Tempered By Trials
Sermon # 7
Daniel:
Learning To Lean On God In A Crisis
Daniel 1, 2, 6
“Crisis gives notoriously little warning
before it bursts into your life. It doesn’t call ten minutes before it arrives. It
refuses to knock politely and wait for an invitation. More likely, it simply rams the door
off its hinges and there it is. Unannounced, unexpected, unwelcome and unwilling to go
away. Now… what do you do with it? Does it stagger you… or strengthen you? Does
it ruin you… or refine you? Does it plunge you into despair ... or draw you closer to
the Lord?.. Important questions. Important not just for you, but for others as well. The
way you handle sudden crises has a lot to say about the reality of your faith in Jesus
Christ. You may talk about faith but
the way you move through stressful situations in your life reveals to every watching eye
the actual fibre of your faith.” [Bruce Wilkerson & Larry Libby. Talk
Thru Bible Personalities. (Walk Through the Bible Ministries, 1983) p. 145]
Daniel’s life was
seemingly one crisis after another. We see this play out in his life from the time we are
introduced to him as a teenager until well into his eighty. Daniel is a man whose life
proves his faith.
First, In Crisis Daniel Chose Commitment
When trouble comes we react –
sometimes with courage, sometimes in fear. Occasionally when the pressure is on we know
instinctively what to do. At other times we flounder. But to a great extent our reaction
has been determined before the pressure arrives. Daniel 1:8 is the key to understanding
the character that Daniel exhibits. “But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself
with the portion of the king's delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank.” Underline
the phrase “he
purposed in his heart.” What we see displayed in Daniel life is the
difference between beliefs and convictions. “There is a vast difference between holding a belief and entering
into a conviction. One is a matter of intellect and the other is a matter of the will. One
says, “I am convinced.” The other says, “I am committed.” A man may
argue for his beliefs, but he will die for his convictions.” [Wilkerson & Libby. p. 150]
Let me tell you what will happen when you
make a decision to stand for your convictions. First of all, it will be a hard decision. I promise; it
will be hard. Do you know why? Because of peer pressure. Everyone else was eating the king’s
food, drinking the king’s wine, and Daniel was willing to be different. That’s
peer pressure, and folks you will experience it all of your life. But the other side of
that is – when a man or woman takes a stand for his or her faith in Christ, people
will sit up and notice. Many people may ridicule this “narrow-minedness,” others
will try to find fault. But all the same they will be watching and wondering.
The good news is that God will always honor
that kind of decision. After
ten days of eating that kind of food, those guys looked wonderful (1:20). They looked
strong and healthy.
Daniel’s decision was more than for
health considerations, it was a spiritual commitment for Daniel, It was a commitment God
honored in Daniel life. The decisions you make about the small matters of your life pay
off great dividends in your future. The bad choices you make lead to miseries, but the correct and good and
pure choices that you make lead to blessings.
When you choose to stay pure–then God gives you the power to stay pure. But it’s
your choice. God says, “You be faithful to me in the little choices of
life, and I will honor you and I’ll be faithful to you.”
In Crisis Daniel Chose Commitment and…
Secondly, In Crisis Daniel Chose Communion (Daniel 2)
In Daniel chapter two
the king has a dream and he commands his Wise men to give him the interpretation, but they
could not. The king tied their hands by refusing to tell them the content of the dream; he
demanded that they tell what the dream was and what it meant. When they could not we read
in chapter two and verses twelve and thirteen. “For this reason the king
was angry and very furious, and gave the command to destroy all the wise men of Babylon.
(13) So the decree went out, and they began killing the wise men; and they sought
Daniel and his companions, to kill them.” Uh-oh.
You know what? Daniel and his friends were part of this group of wise men.
“It has been said that the
true character of a person is revealed in time of crisis. Daniel faced a great crisis when
the royal executioner stood at his door to carry out the decree of the king! The response
of Daniel is an example of how God’s children in any time should react to crisis.
… He is clearly shown as a man of sterling character who has learned how to trust
God.” [Donald
Campbell. Daniel: God’s Man In A Secular Society. (Grand Rapids: Discovery
House, 1988) p. 26]
· WHEN
WE FACE IMPOSSIBLE SITUATIONS WE NEED TO RELY ON GOD
You and I may face situations that we
consider to be humanly impossible. That’s what Daniel faced. That’s what these
Wise men faced. The king said, “Tell me what I
dreamed, tell me what it means.” They said, “That’s
impossible.” And it was.
Now, what about you? You may be right now,
going through an impossible crisis. It may be that the storm relates to your marriage, it
may relate to your finances, it may relate to your health; but it does relate to some
problems that you’re going through, have been through, or are headed into, that seems
totally impossible. You just need to know sometimes we do face impossible situations.
Daniel did and we do. I want you to see what Jesus said in Mark 10:27. “Jesus looked at them and
he said, ‘With man this is impossible, but not with God. All things are possible with
God.” Do you realize that every time you see the word impossible you can
say, “That is an opportunity for God to do something in me and through me that is
humanly impossible.” That’s a great truth to remember, “Nothing is
impossible with God, keep trusting him!”
In fact God may use difficult situations to
force us to rely on Him alone. Because as long as you think you can handle that problem by
yourself, as long as you think you can deal with that impossibility by yourself, you’re
not going to call upon God. Sometimes we get in such desperate situations that we can’t
get out of and it’s only when we depend utterly and totally on God that we find the
victory.
In verse sixteen we read, “So Daniel went in and
asked the king to give him time, that he might tell the king the interpretation. (17) Then
Daniel went to his house, and made the decision known to … his companions (18) that
they might seek mercies from the God of heaven concerning this secret, so that Daniel and
his companions might not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.”
When Daniel faced this impossibility, he
went to God and depended on God just like we need to do.
· WHEN
YOU NEED WISDOM, PRAY!
That’s what Daniel did. They didn’t
have his friends come together and have a strategy meeting. “Say let’s fabricate
some story that’s feasible enough that the King will say, ‘That’s kind of
what I dreamed about.” No, he said, “Let’s pray.” He called his
friends to pray with him. The best thing you can do when you face difficulty is to pray,
and not only that, but get others to pray with you.
In James 1:5, it says, “If any of you lacks
wisdom, he should ask God who gives generously to all without finding fault and it will be
given to him.” When you’re facing impossibility, the first thing you
do is pray. Prayer shouldn’t be your last resort. You know what we do sometimes when
we face a problem? We try to solve it and then when we can’t solve it, we say, “I guess I’d
better pray about it.” That’s absolutely opposite of what we should do.
When you face a problem, the first thing you do is pray then God gives you wisdom to know
what to do about it.
The result was that we read in verse
nineteen. “Then the
secret was revealed to Daniel in a night vision. So Daniel blessed the God of heaven.”
Now I want you to notice, before we go on. Daniel said, “My
prayers have been answered.” Did you know what? It had not yet been proven
that his prayer had been answered. That wasn’t going to happen until he stood before
Nebuchadnezzar and said, “Nebuchadnezzar,
here’s the dream. Here’s the interpretation. Am I right?” In other words, folks, he was acting on
faith here when he was praising the Lord for the answer to prayer because he only had the
assurance the prayer was going to be answered. He hasn’t seen evidence of it.
· WHEN
GOD ANSWERS YOUR PRAYER DON’T FORGET TO PRAISE HIM.
Praying in faith always produces praise.
That’s what Daniel did. He prayed and when God gave him assurance of the answer, he
started praising the Lord. Sometimes our prayers are nothing more than a shopping list
that we lay before the Lord. “Lord, this is what I need: I need this, I need this, I
also need that and this and this and that.” And sometimes we don’t even stop and
thank him when he answers the prayers.
Prayer without praise is ingratitude. God
always answers prayer. It may be yes, it may be no, it may be wait,
but he always answers prayer. Now when you face a problem, are you going to pray
about it or are you going to worry about it? Because if you pray about it, you can’t
worry about it and if you worry about it, you can’t pray about it.
Look what the Bible says here in Philippians
4:6-7 from “The Message” paraphrase. “Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions
and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you
know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come
and settle you down. It is wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the
center of your life.”
Daniel is perhaps 17 or 18 years old at the
oldest when he stands before the most powerful man on earth, in verses twenty-six and
twenty-seven. “The
king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, "Are you able to make known
to me the dream which I have seen, and its interpretation?" (27) Daniel answered in
the presence of the king, and said, "The secret which the king has demanded, the wise
men, the astrologers, the magicians, and the soothsayers cannot declare to the king.”
I want you to underline the first part of verse
28. Here it is: “But
there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets…” There it is. There is
a God in heaven who reveals mysteries. “… and He has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be
in the latter days. Your dream, and the visions of your head upon your bed, were these.”
In explaining the King’s
dream Daniel is going to predict the next 400 years of human history. But for now I want
you us to see tonight is the king’s response in verses forty-six and forty-seven.
After Daniel tells the dream and interprets it, “Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face, prostrate before
Daniel, and commanded that they should present an offering and incense to him. (47) The
king answered Daniel, and said, "Truly your God is the God of gods, the Lord of
kings, and a revealer of secrets, since you could reveal this secret." In other words God is the one who got the credit
and the honor for what Daniel did.
In Crisis Daniel Chose Communion and…
Third, In Crisis Daniel Chose Consistency
(Daniel 6)
If there is any story from the book of
Daniel that most people know it is the story of Daniel in the lion’s den. Most of you
know the story, so let’s just read the highlights to review the details of this great
story and then let’s talk about its application for us as believer’s today. So
turn with me to Daniel chapter six and verse one, “It pleased Darius to
set over the kingdom one hundred and twenty satraps, to be over the whole kingdom; (2) and
over these, three governors, of whom Daniel was one, that the satraps might give account
to them, so that the king would suffer no loss. (3) Then this Daniel distinguished himself
above the governors and satraps, because an excellent spirit was in him; and the king gave
thought to setting him over the whole realm.”
Daniel not only survived the fall of
Babylon but quickly rose to a position of prominence. But Daniel’s rise to power
under Darius did not rest upon his remarkable accomplishments of the past. We are told
Daniel “distinguishing
himself” among the other officials of the King (v.3). I believe Darius recognized not only Daniel’s
wisdom but his integrity and faithfulness. Here was a man he could trust
in a leadership position who would not cause him to “suffer loss” (v.2). Recognizing his unique
abilities, Darius planned to promote Daniel, placing him in charge of all the
commissioners and the satraps.
What made Daniel’s such a success?
The first basis of his greatest is a positive
The second basis of
his greatest is his consistent integrity.
The last part of verse four says that when his enemies tried to find fault with him
“… they could find
no charge or fault, because he was faithful; nor was there any error or fault found in
him.” He saw his job as a platform upon which he could demonstrate his
faith in God. Twice in the King’s words to Daniel he remarked how he served God with,
“whom you serve
continually” (vv. 16, 20).
No matter how hard
they tried they just could not scrape up any dirt on Daniel. Yet it is those very
character qualities that brought him into conflict with his contemporaries. Daniel’s
godliness was a threat to the other officials because they used their positions to enrich
themselves at the king’s expense. They knew that Daniel could not be bought nor could
he be expected to be silent.
His enemies first
scrutinized his professional life, then
they scrutinized his personal life, and
their conclusion was that no charge could be brought against Daniel unless it pertained to
his religious life (v.5). Therefore, they are going to have to draw a conflict between the
king and Daniel’s religion.
The conspirators
appealed to the King’s ego and Darius fell for their scheme. They convinced the King
to pass a law that elevated himself to the position of deity, and prayer was to be offered
only to him (v. 7).
Anyone not
offering prayer through the King is to be thrown to the lions.
So what is Daniel to
do? Verse ten says, “Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he
went home.” While the king
may not have thought through the implications of this new law, Daniel most certainly did.
The law when passed in effect made Darius the mediator
between all “gods” and men. In the privacy of his room Daniel no doubt struggled
with all the excuses he could make to get around this new law.
What are the alternatives that
Daniel faced when he learned of the new law? He could obey the law and take all his
petitions to the king. He could appeal to the king to change the law. He could stop
praying for 30 days. He could change his custom and pray elsewhere. Or
He could pray silently as he went about his other duties and no one would be the
wiser.
Verse ten continues
by telling what Daniel did, “…
And in his upper room, with his windows open toward Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees
three times that day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since
early days.”
Perhaps the most important part of verse
six is found in the last six words, “… as was his custom since early days.” For
Daniel prayer was a regular consistent habit. Daniel’s prayer life was so consistent
that his enemies could literally pick the time to gather outside his window to “catch
him in prayer.” Then as you very much suspect to happen verse eleven reveals, “Then these men assembled
and found Daniel praying and making supplication before his God. (12) And they went before
the king, and spoke concerning the king's decree…. "
We should never be afraid to pray in public,
but make sure you aren’t doing it for show, and make sure it arises out of a
faithful, consistent, private prayer life. That’s what Daniel did. He went to his
room and opened the windows toward Jerusalem, that is, he wasn’t ashamed to be seen
or heard praying. They were there, and they caught him praying. His prayer, even though it
was against the law, made a powerful statement about his devotion to God.
The conspirators no
doubt approached the king carefully with their news. It is never a good thing to accuse
one of the king’s inner circle. So they began by asking the king if the new law has
gone into effect (v.12). He replied that indeed it was now law. Only at this point did the
conspirators shock the king with the announcement that Daniel has been found violating
this very law (v. 13)
The king at this point no doubt knew that he
had been had. The king was distressed, I believe he was both angry at himself and those
who had tricked him and he spent the remaining daylight hours trying to find a way to
deliver Daniel from the lion’s den. Reluctantly the king gave the order for Daniel to
be brought and thrown into the lion’s den (v. 16). But before doing so Darius speaks
words of encouragement to Daniel, “… But the king spoke, saying to Daniel, "Your
God, whom you serve continually, He will deliver you."
The king’s final words to Daniel are a
commendation of his faithful and constant obedience to his God. Verse seventeen, “Then a stone was brought and
laid on the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with his own signet ring and with the
signets of his lords, that the purpose concerning Daniel might not be changed.” Now let’s not underestimate the
danger here. A male lion can grow to over ten feet in length, including his tail and can
weigh over 500 pounds. A grown lion can kill a 150lb. gazelle with the swipe of one its
paws and then jump a three foot fence with that gazelle in his mouth
In verse eighteen it appears that the
It is with pleasure that the king orders
Daniel removed from the lions den (v. 23) and with almost equal anger that the king gives
the order that those who had maliciously accused Daniel, be thrown in turn into the lion’s
den (v. 24).
The end result was that the king issued a
decree in verse twenty-six, “I make a decree that in every dominion of my kingdom
men must tremble and fear before the God of Daniel. For
He is the living God, And steadfast forever; His kingdom is the one which shall not be
destroyed, And His dominion shall endure to the end. (27) He delivers and rescues, And He
works signs and wonders In heaven and on earth, Who has delivered Daniel from the power of
the lions.”
The decree, acknowledges that Daniel’s
God is a far greater king than he, and that God’s kingdom is much greater than his
earthly kingdom. He is the one who delivered Daniel. By inference, He is also the One to
whom men should rightly address their petitions. Since God had done what the king could
not do in delivering Daniel, God is the One whom men should worship and the One to whom
their petitions in prayer should be made.
In
Crisis Daniel Chose Commitment!
In
Crisis Daniel Chose Communion!
In Crisis Daniel Chose Consistency!