God of the Underdogs – Daniel

MESSAGE TRANSCRIPTION: 

Hey, let’s give it up for our graduating seniors again one more time. So proud of them; we’re for them. Hey. And I got a special word for our graduating seniors. You know, whether you graduated last week or this weekend coming up. You know, we’ve been in a series around here for the past few weeks called God of the Underdogs. And we’ve been looking at these underdog stories, these stories of people that were little known and unlikely to succeed. And then they go on to do something that just blows us all away. And today, I get to tell you the story about this guy. Maybe you’ve heard of him. In fact, there’s an entire book in the Old Testament that tells his story and bears his name. And today, we get to talk about Daniel. Daniel. Most of us maybe have heard of Daniel. We think about Daniel, especially the story about Daniel in the lion’s den. Okay. Like. Like half a dozen of you, the better than the first verse. Like two of them do it. It’s why I love our church. And I get to tell you the story about Daniel today. But actually, the story about Daniel in the lion’s den takes place a lot later in his life. In fact, that’s when he was actually in his eighties. His story really begins when he was a teenager. And I believe that God has specifically positioned us. I’m convinced that this story was recorded and written for us and preserved through the generations for precisely the kind of moment that we find ourselves in today as a nation. What’s happening in our culture right now?

And if I were to ask you this question, do you believe that our culture is moving closer to God, or do you believe our culture right here in the U.S. is moving further away from God? Now, whether you’re a follower of Jesus or not, and regardless of where you might be spiritually, my guess is that you, if you had a vote, would not vote that our current culture is moving closer to God. Something inside of me and something inside of you, just a sense of intuition, would lead you to believe, when you see what’s happening in our culture today, that our culture is actually moving further and further and further away from God. When you look at all that we’ve been through, especially in the past couple of years, when you look at all the political rhetoric and division that’s out there, when you look at all the racial tension and division that’s out there, when you see, and you hear some of the things that people say to one another on social media like they’re unspeakable things that we would say to one another that like ten years ago we would have never have said to someone face to face, we’ve experienced so many mass shootings now in our nation that we’ve almost become numb to it. And so whether you’re a person of faith or not, whether you’re a follower of Jesus or not, I think all of us sense the shifting cultural values, especially when it comes to morality that’s happening in our world today. And if you don’t understand this shift that’s happening in culture, if you don’t understand what I’m talking about, here’s what you need to do. Just go talk to a parent of a teenager. They’ll tell you all about it. Some of the things that parents, you know what I’m talking to? If you got a teenager, would you just say, amen, some of the things that your kids are talking to you about that they’re wrestling with, that they’re going through, it just blows your mind. What’s happening in our culture today, and especially when you think of this global pandemic that we’ve been through in the last year and a half. I believe that this pandemic has only accelerated this shift in culture that was already happening at a rapid pace. Our culture is spiraling out of control. And here’s our tendency. Our tendency is to lose hope. But I’m here to tell you today I have not lost hope because there is a group of underdogs that are growing up right here in our church that I believe are going to go on to do great things in our community and wherever God leads them. But we do need to ask the right question. And here’s the question for today.

How do you stand out and stand strong in a culture of compromise?

How do you do that? How do you stand out and stand strong in a culture of compromise that is shifting, that is moving further and further away from God at a rapid pace? Listen, this culture shift that we’re experiencing as a nation right now, it’s not the first time culture shift. The culture is actually always shifting. God is the one that actually stays strong and secure. God is the one that never changes. Culture is always changing. In fact, Daniel, he found himself in a culture that was shifting so far, a lot further away from God than even our current culture is now. The background of Daniel’s story, we actually pick it up in 605 B.C. What happened in 605 B.C. is that the nation of Babylon led by a king? You might have heard of him. He was King Nebuchadnezzar. He is the largest, most powerful nation on the face of the planet. 605 B.C., he takes his big, bad army over to Jerusalem, about a thousand miles away. He conquers Jerusalem. He conquers the Jews. He tears down the whole city. The walls that were around the temple. He even burned the temple to the ground, as if to say, I’m going to destroy any even attempt that you have to worship this God you call Yahweh and claim to be the one true God. I’m going to wipe you and your God off the face of the earth. And if that wasn’t bad enough, this evil, perverted king decides to deport all of these young, bright, intelligent, sharp leaders within the nation of Israel, and he takes them a thousand miles away, back to Babylon. Now, Daniel, he was one that was deported back to Babylon after his nation was conquered. He was only about a teenager at the time. He might have just finished his freshman year at Jerusalem Community High School, you know, home of the mighty sheep. You know, they were bad, too, you know, And he’s deported back to Babylon, away from his family, this very evil and perverted culture that people there were. You think they’re far from God now? They were so much further from God than even we know today in our own culture. And this is where we pick up the story in Daniel chapter one, verse three.

 DANIEL 1:3-4A

 Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, his chief of staff, to bring to the palace some of the young men of Judah’s royal family and other noble families, who had been brought to Babylon as captives.

That’s how we try to hire staff around here, you know. Anyway, so he says, I want you to bring all these strong, young, smart, bright Hebrews to me. And he gives us some very specific orders. He says, This.

DANIEL1:4B-5 

Train these young men in the language and literature of Babylon.” The king assigned them a daily ration of food and wine from his own kitchens.

They were to be trained for

So he’s saying to his chief of staff, here’s what I want you to do with all these young people from Israel that we’ve deported back into Babylon. I want you to teach them to think like we think to speak like we speak. To act like we act. So they can behave like we behave and believe like we believe. It was an intentional and strategic indoctrination of these Hebrew boys into Babylonian culture, and I believe, in many ways, that’s still what Satan is doing in our culture today. He’s selling our culture and this next generation a bill of lies to convince them to think like he thinks. To talk like he talks, to act like he acts so that they can believe like. He believes he’s trying to change what they believe. Now, the story of Daniel is told about him and three of his buddies. Here’s their names. Daniel Hen and I. Michelle and Azari. They were four of the young men chosen from the tribe of Judah. So how is Daniel and his three buddies? How are they going to stand out and stand strong? In a culture of compromise. How are you and I going to do that, even in this culture of compromise today? Well, Daniel shows us how. Number one, you have to.

Remember who God says you are.

 This is so important, especially for this generation, where there is an all-out assault. Not just trying to convince them to think like he thinks. To speak like he speaks to, act like he acts. But there’s an all-out assault on this generation’s identity. To confuse. Their identity. To convince them to forget. What God really says, who they are. Look what happens here. The chief of staff re-named them. So the first thing that he does to indoctrinate. To brainwash these Hebrew boys into Babylonian culture. What did he do? He re-named them with these Babylonian names. Daniel was called Balthasar hen, and I was called Shadrach. Mishael was called Meshach, and Azariah was called Abednego. Don’t miss this. This is. This is huge. It’s very important to gloss over this and its connection to what’s happening in our culture today. Starts with Daniel. Daniel? His name in Hebrew means God is my judge. But his new Babylonian name becomes Belteshazzar, which means lady protect the king. See what’s happening. The first thing they do is they give Daniel a girl’s name. They’re jacking with his identity. You think gender confusion that’s happening in our culture is the very first time? No, no, no. It goes all the way back to Daniel. And when you study pagan culture, you will always find gender confusion part of it. Do your homework, do your research. Gender confusion is. Well, a man is not really a man, and a woman’s not really a woman. There’s really no difference between men and women. That’s called gender confusion. And it’s been going on since the time of Daniel. It’s nothing new. It’s an assault on someone’s identity. You’re not really a man. Some of you have heard this your whole life. You’re not really a woman. You know, like real men don’t act. You’re not a real man. You’re not a real woman.

Some of you have been told this. And that’s what they were telling Daniel because they’re trying to change his identity. Look at the next one, Hananiah means in Hebrew. Yahweh has been gracious, but his name is changed to change to Shadrach, which means I am fearful of God. So I go from God. He’s been so good. He’s been so gracious to me too. Now I have to fear God. Michelle, who is what God is. That’s another way of saying who is like our God. There’s no one like our God, Yahweh. His name is changed to Meshach. I am despised and shameful before God. You see what that’s doing? You see what they’re saying just by that. Every time they would call him by his name, trying to reinforce a false narrative to change their identity. Azaria Yahweh has helped. God, you’ve been so good. You’ve helped me my whole life. You begin to Abednego servant of Nebo, who’s Nebo Nebo is one of the pagan gods. This is so critical when I look at what’s happening even in our generation, that if you’re going to stand strong and how Daniel and Hananiah and Michelle and Azaria, we’re going to stand strong and stand out in a world of compromise, it’s so critical. They have to remember who God says you are. Never forget who God says you are. See all four of them? These boys, they were given their Hebrew names by their Hebrew parents, who believed in Yahweh. And when they were given their names, their actual names were connected to the worship of God. God, you’re being gracious to me. God, you’ve helped me. So every time their mom and dad called them by their name, they’re being reminded. Of who God is. Their identity is connected to the God that they serve. And I’m sure just like you, mom, and just like you, dad, they heard their parents say a million times. I love you. God loves you. God’s for you. I know this is hard, but God will help you. God will help us. And now that Hebrew identity of who they are as young men has been now connected and perverted and distorted to a pagan God. If you’re going to stand, listen, you have to remember who God says you are. Some of you have allowed the names and labels that others have spoken over your life to now define your identity. You have heard people, even if it was just one, that spoke something nasty into your life. You’re fat. You’re skinny. You’re ugly. You’ll never amount to anything. You’re a loser. You’re stupid. No one’s ever going to want you. You’re a mess. You’ll never accomplish anything. See those things that are spoken over your life? You’ve allowed them now to define you. You’re broken. No one will ever want you because you cannot be fixed. These are labels that have been that have been spoken over your life. But I’m here to tell you, listen. God says you are made in his image. God says You’re amazing. God says I love you. God says I’m for you. God says You’re my child. That I’ve called you, I’ve anointed you. I put my spirit inside of you. I’ve got wonderful plans. And purpose is not to hurt you. Come on. But to help you and to give you hope for a future. That is what God says you are. And if you’re going to be able to stand strong in a shifting culture, you have to remember who God says you are, and you base your identity on not what others say but on what your Heavenly Father says, who you are.

We have an entire generation that is struggling with their identity. Identity is the number single one issue for this generation. Who am I? If you don’t believe me, listen to the music that they listen to. It’s all about identity. Watch the movies that they watch. Read the books and magazines that they read. They don’t read magazines. They read everything online. Read the digital version. How do you stand strong? You remember who God says you are. Number two or number two.

You resolve not to compromise ahead of time.

I love this one. Look what happens next. It says this as we come to the next verse. But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine. So once you read what we read, I want you to think like we think we should believe. Like we really want to act like we would redefine your identity. And we also want you to change your diet. We want you to eat the food from the king’s table. That comes from the king’s kitchen. And just so you understand, what that meant, was that all the food that was consumed by the king and the Royal Court, which they now had permission to eat and drink, it was first sacrificed to their pagan gods. And so, Daniel, when he learns of this, he resolved. He made a decision in advance. He predetermined in his heart not to defile himself with the royal food and wine. And he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself in this in this way. I just love this. He’s making a decision in advance. Say, this is what I’m willing to do, and this is what I’m not willing to do before the temptation is sitting in front of him. He’s making a decision in advance. This is so much of your success in following Jesus and living a life of faith that brings glory and honor to Him. Are the decisions that you make in advance about what you will and what you won’t do with your body, what you will say and what you won’t say with your tongue. Who you will and who you won’t hang out with. And what you’re doing when you’re with them. These are decisions that you make in advance to resolve and make a commitment in your heart. Like this is the kind of person I’m going to be, and this is the direction I’m going to take my life. And for some of you, I mean, you are like the life of the party, a party animal. When you showed up, everything just got better, and you drank that there was no tomorrow got wasted. But then, all of a sudden, something happened. You became a follower of Jesus. Things begin to change your life. Now you have to make a resolution in your heart. And for you, it might mean, hey, when you go to the party, you’re not going to get wasted anymore. You’re not going to snort that. You’re not going to smoke that. You’re not going to shoot that in your arm because you look back over your life and you know that some of the worst decisions you ever made in your life, where you were in connection to all these kind of chemicals that made you into somebody you really weren’t in that moment. And so you’re for you. What that means is you still go to the party, but you’re just not going to get wasted. For others of you that the temptation is still so strong. And that was such a controlling substance in your life. For you, it just might mean I don’t go to those parties anymore. It doesn’t mean I don’t love those people. It doesn’t mean I’m better than them or holier than thou. It just says for me, if I do that, I know it leads to a place that’s going to end up. I’m going to defile myself. If I find myself in that situation. For some of you, here’s what it means. You have made a vow. You have made a commitment to your spouse. To not have an intimate relationship with someone else. And so for you that what this means is perhaps when you’re hanging out at the water cooler work and somebody is talking to she says how horrible her husband is, or she says how horrible her or his wife is. Like, you’re not going to get involved in that conversation because you’ve made a decision. I’m not going to be involved in an intimate conversation with somebody else about their marriage because I want to protect my marriage and my vow. I don’t want to defile my marriage. Maybe they need someone to talk to, but that someone isn’t me. Because it’s a really slippery slope, friend. Maybe for you, your decision, your predetermined resolution in your heart, is that you know what? Every time we’re in town, we’re going to church as a family. Because that’s for me and my house. We’re going to serve the Lord. So success starts on Sunday, and we’re going to be in church. And if I’m out of town on vacation, I’m just going to connect online. And by the way, thanks for connecting with us online. If you’re online today, we miss you. Can’t wait to see you back. We love you. And you’re going to connect online even when you’re not in town. Because, you know, for you, you need the worship. You need the word of God being spoken over your life so that you could live a successful life that’s going to bring glory and honor to God for you. This might mean, Hey, I am going to make a decision in advance that I am going to trust God with my money. I’m going to manage my money God’s way. Because honestly, it’s not even my money. It’s just on loan to me. I’m just a steward and manage it God’s way. So for me, here’s what I’m going to do. I am going to make a decision even before I earn the money because every good and perfect gift that comes from the father above, I am going to give a certain percentage of that money to my Heavenly Father. That’s all it needs to be. A generosity rock star. You’re making a decision in advance to trust God with every area of your life. Is this making sense? Is this helping anybody today? I don’t know. I don’t know. So, Daniel, he. He’s resolved not to defile himself with the king’s wine and food. And he asked the chief of staff to eat another kind of meal. Well, the chief of staff gets really nervous because he’s worried about the king. Some of you’ve heard about different leadership styles, like maybe you’ve heard, too, like, well, she’s really hands-on management style, or he’s really hands-off laissez-faire management style. Well, see, the king was a heads-off management style. Like if you didn’t do what the king said, it was like when you got terminated by the king like you were really terminated. It was like walking to the car. It was like, no, we’ll pick you up and put you in a box and bury out back. And so he was really worried that if he agrees to Daniel to eat a different kind of meal than what the king was offering from his table, these guys start showing up all skinny and scrawny and pale in the face. The king is going to wonder what’s going on. And then he might, you know, lose his own head. So Daniel makes another proposal for himself and his friends. And here’s what he says. He says, Please test your servants for ten days. Give us nothing to eat but vegetables and nothing but water to drink. Then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food and treat your servants in accordance with what you see. So say, Hey, here’s what I want to do for the next ten days. Here’s what I propose. Let us just drink nothing but water and eat nothing but vegetables. And everybody else can eat all those saturated fats and everything that comes in a box or a can or a bag. And we’ll see who looks better after ten days. And so he agrees to this proposal. And then it says at the end of the ten days, Daniel and his three friends looked healthier. Shocker. And better nourished. The young men who had been eating the food assigned by the king. See. How do you stand strong in a world full of compromise? You remember who God says you are, and you resolve in advance. Not to compromise. Well, here’s the third thing you do. You have to rely on one another for strength.

This whole idea of following Jesus was never meant to be a solo sport. To follow Jesus successfully, you have to rely on not only God for strength but one another for strength. You’ve got to surround yourself with a circle of friends that are going to help you, encourage you, challenge you, pray for you, and celebrate you. Because this is exactly what Daniel did. And look what happens next. It says at the end of the time. So that was three years set by the king. And I’ve highlighted some words here because I want to make a point that are these three years, they bring them into service. The chief official presented them to Nebuchadnezzar. He goes on, he says the king talked with them, and he followed found no one equal to Daniel Hand and Michelle and Azariah. So they entered the King Service and every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king questioned them. He found them ten times better than all the magicians and chanters in his whole kingdom. How many? The days and themes. This was not Daniel the one-man show. This was all of them together, relying not only on God for strength but relying on one another for strength. Listen, friend, if you are going to follow Jesus successfully and live a life that is worthy of the honor of his death on the cross for you, you cannot do it alone. You need a circle of friends. You need community around you to encourage you to, strengthen you, to inspire you. That’s why we talk about community groups around here all the time because we just know that just showing up on a Sunday morning and going home isn’t enough for you to stand strong in a world full of compromise. It’s just not enough. We need the strength to draw on from one another. They relied on one another. We must rely on one another. And I know many of you have rejected you’ve stiff arm this whole idea of joining a group. And here’s why you think. Well, I mean, I don’t want to join a group of people in a church and their life is perfect and they got it all together, and that and they’re going to think, man, they’re going to find out about my life and what a mess it is. I don’t want them to know my junk or my scars, or my problems. Right. Some of you laugh now, but this is what you used to think before you were in a group, right? I don’t want them to really know the insecurities, the fears, the vulnerabilities, the addictions, the scars from my past, the brokenness in my life right now, the pain that I’m going through in my family, in my emotions, in my marriage. I mean, if they really knew what was really happening, what would they think? I’m going to do something today that we’ve never done around here before. I’m going to go through a list of categories and some of the human problems that we encounter. And if you’ve ever wrestled with any of these, if you’ve ever struggled with this, I’m going to ask you in just a moment to just physically stand where you are.

And I’m doing this because there are many people here today. That are troubled. And they think they are the only ones that are going through this. I’m doing this today so that they will be able to see that they are not alone. So I’m going to ask you, as I’m going to go through this, I’m going to ask you to wait until I’m done with the list. And if you if one of these things has ever affected you in your life, I’m going to ask you to simply stand where you are. Here we go. If you’ve ever struggled with grief or loss. If you or someone you love has ever struggled with addiction, addiction, alcohol or drugs, or sex or gambling. If you’ve ever experienced the pain of betrayal or divorce or a broken family, if you’ve ever experienced the death of a loved one or a family member, if you’ve ever had a miscarriage or, you know, the ache of wanting to have a child, but you just can’t if you know, vocational pain, if you’ve ever been terminated or if you have ever had a season of joblessness. If you’ve ever battled cancer, health issues, or heart conditions if you’ve ever felt like a failure as a parent, if you or someone you love has ever suffered from depression anxiety. Suicidal ideation or any other mental health condition. If you’ve experienced any of these conditions or maybe some other significant trauma or pain or suffering in your life that you just couldn’t fix on your own, I’m going to ask you right now to please stand where you are. And please remain standing. Thank you for your honesty and vulnerability. Here’s why I did this. Look around. And by the way, I’m standing with you because I had a number of these on this list. I just want you to look around. Go ahead. Look around. I want you to know. Listen. Everybody fights a battle. We’re all fighting something. I want you to know just because you’re a follower of Jesus, it doesn’t mean that you won’t go through problems in life. It simply means you don’t have to go through it alone. God is with you, and He wants to surround you with a circle of friends so that you’re not alone. I want you to know today that if you’re going to stand out and stand strong and live a life that brings glory and honor to God, you can’t just rely on the strength of God, but you also have to rely on the strength of God that comes through other people. I want you to know today we don’t just need Jesus. We need each other, and we need each other. So before you sit down, I’m just going to ask you for a second, maybe turn to somebody. Just a second. Say maybe. God bless you. That’s something nice to say. Or maybe you could turn to them and say you think you’ve got problems. Let’s talk outside in the lobby after this. Go ahead. Turn it off and say that. Okay. All right. That’s good. Thank you, guys. Go ahead and have a seat.

You see, the reason I did this today is because of one of the greatest lies of the enemy. Here’s one of the greatest lies of the enemy. He’s trying to convince you that no one else is going through what you’re going through. He’s trying to convince you that your situation is unique. I want you to know today, it’s unique to you, but it’s not unique. Everybody is going through something. Everybody’s. You know, I was just thinking this week. Of all the posts that we see on social that we don’t see on social media. I’m just thinking about stuff we don’t see on Tik tok, stuff we don’t see on Facebook, Stuff we don’t see on Instagram like this one. Well, we said goodbye to Grandma today as she’s headed to jail. I hope the third time’s a charm. Never seen that one. Aw, here’s a picture of me getting fired at work and getting escorted by security to my car. You know, emoji, frowny face, you know, hashtag growing pains, or, you know, my girlfriend broke up with me today by text. LOL, like you, you rarely, you almost never see these kinds of posts.Isn’t that true because we only post when things are going great? But where do you go when things aren’t great? You go to your community group, you go to your circle of friends. Come on, they’re going to pick you up. They’re going to strengthen you. They’re going to pray for you. They’re going to inspire you. They’re going to encourage you. So I would just say this today, the most important thing I can do for you as your pastor, if you’re not connected in community around here before you leave, join a group. Just go to the Group Hub in the back. Some of the friendliest, most wonderful people in our church serve in the groups up, and they will help you get connected into a group that works just for you. So if you want to stand strong in a compromising world, number one, you’ve got to remember who God says you are. Number two, you have to resolve in advance not to compromise. Number three, you have to rely on others for strength. And number four, expect to be torn down. When you courageously stand out yet, expect this. You have to like anticipate this is going to happen. This is, you know, par for the course when it comes to swimming upstream in culture and standing up and standing out for the things of God. You know, by the time we come to Daniel, chapter six. There’s a lot of time that’s passed from when he started serving the king 67 years. Actually, now he’s well into his eighties, and there’s a new king on the throne in Babylon. His name is Darius, and he’s a big fan of Daniel. Huge fan of Daniel. And he just loves Daniel. And it says this that Daniel soon proved himself more capable than all the other administrators and high officers. And because of Daniel’s great ability, King Darius made plans to please him over the entire empire. This is a huge promotion because, up until this point, Daniel was just overseeing a third of the empire. Now, the king is so impressed with Daniel; they’re so good. He’s such a show-up with a positive attitude. Take the initiative kind of guy. Just makes things happen. Now he’s getting ready to have the promotion of his life to become Prime minister of the largest nation in the world, where he’s over the entire empire. When that kind of stuff happens. Listen, not everybody’s going to like it, gang. When God begins to bless your life and move in your life, like when you get that promotion at work. Is this ever happen? Anybody, you think, Oh, they’re all just going to celebrate me and have cake, coffee? No, no. There’s going to be people on that job that are mad at you, that are jealous of you, that think you stole that promotion from them, that you don’t deserve it, that they deserve it. And that’s not enough. That they’ll just be upset with you. I mean, that’s just going to happen. But then they would plot to tear you down and not build you up. You know, for some of you, that might be like now the more passion, you become so passionate about serving Jesus, so passionate about following Jesus. And then some lukewarm Christian says to you, Well, one day you’ll settle down and become a miserable Christian like me. Instead of celebrating you, they try to tear you down. And Daniel’s colleagues, they were ticked off at him, and they wanted to tear him down. So they start looking for anything. To tear him down. They start searching, you know, everywhere they call Hollywood Access, they call TMZ. They’re looking for compromising videos. They search the browser history on his, you know, on his computer. They’re looking for damaging videos that he’s posted on social media. But he was just squeaky clean. They could find no corruption to him because he was trustworthy, neither corrupt nor negligent. That’s a sermon in itself. They tried to tear him down, but they couldn’t find anything. So you know what they do? Instead, they come up with a new plan. They go to the king, and they start to kind of flatter him. KING Man, you look him buff, all swole up under that robe. Man, you’ve been working out. KING Man, you look great. You’re amazing. KING And they are just buttering him up, and he’s like, yeah, I am kind of amazing. Thank you for saying thank you for noticing. I have lost a few pounds. I’ve been hitting, you know, you know, the gym extra hard. You know, they just start buttering up that, you know, flattering him, and they say, Hey, King, we got to because you’re so great because you’re so awesome because there’s no one else like you. There’s no one more powerful than you. We propose that we write into law that no one is allowed to pray to any other God but you because you’re the greatest. The king’s like. I kind of like that. So they get the law in front of him, and he’s like, I like this. So for the next 30 days, if anybody prays to any other God, here’s what’s going to happen. They’re going to be thrown into a den of lions and be executed. And he’s like, You’re right, let’s do this. And he signs it. And when he signs it, all of Daniel’s colleagues think, boom, he just signed Daniel’s death certificate because here’s what they know about Daniel because they’ve been searching, looking into his life, digging deep. They could find nothing corrupt about him. But they did know this three times a day. Daniel would go up to his room, open his window towards Jerusalem. He’d kneel down on his knees, and he would pray to his God three times a day. Now they knew that they would catch him. What would Daniel do? How do you stand out and stand strong in a compromising world? Well, here’s the fifth thing that he does.

Never forget that kneeling to pray is what gives you the strength to stand.

Never forget when I kneel to pray, it gives me the strength to stand. Look what happens. Daniel six, verse ten. Now, when Daniel learned that the decree had been published that for the next 30 days, nobody can pray to anybody but King Darius. He went home to his upstairs. What’s he going to do, run and hide? He went to his room, where the windows opened towards Jerusalem three times a day. He got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before. He would not be intimidated. He would not be manipulated. He would not be threatened. He would not be coerced. He would simply just continue to do what he’s always done. And this is one of the things, again, that I love so much about Daniel because there was something somewhere that happened in his life where he made a decision that, God, I need you so much. I need your power, I need your strength, I need your presence in my life so much that somewhere in his past, he made a decision that three times a day, I’m going to pray. I’m going to start my day because I need your power in my life. I’m going to start my day in prayer. Then at noon lunch break, I’m going to find a little quiet place because I need your anointing in my life so much. I need to work so closely with you for what I have to accomplish in this world. I’m going to seek you in the middle of my day before I lay my head on my pillow at night and go to sleep. God, going to spend some time with you in prayer. And those decisions that we make, those predetermined resolutions in our heart, is what gives us the strength to live a victorious life for God. So he goes up, does what he has always done before, and I think, boom, busted. We got them. They run back, and they tell the king. And the king is heartbroken because he’s a big fan of Daniel, but he knows he cannot reverse this law that he’s already signed. So they take Daniel, and they throw him into a den of lions. Imagine like a guy in his eighties thrown into a den of lions. We don’t know what happened. We just know what didn’t happen. We don’t know. When Daniel hit the lion’s den. He dropped to his knees and began to pray. We don’t know if he ran and hid in a corner, wet his pants, started crying. What I would have known. We don’t know. If he was so full of faith, he just got down on one knee. I was like, Kitty, kitty. Oh, come here, kitty, kitty. We don’t know what happened. We just know that by the power of God, he shut the mouths of the lions. And the next morning, the king runs down to the den of lions, and he finds that Daniel has been saved, that his life has been spared. So he gives him the promotion that he had promised, and he makes him the prime minister of the entire kingdom, giving him all power. And then, even one more than that, he issues another decree that the entire nation will now worship the God of Daniel.

Listen, never underestimate the power of prayer. When I kneel down to pray, it’s what gives me the strength to stand. Now, this is an amazing story. It’s an amazing, amazing story. And I share this with you because I want to encourage you that God is strategically, strategically placed and positioned you for such a time as this to have an impact here now, not tomorrow, not just in the future, which that might happen as well, but right here, right now, God has put you in the lives of people that you rub shoulders with every day. You go to school with them, you go to work with them, you see them at the gym, you see them at the restaurant. You see them in the grocery store at the post office. God has given you a secret weapon? It’s called prayer. What would happen in your life if you began this week to pray for your friends and your family members? Maybe you are far from God and are really hurting. What would happen in your life if you began to pray for them strategically? Consistently, passionately. What would happen if our entire church began to do that? If we begin to pray for people that we care about, You know if we spent more time praying and loving for people instead of judging them, what would God do in their lives? Would it just so happen that coincidentally next week, somebody just might say yes to an invitation to come to church because you’ve been praying for them? Could it just so happen, coincidentally, that someone might say yes to Jesus, give their heart to him? Like 16 people did last week for the first time, and go public with that decision to be water baptized. When we baptized 45 people last week, could it just so happened that God could so shake this community at its very core that we could be part of a move of God, the likes of which our community has never experienced ever in the history of this community. I want you to know God can break out, and fresh winds of revival can blow again through this community and through this church that lives can be changed, families restored, marriages healed, addictions of broken, chains falling to the ground, hope restored, salvation found, a peace that passes all understanding could be yours, and it could be those that you pray for on a continual basis. Look, I look around this church. And I have hope today. I have hope for our community. I have hope for the Pocono Mountains. I have hope for this place because I look around, and I see a roomful of underdogs that are just crazy enough to trust God, to pray, to be people of faith, to stand out and stand strong in a compromising culture, and to watch what God will do. Because you remember who God says you are. He resolved not to compromise ahead of time because you rely on one another for strength. You get in a group because you expect to be torn down. When you stand up for God because you never forget kneeling to pray is what gives you the strength to stand. I told you I’d come back to this first one at the end. And this is so important for this generation today because this culture shifts. All of us have to ask, will I lovingly change the world around me, or will I let the world change me? And really, the answer depends on whether or not you will first and foremost remember who God says you are, that your identity will be found in what God says you are, not what this world says you are. I know for some of you, for so many of you, you’ve been lied to. You’ve been labeled. You’re ugly, Your fat too young, you’re old, you’re stupid, you’re weird, you don’t fit in, you don’t belong. You’ll never amount to anything. You’ll never do anything with your life. And I know you’ve heard that. You’ve heard that you’re a failure, that you’re sexually broken, that you’re nothing more than an addict, that you’re greedy, that you’re anxious, that you’re a bad mom, that you’re a bad dad, that you’re a bad friend, you’ll never amount to anything. And you’ve lost; you’ve allowed that to sink deep down into your heart. But listen, listen, listen, listen, Listen to me. Nowhere in Scripture does God say that about you. That’s not what he says about you. God doesn’t call you by those names. Can I just speak into your life before you go one last time and tell you again what God thinks about you? God said I made you in my image in the Amadeo de God says, I’ve chosen you. Cassius, you belong to me. Says you belong in my house. I’ve chosen you. I love you. God says that while you were in your before you were ever born, while you were in your mother’s womb, I knit you together that you were forcefully. Beautifully and wonderfully made that you are valuable, that you’re lovable, that you’re forgivable, that you’re usable. And he has wonderful plans and purposes for your life, that it says in the book of efficiency that God is for you, not against you, that it says in the book of Romans that you are the righteousness of God. That it says in the book of Second Corinthians that you are a new creation. Behold, the past is gone, and all things have become new. That I chose you, that I’m for you, that I love you, and that I’ve got a future that wants to bring you hope. And if you forget what God says about you, you will miss the life that God has for you. So I. I want to close today by singing a song. And it’s a song that declares. Who you are in God’s eyes. So I’m going to ask you to stand with me. And this is like the close, right? This is what God says you are. And as I don’t want you just to sing this song. I want you to declare it right now. Even if by faith you have to declare, even if by right now you don’t believe everything. I want you by faith to declare it over your life. Let’s not make this like a Christian karaoke moment. Let’s make this, like, a deeply spiritual, you and God moment that will become your anthem this week as you move forward in your walk with God. Let’s sing it together.