Sermon Tone Analysis

The P’s of problem solving

Panic-Do the wrong thing

Paralyze- Do Nothing

Pray- Do the Powerful Thing

Daniel 6:

We should seek to walk with God so diligently that our default reactions to situations shift from a flesh reaction to a spirit reaction.

Like Daniel we want to practice a holy habit long enough that it becomes an old pattern.

That it’s “just as we had done before.”

Fight All Your Battles On your knees and you will win every time

2 Samuel

Daniel’s faith was severely tested, but he emerged victorious.

We’re told that because Daniel was very successful and favored by King Darius, the other commissioners and satraps became jealous and decided to set a trap for him.

reports that the conspirators told the king, “All the commissioners of the kingdom … have consulted together that the king should establish a statute and enforce an injunction that anyone who makes a petition to any god or man besides you, O king, for thirty days, shall be cast into the lions’ den.”

As they knew he would, Daniel refused to compromise his love for God by worshiping King Darius, even though he understood that his obedience to the Lord would jeopardize his life ().

He chose the path of other faithful believers who “did not love their life even when faced with death” ().

And the conspirators caught him in the act of praying to the Lord and condemned him to the lions’ den ().

Many of God’s greatest saints—those in the Bible and others throughout Christian history—faced varying degrees of suffering.

All of them, however, developed an unshakable faith that provided the inner strength they needed to face every difficulty with hope and blessed assurance.

Do you have an unshakable faith?

Are you in an extreme place of testing?

If so, do not be afraid.

God has planned this very moment, and He will teach you how to trust Him perfectly.

A person with an unshakable faith never judges God’s faithfulness by his or her feelings.

Instead, he or she believes and trusts the Lord through every season of life, knowing that in the end, God’s plan will emerge as perfect.

At times in your walk with God, He may require you to do something that, from a human perspective, seems unreasonable.

From His viewpoint, however, it will be in perfect alignment with His Word and will turn out for your ultimate benefit.

Therefore, open your heart to His love and give Him the opportunity to prove His faithfulness.

That is what Daniel did, and God made it possible for him to walk away from the lions’ den with a song of victory on his lips ().

What is your level of faith in God? Do you believe that He will do exactly what He has promised?

Are you convinced that He has already moved heaven and earth for you, and all you have to do is move toward His blessing?

The story of Daniel in the lions’ den features such high drama that it is easy to overlook the reason why he ended up among hungry beasts.

Daniel was thrown to the lions because of his daily habit of prayer.

Ordinarily, his faithfulness would have caused him no problem, but Daniel’s enemies decided to use his godliness against him by making it a crime to pray to anyone except King Darius ().

When Daniel learned of the offensive edict, he went home and prayed—right in front of his chamber windows, as always, where his enemies were certain to see him ().

Daniel refused to alter his commitment to God in order to protect himself.

He could have prayed in a windowless room.

But Daniel knew that the eyes of more than his enemies were upon him—the Lord was watching, as were His frightened, exiled people.

And because Daniel remained faithful, God delivered him from the lions (vv.

16–27).

May we always choose faithfulness to the Lord like Daniel did—even when faithlessness seems easier!

1 Thessalonians

Ezekiel

Jeremiah 33

We are called to pray, not to pass judgement on how God answers prayers, or about what constitutes an answer.

We simply pray with the faith that He does answer.