Into the Fire | Week 2 | Sermon

But what happens? God uses Daniel and his friends. He does end up interpreting the dream. And and what I wanna do is I wanna kinda do a a a a common movie thing here. The dream and interpretation kinda happens near the end of the story. I wanna start with what the dream means

to set the stage to go back through the story and show how did Daniel respond through all of this because that's what we learned from. I wanna establish what was this prophetic dream about. So then we can go back and look how did Daniel respond. And what we're gonna see in this in in in this moment is this big idea.

You find favor when you're found faithful. And and and my prayer is by the end, you understand what this really means because many of you heard something very different when I said these words. What you heard was you will find favors from God when you are found faithfully doing some of these things he's

asked me to do. In other words, I come to church, I do a few things, and then God now owes me a favor and he'll give me the thing I really want.

That's not what favor is. And my prayer is by the end, you'll understand what it really is. We'll understand how to be faithful in finding that from the Lord, because that's what he wants to give us. He wants to give us his favor, and we'll be able to do it. If you don't understand it, either I did a terrible job or you fell asleep and fell asleep and started dreaming about something, except for, like, five of you. You'll just fall asleep and not remember anything.

But that's what we wanna look at. So this dream. I don't wanna read through the whole passage. I I got a picture I wanna show in a sec that'll just kind of explain it. Because one, it was about the future. He had a dream that destroyed he saw this statue that's made out of all these different materials.

And then he saw a mountain piece of a mountain break off a rock, roll down and destroy it, and sit there. And and and he doesn't understand what that means.

And and we now know what it means, but he explains it. But we actually know now exactly what he's talking about, that Daniel's gonna share that it talks about these different kingdoms. He's answering the question, will your kingdom last? And God says, no. No kingdoms are gonna last.

But now we know looking back, it's so accurate. We know which kingdom this was throughout history. God called his shots. So let me show you. I got the picture. It's easier to understand with a picture.

And so he goes, he has a stream. It's the statue. A rock eventually destroys it. And then what Daniel was given the gift by God to to interpret it says, alright. The gold head of it, that's your empire, the Babylonian empire. But after you, it's gonna end. And then you're gonna have this silver empire, that

part of the statue. That's gonna be the next empire that didn't exist, the Medo Persian empire. And then after that, they're not gonna last either. Then it's gonna come to bronze, and that's the Greek empire. And then comes iron, which is the Roman Empire. But he says, but then ultimately,

you're gonna end up with this final Empire. And it's really about this whole era that's gonna happen. We're gonna have all these different governments, different styles, different ties, different things, different all the different countries and governments and all that. And they're made of iron and clay. And eventually,

this rock is gonna roll through and destroy them all. Other words, your king is not gonna last king, but you're right. No kingdom is. And he calls the shots. So God, listen, we can look back in history. We can and if there's more explanation in some later on in another,

one of the prophecies in Daniel and in other books. And here's the crazy thing. This was so accurate with all the descriptions that modern scholars that do not wanna accept that God is real

will demand that Daniel was written at a later date than it was written with no proof. Every proof said it was written before any of this happened. And you know why they say it's got a written later without any proof? It's because they can't accept that there is a God that's in control and knows what's going on,

but this is too accurate. Their only reason not believe it is God couldn't do do this. He isn't real. So what's the point of all of this? The point is at first what he's trying to say is, all these empires are gonna end. But if you notice, there's something about the type of

material they're made out of. It starts with gold, the gold standard. Then the next empire is only silver. Then it's bronze. Then it's iron. Then it's iron and clay. It's telling you it gets worse. And so

iron and clay is the era we're in now. And it says this will happen until the in Daniel and in the book of Revelation. There's a final period of time when there'll be one final kind of one world government, and it'll all be wiped out.

We're in this era of the iron and clay, which is the worst. It means it has iron, has some strength, but has clay. That's because it's fallen. It's got humanity. It's got sin. It's weak. It can never solve our problems, and it's even worse than what came before. So here's the point. This is why we're all angry and scared in 2024.

Because there's another election to put someone else in charge of a governmental Empire power that's never gonna solve the problems. It never is.

And that's why we shouldn't be so what's the point? It's saying that it's never gonna work. He's trying to say, King. Yeah. Your King's on glass, but you should not put faith in your kingdom or any kingdom. There's only one kingdom.

There's only one kingdom, and you don't need to be worried about this. And a lot of us get hung up on this too. That's why this still speaks to us today. We're all angry or afraid or scared because of this, because we're putting our trust in this. What we need to put our trust in is the rock

that comes rolling into town. That's the verse I wanna read. The very end of this explanation, verse 44. Then we're gonna go back to the story and see how Daniel gets to this point. It's like, we start with this this moment, and then we go forty eight hours earlier.

And we're gonna go back and see. But here it says this, in verse 44. During the reigns of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed or conquered. It will crush all these kingdoms into nothingness, and it will stand forever. That is the meaning of the rock cut from the mountain.

Though not by human hands that crushed to pieces the statue of iron, bronze, clay, silver, and gold. The great God was showing the king what will happen in the future. The dream is true and its meaning is certain. So that rock is is is Jesus. And it's kinda funny. It's a rock that rolls through.

When Easter's coming up, we celebrate how he crushed death and brought new life and ushered in. And and there's a story of a rock being rolled in that too, away from a tomb. Death ends. Death is arrested. God is victorious. He's calling you shots. So why this dream? What does he give to the king? Well, first and foremost,

he's the whole book of Daniel, the underlying theme is God is sovereign.

God is in control. No matter what happens, no matter who's in charge, no matter how how hopeful it seems, no matter how bad it seems, no matter what, God is in control of all of history. Meaning, he's saying this king's gonna get and if you read all of the prophets, you read the whole testament, he's talking about, I used Babylon, but they're gonna go away because the god their strength is their god, which is probably why Nebuchadnezzar like, are we gonna last? Because we're strong. He's like, that's your god. You're the god. But he used them. He'll use them. He'll use them. He'll this. He's using United States. He's us. But it doesn't matter. God is really in control.

So that's really the landing point. You need to understand. And we need to have faith if we are if we know the Lord, that we need to just put our faith in the fact that no matter what's happening, God has got this. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the first and last, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords. And no matter what stupidity goes on in history,

God decides this is where it's going to end. And it's a promise to those who know him and love him and are humble before him and trust him. It doesn't matter what you go through. It matters who you're with and who's with you. And if you trust that, you will find favor,

not favors. That's our problem. And he's saying, I'm finding favors. I want things to be good and not bad to get incarcerated. That's not the favor. You're gonna go through ups and downs. You're gonna have bangs. The the the Psalms 23 says, even though I go through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. Why? Because you are with me. He doesn't say you're not gonna go through the valleys. You're not gonna go through death. You're not gonna go through bad things. Last week, when I talked about when we truly trust God

and choose not to lose, just don't lose. When we just trust God, he says that we will now know his will from experience, and we will understand his will is perfect. His will is is pleasing. Says pleasing.

That's one of the things he says as well. And then he said, well, then you said we're gonna go through bad. So if I trust his will, that's not pleasing. It says pleasing. It doesn't say pleasant. There is a difference between the two. Favor isn't favors, and pleasing isn't pleasant.

It means that you will go through and find out that God's will in the end, even if it wasn't pleasant, was pleasing to God and will ultimately please you because you will find out it was perfect, and you will actually find what God built us and made us for on the other side of it.

And we will find the favor of God, that peace that surpasses all understanding. It's not about our present circumstances. It's about who's with us. And our job is to stay with him. Our job is to be faithful. What does that mean? What are we to be faithful to? Not religious

practice, not really. It's practical things on how he built us and I'm gonna read through this passage and Daniel was faithful

and his friends were faithful to four things. And I'm just telling you right now, there are four things you've heard out of my mouth over and over and over and over again. And some of you can say, if he says this again, I'm leaving.

That usually means you don't wanna do it. But I'm telling you, if you've ever been good at sports,

you got good by practicing basics over and over again. If you've ever accomplished anything, if you ever you gotta do the basics over and over again. You gotta be willing to do it and and trust because that's what it is. So a lot of what God asked us to be faithful is not these big dramatic things.

There's simple acts of faith that say, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna follow the fear. I'm not gonna follow my own idols. I'm not gonna chase the favors and chase all the things that I I'm only gonna do got things for God that aren't that are pleasant. If it gets unpleasant, I won't do it. That's what it means to be faithful because God ultimately provides all the victory and all the way because he's in charge.

It's that simple. So now let's go back to and look at what these things are. Starting back in verse 14, look at how the how Daniel's day starts. When Arioch, the commander of the king's guard, came to kill him

so no this is the cool thing, is no matter what you're going through right now that seems like, I don't know if I can trust God and and do his will because life is so hard. Did you wake up and someone knock on your door and say, I'm here to kill you?

Okay. We can disagree that every one of us, our problems aren't that extreme. And so he goes, he came to kill him. He says, Daniel handled the situation with wisdom and discretion. How many would you, if a hitman was at the door, to kill you for something you didn't even know what was going on,

you're gonna handle it with wisdom and discretion. I don't think I would describe my reaction as wisdom and discretion. Why was he able to do this? Because that's why I told the story of the dream first. Daniel already knew that about God. He already trusted that God is sovereign. That all I need to do is trust God back.

And since he already believed that, he was able to stay calm in this scenario. He's able to stay calm. But through his calmness, he still does two things. We'll see. The first two points are gonna come out of these verses. Why? Let me finish. It says, he asked Arioch,

why is the king issued such a harsh decree? Saraik told him all it had happened. Daniel went at once to see the king and requested more time to tell the king what the dream meant.

Then then, here's what he does next. Then Daniel went home and told his friends Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah what had happened. He urged them to ask the God of heaven to show them his mercy by telling them the secret so they would not be executed along with the other wise men. So there you go.

He finds out that he's gonna die for something he wasn't even a part of. He goes, I really probably should do something. I'm gonna go talk to the king and go give me some time so I can see what's going on. And then the first thing he does is he goes and finds his friends and they pray.

That's the first two things we need to do to be found faithful, is we need to pursue community and we need to pray to God. See, told you these weren't dramatic and life changing and the fact they're just obvious.

Pursue community. He had a small group and he went to a small group. He pursued them for strength and wisdom and to pray together, to be spiritual together, to actually pursue community in the act of pursuing God. Pursue God's word, pursue him for the answer, for God's wisdom. And God's wisdom is found in God's word.

And they talked to God and they prayed. They prayed.

I just spun around like I was a pirouette. I don't know what I was doing. It's getting late. I'm getting hungry. I'm gonna pursue a sandwich in a minute. Pursue God. Pursue community. Pray to God. These don't sound like, wow, how is that gonna change my life?

Because that means I'm just trusting God. And you know what? Even though he was level headed and great faith and handled with great wisdom, he knew he still couldn't do this alone.

Are you trying to know God and live life alone? It's not gonna work.

We need to be talking to God. How many pursuing God? In the context of God's will for our life. In the context of God's will for our life. Because what do you pray about? How can I go serve God? How can I do this thing? And yet, we often that's the first two things he does. We'll often do these,

but we do it kinda janky. We don't do it first,

and we do it. We we we we don't pray first. We don't pursue community first. Or if we do pursue community, we do what king Nebuchadnezzar did, is we go find our earthly friends that are gonna give us or we read something online, we put something on social media, we ask people questions,

and we just look at the what's the latest psychobabble mixed with a little pseudo religion, and and and and and we just do the same thing. And we we seek this advice from people that probably don't really know the truth.

And I think at some point in our hearts, if you've been doing that, but you're still coming to church, you kinda have that same gut feeling in your heart like the king Nebuchadnezzar did. I don't think they really know what they're talking about because this really isn't helping.

But yet, we'll still we'll seek. And a lot of times what we go seek is allies. I know the people that are gonna tell me what I already wanna hear, so that's who I'll talk to. Real community is people that'll tell you what you need to hear.

They'll pray with you, and they'll point you to Jesus. They'll point you to the answer. They'll point you to wisdom. They'll point you to God's word, and and and and and they'll do that. And that's why we need to pursue community and pray, alone and together in the context of community, pray together. You need a people.

You you need to not just sit in rows, but sit in circles. If you only come to the church services, you are not the church. You're attending one element of a church. We are called to be the church, and that needs circles.

And it needs to be a circle that points you to Jesus and challenges you. So a lot of times, we don't seek that first. We seek it last, like this statement. Community and prayer should be our first response, not our last resort.

Lots of times we try everything else. We listen to our other friends. We listen to this. We look at line. We Google something. We're listening to what the world says and the wisdom and philosophy of the world.

And we deal with that. And it doesn't work. We finally talk to God about it. Or when we do talk to God first, it's more like, God, give me this. This is what I want. We don't reflect on what does God want. We don't approach God with praying for the wisdom to do what he wants.

We approach him with a plead to do what we want. We don't base our prayers out of the wisdom of the Lord, and we seek the wrong type of community. In other words, we never seek this first sometimes. And here's the problem. Community and prayer

should be the guardrails at the top of the Windy Mountain Road that we're driving on called life, not the ambulance at the bottom. See, it's a guardrail at the top. We need to pursue that

always, not after we have an accident. And the problem is we go, I don't have time. Life's fine. I'm I'm handling the road good. It's it's good. Why do I need a guard? Why would I stop to build a guardrail? Why would I stop to put this thing up? And then the other thing is a guardrail represents, man, that's something I could run into.

And a lot of us don't like community. You don't like to be in a community where people challenge you. But isn't it better to get a little dent in the fender and scratch some paint off and just get like, oh, wow. That got my heart rate up Then going off the side and crashing in the bottom,

especially when you don't have the guardrails, nobody knows where you're at. They don't know you're down there. You're you're stuck with either if you're old school, you got OnStar or or your your iFWatch. If you have one of these things, they'll say, we're detecting irregularities

in your heartbeat. You might be dying. We're gonna contact to be somebody to come after you. And then you wait. We do that all the time spiritually.

We won't build the guardrails. I don't have time. I can't do it. I'm busy. I've got things in my life. I can't get into community. I don't have time to pray. I gotta get on with life. I'm so busy driving or the roads really windy. Then I gotta really pay attention. I can't build. And then we go off the edge.

Then you cry out to God and God's people. Or you get mad. You go off the edge. You're crashed in a ditch somewhere, and all you've been doing is attending.

And that logic goes out the window. All you've done is sit here in a row, and you get mad. You know what? I need to go to a smaller church because this big church doesn't care about people. Because nobody reached out to me when I was down in that ditch. Nobody reached out to you because nobody knows you. Okay?

It's your job to pursue community. That's the goal. That's what we agreed to do. We need to connect and you need to be known. You don't have to know everybody. You gotta know somebody. And somebody has to know you, and you need to know them.

Because Daniel, already had this incredible faith and skill and think about when he did this in the con it's death's on the line. And do you realize where he's at in his well, you just don't know what's going on in my life. He got ripped away from his entire culture and watched it be brutally destroyed,

was dragged away in chains as a teenager, and put into an indoctrination program to serve a king that wiped out his people, then tried to get him to believe in other gods, that now he's risen through and he stayed faithful through that, and God has put him in a position.

And now he's threatened to be killed by the same God, by the same king. You don't think that's messed up? I mean, that's worse than Batman's origin story. He's not going around at the, you know, the dark night in some black painted chariot at night.

He got that because of his faith in God. Yet we're like, I can't pursue community. Here here's the little throw punch in this. If you're too busy to do the guardrails that God says this is for you, you will find favor when you do this, then you're too busy. You're doing stuff God doesn't want you to be doing.

You and really when you say I won't do the things he asked me to do in faith, you're really telling God, I don't believe you. And here's the problem. God hates idolatry.

And idolatry isn't just worshiping up a statue. It could be you might say I don't believe you because you have something else you could trust more. Well, I gotta make this money. I have to have this. I gotta do this or it's about that. Or it might just be, don't believe you. I'm afraid of that. I'm gonna believe me. And the problem is when you believe you instead of God, guess who the idol is?

You've made yourself the idol. And God says he will crush idols in our life to get our attention.

So the truth is some of you keep going through the same thing, the same thing, the same thing over and over again because God keeps trying to tear down the idol in your life. And when the idol is you, your life doesn't go well. My dad used to say it this way.

I would he would say, this is good for you. You need to do this. This will be good. And I had to do something. I didn't wanna do it. So I would either half whatever the way he would say it. I can't church it up. And do it fast and not really do it right.

I really wasn't doing it at all because I was just trying to do check the thing off of a list and get it done as easy as possible and move on. And then my dad would come back and tell me to do it again because I would argue. But I didn't have time. I can't do it. He goes, so you have time to do it again?

And if I did it again, so it's now you're gonna do it again. So you gotta make up your mind. If you really want the benefit and the result of this,

you're not gonna check a little. You're not gonna do it so bad that I'm like, alright. I'm happy with it. Because it's not about me just being happy with you. It's about I know what's good for you, and you need that. We get that as a parent. When you try to get your kid to keep doing something over, is it because you are just fixated? I'm like, well, it's gotta be or do you actually care about your kid? I want them to be responsible. I want them to grow. That's what God wants for us. He's trying to show us stuff that when you trust him and you do it right, you're like, wow, that was good for me.

And aren't you the most proud of your kids when they do something right the first time even though they didn't wanna do it?

That's what God says. He's like, trust me. This is good for you. But many of us sit in this room, and you're like, I'll come to church. I'm not gonna serve. I'm not gonna give. I'm not gonna really do what God asked me to do. I'm just gonna kinda because that's all I got the time for. So God's saying, alright. You have the time to to just do it hardly at all, and now your life's just not gonna work, and you're gonna keep doing it. We apply that in everything. We get into a marriage. I'm not gonna do it the way God wants. So then marriages, relationships don't work out. You keep having failed relationships, so you have time to do it over and over and over again.

We do the same with the money. I won't listen to God about my money because I want it this way. I want and you keep having the same stress, the same problems over and over and over again because God's gonna say, it ain't gonna work. And I'm actually if you set that up as an idol, I will knock it down because I love you.

Just like a good parent would do. And sometimes we just think of it wrong. And so we need to do this first because God loves us and he's trying to say, this is how I've designed you. And this is what's gonna take you to my favor. This isn't something God wants from us. It's what God wants for us.

So what is what happens next after they pursue community, pray to God? Verse 19

says, that night, the secret was revealed to Daniel in a vision. Then Daniel praised God of heaven. He said, praise the name of God forever and ever for he has all wisdom and power. He controls the course of the world events. He removes kings and sets up other kings. He gives wisdom to the wise

and knowledge to the scholars. He reveals deep and mysterious things and knows what lies hidden in the darkness. Though he is surrounded by light, I thank and praise you, God of my ancestors, for you have given me wisdom and strength. You have told me what we have asked of you and revealed to us what the king demanded.

So they prayed and they got a yes answer. But why? Because it was in the context of doing what God wanted to do. But first and foremost, what did they do in this? He's now praising God. Worship.

So the third thing we do to find favor from God is pursue community, pray to God, and praise God. Now worship's our whole life. Worship is even involving the final point too. But there is an aspect where he's literally just singing, saying praises to God. You could put that to music and that's a praise song. And that's part of the way we worship God is we literally praise him.

We we we we worship is ascribing worth worship. It's you're telling him who he is in the scribe. Why? Because he's this egomaniacal God that constantly needs to be reassured of who he is. No. We need to say it cause it reminds us of who he is.

And it it it it it's it's and and the reason we do some of it in singing, the importance of the worship with song, is we know the way God wired us. Music with words is where the heart meets the head. It helps us emotionally. It helps us embrace it. It helps us take this truth and get it into the feels. It really does.

But here's the problem. We think we should only worship when we have the feels.

That's the problem. It'll actually take you. You lead your emotions where you want them to go. So by declaring and singing so a lot us come in, we don't sing. We don't praise God consistently because you think, I don't have anything to praise about. I'm waiting for the but we think praise is only when we get the victory we want. You realize he still hasn't gotten any victory. His life is still on the line. The king could say, I don't like your answer. Because his answer was, your kingdom will end.

This guy got mad that they wouldn't tell him something that they didn't know and not even tell him their dream he's gonna kill them all. And now you're gonna go, you're right. Your kingdom's donezo. That

don't you think there'd be a fear that they're still gonna die? They haven't. The answer they're praising for is you gave us the wisdom to know what to do, how to serve you, how to trust you. You gave us that wisdom and you gave us the strength. That strength means the word you gave us the strength to go, I'm gonna actually go do what you've asked me to do.

And that's what worship is. A lot of us don't sing because you don't understand that when you don't wanna sing the most is when you will be worshiping the most when you do. We're supposed to sing on the way into the battle, in the fearful moment, in the darkness,

and that that's when we sing to God and praise God. Worship is our weapon. And if you only think I'll sing when I have something to sing about, you usually have the attitude what you wanna sing about is, it was pleasant. We like to sing when we get pleasant things.

But you're like, but I just kinda fight with my wife. You know, she had a dream about me, and now we're mad. And I did this, or I lost my job, or something's hurting, or I'm not sure, or I got I'm just not happy, and God should always make me happy. And and so I'm not gonna sing.

When actually singing is the way you walk into the battle. It's a weapon. That's what they did in the Old Testament. You know, anytime God told the the Israeli army the literal battles,

he'd say, you're outnumbered. There's no way you can win. It was obvious. And he says, you still need to go into the fight. Line up and go into the fight, but don't worry. You just have to be willing to walk into the direction and go into the fight. I'm gonna win the battle for you. You just have to be faithful. Just go where I told you to go and watch what I do. And guess how they would line up? You think they put their their their special forces out front?

No. You know who they put out front?

Bass player. All the other skinny jean worship leaders. Wavy hair and their denim jackets. The band went first. That sounds like a terrible strategy. And what did they sing? Israel would go into battle singing worship songs.

It was a very literal thing of what we're supposed to do. When we gather here, guys, on the weekend and we sing together,

that's our weapon to go into the battle. And when you choose to honor God that way and do it, it's a gift to us because it makes the mind meet the heart. And we can walk in the battle and say, God, I'm gonna face this darkness. I'm gonna face this sadness. I'm gonna face this problem. The same way Daniel did.

With that wisdom, and that discretion, and that strength, and that courage. Because I know this isn't my fight, it's God's. All I have to do is march into it. That's what it is.

And some of you are like, well, I just don't wanna do it. Don't like songs. I get if you don't like the singing or you don't like the song, like, don't understand the whole thing. You think it's about you, and you think that coming to church is this act of ritual that I do that then now God owes me a favor. I've been a good boy or girl.

Money, please.

It's God allowing us to experience what he wants us to experience. It's what he died to give us and it's our way of accepting it. We have to stand up against the idols because it's not about where you're at, it's about who you're with. And we don't believe that.

Like, I get it. I get it. But if God would just give me this or if God would just take this away, if God would just you're all stressed because you're not accepting that if you do really just trust God and are found faithful, you will get to this place called favor. And there's one more step, one more thing that he does.

Verse 25.

He says, Ariat quickly took Daniel to the king and said, I have found one of the captives from Judah who will tell the king the meaning of his dream. The king said to Daniel, also known as Belshazzar, is it true? Can you tell me what my dream was and what it means? Daniel replied, there is no wise man, enchanter, magician, or fortune teller who can reveal the king's secret. But there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets. And he has shown king Nebuchadnezzar what will happen in the future. Now I will tell you your dream and the vision you saw as you lay on your bed.

While your majesty was sleeping, you dreamed about coming events. He who reveals secrets has shown you what is gonna happen. And it's not because I'm wiser than anyone else, and I know the secret of your dream, but because God wants you to understand what was in your heart. What was in your heart is you're worried about is my life gonna mean something? Is my kingdom gonna last? Is there gonna be any and he goes, nope, not the way direction you're going. It ain't because your kingdom ain't going to end. No kingdom. Your kingdom ain't going to last. No kingdom is.

You need to know the God who reveals the dreams. You need to know the God of all. You need to know the God who is setting up the eternal kingdom. That's what you need is what he's telling the king. And here's how the king responds. Jump over to verse 47. The king said to Daniel, truly

your God is the greatest of Gods, the lord over kings, a revealer of mysteries for you have been able to reveal this secret. Then the king appointed Daniel to a high position and gave him many valuable gifts. Like, we'll see if he got he got the he got cash and prizes. He won. No. No. No. Listen. I'm gonna explain that.

He says, he made Daniel ruler. Because here's the best part. He gave them all that, but he made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon as well as the chief over the wise men. So all these wise men, he saved their lives, but they still didn't like them. We know the greater in the story. He's now in charge. He's now number two in all the land. But then look what he does. At Daniel's request,

the king appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to be in charge of all the affairs of the province of Babylon,

while Daniel remained in the king's court. See, we only look at that like, see, he did these certain things and God gave him the cash and prizes. You come in. Alright. Did what you want, God. Now give me the good job. Give me the nicer house. Give me the better this. Give me that. That's not what he did. He promoted them to a better place of influence. Says they were faithful with the little he gave them. He gave them more. And that's what the bible says. The bible says when you're faithful with little, I will give you more. So what he's saying is what they did is they applied. The last thing they did was they put their gifts into action.

They put their gifts in action. That's the last point.

Meaning, what did it say in chapter one? What was the spiritual gift that God had given Daniel? The ability to interpret dreams. He knew that he was gonna need to use it to save a lot of people's lives, move the kingdom forward. The king can now learn about God. You get these people. You know, they're faithful. He then does that. He puts his gift in his ask actions. It works. God provides that. He gets the promotion. Yeah. He got some gifts, and he got that. But what he was really being put into a greater place of influence,

I'm now right next to the king, and my three guys that are just as committed to me and did this are now out there. They they get to do their travel accounts, and they get to go out there, and they get to oversee and be on the outside. I'm on the inside. They're on the outside.

Our people are gonna be better protected. Although kingdom is gonna move forward, more people are gonna hear about God. I'm in charge of these enchanters of wisdom. He put them in a better place of influence to better speak for God. God gives us gifts, and he gives us blessings.

And he gives us that in order for us to move the kingdom ball forward, to do what he asked us to do. It's not just to give you nice gifts. Now he does say when he gives you the gifts, that was the extra bonus. But that's not the favor.

That was just okay. That came along with it. God does give us he loves like when you give your kids a present for no reason.

There is that moment, but that's not what life is about. They were committed to their life was about God's will. They had gifts. And guys, if you know the Lord, you have been given at least one spiritual gift. Do you even know what it is? Do you use it to serve in the church and appoint people to Jesus?

Because that's what we're called to do. And this is funny. Once again, we're back to why I just don't have the time. And then here's the reality. That's the only thing that's gonna give you that longing that you have like the king had. Will my life matter? We long for meaning

that goes beyond just what the Bible says in Ecclesiastes that that that that God planted eternity in our hearts, and yet we still don't understand what he's doing for a moment. Planet dreaming, we were built for all of eternity. So we want things to matter beyond just this life.

We wanna know that, but we try to fill the longing for eternity with the temporal things of the kingdoms of this world. It's never gonna make you happy. There's never enough. It's never gonna work. So when God says, I've given you a gift. You get to serve in my kingdom.

I'm the one that does the battle. I do the victory. I don't really need you, but I wanna use you. He could have told directly told the king his dream, but he used Daniel and his friends.

God wants to use you to point people to Jesus. He wants to use you to be on the front lines of victory that in a dark world, people are gonna get pointed to Jesus for all of eternity, that there will be people giving praise to God. People will be rescued. We'll be rescued. And it is gonna be this chance to be with the Lord who created us. And he's invited us to be on that team, to be in that army, to be on that force, to be the tip of the spear. And, guys, I'm especially you men, man, I don't understand why men are so lackadaisical and pull back because you're so worried about all these other things. Why do you like sports? Why do you like war movies? Why do you like making money? You like to know that you did something, and it feels like that's powerful. It feels like it's good. How does that compare

to being able to be a part of the kingdom victory for all time? And God used you, your life, your story, and your gifts to change something that will last forever. Isn't that what you really want? And God is saying, this is how you get it.

So why you fighting them? Why are you mad at me when I say serve? Why are you mad when I say we can give? We get to give of our fighters. Why? Because you're other idols, And you're afraid. And I don't care if you say you know Jesus inside out, upside down, and backwards. You don't believe God.

And when you don't believe God, you will never find the favor of God. You'll come to church. You'll quote bible verses. You'll do good things, but you will never live in the favor of God. You know what you live in? This constant up and down stress.

You may come and then you get mad, then you shout out to God, then you're worried, then you think, you know, God's not answering my prayers. I'm not gonna do this anymore because your prayers are, I want the favors. I want the pleasantness. I want this. You're not your prayers aren't, I wanna be a part of what God wants. I want God's God is in large and in charge. It's his will. It's his kingdom. And I wanna be a part of it. He allows me to be a of it. He died to let me be a part of that instead of being in the part that's gonna be destroyed. I get to be in the part that lives forever and actually be a part of that. You want what you you want the kingdom of this world, and you want God to give it to you. That's what a lot of us Christians do. You want the king you want your idols, and you want God to take care of you. That's exactly what Israel's problem was when they fell because they kept worshiping idols, but yet expected God to take care of them.

We need to surrender to his love and his sovereignty and go after it and trust him and be willing because that's when you find what real favor is. You know what the ultimate answer when I kept saying what favor is before favors? Favor is called a peace that surpasses all understanding. That's the favor of God.

It means you can go through the worst things and you surprisingly, that's why it surpasses all understanding. It even confuses you. I'm not freaking out. I'm like Daniel. I can be calm. I don't have to like it. Daniel didn't like the fact that someone says I'm here to kill you.

You don't have to like it, but for some reason, you don't let it control you. Fear, anger doesn't take over. It does like like the way we try to control things. Why do we us as Christians get so mad at politics because we're afraid that we're losing control in our freedoms and we're afraid that it's gonna be bad for us.

And really, we're angry because we're afraid. But I can have a peace that says, hey, I have an opinion. I think I I'm gonna point this way. I'm gonna go this way. I'm gonna do this. But I don't have to worry. You see, here's the problem with the world's way. If you don't get the peace,

then you're controlled by your circumstances always even if you're a Christian. And if you have the favors perspective of God, everything you do is about getting to pleasant. It's about getting to this instead of getting to the pleasing will of God. And what you're gonna do is you're always gonna be stressed no matter what's happening, good or bad. When things are bad, God, I can't handle this. This is scary. It's dark, and I don't have. Give me this. Give me this. Give me this. Then also when it's good, I'm making lots of money. I'm doing well. I'm in a happy relationship.

And then, like, finally, I found someone that makes sense, you know, and all this stuff, and you're happy. But in the back of your mind, you're thinking like the king, is this gonna last? What happens if I lose this? What happens if something happens to my kids? What happens if this person gets elected?

When it's going well, you can't relax. And you know it's true. Every one of you in this room knows I'm telling you the truth.

You have a little it's like a pendulum that moves. You have that one moment when it hits good, and you're sitting there and you're like, wow, it's not bad anymore. This is great. Then that doesn't last. And also it goes, wait. What's gonna happen next? What's gonna happen? And then it comes back down.

But the favor of God is, it doesn't matter what happens. You will have a peace. And that surpasses your understanding because it comes from God and will surprise you. That's the point. That's the end. That's the message. That's what it's all about. And you gotta choose.

Will I be found faithful? Because because when I am found faithful, I find favor. That's what Bronwyn was talking about when she shared our worship leader about her life. Yeah. You're gonna feel a little bit worried. You're gonna feel, oh, but it doesn't take over.

It's not like your robot. I don't ever feel anything when it happens good or bad. It's more like you can celebrate the good. Thank you, Lord. That was a good day. But you can be secure in the bad. You know what? I don't have to worry about this. God's in control. I'm just gonna stay faithful. And then there's this peace.

That's what it's about. And if you don't wanna listen to me, I got a letter I wanna read to you. It's a lot like Bronwyn's letter, what she shared. Because

everyone got pumped up last week when I was rolling around on the ground. Why? Because I was talking about just don't lose. The answer is to you don't victory sometimes is just choosing not to lose.

What do you think that looks like? When I was on the ground, I'm like, ah, and I'm trying to get pinned when I'm wrestling. And I'd go one, two, three, And I'd just get a shoulder up. It's like, alright. You know, pursue community. Then you go down.

Pray to God. They go, alright. Alright. Praise God. Then you know, I put my biggest in action. That's what it is. We get all excited when I go, yeah, we're gonna get victory by just not losing. Yeah. This is what it looks like. This is what you do if you wanna just not lose. Just stay faithful in these basic things.

Just say with your life, I believe you, God. That's all it is. And that's where the peace will come. And if you don't wanna listen to me hollering and screaming and rolling on the ground,

let's go the sad route. This made me cry, so you're gonna cry.

Pastor Bill, I've been reflecting on 2023. I got this letter Thursday. I've been through one of the worst years of my life. The people at Rock Pink Church have typically, when I when a letter starts, been the worst year of the my life. The people have it's not gonna end well.

It's gonna probably end up in the trash can because it's usually mean, but that's not where this goes. The people have supported me in so many ways. I truly don't know what my life would have been this year without my church family.

I have no family in Arizona, so my church family means the world to me. It's so true that you don't need to be known by everybody, but you need to be known by somebody. Someone's listening. I'm so grateful that I have a small group, pursued community, and an area where I serve puts your gifts into practices.

The people I've gotten to know have supported me in so many ways this year. Here's a little bit of backstory. In June, I got divorced after twenty seven years of marriage. I began working full time in July. I hadn't worked full time in seventeen years, so this is a little bit of an adjustment.

We also put our house up for sale. Then I found out I had breast cancer. In August, I had surgery. We sold our house the first weekend it was on the market. So I was also packing, looking for a new home, and recovering from surgery.

My small group helped me pack when I was overwhelmed. Jared and Kat, our small groups pastor who's also one of the skinny jean worship warriors, and the one with the denim jacket on. And Kat, who's our assistance director,

have been so supportive to me by listening to my story and helping intangible ways like finding people who helped me move and setting up a meal train for me. In September, I moved to a new home. Yay. Good moment. I'm so grateful to God for making a way to purchase a new home being single and with a new job.

A small group was looking for a way to serve, and they helped me move as well. This meant so much to me. Even though I was newly single, I didn't feel alone. In October, I had radiation treatments.

I went to radiation every day before work and continued working full time through my treatments while also being in a small group and serving. I was exhausted at the end of the day and the people from Rock Point brought me meals.

Rock Point also had a car clinic, which meant the world to me. I wasn't sure if there was an issue with my car and and to have someone to look at it for free was amazing. They also prayed for me. Prayer with others. November, I lost my job. So then it goes back to really bad. In December, I rested, was at peace,

enjoyed my family. I appreciate this gift that God gave me. That's interesting. During a period of six months, my family, my home, my job, and my health changed. At times, I told myself that I could do hard things and embrace the suck. Thank you, pastor Bill, for saying this when you preach.

Even though my circumstances were the worst I've ever had in such a short period of time, I do not feel like this was my worst year ever. I haven't lived in fear, but in peace. Of course, I had moments of stress and overwhelm, but I didn't stay there, which amazes me. God gave me a peace that surpassed my understanding.

I am so grateful for his love, peace, faithfulness, and provision. I'm so grateful for the people at Rock Point for helping me in so many ways. People at Rock Point, there's people in this church that God used you

because you were willing.

I'm glad that 2023 is behind me. Doesn't mean you have to like the unpleasant. But I look forward to what God is gonna do in 2024. God bless

That's favor that God wants to give you. And some of you in this room are still more afraid of like, oh God, I don't want that to happen. That's okay. Nobody wants this stuff to happen to them. But did you hear the part of how she went through probably worse stuff than what you're afraid of right now and stayed faithful

in the whole process and it caught her off guard that she's actually feels at peace and thankful to God. That's the secret. You will find favor when you're found faithful. Father God, I thank you Lord.

I thank you for your word and your love and your strength. And Lord, I thank you that even though life doesn't always work the way we want it to, you are always there for us.

Thank you that even though we have to walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we do not have to fear evil because you are with us. So Lord, would pray for myself, anyone watching online, everyone in this room that we would be found faithful. In other words, may we respond to your sovereignty and your love

in a way that says, I believe you God. And then we can experience your peace. And I thank you for that. In the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. Hey. I love you guys.

Thanks for joining us online this weekend. Let us know if we can help you in any way. Make sure to follow us on social media and connect with us on the We Are Rock Point app for prayer and everything happening here at Rock Point.