FBC Daily Devotional – December 1, 2020

Faith Baptist Church

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Well, a good Tuesday to you. All right. So here we are the first day of the last month of 2020

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December 1st. I know for a lot of us we've been looking forward to the end of this year and there's been this sort of I Don't know superstitious notion that when we get to the end of the 2020 year calendar year and we turn our calendars over then

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Everything will be all everything will be wiped out Everything will be cleared and it'll be a new year and a new start.

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No more kovat. No more pandemic. No more Political crises it'll all be over Dream on right?

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Well, anyway, I do like new beginnings I like the start of new things and here we are starting a new month.

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It's a it's a great month. December is a month of Christmas and looking forward to All that is involved in that the different Sundays of Advent and so forth and Just anticipating in our hearts the

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Coming of the Lord Jesus and all that he will do in that coming Well, I'm not gonna focus on that I'm looking at looking at Daniel again and you get to chapter 2 of the book of Daniel and it starts off telling us about a dream that the king had and Dreams are often looked at as being as having some kind of significance as if they were portents of something to come and Nebuchadnezzar has this this fantastic dream and Very concerned about it.

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And so he calls all his soothsayers and astrologers and wise men together and he says

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I need the interpretation of the dream and They all say well What was the dream?

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And he says I'm not gonna tell you the dream you tell me what I dreamt and then tell me what it means How that's like.

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Well, they say that's not fair. How are we supposed to know what you dreamt and the

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Kings pretty smart about this he figures If if if the gods can reveal to you the meaning of my dream then they can reveal it to you the dream itself

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If they can't reveal it to you the dream how in the world do I how in the world can I really trust Your interpretation to be what it is, you know be accurate

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So he says no I'm not gonna tell you the dream you tell me that the dream is and then tell me the Interpretation of the dream and if you can tell me what the dream is, then

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I'll trust your interpretation. That's is that's his rationale Well, they're perplexed. They're they're beside themselves.

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They they can't do it and they even say well You know the only the gods would know that kind of information and they don't dwell with us

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And so the King says, all right. Well, I'm just gonna execute you all well for Daniel and his three friends

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Shadrach Meshach and Abednego or Hananiah Mishael and Azariah his three companions

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That's a little bit of a problem because they're thrown into this mix of those who stand to be executed

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So Daniel hears about this this death sentence and he says to the king give me give me a couple days and We'll we'll give you the interpretation.

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And so he's granted reprieve And so what Daniel does is he he goes back to his dwelling and he gathers his friends together and he told them about the

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King's decree and what it meant and Then he said

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Let's pray about it Let's pray about it verse 18 of chapter 2 says

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He Daniel told them to seek mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery so that Daniel and his companions might not be destroyed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon So here is obviously some good counsel for us

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Daniel is living in He's living in exile He's not living in the land of promise anymore he's living under a

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Vicious King. I mean he's he's just threatened to kill a bunch of men just because they won't tell him what his dream means and So this is a very threatening situation this king is a pagan king he believes in the gods

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And not particularly in the God the one true God and so Daniel finds himself in a position where he has to serve this king and Follow his orders and do what he wants and give him counsel and everything and all the rest of that so How does a how does a believer in?

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Christ live under such circumstances Well follow this example of Daniel the first thing he does is

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Go to the Lord in prayer He doesn't organize a petition. He doesn't organize protest movement or any of that kind of stuff that is

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Common in in the political world. I'm not saying there's not a place for that in the civil

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Life of the citizenry of a land that's that's not the point Well, the question is what do

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I do as a Christian? What's my first response? How do I handle it when?

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I have a ruthless pagan employer, for example, and he's making unreasonable demands that I don't

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I don't have it in myself to deal with to handle. What do I do? well Do what

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Daniel did first go to the Lord in prayer seek help and counsel from the

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Lord and when The Lord does reveal to Daniel the answer to the question what it was the dream and what does it mean?

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The Lord gives him that information but when Daniel responds to that we give some insight into his understanding of his

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God of our God that That was the motivating factor for him to go to him in prayer in the first place

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So listen to what he says in In verse 19. It's after it says that the mystery was revealed to Daniel Daniel blessed the

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God of heaven He answered and said this he said Blessed be the name of God forever and ever to whom belong wisdom and might

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Why did he go? To the Lord as a first response because to this

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God the God you serve if you're Christ's Your God is a

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God who owns wisdom and might power authority

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And he goes on to say he changes times and seasons he removes

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Kings and he sets up Kings He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding

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He reveals deep and hidden things. He knows what is in the darkness and the light dwells with him

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To you Oh God of my father's I give thanks and praise For you have given me wisdom and might

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You have made known to me what we asked of you for you have made known to us the

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Kings matter Notice what he notice what he says about the

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Lord. He acknowledges the Lord's sovereignty in putting Nebuchadnezzar in place this king this pagan king who can be so ruthless and Vicious and is even threatening his own very life

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Daniel is acknowledging that it is God who in his sovereignty

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Puts these rulers in place. He puts one in place. He takes one down That's really good for us to keep in mind on this this very

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Critical time in our nation's history when the even the outcome of an election is just so up in the air it seems

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It's not up in the air It's all in the hands of our sovereign God he's gonna put the president and place that he wants to be in place for the next four years or for However long and that in itself is up to him, isn't it?

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So he acknowledges that and it's good for us to acknowledge that as well the sovereignty of God in Putting the king in his place and putting me in his service

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Daniel is acknowledging that God has put me in his service He's put me here in this place where even my very life is threatened

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So what essentially Daniel is doing is placing himself completely at the

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Lord's disposal and utterly depending upon him through this particular crisis that he and his friends are experiencing and The Lord honors that the

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Lord honors that in Daniel's case. He gives him the Answer to the the riddle that the king put before him

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But the key thing there is that the Lord honors that kind of trust and dependence upon him

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So when we're going through these kinds of times in our world and our lives in our workplace in our political world

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Let's follow Daniel's example. Let's go to our God as the one whom we know owns

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Wisdom and might and depend upon him To meet the need of the hour to give us what we need to handle these things

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Well, and in a way that pleases him So our Father in our God We do thank you and we do praise you and we do bless your name forever and ever that you are a

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God To whom belongs wisdom and might and we can depend upon you and trust in you even in uncertain political times uncertain times in our workplace

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Father give us the grace to To trust we pray this in Jesus name and for his sake.

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Amen All right. Well, I trust the rest of your first day of December goes well and God will richly bless you in it