Daniel and the Lion's Den

Joke's on you. You're the ones in trouble. I'm not in trouble yet

because I ain't said nothing can be used against me in the court of

law. Hey, good morning, Mary Sue. How you doing, huh?

I'm already getting ready for this section over here,

right? Hey, good morning. How we doing,

everybody? Good? Guess what I got. That's what I thought

right this morning.

We're going to be talking about a very, very

famous Bible story. This chapter

contains one of the most well known stories in the

Bible. And I remember growing up, my parents

had all these children's books of Bible

stories and it had this little gilded edge on them and they had

like paintings and stuff of the characters. I guarantee my mom

still has Daniel in the lion's den in a brown toy

box in the back room of her house. I'm probably going to try to dig

it out tomorrow when I go over. But I gre. I mean, I grew up

on these stories and they were fantastic and they were big and they

were grand. But it doesn't have the same glory and nuance that

it does now that I'm an adult and I understand a little bit more. And

as I was preparing for this message, I'm like, God, this is like.

This is like Sunday school. Like, we all know this. He said, no, they don't.

Everybody doesn't know this story. Not everybody knows this story.

You think just cause you grew up hearing it and understanding it that

everybody has grown up understanding it? I said, yeah, I live in Tennessee. Like,

we all know these stories. No, I don't. I said, okay,

Lord. So he said, here's what you need to do. You need to teach those

that don't know it, and you need to remind those that do of my goodness

and my power. So, okay, well, that's what we'll do. So if you've never heard

this story, buckle up. It's wild. Okay, we're going to talk about it this

morning. If you have heard this story, don't disconnect. Because God wants to remind

you of his glory and his power. Amen.

Story includes political jealousy, the

vanity of a king, God's miraculous power,

and justice and violence. So if you would stand with

me if you're able. And we're going to read a

passage at the very end of the chapter and then we're going to back up

and go to the front. Okay? Are we ready? I

make a decree that in all my royal

dominion, people are to tremble and 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. Father, we thank you

for your word. I thank you for this day. I thank you for

waking us up this morning, keeping us in our right minds and giving us a

reason to live. And today I pray that those under the sound of my voice

would be taught or reminded by your Holy Spirit, not by me,

but God. I pray your anointing would be all over me and that you would

use me to convey the message to your people that our eyes

would be open to see your miraculous life giving power in

the pages of your word. God, we love you and we thank you. It's in

Christ's name I pray. Amen. And amen. You guys can be seated.

So by the time, by the time we reach chapter

six in the book of Daniel,

Daniel is somewhere in the neighborhood of 70

years old. Did you know that? Probably didn't know that,

right? You might have thought, coming on the heels of the story with the Hebrew

boys, that Daniel might have been a teenager, a young adult. And I know if

you're 70, you're like, hey, back off, bucko. And the fact

that bucko was your term of disrespect shows

near 70. Okay?

Daniel's in the neighborhood of 70. Ish. Okay?

When this happens, that's about the age where you've pretty

much got your mind made up, am I right? If you're 70, you

know, I'll give you exhibit A. Earlier this

year, Pastor Ronnie got up here in a Beatles T shirt

and, and made something to the lines of, I don't care about fashion.

This shirt is comfortable to me. But then he pointed out my

shoelaces match my hat. So I was like, are you really not

concerned about fashion? Because I see what you did there,

bud. I like what you got going. Then

a pastor friend of mine sent me a video. Pretty scary video. There was

a scene where somebody was attacking a crowded place and

there was gunfire going on and people were running everywhere. And at the

end of the video, there's this seasoned guy just.

And there's people running and there's gunfire and he's just walking. And

me and the guy that sent me, both of us said, that's Fred Jones right

there. God forbid something ever happened. Wherever he's

at, he's like, it's my time. I'm just, you know what, whatever, not getting in

a hurry. I'm not running for this. Right.

It's not that they don't care. It's that they are

settled in their spirit. Age can

make you cynical, or it can make you settled. You

can get old and you can be cynical about things, or you can just be

settled in your spirit. And Daniel was

at that age to be settled in his spirit. Let's pick up the

chapter. This is one through three. You don't have to read it with me. I'll

read it to you. It pleased Darius. Darius

is the king 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 the

king might suffer no loss. Did you pick that up? What's happening? No, you didn't?

I'm going to explain it. The king doesn't want to lose money, so

he sets 120 provincial rulers

over the kingdom. And then over those 120,

he sets up three big dogs. And then over the three

big dogs, he. He's got one big dog. Got it.

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. See what's happening here? There's

120 satraps over the kingdom,

provincial rulers. Daniel is the leader in the

clubhouse. Why is Daniel the leader in

the clubhouse? Because he had an excellent

spirit. An excellent spirit. This is a

Hebrew word meaning exceedingly or

extraordinary. Basically, Daniel

was above reproach. I want to remind

you of something. Daniel is in Babylonian

captivity. Do you know what that means?

The people of the Babylonian kings came and took all the

Jews from Jerusalem and. And said, you are all coming with us.

And now you're going to live here in Babylon and you're going to be slaves

to us. And we will appoint some of your smart guys to

be as our officials. And if you. If you don't like

what we're doing, if you don't bow down to this statue, we'll just throw you

in a furnace. But this is not like they just moved

to Tallahassee. Right? That's for you.

This wasn't a choice they had. They didn't say, hey, guys,

we're retired. Let's get an oceanfront view. Are you hearing

me? They are captives

in another country. And Daniel still chose

to operate with an excellent spirit. Here's what I want you to understand,

ladies and gentlemen. Ooh. That wasn't supposed to happen.

What I pushed. Oh, my gosh. I done messed it up.

Y' all gonna do it for me? Here's what I want you to understand.

Your circumstances should never determine your

character. Your circumstances

should never determine your character.

Daniel didn't have a choice about his environment. Here's where it's

different. Circumstances are things that are happening to you that are outside of

your control. Some of us are complaining about our situation,

but we keep putting ourselves in a bad situation. If you

hang out in the barbershop long enough, you can't complain. When you

decide to get a haircut, nobody held you. I was complaining

about getting a tattoo. Marva's like, I feel bad for you. You chose that.

Like, thanks for the compassion, lady.

It hurts so bad. She said, you signed up. It's not like

you were kidnapped and they put you in a van and was like, tell us

what we want to know. That's not

how that happens. It's a choice, right? For me. Wasn't a choice

for some. Daniel didn't choose. Daniel

didn't choose to be in captivity. What he did choose was how

he was going to operate, given his situation and his

circumstance. And he chose to operate with an excellent spirit.

Daniel's integrity made him the subject of attack.

Daniel. Daniel wasn't sinless. He was

upstanding. And upstanding means that

despite your circumstances, that you are going to operate

differently. You got it?

Let's keep reading. Then. The high

officials and the satrap sought to find ground for a

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. They had no dirt on

Daniel. Let me ask you a question.

If you guys wanted to run for political office right now,

how far would they be able to go back before they found something on

you, huh?

Find you on World Star Hip hop, right? You're on a

bus. And they're like, yeah, got him right here. Look. Pastor Justin

wiling out, right? And the reason why everything's

filmed right away is because this is always in your hand.

So they got it ready. I said this challenge to the first service. I'm gonna

put this challenge to you. And I regret it. Cause I'm gonna have to do

it. You married folk in the room. I'm talking to you. Married folk. Look up.

Listen up. I want to issue a boredom challenge to

you next time you're at a restaurant or you're out on

a date or doing something with your spouse and there's A moment where

your spouse gets up to go to the restroom.

Do not pick up your phone. Be bored for

30 seconds. Five minutes, however long it takes.

Next time you're in the doctor's office and you're waiting on

somebody, stop scrolling. I need you to pick up the Highlights

magazine. It's a miracle that they are still in business.

I mean, I thought they would have never survived, but here they are in every

doctor's office across the planet. They going to be like, Mr.

Burkett, it's your time for your appointment. You'll be like, I can't find a shoe.

You got to hang on, right?

Man, people used to have magazines in their bathrooms and books

and everything. When I grew up, you had to read the back of the

cereal box. Do nothing

anymore. Why? Because we constantly gotta have entertainment. We gotta

constantly be entertained. So it's no wonder that everybody's got all

your dirt on camera. Praise God they didn't have

ring cameras in the 90s.

I wouldn't even be on this stage.

The other day, somebody tried to say I was a convicted felon. I said, the

devil's a liar. How dare you slander my name like that.

How dare you say that I was a criminal.

You can't prove it.

Somebody gonna do a background check? Like, I'm a Metro officer, I bet I can

find it. Go ahead. Good luck, big boy. Go ahead and check that

live string out from December, okay? You'll see how big God is.

They didn't have no dirt on Daniel.

The only way they could get Daniel to slip up was an attempt

to compromise his faith. Look what they said. We shall not

find any ground for complaint against this Daniel unless we find it

in connection with the law of his God. The only way they

was going to get Daniel to mess up was to get him to try to

compromise his faith. And when you're a man of integrity, and

you're a man of excellent spirit, that means you operate that way no matter what.

And they know that the only way they can get you is get you to

compromise. Enemy got me to compromise.

Yesterday, I lost my mind on

my kids. Two in particular,

over some pepperoni pizza.

I said. I mean, I yelled, screamed. What

are we doing? What is the problem?

We'd been in the house exactly seven seconds.

Seven give you the scene. We get out of the car. I've got

all the kids. I give one of them my key. I say, go inside,

heat up the pizza. I'm going to bring the rest of the stuff inside.

By the time I get inside, two of them are coming at me like,

dad, dad, whatever. I said, absolutely not.

This is not what we're gonna do. What is

the problem? She grabbed a piece and the crust

fell off. And so she put it back and grabbed another piece. I'm

like, why did you do that? That's your piece.

And you, why are you being so bossy? And the other three are just

like on the out's perimeter. And I'm just going

off. I'm yelling, I'm yelling and I'm loud. Anyway,

I didn't yell for your benefit just now. But I'm yelling at

them over some pepperoni pizza

now. But I wasn't yelling at them over the pizza.

I had become fed up that they were bickering because they'd been

bickering for days and weeks and months. And I let all

that frustration build up and spill out onto somebody else.

Sometimes when somebody's blown up on you, it ain't what you did. It's that

they've let it just build up and build up and build up until it overflows.

If I was Kevin, he'd have thrown something on you right now.

Like, man, Milky Ways water bottle. I can't do this church right now.

Like, it's a 4D experience. It's like Disney World.

Watched a guy take a Milky Way to the eye socket last week,

Dead serious over a glasses cot, rubbing his head.

And then I realized he wasn't that bad off. Cause I saw him open the

Milky Way. I said, man, like. I was like, yeah,

I see what's happening right now. Don't listen.

You better not say nothing out there with caramel in your teeth.

Man, I lost my mind and I had to walk. I did one of these,

walked off, came back and said, guys,

I'm wrong. I didn't say I'm sorry,

but I said, dad was wrong. Dad should not have lost

his temper like that. Dad should not have yelled at you like that. What you

did didn't warrant my level of response. I'm sorry, I'm wrong. Will you

guys forgive me? I didn't say I'm wrong, but I'm

tired of you bickering. You guys are arguing all the time. I said, I'm wrong.

And then I let the air settle for about 19 seconds.

I said, now let's address the issue

that we didn't get resolved. But just cause I blew up and

repented doesn't mean we just don't have the issue resolved.

And so we resolved the issue. And it's important that children

see that. That you are quick to repent. Because I'm

not raising kids that aren't quick to repent.

Excellent. Doesn't mean Daniel was sinless. It means he operated

with integrity. And I want to raise young men and women that operate with

integrity. So we say, hey, my dad was w. But one thing

he did get right was when he got it wrong, he made it right by

repenting to the Lord. Confession is important,

ladies and gentlemen. So

we don't order pizza anymore.

There was a lot. We don't do anything. Pizza's not just a go to. That's

one of those lazy parenting acts like I don't care. It's 8:30. We gotta feed

them according to the law or. And I'm not cooking

omelets for nobody tonight.

The only way they could get Daniel to slip up was an

attempt to compromise his faith. You know, that's always the

playbook. Compromise. Compromise is always the

playbook. It's always the playbook. And Pastor

Kevin's message where he had the big boulder out here and then he had the

little stones. And if you weren't here, I'm gonna remind you, he said it's never

the big stones. It's always those little ones that get

you. Okay. Nobody wakes up and has an

affair that starts way down the road

beforehand. How? Compromise. Cuz

compromise always leads to more compromise. If you find the

children of Israel in Judges chapter one, they are

conquering Canaan land and they let one small group

of Philistines in a valley because they quote

unquote had iron chariots. Basically what that meant was

they were hard to defeat. That's a hard,

tough battle. I'd rather just not deal with it. It's not

gonna hurt if we let 150, 200 of them stay.

What it did was move the line that God had set.

And when you move the line and you move the line, you'll keep moving the

line. Because compromise always leads to more compromise. So that

in chapter one, they compromise once by chap.

They're married to their women, they're worshiping their gods, and they're

enslaved to their kings. Now I know it's not consequential order. It's like 1,

2, 3, 4. There's a time period that happened, however,

that's the progression with sin and compromise.

And when you begin to compromise, it is not always sin at first,

but it'll lead you there. Because eventually,

if the line's here and you move it here and you move it here and

you move it here, what happens when it's moved to here.

You see what I'm saying? That's the only way they could get Daniel. Let's get

him to compromise. Because one thing. He will

either mess up and we got him, or he will have

to abandon his faith.

Look what they do in verse 10. Oh, I didn't finish it. I

didn't finish it. Oh. The only way we

can find it is in connection with the law of his God. So this is

what they do. Then these high officials and satraps came by agreement to the king.

He said, oh, King Darius, live forever. Flattery.

Anybody starts a conversation with me, oh, Pastor Justin, live forever. I'm like, what

do you want, dad? You're so strong.

We love you, dad. You're great. I'm thinking.

Listen. All the 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. Therefore, King Darius

signed the document, an injunction. His own vanity

allowed him to be tricked into signing an ordinance that nobody could

worship any God or any man except for him,

according to their law, for 30 days.

For 30 days.

Daniel wasn't dumb.

He knew that the document had been

signed. And so what does he do? He goes to his house where

it had windows in his upper chamber open towards

Jerusalem. He got down on his knees three times a

day and prayed and gave thanks before his God as he had

done previously. So Daniel's not an

idiot. He knows what's happening because he's on the official

court. Right? Like,

if I was just as surprised as you about chairs being in

here this morning, that might be a problem,

right? I knew that we had new chairs. You might not have. I bet you

didn't know. There's card readers in that corner, little tap to pay.

Yeah, you just put your. That's. I just want to see how many people is

going to do that next Sunday. Like Pastor Johnson said,

should be right here. And then I guess what, I will be at breakfast. I

will be in trouble for that. You can't tell people that. They believe you.

So Daniel's a part of the official court. Daniel knew

what was happening, and in this moment, he's confronted with a test

of loyalties. I love the king. I honor the king.

This is my job. I'm good at my job. I'm

supportive of the King. I'm doing what he's asking me to do. I'm

embracing my situation. But I'm also loyal to Yahweh.

I'm also loyal to the Lord. And this has put me in a

tough spot because I'm not trying to dishonor the King. I'm not

intentionally disobeying him. But I answer to a higher

standard. There's a higher call on my life.

And so I know you're telling me to bow only to you, but I

simply cannot. But he doesn't just go into the

royal court. Where does he go? Back to his house,

in his room, as he had done before?

Daniel didn't say, well, you know what? This is bad. I need to start

praying 50 times a day. He also didn't

say, this is bad. I. I'm giving up. And pray zero

times a day. It says he prayed three times a

day. As he had done previously. He just. He

kept doing the same thing he'd always been doing.

But not only does he pray, look at this. He got

down on his knees.

He changed his posture before the Lord. And

some of us are standing here at the Lord like this, and all he's

waiting on you to do is change your posture before him. Him.

As Jesus changed his posture in the garden, as

Stephen changed his posture in the Book of Acts, the very first

martyr. Do you know about Stephen? Stephen was martyred. He was stoned

to death after laying out the gospel. They couldn't

handle it. And as he's on his knees, we

see Jesus posture change. I want you to know, saints, that

everywhere in the New Testament, when you find Jesus position

after the Ascension, he is always mentioned as being

seated at the right hand of God. When

Stephen's posture is like this and he's being stoned,

the first martyr, the posture of the king

changes. And it says, I saw Jesus

standing at the right hand of the Father. You mean to

tell me that the Son of God's posture was changed and so

moved because his posture changed? And what did he say?

The same words, forgive them, God. They don't know what they're doing.

Forgive them, God. Daniel changed his posture

the same way Peter and Paul did in Acts.

So they set a trap for him.

The traps spy on Daniel. I don't know how they saw

him. And they go and tell the king what he's doing.

And they remind the King of the decree he signed.

Bunch of snitches

just Ratted him out for no reason. No, they had a

reason. 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.

Darius was displeased with himself. He

realized he'd been tricked. He had that. Ah, what have

I done? They got that. This was the. They got

Daniel. They got to me to get to Daniel. I was a

pawn. The king became the earthly king,

became a pawn in the devil's game, right?

Nobody's above you might think your power and your influence and your

authority or something. No, no, no. You're still a pawn in this

game. This is a cosmic war,

okay? And even the king of Babylon was like,

oh, you got me.

For all you that was Daniel's age, shucks, right?

I'll buy breakfast. I promise.

Darius was displeased with himself, and he took the blame

for it. But just owning it wasn't enough.

Now he has to determine, am I going to follow through with the

decree that I set up according to the law, or am I going to follow

my heart and set Daniel free? And that's going to cause all kinds of problem.

So there was no option except for him to follow through and

toss him into the DIN Alliance. And this is one thing that gets me. Like,

where do these people come up with this stuff? Like,

do you think they just had a board meeting? Was like, guys,

what are the ways we're going to come up with how to torture people?

Right? And it was like, what about we poison them? No, that's not good enough.

What if. What if we. What if we stab them with a bunch?

Nope, I don't like that either. And one guy's in the back. I got an

idea. Let's dig a big old hole and put wild

animals in it, and we'll throw people in that and the

animals eat them. And I was like, that's a great idea.

I'm just trying to read this from a human. Like, how did we come up

with these ideas? And you

notice something here. Daniel didn't even try to defend himself in the scripture. If you

read the scripture, Daniel did not even try to defend himself.

Stop being so defensive all the time, Saints. Stop

trying to feel like you got to always defend yourself, especially from the

world. Let me tell you. Let me give you a little information. If you're in

the wrong, you don't have a defense anyway. I was in

the wrong over that pepperoni pizza, was I not? Don't you

dare answer that.

I'm Asking the one I offended. I was in the wrong,

so I didn't have no defense. I could have come in there and say, well,

I did yell at you, but you made me mad, or, you did this. No,

no, no, Because I was in the wrong. So if you're in the wrong, you

don't have a defense anyway. If you're in the right, right will defend

itself. Jesus was silent before his

accusers. He was like, I don't have to

defend myself to you. You don't think I got the power to let you go?

You have no power except, I mean, a boss move. You have

no power that hasn't been given to you by my Father in heaven.

In the.

So this is what happens to Daniel.

Daniel's Daniel is thrown into this pit.

Then the king commanded, and Daniel was brought and cast into the den

of lions. And 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 lords that nothing might be changed concerning Daniel.

Then the king went to his palace and spent the night fasting. No diversions

were brought to him. And sleep fled from him.

Throws him in the pit. Now, I don't know what you got in your mind,

but I imagine it, like, being, like, down in a well. And he's

thrown Daniel in there, and he's like, hey, good luck, man.

Hope God. What does it say? They cast him in the

dinner lines. And then he declared to Daniel, may your God whom you serve continually

deliver you, Punishes him, and gives him a little pep talk on the way

down. You got it, bud. You

got this. I love that phrase,

though. Whom you serve continually.

The same God who he watched over here

rescue the three Hebrew boys, Hananiah,

Azariah, and Mishael. And I will campaign for them.

Because if we're not calling Daniel Belshazzar,

Dadgummit, Shadrach, Meshach, and

Bendigo will forever be known by their Hebrew names.

He'd seen that fourth man in the fire.

He knew he served God then. He's serving God now.

And no matter what had happened, he was going to continue

to serve the Lord. Daniel was

settled in his spirit. And this is what caused him

to be settled in his spirit. It's what makes Ronnie and Fred and even

you, settled. Daniel had seen so

much. He'd saw that fourth man in the fire. He had

seen Nebuchadnezzar sentenced to wander like a beast

by decree of the holy watchers, for claiming to be God,

he interpreted dreams and visions, and among it all,

he served the Lord continually in captivity.

So all night long, the king is a wreck. What

does it say? He spent the night fasting.

They didn't bring him anything to cause him comfort. And he couldn't sleep.

Sleep fled from him. Okay, he's a wreck

because he knows what's going to happen to Daniel. You notice he sealed it with

his signet ring. Do you know why that's important? Because the

signet beared the image of the king, and it held the

backing of the king's armies. So that was an official decree.

And he probably put that there for two reasons. One being, if

anybody saw Daniel still hanging out in the den, they might have

tried to take matters in their own hands. And for two,

so that nobody would come and undo what he had already done.

It's official. It's done. It bore the image,

the king. And as image bearers, you bear the image

of God, and the armies of heaven are your backing.

King is a wreck. He goes back in at

daybreak, and you know what he's expecting to see? Just a

mess down there. Just a mess.

And so instead of that, he finds Daniel safe

and secure. Can you imagine? They roll the

stone away. They roll the stone away. Listen. They

roll the stone away expecting one

thing, and instead,

they roll the stone away expecting a dead man, and

instead, he's alive and well.

God, you can't make this up.

This was written thousands of years prior.

I couldn't get five of y' all to write a story right now and be

on the same page. Think about it.

They roll the stone away. It's like, oh, Daniel. Daniel. Daniel's like

King Darius. Y' all remember when Forrest is

waving on the side of the boat? That's what I imagine

in my head. Lieutenant Dan, Right? He's waving at

him. He's like, I'm good. And Darius is like, look, remember, it's a. Well,

what happened? Right? And they have this little interchange, like, get up.

Let's go to breakfast. Cause neither of them have eaten all night. They didn't sit

him down there with a lunchbox. Okay, now that's

speculation. Don't say that they went to breakfast, please. Cause

I'll be at breakfast tomorrow. I already know it's gig is up. I'm just gonna

lean in. Okay,

so he's yelling down the hole. They

have this interchange. He says, bring him up. But then

something horrible happens. And we read these letters, like,

oh, this. Oh, and Then. And then this. And you're like, oh, it's not that

bad. He took all 120 satraps

and their wives and their children

and threw them in the hole. And the scripture

says that the lions devoured them before they hit

the bottom. It's a lot of people, y'. All.

That is a lot of human beings.

That is a lot of human people

that God loves that were affected by the

decisions of their fathers.

And we sit in here with some level of spiritual

audacity and think that because God's

merciful hand has not destroyed us, that we are

immune to the scripture that says sin leads to death.

Because you didn't physically die. Because I didn't physically

die, that that scripture is not

fulfilled. God is not mocked. He is very kind and

merciful. Now, I know that it wasn't

those children's fault, and I know that God wasn't the one that sentenced them to

that. So we can't put that on his back. But what I'm

saying is there are real world consequences to your actions. You

better think before you just get all outside of your mind. It's one

thing to yell at my kids over pepperoni pizza. It's another thing to lead them

out into traffic.

This story has so many parallels in the Bible.

So many parallels. I just gave you one right there. They rolled a stone away

expecting a dead man and said, he's living.

I was reminded this past week, these last couple of weeks,

as I've been preparing for this lesson,

as I've been sitting under Barbie's teaching in the

midweek gatherings. Midweek gatherings are fantastic, y'. All. This

Sunday morning. I love this. This is a wide net. There's some of you guys.

This might be your first time at church. And, like, this is amazing. Or I'll

never go back to church, depending on what God has done here. And

then there are some of you that have been in here for years, decades even,

and it's hard to dig and go a little deeper. And you're going to get

some truth. You're going to get some nuggets. Midweek is an intentional decision. If you

got the capacity, hey, I want to dig a little bit deeper if you

have the capacity. Some of you guys don't. Your sports families or things like that.

But if you can come be here and sit under Barbie's teaching, you'll

be blessed by it. She starts talking about

Joseph, she starts talking about Joseph, and I was

instantly drawn. I was like, where have I heard this

before? Where have I heard this? And I'm

like, oh, it's right here. Joseph's brothers

resented him because he was favored by his father.

Daniel was resented by the satraps because he

was favored by the king. The plan

for Joseph was to strip him of his coat and

throw him into a pit. And they were going to tell his father he was

eaten by wild animals. What?

Daniel was stripped of his position and title and

cast into the den of lions. The pit of lions.

Why is this the playbook? Let's falsely

accuse them, strip them down and cast

them to the lions. Because it's always

the playbook. It's been happening since the

garden. Satan resents us because of the favor of

our Father. Why do they get to bear the image? Why do

they have dominion on this planet? The thief comes to steal,

kill and destroy. He stole Joseph's coat and

Daniel's position and tried to steal your birthright. He tried

to kill both of them using the pit. And God delivered them both

from the pit. But the method for our delivery required the king

to go into the pit.

Jesus said, no sign will be given to you except the sign of

Jonah. And they're like, what? And he said, okay, well, let me break

it down. Just like Jonah had to be in the belly of the fish for

three days. The Son of Man has to go into the belly of the earth

for three days. He had to go into the pit.

He had to go into the pit so that you can come out of

it. I love what I

skipped over this, but I love Daniel's response

when the king's like, are you okay? This

is what Daniel says. I'm good.

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. Why did he say it like that?

His angel. His angel. That's not. He didn't say an angel.

He said his angel. And I probably looked up 17 different

Bible translations. I was like, surely that's not what they mean.

Every one of them, Every one of them say, my

God sent his angel. That kind

of messed me up. I did a teaching earlier this year

in a wild card series on the angel of the Lord.

Y' all can link that here, here, little

YouTube. There's about three people that watch YouTube, right? And

they're like, they do this in the corner, right? I looked. I didn't look at

y'. All. I looked right at the camera. I hope they link it.

It's a good teaching. It was a good Teaching. Right. Not because it was

me, but because the Lord has a way of doing stuff on

midweek gathering man.

And in that teaching I shared how I believe that the scriptures

point us to the conclusion that the angel of the Lord in the

Old Testament is Jesus pre incarnate. Now I made a case

for it. You don't have to agree with me. You can go watch the sermon

here

or what you can do is you can study the Scriptures.

Just take my word for it, study the scriptures and maybe you

come to a different conclusion and we can have dialogue. Because theology should be worked

out in community, not on top of a mountain. You can't go to the top

of a mountain, talk about God taught me how to be the kindest person on

earth. And then you go down to the valley and you're unkind to everybody. You

didn't learn kindness. You learned about kindness. So

theology's worked out amongst the brethren.

My assertion is that I am making a case for Christ. What

if it is his angel? What if that fourth man in the

fire is the same one that was in the pit with Daniel?

It's not a stretch. It's in the same. It's in the same book.

Does that not change the story to know if it was the angel of

the Lord that's in there with Daniel communing

Jesus descended into the pit of hell on

our behalf to shut the mouth of the one who roams about like a roaring

lion. Daniel was found blameless before him.

So God shut the mouth of the lions

so that we can be found blameless before the King. I don't care. If

you give me enough time, I will make every story about Jesus Christ.

I thought we was talking about Daniel lions then. We are. But you gave me

enough time to get where I needed to get to because it's all

about Jesus. Every story is about Jesus.

This whole book is about Jesus.

He was and is and is to come.

He is the greatest story ever told.

Everything points to him. Everything points

to him. Worship team, you can come

on out. They're on point this time. I kind of gave

them a hard time. I got done early. I was flying in early, gathering and

then I said, worship team, you come out and it was a ghost town.

And it was like, what are you doing? What are you doing to us? You

know when you don't want them to come out, they start playing that soft. Get

off the stage. Grammy song. Give me that.

Yes. And that's how you know the time's winding down. Right. You don't know what

Time it is. Don't look. Don't look, because you're not supposed to have your cell

phones because you're engaged. Highlights magazine, right?

I said, hey, guys, come on out. Gone. And.

But they're here. As we minister and close out this.

This message this morning. The story concludes with a

declaration from King Darius. And it's the one we read at the beginning. I just

want to read it again because this is how the story ends. After everything we've

just read and everything that happened, this is how the story ends. I meant

to put that up. I got fired up. I'm sorry.

This is what the king said. I make a decree that in all my

royal dominion, people are to tremble and 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.

It opens up, and Darius is the king, and he's trying to do the right

thing, and he points people to help him. And these people are snakes.

And they try to trip up Daniel. They hate Daniel for no reason

other than the fact that he served the Lord. But guess what? The king

didn't know the Lord, but Daniel did.

The king didn't honor God, but Daniel did. And so they

devised a plan to trick him. They go to the king. He

signs a document that for the next month, nobody can worship

anyone but me. And then they go and trick him and get

Daniel caught up. And he's distraught, what have I done?

And he knows that when he throws Daniel into that lion's pit,

that he's not coming out. And yet somehow he's

having a conversation with him afterwards. And

that led to this.

This is the God that Daniel knew the entire time, but

it took the pit for the king to learn it.

Have you ever considered that this story is not about Daniel? That it

was about getting to the heart of that king? For him to understand

there is no God but the God of Daniel. He is the God.

This is a king declaring his kingdom shall reign

forever. His dominion is to all the earth. Kings did not

do that. He bent the knee. But it took

Daniel going into the pit for him to see it. Have you ever thought that

the things that the pits that you're in aren't for you, but they're for someone

else to see an excellent spirit in you,

for them to see God's miraculous power in your life

to be changed? And that decree went out to all

the kingdom. It

took that pit for him to know it. What Daniel already

knew. What will it take for you to know?

Why are we sitting around waiting on God's miraculous power

when it's been evident the whole time? You waitin on a

lion's den moment and he sustained you and you see

miracles? God, I seen a miracle with my own

eyes this last week. One of

my best friends in the entire world had a. They label it

a widowmaker heart attack.

No reason why he had a heart attack. A

hundred percent blockage. Do you understand what 100% means?

Totally blocked. And the man's having a conversation with the doctor.

A conversation. What happens is your heart, the

arteries get blocked, your heart stops pumping and you lay down

and die. His heart's blocked.

He's having a conversation with the doctor

at 5 o'. Clock. And by 9 o', clock, I'm sitting on the edge of

his bed swinging my legs. I'm like, man, what a day.

My friend Ashley and Katie, they go off script. An

unsanctioned women's event. When I say

unsanctioned, it's not like an official thing. And they set up a

weekend for women. And over 27 women

get set free. Five of them baptized.

Years of trauma, years of addiction, years of abuse.

Set free. In a moment. When they go under that water and when they

come up, that stone was rolled away and there was a dead person they thought

was going to be in there. And what came out was somebody was living.

Talk about living in an excellent spirit. Somebody. The world

is waiting on you to see you walk out what you already

know. Stop waiting on a lion's den moment to show them.

But it may take a lion's den moment. This lady at the front desk said,

I've been here 20 years, I ain't never seen so many people come in here.

And now we all know his name. Lonnie.

What's it gonna take for you to get it? Are

you settled in your spirit? Are you bowing to the

king or are you bowing to the king?

And are you going to pray for the Lord to get you out of these

pits? Are you going to start inviting them into it with you?

Cuz that pit Daniel had to go into wasn't just for Daniel.

He needed that king to get to this point. If I could have all

my people that are going to come pray down here this morning. If you got

hurts and pains and, and hang ups and you got ailments and any of those

things that celebrate recovery is for, or if you need physical

healing in your body. Or if you. If you're saying to yourself, I don't know

that I've ever seen God's power. I want to

see God move. Then go talk to somebody. Go talk

to Dave. Go talk to Ashley. Go talk to Barbie. Go talk to Doug.

Come talk to me. We'll do it over

pepperoni pizza.

How? Guys, I just want to get to that place where people say,

man, listen, the only way we're going to be able to trip him up is

by trying to get him to compromise his faith because he's just living out what

he says he believes. Man, I just want to get to that place, and I

want you to go with me. Guys, it's a sharpening session.

We can learn so much from this, but right now, it's

time to do business with the Lord. If you got a hurt, if you got

a need, if you got a pain, if you got something, if you want to

go find a dark corner of the room, go do it. If you need to

change your posture before the Lord, then now is

the time. And I pray that God's power will be

manifest to you. Let's worship

gift.