Daniel 6 • Life After Lions

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(This transcript was prepared using software tools and has not been reviewed for complete accuracy.)

Please be seated.
Now let me ask that you would look in your bibles at Daniel chapter 6.
This Sunday is the last of the biographical portions of the book of Daniel that we will be considering.
Chapters 7 and beyond begin to look at the prophecies.
We have different ways of thinking about that.
In the Jewish Bible, the book of Daniel is actually in the historical section of the books that are gathered.
In our English bibles, it's actually in the prophetic portions of scripture.
We recognize that there are strong issues here and sometimes strong opinions, because particularly as we move forward into the prophetic portions of Daniel, even evangelicals have very strong opinions, particularly, you know, when you get to that thirteenth chapter of Daniel and is says the rapture really is about to happen if the Cubs win the series.
[Laughter]
There is no thirteenth chapter of Daniel.
But I do recognize, now that I have your attention.
[Laughter]
That as we are going into these prophetic portions, Christians do seriously differ.
And if you want to have some perspective on the different views about the book of Daniel, I encourage you to go to our website and we had a long two-hour seminar about a month ago on four views of the millennium.
And you can look at that on our website and do some prep work for the prophecies that we are about to enter as we move into the next section of Daniel.
The goal is not just to be controversial:  The goal, of course, is to consider how is the gospel unfolding in the book of Daniel?
Daniel's purpose was not to have us arguing:  It was actually to have us encouraged for the challenges of our day and days to come.
And you see that actually in the unfolding of the messages of Daniel thus far.
Daniel chapter 1, remember, that was the young men challenged to eat the vegetable soup rather than the king's table.
And the message that got to them was:  Even though you're in captivity, I remember you.
The next chapter, chapter 2, Nebuchadnezzar's dream of a great statue that would be destroyed by a rock cut without human hands, the message of God to all people and pride:  I will rock you.
The third chapter, the young men in the fiery furnace:  I'm right here with you; whatever the trial, I'm right here with you.
The fourth chapter, Nebuchadnezzar's insanity and restoration when he was humbled:  God saying, "I restore the humble."
The fifth chapter, the writing on the wall:  And I judge the proud.
Now the sixth chapter.
Can you guess what Daniel chapter six is about?
[Lions roaring]
That's not my stomach.
That's actually Sam Wagner's recording of real lions in Africa.
Sam, as a young man on safari in Africa, recorded lions.
And he reported to us he was on one side of the tent; the lion was on the other side of the tent when he made that recording years ago.
It is, of course, about Daniel in the lions' den and the message now:  When life roars, God says, "Trust Me still."
Let's stand as we'll read Daniel chapter 6 starting at verse 10.
Remember, people have come and said to the king, "Don't let anybody worship anybody but you, an issue of decree according to the law of the Medes and the Persians that if anyone worships anybody you, O king, let him be thrown to the lions' den, and this law cannot be changed."
The king signed the decree.
Daniel responds in verse 10 of Daniel chapter 6.
"When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem.
He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously.
Then these men came by agreement and found Daniel making petition and plea before his God.
Then they came near and said before the king, concerning the injunction, 'O king!
Did you not sign an injunction, that anyone who makes petition to any god or man within thirty days except to you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions?'
The king answered and said, 'The thing stands fast, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be revoked.'
Then they answered and said before the king, 'Daniel, who is one of the exiles from Judah, pays no attention to you, O king, or the injunction you have signed, but makes his petition three times a day.'
Then the king, when he heard these words, was much distressed and 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, 'Know, O king, that it is a law of the Medes and Persians that no injunction or ordinance that the king establishes can be changed.'
Then the king commanded, and Daniel was brought and cast into the den of lions.
The king declared to Daniel, 'May your God, whom you cont--, who 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 his lords, and noth--, 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 from him.
Then, at break of day, 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, 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 lions' mouths, and they have not harmed me, because I was found blameless before him; 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 kind of harm was found on him, because he had trusted in his God.
And the king commanded, and those men who had maliciously accused Daniel were brought and cast into the lion--, dens of lion--, den of lions, and they, their children, and their wives.
And before they reached the bottom of the den, the lions overpowered them and broke all their bones in pieces.
Then King Darius wrote to all the peoples, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth:  'Peace be multiplied to you.
I make a decree, that in all my royal dominion people are to tremble and fear before the God of Daniel, 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."
Let's pray together.
>>> Heavenly Father, it is our own fault that we relegate the word to Sunday School bulletins of our youth and years ago.
Help us not to do so.
You wrote of a man being challenged for people who are challenged with the lions of this world.
They are the spiritual forces, the forces of economy and temptation that yet come upon us.
Daniel is here to help us.
Grant that we may see the power that You intend to communicate to our hearts this very day by a man counted faithful and made able by the Spirit of the Living God.
Be with us and help us, we pray.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.
>>> Please be seated.
Life roared for the translator of Ravi Zacharias after Ravi had finished the evangelism crusade in Vietnam.
Because of the crusade, the word of evangelism, there had been amazing sermons preached, amazed conversions witnessed.
But as soon as Ravi was out of the country, the government, upset with the message and upset with the conversions, arrested the translator and put him in a hard labor camp where by deprivations and beatings they thought--, they sought for seven years to undo his belief in the living God.
But the translator had heard the Word, had seen the conversions.
So despite the hard labor camp, he continued to pray every morning.
He continued to meditate upon the Word of God that he had memorized, until at the end of seven years, on the seventh morning anniversary of the beatings and the deprivations and the hard labor he could take it no more.
He thought in his heart, "This is senseless.
What God allows you to go through this for seven years?"
And so on that seventh morning anniversary, he did not pray and he did not meditate on the scriptures that he memorized.
His duty that day was to muck out the latrine, which he did and in doing so discovered a piece of paper with English print upon it.
He stuffed it into his clothing where it could not be seen.
And then that night, the night that he would no longer read or pray, he read the scrap of paper.
"What shall we say to these things?
If God is for us, who can be against us?
He that spared not his own Son but delivered us up--, him up for us all, how shall he not also along with him graciously give us all things?
What shall separate us from the love of God?
Shall trial, or persecution, or hardship, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor anything else in all creation can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
And on the day that he had abandoned God for seven years of absence, God confirmed an eternity of His presence.
"I am here.
It may be hard, but I am still working."
The account is beautiful and awful and inspiring all at the same moment but speaks right to us at our level of weakness, because we recognize that when we go through the trials, our default position is unbelief.
If God's real, if He's here, then why am I going through all of this?
And nothing is more apparent in the life of Daniel then going through all of this.
The pictures, of course, that we see are of the young man with the ruddy cheeks standing among the lions.
But this now, this Daniel of the Bible, is an old man probably about 90 years old.
He has not been in captivity for seven years but for 70 years.
And surely he must wonder:  "Where is the God of my salvation?
Where is Israel's God?
Everything has been wrong for so long.
How can I believe in Him or that I still have a calling?"
And what God is reminding us through the book of Daniel is when those questions come to our own mind, we have a calling to faith, beyond the world that we can see.
After all, think of the world that Daniel sees.
Not only does he recognize, "Ninety years I have been faithful to God and I'm still in captivity, but I represent an entire nation of people, the covenant people of God who themselves have been in captivity and slavery for 70 years.
If God is real, where is He?"
Daniel, of course, is having to confront what the writer of Hebrews addressed to all of those in times of persecution:  that faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the substance of things not seen.
And what Daniel must trust is is the promises of God despite what is happening in his present situation.
He has to look beyond.
And that looking beyond, of course, is what is happening in this passage.
In verse 10, you may remember, right at the beginning, there is the account that Daniel continues to kneel in his house as he had his windows in the upper chamber opened toward Jerusalem.
Well, why does he open his windows toward Jerusalem when he prays?
Is it Mecca or magic?
And the answer is neither.
Jerusalem is the city of the destiny of God's people.
God has promised, we will actually read it in fewer weeks--, in future weeks; we'll see how Daniel even reads the prophet Jeremiah, who says, "God will restore Jerusalem.
God will send to his people a Messiah.
He will come to Jerusalem.
He will do what is right to save his people."
And Daniel looks beyond the slavery and the captivity of his people toward Jerusalem, as to say, "I believe in the promises of God despite the present things I'm going through."
It is what God is calling us to if we would be faithful in our calling.
Daniel looks beyond the present.
He can look to the past, of course.
He can recognize that God was faithful to him when He gave him the interpretation of the dreams.
God was faithful to him and his friends when He gave them health in a time of deprivation.
God was faithful to Daniel and the friends when they were put in a position of denying God or being thrown into a burning fiery furnace.
Over and over again, God has said, "Don't just trust what your eyes see.
There is a world beyond you in which I am working."
And that willingness to look beyond the world that's here to see the God who is working is what we are being called to again and again in our lives.
I think of the young man, the translator of Ravi Zacharias:  Yes, now he's had this wonderful providence of this slip of paper from a latrine that contains the message of Romans 8 in it.
But it was not the end of the providence of God unfolding, because the commandant continued to use the pages of a Bible that he had been given for his morning toilet.
Every day, more scripture came, as God kept saying, "Beyond your present circumstance, I am working; I am working."
That assurance was needed for what was about to happen.
With newfound hope came newfound strength.
And so the translator began to work with others in the camp to arrange an escape with a makeshift boat that allowed them to get away.
As happens in ways I don't understand in hard labor concentration camps, somehow the message leaked out.
And on one day, four armed Vietnam guards came and said to the translator, "Are you planning an escape?"
"Oh, no," he said.
"No, no.
I'm not planning an escape."
They left, but it began to work in his brain:  Could he live by a lie?
Now, folks, I'm not going to try to debate with you the ecthith--, ethics of all this for the moment, okay?
For whatever reason, he in that moment felt that his witness to the world, to his friends, to others around the camp meant that he could not live by the lie.
He did not want to put himself in jeopardy, but he said, "God, I have entrusted You with my life again.
And so if You call me to the purpose of integrity and truth, I will live it, though it cost my life."
Some days later, the guards returned, more weapons, greater vehemence.
"Are you planning an escape?"
"Yes," he said.
"Good," they said.
"We want to go with you."
[Laughter]
God was still working.
Fantastic, amazing?
Yes, in many ways.
But the reminder of God to all people:  "I am still working.
Do what is right and entrust the rest to Me."
I'm not saying that our lives will not be required.
I am saying that God's eternal purposes will be fulfilled in people who maintain their calling.
And we need to be reminded of that, not just from an ancient page, not just from somebody over in Vietnam but from what we face regularly in our own lives.
I think of a survey some of you may be aware of that was done by Pitney Bowes and Uniroyal as they combined the packaging and consulting company with the tire maker to survey 800 managers.
And because they were struggling with how do we maintain a culture of integrity in our own businesses, they actually began to ask the people who were in senior management, "Are you being pressed beyond your personal ethics in what you are being asked to do in your own job?"
Pitney Bowes, 60 percent of the managers said they were being pressed beyond their personal ethics to do what they had to do in their job, 70 percent of those at Uniroyal.
If you go to Pitney Bowes' homepage on their website right now, you will see the fruit of that survey as even now it says on their homepage at Pitney Bowes, "We are committed to abiding by our culture of integrity."
But the difficulty of doing that is evidenced by the fact that those who will be going into that culture themselves are already challenged.
In the famous study that was done at Rutgers, 64 percent of those who were at one of the nation's best universities said, "We cheat on our exams," which was better than the 73 percent at Standford who said, "We cheat on our exams."
The message, of course, is that the challenge never stops.
You think, "I'll get beyond this stage where the pressure is now, I'll get to the next stage and the pressure won't be there."
But the message of Daniel was when he was a young man the pressure was on and when he's an old man the pressure is on.
There are lions that seek to devour us and our testimony.
And God is saying, "I want you to look beyond the present circumstance to My promises.
I have promised that I am the eternal God with eternal purposes.
Do what is right and leave the rest to Me."
And we recognize that is difficult, because it may require consequences, which, of course, is the message of Daniel 6, not that we are just being called to faith beyond the world that we can see:  We are also being called to faithfulness in a world of suffering.
Daniel and his people were in slavery.
Good days and bad days in that, but it was still captivity.
And, yet, that long period of Daniel's life, the 90 years of captivity, were punctuated by particular days in which God was calling him to faithfulness.
I don't exactly know how this has been determined, but as I read the commentators, those who go through this book with the fine-toothed comb and look at the details, say that we actually are given insight into only nine days of decision in the life of Daniel.
Ninety years but only nine days where he's actually having to stand up and state his testimony.
And it's the reminder to us that there is this long period of deprivation and testing that's going on in his life for these punctuated moments of testing.
And we have to say:  How do you prepare for those moments?
And we begin to recognize that what God is teaching us in His Word is it's sometimes the deprivation that provides dependency that prepares for devotion.
And we tend to think the opposite.
We think God will give abundance and supply and blessing and then we'll be ready for the times of hardship.
But it doesn't always work that way.
I mean, our minds say you have the harvest before you have winter.
But think how often in the case in the Bible that's not what happens:  that what you begin to happen is you have people who are deprived of blessing.
So they develop a sense of "I have to depend upon God and God alone.
He is my hope.
He is my salvation.
He is my harvest."
And when I've learned to trust in Him alone, then the trial comes that we've actually been prepared for through the deprivation.
That sometimes it's the desert before the river.
Think of the cases that you know.
Moses:  Out of the court of Pharaoh into the desert, marries the daughter of Jethro, lives in the desert for 40 years before he goes back to lead Israel out of slavery.
He is an old man.
He's 80 years old before he goes back to Pharaoh.
I know it's not like what the movies make it.
But it's what the Bible says.
Forty years of deprivation before he's fulfilling his calling.
The apostle Paul:  Yes, the great conversion on the road to Damascus and then 13 years before the very first missionary journey.
John Bunyan:  The great Baptist pastor who prepared for the writing of "Pilgrim's Progress" that's the most sold Christian book outside the Bible in all of Christian history.
But that was after seven years in prison before he was ready to write the book.
Sometimes it is the deprivation that is saying:  Great hearts are prepared in dependence, not just in abundance.
And what we want to do in that default position of unbelief is to say, "Well, if there's deprivation, then there's not obligation."
And what God is saying is, "Deprivation will hone your dependence, which is preparing you for devotion and fruitfulness."
I saw it in rather striking ways this past week.
I was at the board meeting of Serge, formerly World Harvest Mission, where our missionaries, thank you wonderfully for supporting the Carrigan's, Marc and Stephanie, who are now in Uganda.
They are going to the place that has been established as a missionary beachhead by Scott and Jennifer Myhre, and I was with them earlier this week.
And they told an account that for me to kind of listen to them, husband and wife standing together, I had to think:  I don't even know how you can tell this account.
Because what they said was they went to establish that beachhead for medical missions in Uganda at hospitals that sometimes don't even have running water and they have done that through the entire period of raising their children, their entire productive careers.
They have worked as doctors in the deprivations of the outback of Uganda.
But Uganda was preparation for Ebola.
And I listened to Scott standing beside his wife saying that 18 or so months ago as Ebola was beginning to scar Central Africa, not where they were in Uganda, but other portions of Africa, he said, "I went to my wife and I said, 'I'm a doctor.
I have the training.
I understand Africa.
I'm here.
I have to go knowing I may not ever come back.'"
And it was his willingness to go into harm's way, prepared by long years of deprivation, willing now to have the devotion for the next step, that the villagers and the people and other missionaries saw the Myhre's and said, "There is true commitment.
There is a God who is real and alive that one would be willing to risk their lives for the sake of the gospel of that God."
And suddenly the ministry expanded, flourished, had a weight to it that it had not previously had, because the deprivation had led to the dependence, which made them willing to express devotion beyond the level they had ever done so before.
How do we prepare for that level of devotion?
It is by dependence that is described here.
What does faithfulness look like in the desert or before the lions?
Verse 10 is pretty plain, isn't it?
"He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God."
He engages in regular prayer.
It's prayer that's described as on one's knees.
It's humble.
I don't think we want to make the knees be some mark of special virtue or magic.
It's a statement when you are on your knees just to say, "I'm not depending now on my strength but acon--, upon God's mercy and might.
It's not my achievement; it's not my doing.
I'm backing away from myself.
I'm bowing before God."
And in doing so, we're simply physically, as well as in our prayers, expressing dependence upon God.
And that's what Daniel did.
He was humble in his prayer.
It's not the requirement.
There are places in the Bible where people do not kneel when they pray.
But it is certainly an expression of saying what is required in pray:  true humility before God.
And not only is there humility:  There is regularity.
Three times a day:  Knowing people are watching, knowing his life is at stake, he does not stop his prayers.
Please don't make three times a day magic or legalism either.
It is true that often in the Bible three times a day are mentioned.
You think of Psalm 55 following the Jewish way of ordering the day where people are called to pray in the evening and the morning and noon.
Remember, the Jewish day started in the evening of the previous day.
At the beginning and through and at the end of the day, there was prayer.
But Psalm 119 describes prayer seven times a day.
First Chronicles 23, two times a day.
Acts 3 and Acts 10, the people of God prayed two times a day.
Of course, you get to 1 Thessalonians 5 and you recognize we are called to pray without what?
[Chuckles]
It's a relationship.
It's not a set of rules.
It's the heart communing with God regularly.
I love the way the prince of preachers, Spurgeon, described it.
He said, "You know, I hardly ever pray even five minutes or go five minutes without praying."
We send the arrow prayers.
We're in the moment facing the angry the child or the harsh boss, and we just send up the prayer, the arrow:  "Lord, help me in this; help me be wise; help me to operate with integrity."
And we send up the arrow prayer.
We, we're just regularly before God.
And that's not easy.
I love the words of Jack Miller who said, "God, forgive me of my habitual tendency to trust in myself."
[Chuckles]
Do you know that habitual tendency?
The evidence is not thinking we have to pray; it's not finding the necessity of regularly going to God.
But that regular prayer is my heart being filled with the goodness and the power that God intends.
Even the secular authors write, you know, "When the time of decision making comes, all the decisions have already been made."
For 90 years, Daniel has prayed humbly and regularly.
And so when there are these punctuated moments of challenge, he's ready.
The deprivation with the regular prayer, seeking after God, has prepared him for what must come.
And that means he is faithful not just in prayer but in the practice, which is now called for, of a faithful believer.
What does it mean to be faithful in practice?
It means Daniel continues to seek after His God despite the clock.
There's two amazing clocks that Daniel could refer to here.
One is the long clock:  Ninety years.
"God, why do I have to keep being faithful?
It's been 90 years?"
The other is the short clock:  The decree with expire in 30 days.
Just don't pray for 30 days.
You've been faithful for 90 years; what does 30 days make?
You'll be in danger.
You'll get in trouble.
But he ignores the clock.
Devotion to God is going to be regular.
It's going to be humble.
And it's going to happen regardless of the clock.
It's going to happen regardless of the lions.
Daniel knows what's coming.
Look at verse 12.
I mean, the decree is plain:  "They came near and said before the king, concerning the injunction, 'O king!
Did you not sign an injunction, that anyone who makes petition to any god or man within thirty days except to you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions?'"
If you are faithful, you'll suffer.
You say, "Well, let's find a way out then."
Well, Daniel doesn't find a way out.
He opens the window so everybody can see and then prays and offers himself to God's will.
It's not just an old, old story.
I think of the 11 Syrian mercy workers, Christians, who a week ago outside of Aleppo were beheaded and hung on crosses, including the 11-year-old son of one of the workers.
I read the words of the team leader; some of you may have read them too.
"Our friends kept on praying loudly and sharing Jesus until their very last breath.
They did this in front of the villagers as their testimony to Jesus."
The lions are still out there.
Oh, that's just Daniel and that's just Syria.
Or it's a community college in Oregon where both CNN and the New York Post reported that the gunman said, "Which of you are Christians?"
And those who stood, he said, "Now you'll meet your God in a second."
What's so amazing to me is that as that word spread to the watching world there were Christians who stood at the moment of challenge, they were willing to give their all for the sake of the testimony of Jesus Christ is how quickly other news sources wanted to debunk the stories.
If you read the followup:  "Oh, that didn't really happen," because there was somebody who was interviewed on ABC who did not mention it.
And the fact that one person did not mention it meant it did not occur, despite the testimony of Christian parents and Christian students who said it did occur.
It's almost as though the world cannot imagine that Christians would be willing to stand for their belief for the glory and the sake of God.
What God is saying to us is:  Listen, do you want a testimony in this world?
Be faithful to Jesus.
Through the hell and high water, through the lions, despite the clock:  Be faithful.
And that distinguishes you in the world so much that the world almost can't stand to hear it but will, because we do stand before the watching world that says, "But Daniel, he's still praying.
He knows it will cost him.
He's defying you."
And they wanted it to stop.
But the testimony would not stop.
And so it has powerful, not only for Daniel's time but all time since, which, of course, is why it's so important that you read that Daniel kept praying and doing what he had been called to do as he had done previously despite the law of the Medes and the Persians.
He didn't just ignore the clocks and ignore the lions:  He avoid--, he ignored the titans, the giants of his culture that said, "This cannot be changed."
If you do what is right, it will make no difference.
The culture's just going to keep going.
The law's going to keep ignoring you.
Your boss is not going to.
And God is saying, "I make your life; make a difference."
Here is Daniel, his life reverberating for generations.
And so we recognize we face all the pressures.
Is it a boss maybe?
Is it an educator maybe?
Is it a boyfriend maybe?
The pressure, the pressure and I'll say, "But I'll suffer consequences and it won't make any difference."
And God says, "I am the God who is still working."
Do what God requires and trust Him with the rest.
Why should we do so?
Because we are being called to be faithful to a world beyond our own world.
We are not being faithful merely for ourselves but for the world that is watching, for the world of our children, for the world of fellow worker and neighbor.
We presume that they will not understand why our testimony is necessary but will certainly question why we would risk ourselves for the purposes of God and that is actually the intention of a God who has an eternal plan in mind.
Consider what Daniel heard after the lions roar.
He heard God's roar, the voice of God echoing, echoing, echoing far beyond him.
The first echo is in verse 25.
It's actually through the words of a pagan king.
Then King Darius wrote to all peoples, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth:  'Peace be multiplied to you.'"
Why?
"Because I want you to know about the God of Daniel:  He is the living God."
Beyond the mess that has occurred, the people are still in slavery, Daniel has had to go through all this persecution; it's still going to be ahead.
He is going to look centuries ahead into the future and see generations of his people suffering; he will see it.
And despite the mess, he says through the words of a pagan king, "Mine is the living God."
And God is declaring He is there.
He is not only overcoming the mess; He is not willing to work in the moment.
He works beyond it.
The end of verse 26:  "He is the living God who endures forever; his kingdom shall never be destroyed; his dominion shall have no end."
God works beyond the mess and He works beyond the moment.
We have to believe that.
I think of a dear man in Kathy's and my life whose name was Clifford, a man who early in life, in order to care for his pay--, parents who were sickly, took over the farm, cared for his parents, in many ways, people would say, wasted his youth doing what he believed God had called him to do.
He married late in life, raised two sons, raised them to know the Lord, always worked two jobs, never made much money.
But in our church, I must tell you:  As pastors come and go, as visitors come and go, as controversies come and go, there are certain people who are the cornerstones of a church; they are the faithful ones who stand for the purposes of God; they are there for God's purposes, believing that God works beyond the mess and beyond the moment.
And Clifford was that person.
Even as he got aged and older, there was never a person more youthful in his concern for the gospel, more willing for the church to try to work outward, more willing to innovate, to say, "What can we do that more people would know about Christ?
And as he aged, suddenly the great blessings seemed to come:  The mines made an offer on his farm.
Suddenly, money, a lot of money.
And true to the integrity of the man, he took the money and he built homes for his children, his family, built other homes as investments so that he could leave a legacy to his children, not anticipating that the farm economy would tank.
And the homes would not make money:  They would lose money.
I can remember Clifford coming into the church one Sunday and the sparkle not in his eyes, his head down, and after service saying to me, "Bryan, I'm just a zero.
My life counts for nothing."
But I would have to tell you in the days of my own pastoral discouragement when I was ready to leave the ministry, it was Clifford I went to.
It was Clifford who stood firm and encouraged me.
It was Clifford who stood firm with others when their marriages were disting--, were disintegrating.
It was Clifford that we would look back to and say there was no one more critical for the ministry, the seminary degrees ultimately of four young men who went from that church into ministry who are now ministering to hundreds more.
I praise God for the life of a man who saw beyond the immediate and when he couldn't, God was still working beyond the immediate.
God used him powerfully and greatly.
I would not have quoted a Christian philosopher to Clifford, but I will to you.
Miroslav Volf who simply says, "When your dignity is shattered and your soul is enveloped in the darkness of despair, the gospel tells you:  You are not defined by outside forces.
It tells you that you count even more, that you are loved unconditionally and infinitely irrespective of everything you have achieved or failed to achieve.
Your identity is in Christ.
He is accomplishing what is necessary for the salvation of others and His eternal purposes."
He is the eternal God.
He's not limited to the mess or the moment.
He is accomplishing His purposes through people who give themselves to Him.
And so we do so, believing that He is yet working.
Is there any evidence of that?
It's the very last verse that we go over so quickly in chapter 6.
"So this Daniel prospered during the reign of Darius and the reign of Cyrus the Persian."
That's the king that will let the people go.
It's the last domino to fall until the whole promise of God that My people will go back; they will be restored, and from them will come a Messiah.
And in this last critical chapter of all those prophecies getting ready to unfold, God tells us of a man put in a den of lions that's a virtual tomb and a stone covering the mouth and a seal put upon it to mark him as dead.
And, instead, what does he do?
He breaks the seal, rolls the stone, and brings the deliverer to life.
What is God telling us?
But that He is working and the mess and the moment do not have the final word.
God is yet working by His grace to redeem a people not by their achievements; they are not marked by their failures or their successes but by the identity they have in the eternal God who calls us to faithfulness for the gospel's sake.
This is our God and this is His work.
I think of how we need to hear it.
When I was growing up, my dad, who was on the road so much, sometimes just to spend a little time with the family would bring work home from the office, which meant that my mom had to corral six children and make them quiet so he could work.
And I can still hear it, you know:  "Children, be quiet.
Your father's working."
And I think somehow we have to hear the same words with a different tone:  "Children, I know your complaint; I know your hurt.
I know all the unbelief that is your default, the questions, and the pain.
Oh, children.
Hush now.
Your Father's working.
Shhh.
Quiet.
Your Father's working."
And He is.

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