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Daniel chapter 6.
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As we continue in our series in the biblical book of Daniel, we come to yet another passage in the book of Daniel where we find Daniel in a position of great risk and uncertainty.
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He has been in that position throughout the entire story, but especially so in this passage.
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He's in a position of great risk.
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How do you think about risk and uncertainty in your life?
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How do you react when you are in moments where the future seems especially unpredictable?
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As I thought about that question, and as I studied this passage this week, I thought about a movie that I saw many years ago.
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And in this movie, the main character, his job was a risk analyst.
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He worked for an insurance company, and his job was to analyze the risk that clients posed to the company, that the company would have to pay out some kind of insurance on them.
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He had to assess how safe they were, how safe their lifestyle was.
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And if they took out insurance with this company, what was the probability that the insurance company was going to have to pay out?
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He assessed people's risk for his job.
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And because his job was to analyze and to minimize risk, it was something that started to consume his whole life.
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For him, it wasn't just a job, it was a total way of life.
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He went through life with such a high level of hesitancy about anything that he barely lived.
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He knew about all sorts of obscure possibilities about how somebody could get injured or die.
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He knew the exact statistical probability of being run over by a bus.
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He knew the exact probability of contracting rare diseases.
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He knew the frequency of getting food poisoning.
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All sorts of situations consumed him, and he ordered his life around avoiding risk.
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His job, analyzing risks, spilled over into his personal life, and he made all of his decisions with the primary goal of minimizing any risk at all.
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In a sense, he focused so much just on staying alive that he didn't even really live.
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The primary purpose in life is not doing anything that could jeopardize security, safety, or comfortability, even.
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Now, of course, prudence and caution can be good things.
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I wear a helmet when I ride a bicycle.
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But sometimes risk can be worth it.
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Sometimes priorities more important than avoiding risk.
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And in Daniel chapter 6, we see that Daniel has a very different approach to analyzing and managing risk than this movie character that I just described.
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Daniel 6 gives us an instance where risk is worth it because there was a greater good.
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It shows us that Daniel didn't organize his life purely around avoiding risk or avoiding uncertainty, but Daniel ordered his life around honoring God.
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It's a challenge to each one of us to think about what our priorities are and what it is that we are willing to risk in order to obey God.
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We pick up the story of Daniel in chapter 6, and in verse 1, it tells us that King Darius appointed administrators to oversee his kingdom.
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And Daniel was one of the ones who was appointed.
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Now let's recap briefly a couple things that we've seen in the story of Daniel.
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The story of Daniel takes place in what's known as the exilic period of the Old Testament.
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Israel had been taken into captivity in Babylon as judgment on their sin.
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Daniel was one of the Israelites who was carried away to Babylon.
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And that happened to him when he was just a young teenager.
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He was brought to a foreign land where the customs and culture were unfamiliar.
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He was essentially a political prisoner.
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His faith in God wasn't respected.
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He'd just seen his homeland destroyed.
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And so he was in a place of extreme transition and uncertainty even from the very beginning.
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And yet, while he was in Babylon, he distinguished himself by his diligence and his faithfulness to God.
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When we come to this chapter, chapter 6, Daniel is no longer that young teenager.
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He's around 80 years old now.
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It's toward the latter years of his life.
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And he has seen not only his homeland be destroyed by Babylon, he's now seen Babylon be destroyed by Darius the Mede.
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In chapter 5, the end of Daniel chapter 5, we saw that the kingdom of Medo-Persia came and took over Babylon.
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And so Daniel has gone through yet another major transition and he has witnessed yet another war, which has brought Darius to the throne.
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So as we come to chapter 6, Daniel, being around 80 years old, has lived a life full of instability, transition, and uncertainty.
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And yet, through it all, he maintains a
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commitment to God.
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When Darius comes to power, Daniel was apparently a person of good reputation and reliability.
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So Darius appoints him as an administrator over a part of the kingdom.
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He essentially says, I'm going to be the king, but Daniel, you're going to rule this part of the kingdom on my behalf.
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It was a position of honor and trust.
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Daniel had distinguished himself.
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And yet the fact that Daniel was appointed in this position of honor apparently provoked a little bit of jealousy from some others.
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They felt left out.
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And so they've come up with a way to try to get Daniel in trouble.
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Verse 4, it says this.
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At this, that is Daniel being set up as an administrator.
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At this, the administrators and the satraps tried to find grounds for charges against Daniel in his conduct of government affairs.
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But they were unable to do so.
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They tried to find some kind of a charge that they could bring against Daniel, some kind of an accusation that would get him in trouble.
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But the text says that they could find no reason for a charge against him.
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Daniel maintained a good reputation and his character was above reproach.
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You know, Martin Luther, the Protestant reformer, he said that the Christian shoemaker does not distinguish himself by putting crosses on all of the shoes that he makes.
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The Christian shoemaker distinguishes himself by making good quality shoes.
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In other words, in day-to-day life, in our areas of responsibility, wherever we may have them, one of the key ways that we can honor God is not by saying God's name all the time, although that could be a perfectly good thing to do, talking about God all the time, although that's a good thing to do.
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But one of the ways that we honor God is by fulfilling our responsibilities well and doing the job well that has been assigned to us.
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And what Martin Luther is getting at here is that even seemingly secular or seemingly unimportant aspects of life can be opportunities to honor God.
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Daniel distinguished himself as a leader, as a ruler, as a man of wisdom, and he earned the trust of Darius, who certainly was not following God.
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And yet, Darius could see that there was something different about Daniel.
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Daniel had distinguished himself, and the other people who were jealous of Daniel decide that if they can't accuse Daniel based upon legitimate grounds, well then they're going to have to accuse him simply of following God.
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Now this speaks well of Daniel's character, because the only charge that they could find against him was that he worshiped God.
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If people are going to accuse you of something, let it be that.
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That you worship the one true God.
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Verse 5.
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Finally these men said, We will never find any basis for charges against this man Daniel, unless it has something to do with the law of his God.
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And so, in verses 6 through 9, they go to King Darius and they convince him to issue a decree.
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A decree that anybody who prays to any God or any other person except the king should be thrown into a den of lions.
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Now there's a bit of deja vu here because we've seen a very similar scenario already in the book of Daniel.
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In chapter 3, the story of the fiery furnace, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, who by this point was long dead, King Nebuchadnezzar set himself up a huge golden statue and forced everybody to worship it.
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And Daniel's friends were protected through that as they refused to worship and experience the consequences.
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History has a way of repeating itself.
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We've seen this before.
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Darius apparently doesn't learn from Nebuchadnezzar's mistakes.
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He repeats those mistakes.
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And it says in verse 9, so King Darius put the decree in writing.
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A decree that anybody who worships anyone or anything other than Darius would be thrown into a den of lions.
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How does this impact Daniel?
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Daniel's now faced with a real risk.
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Darius is not somebody whom Daniel is going to worship.
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How does Daniel respond?
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Verse 10.
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Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem.
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Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he has done had done before.
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Daniel went about business as usual, worshiping God.
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Daniel didn't feel any need to change based upon the threat of being thrown into the den of lions.
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Daniel was well aware of the decree, but he didn't let that impact his worship of God.
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This was obviously a situation that posed great risk to him.
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And yet, he did
not make risk management his number one priority.
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If Daniel's number one priority was risk management, he would have gone right up to Darius and started worshiping that guy.
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He did the exact opposite.
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He continued with business as usual.
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Says in verse 10 that he prayed and he gave thanks to God just as he had done before.
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The threat from a lesser king didn't deter Daniel from worshiping the one true king.
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This is good news to Daniel's accusers.
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They got what they wanted.
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They found something that they could legitimately accuse him of.
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Worshiping God.
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And the accusers immediately seize on this opportunity.
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They remind Darius of his decree.
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They remind him of the decree.
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Verse 12.
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Did you not publish a decree that during the next 30 days anyone who prays to any God or human being except you, your majesty, would be thrown into the den of lions?
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The king answered, The decree stands.
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And then they tell King Darius that Daniel is guilty of violating the decree.
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Daniel is guilty of worshiping the one true God rather than this human king.
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Ironically, to Darius, this is terrible news.
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Darius is horrified about this.
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Darius is horrified, and he's suddenly concerned about Daniel.
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For Darius, this would be a huge loss because Daniel was such a great leader and administrator of the kingdom.
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But now Darius is trapped by his own decree.
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Because these accusers, after reminding Darius of his decree, also remind Darius that according to the law at the time, a decree from the king is irreversible.
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Verse 15, they say, Remember, your majesty, according to the law of the Medes and the Persians, no decree or edict that the king issues can be changed.
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Darius tried to be in control.
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He tried to be all-powerful.
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And now, ironically, Darius is trapped by his own decree.
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It produced an outcome that even he didn't want.
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It now risks the life of one of his great workers, Daniel.
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Darius tried to be king, and yet he's trapped by his own decree.
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Sometimes, when we try to take charge of our own lives, we become trapped by our very schemes.
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The things that we think will bring us freedom and success actually ensnare us.
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When we live according to our own wisdom and way rather than the wisdom of God, it might look freeing, but it's actually a trap.
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The way to true freedom in the Christian life is submission.
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Submission to the one true God.
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Darius learned the hard way that trying to set himself up as king is actually a way of imprisoning himself.
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Because it spiraled out of control, and he's powerless to stop it now.
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He's going to lose one of his great administrators.
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As the story goes on, Daniel is thrown into the lion's den.
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Daniel is thrown into the lion's den, and yet, because there is another king who is in control, Daniel survives.
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The mouths of the lions are shut, and they cannot hurt Daniel.
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This is great news to Darius.
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In fact, Darius says in verse 16, May your God, whom you serve continually rescue you.
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Ironically, Darius is now in a position to admit, I tried to be king and I messed up.
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Now I'm going to have to appeal this to a higher king.
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And the one true God does indeed save Daniel.
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Verse 20.
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He came to Daniel, said, Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to rescue you from the lions.
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Verse 21, Daniel answered, May the king live forever.
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My God sent his angel, and he shut the mouths of the lions.
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They have not hurt me because I was found innocent in his sight, nor have I ever done any wrong before you, your majesty.
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Daniel was vindicated in his trust of God.
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It was vindicated that he had done no wrong.
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And then in an ironic turn of events, those who had accused Daniel were the ones who were thrown into the lion's den and were eaten.
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Those who tried to control the situation saw the situation spin hopelessly out of control.
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Daniel, who simply trusted in God, saw God provide for him the entire way.
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Daniel clearly knew the risk that was involved in what he was doing.
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The text emphasizes that when Daniel continued praying to God, it was after he knew about the decree.
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He didn't just find himself trapped by a decree that he knew nothing about.
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Daniel knew the risk to his own life, and he
proceeded with worship as usual.
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Think back earlier to what I shared with you about the risk analyst in that movie.
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His entire life revolved around avoiding risk, calculating the chance of some catastrophe or awful thing happening.
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His job was to minimize and to analyze risk.
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And for him, that wasn't just a day job.
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It was a way of life.
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It was a way of life.
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The book of Daniel shows us somebody with a different approach.
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The book of Daniel shows us somebody with a different approach to risk.
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That risk is something sometimes to be avoided, but avoiding risk isn't the ultimate goal.
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Avoidance of risk cannot be our ultimate priority.
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When obeying God posed a risk, Daniel accepted the risk and continued obeying God.
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The ultimate priority was obedience, and if risk came with that, then so be it.
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What does this mean for us?
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We likely won't face something as dramatic as Daniel did.
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But we cannot let risk determine how far our obedience to God will go.
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We can't let risk stop us from obeying God.
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We can't say to God that we will obey right up until the risk becomes too great, and then we won't.
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Because partial obedience isn't obedience at all.
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We must be willing to obey God even when that means risk, just as Daniel did.
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Perhaps you feel comfortable right now in life.
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There's not a lot of risk, you feel secure, maybe financially, you feel secure about your future.
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If that's the case, if you if you feel comfortable, you don't feel like you face a lot of risk, then the challenge is to not let comfort turn into complacency.
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Don't let comfort turn into complacency.
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In other words, don't let your sense of comfort and security lull you into getting away from what God has called you to do with your life.
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Continue to be willing to get a bit uncomfortable for the sake of Christ.
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Continue to be willing to get uncomfortable if that means obedience to the will of God.
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Alternatively, maybe you are in a position of uncertainty or discomfort.
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You're facing financial pressure, unsecurity about your job, difficulty with relationships, other things that are going on in life, health issues.
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You feel very insecure right now, like life is upside down.
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The key is to maintain obedience in the face of such uncertainty.
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Don't let uncertainty about the future cause you to disobey God in the present.
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When we are in places of uncertainty and instability, it can be tempting to take unethical shortcuts or to give up trusting in God altogether.
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It can be easy to say, well, God's not a part of this anymore, so I'm on my own and take our life into our own hands.
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Sometimes the disobedience doesn't even come at the level of our actions, but at the level of our attitudes and thoughts.
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Outwardly, we might not be acting any different, but inwardly, we allow the circumstances around us to make us bitter, make us withdrawn, make us focus inward rather than outward, focus on our own comfort and security rather than on those around us.
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And so we're no longer as willing to reach out to other people, to help out, to sacrifice our time and resources for those in need.
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Because all of those things create an element of instability.
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We're no longer willing to reach out and form relationships with other people because relationships themselves bring about an element of instability.
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You can't control what other people are going to do.
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And so the easiest way to avoid risk is to simply not be in relationship with people.
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But if we do that, then we lose out on so many opportunities to be part of the mission that God has for us.
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We lose out on the blessing of knowing and being with other people, of blessing other people and of being blessed ourselves.
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When we're in places of uncertainty, it can be tempting to withdraw, to give up on God, or to start doing things that we know are against God's law.
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The passage calls us to obedience even in the face of uncertainty.
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I was recently talking with an individual, and as I was talking with this individual, uh it was somebody who I felt that I had needed to talk to about the gospel, that I needed to share Jesus with.
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Sometimes obedience means taking uncertain opportunities.
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And I don't know the result of that.
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I don't know if it really made an impact on that person or if it will.
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But looking back on it, I give thanks that the Holy Spirit pushed me and enabled me to obey in that point.
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Because I can tell you, there's been other instances in my life where I haven't done that, where I've not been that obedient.
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And part of the reason for that is because I like comfort and I like security.
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But God calls us beyond that.
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He calls us to obedience first and foremost, no matter the risk.
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Let me conclude with a quote.
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You may have heard it.
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It's uh I don't know who it's attributed to.
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It's a quote I've heard uh many times throughout the years, and it says this it says that life shrinks or expands in proportion to your courage.
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Life shrinks or expands in proportion to your courage.
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In other words, the more we are willing to step out with courage and accept risk, the more of life we get to experience.
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I'll maybe tweak that a little bit, put it in more explicitly Christian terms.
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I would say that our experience of God shrinks or expands in proportion to our faith.
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Our experience of God's power, of God's blessing, of God's providence shrinks or expands in proportion to our faith.
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When we are willing to step out in faith and trust God with the unknown, it gives us an opportunity to experience his provision and his power in a way that we wouldn't otherwise have been able to.
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And so as Christians, we're called not to be risky just for the sake of taking risk, not just to be daredevils for the sake of it, but we're called to trust and obey.
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We should be prudent and wise, not take risks unnecessarily, but we also shouldn't make risk avoidance our number one goal in life.
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Our number one goal in life should be honoring God.
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And let's let God worry about any risks that come along with obedience to Him.