Untitled Sermon

… but gives grace to the humble. Daniel might have lived in world entirely different to our own, but we've all been where he’s been. We’ve all expirenced the shock and sadness of having life totally turned upside and shaken until all the things we thought we could rely on have fallen from life’s pockets. Maybe you’ve gone from a position of being reasonibly financially secure to flat our broke seemingly overnight. Perhaps the job security you relied upon turned out to be… well.. not all that reliable. Perhaps, you’ve gone from healthy as a horse to staring into the eyes of cancer in the space of a routine checkup. Or what about when a healthy relationship seems to suddenly and unexpectedly turn sour. I think it is fair to say that we’ve all felt like life has been turned upside down by Coronavirus.Yet these situations are not that much different to what Daniel nad his friends have just been through. Were told in Daniel 1:6-7 that Danny and the boys are part of this group who who are taken from Jerusalem for ‘reeducation’ in babylon. Which eseentail means, become Babylonian and worshipping Babylonian Gods. Fortunately, God grants them favour with the Babylonians and they are allowed to keep worshipping the Lord. But just when he seems to be finding a ‘new normal’, in v14, Danny get’s a knock on the door from Arioch the King’s executioner. I wonder what you would do at this point? Personally, I think I would have bundled everything in car and tried to get well out of dodge before the heads began to roll again. But no Daniel tells the Arioch that if he has time, he do as the king has asked.Having said goodbye to the axeman, the first thing Daniel does is hold a prayer meeting. v17-18 says:

​Daniel 2:17–18 NIVThen Daniel returned to his house and explained the matter to his friends Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. He urged them to plead for mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that he and his friends might not be executed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.

Notice that they don’t howl and whine like the Babylonian officials; they don’t shake their fist at how unfairly the king has treated them. They humble themselves before God. They pray and God answers. Next day, Daniel tell’s Arioch the news - whose perhaps sat across the street sharpening his axe. Arioch takes daniel to the king and the King asks, v26:

​Daniel 2:26 NIVThe king asked Daniel (also called Belteshazzar), “Are you able to tell me what I saw in my dream and interpret it?”

Daniel’s reply in v27 is also a measure of his humble character. He simply replies v27-30, “I can’t but God can, I’m just the messenger”. The irony continues in v46 where after hearing the dream explained, king Nebuchadnezzar bows down before Daniel honours him, give him gifts and promotes Danny and the boys to Cabinet positions. The proud king is opposed and humbled, whilst the humble servant (Daniel) is recieves grace and is honoured. And you know what? What was true then, is true today. Becuase in many ways what happens to Daniel is a pciture of what happens to us when we trust in the Lord Jesus. Now, as in Daniel 2, it is only the humble who received God’s grace. Those who recognise that they’ve made a hash of life: they messed up, sinned, ignored God and gone their own way. These are the one’s humble enough to trust in the Lord Jesus who died in their place for their sins and recieve… grace! Grace, the unearnt love of God which rather than treating us as our sins deserve, instead treats us as the Lord Jesus deserves. More than that we are honoured as members of God’s family, given the gifts by the Holy Spririt, and unristicted access to the King of the universe.Daniel was nobody who by God’s grace became a somebody. We were nobodies who by God’s grace become a somebody through Jesus’ death on our behalf. But here’s the thing, only those willing to be humble enough to admit their sin and trust in Jesus can expirnce God’s life transforming grace.