The Courage To Obey | Courage In The Fire | Pastor Zach Weihrauch

This is a reading from Daniel chapter six.

It pleased Darius to set over the kingdom

120 crops to be throughout the whole kingdom.

And over them three high officials of whom Daniel was one

to whom these sage hats should give account.

So that the king might suffer no loss.

Then the snow became distinguished above all the other high officials. And.

Because an excellent spirit was in him,

and the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom.

Then the high officials in the satraps sought to find a crown

for complaint against Daniel with regard to the kingdom.

But they could find no ground for complaint at any fault,

because he was faithful, and no error or fault was found in him.

Then these men said, we shall not find any ground for complaint

against this Daniel, unless we find it in connection with the law of his God.

Then these high officials and satraps came by agreement to the king

and said to him, O King Darius, live forever.

All the high officials of the kingdom, the prefects and the satraps,

the councilors and the governors agreed that the King

should establish an ordinance and enforce an injunction

that whoever makes a 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 and injunction.

When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house,

where he had windows and 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.

Then these men came by agreement and found Daniel making petition

and plead before his God.

Then they came here and said before the king concerning the injunction,

O King, did you not sign an injunction

that anyone who makes a petition to any God or man

within 30 days, except to you, O King, shall be cast into the den of lions.

The king answered and said, the thing stands fast

according to the law of the means in the Persians, which cannot be revoked.

Then they answered and said before the king Daniel,

who is one of the exiles from Judah, pays no attention to you, O King,

or the injunction you have signed, but makes this petition three times a day.

Then the king, when he heard these words with much distress, and set his mind

to deliver Daniel, and he labored till the sun went down to rescue him.

Then these men came by agreement to the king, and said to the king,

know, O king, that it is a law of the means.

And Persians, that

no injunction or ordinance that the king establishes can be changed.

Then the king

commanded, and Daniel was brought in, cast into the den of lions.

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 dun, and the king

sealed it with his own signet, and with the signet of his courts.

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.

Then at break of day

the king arose and went in haste to the den of lions.

As he came near to the den where Daniel was,

he cried out in a tone of anguish.

The king declared to Daniel, O Daniel, servant of the living God,

has your God whom you serve continually been able to deliver you from the lions.

Then Daniel said to the king, O king, live forever.

My God sent his angel and shut the lion's mouth.

And they have not harm me, because I was found blameless before him,

and also before you, O King, I have done no harm.

Then the king was exceedingly glad,

and commanded that Daniel be taken up out of the den.

So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no kind of harm was found on him,

because he had trusted in his God, and the king commanded.

And those men who had maliciously accused Daniel were brought

and cast into the den of lions.

They, their children, and their wives.

And before they reached the bottom of the den,

the lions overpowered them and broke all their bones in pieces.

Then King Darius wrote to all the peoples,

nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth.

Peace be multiplied to you.

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.

So this Daniel prospered during the reign of Darius and the reign of Cyrus

the Persian.

So I was playing golf with this guy one time.

Just nine holes. Getting to know each other.

Didn't didn't know him very well.

And in the first 3 or 4 holes realized

that his life was a complete mess.

Now that that's not my judgment.

He had spent 3 or 4 holes telling me his life was a complete mess.

He told me he ate too much.

He drank too much.

He swore too much.

Basically, whatever you can think of, he did that too much.

That was our conversation for the first couple of holes,

and I appreciated his vulnerability and honesty.

But then we got, like the fifth or sixth hole, and he said something

that kind of stuck out to me.

He said, you know, I keep waiting for a moment

where God asks me to do something really big for him.

I want a moment where I do

something really big for God.

And I remember being struck in that moment, in that conversation

by the disconnect between those two things.

Struck by it.

Because I don't think that disconnect lives only in that particular guy.

I think it lives in my heart and it lives in yours.

I think it's the unintentional consequence of reading stories in the Bible

that are so big, so epic,

so massive, that that's kind of what we crave,

wanting to be a part of one of those significant moments.

It's also, I think, what we think God is interested in.

So that to be really close to God or to be to experience

the movement of God has to be big. It has to be epic.

We we have to build an ark, or go toe to toe with Pharaoh

or be thrown into a den of lions.

Of course, there are two problems with that.

One is, for most of us, those opportunities

are not going to present themselves.

We're ordinary people.

We live ordinary lives.

We're going to find ourselves in those massive story.

And then if that's true.

The second problem is that might mean that we think that God isn't as interested

in our lives or in our stories, that he isn't at work

in our ordinary day to day experience is something I've been worried about,

as we spent four weeks looking at some stories

in the book of Daniel, talking about courage

in the fire that your takeaway from this series might be.

Well, if a big moment presents itself, then I need to be ready to step up.

But if no such moment presents itself,

then this really doesn't apply to a regular person like me.

It's why I'm so excited that this last week to conclude

a week of our courage in the fire series is not really about epic moments.

It's about something far more routine

and something far more, I think, familiar.

To show you that

if you have a Bible, would you take it out and open it to Daniel chapter six?

It's perfectly okay

to take out your phone or your tablet however you want to get there.

And hey, if you're here and you didn't bring a Bible,

maybe you're not super familiar with finding your way around the Bible first.

I'm so glad that you're here.

And second, I want you to know that everything

I have to say this weekend is as much for you as it is for anyone.

You're an absolutely the right place.

You don't have to hold a Bible as part of the service,

but if you want to, there's one available to you

in the pew, in front of you, or in the back of East Hall.

It's the same one I use.

So I can tell you that Daniel six is on page 696 if you want to follow along.

Thanks for being here.

But however you're going to get to Daniel six, I have a little bit

different kind of an outline for you this weekend.

I want to introduce you to a formula that will make up my three points.

And the formula goes a little bit like this.

R0 plus I rl equals

gg r0 plus I rl equals gg.

Now you don't know what that means. Hopefully you will.

By the time I'm done.

But those three parts are my outline R0

stands for regular obedience I rl.

In case you don't know, a middle schooler stands for in real life

and GG stands for God's plan of salvation.

So what I want to teach you is that regular obedience in real life

is God's plan for salvation.

Let me show you that from Daniel chapter six.

Let's start with the first one regular obedience R0.

Where do we see that in Daniel six?

Well, the first thing I want you to know is that this is actually

not a story of epic courage or epic faith.

I don't mean it doesn't involve that.

I just mean, that's not it's Genesis.

This is a story about office politics that

that get intense and about how it impacts a man named Daniel.

But what I want you to see is that Daniel's

entry point into the story is not epic.

It's a regular look with me at verse five at the plot against Daniel,

and then verse ten, kind of the main moment of action.

Verse five says this.

Then these men said, we shall not find any ground for complaint against this.

Daniel, unless we find it in connection with the law of his God.

In verse ten, when Daniel knew the document had been signed,

he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open

toward Jerusalem.

He got down on his knees three times a day

and prayed and gave thanks before his God.

And here's the crucial phrase, as he had done previously.

So there are a group of guys who want to get Daniel fired.

And in this culture, if you work up enough on the ladder,

getting fired means also being murdered.

So they want to get him fired and get him dead

and they can't find any dirt on him.

So what they decide to do is to criminalize his faith,

to make it illegal to pray to anyone other than the King.

And they know Daniel will do this because Daniel was a man of regular prayer.

Now, what's important is he was a man of regular prayer before the lion's den.

He was a man of regular prayer before the office.

Politics, before the plotting.

He was just a man of prayer.

Three times a day, the Bible says he prayed.

I'm gonna assume that probably means morning, afternoon and evening.

Or, as I think about them, breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Daniel is a regular man of prayer.

When he prays, the Bible says he gives thanks to God for what he has

and he points towards Jerusalem.

Now, that's interesting to me, because the thing about prayer is

that prayer is fundamentally an act of dependance upon God.

Prayer is, at its core, an admission

that we are up against circumstances that are too big for us, and we need help.

Prayer is going to God and asking him to do for us,

or in us or through us what we cannot not do on our own.

It's interesting to me that in this story, the writer could have built the plot

around Daniel's generosity or his integrity, his morality.

But he doesn't.

He builds it around his prayer, his dependance upon God, his realization

that he lives in Babylon and the Babylon, hates his people, hates his God,

that the pull of Babylonian culture is away from God.

And so three times a day he incurs himself in dependance upon God.

Now why is that crucial?

Well, because dependance upon God

is exactly what you need when you go in the lion's den.

When they throw you in the lion's den, you are saying on the way

to and on the way in, God, please help me there.

There are lions that want to eat me.

I don't know what to do about that.

There's nothing I can do about that.

I need your help.

So the prayer for Daniel is praying and the lion's den is the same one.

He's praying in his own den three times a day.

Morning, afternoon, and evening.

You see, Daniel was cultivating a regular pattern, a regular habit of dependance.

This story is not about a guy waking up one morning

and saying, I'm going to do something great for God today.

This story is about a man who's just taking

the next step of dependance.

And I say that because this story is telling us, friends,

that God isn't just present in the big epic moments.

He isn't just present in the crucial moments.

He's present in the day to day.

He's interested in the day to day and that who you are in the epic

moments is fundamentally who you are in the day to day.

Daniel cultivates dependance so that when it comes

time for the lion's den, that's already who he is.

When I was in seminary before a test, we would pray because,

you know, it's seminary and the professors would always pray.

This wonderful or obnoxious prayer, depending on

your perspective, they would say, God, please help these students.

Help them to remember everything they studied,

which if you studied, was a great prayer.

And if you didn't, speaking for my friends,

you felt a little judged in that moment.

You know, you're like God

and maybe even help out us sinners who forgot to study, right?

But what the point the professors were making is one you already know.

Exams are the culmination of what you've learned over the semester.

Performance reviews at work

are the culmination of the work you've put in that quarter.

Friends, listen.

God is interested in who you are today.

Regular obedience matters to God

and who you will be in those crucial moments.

Who you will be in those epic moments is who

you are busy becoming

in the next few minutes.

Daniel's story is a story of regular obedience.

The circumstances around Daniel change,

but he just keeps doing what he's doing.

This story is a story that reminds you your integrity matters.

Your moral choices matter.

Your willingness to forgive matters.

Your willingness to admit you were wrong matters.

Your cultivation of dependance matters, and you never really know

when it really matters.

Which is why regular obedience is so important.

But the truth is, if we're honest,

epic obedience in some ways feels easier, doesn't it?

Because you can see the moment coming and you know, I gotta show up.

It's the daily stuff that's hard.

Have you ever thought about why that is?

Well, I think it's for the same reason.

It's been hard for me to teach my kids when they're little to brush their teeth.

Kids do not understand the importance of brushing their teeth when they're little.

And they come down the stairs in the morning and you say,

did you brush your teeth?

They look at you like you're stupid. No.

Or they come down and go, yeah.

And you say, show me.

And they smile and traffic slows down outside because the teeth are so yellow.

And you go, well, if you did, you didn't do very good.

Go back up.

And every time you seem to get back up there like.

Who cares?

But the thing is, the difference between me

and them is I understand why you brush your teeth.

Like one day they're going to want someone to find them attractive,

and that person might until they smile

one day, they're going to want to do well in a job interview.

They're going to want people

to feel like it's okay to stand within two feet of them and all of those things

require them learning the discipline of brushing your teeth.

You see, the problem between my kids

and I is that I know why we're doing it, and they don't.

Friends listen, your regular obedience matters.

It's another thing that Daniel six teaches us it isn't being wasted.

And that's actually my second point.

Not just regular obedience.

Oh, but in real life.

In real. Life.

I want you to see that Daniel's regular obedience

is not in a vacuum, and it's not in private.

Daniel is a man who lives his faith, who lives his obedience,

who lives his integrity out in public.

That's why they know if they criminalize prayer, he will do it.

And the first thing I want you to see is, if you decide to pursue

regular obedience in real life, you will face opposition.

Daniel did, and you will too.

That's because the culture at large is not moving towards God, but away from him.

If you practice obedience in your sexuality,

they will call you repressed.

If you practice obedience and your integrity,

they will tell you to lighten up.

If you practice obedience

in your money, they'll tell you you're too generous.

You should be wiser.

It won't make sense to them.

Opposition will come to you in your workplace.

It'll come to you in your family.

It'll come to you in your social group.

But here's the crucial point of Daniel six

God wants to use that opposition

to create opportunity for observation.

God wants to use the opposition

to your regular obedience to create opportunity for observation.

And look with me at verse 16. Here's what it says.

Then the king commanded,

and Daniel was brought in, cast into the den of lions.

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.

And then the king went into his palace and spent the night fasting.

No diversions were brought to him, and sleep fled from him.

Then at the break of day the king arose and went in haste to the den of lions.

And as he came near to the den where Daniel was,

he cried out in a tone of anguish, and the king declared to Daniel,

oh, Daniel, servant of the living God has your God

whom you serve continually been able to deliver you from the lion's friends.

Do you see when you obey

God in the midst of a culture that is moving in the opposite direction,

you will have haters, you will have enemies.

You will have people who lie about you, gossip about you, attack you,

who get in your way.

You will also have. Darius's.

Men and women who are.

Curious.

Men, and women who are drawn to you,

who are wondering why do you live the way you live?

Why do you do the things that you do?

Men and women whose curiosity will lead them to the brink,

and they will peer down into the den of your obedience

and they will wonder out loud, will your God come through?

That's what Darius does.

He sends Daniel to the lions and he says, May the God that you serve

come through for you.

He can't sleep. He can't.

He can't entertain himself.

And then the minute the sun comes up, he rushes to the den

and he's asking a question. Not for Daniel.

He's asking a question for himself.

Has your God proven true?

Friends?

What if.

What if the tool that God wants to use

to bring your husband to faith.

Your sister?

Your brother?

Your wife?

Your roommate?

Your friend

is your regular obedience.

The contrasting narrative

of the way you live, the contrasting integrity

of the way you move even though it threatens you,

even though it leads to opposition, even though it lands you in the den.

What if that is the moment in which that person you care

so deeply about stares into your life

and says, is your God real?

God does not waste your obedience.

He does not waste the opposition.

It creates opportunity for observation

as to his reality.

Brushing your teeth spiritually matters.

Your integrity

matters.

It creates opportunity for observation, but.

Not only that, let me show you my third point.

It's not just that regular obedience in real life,

but it's also that's the plan of God.

God's plan for salvaje.

Look how Daniel answers Darius in verse 21.

Then Daniel said to the king, O King, live forever.

My God sent his angel and shut the lion's 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.

And then the king was exceedingly glad, and commanded

that Daniel be taken up out of the den.

So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no kind of harm

was found on him, because he had trusted in his God.

Skip down to verse 25.

Then King Darius wrote to all the peoples, nations, and languages

that dwell in all the earth, peace be multiplied to you.

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.

His dominion shall be to the end.

He delivers and he rescues.

He works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth, for

he has saved Daniel from the power of the lion's friends.

This story begins with regular prayer.

It ends with the king writing a worship song.

Regular obedience in real life

is how God leads people to himself.

Friends, to get this story, forget Darius, who cares about him.

You don't know him, and neither do I.

I want you to imagine what it would be like for your husband to be next

to your wife, next to your brother, in front of you, in the pew, hands raised,

singing the songs we sing, saying, I know that God is good.

I've seen his goodness.

And I met him

through the daily obedience of you.

That is God's plan.

That's always been God's plan.

Build the boat.

Go toe to toe with Pharaoh.

Keep the Sabbath, eat the bread from heaven.

Get water from a rock. Obey me.

God says so that they will know I'm real friends.

If you're here this weekend and you're not yet a Christian, my desire

is for you to see that all of Daniel six is God's pursuit of Darius.

His heart.

The God of

the Bible, is a God who's for you, who.

Loves you, who wants to forgive you.

Even the differences, the contrast, the weirdness of the Christian

who invited you this weekend.

Is God's attempt to get your attention.

Be curious.

Ask questions.

Wonder whether or not this God is real?

Watch him show up.

A brother or sister in Christ.

I know you might think, well, good for Daniel.

God use Daniel's obedience to get the king's attention.

That's Daniel, that's that's not me.

But friends, listen to me.

This is what God has always done.

You are a Christian today, whether you realize it or not.

Because of the regular obedience of Jesus.

Jesus who goes to the cross to carry his sin, not mine.

And you know why?

He can carry his sin and not mine?

Because daily

he said no to selfishness.

Daily he said no to laziness

daily he said no to hatred.

Jesus, who is faithful minute by minute, day by day, month

by month, year by year, decade by decade.

It's his regular obedience that makes his epic obedience on the cross.

Good news for me,

so that when he comes up under the anger and wrath

and judgment of God, it's for my sin, not his, because he didn't have any.

So that when he dies and then raises three days later, it's my victory

as well as his because he, through his regular obedience, could carry my sin.

Friends, this is the very mechanism

that God used to win you to himself.

It's the very thing he wants to do in and through

you to change the world around you.

Stop ringing your hands about the state of our country,

and start getting serious about the state of your own obedience.

Take your eyes off of the horizon

and what might be coming in the future, and put them a step in front of you.

What's the next step of integrity?

What's the next step of forgiveness?

What's the next step of apologizing?

Of reconciling?

What does God want to do today

to reach the Darius's around me?

Brothers and sisters, real obedience in real

life is God's plan to point people to Jesus.

It will not be wasted.

I know many of you have the courage for the epic moments,

but what God is calling us to is a daily courage, a minute by minute.

Courage to be obedient,

to be dependent on him.

Let me pray for us. Father God.

Thank you for Daniel six and how ordinary it is.

Most of us feel ordinary.

Thank you that you have been

using the obedience that changed lives,

the testimony of ordinary people for 2000 years

to change the world.

Use it to change our families,

our communities, our culture,

one step at a time.

Jesus name we pray. Amen.