Don’t Stop praising WR

Bible Passage: Daniel 6:24-28

Summary:

Connect: Final session | God doing great things | Summary of past messages |

READ

Pray:

ASK : how many of you guys have a favorite place to eat? Shout it out.

Tell: For a long time my favorite place to eat at was Taco Bell. I know that is counter cultural and offensive to my fellow hispanic people. But facts are facts. However, One of my friends began to tell me how great the food is at Chik-Fil-A. Now I haven’t had their food yet, but I had my heart set on Taco Bell. You can’t beat taco bell. $5 Box you getting a burrito, two tacos, a side and a drink? unbeatable. But my friend continued on about Chik-Fil-A. The Lord’s chicken. I thought to myself there’s no way chik-fil-a is all that good. So I gotta challenge this guy’s belief system. So I go and give the chik-fil-a a go. I get that young chicken sammich meal, with the waffle fries, and a sunjoy. I remember him talking to me about that chik-fil-a sauce. So I had to ask for that too. I get my food and sit with my friend and for the first time when I had that first bite, I could see in 4k ultra color. Then I dipped that waffle fry in that sauce and I could hear the beautiful sound of children laughing. Things were different. Taco Bell has left the chat. I became a chik-fil-a man. If I could eat it all the time without consequence i’d be in there day and night.

Express: How did this change and transformation happen? It was by the influence of a friend who was willing to share something with me.

The same goes with our faith. Our lifestyle of faith could be an influence to those around you. And our goal for this session is for you to begin to live a life of praise in order to influence a life of praise to those around you.

So now, let’s take some time to dive in our text to learn how we can do this:

Context: Daniel takes us to the story of Israel’s captivity into Babylon, and Babylon’s captivity to Persia . Israel only worshiped one God that is the God we worship as Christians. But, Babylon and Persia worshiped many gods. They considered their kings to be gods and their culture of idolatry heavily influenced Israel. But throughout this story we’ve seen images of faithful people who did not bow down to idols and who were faithful to God even in the middle of adversity.

Before the passage we are getting into now, Daniel prayed himself into a Lion’s den because some people wanted to accuse Daniel of breaking the Persian law which was that the citizens of Persia couldn’t pray to anyone else except the gods of Persia and the king for 30 days. But God saved Daniel by shutting the mouths of the lions. What we are going to read now is The king of Persia’s response to God saving Daniel.

Daniel 6:24 CSB

24 The king then gave the command, and those men who had maliciously accused Daniel were brought and thrown into the lions’ den—they, their children, and their wives. They had not reached the bottom of the den before the lions overpowered them and crushed all their bones.

1.Praise brings the downfall of deceivers

What we just read was the consequences of Daniel’s enemies. Their own deceit led to their downfall and the downfall of their families.

God places Justice on Daniel’s enemies because of Daniel’s faithfulness and unwillingness to stop giving God the praise He deserves.

We can be too quick to try and get vengeance for ourselves when God has already worked it out.

Daniel wasn’t called by God to throw his enemies in the lion’s den, God used the Persian king to do it.

Some of you have been through something that someone else has done to you. God is not calling you to vengeance. He’s calling you to forgiveness and trust.

What was Jesus’ reaction to being wrongly accused and placed on a cross by his enemies? “Forgive them, because they don’t know what they are doing.”

God is in control and your adversity, problem, what happened to you, might actually become a platform for highlighting God’s power and ability to save you.

But also think about the other end of this, The deceivers were punished. The people who lied to get something they wanted got destroyed.

Some of you think you’re Daniel in this story when you might actually be one of the deceivers.

Some of you might be using deceit to constantly get out of trouble for something.

We do this a lot to our parents because we might think they are too stupid to believe our lies. God is more for your parents then He is for your lies.

And it might be your deceit that leads to someone else’s blessing. Don’t be surprised to see someone else you don’t like doing well because their blessing might actually be a response to your deceit.

Now listen, Daniel was saved because He trusted God. Even in the face of his enemies, in the face of death, He always put His attention to God. He was a man of unwavering faith. Why? Because God proves Himself to be Faithful to save His people.

Let’s keep reading

Daniel 6:25–27 CSB

25 Then King Darius wrote to those of every people, nation, and language who live on the whole earth: “May your prosperity abound. 26 I issue a decree that in all my royal dominion, people must tremble in fear before the God of Daniel: For he is the living God, and he endures forever; his kingdom will never be destroyed, and his dominion has no end. 27 He rescues and delivers; he performs signs and wonders in the heavens and on the earth, for he has rescued Daniel from the power of the lions.”

2. Praise has influence

Daniel’s life becomes a witness to the King of Persia. If God was able to keep hungry lions off of him, then he had to be the true God. So King Darius makes a decree which actually is a resume of God including His work experience and special skills.

This decree was submitted to Persia, to other nations, and other people of different languages. So not only was Darius influenced by what God has done, but the world became influenced.

This is because of the kind of life that Daniel had.

Daniel had a habit of prayer and praise.

Daniel had a habit of being in God’s presence.

Daniel had a habit of not caring about what other people thought of His faith.

Our Habits can influence the people around us

What do your habits say about you?

If the people around you, did what you did, say what you said, had an attitude like yours. Would they know Jesus Christ? OR would they see another Christian hypocrite.

I don’t know about you, but I believe in building habits that speak highly of God and not poorly of Him.

My habits should say that God is the living God and that He endures forever. My habits should say that He has a kingdom that will not be destroyed and a dominion that will not end. My habits should prove that God rescues and delivers, he performs signs and wonders in the heavens and on the earth. My life should reveal to people that He has saved me from the mouth of satan.

What do your habits point to?

Daniel’s habits allowed him to be able to respond to crisis with praise. And it led others to do the same.

When in doubt, offer God praise. Give Him your attention, and allow your life to be evidence that He is the one true God.

Here are some habits you can begin to practice:

1. Develop a Prayer Routine

If you don’t have prayer you don’t have communication with God and therefore you cannot know how God desires you to live.

Set a schedule and reminder for times throughout the day for you to pray

memorize the Lord’s Prayer as an outline for your prayer life. Matthew 6:9-13

Matthew 6:9–13 CSB

9 “Therefore, you should pray like this: Our Father in heaven, your name be honored as holy. 10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us today our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

2. Schedule Bible Reading

God’s word is designed for you to get to know Him.

Find someone you trust to read the Bible with.

Read once or twice a day either the same passage or two different passages

3. Practice Godly influence

In your life, ask yourself this question: If Jesus were living through me, how would he interact with the people in my life?

This question will change your interactions.

It will change how you see and treat people.

What would Jesus do, If He were you.

I’m ending here with verse 28.

Daniel 6:28 CSB

28 So Daniel prospered during the reign of Darius and the reign of Cyrus the Persian.

Perhaps focus on how Daniel prospers during the reigns of both Darius and Cyrus, illustrating God's faithfulness to His faithful servant. Emphasize the Christological fulfillment in Christ, who offers eternal deliverance and prosperity in our spiritual lives. Encourage believers to see prosperity not just in material terms but as the result of a life aligned with God’s purposes. This point suggests that consistent praise and devotion to God nurture a blessing-filled life, showcasing His continued favor.

Put this in perspective real quick. Daniel doesn’t just do well under the reign of one king. Daniel was a faithful man during the reign of Babylon, during a war between Babylon and Persia, and during the reign of two Persian kings.

Daniel was faithful to God and God was faithful to Daniel.

Our faithfulness to God produces spiritual prosperity.

Not a prosperity that promised wealth, nice clothes, a fancy car, a big house, a big social media following, or tons of friends.

God promises a prosperity that even the richest people on earth will never experience.

It’s eternal life through Jesus Christ.

Daniel was thrown into a pit and presumed dead until the morning when he came out and was still alive. Daniel’s life from the pit influenced the world that His God is the one true God. And that God did the same miracle in a bigger way through Jesus Christ.

God sent His only beloved Son to become like us to experience what we experience, to be tempted like we are tempted but without sin so that He could be thrown into a pit dead. He took our sins and our punishment on Himself. He was punished for what we deserved so we could be set free from our punishment. And three days later He rose from the pit so that way He could make a way for us to rise with Him forever.

And He empowers us to have a life of praise as a response of thanksgiving for what He did for us. Do you believe in Jesus Christ? Have you put your faith in Him and have you made Him the master of your life? If you said yes to any of those questions, then you are experiencing a life of prosperity that not even the richest man in the world can experience.

I believe in responses I think we need to respond to God. If you are here today and you want to get rid of old habits. If you are here today and you want to build up new habits of faith that allow you to influence others to Jesus, If you are here and want to be sure your outcome to life won’t be like those deceivers who were devoured by the lions. If you are here and you want to make Jesus Christ the master of your life I wanna count to three and you come up and have time to respond to God.