Comfort in the Light of Chaos

Faith Bible Church

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

01:34

Well good morning, good morning everyone, welcome to Faith Bible Church, thank you and for those that have been able to join us we're blessed that you're here, for many of you that are not here we just pray that God would be in your midst now as you, when you eventually listen to this and watch this, that you would be blessed by God, hearing

02:03

God's word, hearing the message of, through the

02:08

Psalms and hymns and songs. This week we had so much to be thankful for, didn't we?

02:15

We do actually every week have much to be grateful for to our Lord, this week is just a little special and set aside for that and as a country and so I know our families were blessed in many ways and this is our church family, you know, it really is and those that are watching, if you'd like to join us as well as we tape the service and videotape it, and to still gather, very welcome to do that.

02:50

We are still in discussions when it comes to our pastoral search and maybe joining with another church body, that's still ongoing, still some encouraging things that are happening there, so continue to keep that in prayer and we'll be able to share something in the next couple weeks

03:11

I would imagine to give you an update on that, so let's remember that. Pastor John and the

03:18

Canes are in Southern California with family and they'll be coming back probably today,

03:24

I would imagine, so remember to keep them in prayer and in John's place we have

03:31

Brother Roger Oswald who's been gracious enough to be with us today to fill in for Pastor John and share from the word and what the

03:43

Lord has placed on his heart and we're very grateful that you're here, brother, so thank you for that and so again, we miss seeing many of you and we just pray that the

03:55

Lord would continue to minister to you where you're at, you allow the

04:00

Holy Spirit to continue to work on you and through you, that being separated as a body is really not a good thing overall, that we need to, having fellowship and having communion together is really important, so anyway, just consider that, so let's open this morning's service in prayer, pray with me please,

04:22

Lord God, we thank you, Father, that you have brought us together here in body and in presence together, but also those that are watching and hearing this at a later time,

04:34

Father, we just pray that you would be in our midst, Father, as we lift our voices to you,

04:41

Father, we pray that we would honor you in all that we do, that it would be edifying,

04:47

Lord, that you would, we would see the majesty of a glorious and mighty God, a God that is

04:52

Lord over all things, that Lord, you do not allow things that is not under, that is beyond your, it's beyond our understanding,

05:03

Lord, but it's within your plan, so, Father, we pray that we would be patient, that we would be willing servants,

05:10

Father, to walk with you, to learn more about you, Father, that we would honor you this morning in this service,

05:16

Father, Lord, we just ask that you would go before us, that we would lift our voices in a way that from the heart,

05:24

Father, we would worship you with a whole heart, in spirit and in truth, Father, so we are blessed and grateful, and we pray all these sayings in Jesus' name, amen.

05:33

Good morning again to each of you, we're glad to have you here, we're just ending the

05:39

Thanksgiving season, right, and so I hope that we all have thankful hearts as we proceed now to the

05:48

Christmas season when our Lord and Savior was born, we pray that it might be a blessing to you today, so stand with me as we sing give thanks with a grateful heart.

06:43

Give thanks to the Holy One, give thanks because He's given

06:52

Jesus Christ, His Son, and let the weak say,

07:03

I am strong, let the poor say, I am rich, because of what they

07:13

Lord has done for us.

07:22

Let the weak say, I am strong, let the poor say,

07:29

I am rich, because of what the Lord has done for us.

07:40

Give thanks. The next one we're singing is guide me,

07:50

O thou great Jehovah. Guide me,

08:06

O thou great Jehovah, pilgrim through this barren land.

08:16

Weak, but thou art mighty. Feed me till I want no more.

08:36

Feed me till I want no more.

08:46

Crystal fountain, whence the healing stream doth flow.

08:54

Let thou lead me all my journey through.

09:05

Strong deliverer, strong deliverer, be thou still my strength and shield.

09:15

Be thou still my strength and shield.

09:22

Thank you, and you may be seated. Good morning. Good morning. The reading this morning is

09:28

Psalm 31, verses 1 through 5, and 23 through 24.

09:34

Psalm 31, verses 1 through 5, and 23 and 24. In you,

09:41

O Lord, do I take refuge. Let me never be put to shame. In your righteousness, deliver me.

09:47

Incline your ear to me. Rescue me speedily. Be a rock of refuge for me, a strong fortress to save me.

09:53

For you are my rock and my fortress, and for your namesake, you lead me and guide me. You take me out of the net they have hidden for me, for you are my refuge.

10:03

Into your hand I commit my spirit. You have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God.

10:09

Love the Lord, all you his saints. The Lord preserves the faithful, but abundantly repays the one who acts in pride.

10:16

Be strong and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the Lord. The next song is

10:21

God Leads Us Along. It's an older song. I think the writer of this song must have been thinking of Hebrews 11, where there was a lot of people that are listed

10:36

Old Testament saints that had great victory, but then he lists a lot of other saints that went through very hard times.

10:46

So stand together with me. In shady green pastures so rich and so sweet,

11:09

God leads his dear children along. Where the water's cool flow bathes the weary one's feet,

11:23

God leads his dear children along. Some through the waters, some through the flood, some through the fire, but all through the blood.

11:44

Some through great sorrow, but God gives a song in the night season and all the day long.

11:59

Sometimes on the mount where the sun shines so bright,

12:07

God leads his dear children along.

12:13

Sometimes in the valley in darkness of night,

12:20

God leads his dear children along. Some through the waters, some through the flood, some through the fire, but all through the blood.

12:41

Some through great sorrow, but God gives a song in the night season and all the day long.

12:56

Though sorrows befall us and Satan oppose,

13:04

God leads his dear children along. Through grace we can conquer, defeat all our foes.

13:17

God leads his dear children along.

13:25

Some through the waters, some through the flood, some through the fire, but all through the blood.

13:39

Some through great sorrow, but God gives a song in the night season and all the day long.

13:55

We know that our Lord continues to guide us day by day. Good to have our brother

14:05

Roger Oswald with us this morning. And we were just getting acquainted with him ourselves.

14:11

And he comes from one of our sister churches at Foothill Bible Church in Lincoln.

14:17

And he's an elder there. But I was asking him before, my wife always says, you give everybody the 10th degree, you know.

14:25

But he said he's been a high school teacher, then the Lord led him into the ministry. And we're glad to have him here to minister to us today.

14:35

So, you give what the Lord's laid on your heart. If you want to say a word about yourself to us, you feel free to do so too.

14:42

You know you're getting old when your back goes out more frequently than you do. Again, I apologize.

14:51

This is not a normal posture from which I would preach. But I would like to be able to finish the entire sermon.

14:59

This morning I'd like to talk to you about how do we as believers obtain calm in the midst of chaos.

15:07

Certainly 2020 has been a chaotic year. I mean we began it with an impeachment that had little or no basis.

15:15

Followed by that was a coronavirus that certainly has affected us physically, certainly affected many economically, but worse

15:25

I believe it has affected us emotionally and spiritually. Following the virus or continuing through the virus, we had the

15:33

George Flood death and the violent agenda that came from Antifa and Black Lives Matter and the looting and rioting that went with it.

15:46

Then we followed that with the election rhetoric. We had a presidential debate where neither men seemed to be too presidential.

15:55

And we've been 26 days since an election and we still don't know who our president is. Add to that the cultural chaos of things like if a man decides he wants to be a woman, we're required to pretend along with him.

16:11

What in the world is going on? Is God aware?

16:18

Does God care? More importantly, can

16:23

God do anything about it? On a personal basis, what about my life?

16:31

What about my circumstances? What about the deep waters that I'm going through? Once again, is

16:37

God caring enough to do anything about it? If we conclude that our

16:44

God is unwilling, unable, or indifferent, incapable to help us with our problems, we eventually become plagued with doubt.

16:53

Doubt gives way to anxiety. Anxiety gives way to depression. And depression can lead worse to the rocking of our faith.

17:04

How do we remain calm in the midst of this kind of chaos? Heavenly Father, in the moments ahead,

17:14

I pray that you would give us an understanding of your word. And because we spend time in your word, we have a greater understanding that you indeed are a

17:22

God who cares, that you indeed are a God who is sovereignly working out your eternal plan of salvation, and that one day you will establish your kingdom.

17:33

Until then, Father, fill us with hope. Fill us with the courage to live out our faith in the midst of chaos.

17:42

This we pray in the precious name of our Savior. Amen. As we begin,

17:50

I contend God does know, he does care, and, and this is a big and, he is sovereignly working out everything in my life and yours.

18:01

And to help us affirm this, I'd like to take a look this morning at the book of Daniel. Now, my normal preaching pattern would be to preach verse by verse, but this morning

18:14

I'm going to try and cover six chapters of Daniel in order to lead us to a conclusion about our

18:20

God. Daniel is a very popular

18:26

Old Testament prophet, I think primarily because of Sunday school. I mean, how do you not keep interest from young people when you're talking about men being thrown into a fiery furnace?

18:41

Or another man being thrown into a lion's den? Or a hand, just a hand, writing on a wall?

18:49

A book that's filled with dreams and visions. There's a problem, however.

18:56

And the problem is that I think Daniel has become too popular because of the sensationalism of all of these things, and we've lost the essential message of Daniel.

19:08

While the book is entitled Daniel, while it was written by Daniel, and much of the book centers on the life of Daniel, one might think that Daniel is the central character, that he's the focal point of the book.

19:22

I think we, it's important we understand he is not. However, he does offer powerful lessons for us, especially in the midst of the chaos of 2020.

19:35

Before we begin in Daniel 1, perhaps a historical backdrop would be helpful. Israel was a theocracy.

19:43

God was king. But the people rejected God as king. They wanted a human king.

19:51

God warns them. He tells them all of the bad things that will happen with a king. You know, we haven't learned much as history goes along.

20:02

In the 19th century, Sir Acton, he was an English lord, wrote a letter to an Episcopal bishop, and in that letter he said, power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

20:15

Kind of like what we call government overreach today. In any case, the people reject what

20:22

God has told them, and they ask for a king, and God gives them a king. He first gives them

20:28

King Saul. King Saul starts well, but finishes poorly. But it initiates a period where Israel begins to fulfill the promises of God.

20:39

Saul gives way to Daniel, pardon me, to David, and David gives way to his son,

20:45

Solomon. That is the zenith. Those are the glory years of Israel where they become both militarily and politically the power of the region.

20:54

Unfortunately, Solomon is followed by his son, Rehoboam. Rehoboam lacked the wisdom of his father, and as a result became a harsh king.

21:07

And his harshness causes 10 of the 12 tribes of Israel to move north.

21:15

Now, as you read the Old Testament, they refer to this kingdom in the north as Israel, and the two tribes in the south,

21:23

Judah and Benjamin, occupy the southern region. Now, it doesn't matter whether it was the north or the south, they suffered from the same malady.

21:34

They moved further and further and further away from God. They became apostate.

21:43

In time, they became so bad and so weak that first the regional power,

21:52

Assyria, comes in and decimates the north, carries them off into captivity.

22:00

The south didn't learn anything from that, and 150 years later,

22:05

Babylon comes in and crushes them and carries them off to exile.

22:12

That's the chaos that Daniel inherits. Now, as you look at chapter 1, by the way, before we go there, the consequences that both the north and the south inherited, they were predicted by prophets and promised by God.

22:32

Listen to Moses as he speaks for God to the nation of Israel in Deuteronomy 30.

23:19

He goes on to say, Is that what

23:30

Israel chose? It's the basic premise that comes out of the Old Testament repeatedly as you read the prophets.

23:38

It's with obedience comes blessing and with disobedience comes what? Chastening or discipline.

23:47

Israel chose poorly, and chaos resulted. Now, here's

23:53

Daniel in the midst of that chaos. As you look at chapter 1 of Daniel, you see that the king,

24:00

Nebuchadnezzar, orders one of his officials to gather up the young men of nobles and royal family.

24:08

He wants to skim off the cream of this young crop as he takes them into exodus, into exile.

24:17

Now, all of the people went into exile, but there were a select few that were chosen because the king wanted to use them as a part of his court.

24:28

And so as you look at that first chapter, you see verses 4 and 5. He says he wants these young men to be educated.

24:37

That's really another way of saying he wanted to Babylonianize them. He wanted to make them not like Israelites, but like Babylonians.

24:47

Now, in the process, because they're going to be in the service of the king, he treats them differently than the other exiles.

24:55

Even to the point, he says, you're going to have the choice food of my table and my wine. And you know the story.

25:03

Daniel refuses the king's food. Now, this wasn't civil disobedience.

25:09

This was royal disobedience and could have cost him his life. Nevertheless, he rebels, yet, yet he finds political favor.

25:23

Verse 9, Now, as we move to chapter 2,

25:38

King Nebuchadnezzar has a dream, and the dream troubles him. And because it troubles him, it says that he called his magicians, astrologers, sorcerers, and Chaldeans.

25:51

If you wanted to identify those four people, just call them Nebuchadnezzar's brain trust.

25:57

Those were the people he went to when he wanted their wisdom. And he calls these men, and he says,

26:06

I've had a dream, it troubles me, I want you to tell me my dream and the interpretation. And one of the leaders says, hmm, let's see, that's not how it works, king.

26:16

You tell us the dream, and then we tell you the interpretation. King said, no.

26:22

If you're really as good as you say you are, I want the dream and the interpretation. And the leader of the

26:29

Chaldeans in verse 10 says, There is not a man on earth who could declare the matter.

26:36

Now, when he said that, King Nebuchadnezzar was enraged. And there created a chaos called a death sentence.

26:47

He instructed the commander of his court to kill every one of those men.

26:56

Now you need to understand that when it says them, it included Daniel and three men called

27:03

Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael. We know them as who?

27:10

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael were their

27:16

Babylonian name, pardon me, their Israelite names. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were the names that Nebuchadnezzar gave them.

27:27

But Daniel, even though he was under this pronouncement of death, asked to seek the king out in order to tell him he would interpret his dream.

27:38

And he'd tell him the dream and interpret the dream. The only problem when he did that, he had neither.

27:47

And so he goes to his three friends and he asks them to pray. And then it says he goes to sleep.

27:56

In the midst of all of the chaos that we're faced in, are you able to go to sleep? Or are you bothered enough that you can't get sleep?

28:05

Daniel slept, and when he woke up, he had the interpretation. He goes to Nebuchadnezzar, and he tells them the dream that he saw, the statue that he saw of the gold, silver, bronze, and lead statue.

28:17

It represented the four kingdoms that would dominate the region, starting with the

28:23

Babylonian Empire, the Medo -Persian, then the Greeks, then the

28:28

Romans. Now, it's interesting to note that in verse 44 it says, in addition to those kingdoms, there would be one which would never be destroyed or crushed and will put an end to all of these kingdoms.

28:43

What do you think that kingdom is? God's kingdom. Now, Daniel interprets the dream, tells him the dream and interprets the dream, and he achieves even greater political favor.

28:59

In fact, in verse 46, it says that Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face and paid homage to Daniel.

29:07

A king bowed to another man. Now, in chapter 3,

29:18

Nebuchadnezzar, not known to be a very humble man, erected a statue, a golden image to himself.

29:27

And the statue was 88 1⁄2 feet high and 10 feet wide. 88 1⁄2 feet tall.

29:34

That's almost 8 stories. That's a big statue. And then he instructed all of those who were responsible for governing the region that at the sound of the instruments, people were to bow down and worship that God.

29:54

Now, you know the story. There were three men who refused to do that.

30:01

But even before we got to those three people, in verse 12, those who were envious of the position that these young Israelites had, verse 12 says, and certain

30:14

Jews you have appointed. In other words, they were singling out this group of people who were being faithful to Yahweh rather than to Nebuchadnezzar and his golden image.

30:27

And so Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego become representatives, really, of every faithful Jew. Their chaos was very real and very hot.

30:42

Listen to their calm in the midst of this chaos. Verse 16.

31:22

Now, we know the result. They were thrown into the fiery furnace.

31:32

And they survived. And as they come out of the fire, once again, in verse 29, we see that they have more political favor with King Nebuchadnezzar.

31:44

They honored their God and were rewarded for it. In fact,

31:50

Nebuchadnezzar said, if anyone spoke offensively against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they were to be torn limb from limb and their house was to be made rubble.

32:04

Wow. In chapters 4 and 5, two more visions occur.

32:14

Once again, the wise men, the brain trust, fail to be able to interpret the vision.

32:20

In chapter 4, Nebuchadnezzar has his second vision and sometimes called the great tree vision.

32:28

Now, it says that when Nebuchadnezzar awoke from that dream, he was greatly troubled.

32:35

And so he calls Daniel in to interpret the dream. And it says that Daniel was appalled and alarmed.

32:42

The King James says he was astonished and troubled. Why was

32:48

Daniel astounded and troubled? The answer was because he had to give bad news to a king.

32:56

It was not healthy to give bad news to a king. In fact,

33:02

Daniel goes on to tell the king he needs to repent. Not healthy. In chapter 5,

33:13

Daniel tells Belshazzar, who is Nebuchadnezzar's son, that God was going to end his kingdom because he was found to be a poor king.

33:22

In fact, it says in verse 27, In the

33:31

King James, it says, Now, let me ask you a question.

33:41

How would you handle that sort of chaos that went with taking bad news to Nebuchadnezzar or to Belshazzar?

33:53

I don't know about you, but I've thought about this. And my answer to myself was probably

33:58

I'd be more like Moses. When God told him to go to Egypt to free his people,

34:06

Moses gave him all kinds of arguments. God gave him all kinds of answers. He gave him proof.

34:12

He gave him signs. Yet at the end of it, Moses says, Which is just another way of saying,

34:21

God send anybody but me. Not Daniel. He delivered the bad news.

34:30

Finally, in chapter 6, Daniel is now faithfully serving the

34:37

Persian king, Darius. Yet he finds himself in the lion's den for violating a bad law, a bad law that had been manipulated by men who were jealous of his success.

34:48

Daniel is now facing the chaos born of envy and the terrifying aspect of lions being his roommates.

34:59

Now, those are six exhausting chapters of chaos. Would you agree? Nothing we're facing could nearly address this kind of chaos.

35:12

These brief glimpses of Daniel help us understand the significance of his life in this book, especially as it relates to the chaos of 2020.

35:26

Throughout these first six chapters, we see Daniel in a number of very difficult situations, and he handles them all well.

35:33

We really ought to desire to emulate his calmness. But the greater lesson for Daniel, of Daniel, for us, is that in spite of the chaos around him, his circumstances do not alter his character.

35:52

His circumstances do not change his trust in God. Let me say it again, because this is an important principle for us this morning.

36:02

The circumstances do not change his character nor his trust in God.

36:12

I think as we look at his life, I'd like to address four specific characteristics of Daniel that might help us as we deal with the chaos around us.

36:23

Yes, we have a virus. Yes, we have financial issues. Yes, we have health issues, relational issues, lots of issues.

36:31

But if we could approach them the same way Daniel approached his, I believe we would be better off for it.

36:38

First characteristic of Daniel that I want to address is his commitment, his commitment.

36:46

In chapter 1, verse 8, it says that Daniel made up his mind.

36:52

He purposed in his heart. He resolved. In other words, he drove a stake in the ground and said,

37:00

I know who my God is, and that's who I will worship, not Babylonian gods.

37:11

It doesn't matter what we face. If we have not driven a stake in the ground and said,

37:16

I know who my God is, and him alone will I serve, then the chaos that comes will have an impact on us.

37:26

The second thing is Daniel's character. Two specific characteristics. One, his integrity.

37:32

Second, his humility. Ironically, those led to both political favor and enemies.

37:42

In chapter 2, verses 26 and 27, King Nebuchadnezzar says, well,

37:50

I hear you can interpret my dream. And Daniel says, as for the mystery about which the king has inquired, neither wise men, conjurers, magicians, nor diviners are able to declare it to the king.

38:06

However, there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and he has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will take place in the latter days.

38:17

Now, he could have taken upon himself the glory, right? Oh, king, yeah,

38:23

I'll interpret this for you. But he knew who had given him the interpretation, and he was not going to steal

38:30

God's glory. Very humble man. Humble later when he is offered a reward from Belshazzar, and he declines the reward.

38:42

That's both a combination of his humility, but also of his integrity. In chapter 6, verse 4, it says,

38:51

Then the commissioners and satraps, King James says presidents and princes, began trying to find a ground of accusation against Daniel in regard to government affairs.

39:03

In other words, these men were jealous of Daniel and wanted to in some way subvert him and remove him from power.

39:11

But the verse goes on, But they could find no ground of accusation or evidence of corruption inasmuch as he was faithful, and no negligence or corruption was to be found in him.

39:26

Wouldn't you like that to be said about you? And me.

39:34

The third thing about Daniel we can learn from is his consistency. His walk with God never wavered in spite of the circumstances around him.

39:44

People who were jealous of his position could accuse him of nothing, no corruption, faithful and diligent.

39:53

But this consistency was in one other area, consistency in his prayer life.

39:58

You see, these people that wanted to undermine him couldn't find anything to accuse him, so they had to come up with some way to subvert

40:07

Daniel's role and authority. And one thing they knew was that he was a praying man.

40:16

He was a praying man. And so they got the king to pass a bad law that anybody who appealed to any god other than Nebuchadnezzar was to be put to death.

40:33

Daniel's prayer life was a consistent part of his relationship with God. People knew it.

40:41

In fact, in chapter 6, verse 10, he wasn't going to submit to the law.

40:48

Choosing to honor his God in prayer, says he prayed to God three times a day, and he prayed on a roof.

40:56

Now, the thing about the houses in those days, the roofs were often a place to sleep because of the heat.

41:05

But that was also a place where Daniel went, facing Jerusalem, the east. He prayed three times a day, and everybody knew it.

41:14

So they knew they had him trapped. But it didn't matter. He was a man of prayer.

41:22

You know, because of the national chaos that we've been dealing with, a question for us is to what degree we have maintained a consistent prayer life, or have we capitulated to what

41:36

I call prayer sloth? Have we given in to anxiety, or have we given in to fear rather than praying?

41:48

You know, Scripture says that God inclines His ear to us. He wants to hear what we have to say.

41:55

He's a God who hears, and He's a God who responds. Daniel understood that.

42:03

The last characteristic is that of courage. I think we have a misunderstanding of courage.

42:10

We think courage is when somebody doesn't fear something, and so they act.

42:17

Courage really is not the absence of fear, but the ability to rise above it. Think about it.

42:24

Chapter 1, the commander of the officials who has sway over the life of Daniel, he goes to him and says,

42:32

I'm going to refuse to eat the king's food. Daniel was 14 or 15 years old.

42:38

I never had that kind of courage as a young man. In chapter 2, he intercedes and seeks to speak with the king even though he is under a death sentence and promises to deliver what he doesn't have yet from the

42:51

Lord. That took a lot of chutzpah. In chapter 4, he gives

43:00

Nebuchadnezzar bad news. In chapter 5, he gives Belshazzar bad news. And in chapter 6, he refuses to yield to a bad law.

43:09

You know, there are a lot of restrictions and laws being passed down now. And you and I, as followers of Christ, as God believers, often have choices to make whether I will obey man or I will obey

43:23

God. Who in the world could ever think we would live in a society where the church was considered non -essential?

43:36

Daniel is noble and unflappable in the midst of the chaos around him, yet he remains steadfast, trusting his

43:43

God. Now, in spite of all of that, I said earlier, Daniel is not the focus of this book.

43:54

Daniel's a great story, a series of great stories, but Daniel is really a book about God. It's a book about the sovereignty of God.

44:02

It's a book about the character of God, a God who knows and has providentially ordered everything that has gone on.

44:09

It's a God who cares and a God who did do something then and is doing something now.

44:19

God knows. God cares. God is working.

44:26

Even as we look back at Daniel, we see it. In chapter 1, verse 9, it says, now

44:33

God granted Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the commander of the officials.

44:39

In the 17th verse, it says, God gave them knowledge and intelligence in every branch of literature and wisdom.

44:48

In chapter 2, verse 28, Daniel acknowledges it is God who has given the understanding of the dream and the interpretation.

44:56

In chapter 3, it was God who was with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And it was God who protected them from the flames.

45:03

And they came out of those flames with not one hair singed and they didn't even smell smoky. In chapters 4 and 5, it was

45:12

God who gives Daniel understanding of the two vision. And in the process, allowed him to interpret the impending insanity of Nebuchadnezzar, the end of the

45:22

Babylonian Empire, and the death of Belshazzar. And finally, in chapter 6, it was

45:28

God who sent the angels to close the mouths of the lions. What kind of God is this?

45:37

It's a promise -making, covenant -keeping, faithful God.

45:45

Then and now. You know, when a

45:50

Christian gives a testimony about his relationship with God, that's one thing.

45:57

But when a pagan does it, I tend to take notice. Here's a pagan,

46:02

Nebuchadnezzar, a non -believer, who after sanity returns to him, says, can ward off his hand or say to him, what have you done?

46:46

Darius, after seeing God's deliverance of Daniel, says, for he is the living

46:54

God and enduring forever and his kingdom is one which will not be destroyed and his dominion will be forever.

47:00

That's the God you serve. That's the God you believe in. He delivers and rescues and performs signs and wonders in heaven and on earth.

47:13

But you know, all they're really doing is repeating what Daniel said in chapter 2.

47:21

Let the name of God be blessed forever and ever for wisdom and power belong to him.

47:28

It is he who changes the times and epochs. He removes kings and establishes kings and that includes presidents.

47:37

He gives wisdom to wise men and knowledge to men of understanding. It is he who reveals the profound and hidden things.

47:47

That same God is alive and well in 2020. He's not up in heaven wringing his hands saying, oh, woe is me, there's a virus.

47:57

Oh, woe on me. Any individual is president. Because of Daniel's committed relationship with God, he was able to face everything that kings threw at him, even death.

48:15

Calm prevailed in the midst of chaos. Daniel's character, his consistency and his courage are the result of his faith in, his trust of and his commitment to almighty

48:31

God. The one who is the real focal point of Daniel. That's the

48:38

God to whom we should turn as we deal with whatever's going on in our life right now, personally, nationally.

48:46

We need to emulate Daniel, drive our stake in the ground and resolve to follow our

48:53

God and to trust him and to live in hope. Live in hope.

49:00

God is in control. He does care about you and he does have a good future for you.

49:07

Of course, there is a caveat. The good future for you is not dependent on any merit of your own.

49:18

It's really dependent on the fact that you have placed faith and trust in Jesus Christ to forgive you and to give you the hope of everlasting life.

49:29

For those who have done that, I pray you and I will retire this evening and do exactly as the psalmist said.

49:39

In peace, I will both lie down and sleep for you alone have made me to dwell in safety.

49:48

If you don't know Christ as your savior, if you have not bowed your knee to the

49:53

King of Kings, I pray the life of Daniel would help you see a God of care and concern, of compassion, of mercy and grace and allow that to draw you to salvation.

50:06

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for your word.

50:13

How rich, how deep, how profound. But Father, it is a message of hope.

50:24

I pray that each person here would understand that you are a

50:30

God who is dealing with everything that's going on and that you are approachable and you will respond.

50:37

You are a need -meeting God and we thank you for that in Jesus' name, amen.

50:47

As we close, I love the benediction that comes from Jude.

50:55

Now to him who was able to keep you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory, blameless with great joy, to the only

51:05

God our savior through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority before all time, now and forever.

51:18

And the people of God said, amen. Thank you, Brother Oswald. It gives us a lot of food to think about our

51:26

God and how faithful he is to those who follow him. Stand together with me as we would sing a song

51:34

I think probably most of you are familiar with, In His Time. We have good things and we have bad things sometimes in our lives but we trust that the

51:44

Lord is doing it for a purpose and he has a reason. In his time

52:13

In his time You make all things beautiful In your time

52:27

Lord my life to you I bring May each song

52:34

I have to sing Be to you a

52:43

Lord time Thank you and we pray that it's been a blessing to you today and to those of you who are watching on the video we pray that the