David Macdonald - December 3, 2017

Good morning, everyone. Good to see you here this morning. We extend a welcome to everybody who is here. We're glad to have you here with us.

And trust that the Lord will bless you as we come in. And we sing these songs. And as we hear from the Word of God, there's a fan here. I have one fan.

And I'm going to trip over the wire. I can just see it. There we go. That was keeping.

Let's go to the Lord for a moment in prayer. Thank you, Father, for your great love to us. We thank you for the Lord Jesus, our Savior. And we look to you today that you would open our eyes, that we may see your words, that it would not be my words or my thoughts.

But the very pages of the Word of God would be alive and opened up to us, that we may see what we need to do in our lives, to be more like the Lord Jesus Christ, that we would be changed, to become like Him. I pray, Father, if there's anybody here this morning who does not know the Savior of the Lord Jesus Christ as their own, that they would repent of their sins, that they would turn because there was a rescue available for them, to save them from their sins, and for our eternity. We pray these things in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.

Last week, David Hanson preached, and he had a rough go of it because his son, Eric, walked through the door and surprised him just before he came up here, and he was kind of charged up. At least Nick waited and did it last night instead of today. So he's popped a ring on my daughter's finger. So I struggled through a sleepless night last night, and here we go.

Those Hanson's, I'll tell you, they're trouble. They're trouble right from the first one to the last one. All right, let's look at what we want to do this morning. Let's turn in your Bibles, please, to Daniel.

Daniel chapter, I was gonna say 16, but there is no chapter 16. Chapter six, I'm gonna be a little discombobulated today, so you can forgive me. It's been a bit of an emotional rollercoaster the last couple of days. Daniel chapter six, and we're gonna look at the remainder of this chapter today, versus 16 to 28.

You know, I'm gonna look at Daniel as, last time we looked as a faithful man, I'd like to look at Daniel as a steadfast man this time, from the same chapter. I just recently had purlage to go to Spain, of all places in the world. I never would have thought I'd ever go there, but I took that picture of Christopher Columbus. It's a big, huge monument.

It's gotta be 300 feet high. And well, maybe not, maybe it's 150. I don't know, I can't judge, but it's high. And I was really taken by this thing.

It dominates the whole waterfront of Barcelona. And it's Christopher Columbus holding maps in one hand and pointing to the west. And he wanted to go and find a quicker way to India. He believed the earth is round.

Sorry to disappoint the new theory that's old, that the earth is flat. I don't know how that guy made out in the desert. Anybody know, the guy who's gonna watch himself in a rocket to prove that it was flat? He's probably flat on his back.

So Christopher Columbus was bent on this. He was gonna go and prove that the world was, not prove the world was round. He was gonna prove that he could get to India by sailing to the west. That's what he was going to do.

And everybody said, you're crazy. You're absolutely crazy. You'll fall out the end of the earth. We don't even wanna, there's no funding for you.

Well, he went to Spain and Kingford and Queen of Zebellah. They said, you know what? We'll provide you with a few ships. We'll give you the supplies.

Yeah, go and do it. And they supported him. And that's why we're here today from all other countries from the east. And we've come over here to live in the west because he didn't discover India.

He discovered North and South America. Henry Ford, he believed he could build an automobile. Horseless carriage, as they would call it. And sure enough, people said you're crazy.

Thomas Edison, his good friend and inventor said, absolutely not. That's the craziest idea I've ever heard. I'll tell you what, Henry, since you want to invent things, why don't you come to work for me? And he said, no, I'm gonna be steadfast in my pursuit of building this automobile.

And most of us, many of us drove here today. Or else, if we didn't, we walked and dodged the automobiles that are on the street. So there are, because of his steadfast and persistent desire to build this automobile, he did. The Wright brothers, Wilbur and Orville, they believed that a man could fly.

Everybody, their father, their friends, their journalists, their own father said, what a waste of time, what a waste of money. Actually, all fathers kind of say that sort of thing to their kids, but this is what he said about their desire to fly. But they said, no, we're gonna be steadfast in this desire and this, we know man can fly. And they developed the airplane.

And now we can fly, we can go over the ocean, we can go across the nation. Daniel is not unlike that. Daniel was a faithful man as we saw the last time, but he was a steadfast man. Now steadfastness is kind of like faithfulness in overdrive.

It's like when you take faithfulness in extreme times and you just notch it up a bit. It brings lots of strength, intensity, and a clutch of the promises of God. William Berkeley says this, so often we have a vague, wistful longing that the promises of Jesus should be true. The only way to enter into them is to believe in them with a clutching intensity of a drowning man.

I was supposed to have done that. You know, when I read the account of Daniel, and we're looking today of the account of Daniel and the lion's den, everybody probably has heard that story. It's probably one of the ones in every Sunday schoolbook. And we sometimes can conclude, you know, life isn't fair, do you ever hear that?

Every life isn't fair. You get fired from your job, you don't get what you want, you don't get to go where you want to on vacation. Kids are always saying, Dad, that's not fair. Why did Mary get all the good looks in her family?

It's just something that people say, life is not fair. But here's the thing, some of us have this kind of thought that if we do good things, then good things will happen to us. If we step out of line and do bad things, well, there's this kind of weird cosmic karma sort of thing that's gonna wreck our lives. But you know what, life really doesn't work that way.

That's not really the way life works at all. God will eventually bring equality, and he will level all the wrongs in this life. I know that because I believe in the judgment of God, I believe in the fairness of God, I believe in the justice of God. He will bring everybody to justice who is not evil.

He will, it's a promise of the Bible. Just not happening today, perhaps, in some cases it is. So while we go through this life, until that time happens, there is going to be this view that life just isn't fair, and it isn't. And there's nowhere in the Bible that you pick it up and you read that life is going to be fair.

It just doesn't happen that way. So how do you get through that? We have to be steadfast, we have to be steadfast in our faith and in clutching onto God as a drowning man would clutch onto whatever he can find in the ocean. What happens to Daniel as we read it here?

It's not fair, is it? It doesn't seem to be fair. Daniel ends up in a lion's den. Daniel is unjustly put into this lion's den.

He's not delivered from the lion's den, but we will read he's delivered through the lion's den. And that's an important thing that we have to understand. Sometimes we will not be delivered from the trials of life. Sometimes we have to go through the trials of life before we see the deliverance of God.

And I think that's an important thing we understand. There are things in life that are not fair. A loved one dies. A child gets sick.

You lose your job. Your health goes. And you say, wait a second. I served God, how can this be fair?

Sometimes God is taking you through a trial so that you will be steadfast in holding to him, because he will deliver you in the end. And we'll read that in the book in this chapter today. I want you to take your Bible. So I already said that.

Take your Bible and turn to Daniel chapter six, but I'm gonna go back a few verses to verse 10. David wrote these verses in Psalm 23 verse four. We always quote this and oftentimes this is read at a funeral and it's often read to be a comfort to the family. Psalm 23 verse four says, He ate though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.

Remember those words? We don't like that. We don't wanna walk through the valley. Nobody wants to be in the valley.

Nobody wants the shadow of death. We wanna be airlifted to the mountain peak and then airlifted to the next mountain peak. That's what we want. But that's not the way life works.

In fact, when you're steadfast, and probably especially if you're steadfast, you're gonna have a lot of valleys. It just seems to be the way life goes. We have great hope, we have great promise. We have a great and bright future.

But there are valleys in this life. And sometimes we have to go through those. And the only way to go through those valleys is to be steadfast and holding on to the Lord Jesus Christ. If you're a steadfast believer, there are four things you can count on.

Persecution is inevitable. These are my four points for today. Trust is essential. Deliverance is possible.

And a good testimony is influential. This is what you can expect as a steadfast believer. First of all, persecution is inevitable. Turn your Bible, please, to Daniel chapter 6 verse 10.

I'll put it up behind me. The preference obviously is that you read your Bible, that you have a Bible with you. And I tell you why we put this up sometimes, you don't have a Bible with you. But if you bring your Bible, and this is, I always have a quandary over this.

Whether to put the words up behind me or not. Because if you have your own Bible, you get familiar with where it is. You can go back and look on the page. I have an old Bible at home with 30 years.

And I know where everything is. You ask me something. OK, it's on that side because that's where I read it. So that's the whole idea.

But if you don't have one, the words are there for you. Daniel chapter 6 verse 10. Now when Daniel knew that the document was signed, he entered into his house. Now in his roof chamber, he had windows open towards Jerusalem.

And he continued kneeling on his knees three times a day, praying and giving thanks before his God, as he had done, as he had been doing previously. Then these men, these were the other men that were his, really his cohorts at his position. But they had turned against him. Then these men came by agreement and found Daniel, making petition and supplication before his God.

So he had these peers that he was a governor, and these other men were with him. And they came up with a decree, as you remember, that the king, Darius, they said, hey, how do you like to be God for a month? You've heard of the kind of queen for a day sort of thing. But this is, you're gonna be God for a month.

You sign this thing that nobody worships anybody but you for a whole month. And if they do worship any other God, they're to be thrown into a den of lions. And he says, hey, that's not a bad idea. I get to get worshiped.

And he signs this thing, seals it with his ring. And the next thing you know, Daniel says, I'm not gonna do that. I'm gonna worship the God of heaven, the only God. These guys set this whole thing up as a trap to get Daniel.

And they did. So I believe all this probably happened in one day. They brought the decree and then they sat and watched to see what Daniel will do. They had the king sign his death sentence.

Now Daniel is at the point where he's disobeyed. The king says, I have no choice. I can't withdraw what I've decreed. And he's gonna be taken and put in the den of lions.

You know, if you're going to live your faith, if you're going to live, Godly in Christ Jesus, it says Paul wrote in 2 Timothy, chapter three, verse 12, if you're going to live that way, you will suffer persecution. Brother Warren and I were just talking about life on the streets with the gospel. Now pray for these men and ladies and young people who go down on our streets. It actually is a lot tougher here than it is in some places around the world to preach the gospel.

Now there's other places where you will pay with your life. There's no doubt about that. You go and share the gospel on streets. There's no doubt about it.

You'll be executed for doing that. But it is hard in our country. There is a lot of opposition. He was telling you about the opposition that happens in Edmonton where he lived before he came here.

I've been down a witness the opposition you see in the streets here. If you are going to be a steadfast believer, if you are going to share the gospel of Jesus Christ, you will suffer persecution. If you're steadfast, others will know you're a Christian. And not everybody will like that you're a Christian.

You know, there's a misconception that if you become a Christian, life will get easier. I have a friend George Bush's name and it's not 42 or 44. His name is George Bush and he lived and taught in different places in the Middle East. And he used to encounter people in Iran, in all places, this is where he went to teach at the university and he was teaching in Iran.

And people would come to him and say, I want to become a Christian. And his answer to them would be, okay, are you man enough for it? That's a kind of strange thing. Because you will suffer persecution.

That's what goes with this. Jesus himself said in Matthew 10 verse 16, he says, I send you out a sheep in the midst of wolves. You know, that's quite a statement. And we're going to look at that in a minute.

Some people talk to us or some people talk to us. Some people talk to us today and say, wouldn't it be great to get back to like, Acts chapter two, you know, the way that the new church was. It was just vibrant, growing blah, blah, blah. I'm not so sure.

I mean, the persecution and suffering that they went through in those days from the lions, killed by the emperor used as torches in his, in his, at his parties, executed in the most horrible ways, crucified. Jesus said, if you are a believer, if you are going to follow me, you will, you can expect persecution. Turn to that passage, please, Matthew 10, keep your finger in Daniel. Let's turn to Matthew 10.

Matthew 10, and these are the words of the Lord Jesus. He says, behold, I send you out a sheep in the midst of wolves. So be as shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves. But beware of men, for they will hand you over to the courts and scourge you in their synagogues.

And you'll even be brought before governors and kings for my sake as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. But when they hand you over, do not worry about how or what you are to say, for it will be given to you in that hour, for what you are to say. For it is not you who speak, but it is the spirit of your father who speaks in you. Brother will be trade brother to death and father his child and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death.

You will be hated by all because of my name. But it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved. I would say the one who has endured to the end speaks of those who are steadfast, those who are steadfast. So what are the fronts that the believer will experience?

First of all, Jesus says that you will be persecuted by religious leaders. Organized religion has been one of the chief antagonists of the gospel. You speak to somebody and they say, I've got my religion, I don't need yours. And then they turn on you.

Organized religion has brought many, many, many people to death, many Christians have been put to death by organized religion around the world through the centuries. It's one of the greatest enemies of our missionaries and their work. Jesus' enemies, the ones who brought him to the cross, were the religious leaders of the day. It was the organized religious group that brought him to the cross.

Organized religion will be against you if you are a believer in Jesus Christ. The second thing you will be persecuted by our secular society. It says, governors, kings, and Gentiles. Those who just don't want to have anything to do with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Do you think that the government is four Christians? Do you think the government today is set up to be favorable to believers? It's not. Hardly any of them are.

I don't say turn against your government. You're to give the Caesar what's Caesar's. You're to obey those who are in power over you. You're to obey the authorities.

But there's a skewing against those who are Christians. There are laws that have been passed in the past month that are written against the believer. The root of them is against evangelical Christians. And when I say evangelical Christians, I mean real Christians.

I don't mean the ones who claim to be evangelical. I mean the ones who are really followers of Jesus Christ, who are willing to die for the gospel. You know, a steadfast believer, and I meant to do this during this different home, it was using half the week. A steadfast believer is like a 500 watt light bulb in a pitch black room.

It gives great light, but sometimes it can irritate people. So if you're on the street and you're a 500 watt light bulb and people are going by and you're giving it to the gospel, it's spreading great light in downtown Halifax. But I noticed that also we were at takes a lot of people. That's just the way people are.

They're against the gospel. It irritated the Roman government and they tortured and they killed false unbelievers. The other thing is Jesus says here that you'll be persecuted by your family. Jesus said that they would be betrayed by their families.

It also says that in Mark chapter 13 verse 12. And even today in some cultures, actually I had a friend in high school and she came to Christ after she had married a person who was not of the same religion as her. And she actually came to Christ and her family. And I knew the family very well.

They had a funeral for her. And they would never speak of her name again. That's how much she was persecuted by her own family. Had another friend came to Christ, came home, walked in the house, told his father, his father assaulted him.

This is in Sydney, throw him out on the lawn. He didn't even allow him to take a toothbrush and a pair of underwear with him. And said you never come back in this house again and bolt at the door behind him. His own debt, his own flesh and blood.

Jesus promises that your family will turn against you. Some cultures have honor killings. You turn to Christ, that's what my friend George meant. You wanna come to Christ, you risk your own life in your own family.

The other thing is too, witnessing to your own family. Do you ever notice that's the hardest one? I'll tell you what, I'd rather talk to 100 people on Spring Garden Road than people in my own family. It's a lot easier, but talk to your own family.

It's the hardest thing, isn't it? Because they're looking and say, come on, come on, I know you, what are you doing? What's this all about, this thing that you've, this is a crutch for you. You've always had problems now.

You've really gone over the edge. You get stuff like that, your own family. But these are the promises of Jesus. People have made, let's take churches and build them on the promises of Jesus, but they wanna forget these ones.

Jesus said, if you're gonna follow me, you will suffer persecution. You will be hated because of my name. And that's why trust is essential. Point number two, let's read on.

And then the king gave orders, and Daniel was brought out and cast into the lion's den. The king spoke to Daniel and said, your God whom you constantly serve will himself deliver you. A stone was brought and laid out over the mouth of the den. And the king sealed it with his own signet ring and with the signet ring of the nobles so that nothing would be changed in regard to Daniel.

Then the king went off to the palace and spent the night fasting. And no entertainment was brought before him. And his sleep fled from him. Now, I noticed here it says he was cast into the lion's den.

And I've read and looked at pictures of him being lowered into the lion's den. But Daniel was an 85 year old man. Cast means cast. He was tossed, thrown an 85 year old man into a pit.

Now a lion's den in that day, because they found them in Babylon in that area. It had two chambers. It had a chamber on one side with a bunch of hungry lions. And then it had a chamber where they dropped down the hors d'oeuvres on the other side, and then they put the stone over the top, and then they pulled the door up, and the lions literally tore the person to pieces.

This is what was supposed to happen to Daniel. And I'm sure when they put him down, didn't lower him, they dropped him down. Dario said, I want to have a word with him before I leave, before we put that stone over. And they're all saying, good.

Dario's going to just like really trim him up before this happened. He probably went over and said, hey Daniel, Daniel, the God who you serve, he's going to look after you. You'll be okay, buddy. And that's what it says in the scripture.

It says right here, it says, Daniel said, the king spoke to Daniel, your God who you constantly serve will himself deliver you. I mean, I think the stuff that's in the Bible, if you look at it and think, this is after he's thrown in, he comes over and he just speaks to him. And they're probably thinking, he said, you know, Daniel, one last chance will pull you up, bow to me, this is probably what the thing is going on. But he's saying, no, no, no, no.

Don't worry about it, Daniel. The God you're serving will deliver you. And then they covered over. Now, he's been on the throne Dario for about two years.

And he's seen Daniel steadfastness. That's why he knows to say that to Daniel. That's why he knows the God you serve. You don't serve any of the gods that I've got, those little stone and wooden idols that we've got all over the place, all those big ones.

You serve the God of heaven. Notice how Daniel reacts? He's the other same. This just isn't fair, right?

That's what we read? No, he doesn't say a word. Mothi shut, doesn't say a word. It reminds me of, he knew that he was being punished for praying to God.

He did it anyway. You know what, he knows it's not fair. But it says, it reminded me of the passage reading Isaiah chapter, chapter 57, it says about the Lord Jesus Christ. He opened not his mouth.

What happened to the Lord Jesus Christ at the cross of Calvary was not fair. A man who never sinned, never did a thing wrong. Being led away and crucified with criminals. Not once did he say it's not fair.

Isaiah prophetically said he opened not his mouth. If you read in Matthew 27, verse 14 in Mark 15, 15, he did not open his mouth. Now the story is told of one of the early murders, Pauli Carp was his name. And he was an elder in the church in Smyrna.

Smyrna is one of those churches you read in Revelation. He was 86 years old, but the same age as Daniel. And under the threat of being burned at the stake, and he was taken out, tied to the stake, the fire was lit, ready to ignite where he is. He's 86 and they say to him, just deny Jesus Christ, and we will not like the flames.

He said, I have served Jesus Christ. This is a quote from him. He have served Jesus Christ for these 86 years, never once has he denied me. He's never done me any wrong.

How can I deny him now? That's steadfastness. When you know that the flames are both to be lit, and you are about to perish from this earth. And you say, I will not deny Jesus Christ.

That is steadfastness. This is where steadfastness kicks in. David wrote this prayer in Psalm 51, verse 10, create a me a clean, high, oh God, and a steadfast spirit within me. If you read in Psalm 112, a good man will not be afraid.

Of evil tidings, his heart is steadfast, trusting the Lord. Daniel is steadfast, he trusts the Lord. I'm not gonna waver from that, no matter what. Think about yourself.

I have to think about myself. Is there anything that would move me from my faith to stop trusting in Jesus Christ? What would move me, I gotta be honest with myself, is there anything, death of a child, a lingering disease, a loss of employment? I have a friend who was on fire for God, witnessing to people, leading Bible studies, just on fire, speaking to people in his family.

His mother died, and he said, I can't believe this anymore. And he walked away from it all. It breaks my heart. It breaks my heart to see him where he is now.

He did not maintain that steadfast belief that God could get him through this difficult time. Instead, he just abandoned it all. And now he's a drift. It's a heartbreaking story.

It's heart-wrenching. We need to be steadfast. Job, we read of Job in the Old Testament. I didn't know the story of Job until I was a believer.

I was 22 years old before I had ever heard the story of Job. I did not know about Job. I heard the quote, the patience of Job, that was it. And I was amazed when I read the story of Job.

Now you wanna talk about the steadfast. In a day, he lost his house, his business, his 10 children. And he said, the Lord gives, the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord. Well, that's other insanity or steadfastness.

But then later on, he says, though he's slaimy, yet I will trust him. God, even if you kill me, I'm gonna trust you right to the end. That's steadfastness. Now, the story turns a little bit here because the last verse that says in verse 18, it says, it came when off it was palace and spent the night fasting.

And no entertainment was brought before him and sleep fled from him. You know, this is kind of, this part kind of bugs me. Because if I was gonna make the movie about Daniel and then they just threw him in the lions den, I wouldn't go take the next scene to the palace and watch a king tossing and turning. I wanna see what's happening in the den.

But the Holy Spirit wants us to see what's happened to the king. So he takes us over to where the king is, and the king is tossing and turning and flipping and flopping all night long. So turn to back to Daniel, chapter 6 verse 19. The king has a sleepless nights, sleepless night.

And it kind of focuses on what happens here now with the king. And this is the section I call deliverance is possible. Then the king arose at dawn at the break of day and went in haste to the lions den. And when he had come near the den to Daniel, he cried out with a troubled voice.

The king spoke and said, Daniel, said to Daniel, Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God whom you constantly serve been able to deliver you from the lions? Then Daniel spoke to the king, oh king, live forever. My God has sent his angel to shut the lion's mouth and they have not harmed me as much as I have been found innocent before them. And also towards you, okay, I committed no crime.

Then the king was very pleased and gave orders for Daniel to be taken up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den and no injury, whatsoever was found on him because he had trusted in his God. You know, the king called him servant of the living God. I like that.

Where did he get that? He got that from observing Daniel, didn't he? He watched Daniel. He knew he was the servant of the living God.

Daniel had a great night's sleep probably, and the king didn't. Here's Daniel down in the den having the snooze and the king is just tossing and turning all night on his bed. Reminds me of the story of Peter, the apostle that you read in Acts chapter 12, verses 5 to 19, Peter's in prison. James has just been beheaded.

Peter's next and he's chained to two Roman guards and he's in this prison. Now what does it say? The angel shows up and he's asleep. Peter's sleeping.

He's gonna die the next morning when the executioner punches the clock and comes in. And here's Peter snoozing between these two guards. He was totally relaxed and resting in the God of heaven. God delivered Daniel.

But that doesn't always happen. Sometimes he doesn't deliver. But there are great stories of God's deliverance. And I read this one, I couldn't help but share this.

You guys remember the rest of the story? Paul Harvey. Okay, there's a few people who told us me. All right, Paul Harvey used to be on this and he'd tell these great stories.

I love Paul Harvey stories. I used to try to tune in every day and hear them. I think it was 3 o'clock in the afternoon. And at the end of the day, now you know the rest of the story.

So he tells this story. This is really quite an amazing story. This is West Side Baptist Church in Beatrice, Nebraska. There were 18 members in their choir.

And they practiced every Wednesday night at 7 o'clock or 730, rather. And every Wednesday night without fail, 730, they would get there early so that they would all be on time and they could start right away. They had other things to do after choir practice, but they would come every Wednesday evening. Well, this one particular Wednesday evening, one of them slept in.

Piano player wasn't feeling like great, had a little nap, she over slept. One of the others was a student and had trouble with his homework and was trying to get some stuff solved and ended up late. And the rest story upon story, somebody had a car broke down and they weren't able to get there. All 18 members were late this one night.

At exactly 730 that night, the gas line broke under the choir loft. The furnace kicked in, ignited, and blew the church sky high. Those are pictures of it right there. And they called it Remember the Miracle.

God saw to it that all 18 choir members were delivered from what would have been sure death. That's an amazing story. And now you know the rest of the story. But it doesn't always happen that way.

It doesn't always happen that way. I don't want to give you a false hope that God is always going to make sure that you never go through peril. Isaiah, the prophet, he was put in a log and cut in two. Peter, the apostle, crucified upside down.

Paul had a Roman axe cut his head off. They died, but they were delivered. Their deliverance was in their death. Remember back those words of Job?

Though he slamed me yet, I will trust him. Why? Because he said, I know my redeemer lives. And I will see his face.

I will stand before him and see his face. Daniel would live or die. And you know what? He was OK with either one.

Daniel had to wait the night for his deliverance. And I know for some of you, perhaps you're going through something and you've been waiting a long, for God to deliver you. But trust him. Be steadfast.

Trust him. Hold on to him. Our resolve must be our God is able to deliver me. Finally, I'll wrap up soon.

Last point, a good testimony is influential. Let's continue reading. Last three verses, four verses. Then Darius the King wrote to all peoples, nations, and men of every language who were living in that land, may your peace abound.

I will make it decree that in all dominion of my kingdom men are to fear and tremble before the God of Daniel, for he is the living God and enduring forever. And his kingdom is one which will not be destroyed, and his dominion will be forever. He delivers and rescues and performs signs and wonders in heaven and on earth who has delivered Daniel from the power of the lions. So Daniel enjoyed success in the reign of Darius and the reign of Cyrus the Persian.

So Darius makes this decree that all sounds like a psalm, what he wrote here, doesn't it? He makes this decree. I don't know if Darius ended up being converted and trusting the God of heaven. I don't know.

But he sure had a fear of God after this happened, after this incident. Daniel was just one man. Just one man. And I'm so glad the story was written of Daniel.

This is really the end of the narrative of the life of Daniel. And he affects two completely different kingdoms. Remember the Babylonian kingdom and now the Medo-Persian kingdom? He's had influence over many kings, five or six kings by this time.

He has had a lot of influence. What's a little interesting side note is the Magi that came where Christmas time is talking about this. The Magi that came to worship Jesus Christ in the home when he was about two years old following the star. Remember the ones that came from the east?

Or yeah, the east, they saw the star in the west. So they saw his star and they followed it and they came. But Magi is the name of these guys. The Daniel kind of was with the magicians, the strologers, and all those guys.

The wise men we read of. The word is actually Magi. And I often wonder if Daniel prophesied and told them about the coming Messiah, the one who's going to come, the Savior of the world. And that story got passed on and passed on and passed on.

And then through the years, these Magi came because of the influence of Daniel. I don't know. It's quite possible. God puts the right people in the right place.

And if you're steadfast, one or a few steadfast people can influence a nation, a family, a neighborhood, steadfast people will be at influence. Your testimony, a good testimony, is influential. Never underestimate the power of a godly life. That's the message of this.

The king was greatly moved. And he turned his eyes towards the god of heaven. Why? Because Daniel pointed him there with his life, with the way he lived.

That's why he was called the servant of the living god. Now, do you want to be influential for the kingdom of God? We read in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 58. It says, be steadfast, immovable, always about, immovable, always about me in the word of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

I'm going to close with the story. Well, these are some questions to ask. Do you want to be influential for the kingdom of God? If you're going to be influential, you need to be steadfast.

What are you clutching onto? The promises of God are your own resources. I'm faced with that all the time. Am I looking to myself?

Am I looking to what I have, what I can do in my own strength? Or do I clutch onto the power of God and the promises of God? I'm going to tell a story to close here. And it's a story that was told by, I believe he was a chaplain in the US Congress or something.

The story is more interesting than the guy he told it. And it's called the Keeper of the Spring in this Austrian village. The Keeper of the Spring, the Keeper of the Spring, this little Austrian village had a beautiful stream. It ran through it.

And it was surrounded by the Alps, as you would could picture, and mountains around it. And they hired this man called the Keeper of the Spring. And what his job was, was to patrol around and to pick up all the leaves and sticks and junk that would get into the springs, the pools that would supply the spring. And he picked them up and he did a very faithful job.

And this beautiful stream, clear, pristine, ran through the village. The tourists came to see it. The swans swam in all the pools. It was just beautiful.

Businesses built their shops along the stream. Farmlands were irrigated. And one day the council met, and they said, what's this thing in the budget here, the Keeper of the Spring? I don't know.

I've never met him. Never seen him. But we hear he's up there. Yeah, OK.

So we're paying for this. But we don't even know what it is. Yeah. But it keeps the stream clear.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what? What a waste of money. This is a scam.

Take that money and invest it into something else. Fire the Keeper of the Spring. So they did. Nothing changed.

It was the same for a number of weeks. But after a few weeks, some returned to fall. Leaves started falling off the trees, and twigs started breaking off. And debris started filling up the and clogging the stream.

Then one day, the villagers noticed that the stream wasn't clear anymore. It's kind of yellowish. But it's still running. And it's still good for our crops.

And I've had a few days later. It was kind of brownish. Another week goes by, and it had a stench that they couldn't stand. All the tourists left.

The swans said, let's go south. People said, I can't run my business next to that. The water wheels that diverted the water from the stream slowed down, and eventually they stopped. The village elders said, whoa, we made a big mistake.

Go on hire this guy and get him back. So they found the Keeper of the Spring. They gave him his job back, and within a few weeks, the pristine beauty came back. So what's the point?

Why am I telling a story like that? What the Keeper of the Spring was to that Austrian village, the steadfast believer is to this world, even to the church. One life well lived and impact a family, a neighborhood, a city, a country, or like Daniel, two nations. It doesn't take a lot of people.

It just takes ones who are steadfast, who are faithful, who want to serve the living God. Jesus had 12 disciples, 11 in the end, and what did he say to them? Go into all the world and preach the gospel. Within one generation, the whole known world had heard the gospel from 11 men that were sent by the Lord Jesus Christ.

Don't underestimate your impact if you are a steadfast believer following the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Father, thank you that we can read an account of the prophet Daniel, the man Daniel, one who was willing to serve you as a steadfast and faithful believer. What a great example to us.

Lord, I pray that you would help us in our walk to be steadfast. There are trials and there are difficulties in this life, and we all face them. None of us know what's around the corner. None of us know what we might face even in our own families, in our own health.

But we know the promises of God that if we trust you, you care for us, you will deliver us. You will take us through these things, even though you may not deliver us from these things. Daniel's a great example of that, the fact that he was in the lion's den and had to go through it, but you delivered him. Father, may we have that faith?

May we have that assurance and that steadfastness that he had. And may we walk with you this day. We ask in the name and for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

I wonder if we could, is it, like, can you give a song up there? Okay.