Stand Strong

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in Southwest Florida. For more info, visit us at thrive-fl.org. It's good to have you here today. We're in the middle of our series on Daniel called Stand, and we are exploring what it means to stand, that is to stand up, to stand out, to stand firm, to stand strong. And in these days, there's a lot of people taking a lot of stands and asserting themselves in a lot of ways in our society. It's almost the thing you're supposed to do, and yet so often those stands are just different versions of selfishness, self-interest, self-will. So we're going to look today again at another way where we can stand along with Daniel in Babylon and discover how we can stand by God's grace humbly, faithfully, and fully. We're in Daniel chapter six. It's probably the most well-known story in this whole book. Do you know which one it is? Daniel in the? Lion's Den. Yeah, in the Lion's Den, right? Some of you, if you've gone to Sunday school or as a child or you had your parents even read this story to you in some shortened version, we think we know what this whole story is about. And it goes something like this. If you're as faithful as Daniel was and as strong and courageous, then God will deliver you and you will be safe. Does that sound about right? Does that always happen that way? No. So there's so much more to this story, and I think we're going to find that out. I love this last song, There is Another in the Fire. That actually is a reference to Daniel chapter three, which will be our last week. I know we're not doing the book of Daniel in order, but more thematically. And that's when that was the fiery furnace and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are in the furnace with another who happens to show up there. That's going to be our last week because I think that's a great summary of the book. We've got something similar today with Daniel in the Lion's Den. I love, and it is a story of courage, but not the kind of courage that we often associate that we see in this world. Mark Twain, I thought, was apt in what he said. He said, it is curious, curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare. Okay. Isn't it? I mean, we're seeing a lot of bravado. I don't think a lot of moral courage, actually. And I think that's where we start with our misunderstanding about biblical courage, but it doesn't, it goes off the rail even farther. So if you really think this story is about the kind of courage that you'd find in a Rambo type figure instead of in Daniel, you're going to end up with either causing misbelief among people of that they can almost do anything and God will protect them or despair among people when they do quite try to stand out and then get knocked down and wonder, well, I must not have enough faith. I don't want either of those things to happen to you. Misbelief or unbelief or despair are not the answer or the key to this story by any means. So we're going to start by reading the actual tax. It's a long one. It pleased Darius to set over the kingdom, 120 state traps to be throughout the whole kingdom and over them, their high officials of whom Daniel was one to whom these state traps would, should give account so that the king might suffer no loss. Now I don't know if you realize already, this is about 80 years, 70 years after the stories about Nebuchadnezzar. So this is the Persian empire, which followed the Babylonian. So then this Daniel became distinguished among all the other high officials and sat traps because an excellent spirit was on in him and the king plan to set him over the whole kingdom. Then the high officials in the state traps 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. 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. Then these high officials and sat traps came by agreement to the king and said to him, Oh, King Darius live forever. All the high officials of the kingdom and the prefix in the set traps, the counselors and the governors all are agreed that the king should establish an ordinance and enforce an injunction that whoever makes petition to any God or man for 30 days, except you, Oh, King shall be cast into the den of lions. Now, Oh, King, establish the injunction and sign the document so that it cannot be changed according to the law of the Medes and the Persians, which cannot be revoked. Therefore King Darius signed the document and the injunction. 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. Then these men came by agreement and fo...