In the Lion's Den, Daniel 6

This sermon explores the story of Daniel and the Lions Den, focusing on how Daniel lived as a faithful Christian in a hostile culture. The supernatural aspect of the story is highlighted, but the main focus is on Daniel's steadfast faith before opposition. Pastor Aaron discusses Daniel's calling in Babylon, the challenge posed to him, and his resolve to remain faithful. The importance of consistency, defiance in the face of opposition, and the posture of humility and allegiance are emphasized. He concludes by encouraging listeners to have courageous faith in fulfilling their calling in the world.

Takeaways

• Living as a faithful Christian in a hostile culture requires courage and steadfastness.
• Our calling as Christians is to be salt and light in the world, preserving and shining the light of the gospel.
• We should pray not only for ourselves but also for the prosperity of the kingdom of God and the people of God.
• In the face of opposition, we must remain defiant and continue to fulfill our calling.
• Consistency, discipline, and humility are essential in living out our faith and fulfilling our calling. Small victories add up to making a real difference.
• Individual challenges should not deter us from being salt and light in our community.

Chapters
00:00 Living as Faithful Christians in a Hostile Culture
05:12 The Supernatural and Steadfast Faith of Daniel
09:02 Daniel's Calling in Babylon
16:14 The Challenge Posed to Daniel
23:00 Defying Threats and Opposition
38:14 The Resolve and Consistency of Daniel
41:59 The Posture of Humility and Allegiance
50:20 Courageous Faith in Fulfilling Our Calling
02:30 The Importance of Small Victories
08:15 Facing Opposition in Culture
15:40 Individual Challenges and Being Salt and Light
20:10 Conclusion

Creators & Guests

Host

Aaron Shamp

Lead Pastor of Redeemer City Church

What is Redeemer City Church - Lafayette, LA?

Pastor Aaron Shamp preaches about the Gospel and facets of Christianity at Redeemer City Church. These podcasts are his sermons.

Aaron Shamp (00:00.142)
this morning and have the privilege of also worshiping with you guys by presenting the Word this morning. We are concluding our series called Courageous Faith today. We've been looking at the first half of Daniel, the stories in Daniel to learn about how do we live as faithful Christians in a world where we are strange, where we are marginalized, and where we are opposed even at times for our Christian belief. How do we live well?

faithful to the Lord in a culture that is hostile to the Christian worldview and our values. And so to learn about that, we've been looking at the book of Daniel, looking at Daniel, his friends in the exiles who were living at Babylon and struggling with that same tension. Today we're looking at Daniel chapter six. So if you would like to turn there in your Bibles, if you have your Bible with you this morning, you can turn there. We'll also have the verses on the screens next to me. Today we'll be looking at what is the most famous story.

in the book of Daniel and one of the most famous stories in all of scripture, which is Daniel and the Lions Den. And so we're going to look at Daniel chapter six today as we've been doing the pastor for weeks. I'm going to be covering the whole chapter, but just for the reading this morning, I'm going to try to hit kind of the main points here just for the reading section. And then I'd encourage you guys later today and even throughout this week to keep going back to Daniel six, read the whole chapter.

Remember what we talked about and then talk about it in your groups as Eli just went over with you guys and continue to meditate on it in prayer. So we're in Daniel chapter six today. I'm going to be reading verses one through 10 and then 19 through 24. All right. Well, if everyone's there and ready to get started, we're going to start in Daniel chapter six and starting in verse one, it says.

Darius decided to appoint 120 satraps over the kingdom, stationed throughout the realm, and over them three administrators, including Daniel. These satraps would be accountable to them so that the king would not be defrauded. Daniel distinguished himself above the administrators and satraps because he had an extraordinary spirit. So the king planned to set him over the whole realm. The administrators and satraps, therefore,

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kept trying to find a charge against Daniel regarding the kingdom. But they could find no charge or corruption, for he was trustworthy, and no negligence or corruption was found in him. Then these men said, we will never find any charges against this Daniel unless we find something against him concerning the law of his God. So the administrators and satraps went together to the king and said to him, may King Darius live forever.

All the administrators of the kingdom, the prefects, satraps, advisors and governors have agreed that the king should establish an ordinance and enforce an edict that for 30 days, anyone who petitions any God or man except you, the king, will be thrown into the lion's den. Therefore, your majesty, establish the edict and sign the document so that as a law of the Medes and Persians, it is irrevocable and cannot be changed. So King Darius signed the written edict.

When Daniel learned that the document had been signed, he went into his house. The windows in his upstairs room opened toward Jerusalem, and three times a day he got down on his knees, prayed and gave thanks to God just as he had done before. Then we skip to verse 19. After they have caught Daniel in prayer, brought this King Darius and then had him execute the edict on Daniel, they threw him into the lion's den.

And then on the next day we pick up in verse 19. At the first light of dawn, the king got up and hurried to the lion's den. When he reached the den, he cried out in anguish to Daniel. Daniel, servant of the living God, the king said, has your God, whom you continually serve, been able to rescue you from the lions? Then Daniel spoke with the king. May the king live forever. My God sent his angel and shut the lion's mouths.

And they haven't harmed me, for I was found innocent before him. And also before you, your majesty, I have not done harm." The king was overjoyed and gave orders to take Daniel out of the den. When Daniel was brought up from the den, he was found to be unharmed, for he trusted in his God. The king then gave the command, and those men who had maliciously accused Daniel were brought and thrown into the lion's den, they, their children and their wives.

Aaron Shamp (04:44.782)
They had not reached the bottom of the den before the lions overpowered them and crushed all their bones. So, as I said before, one of the most famous stories, not only in the book of Daniel, but in all of scripture, Daniel and the lion's den is where we are at today and what we're going to consider as we close this series. One of the first things that we take note of as we look at this story is how this story absolutely certainly is supernatural.

Daniel was thrown into this den. It would have been so literally a pit where they kept lions either directly in the den or they would have had some kind of doors that they could have opened to allow the lions to go in, but then also take them out. He was thrown into this den where there is these lions that they did use as a quite gruesome execution method by throwing people in there and having the lions tear them apart, similar to what the Romans would do in the Colosseum, right?

And so you have Daniel, he's thrown in there with these lions, but he remains unharmed. He says that an angel of the Lord came and protected him and shut the lion's mouth. That's all that he says. We don't get any more details about, you know, about exactly what happened, wherever he was thrown in. If you read the middle section that we kind of skipped over, it says, it says he was thrown in there and they put a stone over the hole. They threw him down into the den and then put a stone over, left, come back the next day.

and he's OK. We don't get a lot of the details that we really wish we could get here. And so we look at this story. One of the first things we notice is how it is certainly supernatural because the lion's mouths were shut. Daniel was rescued, but it's not sensational. It lacks so many details and things that we would have liked to know, maybe questions we ask, but it doesn't give us because its focus is not on the miracle of the lion's den. Rather, it is on the miracle of Daniel's steadfast faith before opposition.

That's the real miracle that's happening here in this story. That's what the narrator spends the majority of his time talking about. And then he spares some details when it comes to the lion's den. The main point here is how by virtue of Daniel's living in Babylon, he became an object of scorn by his peers. We're going look at this a little bit more here in a few minutes. But basically what they do is they try to catch him in this trap.

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And the only way that they can catch him in a trap is to pit his faith against the law of the land. Once again, this is a testament to the kind of life and character that Daniel was living out even as he was serving an extremely high position in the administration of Darius the Mede. This was the successor who took over after the Babylonian kingdom was overthrown by the Persians and the Medes to eventually establish the

Persian Empire, which would become the largest empire that the world had ever seen. Up until that point, Daniel is serving as one of the top three advisors in this empire. Once again, a testament to his integrity, his intelligence, work ethic, and so on. And so they try to trap him. What they do is, is they convince Darius to sign this decree that for 30 days, no one is allowed to go to a temple, to pray, to do anything else.

unless it goes through Darius. So in a sense here, it's not that Darius was set up as God, but he was set up as the sole representative of the gods to the people. He was set up to be seen as the sole representative, right? They couldn't do anything else religiously unless it went to him, right? And he was the sole mediator between the gods and the people during this time. This is the trap that they set up. So for 30 days,

Darius is the one representative and sole mediator between the gods and man, and they recognize, will Daniel be caught in this trap? That's what they do. And then they throw him into the lion's den and he is rescued. So, that's just an overview of the story. But like I said before, I want us to try to take note of what I think the narrator wants us to see in this story. And that's a few things. Daniel's calling, number one. And then we're going to see the challenge posed to Daniel.

And then lastly, his resolve. So Daniel's calling in Babylon and even in the Persian Empire, his challenge, and then his resolve. So let's begin by looking at his calling here. Daniel, as I said before, is, we've already seen in the first several chapters here, he is working in the administration previously, the administration of Nebuchadnezzar and then Nebuchadnezzar's successories, he continued to serve. And then after the Persians took over,

Aaron Shamp (09:31.224)
He was able to remain serving in the kingdom as an administrator very high up. He had all of these different people across the empire called satraps who basically their job was collecting taxes and then sending them into Babylon to keep the bureaucratic machine running. And so over these satraps, Darius had set these governors or these administrators, Daniel being one of them, who would make sure that all of the money

was not, you know, leaking out on its way from being collected and transported and then put into the king's coffers. He was there to make sure, as the text says, the king doesn't get defrauded because, you know, along the way, one tax collector here and one satrap here and one governor here might just pocket a little bit along the way. And then Darius doesn't get all the money. He doesn't get all the taxes that he needs in order to continue running the kingdom. And so this was Daniel's job.

I'm sure along with other things here, he's very high up in the kingdom. But remember who he is. He is not a Babylonian. He is not a Persian. He is a Hebrew. He's a Jew. He is one of the people who at least six, maybe seven decades before this period, before we read here, he was one of the people who, whenever Nebuchadnezzar overthrew Jerusalem, was taken up as an exile and brought there. But despite the fact that he was in exile,

that he was of a different ethnicity, religion, culture, and so on. Here he is serving in this high position. And apparently, because of all the favor that he receives from Darius, Darius doesn't want to throw him in the lion's den. He loves and favors Daniel, but his arm is twisted to do so because he signed that edict. He can't sleep throughout the night because he's worried about the welfare of Daniel. And he runs to the lion's den the next morning. You see, not only is he serving, but he is also highly favored.

He is one of the most he's the MVP of all of Darius's administrators. He's he's the employer of the month, the employer of the year. Right. He is he's loved and respected by Darius. What is Daniel doing? He is living out the calling that God gave to his exiled people. We talked about this a few weeks ago when we looked at Daniel chapter three and Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego being thrown into the fiery furnace. How in Jeremiah chapter

Aaron Shamp (11:58.126)
29, you can go and read how the Lord gave this letter to Jeremiah to send to the exiles in Babylon to tell them, do not separate. You see, because they had these false prophets who came up among them, that being the exiles who were living in Babylon, who said, look, don't settle down, don't get comfortable because God is about to deliver us. It is right on the, it is right at the doorstep, it is coming. So don't...

Get too involved with Babylon. Don't get too assimilated into the city. Separate from it because our deliverance is about to come. Well, Jeremiah sends us a letter from the Lord that says the opposite. He says, do not listen to those false prophets. He said, I have deported you to Babylon so that you would settle down, so that you would build houses, plant gardens, raise families, be involved in the life of the city, so that by you being there, you would be a blessing to the place that I have deported you to.

And then in their prosperity, you will find yours. Right. That is what the Lord says to them through Jeremiah in chapter 29 in the letter there. And then we look at Daniel. What has Daniel done? He has lived out what Jeremiah or the Lord through Jeremiah wrote to the exiles. He has settled. He has ingrained himself not only into the culture, but even into the administration of the government there. And he has worked hard.

He has planted roots, you can say, and then now look at what has come about because of it. He is highly respected, highly regarded in his career and in his field. He's highly regarded by his employer and he is seeking to be a blessing to the place that he is in. He's high up in the administration. He's honest. He's effective. The tech says he had an excellent spirit.

You know, we might say a spirit of excellence about him and his work and character and so on. Daniel was living out that calling that the Lord had gave to them. And you know, God gives us a similar calling as well. We can read that calling in Jeremiah 29 and recognize that it applies to us as well, right? It wasn't just about them. It was about us, too. It was about God's people not just living in Babylon, but God's people living in Lafayette.

Aaron Shamp (14:18.542)
and God's people living in New Orleans and Lake Charles and New York City and LA and anywhere else that those words are relevant to us. But Jesus reaffirmed this as well because Daniel not only was the fulfillment of the letter in Jeremiah 29, but Daniel is an Old Testament exemplar of what Jesus talked about in the Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew chapter five, after the Beatitudes, Jesus said this. He said, You are the salt of the earth.

But if the salt should lose its taste, how can it be made salty? It's no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. You are the light of the world. A city situated on a hill cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket, but rather on a lamp stand, and it gives light for all those who are in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.

What kind of life did Daniel live? One of being salt and light, right? Because of his presence at many different points in the government in Babylon and in Persia, right? You can go back and read the text. At many different points, because of his presence there, good things happened for them, right? He was salt to them. But then also, as Jesus says, you are the light of the world. Let your good work shine so that people may see them and give glory to your Father in heaven. Look at how many times.

emperors and kings gave glory to God because of Daniel and his friends. They are Old Testament examples, or as I said before, we could call them exemplars, right? Wonderful examples of Jesus' commission to us to be salt and light in the place that we are. So Daniel's calling and what he lived out so well is our calling as well. This is the whole point of courageous faith.

We would not need a courageous faith in a hostile culture if our faith, if all it required of us was to have a private spirituality. If our faith only pertains to what we do in our prayer closets, our bedrooms, you know, our quiet times, what we do purely in our private life behind closed doors. If that's all that our faith required of us, well then we wouldn't need courageous faith in a hostile culture because, well, the faith is hidden. The light is kept under a basket. But that is not what we were called to do.

Aaron Shamp (16:44.942)
We are called to have a light that is not hidden under a basket. We are called to be like salt and to be in the world. This is why courageous faith is necessary. Like salt, Christians are called to disperse and to immerse ourselves into the world so that we might live out our calling. You see, in ancient times, what salt was used for, I'm sure you've heard this before, salt was used primarily not as a seasoning like we use it, but as a preservative.

You didn't have refrigeration back then like we do today. And so in order to preserve your perishables, particularly your your meats, you would spread salt on them and then let it immerse, get into into the product. And then it would help to preserve it for a little while longer. Because once again, because they didn't have refrigeration or other methods that we have today. And so whenever Jesus was telling them, you are the salt of the earth, this is the kind of idea that they would have in mind.

It doesn't mean that you're there to spice things up. No, maybe you do depending on your personality and hey, that's great. But what it means is, is it means by the presence of Christians in a city, a neighborhood, a company, a school, wherever else it might be, a nation, they ought to have a preserving quality to that society. You see, because the truth is, is that any nation, society or culture that...

attempts to live without God will be one that is decaying, will be one that is headed down a road for disaster, will be one that is falling apart. We've recognized this before in other sermons in this series, how life without God eventually leads to decay and breakdown. This is because whenever people try to build a name for themselves, just like we see in the Tower of Babel, whenever people try to build a name for themselves upon a foundation that is not the Lord,

it will eventually produce breakdown. Just consider this on an individual level. Whenever you try to live your life without God at the center, you know, those of you who have been walking with Christ now, you can compare the times that you were doing this well and the times that you weren't doing this well. Maybe you were living your life without God at the center and you were placing yourself at the center. Your image, your recognition, your feeling of significance was what was at the center of your life and you were trying so hard to build it up.

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to show and produce not good works for the glory of God, right, but good works for the glory of self, right? And what happens whenever you do that? Well, you become a person that's difficult to be around, honestly, right? But you become a person who is nervous, you become a people pleaser, you become a kind of person who is maybe neurotic at certain times, right? Because you have to hold that image together. What about if you place your...

security at the center of your life. Your security in life is in for your family, whether that be physical security, financial security, job security and so on. That is what is the most important. That is the core of it all. And so you are trying to hold it all together. Well, what happens then? What if you think that your life is all in your hands, the security of yourself, your family and your family's future is on your hands. Once again, it makes you a nervous wreck. It makes you filled with anxiety.

Right? Well, because what you're trying to do is trying to build your life upon a foundation that is not the Lord. And what eventually happens is you can think of it like a balloon. You're you are filling up your life, your home with something that is ultimately empty. Is it your image that is being blown up with something empty? Is it your family's security? Is it your family's future? Right? Or any different thing that we can put into that blank that is filling up, but ultimately empty?

is going to pop, is going to fall apart. This is true on the individual level. Consider it on the societal level, too. Consider where Western culture was compared to where it is today. Whenever in in Western culture and in American culture, Christianity was much more of the predominant worldview. Many people, whether or not they were practicing Christians, at least valued Christian values, right, and saw the Christian worldview as plausible.

And then as that worldview has been more and more rejected, as those values have been more and more rejected and now embracing opposite values, look at where our culture is today with more division strife than than other points, more confusion about the meaning of life, more confusion about the the meaning and purpose of humans here on this earth and what it means to be a person, what it means to be a parent, what it means to be a spouse.

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what it means to be even of the simplest things, to be a man or a woman. There's so much more confusion over these things today and divisions and arguing than ever before because, well, what happened? Our culture tried to build its identity upon something other than the solid foundation of God. And so it is puffed itself up, but ultimately empty. There are cracks in the foundation. We can see them already if you are trying to astutely observe our culture. There are cracks in the foundation.

Things are and will fall apart. The question is, where is the salt? God has called us to be salt, to be a preservative in the culture that we live in. Now, none of you guys individually can be responsible for what is happening on a society -wide level, right, of course. But have you been living out your calling and responsibility on whatever individual level God has given you?

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We can't look at the magnitude of the problem. We can't look at the magnitude of the challenge project before us and say, well, because it is so big, what can I do? It is not about you, but it's about the kingdom, right? Whenever it comes to addressing the project as a whole on the big picture level. But in your individual role in the kingdom is to be salt, to be that preservative to whatever degree and whatever spheres that God has placed you in.

We are to be preservatives in whatever cities and neighborhoods, careers, and so on that God places us in. Let's talk about this a little bit practically before we move on. Like, how does this play out in practice? Well, two things. First of all, it means, I got this from another preacher, and so I kind of like how they put it. It means that on the one hand, churches should be talking less about sending people into ministry, but Christians should be thinking about ministry more.

What I mean by that is that we need to not see the only way to engage and to transform the culture as we have, we need more church planters, pastors and missionaries. We need to move away from thinking that, but then move more towards no matter where you are and what you are, whether you're a student, whether you're a doctor, whether you're a receptionist, whether you are a therapist, whether you are working in an office, whatever else it might be, that you are a missionary.

that you are engaged in ministry. Consider this. In the Bible, we have Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel. We have all these different major prophets, and then we have the minor prophets, Hosea and others. And in the middle of all of them, we have Daniel. You remember taking tests or maybe doing puzzles where it says, one of these things is not like the other, which one is it? One of these things is not like the other. What's different about Daniel?

in the midst of all of those prophets. Well, technically, he wasn't a prophet. Isaiah was a full -time prophet. He was a pastor. Jeremiah was a full -time prophet. Jonah was a foreign missionary. Ezekiel was a full -time prophet. Daniel was an administrator in a pagan kingdom. Daniel, amongst all these others, had a quote unquote secular job, a secular nine to five.

Aaron Shamp (24:59.982)
but he had a kingdom focused to his life. His life and even in his career, it was motivated by the calling that he had been given. And so because of that, he had the same impact as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Jonah, Hosea, and all the others. On paper, not a prophet, but he still lived out the calling of being a prophet. And so the same is true for all of you. No matter where you are,

Regardless of job titles and job descriptions, are you thinking about ministry? Are you thinking about and recognizing that you have a calling on your life wherever you are, in whatever context it might be, in whatever position in the organization? And are you living that out, being like Daniel? So that's the first thing of what this means in practice to be salt. You are thinking about ministry no matter where you are. Secondly, what this means is that salt needs to be present where things are breaking down.

Once again, we cannot remove ourselves from the world and be faithful to this calling. We have to be present in the world. We cannot look at our culture. We can't look at all the confusions and divisions and oddities and so on that are going on in our culture right now. We cannot look at all these things and say, well, we ought to just remove ourselves from them all and go off and live our own lives as separate from it all as possible.

We cannot do that. Our calling to be a preservative means and implies necessitates that we are where things are breaking down, that we are where things are falling apart. And so we have to engage. We have to be present. We even if we are not present physically, we need to be present vocally and in our ministry. Perhaps we also need to be present physically. There might be areas of life around you that you recognize are falling apart.

Maybe it is relationships in your family, maybe it is relationships in the workplace, maybe it is departments in your job or school. Things that you recognize are breaking down. Is God calling you to be a salty presence there?

Aaron Shamp (27:10.03)
We cannot run away from the need of the world and even the challenge that the calling requires. We must be spread and immersed into the world in order to be salty as Jesus has called us to be. Daniel is, like I said, an exemplar of this in the Old Testament, but he's not only a great example of Jesus's commission to us to be salt and light, but also of the last beatitude right before that.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus begins his introduction as the Beatitudes, you remember, blessed are the poor in spirit and so on. And then he goes into the salt and white section. By the very end of the Beatitudes, that last one before he transitions, you might remember what is the last Beatitude. He says, blessed are you when you are persecuted for my name's sake. He says, blessed are you whenever they say all kinds of evil things about you and against you because of me and because of the kingdom. Daniel is also.

a reflection of the truth of that beatitude here. Daniel is being persecuted because of his devotion to the kingdom of God. Of course, he didn't know the name of Jesus, but he was still devoted to the kingdom of God. And so he was being persecuted. Evil was being spoken of about him, was being plotted against him because of his devotion to Yahweh and to the kingdom of God. Consider the flow of the narrative. So if you go back to the first few verses,

It says that, it says, first of all, Daniel is up for a promotion. Darius had set up his kingdom with all of his different governors and his administration. And he has three people who are over, they're kind of at the top. And Daniel is one of those people. And Daniel is doing such a phenomenal job. We already talked about this before. He has great favor with Darius. And so Darius wants to give him a promotion and set him over the entire kingdom, right?

So he's up for a promotion and this prompts the prompts jealousy in his peers. They don't like that. They don't like that Daniel's getting promoted. You know, they probably didn't like him very much because he was so different from them. You know, here's this exile who has the same job as them. But now he's being put up for a promotion. They didn't like that. And so what they do is they try to start finding dirt on Daniel. They say, surely we can find something against him as blackmail or to.

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disqualify him, because what were they assuming? You know what I said before? Darius set them up because he didn't want to protect them from being defrauded. You know, in these giant bureaucracies like that empire, there's a lot of defrauding, small little leaks here and there, and small little daytime corruptions that happen. And so they assumed that Daniel was probably a little corrupt.

just like all of them there. You know, anytime we have any kind of election, whether that be presidential, mayoral or anything else, you know, they're always leveling against each other, all these charges of corruption. And I say sometimes, you know, you got to remember that a little corruption is always baked in, right? It's always a part of the equation. And they assume the same thing about Daniel. Of course, he's got to be a little corrupt. Of course, he's got to be pocketing a little bit here and there, just like any of us would. And so they start searching for that dirt, but they don't have any.

They can't find any dirt. They can't find any disqualifications on him. And so they fail in that. And what does this do? It makes them even more resentful of him. So that now they are driven to the only option of trying to of using violence to take care of the Daniel problem. But here's the point of that. There is something about Christians from the perspective of the world that is irreducibly strange.

They cannot grasp how he is so effective, how he is so successful, how he has this excellent spirit about him, and yet how he also has this incredible integrity, right? How he is honest, how he has succeeded to the level that they have without a little bit of corruption as they did. It is so strange to them, and this is why the world will

will speak evil of, misunderstand, and mock even believers today. Because there's something about Christians to the world that is irreducibly strange. The world cannot understand Christians. And so what this means is whenever we are misunderstood, whenever we are marginalized, opposed, persecuted, perhaps even, we shouldn't be surprised. And we shouldn't get bent out of shape about it.

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because we recognize that this is the reality of Christians living in a world that has still yet to submit to the sovereignty of Jesus Christ. Why is it that we are so strange to the world around us? Well, Christians are strange to the world around us because our true country is elsewhere. You know, imagine if you've ever been able to go overseas and visit a different culture, how that separation,

And that distance between you and the culture, the country that you come from and the one that you're in is so drastic and wide. It's something that's almost visceral. You can feel the difference there. And so there's so many things about that culture, that country that are strange to you. There's going to a lot of things about you that are really strange to them. This is just naturally how it goes. Anytime that a person from another country visits a different one, right? Why are Christians so strange?

to the world that we live in, even the city we live in today, we see we are strange and incomprehensible to the city of man because we belong to the city of God, to the country that we call home now because our true citizenship is in another country elsewhere. So this makes us strange to the world around us. We come from a different country, city, we have different values, we have a different worldview, we have a different understanding of...

of the meaning of our life. We have different answers to the big questions of life than the world around us. But then even our character will be strange to them because you see on the one hand, we believe that we have been saved by nothing but sheer grace. We have absolutely no claim. We lay down all merits before the cross and we are saved by grace alone. That's strange to the world. I remember one time having an evangelistic conversation with

with a young woman who was atheist. And I was explaining this gospel to her because she was talking about how arrogant Christians are. And I was like, well, look, if you know the true gospel, it means that you are saved by grace alone. There's nothing you can add to it. So it removes all pride and arrogance. And she says, you see, but I don't like that either. Well, what do you mean? I said, we can't do anything to add to our salvation. It's just a free gift. She says, but I want to earn it.

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On the one hand, our humility before because of the gospel is strange to the world. But then the fact that we believe that we are the children of God, that God has has has prized and favored and loved us so much that he would orchestrate human history and send his son in order to die for us and save us appears incredibly arrogant to the world. They cannot comprehend us or make sense out of us. Our values and lifestyles are the opposite. Our jewels are the world's tinsel and what the world considers tinsel.

or our jewels, an old Baptist preacher said.

Aaron Shamp (34:58.318)
What is it that makes the difference though? The difference is, what makes us so strange is that the roots of your soul are planted somewhere else. Like I said, our citizenship is elsewhere and that makes us strange, but what really produces the difference is that the roots of our soul are planted in the gospel of grace. The rest of the world has the roots of their soul planted in things of this world, whether that be actual things in the world, you know, causes,

careers, positions, and so on, you know, political movements, whatever else it might be, whether it be in more private things such as their self -image or so on, but everyone in the world has the roots of their soul planted in the things of the world. And so, the dynamics are often very similar, right? You earn what you desire and so on, but the roots of our soul are planted in the gospel of grace. And this makes us different and comprehensible to them.

What they will see as our rejoicing in the love of God and living out our calling from Him to them will be seen as arrogance. Our belief in the gospel of grace to them will be seen as incomprehensible, as I said before. The world cannot understand. And no matter how hard you try, they will never fully understand until the Holy Spirit breaks in and changes their heart, rips out the roots of their heart from the world and plants it in the gospel of grace.

What does this mean? It means that we cannot pull back from being salt and light because we are misunderstood.

That misunderstanding will always be there. The hurt of persecution, of evil being spoken about you behind your back, whatever else it might be, that hurt will always be there until Jesus returns. So that means that we cannot remove ourselves from being salt and light. We have to stay present and accept that that hurt will be the cost. On the other hand, it means that we cannot...

Aaron Shamp (37:02.446)
appropriately or effectively be salt and light in the culture, but then soften the message so much, be so non -offensive, be so quiet in our attempt to be salt and light so as not to receive any persecution. Because that might be an attempt as well. You know, a very famous example of that was this past week, how they had this commercial in the Super Bowl called the He Gets Us Ad. I'm not trying to get into the debate of all that and whatnot, but I do think it is a good example of

softening Jesus to such an extent so that he is not offensive to anyone at all, that's not the real Jesus either.

Aaron Shamp (37:45.774)
Let's move forward to Daniel's resolve. So, he lives out his calling. This calling brings out persecution and hurt. So, what does he do? He has his resolve here. Like I said before, the true miracle of this story is not the lion's mouth being shut, but that Daniel stood the test. How did he do so? And what does it mean for us? Let's see how he stood the test because there's some very practical things for us.

as we close here, not only the Sermon, but the series. The first of this, if you go back and read the verses of his prayer, that's where we're taking these points from. The first one is this, the focus of his prayer. It says that after he heard that the edict was signed, he went up into his room and with his window open facing Jerusalem, he prayed three times a day as he had always done. It's interesting that it says that his window was open. He must have had and probably lived in a

apartment of some kind or a home where this window that he would have prayed in would have been high up and other people, the other satraps who were trying to catch him, would have been able to see him in there. But he opens his window and it says, towards Jerusalem. What scholars point out is that what we know from other scripture references in history is that whenever the exiles were in Babylon, they were taught to pray facing Jerusalem.

the idea here being that one day the Lord would deliver them from their exile and bring them back home. So they were praying not only for their own deliverance, but they were also praying for the good of that city. They're praying for the prosperity of what was seen as the hub of the kingdom of God. So whenever Daniel prayed, we can recognize that his focus here was not just on himself, but with his windows open towards Jerusalem,

His prayers were focused on the kingdom of God and the people of God and not just his own suffering and what he was enduring. What this means for us is this, bringing our needs before God is perfectly good and right. It's something that we are to do. We are to petition him with all of our needs, large and small. But mature believers also practice intercessory prayer. Whenever we pray, we not only are thinking about ourselves and our own problems,

Aaron Shamp (40:08.75)
and just what we need from God, but there is a larger picture to our prayers because we pray for the kingdom, right? In an attitude of the windows open towards Jerusalem, we pray for the prosperity and the success of the kingdom of God in our world. We pray for the people of God in our world who are living in other difficult circumstances, who are also trying to live out their calling, who might be persecuted, who might be threatened or...

or intimidated into silence, we pray for these things as well. So courageous faith means that we are not only praying for ourselves, but also for the kingdom and the people of God. The second point is this, the defiance of his prayer. I love that it says that Daniel heard that the edict was signed, and so he went and prayed.

We can't say that he went up there and prayed and didn't know. He knew. He was fully aware that it was signed and what it meant. And he goes and he prays anyway. That is the most incredible part of the story, that he knows and he prayed anyway. Consider all of the practical excuses that he could have come up with. You know, well, it's only 30 days. That's not that long.

You know, man, especially the older you get, the faster that seems to go by, right? It's only 30 days. For 30 days, all you got to do is just stop that prayer, that three times a day prayer. That's what you got to do for 30 days. Or maybe just close the windows, not pray with the window open towards Jerusalem as you have been doing, but just close the windows for 30 days. That's all you got to do. Go hide somewhere else. Just change all of those things. There's so many practical excuses that he could have come up with, but he doesn't. He prays anyway.

He lives out his calling anyway. Think of all the kinds of reasons that we skip our duties to the Lord.

Aaron Shamp (42:08.942)
you know, all are too tired or too busy, you know, this and that don't feel well. And we have so many different practical reasons that we come up with as well. Think of all the ways that put yourself in Daniel's shoes. Think of all the ways that you might have rationalized. Well, I don't have to pray for 30 days or I can just hide. I can do it. The windows closed and so on. And it's not that big a deal. You know, it's just this this short period of time. And then I'll go back to my old.

habits as before. All the practical things, the reasons why we would have skipped our duties. But in spite of it all, Daniel prayed anyway. I want to share this quote from a scholar named Dale Ralph Davis. It's a little bit of a lengthy quote, but I think it's so good. He said, Daniel was able to see the actual issue. He knew he was not facing a minor religious inconvenience. You know, just wait until the current prayer ban is lifted.

It was actually a matter of whether he would keep the first commandment. Daniel faces a king who is God keeper for a month and the politicians who push the provision through. And he prays to Yahweh anyway. Prayer is the way he keeps the first commandment. By prayer, he goes on worshiping the true God anyway. And so prayer here is an idol busting activity. And the most tempting idol was not Darius's quasi divinity. Daniel wasn't tempted to worship Darius.

The most tempting idol was not Darius' divinity. It may likely have been Daniel's own security. Daniel had to answer the question, what matters most, the worship of God or my safety? His response shows that he so much as said, I will not make an idol of my own safety. And so by prayer, I destroy that idol.

How many of us have been tempted by idols of security, respectability?

Aaron Shamp (44:09.806)
not a comfort, staying inside of our comfort zone, fear, whatever else it might be. And so because of these things have hidden, we have allowed the light of our life to be put under a basket. We have not been salt. We've not been living out that calling because we have allowed the intimidation and threats of an opposing world culture, company culture.

institutional culture, whatever else it might be, intimidate us. What we have done in these situations is we have not just...

Aaron Shamp (44:51.406)
failed in a job duty, but we have failed in the first commandment. We have quit worshiping God as the center, most important relationship value, et cetera, of our life, and instead placed ourself in our own security, in our own comfort, in our own reputation at the center. But Daniel was defiant in his prayer. He knew what it said, he knew the consequences, and he prayed anyway.

we must be defiant as well, not only in our prayers, but in our living out the calling that God has placed on our life and our holding to biblical convictions and biblical beliefs and standing upon the biblical worldview in a culture that is increasingly opposed to it, standing upon these things and declaring the truth of that Christian worldview of biblical belief and of the gospel of grace to the world around us. We must be

defiant in the face of any threats or oppositions to the contrary. We cannot rationalize ourself out of the mission, coming with all kinds of practical excuses, thereby breaking the first commandment. No, we remain defiant. As Daniel prayed anyway, we continue to seek the kingdom first and spread the kingdom anyway. Are you doing that? Or have you been hiding?

A couple, two more quick points where we go. The consistency of his prayer. It said that he went up and he prayed three times a day as he had always done. This wasn't a new habit for Daniel that he was trying to establish here. It was his usual practice and he didn't intend on ending it. There's no turmoil about the decision, anguish, flinching. It just says he heard, needed to assign, and he went on doing what he had always done. He simply continues.

to pray. What we recognize here is something incredible, a true secret, a power to how we can remain defiant in the face of any threats against us. It was his consistency. His consistency aided his courage. His discipline fed his faithfulness. As he had always done, he just kept on doing. You see, you might consider, well, what would I do in a situation like Daniel?

Aaron Shamp (47:17.934)
You know, I've never I don't call myself a prophet, but I can predict what you'll do, what you're doing right now, probably. If you were inconsistent and fear driven and hiding right now, if you're rationalizing a way right now why you can skip some of your duties to the Lord, why you don't need to be as engaged in ministry as others. Well, then in the time of testing, in the time whenever you are called, you'll probably do what you're doing now, too.

The reason you need to be consistent and devoted and disciplined right now in all of your duties to the Lord in every area of life that he has given you is so that on the day when you are tested and the day when you are called, you will remain faithful to what you have always done. If you are not practicing in the small ways today, you will not perform in the bigger ways whenever you are called upon. Consistency. And then lastly, the posture. It says that he prayed on his knees.

Daniel recognized that he was going before his Lord. He was going before his king. Darius the king, the emperor, told him one thing, but Daniel bowed his knees in ultimate allegiance to his true king. And you can see that in his posture. He is humble before his king. What is your posture before you go before the Lord? You know, we have in our house, we have an eight month old blue healer puppy.

named Cosmo and whenever Cosmo wants to come and get my attention, you know, he's a big boy. He's he's still a baby, but he's about 50 pounds and he's very rough and he comes and he wants to jump on me and bite me and scratch me. And and I think it's because he loves me. But, you he but he does all these these very violent things to show me that he that he loves me. But I've trained them to know if you want my attention, you sit.

You sit down before me because you're not going to jump all over me. And so what does he do now? Well, he's learned. He comes running up to me with his ears down, not his tail tucked between his legs. He's not afraid, but he has his ears down, his tail gently wagging, and he sits down in front of me. He's learned the right posture. Now, you see, why is the posture important? Because the posture recognizes not just, you know, I want you to be sitting, but the kind of attitude that I want you to have whenever I give you.

Aaron Shamp (49:41.966)
my attention. Posture indicates heart position.

Do you have the right heart posture wherever you go before the Lord? Do you go before Him demanding and entitled? Do you go before Him full of self, like the Pharisee that prayed in Jesus' parable, you know, the Pharisee stood before God and just talked about how wonderful He was. Do you go before the Lord even, do you go before Him fearful?

Or do you go before him humble, confident, before your king? Right?

Courageous faith is faithful to our calling in the world in spite of any hurt and opposition. We do this through the consistency in our duty to the Lord, and then even against the opposition of the world, we remain defiant in fulfilling our calling. Let's pray.

Lord, we come before you and just as you gave Daniel the grace of courage, Lord, as you blessed his faithfulness to the calling, would you do the same for us as well? For all of us in here, Lord, who this morning recognized that we have so many areas where we need growth, where we need more consistency, discipline, where we have been hiding from the mission, would you help us to start accepting our calling to do better in consistency, disciplines, fulfilling our duties in small ways?

Aaron Shamp (51:09.262)
Lord, and recognizing how wonderful those small victories are because those small victories add up to making a real difference. We pray this for us, Lord, we ask that you would make us strong, defiant, courageous in the face of our culture's opposition and also in the face of whatever individual challenges these people might be facing this morning as they are called to be salt and light in Lafayette. We pray this in your name, amen.

Let us stand together now and respond to this word that we have heard in worship.