It pleased Darius to set over the kingdom 120 satraps,
to be throughout the whole kingdom; 2 and over them
three high officials, of whom Daniel was one, to whom
these satraps should give account, so that the king
might suffer no loss. 3 Then this Daniel became
distinguished above all the other high officials and
satraps, because an excellent spirit was in him. And the
king planned to set him over the whole kingdom. 4 Then
the high officials and the satraps sought to find a
ground for complaint against Daniel with regard to the
kingdom, but they could find no ground for complaint or
any fault, because he was faithful, and no error or fault
was found in him. 5 Then these men said, “We shall not
find any ground for complaint against this Daniel
unless we find it in connection with the law of his
God....”
10
When Daniel knew that the document had been
signed, he went to his house where he had windows in
his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem. He got
down on his knees three times a day and prayed and
gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously.
11
Then these men came by agreement and found Daniel
making petition and plea before his God. 12 Then they
came near and said before the king, concerning the
injunction, “O king! Did you not sign an injunction,
that anyone who makes petition to any god or man
within thirty days except to you, O king, shall be cast
into the den of lions?” The king answered and said,
“The thing stands fast, according to the law of the
Medes and Persians, which cannot be revoked.” 13 Then
they answered and said before the king, “Daniel, who is
one of the exiles from Judah, pays no attention to you,
O king, or the injunction you have signed, but makes his
petition three times a day.” 14 Then the king, when he
heard these words, was much distressed and set his
mind to deliver Daniel. And he labored till the sun went
down to rescue him. 15 Then these men came by
agreement to the king and said to the king, “Know, O
king, that it is a law of the Medes and Persians that no
injunction or ordinance that the king establishes can be
changed.” 16 Then the king commanded, and Daniel was
brought and cast into the den of lions. The king
declared to Daniel, “May your God, whom you serve
continually, deliver you!” 17 And a stone was brought
and laid on the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it
with his own signet and with the signet of his lords, that
nothing might be changed concerning Daniel. 18 Then
the king went to his palace and spent the night fasting;
no diversions were brought to him, and sleep fled from
him. 19 Then, at break of day, the king arose and went in
haste to the den of lions. 20 As he came near to the den
where Daniel was, he cried out in a tone of anguish.
The king declared to Daniel, “O Daniel, servant of the
living God, has your God, whom you serve continually,
been able to deliver you from the lions?” 21 Then Daniel
said to the king, “O king, live forever! 22 My God sent
his angel and shut the lions’ mouths, and they have not
harmed me, because I was found blameless before him;
and also before you, O king, I have done no harm.”
23
Then the king was exceedingly glad, and commanded
that Daniel be taken up out of the den. So Daniel was
taken up out of the den, and no kind of harm was found
on him, because he had trusted in his God..... 25 Then
King Darius wrote to all the peoples, nations, and
languages that dwell in all the earth: “Peace be
multiplied to you. 26 I make a decree, that in all my royal
dominion people are to tremble and fear before the God
of Daniel, for he is the living God, enduring forever; his
kingdom shall never be destroyed, and his dominion
shall be to the end. 27 He delivers and rescues; he works
signs and wonders in heaven and on earth, he who has
saved Daniel from the power of the lions.”
Intro: In 1989, 32-year-old Australian man Ellie
Quo was told by his Kung Fu instructor that he had
reached a level in his training where "you can kill wild
animals with your bare hands." His next act left his
instructor and others baffled. Maybe it was to honor his
instructor. Maybe it was to see firsthand the power of
his newly acquired skills. Maybe it was just prideful
arrogance, but Ellie, in the middle of the night broke
into the Melbourne Zoo.
In true ninja style, he scaled the lion enclosure and
once inside he surveyed the pen to see which lord of the
jungle would die by his hands. Unfortunately for Ellie,
all of the lions decided to test their skills on him, and all
at the same time.
The next morning zoo keepers found very little left
of Ellie. Jumping in a lion's den and giving your life in
an attempt to prove a point or in an effort to honor your
master is not the way to do it.
In our story today, Daniel didn't seek to prove a
point or die a glorious death for God. He just lived a life
of faith in God. In so doing, Daniel was given another
opportunity to honor God. In order to honor God, we
don't have to look for a lion's den, for sooner or later we
will find ourselves there. We won't have to look for
opportunities to prove our faithfulness, they will find us.
When they do, will we be willing to take the test and
pass it as did Daniel, or fail it as did Ellie Quo?
This message and text mainly addresses issues that
are relevant to someone who has a relationship with
God. The main thrust of the passage has to do with a
desire to honor God.
You can't teach, coerce, or bow beat someone into
honoring God. You can force people into submission,
but you can't make them honor anyone, including God;
it has to come from the heart.
What this means, if you don't have a genuine soul
saving relationship with God, you will probably get
very little out of this message. But on the other hand, if
you have experienced salvation through Christ, this is
the kind of message a believer loves to hear. Christians
have a love for God and a desire to honor Him.
Before I go to the text and it's message, I want to
share with you who may not have a saving relationship
with God.
The journey to such a relationship begins by
realizing that your refusal to let God control your life, to
give Him complete control, to let Him call the shots, to
let Him determine what is right and wrong for you, is
called rebellion in the Bible. Such rebellion is met with
God's judgment. No amount of good works will ever
undo our rebellion toward God. And Hell, which was
created for the angels who rebelled against God, is also
the place all who rebel against God will go to. Rebellion
is a part of all sins. Adam and Eve rebelled and we've
been doing it ever since.
When one comes to realize he or she has rebelled
against God and will be judged and punished eternally
for the rebellion, that person is one third of the way to a
relationship with Christ.
I say one third because the next thing a person has to
do is realize that Christ is the answer to his or her
rebellion. Since God is holy, He must punish sin and
the sinner. He must administer justice. But He is also
loving, so God provided a way that our sins can be
punished sufficiently and we be saved from judgment.
Christ is the solution. He took the form of mankind.
He lived a perfect life, never rebelled against His
Father's will; thus He didn't have to die and face
judgment. But He chose to die in our place. He chose to
pay our penalty. He chose to satisfy God's wrath toward
our rebellion.
Once we come to believe this about Jesus, we are
two thirds of the way to being saved. And we must
believe this about Jesus. We must believe that Christ
was the perfect sacrifice for our sins, that He loved us
enough to die for us, and that God accepted His death as
payment for our sin, for our rebellion. The proof that
God accepted Christ's payment is that He raised Christ
from the dead.
The third and last phase to a saving relationship with
God is faith in Christ and what He did on the cross. This
faith is more than believing you’re lost and Christ is the
solution; it's staking your life, your future, your all on
Christ and His work on the cross.
The rich man in Luke 18:18 wanted salvation-eternal life, and Jesus told him to sell all that he had and
come follow Him. Luke 18:23 states, " " But when he
heard these things, he became very sad, for he was
extremely rich." The same account in Matthew 19:22
tells us that "he went away sorrowful, for he had great
possessions."
In this account, Jesus told His disciples how difficult
it was for a rich person to be saved. The reason this is
true is they have so many things to trust, while
following Christ means trusting only in Him for
everything, not just salvation. Once this trust is place in
Christ, a person discovers they have an unconditional
love for Him.
If you haven't traveled this journey to a relationship
with Christ, you need to very soon, even now. For
nothing is more important that honoring God, and there
is no better way to honor Him, than by committing your
life to God.
Daniel was a man who desired greatly to honor God.
His life had one purpose, to honor God.
I. God Is To Be Honored
Above all, God is to be honored. He is to be honored
in our decisions, actions, and responses. He is to be
honored in the things we write, the things we say, and
the things we think. He is to be honored in the good and
bad times.
The apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 10:31,"So,
whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to
the glory of God".
In Daniel chapter 1, Daniel was a young man, who
honored God by refusing to eat food that God had called
unclean. He and his friends took a stand for God that
could have resulted in their deaths. Now we have Daniel
as an old man who is still living for the honor of God.
Unfortunately, one of the great obstacles to honoring
God is pride.
A. Pride Opposes It
In our story it wasn't Daniel's pride that was a
problem, but the pride of the other leaders and King
Darius's. Darius had divided his kingdom into 120
provinces with a leader over each province. These 120
provinces were then divided into three regions with a
ruler set to oversee each province. Daniel was one of
the three overseers and Darius was about to put Daniel
over all three.
The other leaders were jealous of Daniel. Their pride
said they should have gotten the position, so they sought
for a way to bring Daniel down. After finding nothing
in Daniel's life to use against him, they decided to use
King Darius, and they did it by appealing to his pride.
Look at verses 6-9.
The king would never have agreed had he known it
would cause Daniel trouble. But his pride blinded him.
Pride blinds us to the harm we do to God and others.
The author of the newspaper article that has caused
so much harm in her church never imagined the pain it
world create, but that's pride for you. It blinds you. And
a refusal to back down, or repent is pride instilled.
If we disagree with our church's and its
denominational beliefs, and especially when those
beliefs have been held by Christians of all
denominations throughout the centuries, and are based
on clear teachings of the Bible, then we need to humble
ourselves and find a place where our beliefs will not
cause harm and discord within the church.
Pride says I ought to have my way and you should
accept it. Pride says I'm right regardless of what the
church believes, the Bible says, or God commands.
The great schemer, Satan, knows that if he can
appeal to the pride of church members and church
leaders, he can get the church in trouble every time. The
schemers in our text knew that by appealing to the
king's pride they could get Daniel in trouble.
They began with "Oh King Darius, live forever"
(verse 6). They were elevating him to the status of God.
Pride does that, it elevates us to the status of God.
Notice their request, Oh king, they said, pass a decree
that no one in the kingdom is to petition any person or
God, except you Oh King for 30 days.
These schemers knew Daniel well. They knew he
would choose to honor his God, rather than save his
own life.
B. Human Desires Conflict With It
Our human desires will also conflict with
honoring God. Daniel had to be tempted to close the
windows so that no one would know that he was
praying to his God, but that's not how he normally
prayed. It was customary that a Jew face Jerusalem
when praying with no obstacles between them and
Jerusalem.
If he had not opened his windows, he would have
compromised his beliefs and failed to honor God. Our
emotions and desires are often in opposition to God's
will. Don't let them prompt you into saying or doing
that which dishonors God.
II. Prayer Honors God
Praying three times a day was a way of life for
Daniel.
Look at verse 10.
He didn't pray for God to punish his enemies. He
didn't pray for God to work things out and protect him
from the king's decree. He was now in his eighties. He
had been through a lot and his three friends in chapter 1
were most likely go on to heaven. Could he have been
giving thanks for the journey coming to a close? Did he
see the lion's den as his ticket to glory? Daniel didn't
live for Daniel, he lived to honor God.
Anyway, we know he gave thanks. Daniel
recognized the blessings of God. He lived depending on
God and had seen God faithfulness through it all. We
honor God by giving thanks, but our prayers also honor
God in two other ways.
First, it honors Him because He desires it.
A. God Desires Our Prayers
Jesus said men ought to always pray and not
faint, meaning don't lose heart or get discouraged (see
Luke 18:1). Jesus gave us a model prayer to follow. We
are to pray, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your
name. 10Your kingdom come, your will be done, on
earth as it is in heaven" (Matt. 6:9-10).
Prayer honors God, especially prayers for His will to
be done.
B. Prayer Magnifies God
Prayer also honors God by magnifying Him, by
putting the spotlight on Him. It does this both in the life
of the one praying and for others. When God answers
our prayers, God and His power are made visible to the
world. Every answered prayer makes others sit up and
take notice of the Most High God.
Daniel's prayers got the attention of his enemies who
tried to use them against him, but God used them to
bring glory to Himself. When King Darius, a nonbeliever, saw how God saved Daniel, he gave honor to
Daniel's God. Look at verses 25-27.
When we honor God, others will honor God.
Conclusion: Jesus said we are the light of the world
and salt to the earth, but this is only true if we live a life
of honoring God.
What can you do this morning that will honor God?
I'm sure God doesn't want us to do like Ellie and climb
in a lion's cage and die fighting them, but He does want
us die.
Jesus said in Matthew 16:24-26, "Then Jesus told
his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him
deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For
whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever
loses his life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it
profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his
soul?"
He wants us to die to self. Pride has no place in the
Christian's life. Our pest control guy who treated our
church last week attends the local church that's having
trouble. He said in their last business meeting, they
voted to give the leaving associate minister a severance
package of 6 months. This will strap the church's
finances which is already hurting. And it will only get
worse as those who didn't get their way stop giving.
Really? Would people really stop giving because
they didn't get their way? Would people stop giving to
prove they're right? Would Christ's followers demand to
have their way? Would they throw their own church
into the financial lion's den?
The Bible tells me followers of Christ wouldn't.
They wouldn't do anything to dishonor God and His
church. But it also tells me that others would. Church
membership doesn't prevent us from acting like the
world, but a relationship with Christ will. Christ
followers are dead to self, we have no rights, and we
live only for the honor and glory of Christ.
When Abraham was called by God to leave his home
and go to a land he knew not, he did it to honor God.
When Noah was asked to build an ark on dry ground
when it had never rained, he did it, to honor God. When
a little lad by the name of David saw the armies of
Israel cower before a Philistine giant by the name of
Goliath, he volunteered to fight the giant to bring honor
to God.
What will you do to bring honor to God? If you're
not saved, don't yield to the call of Christ to avoid hell,
do it to honor God. We are created for one purpose
only, to honor God. If we miss that, we missed it all.
To Honor
God
Text: Daniel 6: 1-28
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EDDIE FLEMING
August 18, 2013
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