WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.620 chapter 6, verses 1 through 5. And as we turn here, I invite you to go with me, either in your worship 00:00:05.620 --> 00:00:10.120 guide or on your phone or in your Bible. But remember that no matter where you turn, this is 00:00:10.120 --> 00:00:15.419 God's Word. And God tells us that His Word is more precious than gold, even the finest gold. 00:00:16.019 --> 00:00:20.500 And it is sweeter than honey, even honey that comes straight from the honeycomb. And so that's 00:00:20.500 --> 00:00:28.100 why we read now, starting at verse 1. It pleased Darius to set over the kingdom 120 satraps to be 00:00:28.100 --> 00:00:33.980 throughout the whole kingdom. And over them three high officials, of whom Daniel was one, to whom 00:00:33.980 --> 00:00:39.840 these satraps should give account so that the king might suffer no loss. Then this Daniel became 00:00:39.840 --> 00:00:45.280 distinguished above all the other high officials and satraps, because an excellent spirit was in him. 00:00:45.540 --> 00:00:51.900 And the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom. Then the high officials and the satraps 00:00:51.900 --> 00:00:57.280 sought to find a ground for complaint against Daniel with regard to the kingdom, but they could 00:00:57.280 --> 00:01:04.219 find no ground for complaint or any fault, because he was faithful, and no error or fault was found in 00:01:04.219 --> 00:01:11.400 him. Then these men said, we shall not find any ground for complaint against this Daniel unless we 00:01:11.400 --> 00:01:18.640 find it in connection with the law of his God. I invite you to pray with me as we come to this portion 00:01:18.640 --> 00:01:26.180 of God's word. Our Father in heaven, we thank you again that you give us week after week, day after 00:01:26.180 --> 00:01:31.340 day, the gift of your word, and that you speak into all the different situations and challenges 00:01:31.340 --> 00:01:37.939 of our lives. You care about our spiritual lives, and you care about our economic lives, our vocations. 00:01:38.060 --> 00:01:42.060 And so we ask that you would come this morning by your spirit, and that you would speak clearly 00:01:42.060 --> 00:01:47.219 through your word, that you would help us, and that you would challenge us and encourage us by what 00:01:47.219 --> 00:01:53.640 we learn here. But you and your ways with Daniel, and also with us, we ask these things in the mighty 00:01:53.640 --> 00:02:02.939 name of Jesus Christ. Amen. When we talked about government last week, I gave you an example of 00:02:02.939 --> 00:02:07.900 the numbering of days of a kingdom with the fall of the Berlin Wall. But as you know, of course, that's 00:02:07.900 --> 00:02:14.460 not the only place where communism had a hold. In the 1980s, of course, there was also the end of the 00:02:14.460 --> 00:02:21.020 Soviet Union, Soviet Union. And near that time in the 1980s, Mikhail Gorbachev, who became the last 00:02:21.020 --> 00:02:26.500 president of the Soviet Union, attempted to try to revitalize his country. He had this entire project 00:02:26.500 --> 00:02:32.159 that he undertook to try to pull them out of the problems that they'd fallen into. And one of the 00:02:32.159 --> 00:02:37.360 things, by the way, Gorbachev is well known for being an atheist. One of the things that this atheist 00:02:37.360 --> 00:02:44.080 realized he needed to do was recruit Christians to help him. Now, this is not as well known. It's 00:02:44.080 --> 00:02:48.380 discussed in the book I mentioned a few weeks ago, Candles Behind the Wall, which talks about the role 00:02:48.380 --> 00:02:53.880 of Christians in the fall of communism. But he recognized that if he was going to revive the 00:02:53.880 --> 00:03:00.600 economy and the society, he needed a few things. First of all, he needed wonderful workers, and he also 00:03:00.600 --> 00:03:05.620 needed people with spiritual strength. Because even as an atheist, he understood what it was Christians 00:03:05.620 --> 00:03:11.300 could offer. He understood that there was a spiritual need, even as he also, at the same time, 00:03:11.379 --> 00:03:17.920 failed to understand it. There's a fascinating article that came out in Christianity Today in 1992 00:03:17.920 --> 00:03:24.719 called Praying with the KGB. And it talks about some of these dynamics that were at place as the 00:03:24.719 --> 00:03:31.780 Soviet Union realized the spiritual void that they had. And so we have in this chapter something 00:03:31.780 --> 00:03:36.360 similar. We have a Christian working with non-Christians. We have a Christian who's 00:03:36.360 --> 00:03:39.740 recognized. Now, we wouldn't have called him a Christian at the time, right? He's an Israelite. 00:03:39.860 --> 00:03:43.780 But we understand the one people of God. People of God in the Old Testament were the Israelites. 00:03:44.259 --> 00:03:49.219 People of God in the New Testament, the church. We have someone who's recognized for the excellence 00:03:49.219 --> 00:03:55.099 of his work ethic. And so as we go in today, we're going to look at three things. First, the importance of work. 00:03:55.099 --> 00:04:02.879 Second, the power of work. And third, the praise from work. We're going to see the importance of work, 00:04:03.299 --> 00:04:09.060 the power for work, and the praise from work. And of course, first we see the importance of work. 00:04:09.419 --> 00:04:14.219 And much like these Christians that Gorbachev recruited, we see Daniel's excellence. In verses 00:04:14.219 --> 00:04:19.759 one through two, it's clear that he is one of the best. He becomes one of the top three administrators 00:04:19.759 --> 00:04:24.860 in this government of Darius. He and two other men are going to oversee everything that happens 00:04:24.860 --> 00:04:28.939 in this empire. Of course, that's not enough, though. In verse three, we see he's quickly 00:04:28.939 --> 00:04:34.339 on the fast track. He's not just going to be one of the top three. He's going to be the top. 00:04:34.639 --> 00:04:40.019 He's on the way to running the entire kingdom. We hear this in verse three. The king planned to set him 00:04:40.019 --> 00:04:45.959 over the whole kingdom. And then also in verse three, Daniel became distinguished above all. He's 00:04:45.959 --> 00:04:50.379 distinguished above the other workers. And there was an excellent spirit in him. Now, we've heard 00:04:50.379 --> 00:04:55.060 about this spirit earlier in the book of Daniel. We know it's the spirit of God that is empowering 00:04:55.060 --> 00:05:00.680 and enabling Daniel. It's giving him what he needs. And this is not the first time, by the way, we've 00:05:00.680 --> 00:05:04.899 seen this. This is a theme that's been going on through the book of Daniel that we're pausing now 00:05:04.899 --> 00:05:09.740 to remember. In Daniel chapter one, you'll remember Daniel was better than anyone else in the training 00:05:09.740 --> 00:05:17.379 program because God blessed him. In Daniel chapter two and chapter five, the end of the story is that 00:05:17.379 --> 00:05:24.220 Daniel got a promotion. And so over and over, Daniel is recognized for the excellence that he demonstrates 00:05:24.220 --> 00:05:30.560 in his work. He's recognized for his skill and his ability. Here, we're told, this is in verse four and 00:05:30.560 --> 00:05:36.400 three and four and five, there's an excellent spirit in him. Verse four, these other men who are jealous 00:05:36.399 --> 00:05:42.099 can't find a complaint against him because he was faithful and there was no error or fault found in 00:05:42.099 --> 00:05:49.739 him. In other words, Daniel wasn't just incredibly gifted. He was also incredibly hardworking. He was 00:05:49.739 --> 00:05:56.719 this model employee. There's a reason that people talk about what's called the Protestant work ethic. 00:05:56.839 --> 00:06:02.019 That is that Protestants are known for being disciplined and diligent in their work. And the reason that 00:06:02.019 --> 00:06:07.500 that it's true is because it's biblical. The Bible teaches us this. It gives us this model that we work 00:06:07.500 --> 00:06:13.099 in the world. We want to be known as people who are like Daniel, who are faithful. There's no fault 00:06:13.099 --> 00:06:18.979 found in us. We're known for our integrity and our ability. We want to give our best in our work. 00:06:20.139 --> 00:06:24.859 Now, Daniel's excellence does give him a platform. Remember, we talked about that with Olympic athletes. 00:06:24.859 --> 00:06:31.719 He's able to speak into some of these difficult situations. It also, however, gives him a much more than that. 00:06:32.500 --> 00:06:37.880 When I was in high school, I took an English class at one point. I think it was a literature class. 00:06:38.700 --> 00:06:43.120 It was at a Christian school. And so this class started with this teacher trying to explain to us 00:06:43.120 --> 00:06:48.520 why it was that we were taking the class. And she went through a variety of reasons. But the main reason 00:06:48.520 --> 00:06:54.200 she gave us at the very end was that we were taking this class so that we would be better prepared 00:06:54.200 --> 00:06:59.940 to share the gospel with other people, which sounds like a wonderful answer, right? Because this is a 00:06:59.939 --> 00:07:03.920 Christian school, that's what we should be doing. As a high school student, though, I thought, that doesn't really 00:07:03.920 --> 00:07:09.939 make sense. Something's wrong with this. I already know how to read. I know how to write. I have 00:07:09.939 --> 00:07:15.680 actually the skills I need at this point to share the gospel. I don't need to study all these great works of 00:07:15.680 --> 00:07:20.959 literature to be able to do that. I'm equipped, right? There's got to be something more than just 00:07:20.959 --> 00:07:28.400 that. Our work can't just be instrumental only for that reason. Of course, that's what we saw earlier 00:07:28.399 --> 00:07:33.839 this morning in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, right? All of our work is something we can do to the glory of 00:07:33.839 --> 00:07:38.819 God. It's a good goal. It's good and right to be able to share the gospel with other people. And 00:07:38.819 --> 00:07:44.620 everything we do is meant to enjoy God and to glorify him forever. And we can find that, for example, 00:07:44.620 --> 00:07:50.039 in this English class. It was later when I became a teacher, I was able to articulate this. Yes, we want 00:07:50.039 --> 00:07:54.419 to be able to share the gospel. Also, God's a God of language, and he's made it, and he communicates with us. 00:07:54.420 --> 00:08:02.160 And we honor and glorify him when we excel at that. God is a God of stories. He is honored and glorified 00:08:02.160 --> 00:08:08.980 when we understand and love and are able to tell good stories. We can glorify God in all sorts of 00:08:08.980 --> 00:08:15.020 different ways. God made language in relationships. We interact in those relationships with that language. 00:08:15.379 --> 00:08:19.819 We glorify God in that way. There's all kinds of work that needs to be done that involves us 00:08:19.819 --> 00:08:25.659 communicating with other people as we follow God's command to subdue the earth and take dominion. 00:08:26.899 --> 00:08:33.639 And so we see that Daniel, in his secular work, his work is good for itself. He is able to speak 00:08:33.639 --> 00:08:43.279 the truth to these kings, and he makes sure Babylon runs well. Imagine that. What a blessing to God's 00:08:43.279 --> 00:08:48.720 people who are living there to have a city that runs well. What a blessing to the pagans who are there, 00:08:48.959 --> 00:08:57.699 to have a city that runs well. I had a seminary professor who loved to pose this thought experiment, 00:08:58.399 --> 00:09:03.000 mostly to push buttons. He would say, I want you to imagine that there's a day, and on that day, 00:09:03.100 --> 00:09:09.259 all the pastors disappear and all the plumbers disappear. Who are you going to notice is missing first? 00:09:09.259 --> 00:09:16.519 Now, now that I'm a few years removed, I want to ask him, imagine all the seminary professors 00:09:16.519 --> 00:09:23.679 disappeared. But he was making a point about our work, right? There's all sorts of things that we 00:09:23.679 --> 00:09:31.399 do to the honor and glory of God that us as people rely on and work together in this world. And so we 00:09:31.399 --> 00:09:35.379 see here, as we're looking at the importance of work, Daniel shows us a couple things. We see his 00:09:35.379 --> 00:09:43.220 excellence that he wants to do work well. We also see the significance of work. What he's doing matters 00:09:43.220 --> 00:09:49.580 for Babylon. What you are doing matters for Colorado Springs. It matters for this world. 00:09:50.240 --> 00:09:55.439 If you're a teacher, if you're a parent, you are developing hearts and minds that God has given 00:09:55.439 --> 00:10:00.059 our children so that they can go out and take care of the people in the world that God's given us. 00:10:00.059 --> 00:10:07.139 If you're in the military, you're doing important work to keep the wicked away from the innocent and to 00:10:07.139 --> 00:10:13.879 punish evildoers. If you're an engineer, you're using the beautiful rules that God's put in place 00:10:13.879 --> 00:10:18.659 in the universe that we've discovered to create wonderful and amazing things that help people to 00:10:18.659 --> 00:10:27.199 thrive and flourish. And we could go on and on. Daniel is an example of what it looks like for our work 00:10:27.200 --> 00:10:30.780 to glorify God in all sorts of ways, in all sorts of areas. 00:10:33.259 --> 00:10:37.600 And so we can embrace our work, right, as something that's good. When we get up on Monday, 00:10:37.860 --> 00:10:43.560 it's not somehow wildly disconnected from Sunday. We'll talk about that a little bit more in a minute. 00:10:44.580 --> 00:10:48.860 But that's the way we can think about these things if we're in the workplace. Now, not all of us 00:10:48.860 --> 00:10:55.680 find ourselves receiving a paycheck. We can still think of the things that we do throughout the day as 00:10:55.679 --> 00:11:00.879 what honors and glorifies God. Remember I mentioned earlier, teachers and parents, as we're raising up 00:11:00.879 --> 00:11:05.799 our kids, we're helping to grow and develop and nurture the minds that God's given them. 00:11:06.039 --> 00:11:13.239 We're enabling them to go out and follow after God's mission and his ways. Now, I'll also say this 00:11:13.239 --> 00:11:20.959 to you kids. Some of you don't have jobs. And your parents hope and pray that one day you will. 00:11:20.960 --> 00:11:30.200 And so I want you to think about this. As you think about future work, the time to prepare is now. 00:11:31.300 --> 00:11:35.379 Daniel didn't just wake up one day when he was 18 and he was suddenly excellent at these things, 00:11:35.440 --> 00:11:41.240 right? We can assume that Daniel, when he was living with God's people before there was an exile, 00:11:41.480 --> 00:11:46.500 that he was being raised to be diligent and faithful, that he trusted what he was told and the 00:11:46.500 --> 00:11:51.059 things that he needed to learn and do. When I was a teacher, one of the challenges of being a teacher, 00:11:51.159 --> 00:11:56.080 and this is related to the challenges of youth, is that the people you teach don't always understand 00:11:56.080 --> 00:12:02.259 how important it is for them to learn it. And you try, right? You want to convince them and urge them 00:12:02.259 --> 00:12:07.779 and persuade them that this is something worthwhile. You want to do the best job you can at that. 00:12:08.360 --> 00:12:13.159 Also, at some point, you need to do what I began to tell some of the high school boys that I worked 00:12:13.159 --> 00:12:19.319 with. You just need to shut up and sit down and do the work that you have in front of you and trust 00:12:19.319 --> 00:12:24.579 that even though you may not understand why it's valuable, you have the humility to work at it now. 00:12:24.939 --> 00:12:29.740 One of the challenges of being young, whether you're a child or a young adult, is that it's difficult to 00:12:29.740 --> 00:12:35.539 connect present actions to future consequences. That's part of why we need older people in our lives. 00:12:35.600 --> 00:12:40.819 They have a view of the lifespan more than we do. They can say, look, I know this doesn't seem 00:12:40.820 --> 00:12:47.540 important now. It will be important one day. You just need to trust me. You do not have wisdom yet. 00:12:48.120 --> 00:12:54.980 You will one day. Prepare for that day now. So whether we're people who have work or people who look 00:12:54.980 --> 00:13:01.000 forward to work, we can look at Daniel and his example. This is also something that we can talk about 00:13:01.000 --> 00:13:06.840 and model as families. When I was growing up, one of the things that my mother would do all the time 00:13:06.840 --> 00:13:12.740 is she would say to my brothers and I, two older brothers, she would quote Proverbs 22 verse 29 to us. 00:13:13.280 --> 00:13:16.740 And she would send it says this, do you see a man who's skilled in his work? 00:13:17.639 --> 00:13:23.379 He will serve before kings. He will not serve before mere men. And then she would turn to us and she 00:13:23.379 --> 00:13:29.399 would say, and you see your father. Your father is skilled in his work. He serves before kings. 00:13:30.280 --> 00:13:33.800 What was my mom doing? She's doing a few things. First of all, she was communicating to us, 00:13:33.799 --> 00:13:40.159 I, as your mother, am very proud of your father. You should be proud of him as well. Also, look at 00:13:40.159 --> 00:13:48.099 your father's diligent work. You also should aim and strive to be diligent workers. Be proud of him. 00:13:48.599 --> 00:13:56.519 Be like him. Work hard. Children can also take pride in the work of their parents. Proverbs 17 verse 6 00:13:56.519 --> 00:14:01.879 tells us that the glory of children is their father's. There's something about looking at the generation 00:14:01.879 --> 00:14:08.080 that's ahead of us, seeing them as examples and spurring them on. Remember when we were in Daniel 00:14:08.080 --> 00:14:12.639 chapter 1, I talked about the fact that God gives people favor. As families, we can be praying that 00:14:12.639 --> 00:14:17.000 our parents who are in the workplace would receive favor. That's something we can embrace together, 00:14:17.080 --> 00:14:20.919 that they would have wisdom. I don't want to get ahead of myself here, but next week we're going to 00:14:20.919 --> 00:14:28.639 look at prayer. In Daniel chapter 2, Daniel thanks God for the wisdom he gave him. There's some 00:14:28.639 --> 00:14:34.379 practical things for us as a church, as families, as we think about work, both our vocation and the 00:14:34.379 --> 00:14:40.819 vocations of people who we love. Now, remember on Easter, I told you that story about my dad giving us 00:14:40.819 --> 00:14:46.719 a percentage of his bonus as children. He was teaching us a few things. One was that we are in this 00:14:46.720 --> 00:14:54.740 together as a family. My work is not disconnected from you. This is something that we as a family is 00:14:54.740 --> 00:14:59.480 part of our mission that we're accomplishing together. We are all part of the same team. 00:15:00.779 --> 00:15:06.740 We can also pray for those who are young in our congregation, that God would grow them up and give 00:15:06.740 --> 00:15:11.560 them work that has purpose and power. He'd be giving them the opportunities and the education and the 00:15:11.560 --> 00:15:16.560 resources that they need now to prepare them for everything that they have ahead of them. 00:15:16.720 --> 00:15:25.860 Kids, I told you, now's the time to prepare. It's also good and right to aspire for meaningful, 00:15:26.100 --> 00:15:32.340 significant, powerful work. God's made us like that. He's made us to work. That's a wonderful thing to 00:15:32.340 --> 00:15:40.160 desire. It's a wonderful thing to want and to work for and to pray for. And so as we're looking at the 00:15:40.160 --> 00:15:44.360 importance of work here as we study Daniel, I'm getting at two things here. I'm getting at the 00:15:44.360 --> 00:15:52.860 excellence of work. We want to be known as Christians as people who do good work and we want to know as 00:15:52.860 --> 00:15:59.000 Christians that our work matters. Our work matters to God because this world matters to God. What Daniel 00:15:59.000 --> 00:16:05.600 did in presenting God's truth to kings mattered a lot and what Daniel did making sure Babylon ran well 00:16:05.600 --> 00:16:12.639 mattered a lot. Daniel's work matters. Our work matters as well. 00:16:14.639 --> 00:16:18.620 Now, as I say sometimes, everything I've just told you for the most part would work great 00:16:18.620 --> 00:16:23.360 as an inspirational talk in a place given by a person who's not a Christian to a bunch of people 00:16:23.360 --> 00:16:29.960 who are also not Christians. And so we have to ask what is uniquely Christian about our view of work? 00:16:29.960 --> 00:16:34.660 Some of it is what we've already talked about, the fact that God's created this world. He's given us 00:16:34.660 --> 00:16:40.180 commands to go forth, to be fruitful, to multiply, to subdue the earth, to have dominion. I'm taking that 00:16:40.180 --> 00:16:47.040 from Genesis chapter 1, especially verse 28. Another element, though, is what we see next year. We've seen 00:16:47.040 --> 00:16:56.440 the importance of work. We also see the power of work. Work matters. It matters for everyone. How does being a 00:16:56.440 --> 00:17:03.380 Christian change that? Well, we've seen throughout the book of Daniel how intimately God is involved 00:17:03.380 --> 00:17:09.200 in Daniel's work. Chapter 1, God's the one who gives Daniel favor in the eyes of the people who 00:17:09.200 --> 00:17:17.600 works with. Okay. Daniel chapter 1, again, Daniel and his friends are more excellent than anyone else. 00:17:18.100 --> 00:17:23.740 Why? God's the one at work. He's giving them the wisdom they need. God is supernaturally 00:17:23.740 --> 00:17:29.099 empowering them, enabling them to do good work. We see that later in the book as well. Over and over, 00:17:29.200 --> 00:17:34.059 we hear this phrase, the spirit of the gods is in you. Daniel chapter 4, Nebuchadnezzar says, 00:17:34.160 --> 00:17:40.480 I know the spirit of the gods is in you. Later, Daniel chapter 5, the queen is telling Belteshazzar 00:17:40.480 --> 00:17:46.500 about Daniel, reminds him he has the spirit of the holy gods in him. Belteshazzar comes to talk to 00:17:46.500 --> 00:17:52.500 Daniel. Oh my, you have the spirit of the holy gods in you. Over and over, we see that God gives 00:17:52.500 --> 00:17:59.420 Daniel favor. He also gives Daniel wisdom and skill. And so it's not simply that Daniel's a good 00:17:59.420 --> 00:18:04.180 worker, but Daniel is someone who receives God's blessing and his favor. Remember, I mentioned 00:18:04.180 --> 00:18:09.279 earlier too, in Daniel chapter 2, we see Daniel's prayer. He thanks God for the things he's given 00:18:09.279 --> 00:18:17.019 him, the success that he's given him. And finally, God gives Daniel longevity. I pointed this out at the 00:18:17.019 --> 00:18:23.960 beginning of chapter 1. It shows up in other chapters as well. Kings come and go. Daniel remains. 00:18:25.319 --> 00:18:32.940 God maintains Daniel preserving him, keeping him where he's at. And so we see it's not just that 00:18:32.940 --> 00:18:40.039 Daniel works hard and he's diligent. That by itself would not be enough. Daniel has God's favor and his 00:18:40.039 --> 00:18:45.900 help. It would be simply moralistic, right, if I just told you, look at Daniel. He's such a great 00:18:45.900 --> 00:18:52.320 example. But it's so much more than that. Look at Daniel as God uses his work in a powerful way. In 00:18:52.320 --> 00:18:59.580 other words, God is the one who gives purpose and power to our work. He is the one who makes it 00:18:59.580 --> 00:19:07.200 meaningful. He's the one who makes it powerful. God is the secret to Daniel's career success. 00:19:08.820 --> 00:19:15.780 God's the one who's at work raising him up in the ladder. So it's good and right for us to pray to God, 00:19:15.899 --> 00:19:21.139 right, asking him for his help. We pray about many things. It's good and right to pray that our 00:19:21.139 --> 00:19:25.599 friends who do not know Jesus would come to know him. It is also good and right that God would give 00:19:25.599 --> 00:19:31.119 us the skills we need to glorify him in our work. It's good and right to pray that God would give us 00:19:31.119 --> 00:19:37.899 good relationships with the people we work with, knowing that God cares. He loves the work that we do in 00:19:37.900 --> 00:19:46.820 this world. And so as we think about our vocation as a church, what we do here on Sunday is not 00:19:46.820 --> 00:19:52.500 disconnected from what we do on Monday. There's not these two spheres that we exist in. But I want you 00:19:52.500 --> 00:19:56.640 to think about it in this way. It's tempting at times for people to think that their work is only 00:19:56.640 --> 00:20:01.720 to support the church. Well, I do this job, right, and I do it so that I can give to the church, and that's 00:20:01.720 --> 00:20:05.600 the work that really matters. Now, don't hear what I'm not saying. The church really matters. 00:20:06.980 --> 00:20:12.259 Now, part of why Daniel's able to stand firm and fast is because he has been raised well in the 00:20:12.259 --> 00:20:17.299 community of Israel. He's been strengthened and encouraged. He has his friends with him. Also, 00:20:17.759 --> 00:20:23.220 this is the concept I've talked about before, the church as a heartbeat. The church, when we come 00:20:23.220 --> 00:20:28.940 together and worship, this is the heart that pulls the blood all together. We come here to the lungs, 00:20:28.940 --> 00:20:32.799 and we get the oxygen that we need. And then what happens at the end of the service? 00:20:33.759 --> 00:20:37.180 I give you the benediction, and you get sent right back out into the world. 00:20:38.779 --> 00:20:45.580 We come together. We're reminded of what's true. God feeds us in his word. We worship him in song, 00:20:45.880 --> 00:20:52.080 and then we're sent out to do what God's commanded us to do. We're commissioned and enabled and empowered. 00:20:52.740 --> 00:20:56.460 Another way to think of it would be like this. Right before COVID, the end of 2019, 00:20:56.460 --> 00:21:03.620 the movie Ford versus Ferrari came out. It's about the 1966 Le Mans race where Ford is trying to beat 00:21:03.620 --> 00:21:08.299 Ferrari. And some of the most fun scenes are when you have the race car drivers pull in, 00:21:08.480 --> 00:21:12.759 and the pit crew runs out, and they're changing all the tires, and they're filling up the fuel as 00:21:12.759 --> 00:21:18.420 fast as they can so the car can get back on the road. There is a sense in which that is what we do 00:21:18.420 --> 00:21:25.319 together on Sunday morning. We come in. The church is here changing our tires and fueling us up so that 00:21:25.319 --> 00:21:34.079 we can go back out into the world for God's mission. Our work matters to God. It is not separated from 00:21:34.079 --> 00:21:39.960 the church. Both matter. We're here. Our worship of God is important, and he sends us out, and we're 00:21:39.960 --> 00:21:45.899 accomplishing his mission. He is the one who gives us the power and the ability that we need to go out 00:21:45.899 --> 00:21:51.259 and serve him. That's what we see in Daniel's life. That is true of us as well. 00:21:51.259 --> 00:21:59.400 And so we have, first, the importance of work, the power for work. It's the power that God gives us. 00:21:59.799 --> 00:22:06.259 He's at work in our work. And then finally, we see the praise that comes from work. I've talked before 00:22:06.259 --> 00:22:13.140 about the concept of things that are not bad but dangerous, right? Power. Power's not bad. It's very 00:22:13.140 --> 00:22:21.500 dangerous. Money. Money's not bad. Very dangerous. Success. Not bad. Very, very dangerous. 00:22:22.320 --> 00:22:27.020 Very, very dangerous because our temptation is to become isolated from other people. Our temptation 00:22:27.020 --> 00:22:33.200 is to believe the stories about ourselves, that we are these wonderful and great people. In fact, 00:22:33.240 --> 00:22:38.460 there have been studies that show that powerful, wealthy, successful people often have less empathy 00:22:38.460 --> 00:22:44.160 than people with less power and money and success. And so there's a real risk here. There's a risk for 00:22:44.160 --> 00:22:50.759 Daniel for that he would become exactly like what we saw in Daniel chapter 4. Remember, Nebuchadnezzar had 00:22:50.759 --> 00:22:59.440 great success and he worshiped himself. Then same thing happens. Chapter 5. Belteshazzar, great success, 00:22:59.440 --> 00:23:12.480 worships himself. Daniel's secret. What is it? Great success, worships God. Daniel never forgets 00:23:12.480 --> 00:23:20.400 where the power for his work comes from. We never find Daniel congratulating himself or patting himself 00:23:20.400 --> 00:23:26.660 on the back. In fact, we see in Daniel chapter 2, verse 23, Daniel has this prayer where he thanks God 00:23:26.660 --> 00:23:29.759 for giving him when he needed to interpret the vision. He says, 00:23:29.759 --> 00:23:34.100 To you, O God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise for you have given me wisdom and might 00:23:34.100 --> 00:23:39.040 and have now made known to me what we asked of you. For you have made known to us the king's matter. 00:23:39.620 --> 00:23:43.680 Daniel does this amazing thing. He interprets the king's dream. Even more than interpreting the king's 00:23:43.680 --> 00:23:49.080 dream, he knows what the dream is without the king telling him. That's chapter 2. And instead of saying, 00:23:49.079 --> 00:23:57.399 man, I am such a smart Israelite, he says, man, God has really blessed me. He has given me wisdom. 00:23:57.799 --> 00:24:04.879 He's given me skill. Praise God. And so Daniel is able to rise up above the ranks. We're not told this 00:24:04.879 --> 00:24:10.839 explicitly, but I think I would say God is willing to let him rise up the ranks because he knows that 00:24:10.839 --> 00:24:18.679 Daniel has the humility to handle it. In other words, Daniel's success is not dangerous to him. 00:24:18.680 --> 00:24:27.120 Because Daniel praises God for it. And so the same is true for us. As we work in this world, 00:24:27.600 --> 00:24:32.980 there is no place in the Christian life for chest beating and self-congratulation. 00:24:33.960 --> 00:24:40.779 We give the honor and glory to God. Christians don't sing their own praises. They sing God's praises. 00:24:41.200 --> 00:24:45.320 By the way, that's one of the things we do here at the heart that pulls us together on Sunday. 00:24:45.319 --> 00:24:51.179 We're reminding ourselves of what's true. We praise God, remembering that he's the one who blesses our work. 00:24:52.119 --> 00:24:58.220 Daniel knows where the excellence comes from. And I'm going to get ahead of myself a little bit 00:24:58.220 --> 00:25:03.639 because we're going to talk about prayer next week. But Daniel has a rich and robust prayer life. 00:25:04.039 --> 00:25:08.079 I'm going to suggest that's part of what protects him from the dangers of success. 00:25:08.079 --> 00:25:15.859 In his book on prayer, Tim Keller tells us that there are some things God can only give us through prayer 00:25:15.859 --> 00:25:22.179 because prayer is what makes them safe. In other words, if he gave them to us aside from prayer, 00:25:22.379 --> 00:25:27.059 we would think, wow, we're so wonderful and great. I just achieved this. 00:25:28.460 --> 00:25:32.059 Prayer protects us from that because when we pray and we see God answer, 00:25:32.059 --> 00:25:35.940 we're forced to say, oh, wow, God answered that prayer. 00:25:37.619 --> 00:25:39.440 Give God the praise, the honor, and the glory. 00:25:40.859 --> 00:25:45.099 And so I believe that's part of the secret here of Daniel's success. 00:25:45.779 --> 00:25:49.559 And as I mentioned earlier this morning, giving God praise and honor for our work, 00:25:49.639 --> 00:25:52.740 that's part of what we do when we give our money back to him. 00:25:53.799 --> 00:25:57.819 My dad, remember, gave us that portion, that 1% of his bonus. 00:25:57.819 --> 00:26:01.259 And I can promise you we had to tithe on that. 00:26:02.460 --> 00:26:07.519 And so it was not just look at the way that we as a family are working together, 00:26:07.519 --> 00:26:12.799 but also look at the way that God is at work blessing and prospering and helping us. 00:26:12.980 --> 00:26:14.740 Give him the glory. 00:26:17.399 --> 00:26:20.939 And so Daniel serves here as a wonderful example, a model for us, 00:26:21.039 --> 00:26:26.720 letting us know how it is that we live faithful lives in a foreign land. 00:26:27.819 --> 00:26:30.799 Of course, our Lord Jesus teaches us the same thing as well. 00:26:30.879 --> 00:26:35.419 In Matthew chapter 24, we find, or chapter 25, we find the parable of the talents. 00:26:35.919 --> 00:26:38.659 Jesus tells a story about a master who leaves his servants, 00:26:38.740 --> 00:26:40.919 and he gives them a variety of amounts of money. 00:26:40.980 --> 00:26:42.559 One person gets five talents. 00:26:43.139 --> 00:26:44.259 One man gets two talents. 00:26:44.359 --> 00:26:45.439 One man gets one talent. 00:26:45.859 --> 00:26:48.839 So they have different abilities, different opportunities, different resources. 00:26:49.740 --> 00:26:52.700 The top two, the man with the five talents and the man with the two talents, 00:26:52.859 --> 00:26:55.099 invest their talents and double it. 00:26:55.099 --> 00:26:58.059 Now, we won't talk about the man with the one talent. 00:26:58.639 --> 00:27:00.879 He hides it in the ground, doesn't do anything with it. 00:27:02.740 --> 00:27:05.699 Jesus, though, the master, represents God or Jesus, 00:27:05.879 --> 00:27:08.419 comes back to these men who have invested in it. 00:27:08.419 --> 00:27:09.139 He says what? 00:27:09.519 --> 00:27:12.039 Well done, good and faithful servant. 00:27:13.159 --> 00:27:15.119 You have been faithful over a little. 00:27:15.779 --> 00:27:17.159 I will set you over much. 00:27:17.519 --> 00:27:20.419 Enter in to the joy of your master. 00:27:21.559 --> 00:27:22.359 And so there's a reward. 00:27:22.359 --> 00:27:26.779 It's based on their faithfulness and their diligence, right? 00:27:27.099 --> 00:27:28.479 Daniel has a skill. 00:27:28.879 --> 00:27:31.279 He has an ability that none of us in this room have. 00:27:31.779 --> 00:27:32.519 How do I know that? 00:27:33.000 --> 00:27:35.039 None of you have been set over the top three in the kingdom. 00:27:36.319 --> 00:27:42.199 And yet, all of us can be faithful and diligent with the gifts that God has given us. 00:27:42.919 --> 00:27:44.219 We're working for the master. 00:27:44.879 --> 00:27:46.740 It's what we saw in Colossians chapter 3. 00:27:47.179 --> 00:27:49.039 We know there's a reward that's coming. 00:27:49.039 --> 00:27:51.859 That's what our Lord Jesus tells us. 00:27:51.920 --> 00:27:55.740 And as we saw in Colossians chapter 3, we're to work as if working for the Lord. 00:27:56.319 --> 00:28:00.579 Not as some kind of mind trick, but because it's actually true. 00:28:01.559 --> 00:28:06.599 And it's true because we belong to God and also because this world belongs to God. 00:28:07.220 --> 00:28:11.980 And so as we do work in it, we are following God and his commands. 00:28:11.980 --> 00:28:16.480 And so Christian, what do we do with our work? 00:28:16.519 --> 00:28:18.500 How do we think about work in this world? 00:28:18.599 --> 00:28:20.019 What does Daniel have to teach us? 00:28:20.120 --> 00:28:24.579 Daniel shows us that our work should have excellence and that it has significance. 00:28:25.640 --> 00:28:31.360 Daniel teaches us that God is the one who gives us the power and the ability and the wisdom. 00:28:31.359 --> 00:28:40.899 And so we see we respond to that by giving him all honor and glory and praise because he is the one who is at work in our work. 00:28:42.240 --> 00:28:47.279 We know ultimately because this is what our Lord Jesus teaches us and tells us. 00:28:47.339 --> 00:28:49.819 And so we can give all praise and honor and glory to God. 00:28:50.259 --> 00:28:51.639 So I invite you to pray with me. 00:28:52.799 --> 00:28:57.079 Our Father in heaven, we thank you and praise you for the gift of work. 00:28:57.079 --> 00:29:04.379 We ask that you would enable us to serve you diligently in the many places that you've called us. 00:29:04.599 --> 00:29:05.480 That you'd bless our work. 00:29:05.559 --> 00:29:09.099 You'd give favor to the people in this room, in this congregation. 00:29:09.639 --> 00:29:13.599 In the eyes of those who they work for and the eyes of those who work for them. 00:29:13.980 --> 00:29:18.740 That you'd show them the ways that you're using their work in this world in powerful ways. 00:29:18.819 --> 00:29:23.399 And we ask most of all that we would give all honor and praise and glory to you. 00:29:23.480 --> 00:29:25.839 Because we know that you are the one who gives us every blessing. 00:29:25.839 --> 00:29:29.059 We ask these things in the mighty name of Jesus Christ. 00:29:29.500 --> 00:29:29.779 Amen.