Daniel Ch. 6: Lion's Den

I want to welcome you to Venture Church. For those watching online listening to

this podcast, those of you that are here live. If you don't know

who I am, I'm Brandon. I'm the lead pastor of the church.

I'm glad you're here. The Sunday before Thanksgiving, I want to let you

know what we're gonna do next week. As I speak the end of my

message, I'm going to take an offering for one day to feed the world.

So tradition that we do here at Venture around Thanksgiving, people are thinking

about eating. But what we want to do is we begin the Christmas holiday

season, we not only want you to be thinking about having and making memories

for your family, and we are going to do that Adventure. We're gonna

help you make memories. We have lots of significant things that your family gets

to participate in over the next month. But the thing we really want you

to also do is remember that Christmas is all about us celebrating that Jesus came

to our rescue, that it is this miracle for you and I and we

want to really challenge you to be generous around Christmas. And so next Sunday

we will take an offering to feed those who otherwise wouldn't have food. We

partner with our partner, Convoy of Hope. For every ten dollars that's given,

it feeds a child for a month. And I'm telling you a week

ahead of time so that you can be prepared to give in that offering.

I want to challenge you to give generously. The concept in one day to

feed the World is that each one of us would figure out how much we

make per day and we would give up one day of our salary to give

in this offering, and one hundred percent of what comes in in this special

offering will go to make sure that people have food. So we want to

encour to prepare your hearts, be ready for next week. Grab your Bible,

turn to Daniel chapter six. As you're turning there, I'm gonna warn

you verse twelve chapters in Daniel. The first six are historical narrative. It

tells this fun story about what happened in Babylon, talks about these Jewish boys

who eventually become men, talks about their life, and we've emphasized how do

you survive in Babylon? And then starting in chapter seven through twelve, it

is what's referred to as apocalyptic literature. In other words, it's prophecies about

the end times. I have decided to pause our Daniel series after today's message,

primarily because I don't want to go into Christmas preaching on end times.

So we will pick it up again continue in sometime after the beginning of the

year. I'll finish those last six chapters to be really honest, because I

really feel like I need to do more research before I dive into topics that

are going to cause a lot of meetings after I preach. So we want

to go into Christmas being happy. So everybody by your heads, close your

eyes. Let's pray, Lord Jesus, I asked it in the next several

moments you would anoint me as I speak, but that you would also speak

to them as they hear God. I pray that ears would be open to

hear what the Spirit has to say, and hearts would be open to respond.

And Lord, we invite your presence into this place. I pray that

you'll convict those who need to be convicted. You will inspire those who need

to be inspired, encourage those who need to be encouraged, but most of

all, draw us all closer to You. What. I thank you for

your word, and I ask that I will not mess it up. In

Jesus' name. Amen, Today, I'm finally getting to the story many of

you have asked me in the lobby, when does this happen? Because this

is the only thing about Daniel that I know. I'm gonna finally get to

Daniel six, which shares one of the most popular stories in the Bible.

You can have a minimal amount of church experience, and odds are you could

fake your way through the plot of David and Goliath, and you could likely

fake your way through the story of Daniel in the lions Den. And that's

what we are talking about today. Daniel six, the first five verses I

actually believe share with us some critical insight. I want to pop up a

picture. Oh it's behind me, good job. You know what this is

the cemetery. It's full of tombstones. Just about every tombstone has two significant

dates on it, so the date that someone's born and the date that someone

dies, and most tombstones those two dates are separated by a dash. Have

you ever really sat down in thought about what are the two least significant days

in your life? You have no control over the day you're born, and

most of us have no control over the day we die. I would argue

that they're probably the two least significant days in your life. That the significant

part of your life is represented by that dash, because that is the part

of your life that you have control over. And I think most of us,

if we were to think of that dash, and we were to think

of our lives, we would say, I want my life to be si

significant. I want my dash to matter. I want my life to count.

I would like my life to have consistency and staying power. If you're

a dad, that's what you would say. I want to be a parent

who was loving, consistent. When my kids think of me, they think

of the overall part of my life and the positive influence and impact I've had

on them. If you're a wife, you're probably thinking, man, I

want to do my best with this dash. I wanted to count. I

want it to matter. Interesting thing about Daniel is we're never told about his

birth. The Bible doesn't find the birth of Daniel's significant enough to tell you

did you know what? Else? It doesn't share with you how he died.

I mean, there's runs the stories in the Bible about how people died,

but we're not told how Daniel died. There's lots of theories from scholars,

but no one really knows. But you were told about seventy five years

of his life. You and I are told about the dash because ultimately that's

what matters. My question for you today is how do you live a life

that matters? How do we make sure that our dash is significant? What

I have found interesting is I believe that of all the characters in the Bible,

all the people that we can do character studies on, teach on,

all the life that we can try to emulate, I think the most realistic

example that we have in the Bible of someone we could aspire to be like

it is Daniel. Now you can say you want to be like David,

a man after God's own heart, but at a young age you weren't anointed

by the prophet to be king. But we all relate to growing up in

a situation that wasn't fair, wasn't right, we didn't deserve, but being

able to overcome all of these things in our life. I actually believe you

can be a Daniel. There are pillars that you and I build our lives

on. You might use the phrase core values, whatever they are, but

there are things that set you apart that when you think, these are things

that guide my decisions, they guide my actions, they guide the way that

I live my life. These are the pillars that my life is built on.

Oftentimes these pillars they determine your success. Are you going to live a

life without regret? Are you going to live a life that maybe others would

look at and say that that is an admirable life. Those first five verses

of Daniel give us insight into the pillars in Daniel's life. I think there

are three clear pillars that Daniel had in his life. And the first thing

that set Daniel apart was his diligence. Daniel, Chapter six, verse one,

it says it pleased Darius to appoint one hundred and twenty satraps to rule

throughout the kingdom, with three administers administrators over them, one of whom was

Daniel. Okay, So remember the Persians conquered the Babylonians, and like all

of these ruling empires, when they conquer all of these smaller empires, they're

trying to unite their entire kingdom. They find out really quickly that it's complicated

to teach people new customs and new beliefs and new allegiances. We've seen this

throughout history. It was the big issue that the Greeks had. The Greeks

conquered the world, but they were constantly struggling to keep everybody on board and

united. When the Romans conquered the world, it was the same issue they

had. So it goes all the way back to hear So the Persians had

conquered the Babylonians and they were trying to unite the Babylonian Empire. I've shared

with you repeatedly that modern day Babylon is Iraq for those of you that never

pay attention. Within the last twenty years, the US was involved in a

major war against Iraq. Once we quote unquote won that war, we then

spent years trying to unite those people to think the way that we think,

to have a democratic government, to be capitalists. And what did we discover.

The Babylonians never change. The Babylonians are the same today that they were

back then. And so Darius had a great idea. It's actually pretty smart.

He said, the only way that I'm going to unite them is I've

got to assign one hundred and twenty governors to oversee regents. So think the

United States, we have a governor that oversees every state. And then he

said, but I need to keep these one hundred and twenty governors in line.

So he found three administrators to oversee these one hundred and twenty governors.

And the number one thing he needed from these administrators was loyalty and allegiance to

him and his plan. And the Bible says that one of them was Daniel.

If you were doing the math and you've been following this series, Daniel

is now in his eighties. So when Daniel got called into service, he

was full on retired. Like Daniel, his focus was golf and fishing.

But when the King needed someone, he called Daniel because he knew Daniel was

diligent. Daniel worked hard. Daniel was someone that he could trust. The

word diligent means careful and persistent effort verse six. Now Daniel so distinguished himselves

among the other administrators and the sat traps by his exceptional qualities, the king

plan to set him over the entire kingdom. I mean, Daniel built his

life on the pillar of hard work. Daniel was that guy. There's a

bunch of bosses here, a bunch of you owned businesses. You're the manager,

you're the supervisor, you're the boss. We all have that person that

when we need something done, that's who we go to. Man if we

need something done, it might be out of their job description, but we

need it done quick, we need it done with excellence. This is the

person that we go to. We go to the employee that is known for

hard work and diligence. Am I right? This was Daniel. So when

the king needed somebody he thought, out of the entire kingdom, Daniel's the

one that works hard. Daniels might go to. I want to challenge you

if you are looking for a pillar to build your life on, build your

life on diligence, build your life on hard work. Here's the word of

a device. This is the best career advice I can give you. You're

ready, if you're young, you're trying to figure out how do I advance

my career outwork? Everybody else does that work, everybody else. America is

full of professional athletes where this is what we say about them. Well,

if they don't have the talent of other players, they don't have the size

of other players, they don't have the skill of other players. But what

is set them apart is they outwork the other players. I always say.

In fact, we were talking to our staff this week. We're going through

the book Grit, and I told my staff I've been leading Venture for twenty

years. I've had one hundred and fifty pastors come in and out through our

staff, and I've learned that, besides being in love with Jesus, what

I want from people is I want staff that are hardworking and love consistency and

longevity. You give me people that work hard and are willing to stay through

difficulties, and I promise you we will build a big church. Diligence it

was a pillar Daniel who set his life apart with That's what he was known

for. But it wasn't just diligence. Story goes on what happens when someone

gets promoted around you. Have you ever been in a situation where you had

a bunch of fellow employees and you were the one that got promoted and they

didn't. How do they normally feel about you? You would hope they'd be

really excited for you, but in actuality, they're jealous. They get really

frustrated. They're trying to explain away how you got promoted above them. They'll

say things, well, the boss just likes you more. Oh, you're

his favorite. There's always some reason that you got promoted and someone else didn't.

Well, jealousy creeps in, and that's what happened next. So,

since Daniel was now going to be the head administrator over all the administrators and

all of the governors, everyone else got jealous and they begin to plot against

Daniel. So it says at this the administrators and the satraps tried to find

grounds for charges against Daniel in his conduct of all government affairs, but they

weren't able to do so. They could find no corruption in him because he

was true, trustworthy and neither corrupt nor negligent. Not only did Daniel a

pillar of his life not only was a diligence, but another pillar of his

life was this character. When people tried to find a reason Daniel succeeded something

to bring him down, guess what. They couldn't find any skeletons in his

closet. They couldn't find anything. How many of you love Netflix documentaries like

they're like my go to when I work out Netflix documentaries. Every Netflix documentary

is an expose trying to find character flaws in a leader. That's how expose

start. Private investigators are sent to figure out why this person succeeded and why

we should take them down. And then they find something a flaw in their

character, an affair, an embezzlement, something they've done wrong, somewhere where

they cheated, something that they forged on a resume, a school they said

they graduated from. And then all these stories the you and I are familiar

hearing started with someone jealous that was trying to expose this leader. I'll tell

you, if you grow a big business, if you become a successful politician,

you become a successful athlete. If you grow a big church, people

will get jealous and they will do everything in their power to find your character

flaws. When the pillar of your life is character, guess what. They

won't find anything true. So they wanted to see what they could expose Daniel

with. So these leaders hired private investigators to get him canceled. So they

went through every tweet he had posted for the last ten years to find something

that will get him in trouble. Ah They listened to every sermon he'd preached

that was available to listen to for twenty years, trying to find a sentence

that, taken out of context, could get him in trouble. And they

scoured his Instagram posts, They googled his name, looked up every picture that

he was in to try to find somewhere he shouldn't be, where he was

someone he shouldn't be with, so that they can point a finger at him.

But when he was all said and done, they couldn't find anything negative

about him. Not only was he diligent, but he was a man of

high moral character. I'll tell you we have a lot of successful business people

in this church. We have a lot of extraordinary leaders in this church.

Leaders in universities, leaders in the city, leaders in the school system,

leaders in hospitals, leaders in business. Take this as a warning of character

causes even the best leaders to crumble. But Daniel build his life on his

diligence and his character. You could trust Daniel. He didn't have any skeletons

in his closet. Daniel was a man of honor, He was a man

of integrity. He lived a life above reproach. Guess what no one ever

caught Daniel looking at a magazine he shouldn't. Daniel never cheated on his taxes.

Daniel was never caught alone with a woman not his wife in a hotel.

Daniel was never seen smoking something, drinking something that would get him in

trouble. He's a man character. One of the things I do want to

say is exposing ministers is like a national holiday. It's like a national They

love it. It's a great hobby for people. And I'll tell you,

for all the ministers that have been exposed and shamed, there are hundreds more

that they've tried to find things on and couldn't because they were men and women

of high character. But that doesn't make a good Netflix documentary. So Daniel

was a man of diligence and a man of character, but the primary pillar

of his life was this was a man of faith. He was a godly

man. So they tried to find something, could find nothing. And it

says verse five. Finally these men said, we will never find any basis

for charges against this man. It has something to do with the law of

his God. You see. The one thing they knew about Daniel, because

that was his reputation. He's now in his eighties. Man he'd serve through

Neber all of Nebeker's sons, his grandson, and now the Persians and the

Meads. And the one thing everybody knew about Daniel, this man was devout.

He loved God. And they thought this is the only way we could

possibly catch Daniel in anything. He's a man of faith, and that was

his reputation. I did this in the first service. It worked. I

hope it works. Now watch this. Now that Daniel got the job,

the wise man would have to do whatever he said. This made the wise

men very unhappy, and they immediately started thinking of ways to get rid of

Daniel. M Oh no, what we're gonna do. The King like Daniel

more than me and you, Oh no, what we're gonna do. We

gotta get him out of here. Oh no, what we're gonna do.

The King like Daniel more than me and you. Oh no, what we're

gonna do. We gotta get him out of here. We what on him?

The king donegn wanna lie on him. We gotta get him out of

Gail. We could ride with him. The fool dam was shut the time

we goed. Uh, well, you could throw them in the tigers.

Let him for a while and we'll lost it and watch him meet up Hobe.

If I could die, we could put them on a camel's back and

send them off to her with a cowboy had found a room, a boot

without a spur. We could give him gently, don't just take them all

the way. Or we could fill his ears with emails in his n up.

Those of stort pats. We could use them as a footstore, a

table to them play scrabble, and then tie him up and beat him up

and throw him out of battle. On Oh yeah, I like it.

It's sneaky and it just might work. We could use them as a footstore

or tables, apice gravel, and then tie him up and beat him up

and throw him out of battle. On the first service. They were dancing

during that. So you guys were supposed to be like the hip cool crowd.

You let me down on that. So a group of them conspired together,

how can we bring Daniel down? And they decided to appeal to Darius

and manipulate him. So they met with King Darius, and they said it

begins with King Darius lived forever. There was this Middle Eastern belief that kings

were not just appointed leaders, but that they were divine, and this was

them throwing flattery on Darius. And they knew Darius's challenge was to unite the

Babylonian empire around the Persians. So they came up with this idea and they

lied. The first thing they said was all of us gathered together, all

of the administrators, all of the and here's what we think you should do

to unite Babylon. So they lied, but they flattered him, and oftentimes

flattery is manipulation. Bosses, when your employees flatter you, there's a chance

they are trying to manipulate you. Flattery is manipulation. So they flattered him,

and he didn't think, well, maybe Daniel wouldn't agree with this.

So what they suggested is to unite the kingdom. Let's unite them around you

for thirty days. Let's say that everyone in Babylon can only pray and worship

you. And Darius is thinking, well, if I get this kingdom the

focus on my leadership, it just might unite them. So the Bible tells

us that they made sure that he wrote it in to law. Here's what's

important to understand culturally. When the Babylonians were ruled by Nebukanezar. The Babylonians

were run by a dictator, and the dictator determines the laws, so he

could write a law, but if he changed his mind, that law didn't

even mean as much or have as much value as the paper it was written

on. But to Persians, once something is written into law, even the

rulers and the kings have to abide by what is written. So they manipulate

Darius into making a law that says, if in the next thirty days you

were caught praying or worshiping any other god other than Darius, you will be

thrown into the lion's pit. Once he signed this into law, they knew

they were going to get Daniel, so they sent spies to Daniel's home,

and the Bible tells us verse ten. Now, when Daniel learned that the

decree had been published, he went to his home, to his upstairs room,

whereas windows opened towards Jerusalem. By the way, this is all from

Psalms fifty five. It lays out that they are to look to Jerusalem,

that they are to pray morning, noon and night. You got a picture.

Daniel had been doing this his entire life. He's in his eighties.

This was his routine. He prayed in the morning, he prayed in the

noon, and he prayed at night. This was his tradition. This is

what he did. This was his practice, this was his habit. And

he just continued to do what he'd always done. He went and he'd been

getting to pray morning, noon and night. And they him praying in the

act and they drug him before Darius and they said, Darius, this man

does not follow the decree that you just signed. You have no choice but

to throw him into the lion's pit. Well, the problem was, Daniel

was Darius's best employee. You don't want to lose Daniel. I mean,

Daniel worked hard, he was a man of character. You trusted him.

So the Bible says when the king heard this, he was greatly distressed.

He was determined to rescue Daniel, and he made every effort until sundown to

save him. So he tried. He gathered all of his advisors and he

said, is there any way we can Daniel, And he concluded, your

hands are tied. You sign this in the law. You have to throw

Daniel into the lion's pit. So that night the Bible tells us that Daniel

was thrown into the lion's pit. He's in his eighties. When archaeologists have

excavated Iran and different Persian settlements, they have found many lions pits. They

were dug into the ground, and they all had two chambers, and these

chambers were separated by a movable wall. You see. In one chamber they

would put the lions, and on the other chamber they would feed the lions,

and they would lift up that wall and that the lions would pounce and

eat that food. But they would intentionally starve the lions, so they were

always hungry. In that day, they threw Lie through Daniel into the lions

den, and they closed the pit with a rock. But listen to what

Darius said to Daniel. He said, Daniel, may your God, whom

you serve, continually rescue you. Because that's what Daniel was known for.

I mean, Daniel was not only known for being diligent a man of character,

but he was a man known for his faith. The leader, the

ruler in the land, said, Daniel, this God who threw out your

life seems to always save you. Maybe he can save you again. Oh

that people would say that about us. Oh, that people would know how

much we love Jesus and serve Jesus. That even though we are asked to

do things that are contrary to our faith and we have to stand up against

them, that they would respect that we are devout followers of Jesus. Man

in a world where everyone crumbles to the pressure around them to be someone that

they look at and say, Daniel is God that always seems to rescue you,

and I hope he rescues you again. That night, the king couldn't

sleep. They tried, they gave him different things to help him sleep,

but his mind was so troubled and he was so worried about Daniel that he

didn't sleep all night. First thing in the morning, the Bible tells us

the king Darius ran to the pit, and as he was going to the

pit, he yelled out, this Daniel, servant of the living God.

Day you're born, day you're die. You have no control over those,

but you have control over the dash. You have control over someone saying about

you, is that, Brandon, it's the servant of a living God.

Yeah. I mean, if you've got to have a tombstone and have that

be the description of your dash. This person lived for Jesus. This person

was a godly wife, an amazing father, and they passionately love Jesus.

That is making your dash count. Daniel, servant of the Living God,

has your God, whom you serve continually? I mean, what about that

one? I mean imagine being able to I'm in my eighties and the one

thing about me is I served Jesus continually. I didn't have this up and

down, I'm in and out, backslide, repent, backside repent. But

instead now I was just faithful. I didn't have a super impressive testimony to

stand up and tell everybody at church. I gave him a life to Christ

when I was young, and I served him faithfully all the days of my

life. Has he been able to rescue you from the lions? Can I

tell you what? Darius did not expect to hear Daniel's voice. He didn't

expect to hear anything. But from deep within the pit he hears this Darius

made the King live forever, and he's like, what's Daniel, He's alive.

And then he says, my God sent his angel and he shut the

mouths of the lions. They have not hurt me. Because I was found

innocent in God's sight, Nor have I ever done any wrong before you,

your majesty. The Bible says the king was overjoyed. He was thrilled,

my employee is alive. So he brought Daniel up from deep within the lion's

pit. The Bible says that there was not a scratch on his body.

If you've ever heard a sermon on Daniel Lyons, then they always focus on

this verse and says there wasn't a scratch on him because he trusted in his

God. Because this was a man the pillar of his life was his faith.

I mean, he just believed God. He believed the promises of God.

He knew that the Bible is full of all these. If then promises

that if he does this, then God will do this, and if God

said it, Daniel believed it and he trusted God. This was his faith.

At the king's command, the men who brought false accusation against Daniel were

to be captured and thrown into that pit with their wives and their entire family.

You probably read that and thought that's not fair. It's not as it's

not his wife's fault. What did his kids have to do? They didn't

deceive the king. Well, the same thing that those advisers used to manipulate

Darius getting him to write into law, is the same thing that worked against

them. Because if you were found in the Persian culture to have brought false

witness against someone, not only were you killed, but your entire family and

your legacy was killed too. We don't know the names of these advisors,

We don't know the names of these governors. We don't know who their kids

were, we don't know who their grandkids were. Why because their sin caused

their entire family legacy to be wiped out. That's what happens when your pillar

is not diligence, character, faith, You set your legacy up and it

is like rolling the dice at a craps table. But we know about Daniel

because he was a man who built his life on his diligence, his character,

and his faith. The King then makes a decree. I love this

because if you've been following this series, you know that at the end of

Nebuchadnezer's life, Nebukanzer because of the influence of Daniel, Because having watched this

guy grow up as a teenager into a young adult and then a man and

then a senior citizen. His entire life was founded by his diligence, his

character, and his faith. And at the end of Nebukanzer's life, he

makes a profession of faith in God. And that is exactly what Garius does

here because of the life testimony of Daniel. Daniel didn't have the story where

he was, you know, I was a gang banger and found Jesus.

He didn't have that story. He didn't have the man I was addicted to

drugs and found Jesus. He didn't have that story. And by the way,

I thank God for those testimonies. I do. But he was the

guy that said when I gave my life to Christ, and it was real.

When I surrendered my life to Jesus, he changed me forever, and

all I wanted to do the rest of my life is serve Him as faithfully

as I could. And that testimony didn't just change one king, but changed

multiple kings. And the last thing we read about Darius is him making a

profession of faith in God, him saying, if you even talk bad about

Daniel's God man, I will punish you. Last verse of the entire historical

narrative, part of Daniel, says, So Daniel prospered during the reign of

Darius and the reign of Cyrus the Persian. How do you make your dash

count? Build your life on pillars that will stand the test of time.

What made Daniel's life blessed through every single king and kingdom and monarchy and dictatorship?

How did he live and thrive and be blessed? He was diligent.

He's a man of character, and he was a man of faith. He

was a man that it was insignificant the day was born and the day died.

But his life is something that we could emulate. Want you to buy

your heads, close your eyes, if you're here and you want to say,

Pastor Brandon, pray for me as you close. I want my life

to count and matter too. That is you raise your hand and put them

down. I'm actually a little bit stunned everybody didn't raise their hand. But

I'm gonna believe in my heart you meant to Lord Jesus right now, that

is the desire of our heart. The our lives would be significant. That

did matter, Lord, that you would use the dash that is us.

However long we walk this earth, Lord, I pray that you would use

us in a significant way. May we be men and women who are hardworking

and diligent. May we be men and women of character, and may we

be men and women who serve you faithfully with our lives. In your name,

I pray Amen. Before we let you go, I just want to

mention the What's Next tab of our app which has all kinds of resources for

you, a Bible reading plan, even the worship set lists if you want

to listen to the music that we sing here on a regular basis, all

kinds of things for you to grow this week. If you'll go ahead and

stand to your feet, can I just say on behalf of your church home.

We love you, We're thankful for you. Happy Thanksgiving. If you

need prayer, we'll have a few volunteers down here to pray with you as

well. Oh a sh