From Crisis to Platform

Jesus name, Amen, thank you, Rob Morney, Church money everybody?

Are you good? Are you good today? What about the

person sitting next to you? Are they good today? Suddenly

people are gone a bit quiet on me. Okay, children

are staying in today because it's our summer period where

Sunday School takes a break. So some of us learned

something at Sunday School. We are studying lessons from the

Book of Daniel, and I'm going to check how how

how much attention you paid at Sunday School. Connect us

got us off to a great start. Lessons learned from

the Book of Daniel. I'm going to look at chapter two,

just a bit of it anyway. But what stories do

you remember from the Book of Daniel? Anybody want to

shout one out? Okay, three? Juliette just shouted out three names. There.

Can anybody remember one of Daniel's friends? Daniel had some friends,

and I'm including the children in this as well, and

including those working on the sound desk. Can anybody name

a friend of Daniel? Mishak yes, Shadra yes. And I

always used to think it was to begie Go, but

it's a betany go. And so they Daniel had friends.

So the first thing is the Book of Daniel is

a fantastic book about a man who follows God's heart

and his obedient and impact in nation because he's obedient.

And I really want to look at chapter two because

I believe God can reveal mysteries to us out of

the Book of Daniel. So Sha, Misha, can a bety go?

Anybody else? Remember another part another story from the Book

of Daniel. Yes, yep, he continued to even when it

wasn't allowed. If I said to you don't pray, what

do you immediately think? If I say to you, don't

think about pink elephants, what do you immediately think? You

think about pink elephants? You know? And so when somebody says,

don't do it, especially children. And I'm not encouraging this,

but sometimes we want to do the opposite, don't we

Sometimes we want to do the opposite. But you know what,

if you are going to be threatened with some kind

of punishment that if you pray something will happen, maybe

you will find that that something might. You might want

to back away and say, oh, I'm not sure, I

don't know. Another story from Daniel. Come on, Daniel in

the lions Den. Thank you, Rue. Daniel in the lions Den.

I'm not going and I'm not telling you any of

these stories. I'm just waking you up because you know,

it's a hot, sticky day, and I want you to remember.

The Book of Daniel is relevant. It's an old Testament

book and sometimes we go old stuff not relevant to

me today. Do you know I think Daniel is probably

one of the most relevant books in the Bible to

us in this season. Yes, Daniel in the Fire. Yes,

he's three friends went in and they didn't even smell

like they got burnt. Okay, that's enough. I'm not going

to stretch you too hard and too far. But Daniel

chapter two. We're going to look at Daniel chapter two,

and I'm not going to read the story. I'm going

to summarize it. Daniel two one to thirteen. Yeah, I'm

not going to read it all, but basically, never goodness.

He has a dream and he says, I need someone

to interpret my dream. I need a wise man. I

need a wise person to come and interpret my dream.

But to show me how wise you are, I'm not

going to tell you what my dream is. You are

going to tell me your dream, my dream, and then

you are going to interpret it. Basically, he's saying, how

do I know that you're a wise man? I will

know that you're a wise man by interpreting my deam,

because you will tell me the dream that I dreamt.

That's prophetic. That's got you, that's an element of prophetic.

And what does he do? He says, okay, And the

wise men come and they go, oh, we can't tell

you what dream you've dreaned. That's impossible. And what does

Daniel do. Daniel says, give me a little time and

I'll talk to God and I'll come back. And so

we're going to pick this up. And I want to

give you a theme and a picture to understand, because

I think never is making an impossible challenge. I mean,

how many people in the room if I said, right now,

I've had a dream, and anybody who wants to come

and interpret it, but also tell me what the dream was,

and if you get it wrong, I'm going to shoot you.

I'm not saying I'm going to do that. I'm just

you know, that's the kind of level this was at.

This is the kind of a level that it's an

impossible demand with a death sentence on every wise man,

including Daniel. You know, this wasn't an easy time in Babylon.

There was a lot of uncertainty going on. There was

a lot of trouble going on on. Anybody see trouble

going on in the world today, I honestly fail. We

read more about wars than we ever read about wars.

You know, I don't know the statistics, but I would

probably suggest there is more upset in the world than

there ever has been, maybe because we know more about it.

Sometimes it took two weeks for you to hear about

something else going somewhere on the world. Now you instantly

hear about it. But do you know what I want

to say? This? I want so we'll we'll What was

Daniel's response in the midst of panic? He responded with wisdom?

In Daniel two point fourteen, he said, I'm going to

answer with counsel and wisdom. And then what did he do?

He said to the king, lord or king, I need

some time, No panic, no protest, no I need to

get control of this. He just said, I need some time.

Proverbs three verse five says this trust in the Lord

with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.

If we don't know what's going on, let's get our

eyes off trying to understand it for ourselves. Let's ask God,

what are you trying to show to us? What is

it you want me to understand? What is it you

want to teach me? You know, we are all students,

we are all learning. I'd encourage anybody. It doesn't matter

how old you are. You can still learn. We can

still learn. Just because you've left school, just because you've

finished school, just because you've finished university, does not mean

we've finished learning. And actually, I consciously try and make

time every week to study. I don't mean to study

the Bible. I mean study something, study something something. I

try and make a little bit of time. I put

it aside, I record it, and I think it's a

good thing to do. It's a good habit to be in,

just as the way it's a good habit to exercise.

It's a good habit to exercise our brains. So no panic,

no process. He just trusted in the Lord and Sapiens

four sixteen. It says, be careful for nothing but in

everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, Let your requests

be made known to God. Pray, and even if it's

a really crummy time, give thanks. I like giving thanks

for things I can give thanks for. Somebody gives me

a present, Thank you. Somebody opens holds the door open

for me, Thank you. Somebody punches me in the face. Ouch.

But do you know what? Give thanks in all seasons.

I'm not necessarily saying say thank you for a punch

in the face. But you get the illustration. Our workplaces

do not need so much of our opinions. They need

our peace. We are peacemakers, we are peace carriers, we

are peace people. And do you know what, if we

would just go and be, then it will change the

place that we work in. Some of you have heard

me tell this story before now, But a friend of mine,

many many years ago, was a Lloyd's bank manager in Eton.

I don't know whether you've been to Eaton. It's a

very nice little street and there used to be a

Lloyd's bank there. It isn't there anymore. And he was

a Christian and he said to his staff, and he

didn't have a large staff because it was a small bank,

he said, every morning, I'm going to come in fifteen

minutes before we're meant to be in the bank, and

I'm going to pray in the bank. If anybody else

would like to join me, please feel free to do it.

She had him and two other staff who were Christians

who prayed, and they came every morning to pray for

the bank, and a couple of their staff started to

join them and said, I don't know why, but we

feel it's a good thing. So is it okay if

we come?

Of course.

Anyway, he was observing one day in his bank. He

told me this story many years ago. But he was

sitting in the bank one day and he noticed the

lady walk into the bank and she came in, she

looked around a bit, and she sat down in the chair,

and she got up and walked out. Thought that's strange. Anyway.

A few weeks later, he noticed the same lady walk in,

look around, sit down, and then walk out again, and

he thought, okay, maybe she needs something, and so he

went out to try and help her. Before he got

out there, she'd already gone. So he decided he said,

I'm gonna be ready for her next time. A couple

of weeks later, bout ten days later, she walked in

the bank again, sat down, sitting there smiling, and he

nipped out and he said, madam, I've noticed that you've

come in a few times. Can I help you? Is

there something you need? And she said no, no, it's fine.

She said, I just come in here because it's so peaceful.

It's so peaceful. I hope you don't mind. I just

come in here to sit and absorb the atmosphere, and

then I leave. And he said, thank you, You're welcome

any day. Eventually she opened the bank account. But I

don't think that was what God had a plan. But

here's the thing. She came in for peace. I am

sure that that place was peaceful because of the prayer

that was going on there. Hopefully your home is a

place of peace. Hopefully your workplace can be a place

of peace. Do you pray for your workplace when we

fast and pray as a church. When you're sitting at

your desk at work, do you pray? It's a good

thing to do. Our workplace does not need out so

much of our opinions, but needs God's peace at work

in us. And so Daniel prayed. Daniel got three friends

to seek the mercies of God's heaven in Daniel two

seventeen and eighteen. Then what happened. The secret was revealed

to Daniel in a night vision. In Daniel two nineteen,

revelation came into the house, not on the platform, not

through cleverness, but the secret of the Lord that was

with them that fear him in Psalm twenty five, verse fourteen.

And it says in Matthew chapter eighteen, verse twenty, when

two or three are gathered together in my name, there

I am in the midst of them. We live in

a world that is drowning in information. Anybody gets too

little information these days. Anybody wants to filter down their

phone and say stop, stop, Can you just send me less?

Can you send me less? I think we all sense

we're drowning, and yet we're starving for revelation. The answer

to our Babylon is not in Babylon, It's in God.

And so what did Daniel do? What Daniel did was

he worshiped before his life is now safe. Daniel's first

act was worshiped in Daniel twenty two, verses twenty and

twenty one. Blessed be the name of God forever and

ever he removes and sets up kings. Got Daniel worshiped,

He gave thanks whilst the king slept one. Thessalonians, chapter five,

verse eighteen says, in everything, give thanks for this is

the will of God in Christ Jesus. Concerning you, Gratitude

is the thing that fills the gap to show that

we truly believe what God is saying to us. Thank you, Lord,

Thank you for your provision. Thank you for your leading

me today. Thank you for your journeying with me. Once

we have worshiped an almighty God, once we get a glimpse,

and what was What's wisdom? Defined as wisdom is defined

in scripture as the fear of the Lord, fear of

the Lord. Once you've once you've sensed. Even a smidgeon

is a smidgeon? An okay? Word? Is this? You all understand?

Smidge in? Just something little? I like making up words,

so sometimes I have to be careful. I have to

look at my wife and I'm making up a word.

Did Juliet make up a word to this morning as

we prayed? Yeah? I like it. I like it. Maybe

I'm going to use it? Why not? Highestly? I love it?

Why can't we make up words? Did everybody understand what

Juliet meant when she said highestly. Yeah, we all understood.

It was all pretty clear anyway, and I'm going to

use it. So Daniel refused to take any glory in

the midst of this in Daniel two twenty eight. But

there is a God in heaven that reveals secrets. It

wasn't all. I've got the dream that goo goodnesssa and

I'm going to interpret it for He didn't say that.

He said, there's a God in heaven who showed me

this thing. You know, step aside. Whenever God does something glorious,

be the doorman or door woman. Step aside and say welcome.

You know. One of the most gracious things you and

I can ever do is just be the conduit by

which God provides something. You know, sometimes I don't know

whether you've been required to do something. You've gone the

extra mile, you've given something, you've shared something. But sometimes

people are overwhelmed with the goodness of God. Step aside

and say, it's not me, it's God. Give thanks to Him.

One Peter five six. Humble yourselves under the mighty hand

of God, that He may exalt you in due time.

Step aside, that's point to God. Let's show it's God

who loves someone. God loved somebody so much that he

sent you to be in that moment, in that time,

with that person, doing that thing. And what was the

King's response to Daniel when and he said, God showed

me the dream and the interpretation. The King confessed in

Daniel two forty seven, your God is a god of

gods and a revealer of secrets. Almost there's a wow

in there somewhere, isn't there? There's a wow in a somewhere. God,

the God that you worship, revealed to me not only

my dream but what it means. There was a divine exchange,

and in the midst of the crisis, Daniel gave God

the glory. This was a crisis. All the wise men

in all the wise men in the country are being

asked by the king, come and tell me my dream

and interpret it, otherwise you die. Daniel stepped up and said,

give me some time and I'll talk to God. His

crisis or the crisis, became his platform for authority. Daniel

goes on to be effectively the prime minister. He goes

on to step up and share wisdom and authority, to

share God's wisdom and authority. I had the privilege many

years ago of working for an American software company, and

I work in supply chain. That's what I've done for

the last twenty five years. And I saw this job description.

It said they were looking for someone who's going to

be evangelistic. You know, it wasn't about sharing the gospel.

That's not what they put I did check afterwards. The

person who created the job in a job description was

not a Christian, but they wanted to say someone who

would go out and tell people about the supply chain.

So they were looking for someone who's evangelistic, and they

wanted someone who was forward thinking. And the only word

they could think about forward thinking was someone who will

be prophetic to the marketplace. I looked at that job

description and said, that's mine. And I wasn't being stupidly bold.

I just said, sense, that's mine. You know, there might

be other people out there, but I just sense now

I got the job. Great work there for a couple

of years, and I was sitting in a number of

meetings and I realized that I was the only supply

chain person in the room. I also realized in many

rooms I was also the only Christian. But I had

a boldness a bit like Daniel, just a little bit

like Smidge in like Daniel, and I said, trust me,

I'm the expert in the room. And I was. I

was for them. I was talking about supply chain. I

had a whole different agenda going on behind my in

my head. Now, this is not about supply chain. This

is about what God's doing. And I said, here's an idea.

And I shared a couple of ideas with him and said, no, Dave,

that'll never work. And I had a boldness upon me,

so I said to them, I'll tell you what you know.

You recruited me as an expert. I think I'm the

only expert in the room. You do software, you do hardware,

you do sales, you do marketing. I'm the only supply

chain person in the room. Trust me. Let's give it

a go and see what happens. And over a period

of sixteen seventeen months, whilst this committee rang ran, we

put a number of strategies in place. I believe one

of those strategies is still running twenty years later. And

I don't want any of the glory, but here's the point.

I was just faithful, a bit like Daniel. I just said,

as it said it as I saw it, with a

boldness and a confidence, and when you just have a

nudge and almost I felt like God had a finger

in my back. You know when my mum used to

do this, Actually, when I slouched at the table, she'd

stick her finger in my back. So I sit up straight,

and you do that, sitting up straight? Wouldn't you anybody

else do that? Maybe you're sitting up straight right now

just because I'm saying this. But you know, I just

felt God come along a few times and just put

his finger in my back, and I sat up and

I spoke with a little more boldness. I spoke with

a little more confidence, because fruit will come of these

kinds of things. So over these fourteen months or so,

about seven or eight months in, one of the guys

said to me, Dave, you come up with some crazy ideas,

don't you. I went, well, they seemed to be working.

He said, where'd you get them from?

Ah?

What did I say? I didn't say God, I didn't

say the Bible. I didn't say dreams. I said, I'll

tell you what. I'll meet you next week, I'll buy

you a coffee and I'll tell you. So I created

a bit of expectation. And then the day before I said,

are we still okay to meet for coffee? We're going

to talk about the source of my innovation. And he said, yeah,

I'm going to be there. And I took a gospel.

I took a gospel from church one of the guy,

I think it was Luke's gospel at a time, and

I sat down opposite him. I brought him a nice

coffee and was sitting there talking and I said, you

probably won't believe me when I tell you my source.

I said, but all ID ask you to do is

to remember the fruit of the things that we did.

So I'm not asking him to look at me. I'm

not asking to remember me. I'm saying, we made a

decision and something happened. Would you just look at the

fruit of what we did. He said, yeah, I remember

some of those things. Some of that that crazy project

where we we sent post it notes to people letters.

We sent some post it notes to it. We sent

what looked like a torn out page out of a

magazine with a post it note on it. It wasn't

a post It note. It was all printed the magazine,

torn out page, post It note stuck on it was

all printed and all, but it was just a crazy idea.

And so he then said, are you going to tell me?

I said yeah, and actually I've got a copy of

a book that helps me with this. And he said, really,

I said, all I'm asking is you. I'm just asking

you to take it away and read it. If you

like it and you want to feedback, you can buy

me a coffee and tell me what you found in

the book. And then I said okay, And I told said,

I'm a Christian. God speaks to me. His word speaks

to me. And some of these ideas came straight up

the Bible. And he was immediately really really out of

the Bible. But the Bible's an old historical book. What's

he got to do with oracle today? And I said these?

And I took him to some of the ideas and

showed him one in the Old Testament too, in the

New Testament. One in one of Paul's letters. I haven't

got time to unpack all that today. But the point

I'm making is I stepped aside and said, Okay, read

his word. He's still on a journey. I'm still loosely

in touch with him many years later, but he has

been to church a number of times. I don't want

I don't want any glory here. I want to step

aside and say God made the way. God made it possible.

I want to encourage you to learn from the story

of Daniel here, and instead of thinking about the platform

getting there, think about stepping on the crisis to step

up to something, not stepping on somebody else to climb

the ladder. I don't like stepping on other people to

get somewhere else, but stepping on a crisis that sounds

like a great idea. If I can step up into

something else, then I really am doing something as God

wants me. And Romans chapter eight, verse twenty eight, as

I bring this to a close, says this, and we

know that all things, guys, all things, not just the

good things, not just the bad things. But we know

that all things work together for good to them that

love God. And one Samuel two thirty it says them

that honor me, I will honor. So I want to

encourage you stand in the throne room with God, hold

on and see what He will do with you and

for you. And so I'm going to wrap up by

closing by praying I'm going to pray a simple prayer.

I'd like you to close your eyes. Whether you're at

home right now, listen, have you got a crisis going

on right now? Doesn't need to be a big one,

doesn't need to be a lifelong crisis, might just be

a meeting. You're not comfortable about this going to happen

this week. It might be something that was said last week.

But you've got a mini crisis going on. I want

to encourage you make this a step into a platform

where you allow God to reveal himself to you and

through you, and through to your workplace, to your colleagues,

to your friends, to your family, whoever that meeting is

for or with, would you stand. I'm not talking about

big crises, but something that right now looms front and

center in your mind. Because I'm going to pray that

God gives us the wisdom and the revelation to see

it as He sees it, and to turn that crisis

into a platform to step up and see God glorified,

giving thanks at all times in all seasons. So Father,

I thank you for those who are standing right now.

And I'm standing too, and so Father, I thank you

for those that are standing right now. Father, I pray. Firstly,

you give us eyes to see what you want to

show us. You give us ears to hear what you

want to say to us. And Father, you give us

a faith to operate in those two things, where wisdom

would come and revelation would be released, and you would

be glorified. Father. Would you take hold of the things

that we are presenting before you right now, the little things,

the big things are in between things, the smidgeons. Lord,

would you open our eyes to see what is we

need to see. Would you help us to interpret and

understand the season that we're in and what you want

to show to us, And would you be glorified in

all that happens in Jesus's mighty name.

Amen, Thank you dear for your word in the revelation

from Daniel. I want us to just spend a bit

of time