Story of Daniel | Elder Reading | April 19th 2026

We read large sections of Daniel together and wrestle with what faithful living looks like under cultural pressure, from the small compromises of comfort to the public cost of courage. We trace God’s sovereignty over kings and empires while asking what it means to trust him with a steady “but if not” faith across decades. 
• why slowing down to read longer Scripture forms us in an entertainment-driven culture 
• Daniel as real history and ordinary people God uses 
• conviction in youth and faithfulness across the decades 
• when to seek the good of the city and when to draw a clear line 
• prayerful courage that makes the appointment before the answer comes 
• “our God is able, but if not” as a model for suffering and trust 
• comfort as a quiet rival to holiness and allegiance 
• pride that dehumanizes and a God who humbles rulers 
• holding leaders accountable while remembering God’s sovereignty 
• Daniel in the lions’ den as a picture of deliverance and resurrection hope 

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Transcript

Welcome And Stage Setup

Will Hawk 0:46

You're staying up here with me then, right? All right. All right. If you guys would welcome, I'm going to keep this one. You grab the table. Uh, Larry, Greg, and Trent up to the stage. If you don't know, these are your pastors. Trent is the toughest to get up here, and I'm so pumped he's here. He's usually back in the sound booth. All right, Larry, I'm gonna share a little bit of tabletop with you if you don't mind.

Larry Young 1:10

I need to go grab my Bible and bring it with me.

Will Hawk 1:12

Do your thing, do your thing. All right, so let me explain sort of what we're doing, Carrie. I'm apologizing in advance. I'm trying to make this thing smaller. Ooh. See, this is where everybody like pitches in and they're like, I can help. And then I'm like, there's 40 knobs on this thing.

Greg Dispain 1:28

Tech team is like tensing up right now.

Meet The Pastors And Pillow Count

Will Hawk 1:31

That was my best shot. Sorry, this section of people. All right, so here's what we're gonna do today. Typically, we cover a short piece of scripture for a long period of time. So if you've been at Midtree for a while, you know we work through books of the Bible. We preach expositionally. We want to preach the word the way that we have received the word, which is in books and letters. And so that's kind of how we do it. We just finished the book of Colossians. Last week, I think I covered about six verses in Daniel, and it took me 35 minutes. And so what we, and that was kind of giving you the how do we get to Daniel moment. So about twice a year, we do something like this where I ask a handful of the pastors of the church, the elders of the church, to look over a section of the book of the Bible that we're about to spend a fair bit of time in. And so what we're gonna do, I've taken the book of Daniel and I have abbreviated it into sort of a readable, non-repetitive passage, and we're gonna read a section, and then one of the pastors has prepared some thoughts and some discussion prompts for us. So here is the goal. There's probably at least three of them. Um, goal number one is in an entertainment-driven culture to recognize that God's method of the church and his word has not changed. And so it is good for us occasionally to slow down and to just read a longer portion of scripture. So we're gonna do that. I will tell you, I've done the best I could in a YouTube, TikTok, TED Talk culture to take the scripture. And as we're reading it on the screen, you'll see the sections we're gonna hit and it's gonna move. So you have a little bit of a progression timer so that you can know. And all the readings only take uh three or four minutes or so. And so it won't take too terribly long. Then we are gonna chop it up as pastors. And why are we doing this? The the men at the table have been tasked with the responsibility of what is it that our church real, our church, mid-tree, our people, our time, our context, our culture, what do we really need to see out of this? What is it that would be good for our antennas to go up today for the work we are going to do in the weeks ahead? And so hopefully all of that comes together in a Christ-exalting, word of God-rich community time together that we get to spend in the Word that also gets our hearts ready for the weeks ahead. And so that is what we're gonna do. I did have one kickoff question. All right, I try not to prepare them for any of this stuff because it's more fun for me. I'd like you to give a 10-second introduction of yourself and your family, and then I would like for you to tell us how many pillows. Daniel is a story uh about dreams. How many pillows are on your bed if it is made to the extent that your wife receives the apex of joy? So, how many pillows go on your bed if your wife is at her highest state of joy? My name is Will. I'm the senior pastor of Midtree Church. I'm married to my wife, Karen Ann. We have four children, ages 17, 15, 13, and 11. And ours would be 12. I counted this morning. And I'm convinced it's why my shoulder's bad. I thought about this morning last night. It was like one, two, three, and then I put them back on the corner. I usually don't put them back, but anyway, I knew I was gonna talk about it today, so I don't want my wife to be mad at me. All right, doesn't matter. We can go in whatever order. Basic bio, how many pillows are on the bed if your wife's happy?

Trent Willbanks 5:12

All right. Um, my name's Trent Wilbanks. My wife, Joanna I will celebrate 24 years of marriage in May. We've got six kids, ages 21, 20, 17, 15, 12, and 11. Three girls, three boys. Um, eleven pillows. I had to count. Um I got you by one.

Will Hawk 5:30

She got me by one. An odd number, there's one in the middle.

Trent Willbanks 5:32

Yeah.

Will Hawk 5:33

Yeah. Yeah.

unknown 5:37

Yeah.

Trent Willbanks 5:37

I guess if that's all you need to know. How many kids are having any pillows?

Will Hawk 5:40

What more, what more could anybody want to know?

Greg Dispain 5:44

Okay, I'm Greg Despane. My wife is Debbie. I'm not, I don't think she's in this service. I think she's coming next service. Uh by God's grace, if he tarries, we will be married 34 years uh this year. Two kids, uh grown and married, two granddaughters, one on the way. I think we only have I feel like such a pumper. I think we only have seven pillows on our bed. It's okay.

Larry Young 6:08

Not a contest.

Greg Dispain 6:10

But you're reasonable.

Larry Young 6:11

Yeah. Hey, I'm Larry, and uh my wife is Chrissy. We've been married for 20 years. We have seven children, and uh they're ages 15, 13, 11, 9, 7. I feel like this is a test on itself. I'm sorry.

Will Hawk 6:27

Four. I never told you you had to do ages.

Larry Young 6:29

I just did them, and then y'all they keep changing, and then I'm like, my God's great. So thankful for that. Then I have to remember like you throw me off, and and then two. So we're foster parents. Uh, so we we had our youngest, she is our our foster daughter, we love dearly. Um, how many pillows? I think we have we have eight, which is funny because I have the smallest children, but we have them here because that that way they come in the bed with us. Uh yeah, sometimes at night Yeah, we have backup pillows. So I'm just fascinated you have 12. Yeah. Okay. Well, there we go.

Daniel 1 To 2 Read Aloud

Youthful Conviction And Real History

Will Hawk 7:04

All right. Let's get into the book of Daniel. So I'm gonna read through the first couple of chapters. If the guys in the back want to switch over uh to the slides, that would be great. And what you're gonna notice in this first little reading is uh the guys are gonna be taken to Babylon. Daniel's faithfulness is gonna be put on display. Uh Nebuchadnezzar is such a long name. It's just Neb. Anytime I put it on the screen. And then uh interpretation and the promotion for the children or the children in heart. I had Chat GPT make photos of each different little section. So let's enjoy God's word together as I read it. Then the king commanded Ashbanaz, his chief eunuch, to bring some of the people of Israel, both of the royal family and of the nobility, youths without blemish. And the chief of the eunuchs gave them names. Daniel, he called Beltishazzar, Hananiah, he called Shadrach, Meshal, he called Meshach, and Azariah, he called Abednego. Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king's food, or with the wine that he drank. Therefore he asked the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself. Then Daniel said to the steward, whom the chief of the eunuchs had assigned over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, test your servants for ten days. Let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then let our appearance and the appearance of the youths who eat the king's food be observed by you, and deal with your servants according to what you see. So he listened to them in this matter and tested them for ten days. At the end of ten days it was seen that they were better in appearance and fatter in flesh than all the youths who ate the king's food. As for these four youths, God gave them learning and skill in all literature and wisdom, and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams. And the king said to them, I had a dream, and my spirit is troubled to know the dream. Then the Chaldeans said to the king in Aramaic, O king, live forever, tell your servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation. The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, The word from me is firm. If you do not make known to me the dream and its interpretation, you shall be torn limb from limb, and your houses shall be laid in ruins. But if you show the dream and its interpretation, you shall receive from me gifts and rewards and great honor. Therefore show me the dream and its interpretation. The Chaldeans answered the king and said, There is not a man on earth who can meet the king's demand, for no great and powerful king has asked such a thing of any magician or enchanter or Chaldean. The thing that the king asks is difficult, and no one can show it to the king except the gods, whose dwelling is not with men. Because of this the king was angry and very furious, and commanded that all the wise men of Babylon be destroyed. So the decree went out, and the wise men were about to be killed, and they sought Daniel and his companions to kill them. Then Daniel went to his house and made the matter known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions, and told them to seek mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that Daniel and his companions might not be destroyed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. Then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision of the night, and then Daniel blessed the God of heaven. Then Ariak brought in Daniel before the king in haste and said thus to him, I found among the exiles from Judah a man who will make known to the king the interpretation. Daniel answered and said to the king, No wise men, enchanters, magicians, or astrologers can show to the king the mystery that the king has asked. But there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and he has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days. You saw, O King, and behold, a great image. This image, mighty and of exceeding brightness, stood before you. Its appearance was frightening. The head of this image was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its middle and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. As you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold all together were broken in pieces, and became like chaff of the summer threshing floors, and the wind carried them away, so that not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. A great God has made known to the king what shall be after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation sure. The king answered, and Daniel said, Truly your God is the God of gods and Lord of kings, and a revealer of mysteries, for you have been able to reveal this mystery. Daniel made a request of the king, and he appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego over the affairs of the province of Babylon. But Daniel remained in the king's court. This is the word of the Lord. All right, so that would be Daniel chapters one and two. Trent, you spent uh a little bit of time thinking about this and thinking about where God may have us as a church go and think and ponder. What stands out? How would you lead us in thinking through it?

Trent Willbanks 12:41

Yeah, thanks, Will. Um, first of all, if if you don't already have your Bibles open to Daniel, I'd encourage you to go ahead and open them up because we'll go back and kind of refer to a couple of specific verses. Um, but as you do that, the first thing that strikes me as we read these six chapters, we're about to cover about 65, 66 years of history. And I think the first thing as we spend time in Daniel is for us just to remind ourselves um that this is not the Chronicles of Narnia, this is not choose your favorite Marvel movie or Harry Potter. Like this is human history that was recorded 2600 and I don't know, 30 something years ago, I didn't do the exact math. These are actual people who walked the earth, and we're gonna see some pretty incredible things. But I think sometimes we can come to scripture and we think, man, Daniel, Shadrach, Michael, Bindigo, they're like superheroes, and God was doing some amazing stuff. Um, but if we had lived, if God had seen fit to put me or you into human history 2,600 years ago, we would have been their friends, their cousins. Um, and I think to read it and and to think about man, how would I have reacted? What what would my response been if I were in this uh in this um part of history? Um, so maybe with that as the a background context, um, a couple of observations. One, as you look at uh verse one of chapter one, it frames where we are in history, and this is about 605 BC. And um when Nebuchadnezzar, it was in his we know from other sources that in his first year he came, in his first year as king of Babylon, he came and he he conquered Jerusalem, and those the first of the deportations. And it it says that Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abinago, they were youths. So we don't have an exact age, but they were about 15, 16, maybe 17 years old. Um, so think about it. High school age, maybe college age, think about if that's where you are right now. We're about to see Daniel be really faithful and courageous. Um, I think oftentimes we can think about those years as a time to play baseball and um basketball and video games and um just kind of do what I need to do to get through school. Um but God, we see in this story, we see young men who were faithful, even as a 15, 16, 17-year-old. We're gonna turn a couple of pages, and we don't have exact ages, but they're probably in their 20s. Um when we get to the fiery furnace, we're gonna turn a few more pages, and Daniel's probably in his 40s or 50s. But by the time we get to chapter six, the lion's den, Daniel's in his eighties. So I think we see as we read through this morning, Daniel faithful across the decades of his life, a man who's humble, who's applies himself and incredibly gifted, um, and yet he's courageous and faithful. So if you're in your 60s, your 70s, your 80s, we're gonna see Daniel continuing to be faithful. God's not done with him. Um, so that's the first thing that I would observe. Um and then I think the st the second thing would be um maybe just a little bit back it up to to chapter one. Again, we see in verse four and six that Daniel and his friends they were youths, they were skillful, they were competent, and they were going to be educated for three years. Um and then in verse eight, it says, But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king's food. And so again, you've got this 16-year-old young man who has just been deported from the home in which he grew up in Israel, would have had to walk 500, 600 miles. Um, not to mention what did that first decade or so of his life looked like. And now he's in the court of another king. He's told to learn and be educated. And he has the the conviction to say, no, I'm gonna resolve myself and I'm gonna go to the chief of the eunuchs who's over me, and I'm gonna seek to be faithful to my God. He didn't get an immediate yes, but he went to the steward who was over him, and he didn't give up. He wasn't just passive, he didn't just say, Well, I can't do anything. Um and then the second thing would be as we turn to chapter two, um you're catching it a couple of years in. So this is either right after he's finished his three years, or maybe even during the time that he's in his three years of education, because it says in the second year of the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar, and that's when he has this dream. And he brings all of his wise men before him and says, All right, you gotta tell me the dream. Which was crazy, even by those standards. Right. And so if you look at uh verse 10 of chapter 2, it says the wise men, the Chaldeans, answered the king and said, There is not a man on earth who can meet the king's demands. Verse 11 The thing the king asks is difficult, and no one can show it to the king except the gods, whose dwelling is not with humans, not with flesh. Um it's just incredible. Like even the wisest men in the kingdom say, There's no way, this is not possible, and they're about to die. They don't even attempt, they don't even attempt it. They said there's no one on earth. And then when you go down again, you see Daniel, he goes to his friends and he says, actually, before he goes to his friends, he says, set me appointment with the king, I'll interpret it. He doesn't even know it yet.

Will Hawk 18:40

That's that to me is the most like the coolest part, but you have to be a studier, not a reader to see it. That Daniel makes an appointment with the king before he knows the interpretation. And then he's like, Hey guys, we need to pray. I've got a meeting with Nebuchadnezzar on Tuesday at two. We got to get this thing figured out.

Trent Willbanks 18:57

Yeah.

Will Hawk 18:57

I mean, the faith to just be like, make the appointment, and then I'll be there and we'll figure this thing out.

Trent Willbanks 19:03

Unbelievable. One more thing. I know we gotta keep moving. No, you're good. I'm not rushing you, I'm just joining you. So Daniel goes, he prays. God gives him the vision. Man, we're skipping over so much. That's the other thing I would observe. We had to truncate this down uh because otherwise it would have taken us, I think, 30, 45 minutes just to read through the six chapters. So for those of you who are baseball fans, think about this is watching the baseball game, just the highlights. Um, and we missed some of the really good highlights and what we cut out. So I would encourage us all in the coming weeks to go through and read and reread and read it in full so we're able to just see all of the details of what God reveals to us in Scripture.

Will Hawk 19:41

And next week, to make that easier for you guys, next week we're gonna have more of the Bible journals and slid into it is what we're covering each Sunday ahead. So if you want to be the kind of person who reads ahead, we'll make it really easy for you for the next couple of months.

Trent Willbanks 19:55

So one more observation um in chapter two. When Daniel comes to the king in verse 26, Daniel chapter 2, verse 26, it says, The decl the king declared to Daniel, whose name was Beltashazzar, um the the king had renamed Daniel the name of his god, um, uh not Daniel's God, the king's god. But the king asked Daniel, Are you able to make known to me the dream that I have seen in its interpretation? And Daniel answered the king and said, No wise men, enchanters, magicians, or astrologers can show the king the mystery that the king has asked. But there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and he has made known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days. If you skip down to uh verse 30, this is another part we skipped back in chapter one. At the end of the three years, it said that Daniel and his three friends, they were found to be wiser than all the rest of the men in the kingdom, ten times wiser in anything the king could ask. I think it's kind of like the king asking Siri or Gemini, choose your AI. It's like they were ten times smarter than anyone else in the kingdom after just three years as a youth. Um, so in that context, now Daniel, he's got the answer that none of these other men could have. And the king says, Hey, are you gonna you're gonna be able to tell me? He says, No man can tell you. And then in verse 26, uh, sorry, verse uh thirty, Daniel says, But as for me, this mystery has been revealed to me, not because of any wisdom that I have more than all the living, but in order that the interpretation may be known to the king. Um, and then as you go through, as Daniel interprets the dream, he consistently refers to the God of heaven has given the kingdom the power. The God of heaven will set up a kingdom. Uh, a great God has made known to the king. Um, and it actually says in verse 46, the king fell on his face and paid homage to Daniel and commanded the offering of incense. But it's almost like Daniel, uh, the king fell down and started worshiping Daniel. Um, he's starting to realize that he's not as great as he he thinks he is. And he says, Truly, your God is a God of gods and Lord of kings. Um, but it's just interesting to me that you're starting to see, and we'll see his progression, the king's progression as we keep going. Um, but I think the point there, uh, just as we start to read the next, in the very next chapter, whereas the king recognized that there was something remarkable about the God that Daniel worshipped, in the very next chapter, you're gonna listen, you're gonna hear the that King Nebuchadnezzar says, Who is the God who will deliver you out of my hand? So he's not. There's a fear of God that's starting, but it's not it isn't fully there yet. Let it cook. Yeah.

Greg Dispain 22:46

Can I add one thing? Please. I know we're running out of time, but I think one thing that'd be super helpful like for the church to sort of apply this and contextualize it for you guys today is like the the goal of Nebuchadnezzar was to change really three things about, you know, their name, their curriculum, and their diet. And so it for a purpose, right? It's to water down their nationality, water down their ethnicity, water down their religion, and sort of have this amalgam of all of these different things coming together. And Daniel chose one thing to draw a line in the sand on. So I think for us is as we live in a culture that occasionally is hostile to what we think and what we believe, like, are we using uh winsomeness and when to fight? Like when's the time to stand up and say this is a hill to die on, you know, this far and no more. And when are the ways that, like Jeremiah says in Jeremiah 29 and 7, I think it is, where Jeremiah, who's a prophet, writing to the exiles that are in Babylon, says to look, seek the good of the city where you're at. Like build houses, like don't fight everything, right? So so find a way to sort of you know to fit in and to legitimately seek the good where you're at, but know that you're gonna be there for 70 years. I have a plan for you, I'm gonna bring you back. But Daniel chose this one thing. And so for us, you know, we were joking before we started for every road of mile or for every mile of road, there's two miles of ditch, right? And so just understanding like there's error on both sides. Like when when do you lean in? When do you fight? When do you say this this is something I'm not gonna stand for? And when are ways to legitimately seek the good of your local government, your national government? Like there's there's some wisdom and sort of knowing when to fit in, when to be a part of the solution, and when to sort of say, look, this far and no more. Yeah.

The Furnace And The But If Not

Will Hawk 24:30

I I also really love, and Trent, you brought this up. I love the idea that you can be young and make a difference because I remember sitting in the pews and I was too scared to pray out loud because that's adult stuff. I I was at a church where we would have sort of congregational prayers and everything would get quiet, and then people would do popcorn style prayer in the congregation. I was like, that's for the 20 and 30 and olders. It's not for me. I'm not old enough. And now, like as I as I've hit the hill and started sliding down on the other side, I'm realizing, wait a minute, have I missed some of my youthful opportunities? And I think the enemy would love for us to think we're too old to be adventurous, we're too young to be effective, and just tell us that lie until we can swap it. And what we see in this, in 80 years of Daniel's life, is it doesn't matter how old you are, so long as you're willing to say, God use me, I want to be used by you, he will, and he'll do it effectively. All right, let's look at chapter three. Trent, I think you're gonna read uh three and four for us.

Trent Willbanks 25:30

All right. Daniel chapter three. King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold, whose height was sixty cubits, or about ninety feet, and its breadth six cubits. He set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon, and the herald proclaimed aloud, You were commanded, O peoples, nations, and languages, that when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harpen, bagpipe, and every kind of music, you were to fall down and worship the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up, and whoever does not fall down and worship shall immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace. Verse eight. Therefore at that time certain Chaldeans came forward and maliciously accused the Jews. Verse twelve. There are certain Jews whom you have pointed over the affairs of the Province of Babylon, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These men, O king, pay you no attention to you. They do not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up. Then Nebuchadnezzar, in a furious rage, commanded that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego be brought. So they brought these men before the king. Verse 15 it says, And Nebuchadnezzar says to the three young men, he said, And who is the God who will deliver you out of my hand? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up. Verse 21. Then these men were bound in their cloaks, their tunics, their hats, and their other garments, and they were thrown into the burning fiery furnace. Because the king's order was urgent and the furnace overheated, the flame of the fire killed those men who took Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell bound into the burning fiery furnace. Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up in haste. He declared to his counselors, Did we not cast three men bound into the fire? They answered and said to the king, True, O king. He answered and said, But I see four men, unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt. And the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods. And the satraps, the prefects, the governors, and the king's counselors gathered together and saw that the fire had not had any power over the bodies of those men, that the hair of their heads was not singed, their cloaks were not harmed, and no smell of fire had come upon them. Nebuchadnezzar answered and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants, who trusted in him, and set aside the king's command, and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any God except their own God. Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon. Turn to chapter four. And this is set up as a letter from the king, and he's sending it out to all the peoples and nations and languages, and in verse four it says, I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at ease in my house and prospering in my palace. I saw a dream that made me afraid. At last Daniel came in before me, he who was named Beltashazzar, after the name of my God, and in whom is the spirit of the holy gods, and I told him the dream. Belteshazzar answered and said, Lord, my Lord, may the dream be for those who hate you, and its interpretation for your enemies. The tree you saw, which grew and became strong, so that its top reached to the heaven, and it was visible to the end of the whole earth, whose leaves were beautiful and its fruit abundant, and in which was food for all, under which beasts of the field found shade, and whose branches the birds of the heavens lived. It is you, O king, who have grown and become strong. This is the interpretation, O King. It is a decree of the Most High, which has come upon my Lord the King, that you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. You shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and you shall be wet with the dew of heaven, and seven periods of time shall pass over you till you know that the Most High rules over the kingdom of men, and gives it to whom he will. And it says, Immediately, while and it yeah, verse earlier it says, While the words were still in his mouth, they heard a voice from heaven, and God speaks to him, and then picking up in verse thirty-three we have on the screens, immediately the word was fulfilled against Nebuchadnezzar. He was driven from among men and ate grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hair grew as long as eagle's feathers, and his nails were like birds' claws. At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation. Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of Heaven, for all his works are right and his ways are just, and those who walk in pride he is able to humble. Amen.

Will Hawk 31:11

All right, Greg, chapters three and four. I will say I enjoyed watching y'all's faces while we were reading through. Uh my son Thaddeus was watching me prepare for this. And as I was making the pictures, he was like, Dad, I've got a really good one. I don't even know why he had this on his phone, but he was like, I've got it. I want the Nebuchadnezzar one. So I allowed him to get Nebuchadnezzar in. Greg, what do you see out of three and four?

Greg Dispain 31:36

Yeah, as as Trent said, so so much in these chapters that we're reading, so much that we're not able to.

Will Hawk 31:44

I mean, it is absolutely crushing y'all to abbreviate. Everything I highlighted, you cut. I got I tried to give you the cuts earlier. I'm sorry.

Greg Dispain 31:55

I apologize. You did, but it it continues sort of this wonderful arc about the sovereignty of God put on display, how that no plans of his can be thwarted. You're gonna see this certainly take place over these two chapters, where God is sovereign over all nations, over all kings, over all kingdoms. And then you're gonna see this really sort of ugly but personal that God is sovereign over our own lives and our own sense of pride. And so a couple things that really stood out. I resisted the urge to like prepare a sermon as Will was warning us against. Um, but just the the the power of this and the thing that's sort of the hinge to me for this whole part is verse 18, where he's talking about who is going to deliver you. And so and Daniel's saying, look, we don't even need to answer you. You're about to find out who's able to deliver us. Uh so we don't even need to talk about that. And he says, If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O King. So confidence, boldness, assurance that God can and will deliver them. But then, man, the beauty of verse 18, but if not. But if not, like King, I'm confident he can and he will do this. But just also this humble submission to God's plan that that he doesn't always rescue us in the way that we like. We pray with people every week out on the back porch, and we pray a version of this, you know, but if not, like we are praying in faith that God heals, that God restores uh relationships, that he brings people that are far apart together, that he provides the job. We pray that in confidence, but we also pray humbly that but if not, we still are gonna follow you. We still recognize that God is good. And so one way that we try to shepherd our folks is just having this like deep understanding and belief in God's sovereignty, that he's all powerful, but he's not just all-powerful and bad, he's all powerful and he's good, that he loves us and he's got a plan for our life that's better than anything that we could ever dream of. And so this gives us hope in a situation that may not be hopeful on the surface. But I love this, but if not kind of faith. Like, and so I would I would ask you guys like in what areas are you struggling with being able to say, God, I'm praying for this. My heart's desire is man, this is this is the cry of my heart that this would be true, whether it's a job, whether it's a diagnosis that you're running from. But what area in our life would we are we struggling to say, God, but if not, I still trust you. I still love you, I still think you're good, I'm still committed to following you. And so I would just ask you guys this morning to maybe search your heart and think, what is that area that you would struggle the most to say, but if not.

Will Hawk 34:59

Greg, while we were in prayer this morning, you and Sam got into a side quest conversation about the Great Awakening, the new movie that's out, which you would apparently highly recommend for people to check out. But one of the conversations was, was it Whitfield?

Greg Dispain 35:12

George Whitfield.

Will Hawk 35:13

Yeah, Whitfield is doing ministry, loving on the country, evangelizing Benjamin Franklin, who really does not see the sovereignty of God in many places at that point and only sees the will of man as wisely pressed in. And when you read that, what it stands, what stands out to me is sometimes we get to look at the fiery furnace and say, wow, look at what God is doing in that other person's life. Praise God for what he's doing, even if my name doesn't make the book. I think sometimes we walk into situations in life where we are certain that it's going to end and go poorly, and then God shows up miraculously. And then other times the flames take us, and we see Jesus before we see the result. And the movie The Great Awakening, what you had mentioned was Whitfield has no idea that Benjamin Franklin will be converted after his own death. He spends all this time pouring into him, and it's not until he dies that those seeds flower and turns into what was written in the early days of our own country, as we look at Daniel navigating this one.

Greg Dispain 36:17

Yeah, 100%. I do highly recommend it. If you can still find it in a theater, wonderfully done. Uh, it does tie into this well. But I love this. But if not, in no way does that diminish our faithfulness, our desire to serve uh our God. We will not serve your God, even if we don't survive the furnace. In no way is our faith shaken in this moment. And so, man, what a what a testimony, what a challenge for us to sort of search our heart and find where where is that for us? And then maybe another thing is um, like what would it take in your life? What areas are in your life would you be most susceptible to bowing? Like if you if given this kind of test, is it your comfort? Is it your career? Is it your reputation? Is it your finances? Like, what's the area in your life that you would say, I don't know, like I might be tempted to bow in that area? What area would you have to fight the most and fight against and push against uh if you were put in that situation? So Daniel certainly had areas where he said, Look, this is an area we can be winsome, this is an area where we can sort of lean in, and then there was areas to draw really hard, really black and white bold lines. And so what are areas in your life that you would say, man, this is an area I might want to fortify and strengthen, ask the Holy Spirit to reveal that to me, um, an area of weakness.

Will Hawk 37:41

When you think about our church, is there anything that stands out? It's easier to just say America and jump at it. But when you think of us, does something stand out?

Greg Dispain 37:50

For me, I would I would say, and that's not unique to midtree, but I would say comfort is an area where like we we have it's easy to sort of get wrapped into the notion that uh this is a life of of ease. And you know, David Platt talks about having a wartime mentality and a peacetime mentality. And I think for so long Christianity and our faith has been so comfortable, it's been so easy. We don't endure any here in America, any meaningful amount of persecution. So I think for us, we've gotten so used and so to and to feel like comfort is normal and comfort is what we're owed, and sort of an easy time. And we see that pop its head in all kinds of places, um, where comfort and preferences and things sort of become like really big deals. And um I think that's an area that we need to fight against. Be aware that, man, comfort is so important to us, and something that we like, and I that's what I love about you know what we just did with Secret Church, and sort of seeing our brothers and sisters around the world live and sort of their experience and how they are so hardy, they're so faithful, they're so hungry for God's word, and to sort of see, and I you I even catch myself like in this where you see little things that like really don't matter, like, oh man, like that didn't go well, this didn't happen the way we would love it to. And we got people that are meeting with no electricity in a hut with a mud floor, with you know, maybe one copy of God's word in their lap, and they are just hungry.

The Writing On The Wall

Will Hawk 39:22

Yeah. I I would encourage us as we read through Daniel for you to think about your own heart when it comes to a level of comfort and holiness. And it, if they aren't always diametrically opposed, but many times they are. One of my biggest laugh out loud moments when I read Daniel is in the beginning, when Daniel's like, don't give me any of the good food for 10 days. We'll see how it goes. Then it goes really well for him. And none of the people get the food anymore. Like his buddies who didn't volunteer for that, all of a sudden they lose the good food. And I just wonder how many of them were like, come on, Daniel, like you're the one praying and having drink. Can't I enjoy a T-bone occasionally? And I I love that moment where Daniel sort of makes the call, moms and dads, where we make the call to lower comfort, to increase holiness. But you're only going to do it if you actually value and cherish holiness. And so, believer, I would ask you, do you? How important is holiness to you? And is it worth giving up a bit of comfort? Because you have an eternity of comfort coming. If giving up a bit today to make you more effective for the kingdom today would happen, wouldn't that be worth it? All right, well, let's take a look at our last bit here. Chapter five, Greg. I think you're going to read five and six for us, and then Larry share some thoughts. So, Daniel, chapter five, we are on the back end at this point. How, how, uh, Trent, you did the research. How old is Daniel right now?

Trent Willbanks 40:49

Uh I think they think uh in chapter five, he's probably in his his fifties. So we're looking at his fifties to his eighties, basically. And then chapter six, he would be in his eighties. Okay, sounds good.

Greg Dispain 41:01

All right, chapter five. King Belshazzar made a great feast for a thousand of his lords and drank wine in front of the thousand. They drank wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone. Immediately the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall of the king's palace opposite the lampstand. And the king saw the hand as it wrote, and then the king's color changed, his thoughts alarmed him, his limbs gave way, and his knees knocked together. Then Daniel was brought in before the king. The king answered and said to Daniel, You are that Daniel, one of the exiles of Judah, whom the king my father brought from Judah, but I have heard that you can give interpretations and solve problems. Now if you can read the writing and make known to me its interpretation, you shall be clothed with purple and have a chain of gold around your neck, and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom. Then Daniel answered and said before the king, Let your gifts be for yourself, and give your rewards to another. Nevertheless, I will read the writing to the king, and make known to him the interpretation. And this is the writing that was inscribed, Many, many, Tekl and Parson. This is the interpretation of the matter. Many, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end. Tekel, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting. Peres, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians. Then Belshazzar gave the command, and Daniel was clothed with purple, a chain of gold was put around his neck, and a proclamation was made about him that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom. And that very night Belshazzar the Chaldean king was killed, and Darius the Mead received the kingdom, being about sixty-two years old. Awesome. In chapter six, then the high officials and the satraps sought to find a ground for complaint against Daniel with regard to the kingdom, but they could find no ground for complaint or any fault, because he was faithful, and no error or fault was found in him. Then these men said, We shall not find any ground or complaint against this Daniel unless we find it in connection with the law of his God. All the officials of the kingdom, the prefects and the satraps, the counselors and the governors are agreed that the king should establish an ordinance and enforce an injunction, that whoever makes petition to any God or man for thirty days, except to you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions. 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. And 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. And then these men came by agreement to the king, and said to the king, Know, O king, that it is the law of the Medes and the 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 serve continually, deliver you. And then at the 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 lion's mouths, and they have not harmed me, because I was found blameless before him, and also before you.

unknown 44:45

O King,

Lions Den Courage And True Kingship

Greg Dispain 44:46

I have done no harm. And the king commanded, and those men who had maliciously accused Daniel were brought and cast into the den of lions, 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. And then King Darius wrote to all the peoples, nations, and languages that dwell in 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. Amen. Larry, what stands out?

Larry Young 45:27

Yeah, um I think real quick, if I could just point back to chapter four, because this does tie in to five and six. I think it's important that that we note this. But when you see Nebuchadnezzar in chapter four, um, his pride actually does the opposite of what he thinks it does. Uh in us, there's so often we feel this sense of wanting to boast about ourselves and our good works. And and and in actuality, we we sometimes will tell ourselves, well, this will make me more man, more man or a woman, but actually that's dehumanizing. It makes you more of a beast than the truly human experience that God has in store for you if you acknowledge him. Because as humans, we were made for two things to glorify God and enjoy him forever. And so when I look back at at chapter four, and now we're jumping here to five, you see Belshazzar, who is the son of Nebuchadnezzar. Yeah, we've got a new king on the scene. That's right. Yeah, that's right, new king on the scene, and I would presume that he would know this. And um, here you see this king now making a mockery of the things of God, right? He's using it for his own pleasure, and he takes those things, those things that were once in the temples that that God had ordered his people to make, and now he's using it for his own delight. And I couldn't help but thinking Greg and I were talking about this earlier, but it this feels very current, you know, if you know where I'm getting at. It feels very current. And I I think, you know, for us, um we have to be very, very aware um that when these things happen, sorry, when these things happen, it reveals um a condition of the heart, right? And so Daniel tells Belshazzar, he's like, you know this. When you go back and you look at the text in chapter five, he's like, you know this. But instead you chose to make a mockery, and now tonight you will be weighted. And so I think so often, especially in our culture, we think that um, hey, yeah, God's sovereign over this, like he's just sovereign. But you also have to know that God does weigh who he puts in power as well.

Will Hawk 47:51

Yeah, God's sovereignty does not ignore our responsibility, but he is sovereign through it. That what we do, how we act, how we speak, who we spend time with, all of those things affect not only us, but the people around us and the kingdom, which is why we're commanded to pray, thy kingdom come. Exactly.

Larry Young 48:08

And it holds to the government, right? The government is held to this moral standard. It's not, well, you're sovereign, but yet they're not, they shouldn't be held to the standard. You see here, Daniel points that out directly and says, You did not hold the standard, you made a mockery of God, therefore you be you will be weighted, you will be judged. And I think for us living um in in this time as Christians, we can't forget that message that, yes, God does establish these governments, but we can't just forget and let it go to say, well, we can't hold them to the standard. That's not uh, you know, kind of a a um a view that's the antithesis of scripture. But rather as Christians, it's okay to hold them to that standard because I think it's very, very important um that you hold your leaders to account um and you don't back down. And you see here, Daniel's very bold in doing that.

Will Hawk 49:02

Yeah, a lifetime of faithfulness will do that to you. Like when you put yourself in a position, when you raise your hand, you say, Okay, Lord, use me wherever you want, send me wherever you want, bring whatever difficulty you want. You were faithful yesterday, and now you've been faithful today. And when you have a life of that, I I don't know if y'all feel this way. I love older, angsty Christians. Does that make sense? I I feel like the older we get, the angstier we get. But when it turns into sort of this angstiness about God's always been good, he's never not been good. Why would we expect him to be anything but good? I I love Daniel at 80 years old being tossed into the lines and being like, let's just see how it goes. Like, I've watched what God did. I honestly, Daniel was at the age where just falling in the pit probably could have been enough. And it would have been like this hip's never gonna work again. Yeah, and and we also find that one of my favorite lines in this is when the bad guys get tossed in, it's not that the lions were well fed. Like these folks get eaten, it says before they hit the ground. And so just God's willingness to preserve Daniel's life, not just because he wanted to take care of Daniel, but because Daniel's whole life he was pointing to a God who loved him and cared for him and cared for people. I God wants to preserve Daniel's life because Daniel's life is being spent elevating him so that others would find him.

Comfort, Allegiance, Prayer, Response

Larry Young 50:28

Yeah, and and just real quick, too, on that note, here you see you see King Darius right now jumping over to the Persian king and and you see Daniel. I couldn't help but to juxtapose those two men in their response. Darius is arguably the most powerful man on the planet. And think about this. These these men come to him and say, Well, King, you can't that can't be decree, that decree can't be reversed. And I'm sitting here thinking, dude, you're the king. You can do whatever you want to do. You can reverse this if you want. But you know what? He's actually a slave. He's a slave to the opinions of others. He cares more about the opinions of others and other men, where he decides, you know what, I'm just gonna cower down. Now Jux opposed that to Daniel. Daniel knows who his king is and has seen and remembers all these things that God has done. And to your point, Will, he doesn't fret at all. And you see one man panicking because he realizes the earthly powers that he has are completely useless, right? Completely useless because he's a slave to his pride. But then you have another man who's completely submitted to God and is okay, right, with whatever the outcome. He's seen what God has done and and uh thrown into the lion's den. And and again, don't miss this either. There's a traject trajectory here of Christ being in the tomb, right? And being raised from the dead, right? Being buried, and then that stone rolled away. And so I think that's also important to see that gospel light in this as well.

Will Hawk 52:09

Yeah, when when we see Daniel go in and then come out, and I love the fact that the king shows up and he's like, Did you make it? Did you make it through the night? I as Christians, let me just give you a couple of encouragements as we get ready to stand and respond to a plethora of God's word as well as applications for us. Daniel looked at the world around him, and so did his buddies, and they basically said this, we will die before we serve anything else. We will give our lives before anything else gets our allegiance. Christians, we live in a country that we would call a Christian country, or at least a country founded on Christian principles. My encouragement to you is this if you're if you're not a believer in the room, I just want you to see this and say, do I have anything I am this convicted about in my entire life? Is there any belief in me that is big enough to be bigger than me? And if your answer to that is no, I would like to invite you to the one that Larry, as Larry just pointed to, who went into death and came out on the other side so that you would actually find a life worth living. But for those of us who are believers in the room, what are you willing to die for? What are you odds are is not gonna happen in the next week. Hey, if you're a Christian, I'm separating you from your wife. You're not gonna see your kids again. But there are brothers and sisters who in this moment are waiting for that. That they already met before we got together in the darkest parts of the night around one light bulb, holding on to the little bits of scripture they have. And we have to fight to like keep our attention because we're gonna read more than listen more. What are you actually willing to die for? Because you live in a world, you live in a culture. You walk around with a device that is just gonna say, Hey, I can give you comfort right now. I I can make you not have to worry about the heavy things or the deep things or the hard things or the cancer things or the broken things or the scary things. Might I numb you from some things? And we walk around with it in our back pocket, and Daniel looked at that. He didn't have a phone, but he had a table full of food. He had the nicest clothes made available to him. He said, I will die before this thing starts stealing my heart. Because if it takes it at 15, what am I gonna have at 30? If it takes it at 30, what will I have in my 50s to give to a God who has loved me this much? If it takes it by now, will I be an 80-year-old man willing to give my dying breath that someone might hear that there is a God who loves his people? And and I I will just tell you, Christian, the the beauty of this, comfort is coming. Comfort is coming in a way that we can't even begin to imagine or think about. Uh, a comfort where no pain in the body, no stress in the mind, no broken situations, no darkness, no fear, none of it. We are no longer in the den. We are brought out into the light of life, and we see the true king, the king of kings and the lord of lords who reigns over all things for all time. In that day, I promise you, giving up this comfort, this food, this screen, this piece of clothing, this house will so be worth it. So long as you use it for the kingdom of the one who will never fail. Would you guys stand and let me pray for you as we get ready to respond in worship? And as you do, I'll get the ushers to come down and get the baskets ready to receive. Uh guys, just stay up here with me while I pray. Um, and thank you for studying and loving the congregation and uh taking the time to lead us through that. Let me pray for us, Father. It's a funny thing how much comfort, how much arrogance and pride, how much just wanting to be the main character of the story is knit into us from the garden since our very first sin, that we understand life and we can figure it out. But the reality of it is we need a king. We need a God who knows all things. And as the people looked at Daniel and said, Man, we can't find a single complaint against this guy. Nobody has anything negative to say. He just loves people and loves his God and loves his nation and loves his neighbors. The only way we're gonna get him is by finding a way that our culture can push against his God. Father, may our desire to love you, heart, mind, soul, and strength, giving you time, resources, and energy, may we hold our lives in an open hand, like these brothers we read of, who are not from some tale like the Chronicles of Narnia or Lord of the Rings, but human history written by you for us, for your glory. May we realize that you are writing our own story. May we lean into the adventure of it in Christ's name. Amen. If you guys want to receive prayer, we'll have a handful of folks on the back porch. It would be our joy to pray with you, celebrate with you, and lift things up. Uh, sing. If there's any next step you need to take, you'll see it on a card. You can jot those things down and chop it in, but let's reflect on God's word for a moment and then we'll worship together.