> 00:03:24.960 Edinburgh as Christians? This is an important city. We love the city. It's important to 00:03:24.960 --> 00:03:30.000 us and it's important to the nation. And the congregation is full of people who live and 00:03:30.000 --> 00:03:35.439 work in the city. We have all kinds of different people. We have lawyers and bankers and teachers 00:03:35.439 --> 00:03:40.639 and nurses and doctors and people in other jobs and people studying, people in school, 00:03:40.639 --> 00:03:49.039 people in communities, citizens of Edinburgh and its environs. And we can learn from Daniel 00:03:49.039 --> 00:03:54.719 in the way Daniel lived in a very significant and important city of Babylon, how we can 00:03:54.719 --> 00:04:02.520 follow his example as we live. And of course it doesn't just apply to city life, but there 00:04:02.520 --> 00:04:06.879 is a great significance I think for us as people, as Christians who are living in the 00:04:06.879 --> 00:04:12.039 city. There's two words from the chapter that I think summarise and highlight the kind 00:04:12.039 --> 00:04:18.680 of attitude that Daniel had of living in the city. And the first is in verse 3 where it 00:04:18.680 --> 00:04:22.680 says that Daniel became distinguished above all the other high official centre because 00:04:22.680 --> 00:04:28.560 it was an excellence but it was in him. So the first word is excellence. Daniel had an 00:04:28.560 --> 00:04:33.879 attitude of excellence to living in the city and working in the city. He was living in 00:04:33.879 --> 00:04:39.280 captivity if you remember that. His people, God's people had been taken out of the promised 00:04:39.280 --> 00:04:45.280 land because of falling into idolatry and were captive in Babylon which was a godless 00:04:45.280 --> 00:04:50.480 or at least they didn't worship the living God, they were a city and a people and a power 00:04:50.480 --> 00:04:57.920 who worshiped idols. And yet in Babylon he understood and he knew what God wanted him 00:04:57.920 --> 00:05:02.960 to do when he lived in the city and what he wanted the people of God to do when they lived 00:05:02.960 --> 00:05:10.000 in the city of Babylon. In Jeremiah chapter 7 verses 4 to 7 we have these words, hopefully 00:05:10.000 --> 00:05:16.920 no we don't, okay right I'll just look them up. Jeremiah chapter 29. Now this is a very 00:05:16.920 --> 00:05:22.600 important look at what we do. This was a prophecy that was given before the people went into 00:05:22.600 --> 00:05:27.400 exile to Babylon and God through Jeremiah says to them, thus says the Lord of hosts 00:05:27.400 --> 00:05:32.360 that God of Israel to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon, 00:05:32.360 --> 00:05:36.920 build houses and live in them, plant gardens, eat their produce, take wives and have sons 00:05:36.920 --> 00:05:40.600 and daughters, take wives for your sons, give your daughters and marriage that they may bear 00:05:40.600 --> 00:05:45.920 sons and daughters, multiply there, do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city 00:05:45.920 --> 00:05:53.439 where I have sent you into exile and pray to the Lord on its behalf for in its welfare 00:05:53.439 --> 00:05:59.560 you will find your welfare. So there was a longing from God that the people of Babylon 00:05:59.560 --> 00:06:09.840 would prosper as Daniel and his compatriots also sought to prosper in the city. So they 00:06:09.840 --> 00:06:14.560 were encouraged to immerse themselves into the life and into the culture of the city 00:06:14.560 --> 00:06:20.319 of Babylon, to reach as high as they could in the city, to seek the good of that city 00:06:20.319 --> 00:06:27.040 and to work for the kings and the leaders of that city, for the secular leaders and 00:06:27.040 --> 00:06:33.000 the idolatrous leaders of that city. And that was Daniel's job and he was excellent at it. 00:06:33.000 --> 00:06:38.600 He worked for King Darius and his task was to make sure that King Darius suffered no loss. 00:06:38.600 --> 00:06:44.040 And that's primarily an economic term. So he was a kind of economist and he made sure 00:06:44.040 --> 00:06:50.240 that the returns for Darius were good and he was excellent at that job and he served 00:06:50.240 --> 00:06:56.640 the king. He didn't simply work there to survive. He didn't simply work to get enough money 00:06:56.640 --> 00:07:03.480 to go on holidays. He served the king. He wanted the king to suffer no loss and he was excellent 00:07:03.480 --> 00:07:10.520 in all he did. He was above reproach. Verse 4 tells us that Daniel couldn't find any complaint 00:07:10.519 --> 00:07:15.879 or fault. He was faithful. No error or fault was found in him. He really worked well in 00:07:15.879 --> 00:07:23.199 this environment and he did his absolute best. He was real promotional quality and excellence 00:07:23.199 --> 00:07:29.759 was what he pursued in his work. So that's the first word that helps to describe Daniel 00:07:29.759 --> 00:07:37.639 and how he lived in the city. The second word maybe isn't quite so popular in verse 13. 00:07:37.639 --> 00:07:42.599 When the sat traps come and accuse Daniel of praying they say, Daniel who is one of 00:07:42.599 --> 00:07:47.800 the exiles from Judah pays no attention to you. So excellence is the first word. The 00:07:47.800 --> 00:07:53.919 second word I would use to describe how a principle of living in the city is exile. In 00:07:53.919 --> 00:07:59.919 other words Daniel although he pursued excellence and he served the king and he got involved 00:07:59.919 --> 00:08:06.919 in the culture absolutely fully and completely in many levels was an outsider. He didn't 00:08:06.920 --> 00:08:13.080 belong. He was an exile. He was foreign. His colleagues never really accepted him and they 00:08:13.080 --> 00:08:20.360 were jealous of him. He couldn't be bought. His ethics and his morality was outstandingly 00:08:20.360 --> 00:08:29.160 honest and clear and that invoked antagonism within them not only because of who he was 00:08:29.160 --> 00:08:36.200 in his culture and in his race and his ethnicity but also because of his morality and his ethics. 00:08:36.200 --> 00:08:42.360 He was consistently different morally and ethically. Yes he was excellent but he was 00:08:42.360 --> 00:08:49.640 also an exile. He knew his God. They knew he knew his God. They knew that he prayed regularly 00:08:49.640 --> 00:08:54.759 three times a day. We're told that in verse 10 that he did what he was his habit. He went 00:08:54.759 --> 00:09:00.360 and prayed three times towards Jerusalem and nothing changed that. They knew that. They 00:09:00.360 --> 00:09:06.680 knew that nothing would change his habit, his honesty and his dedication to the living 00:09:06.680 --> 00:09:15.200 God and he was someone who while pursuing excellence also knew he was in exile. He understood 00:09:15.200 --> 00:09:20.759 what it was to be an exile in the city and he knew that from God's word. 00:09:20.759 --> 00:09:26.000 Corey read from 1st King that Solomon's prayer and the dedication of the temple and 00:09:26.000 --> 00:09:30.639 he would have known and understood that in this prayer Solomon prayed when we're taken 00:09:30.639 --> 00:09:39.159 into captivity may it be that my people face towards Jerusalem and pray in repentance and 00:09:39.159 --> 00:09:44.679 pray for a return to that city and Daniel knew that and that's what he did every day. 00:09:44.679 --> 00:09:50.600 That's why he went facing Jerusalem because that's where his that's what he knew as home. 00:09:50.600 --> 00:09:56.120 He had a bigger perspective and he prayed towards his God pleading that God would take 00:09:56.120 --> 00:10:01.519 them out of exile back to the promised land. That's where his home was. That's where 00:10:01.519 --> 00:10:08.960 his heart was and so we have the two elements of living in the city. One of excellence and 00:10:08.960 --> 00:10:15.639 one of exile. Now can I apply that then to your life and to mine as a principle? What 00:10:15.639 --> 00:10:20.560 can the principle be in terms of how we live as Christians in the city or indeed whatever 00:10:20.559 --> 00:10:26.159 we live as Christians? I wrestled about a phrase to use. I couldn't think of one for 00:10:26.159 --> 00:10:31.799 a long time but I thought a good one is just godly immersion. That's what he wanted. That's 00:10:31.799 --> 00:10:38.359 the principle of living as a Christian today in a secular world is one of godly immersion 00:10:38.359 --> 00:10:43.799 and that's a tension. So you live your life and I live my life with a constant tension. 00:10:43.799 --> 00:10:49.959 A tension between being godly following God and being involved in the world, being immersed 00:10:49.960 --> 00:10:54.320 in the world in which we live. The kind of truth element and the love element that drives 00:10:54.320 --> 00:11:00.280 us out. We're one of them but in some ways we're not. We're like people but in other 00:11:00.280 --> 00:11:07.600 ways we're not. And we always need to be aware I think of extremes. We need to be aware of 00:11:07.600 --> 00:11:13.800 extremes in this area so that at one level we can become monastic and pursue an inverted 00:11:13.799 --> 00:11:20.479 commas godliness which separates us from everyone. That's not biblical godliness or we can be 00:11:20.479 --> 00:11:26.039 immersed at the other extreme just so completely like the world in which we live that we're 00:11:26.039 --> 00:11:30.799 not different from it. We're absolutely the same. No one knows that we're Christians because 00:11:30.799 --> 00:11:37.439 of our morality, our ethics, our silence and there's the two extremes that the principle 00:11:37.439 --> 00:11:43.319 brings us into the middle which is a godly immersion and there's tension there and it's 00:11:43.320 --> 00:11:48.920 a battle and a wrestle that we have to face every day. That we need to pursue excellence 00:11:48.920 --> 00:11:54.200 in the world in which we live. It's vital that you go to your work tomorrow or your studies 00:11:54.200 --> 00:11:58.640 pursuing excellence. That you're not dragging your feet. That you're not saying, ah well 00:11:58.640 --> 00:12:02.760 it's just a rubbish job and I've got a rubbish employer and I've got, I just want to complain 00:12:02.760 --> 00:12:07.320 and moan about everything. We're pursuing excellence. We do it wholeheartedly. We seek 00:12:07.320 --> 00:12:14.400 the good of our employers. We seek their good. We seek to do our best for them. We seek excellence. 00:12:14.400 --> 00:12:19.879 We seek promotion. We love the city and its culture and its people and we pray for them. 00:12:19.879 --> 00:12:23.680 We pursue excellence in all that we do and we seek to get to the top if we've got the 00:12:23.680 --> 00:12:29.440 gifts and abilities to do so. There's nothing particularly godly or saintly about staying 00:12:29.440 --> 00:12:33.880 at the bottom of the ladder. Nor is there anything particularly saintly or godly or 00:12:33.879 --> 00:12:38.799 getting to the top of the ladder. But it's the pursuit of excellence in whoever and whoever 00:12:38.799 --> 00:12:45.720 we are that is a principle that we learn from Daniel. But alongside that principle of excellence 00:12:45.720 --> 00:12:52.439 is the principle of exile that we're to be godly in our immersion in the world. That 00:12:52.439 --> 00:12:59.360 this is not our home. This is not all that there is. This is not just what we're living 00:12:59.360 --> 00:13:06.000 for. You're called to be different. You belong to a different king. King Jesus. We serve 00:13:06.000 --> 00:13:15.200 another master. And so that perspective will inevitably set us odds in the world in which 00:13:15.200 --> 00:13:23.800 we live. We don't belong. 1 Peter 4, 3 and 4. For you have spent enough time in the past 00:13:23.800 --> 00:13:28.759 doing what the pagans choose to do, living in debauchery, lush drunkenness, orges, carousing 00:13:28.759 --> 00:13:33.039 and detestable ideology. They are surprised that you don't join with them in their reckless 00:13:33.039 --> 00:13:38.679 wild living and they heap abuse on you. So you'll have abuse heaped on you because you 00:13:38.679 --> 00:13:46.600 choose to live and follow Christ and live according to the principles that guide you 00:13:46.600 --> 00:13:52.679 in your relationship with Jesus Christ. So that is inevitable. Living in exile. If we're 00:13:52.679 --> 00:13:59.120 following Christ, we're going to pursue excellence, I hope, but also live in exile now with all 00:13:59.120 --> 00:14:08.120 the sympathy and love I can muster. Can I say in terms of that exile, suck it up. Just 00:14:08.120 --> 00:14:17.359 suck it up. Deal with it. Expect it. Don't blame God. Don't shake your fist at God when 00:14:17.360 --> 00:14:23.240 these things happen. Don't accuse him of being unloving. This is the world in which we live. 00:14:23.240 --> 00:14:30.159 We will pursue excellence and we have to recognize we're living in exile. Daniel sucked up. Daniel 00:14:30.159 --> 00:14:35.680 recognized that this is the world he lived in and that is the real deal with it. If it's 00:14:35.680 --> 00:14:39.360 good enough for Daniel, if it's good enough for Jesus Christ, it's going to be good enough 00:14:39.360 --> 00:14:46.240 for us as well and we should rejoice in that, but never go after it and seek it. How can 00:14:46.240 --> 00:14:53.120 we maintain that tension? How can we maintain the tension of godly immersion in the world? 00:14:53.120 --> 00:15:03.360 I would suggest prayer. Prayer is the best answer to that. The following Daniel's example, 00:15:03.360 --> 00:15:07.279 maybe not literally three times a day, you may do much more than that, much less, but 00:15:07.279 --> 00:15:13.519 regular, relentless, daily, habitual, thoughtful prayer. He kneeled, he went on his knees and 00:15:13.519 --> 00:15:17.759 he kneeled towards Jerusalem. Now we don't all need to, and it's difficult in church to 00:15:17.759 --> 00:15:21.679 get on your knees, but I think there's a good principle behind kneeling because it says 00:15:21.679 --> 00:15:28.159 something about understanding who God is. It's very uncool today, I think, probably to 00:15:28.159 --> 00:15:33.759 kneel, but I would encourage you to kneel by your bedside or to kneel in your comfort, 00:15:33.759 --> 00:15:42.240 your praying chair, wherever that chair might be, kneel because it's a good mental, physical 00:15:42.240 --> 00:15:47.360 question of a mental understanding that we come before the throne of grace, but we remember 00:15:47.360 --> 00:15:52.480 it's still a throne. It still is thrown and when we pray on our knees we're saying, not 00:15:52.480 --> 00:15:58.639 my will be done, but yours. That's the essence of prayer, isn't it? Not my will be done, 00:15:58.639 --> 00:16:03.840 but yours. Daniel would have recognized what Solomon was saying in Kings, what we looked 00:16:03.840 --> 00:16:10.279 at and that he knew for himself and for his people they needed to repent and turn if they 00:16:10.279 --> 00:16:15.600 were to get back to the promised land and his life and his prayers would have been one 00:16:15.600 --> 00:16:21.839 of relentless repentance and pleading. I'm sure he pleaded about not going into the 00:16:21.839 --> 00:16:27.679 lion's den because we're told that he knew about the document and then he went to pray, 00:16:27.679 --> 00:16:31.879 so I'm sure he pleaded also that he wouldn't end up in the lion's den and he prayed his 00:16:31.879 --> 00:16:37.559 requests. Nothing could stop him. He might have thought, I'm not going to pray at this 00:16:37.559 --> 00:16:42.439 point, I'm simply not going to do it. They know what my usual is, I'll do something different. 00:16:42.439 --> 00:16:47.599 I'll go downstairs into the basement and pray, then they wouldn't see me, but he didn't do 00:16:47.599 --> 00:16:55.039 that. He did what he always did. It was absolutely habitual that he did everything in his life 00:16:55.039 --> 00:17:01.919 with this dependence on prayer for myself and I'm sure sometimes for you it's often 00:17:01.919 --> 00:17:08.720 the opposite, isn't it? It's the first thing that goes. It's the first thing we stop doing. 00:17:08.720 --> 00:17:13.960 It's the first thing we sacrifice. No time for prayer today. Too much to do to pray. 00:17:13.960 --> 00:17:18.720 Too many things happening to pray and it's the first thing that we jettison in our lives. 00:17:18.720 --> 00:17:25.359 Daniel recognized the absolute living, passionate importance of prayer in his life and also knowing 00:17:25.359 --> 00:17:33.119 the mind of God as he did, praying God's prayers, praying God's promises, praying, searching 00:17:33.119 --> 00:17:38.919 the scriptures, understanding what Jeremiah had said from God about living in the city, 00:17:38.919 --> 00:17:47.079 knowing what lay ahead. And so for us, the big question as we think about immersion and 00:17:47.079 --> 00:17:58.759 godliness and living in the city is, you know, where is our heart? And where is our home? 00:17:58.759 --> 00:18:05.119 Where is our heart? What is our perspective? Because prayer will reflect that. Prayer will 00:18:05.119 --> 00:18:13.039 reflect our understanding of whether we're in exile or whether we're just immersed and 00:18:13.039 --> 00:18:17.639 will help us to keep the right perspective because we can't do it on our own. God promises 00:18:17.639 --> 00:18:21.799 to help us. That's the first question, taking longer, sorry, on that, the 9.10. The second 00:18:21.799 --> 00:18:27.960 question which I'll be briefer is how can we face the unwanted in our lives? So Daniel, 00:18:27.960 --> 00:18:32.200 you know, it's a famous story, you know, well, Daniel's 80 years of age by this stage and 00:18:32.200 --> 00:18:36.720 his life has been full of battles and of blessings. And here he is towards the end of his life 00:18:36.720 --> 00:18:42.599 and he's facing another huge battle at Den of Lyons. Is this it for him? Is this what 00:18:42.599 --> 00:18:48.359 it's going to be like as he faces this horrible unwanted end in his life? And so, you know, 00:18:48.359 --> 00:18:53.240 we recognize there's so many things that are unwanted. You may have come to church with 00:18:53.240 --> 00:18:57.839 a whole bag full of unwanted things that are happening in your life just now. Maybe that 00:18:57.839 --> 00:19:04.279 your life doesn't make sense. It may be illness, it may be weakness, suffering or difficulty 00:19:04.279 --> 00:19:08.000 of one kind. We know that God doesn't see you, you'll be listening or answering anything 00:19:08.000 --> 00:19:14.640 that we say. We feel victimized that there's a furnace or a pit ahead of us metaphorically 00:19:14.640 --> 00:19:20.359 speaking, opposed and discouraged, maybe by the behavior of others or even behavior of 00:19:20.359 --> 00:19:27.920 Christians. You may sense powerlessness as Daniel would have done over to change circumstances. 00:19:27.920 --> 00:19:32.519 How many of you feel that in our day to day living? Powerless over circumstances. You 00:19:32.519 --> 00:19:36.759 would love to change it. God's supposed to be all sovereign and all powerful. Why can't 00:19:36.759 --> 00:19:45.039 He change them for me? Or you may have had a very bad diagnosis this week and are facing 00:19:45.039 --> 00:19:51.799 certain death. These things happen. That is life for us. The unwanted comes into our life. 00:19:51.799 --> 00:19:56.519 How as Christians do we deal with that? Can we learn from Daniel about how to deal with 00:19:56.519 --> 00:20:03.119 the unwanted things that we all face in our lives? It's a very simple answer, but I hope 00:20:03.119 --> 00:20:09.239 it's not a glib answer for us in verse 23. It's not Daniel who says it, it's the King 00:20:09.239 --> 00:20:14.679 who says it. He's taken up out of the den of the lions and don't eat him because he 00:20:14.679 --> 00:20:19.679 had trusted in his God. You knew that was the answer I was going to give, didn't you? 00:20:19.679 --> 00:20:23.159 He trusted in God and you think, well, there's nothing new there. He's not going to say anything 00:20:23.159 --> 00:20:28.399 that's going to help me because that's what everyone says. I don't want to be glib and 00:20:28.400 --> 00:20:35.040 it isn't glib, but it's real and for Daniel it's absolutely real. He kept doing the same 00:20:35.040 --> 00:20:40.640 thing. He didn't change anything when he was faced with the unwanted. His life is a visible 00:20:40.640 --> 00:20:47.600 illustration of trust. There's a quiet inevitability about what he does. He just goes to his room 00:20:47.600 --> 00:20:51.240 and he prays. He knows about the heedict. He knows it's going to get him into a heap 00:20:51.240 --> 00:20:57.960 of big trouble and he's going to face the lions then, but he keeps doing what he's doing. 00:20:57.960 --> 00:21:03.200 In a sense, I think in a sense he epitomizes the words from Psalm 46, be still and know 00:21:03.200 --> 00:21:10.799 that I am God. That's what he did and that's what trust was for him. He knew God. That 00:21:10.799 --> 00:21:16.880 was really the key. Whatever is happening in our lives when we are asked to trust is 00:21:16.880 --> 00:21:22.440 because we know the God in whom we trust. We keep searching his word. We keep praying 00:21:22.440 --> 00:21:28.400 to him relentlessly because we know who he is and we know that he loves us and we know 00:21:28.400 --> 00:21:33.480 what he's already done for us. I would say keep praying, especially when you don't feel 00:21:33.480 --> 00:21:38.039 it. Especially when you would rather not. It's like eating. Sometimes you don't feel 00:21:38.039 --> 00:21:44.920 like eating, but it's important to keep eating within reason. But we can pray as much as 00:21:44.920 --> 00:21:50.600 we want because we'll never get fat spiritually. Don't turn away is what I'm saying in terms 00:21:50.599 --> 00:21:57.719 of knowing God. Turn away. If you hear these words, turn away. It's the malevolent whisper 00:21:57.719 --> 00:22:04.559 of the enemy. That is what it always is. It's never right or good to remain silent before 00:22:04.559 --> 00:22:11.799 the living God because God's our rescuer and God's our helper and God loves us. And we 00:22:11.799 --> 00:22:18.839 trust therefore because we know him and we trusting means that we continue to know him 00:22:18.839 --> 00:22:23.799 even if he throws us into the pit. And if we're in the pit, whatever that pit might 00:22:23.799 --> 00:22:30.639 be, we can be there and know safety and peace. Now, you don't want to hear that, do you? 00:22:30.639 --> 00:22:34.319 And I don't want to hear that. But that's what he says. He says, you may go through 00:22:34.319 --> 00:22:40.679 the trial, but as you trust in me, you can, like Daniel, know peace and safety even there. 00:22:40.679 --> 00:22:47.879 It's counterintuitive. It's impossible, but that's what he offers. Trust is waiting for 00:22:47.880 --> 00:22:54.480 answers as Daniel had to do as he was taken, not delivered from initially, but taken into 00:22:54.480 --> 00:23:01.320 that darkness. We wait for answers because we know the pit is temporary. We know he will 00:23:01.320 --> 00:23:10.160 always redeem eventually. Don't presume in trust to know better or blame God and simply 00:23:10.160 --> 00:23:14.880 disobey him. Daniel could have done any of these. These options were all open to him. 00:23:14.880 --> 00:23:21.160 He chose not to. He didn't pray, at least we're not told what he prayed, but there's 00:23:21.160 --> 00:23:27.240 no indication that he prayed anything other than asking for God to help him. We are so 00:23:27.240 --> 00:23:36.720 often keen to give God the answers rather than simply make our requests. Know and trust 00:23:36.720 --> 00:23:43.360 that justice will be done. God is a God of justice and often our complaints come from 00:23:43.359 --> 00:23:49.039 a sense of injustice that we've been dealt with unjustly, that it's not fair, that we've 00:23:49.039 --> 00:23:54.319 done what's right, but God, you're not acting justly or other people aren't acting justly 00:23:54.319 --> 00:23:59.599 as it was in the case with those who conspired against Daniel. And we're told again and again 00:23:59.599 --> 00:24:05.799 in the story, they conspired, they got together, they conspired against him. The challenging 00:24:05.799 --> 00:24:12.279 truth here is that ultimately they were hoisted by their own pitard. They were blown up by 00:24:12.279 --> 00:24:18.920 their own bomb, because ultimately justice will be done by God. And where people, and 00:24:18.920 --> 00:24:27.359 where we fail to submit in recognition to God who says, it's only through Christ that 00:24:27.359 --> 00:24:34.519 I can love God, and only through Christ I can love my neighbor. And I can never do it 00:24:34.519 --> 00:24:43.519 properly, but Jesus did it for me. Only then can we be assured of being secure and covered 00:24:43.519 --> 00:24:51.720 by his justice. And trust involves leaving other people to God as well. Daniel here, 00:24:51.720 --> 00:24:58.440 it's an interesting story because Daniel does his own thing with God. He doesn't argue 00:24:58.440 --> 00:25:04.680 with Darius, or we've got no indication that he looks at Darius as he's got everything, 00:25:04.680 --> 00:25:09.200 he's got power, he's got authority, he can do what he wants. I could maybe plead to him 00:25:09.200 --> 00:25:15.559 and he could set me free. He doesn't look envious layover at Darius, and he doesn't even try 00:25:15.559 --> 00:25:22.640 and persuade Darius. And I think that's a good principle. Darius, interestingly in this story, 00:25:22.640 --> 00:25:26.960 there's more about Darius than there is about Daniel. And when Daniel's thrown in the den, 00:25:26.960 --> 00:25:31.120 he would think the Scripture would speak about what Daniel was thinking, but it actually 00:25:31.120 --> 00:25:35.400 speaks about what Darius was thinking, that he was miserable, he was upset, he didn't 00:25:35.400 --> 00:25:41.960 have any entertainment that night, he couldn't sleep, because God was working in his conscience, 00:25:41.960 --> 00:25:49.799 and Daniel could leave that for God to do. And Daniel could know that God will use his 00:25:49.799 --> 00:25:56.680 faithfulness to convict others in a positive way. And then faith, I think, or trust involves 00:25:56.680 --> 00:26:01.960 that gentle and confident testimony. It's understated, isn't it? The only words from 00:26:01.960 --> 00:26:04.799 Daniel they're worth looking at, aren't they? Because they're the only words that he speaks 00:26:04.799 --> 00:26:09.360 in this chapter, verse 22, my God sent his angel and shut the lion's mouth, they have 00:26:09.360 --> 00:26:13.080 not harmed me, because I was found blameless before him and also before you, oh king, I've 00:26:13.080 --> 00:26:20.000 done no harm. Understated, it's so often the way of Scripture. Understated, miracle but 00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:25.440 no drama, supernatural but no sensation. We do have him coming out and saying, wow, 00:26:25.440 --> 00:26:30.240 the smell in there was appalling, and I'm traumatized by lions' faces in my head all 00:26:30.240 --> 00:26:34.440 day, but not eating me. It was a terrible occasion. What in earth was God doing? There's 00:26:34.440 --> 00:26:42.360 nothing like that. There's just that simple, gentle testimony. I think so often, and you'll 00:26:42.360 --> 00:26:50.600 accuse me of this, of just talking too much. But his life was so visible to all, he didn't 00:26:50.599 --> 00:26:58.399 need a million words to go with it. I think we need sometimes less chat and more godly 00:26:58.399 --> 00:27:02.319 immersion. And people will see it, it's not saying that we don't chat, we have to chat, 00:27:02.319 --> 00:27:09.919 we have to tell them, but in a very understated way. So trust is definitely about, or how 00:27:09.919 --> 00:27:15.159 can we face the unwanted in our lives by trust? And lastly, in very, very brief ways, by seeing 00:27:15.159 --> 00:27:20.279 the bigger picture as well. And Scripture, we've seen this again and again and again 00:27:20.279 --> 00:27:25.200 in our Old Testament studies particularly, Scripture's a common theme. And it's pointing 00:27:25.200 --> 00:27:29.839 to, it's all about rescue and about redemption ultimately through Jesus Christ. And Daniel 00:27:29.839 --> 00:27:35.079 is a, well, I've called him anyway, I may be wrong theologically, and others will correct 00:27:35.079 --> 00:27:43.200 me, I've called him a prototype Christian. So he's before Christ, but he points to Christ, 00:27:43.200 --> 00:27:47.559 and he points to the Christian way, but he's a prototype Christian, but he does point to 00:27:47.559 --> 00:27:53.039 Christ himself. He was righteous, not truly righteous because he trusted in the coming 00:27:53.039 --> 00:27:58.159 redeemer, but he was silent in the face of unjust accusations. He was judged by a weak 00:27:58.159 --> 00:28:03.200 and conscience stricken political leader. He faced certain death. A stone was rolled 00:28:03.200 --> 00:28:07.399 over the entrance of the pit. It was sealed with a king's signet ring. He had heavenly 00:28:07.399 --> 00:28:12.720 company. There was resurrection at daylight. There was a declaration of peace. All of that 00:28:12.720 --> 00:28:19.440 does point forward to something greater. And the Old Testament Hebrew believers often 00:28:19.440 --> 00:28:26.960 cited Daniel as a reason for their belief in the resurrection because they saw his going 00:28:26.960 --> 00:28:34.480 into the pit and coming out as a picture of resurrection and the hope of the resurrection. 00:28:34.480 --> 00:28:39.920 But there is shades even within that of a bigger rescue, isn't there? The lions in the 00:28:39.920 --> 00:28:46.039 lion's den, they have a spiritual depiction in the Bible, and the lions depict spiritual 00:28:46.039 --> 00:28:51.400 realities. They are the kings of the jungle. Lions are always the kings of the jungle, 00:28:51.400 --> 00:29:00.000 and they reflect power therefore. And I think in the Bible both good power and evil power. 00:29:00.000 --> 00:29:10.240 And on the cross Christ faced the darkness of a cosmic pit, but for him the lions' 00:29:10.240 --> 00:29:20.799 mouths were not shut. He faced both the power of God's good wrath against sin and also the 00:29:20.799 --> 00:29:30.319 dark powers of satanic opposition and hell's worst. He faced God's wrath and God's justice. 00:29:30.319 --> 00:29:34.440 Amos 3 verse 8, I'm sure if we've got that, we've got one or two weeks of text here in 00:29:34.440 --> 00:29:38.839 conclusion. The lion has roared speaking about God's justice who will not fear. The Lord 00:29:38.839 --> 00:29:44.839 God has spoken who can but prophesy. So the lions speak often in the Bible of God's justice, 00:29:44.839 --> 00:29:50.720 but also in 1 Peter 5 verse 8 speaks of, as you know, the adversary of the devil, like 00:29:50.720 --> 00:30:02.000 a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. And in the great prophetic Psalm 22 we have 00:30:02.000 --> 00:30:07.279 these words, prophetic messianic words, they open their wide mouths at me like a ravening 00:30:07.279 --> 00:30:14.799 and roaring lion. So Jesus uses this picture of the opposition that he faced on the cross, 00:30:14.799 --> 00:30:22.359 and the lions' mouths were shut for Daniel because they were not shut for Jesus. And 00:30:22.359 --> 00:30:31.039 the lions' mouths of God's wrath against sin and death and darkness are shut for us 00:30:31.039 --> 00:30:39.559 because they weren't shut for Jesus Christ who took our battle and died in our place, 00:30:39.559 --> 00:30:45.079 our broken hearts and our displaced loves. He took them in our place. There's a great 00:30:45.079 --> 00:30:53.159 verse in Exodus 14 verse 14, the Lord will fight for you and you have only to be silent. 00:30:53.159 --> 00:30:59.960 And that goes back to the trust thing. That's what he promises to do. He promises to be 00:30:59.960 --> 00:31:06.200 the one who fights on our behalf spiritually against God's just wrath against us because 00:31:06.200 --> 00:31:15.080 we're all failures by his standards of perfect love towards him and one another. And the 00:31:15.080 --> 00:31:20.000 powers of darkness that would grab us, the powers of death that we are all under unless 00:31:20.000 --> 00:31:24.640 we come by faith to the one who is one the victory for us. And that is because he loved 00:31:24.640 --> 00:31:32.559 the world so much. And in that biblical imagery he himself becomes the great lion of the tribe 00:31:32.559 --> 00:31:37.599 of Judah as we're told in Revelation 5.5. One of the others says, weep no more, behold 00:31:37.599 --> 00:31:42.279 the lion of the tribe of Judah. The root of David is conquered so he can open the scroll 00:31:42.279 --> 00:31:47.559 and the seven seals. So there's a great mixing of the imagery biblically but all helps us 00:31:47.559 --> 00:31:57.359 to understand his peace and his grace and his salvation that Daniel does speak of. 00:31:57.359 --> 00:32:03.759 And just in conclusion there's a future element I think even within this story in Revelation 00:32:03.759 --> 00:32:14.439 11 verse 6 where the peace that Daniel experienced in the den where the lion's mouths were closed 00:32:14.439 --> 00:32:19.839 was a reminder to him of something future he may have not understood fully and nor do 00:32:19.839 --> 00:32:24.519 we in many ways. But that picture of the new heavens and the new earth where the wolf shall 00:32:24.519 --> 00:32:27.559 lie down with the lamb and the leopard shall lie down with the ungod and the calf and the 00:32:27.559 --> 00:32:32.680 lion and the fattened and calf together and the little child shall lead them. That picture 00:32:32.680 --> 00:32:39.480 of no more dis-peace, of a universe at peace with itself because of Christ's redemption 00:32:39.480 --> 00:32:47.599 that new heavens and the new earth were in dwells righteousness where there will be excellence 00:32:47.599 --> 00:32:55.359 and no exile where there will be joy and peace and harmony which we look forward to. Daniel 00:32:55.359 --> 00:33:01.399 look forward to getting back into the promised land as it were as a picture. We have a promised 00:33:01.399 --> 00:33:10.279 land and new heavens and a new earth where in righteousness and peace dwell. So in Christ 00:33:10.279 --> 00:33:16.919 the challenge for you today in worship and tomorrow at work is can you dare to be a Daniel? 00:33:16.920 --> 00:33:25.039 Of course you can because Daniel's savior is our savior and it is through him and through 00:33:25.039 --> 00:33:30.160 dependence on him and that prayerful life and we were hoping to do a couple of sermons 00:33:30.160 --> 00:33:35.000 in the new year but the importance of our Bible reading and prayer and preaching through 00:33:35.000 --> 00:33:40.519 that the only way, a great way to start the year to think and remind ourselves of that 00:33:40.519 --> 00:33:49.319 significance. Father God help us to learn from you, to understand your word, to see 00:33:49.319 --> 00:33:57.079 its abiding relevance and its tremendous challenge to us to be people who will put our whole 00:33:57.079 --> 00:34:07.039 trust in you knowing that we simply are imperfect sinners who need a savior because without 00:34:07.039 --> 00:34:13.800 you we are under that terrible sentence of death and all that it means and so we pray 00:34:13.800 --> 00:34:19.599 for an urgency about us entrusting our lives to you and seeing and knowing what it means 00:34:19.599 --> 00:34:27.199 to know and love and follow Jesus. So help us we pray and bless us as we consider your 00:34:27.199 --> 00:34:37.639 word in Jesus name. Amen.