Hope in God's Promise - Daniel 6:14-23 - In Babylon

Hey, what's up? Mercy Hill family at all of our locations. I am so excited to be with you this weekend. Hey, my name is Ronald Redmond, and if you don't know me, I want you to know that I currently hold the record for the most viewed sermon on Mercy Hill's YouTube channel.

And that's at 58k, okay? And so I want you to know that it has nothing to do with the fact that the title of the sermon is The Body and Sex, but it has everything to do with the fact that I'm an excellent communicator, and so you are in for a treat, all right? And so I told Pastor Bobbie that if I start losing you at all this weekend, I have part two of that sermon entitled More Truths About Sex that I'm ready to let go in this notebook. Hey, if you are new with us, that's quite the introduction. We are so glad that you are here.

Maybe this is just your second time because you connected with us over kids' weeks. You are coming on the heels of a sermon series, an 11-week sermon series that we've been in the book of Daniel, and that's been entitled In Babylon. And so if you have ever, you know, maybe you've been on social media or you've been scrolling on Twitter or looking at the news and you thought to yourself, man, the world is going to hell in a handbasket.

Or maybe the way that my mom would say it, people have lost their ever-loving mind, right? If you have ever thought that, then, you know, what we have found in the book of Daniel is that we are not the first people to land in sort of a godless culture. And what we have found throughout this series is that there's a way that we can walk and be faithful to God and the Bible.

And so we've learned many, many different applications. And so I want to encourage you to go back and listen to that series. It has been so good for all of us.

And so I'm closing up shop on this series. And so today we're going to be in Daniel chapter 6, and the message is entitled to hope in God's promises. God's promises bring us great hope is the big idea that we're going to chase down. And so I want to start by talking about hope, because I know that regardless of where you are today, we all hope in something, right? And so we hope for a lot of things. We hope that we will get the promotion. We hope that our kids will make good friends. We hope that our sick loved ones will get better. We hope that the check engine light that just came on will go off.

Amen, somebody? We hope that we will be able to resist temptation and to walk in a way that pleases God. We hope that we will get in the right lane at the double line in the Chick-fil-A, right? We get in the fastest one.

I know I do. I hope hard that my line's going to move faster. And so again, we all hope for something. We all have things that we're hoping in. My question today for us is twofold. Is where is our hope, and are those things able to hold the weight of our hope? See, it's been said about faith, and I think you can apply it to hope as well, that faith is only as good as the object that it is put in, right?

And hope is very much that same way. I was reminded of this story. When I was in college, I was watching the UNC versus Duke basketball game, and I got into this argument with one of my good friends because I was trying to convince him that I could take one of their point guards, John Shrier, who's the now head coach, that I could take him in a one-on-one basketball game, and he was like, Ron, are you serious?

This guy is 6'5". I was like, so? Have you seen me play defense, right? Like, I can take this man.

And he's like, man, he'll be shooting all over you now. Obviously, I had never played against somebody to that caliber before, right? But now I know just how foolish it was for me to have this kind of confidence, this hope that I would be able to beat John Shrier in a one-on-one competition, right? But what I want you to hear today is, unlike that hope that I had or that confidence, the hope that is available to us is much different. For the Christian, hope is not just a wishful thinking.

It is proven, it is reliable, it is sure, it can anchor us, it can give us the courage to stand boldly in a cultural climate whose values and virtues stand in opposition to the kingdom of God. And so today, what we're going to see in our time together is we're going to see an anxious hope that the king had, we're going to see an abiding hope that Daniel had, and we're going to end our time by talking about your hope. So, again, the big idea I botched the first time, I'm going to get it right this time, is that God's promises bring us great hope. God's promises bring us great hope. And so, again, Daniel chapter 6, this is part 2 of where we are finishing the story of Daniel and the lions then. And so two weeks ago, Pastor Bobby, he began the story. Again, I would encourage you to go check out that sermon, it was so good. And so I'm just going to really quickly give you a synopsis of what we covered in the sermon two weeks ago, all right? So Daniel chapter 6, verses 1 through 13, what we find is Babylon is now under a new rule.

It is the Medes and the Persians under King Darius. And he has placed 120 governors over certain areas just to make sure everything is running smoothly. And Daniel is one of the officials. And Daniel, you see, by the way that he works, he distinguishes himself among others because he's faithful at his job. And so Daniel gains some haters. And so they come and they devise a plan to try to get Daniel killed. They go to the king and they're like, hey, will you create this law that will make it illegal for anyone to pray to anyone other than you?

And so the king obliges, you know, kind of not knowing what their plan was. And Daniel does exactly what he has done three times a day for almost 70 years, is when he hears about this ordinance not to pray, he immediately prays. And so these guys come and they go to the king and they begin to snitch on Daniel.

And here's where we're going to pick it up in chapter 6, verses 14. It says, then the king, he heard these words and as much and was much distressed. And he set his mind to deliver Daniel. And he labored till the sun went down to rescue him. Then these men came by agreement to the king and said to the king, no, O king, that it is the law of the Medes and the Persians that no injunction or ordinance that the king establishes can be changed.

He said, no, you can't go back on your word. Then the king commanded and Daniel was brought into the lion's den. The king declared to Daniel, may your God whom you serve continually deliver you. And a stone was brought and laid on the mouth of the den. And the king sealed it with his own signet and with the signet of the Lord's that nothing might be changed concerning Daniel. Then the king went to his palace and spent the night fasting.

No diversions were brought to him and sleep fled him. Then at daybreak, the king arose and went in haste to the den of lions. As he came near to the den where Daniel was, he cried out in a tone of anguish. The king declared to Daniel, O Daniel, servant of the living God, for has your God whom you serve continually been able to deliver you from the lions? Then Daniel said to the king, O king, live forever. My God sent his angel and shut the lion's mouth and they have not harmed me, for I was found blameless before them and also before you, O king.

I have done no harm. Then the king was exceedingly glad and commanded that Daniel be taken up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den and no harm was found on him. And if you have your Bible, please underline this next phrase, because he had trusted in his God. Listen, when we look at the king's actions here, it is clear that he, this pagan king who did not worship the God of the Bible, he certainly had a hope in God that God could protect Daniel from the lions then.

In verse 14, it says that may your God whom you continually serve deliver you. And the fact that he gets up first thing in the morning and he rushes and he calls out to Daniel, it's clear that he had maybe an inkling of a hope that maybe God could save Daniel. But I want to talk about the type of hope that he had in God. See, this king had an anxious hope in God. And I want us to examine sort of the marks of this anxious hope in God that the king had. We're going to look at the expression of that hope. We're going to look at the source of that hope and we're going to look at kind of the connection of that hope.

So the first mark is the expression. What was this king's expression of hope in God like? Well, it was that of worry, right? The king was anxious, and that is evident because he was up all night, right? It said sleep fled him.

He didn't even enjoy all the things that he normally uses to distract him like Netflix and Xbox and, you know, he didn't want none of that, right? Because he was really uncertain about what was going to happen to Daniel ultimately. And see, what makes the king's hope anxious is that he understood that he was unable to actually do anything to determine the outcome. In other words, the king was, he was confronted with his finiteness, right? The fact that he was limited, it says that he tried to do everything he could to rescue Daniel, but he couldn't.

And so when we are limited in our ability to rescue, right, then maybe we turn to God. I was reminded of this time where I was kind of had this anxious hope, right, where I was sort of kind of overwhelmed and kind of anxious. It was earlier this week, we had sold our sectional to one of our good friends, and they were coming over to pick up the sectional, and so there was three parts.

And so we get the first two parts out, easy money. Then the third part, which was the longest part of the sectional, it does not want to go around the corner and out the front door, all right? So, you know, I'm starting to get hot, the kids are running around, the house is a hot mess, and so I'm starting to kind of get anxious. I'm like, man, I know we got it in, so I know we can get it out, but my hope is starting to worry. Like, man, we sold them this couch and they might not get it. And so after about 30 minutes, we had six different people coming to help us, all right, a lot of sweat, a lot of dings and, you know, cracks.

We had to take the front door off, and we finally got it out the patio, out the back door. And so I just, you know, in that moment, I'm just, I was anxious about this. I was worried, right?

What about you? The second thing I want to talk about from the king's hope was the reality that his, the source of his hope. So the source of the king's hope was initially himself, right? It's said that once he heard about what happened to Daniel, he decided, he determined in verse 14, he labored until the sun went down trying to rescue him, but he was unable to. And so it was only after he had done everything that he could possibly do, then he turned to God. In other words, the king's hope only came after he failed to rescue Daniel himself, and so I wonder how true that is for many of us today.

How many of us, we turn inward before we turn outward? How many of us only turn to God toward him when we have done everything else in our power, and to no avail do we then turn to God? See, God desires that we would trust him first, not as a last resort. See, because a last resort hope in God is an anxious hope in God. And so the third thing we see about the king's anxious hope is that the connection was not personal, right?

This is the most obvious thing. Again, he is a pagan king, and his hope that God would deliver him was kind of a secondhand hope, right? He said in verse 20, if your God, whom you continually serve, right, could deliver him. And it wasn't that he actually trusted God for himself, right? His hope was not personal. But God desires that we would know him personally, that we would trust in him for ourselves, not just know about him through others, but rather through our personal relationship with him that brings forth a confidence about the future.

Middle and high school students, let me talk to you for a moment. Have you trusted in God for yourself, right? Is your hope in God a result of a personal commitment to follow Jesus, or are you simply borrowing the hope and faith and trust of your parents? Now listen, yes, it is important and right to initially learn about God from your parents and from mentors, but there comes a point where you must trust for yourself. Now for the rest of us, when we consider the king's anxious hope, do we?

Does the characteristics match ours? Is your trust in God first and foremost? What are keeping you up at night? Because a lot of times those are a good indicator of where our source of ultimate hope is. What are you doing to manage your finiteness, your limitations? Are those things, are you trying to overwork in order to overcompensate for the ways you lack and the ways you're limited? Thinking that if you work hard enough, you can overcome and you can get the desired outcome. Or are your limitations causing you to despair and you're on the verge of just giving up?

Where are you running to cope and to deal with these? Listen, I have good news for us this weekend, friends. This is not the only hope that's available to us today. Second, we see Daniel's hope, which is an abiding hope. Everybody say abiding hope. His abiding hope was in God.

And so again, I want to talk about the expression of that, the source of that, and the connection. See, the expression of Daniel's hope in God was that of trust. Where the king was that of worry, Daniel's was that of trust. See, an abiding hope in God is a hope that continually trusts in God. All throughout this series and through the first six chapters of the book of Daniel, we see how Daniel's unwavering and uncompromising faith to God, even in the midst of difficult circumstances. In chapter one, Daniel rejects the king's food and wine, and instead he obeys God's command and he eats vegetables and drinks water.

Why? Because he trusted in God. Chapter two, when the king threatened to kill all of the wise men because no one could interpret the dream. Daniel not only interprets the dream, but he gives all the credit and the glory to God for giving him the interpretation.

Why? Because he trusted in God. And in chapter five, there was this writing on the wall and no one knew what it meant. And this was going to be a warning to King Belshazzar. And Daniel, even though this was an unfavorable outcome that he was going to have to tell this king, he still gave the report, the interpretation.

Why? Because he trusted God. And in chapter six, when the king issued the decree for everyone to only pray to him, how does Daniel respond? He prays.

Why? Because he trusted God. See, Daniel had a deep abiding trust in God that gave him the confidence to remain faithful even when the hardships arose. So that is, again, just the expression was in trust. Now let's talk about the source. Daniel's abiding hope in God was not based on his circumstances. It was not based on his circumstances. Like the king who initially trusted in himself, Daniel continually trusted in God regardless of what he was facing.

He trusted. And so I love basketball. I've already shared one basketball illustration.

Let me share another really quickly. And so for those of you who aren't familiar with some major sports, let me give you a little context. So I'm watching the NBA finals. I'm a huge NBA fan.

I only really watch it in the finals just because there's too many games during the season. So last two games or last two teams, they're playing the best out of seven series. And so it is the team that wins four games. They are the champions. Right. And so the Miami Heat was having sort of an incredible playoff run.

It was a historical kind of season. They, you know, play in to get into the tournament. They beat some teams and then they end up in the finals. And I have a lot of hope that the Miami Heat could actually pull off this, you know, upset and beat the Denver Nuggets. Well, in the second game, the Miami Heat ties the series one apiece. And my hope, my confidence in their ability goes up high.

Because they is tied 1-1. They're, you know, got this momentum. And so I call up my brother and I'm like, hey, man, you trying to put some money on the game? Right. I'm like feeling good. Like they got to pull this thing out. And then they lose game two and game three. And now they're thinking down three games to one.

And I'm like, oh, it's over. Good thing he didn't want to put no money on the game. Right.

I get to keep all my money in my pocket. I didn't even watch the last game. Right. Because I knew there was no chance. My hope, it waned.

And so, again, Daniel's hope is one that is not based on the circumstances. It's not up. It's not high.

It's not low. It's a constant. It's a consistent, continual. And then lastly, again, the connection.

Hopefully you already know this. The difference between the king's hope in God and this anxious hope in Daniel's was that it was personal. Right. It says in verse twenty-two, my God has sent an angel and shut the mouth of lions. That word, my, is Elahi in the Hebrew, which is possessive and it shows personal ownership. And it expresses a personal relationship that fleshes itself out in continual trust. And so, these are some marks of Daniel's abiding hope in God.

Let's work toward finishing the story. Daniel chapter six, verse twenty-four says, And the king commanded, and those men who had maliciously accused Daniel were brought and cast into the den of lions, they, their children, and their wives. And before they reached the bottom of the den, the lions overpowered them and broke all of their—broke all their bones in pieces. Listen, just in case you were thinking, oh, the Daniels didn't attack Daniel. The lions didn't attack Daniel because they were hungry.

The author's like, no, no, no, no. Like, before they even hit the ground, these people were taken up. They were eaten. And so, this was an absolute miracle. God delivered Daniel by shutting the mouths of the lions. And what happened to these men that plotted this evil against Daniel?

Well, they suffered the very fate that they had intended for Daniel. And see, for just a moment, I just want us to see that all throughout Scripture, we see salvation. We see it is accompanied both by deliverance and judgment. And the reason that that is good news is because once we look around and we see all of these evils in the world, we have the confidence to know that God is not going to turn a blind eye to these things.

Justice will be served, and so we don't have to, you know— we can trust that ultimately God is going to handle the injustices that we see. It's also important for us to just mention that the punishment that was described here, where the families were also sort of executed—listen, this is descriptive and not prescriptive. What I mean is, in ancient times, it was the way of the king. They would often kill the children and the parents in order to prevent them from trying to avenge the death later on.

Okay? And so, and actually, in Ezekiel, this very practice where the children are, you know, punished for the sins of their parents, that is also condemned. Let's continue. Let's end verses 25 through 28. It says, then King Darius wrote to all the peoples, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth, for he is the living God. Enduring forever, his kingdom shall never be destroyed and his dominion shall be to the end. He delivers and rescues. He works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth. He who has saved Daniel from the power of the lions.

So this Daniel prospered during the reign of Darius and the reign of Cyrus the Persian. Listen, we could preach a whole sermon on just these passages, right? And these characteristics and attributes that we see about God. You see, similar to King Nebuchadnezzar's response when Daniel's friend walked out of the fiery furnace, the King Darius, he delivers a similar decree that says all people should worship God. And in this little sermon, he declares several things that are actually true about God. He highlights that God is a God who's global, who's personal, who's eternal, who's sovereign, who's faithful, who's eminent, and who's savior. Now, I don't know where he got this from, but I would bet that he came to understand these things about God because of the way that Daniel lived his life.

See, the King's theology here, it came from the way he saw Daniel and his friends live out of his faith. My question to you, believer, is what does your life say to unbelievers about God? Does your life display the attributes, the truths of God?

Does your life tell the truth about God? Let's talk about our hope. Where is your hope today?

How is it working for you? Does your hope resemble more of an anxious hope or an abiding hope? Is the source of your hope changing with circumstances? See, Daniel is an incredible example of faithfulness in the Bible. But the reality is that if you try to muster up to do what Daniel did, you're going to find yourself anxious about your anxiety. You're going to find yourself discouraged about your inability.

See, it was by God's grace that Daniel fixed his hope in the promises of God. Now, listen, I want to give a bit of a disclaimer. I understand that there is a category of people whose anxiety is the result of mental health issues. And in some cases, a person isn't choosing to be anxious, but rather it is choosing them.

And if that's you, I don't want you to feel guilty today at all. But rather, I want you to maybe examine if there are areas of your life that are similar to the marks that we see that are indicators of this anxious hope. But more than that, here's the key for all of us, whether we struggle with anxiety or not. See, what will truly fuel our ability to have courage and strength and faithfulness and an abiding hope in God like Daniel is that when we recognize that Jesus is the greater Daniel. Like Daniel, Jesus is true innocence. Although Daniel was known for being a righteous man, Jesus was the only one who lived totally without sin.

And thought, word, deed, action, motives. Like Daniel, Jesus also had jealous political leaders who plotted against him and brought false charges in an attempt to get him killed. Like Daniel, Jesus had the primary judge in charge.

For Daniel, it was King Darius. For Jesus, it was Pilate who tried to rescue him after declaring him innocent. Like Daniel, it was Jesus who was thrown into a pit whose entrance was covered by a large stone and sealed with a government seal left for dead. Like Daniel, Jesus had loving friends run to the tomb early in the morning. Like Daniel, Jesus walked out of the tomb alive the next day. Listen, all over this story, it is pointing us to Jesus.

But there is a stark difference. Jesus did everything Daniel did. But instead, he was devoured so that the wrongdoers could go free.

That's me and you. The pit is a symbol of the cross. And it was on the cross where Jesus was crushed for our iniquities. He took the death that our sins deserved.

He went into that pit for you and for me. But three days later, he defeated death by resurrecting from the dead, offering us new life, eternal life. And it is received when we place our faith in his finished work on the cross. Have you trusted in that for yourself today? If you have not, all you have to do is just pray.

We like to say the ABCs. If you want to trust in Christ today, all you have to do is to admit that you are a sinner. Believe that Jesus died for your sin and confess him as Lord and you can have this hope. We're going to be baptizing next week.

And so if that is you, we would love to have a conversation. The next step after you place faith in Jesus is to publicly declare that to the world in baptism. Guys, what we do with Jesus is the most important question we will ever answer. It will determine the type of hope we have.

And so here's the key. Listen, if I know that Jesus has taken everything upon himself, then I can stand firm on the promise of Romans 8, 1 that says, there's therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. So I don't have to feel the guilt and the shame that my sin tries to lobby at me. Or when I'm facing a really difficult time, I can believe the promise that he gave to his disciples at the very end in Matthew 28, that says, behold, I'm with you to the very end of the age.

I'm not alone. So if my sick loved one dies, I can trust that God will ultimately restore me and turn my weeping into joy. When my relationships fail and there's a parent that leaves, I can trust that God is a father to the fatherless. When relationships, when I'm betrayed, when I'm disappointed, I can look at what Christ has done, and I can have hope in his promises.

Listen, because I know that he's purchased something for me, and this is not our home. Our ultimate hope is in the life to come that Jesus has purchased. That is available to us today. Let us pray. Father, I thank you that because of your stripes, we are healed. And we can have confidence in a world that is chaotic. We can have courage, confidence and trust because you've done everything necessary for us. And so, Father, I pray that there be people today that would step over the line.

They'd move from life, from death to life, and they'd trust you as Savior, as Lord today. It's in your beautiful name. Amen.

Hey, every week we end our services by responding in three ways. We like to pray. We like to bring. We like to sing. Our altar is open. If there are things that you feel like God is calling you to pray about, to bring to him, to surrender, we invite you to come and pray. We also, we bring our tithes and our offerings, and so you can give in our services. We also, we sing as we respond to the grace that has been shown, the promises that we have in Scripture. Let us respond, let us stand together and sing praises to our great King.