Stop 9 Church
We want to share important pieces of our worship service with those who might not have been able to be there in person.
Stop 9 Church
Faith and Integrity: Overcoming Life's Challenges with Daniel's Story
What happens when faith meets life's challenges head-on? We explore this intriguing question by recounting stories of unwavering integrity and the power of belief. Join us as we celebrate the joyous engagement of Connor Lepla and Haley Duffy, a moment that filled our hearts with gratitude and community spirit. We share the excitement surrounding the triumphant return from Winterfest and a light-hearted nod to the Ohio State Buckeyes' championship victory, a testament to teamwork and shared triumph.
Through the lens of Daniel's story, we navigate the complexities of living a faith-driven life amidst adversity. Daniel's integrity and steadfast faith offer a powerful reminder of the importance of staying true to one's values. We also touch on relatable moments of human error and redemption, illustrated by a humorous "manwich" misunderstanding that many of us can chuckle at. These stories provide a reflective backdrop for thinking about how our desire for validation can sometimes lead us astray.
Finally, we find inspiration in the transformative journey of King Darius, whose encounter with Daniel's faith leads to profound change. This narrative underscores the potential for faith to transform lives and circumstances that may seem insurmountable. As we reflect on the footprints of Jesus, we encourage everyone to embrace the awe-inspiring beauty of divine wisdom and love. Let's inspire one another to live a week filled with faith, outreach, and the joy of serving both God and our communities.
Let's begin our worship with a word of prayer. Father, we love you and we are excited to be in here this morning. We thank you for the rain and we thank you for everybody that's in here. Please be with those that we mentioned, that are sick and not doing well. Please be with those that are dealing with long-term illnesses. Just let us be a blessing to their lives and do whatever we can to show your love. We thank you for the Holy Spirit that we invite in this place this morning to just worship with us and through us. And, most importantly, we thank you for your son and what he chose to do for us, which is die for us to give us a chance to spend forever with you, and it's in his name we pray. Amen, amen. Forever with you, and it's in his name we pray.
Speaker 2:Amen, amen. Praise God, from whom all blessings flow. Praise him all creatures here below. Praise him above ye heavenly hosts. Praise Father, son and Holy Ghost. All hail the power of Jesus' name. Let angels prostrate fall. Bring forth the royal diadem and crown him Lord of all. Ye chosen seed of.
Speaker 2:Israel's race, ye ransomed from the fall, from the fall. Hail Him who saves you by His grace, and crown Him Lord of all. Hail Him who saves you by His grace, and crown Him Lord of all. O that which yonder sacred throng, we at His feet may fall.
Speaker 2:Join the everlasting song and crown him Lord of all. We'll join the everlasting song and crown him Lord of all. And can it be that I should gain an interest in my Savior's blood, yours, blood? Died he for me? Who caused his pain for me? Who scorned his perfect love? Amazing love. How can it be that you, my God, would die for me? You left your Father's throne above, so free and infinite your grace, emptied yourself of all but love and bled for Adam's helpless race. Amazing love, god bless love. How can it be that you, my God, would die for me? Only I come before your throne to claim your mercy, immense and free throne, to claim your mercy, immense and free. No greater love will there be known for. Oh, my God, it found out me. Amazing love, my God, it found out me. Amazing love. How can it be that you, my God, would die for me? Amazing love, how can it be Amazing love? How can it be Amazing love? How can it be Amazing love? How can it be Amazing love? You were despised you were rejected.
Speaker 2:Lord, those who passed by Even averted their gaze from the sight. Such was the suffering you bore for us, Led like a lamb a lamb to the slaughter. You spoke, not a word, but chose to be silent, though you did no wrong, nor was deceitfulness found in you. Yet by your wounds, our salvation has come, yet by your suffering our freedom is won, for God has highly exalted your name. He has enthroned you on high Jesus, the name above all names.
Speaker 3:God has highly exalted your name.
Speaker 2:He has enthroned you on high. Jesus, the name above all names. You were despised, you were rejected, lord, those who passed by Even averted their gaze from the sight. Such was the suffering you bore for us, led like a lamb a lamb to the slaughter. You spoke not a word, but chose to be silent, though you did no wrong. Nor was deceitfulness found in you. Yet by your wounds our salvation has come. Yet by your suffering our freedom is won, for God has highly exalted your name. He has enthroned you on high, jesus the name above all names.
Speaker 2:God has highly exalted your name. He has enthroned you on high. Jesus, the name above all names. You were despised, you were rejected, lord. Those who passed by even averted their gaze from the sight. Such was the suffering you bore for us Amen.
Speaker 4:All right. Well, it is good to Wait. Hold up. We got some Stop 9 breaking news. We have an engagement announcement. Amongst us, connor Lepla and Haley Duffy. Could you please rise up and congratulations? Well, look at that. It's all downhill from there, but you will remember that. But it is so good to see everybody this morning that, but it is so good to see everybody this morning. For some of you who may not know, josh and about 40 of adults and kids are on their way back, traveling as we speak from Winterfest. Please keep them in your prayers.
Speaker 4:I heard everything went well. There were no arrests, which is always good, and I think that's now two years in a row. We can say that. But Josh did want me to say hi and he said he wanted to send his apologies. So I sent Josh his apologies. I asked him. I said Josh, do they know what you're apologizing for? He said, tom, trust me, they will after the sermon. So I'll just leave it at that.
Speaker 4:But it's hard to believe. We're a month and a half into 2025, and I hope the start of your year is going good. Considering the majority of you are Buckeye fans, it couldn't have started any better. So, on behalf of Razorback I want to say congratulations. Being a Razorback fan, that's become a gift, us congratulating others on winning, and we're getting a little bit too much practice at it and it needs to change. But you know the national championship everybody remembers that. One of the biggest plays in Ohio State history. Jack Sawyer's scoop and score to ice the game against Texas, and then the t-shirt, the scoop and Sawyer went hot off the market as well. So that'll live in Buckeye history forever. They say Jack Sawyer said that was the second biggest moment of his life. You have any idea what his first biggest moment. That's just what I hear and I think that says a lot. By the way, I'm on the you're right, that's me. But and for him to say that on that day says a lot, because on that same day he took a picture with that riffraff Look at that group. So but you know, congratulations to Jack, real nice guy spending time with us and the Buckeyes.
Speaker 4:Speaking of spending time, we are going to spend a little time in Daniel, chapter 6, this morning and we're going to look at Daniel and the lion's den, something that a lot of people are familiar with, just the background. Now I know Medes is spelled wrong so you can eliminate that. It should be M-E-D-E-S. But Babylon, the Medes and Persians overtake Babylon and when they do that, they put Darius as their king. Darius is about 62 years old Now. The only couple of things we know about Darius is that, number one, he's a pagan king, and number two, he's pretty good at his job. As far as organization, I mean, this guy delegates. You know, when you're in charge, there's fires you have to put out. Well, darius has got it pretty much made where the fires never reach him, because he hires 120 satraps and they each control a region. So if something happens in this group, they go and see their satrap in charge and then those guys go to one of three commissioners or governors. So it works its way up there.
Speaker 4:Well, one of those three commissioners' name was Daniel. Daniel is rightly 83 years old at the time. Now, any people here retired, maybe in your 80s. What does this tell us? We may retire from work, but you never retire from God being able to use you. Here's an 83-year-old man that he is using. In fact, daniel has been a public servant for 50 years and what's amazing is Daniel was taken captive at the age of 17. So he's an outsider. But something made Daniel stand out in Darius' eyes, because Darius says not only are you going to be one of the three commissioners, I need to have someone above them. So, daniel, what's going to be you? So Daniel could be known as the first vice president we've ever seen. So Darius is going to put Daniel there. So Daniel is not only above the satraps, he's above the commissioners as well.
Speaker 4:Now, what made Daniel set apart in the eyes of the king? You see, there then, daniel began distinguishing himself among the commissioners and satraps, because an extraordinary spirit was in him and the king planned to set him over the entire kingdom. What set Daniel apart? Oh, he parted the Red Sea. No, no, that was Moses. Oh, he slayed Goliath. That's right, that's what set him apart. No, that was David. Oh, the ark. He built the ark. No, that was Noah. What sets Daniel apart is he has an extraordinary spirit. What's an extraordinary spirit? I think it's just the attitude and the love for God and the love that he had for others set him apart. Daniel made your day a little bit better than what it was, because there's enough out there that's going to make your day a little bit worse than it is, but it was his spirit that set him apart.
Speaker 4:So how do you think this makes the others feel? Oh, I'm sure they're happy for Daniel. No, oh, the jealousy comes up. Wait, why is he? Why is he at the top above us? He's not one of us, darius. We went to school together, we hung out, our families went to vacation together, and you pass me up for a guy that was a prisoner at one time. For a guy that was a prisoner at one time. So, no, that's not good.
Speaker 4:So they set up the plan and they think, hey, we've got to bring Daniel down. How can we build ourselves up? You know how you do that you tear someone else down. So we got to find something, something that we can find on Daniel. He has to have skeletons in his closet. So they hire the best private investigators around, they get the word out Does anybody have anything bad to say about Daniel? They find no one. They look, they check the skeletons in the closet, the dirt under his fingernails. He's got to have something. But they found no fraudulent expense accounts, no gifts from lobbyists, no intern scandals, no questionable business deals, no accusations from staff, no leaked emails, no text. And as a laugh ploy, they go to Facebook Surely somebody blasted them on there and they find nothing.
Speaker 4:This answers a question a lot of people always wondered about Daniel. Was Daniel married? Couldn't have been. When you go to his wife, if anyone knows your flaws it's your spouse. You can't hide them from your spouse. But they find nothing. So what are they going to do? What leads us to our first point? Yet, quit trying to seek the approval of others and focus on God. See, the only way they knew they were going to be able to trap Daniel is by his faithfulness and loyalty to God. See, that's the only flaw there. You see, in verse 5. That's the only flaw they could find in Daniel. He'll be loyal to his God. So we can trip him up that way.
Speaker 4:So they come up with the plan and they go to Darius and they say King Darius, live forever. That sounds like a greeting of respect. When me and Gary and Kevin and we have our elders meeting, that's how we greet Buddy. Oh, buddy, live forever. It's a sign of respect. So they go to Darius and they say Darius, all the leaders have met and agreed. Well, we know what's the Greek word. That's a bunch of malarkey. It's not true, because Daniel is at the top. He would have had the final say and he wouldn't have agreed with this plan. Darius should know that they're not telling the truth right from the get-go.
Speaker 4:But they say, darius, how about for O? King, for the next 30 days, everybody bows down to only you. You want to bless your cereal in the morning, you give praise to Darius. You want to come and join the praise team and sing with the praise team on Sunday evenings. Here you sing praises to Darius 30 days, king, everybody's going to bow down to you and oh, king, and if they don't, let's throw them in the lion's den.
Speaker 4:Now you can think of Darius. You can kind of see the ego starting to roll. This is kind of tough. They must really think a lot of me and you can rationalize any of our decisions. Couldn't you hear Darius? You know, as king, I want to bring my kingdom together. I want to unify my kingdom. Everybody's worshiping all these different gods, but if they just worship me for 30 days, hey, we can unite. I'm not doing it for me, for my ego. I want to unite. I want to make Babylon great again, and this is his way to do it. And hey, if they don't, yeah, we'll throw them in the lions then.
Speaker 4:But oh, king Darius, they say there's one more thing you got. Say there's one more thing you've got to do. There's one more thing that you've got to do. You have to sign and issue a decree. Now see, this is huge. It's the Medes and Persians. If a king signed this decree, they're powerless. They cannot change their mind. The king can say anything and it has to be done, but once he puts his John Henry on this, you can't redo it. You can't redo it. And foreshadowing, darius is going to wish he could have a redo, a do-over. Have you ever said something, man? I really didn't mean to say that in the tone. I didn't really mean to lose my temper to them. Boy, I'd like a do-over man, I'd like a redo on that. We've all been there and Darius is going to be there as well once he signs the decree. So now it's out of his hands. We've all wanted redos A few years back.
Speaker 4:I have loop duty out at Buckeye Trail and I go in, I sit my stuff in my office and I go out and I brave the elements letting the kids in. Well, one morning I was running late, so I just had time to drop my stuff into school and get out to duty. Drop my stuff into school and get out to duty. So the first room when I come in it's a teacher's lounge, slash concession stand that they use for the ball games. So I go in, I sit my stuff on the table and when I get ready to turn around I hear a female voice and I hear whoa, that's some man witch. And I turn around and Holly Dyer is looking right at me and I'm thinking that's a man witch, whoa. So I walked by Holly to leave and I couldn't help it, honest to goodness, I said. She said Strauss, have a good day. And I said Holly, thanks. She said what are you thanking me for? I said well, you called me man witch and I'm sure I've never been called that before, but I'm sure you meant that as a compliment. Holly looked at me and she goes Strauss, I wasn't talking to you. And she points and I look over on the counter and it's six of the biggest cans of manwich that you can imagine. Boy, did I want to redo? So I'm embarrassed. I said Holly, if this could stay between me and you, you know, maybe this conversation never happened. Famous last words Two days later, when I get to school, this is on every entrance and hallway yes, yes, I wanted the do-over.
Speaker 4:Second thing we learn is your circumstances are constantly changing, but God stays the same. See, the decree is. Daniel knows this. Daniel knows, hey, we bow to Darius or we're going to the lion's den as the snow is coming down like crazy. We move on. This is what Daniel does. He knew it was written, but he continued kneeling on his knees three times a day, praying and giving thanks before his God, as he had been doing previously. Daniel didn't change. It would have been tempting for Daniel to I'm going to go out in the street, I'm going to show everybody. Daniel didn't stop being who he was, but see, his God hadn't changed His circumstances had the adversity had come, but Daniel wasn't focused on that. He was focused on his God.
Speaker 4:What if Daniel thought, hey, I don't want to go into the lion's den for the next 30 days. I can blend in, it'll be okay. I can blend in, it'll be okay. I can go to that party. I know there's alcohol and maybe a few other things going on there, but I'm not going to partake, but I want to just kind of fit in. What if you go around and you're around folks that use language that you know is not that good, but hey, I'll use. I'll just want to be cool. I'll use language only when I'm around them. I won't do it in front of my kids, I won't do it in front of my church family, but just my buddies at work, but just my buddies at work.
Speaker 4:What would happen if he had done that in this story? You know, here's the tough truth. I'm going to be honest with you. I wish people out there that I come in contact with are not Christians. It would be so much easier if they would be interested in opening the Bible, studying God's Word, and then come to me and say, hey, tom, I want to become a Christian. But the reality is, for the majority of folks we come into, the only Bible they're going to read is our life. Because we say we're a Christian, they're going to look at us to try to learn what our God is like.
Speaker 4:Daniel does this. They bring Daniel, they capture him, they go to the king. Oh, king, hey, can you believe? It ain't even lunchtime yet and someone we found someone not bowing down to you. Darius should have known who it was. He said oh okay, so we throw him in the lion's den. King says yes, by the way, who is it? Oh hey, it's your boy, daniel. Remember the one you promoted over me? It's him. He goes to the lion's den and this rocks Darius' world. In fact, in verse 14, it says Darius' world. In fact, in verse 14, it says Darius is so distressed and he's disappointed in himself.
Speaker 4:If I can speak out of both sides of my mouth, which sometimes I'm very good at, let me do that now. First of all, with Darius, I admired the guy here because he owned it. He took responsibility. People don't take responsibility. I'm in the education world. People don't own what happened. It's somebody else's fault. Darius could have and he would have been right. They tricked me, the guys I was good to, the guys I gave wealth and promotion to. They turned their back on me. They used me, they humiliated me. He didn't say that. He'll say that later but he took responsibility.
Speaker 4:Now to talk out the other side. For you to be totally disappointed in yourself means you have totally trusted in yourself, and if all you do is trust in yourself, I know the answers. I can do it. Don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying you don't believe in yourself, you don't have faith in yourself. But if you don't put your trust in God that he knows the path you should go on, you're going to be disappointed. It takes the pressure off. I go God, I've blown it. God, I've blown it, but you still love me. You need to make sure you trust God.
Speaker 4:Darius spent the rest of the day trying to find the loophole, but he couldn't find one. They come back one more time and say Okay, king, it's time for Daniel to go to the den. So they take him to the lion's den and I'm sure on their way out they said oh hey, king, by the way, that job posting, that job that just now came open, do I give my resume on hard copy or can I just email it? Because I want Daniel's position now and then soon we learn God can change things that man can never change. Look at verse 16. So the king gave the orders. They brought Daniel and they threw him in the lion's den. The king said, daniel, may your God, whom you continually serve, rescue you. Daniel, your God that you occasionally serve. May he, daniel, your God, who you mostly serve, no, daniel, who you continually serve. Do you see the spotlight change? It's not all the admiration for Daniel. Darius is starting to see the God that he serves and for the first time, darius starts having hope.
Speaker 4:Verse 18 tells us the king that night he can't eat, he doesn't want any move for any entertainment and he can't sleep. You got a guy in the lion's den. How do you think Daniel's sleeping? We know he's sleeping pretty good. The king in the castle isn't sleeping well. Why? Because the one in the castle is focused on what's going on outside. The one stuck in the lion's den is stuck, is focused on the one inside of him.
Speaker 4:So the next morning Darius gets up and he runs to the lion's den and he cries out to Daniel this shows you. Darius gets up after not sleeping all night and he runs to the lion's den. You ain't running if you don't have hope that Daniel's God has delivered. And he runs and he's crying out to Daniel Daniel, did your God that you constantly serve, did he deliver you from the lion's mouth? Did he do it? Daniel, did he do it? I'm going to be honest. If I was Daniel I would be tempted. I'm going to wait 10, 15 seconds and then answer them. Let them sweat it out a little bit more seconds and then answer them. Let them sweat it out a little bit more. But Daniel cries. But Daniel calls out to the king first words out of his mouth O king, live forever. Well, that's what the ones who stabbed him in the back said. So they're singing the same song? No, they're saying the same words, just like when we sang this morning the close.
Speaker 4:God I stand, I stand in awe of you. Me and Doug Bruner can be singing the same words, except I can be singing. God I stand, I stand in all of you. If that doctor's report comes back the way I want it. If I get that job promotion, god I stand in all of you. If you fix my marriage, doug can be singing the same words out loud and he can sing.
Speaker 4:God I stand, I stand in all of you. Period Exclamation point. God, I stand in all of you, regardless. We're singing the same words and you're hearing us. Now, if you're singing closer to Doug, you're happier than the one singing closer to me. But God knows if it's you standing in awe of him regardless, like Daniel did, or if you stand in awe of him regardless, like Daniel did, or if you stand in awe of him if Daniel comes out and we know who ended up going in the lion's den.
Speaker 4:And not only did the ones who were plotted against Daniel win in the lion's den, so did their wives and their children, and they were devoured. That bothers people, tom. Why did God send them to the lion? Why did God have their children thrown in? The verse didn't say God did. The verse said Darius did. And you don't think some of your actions and choices don't have consequences, could have major consequences on your family. You haven't lived long enough. Just hang around, you will see that.
Speaker 4:But we see, the God of Daniel became the living God to Darius. This is Darius. He makes a decree before the God of Daniel and what does he say? For he is the living God. All of a sudden, darius went from admiring Daniel. What do you have, daniel? That I don't. He realizes he has a living God and Darius says everybody is going to serve the living God. Ain't that what being a disciple is all about? If this, if this place, thank you, I want.
Speaker 4:I want to close with this. You know we talked about the Buckeyes and how they and everybody praising God after they win. And we've seen the Eagles win the Super Bowl, and if you watch their coach, nick Ceriani, after the game, his first part of his interview was praising God and Jesus and that's great to hear and that's good to do that. But you know what? It's also easy to do that when you won. Check the other sideline, texas. All the work they put in, they're one yard Folks, one yard from tying the game, possibly going to overtime, and we're not having a Jack Sawyer moment for you. One yard. They have to stand before folks. Listen to what Jadae Barron, the defensive back for Texas, said immediately after his heart was ripped out. And when they do the interview, the guy from the NCAA says all right, that concludes our interview. Student athletes and coaches, you can leave. But he sits there and he says wait, I've got something to say. Listen to what he said right after the game. Thank you. I just want to say one thing.
Speaker 3:I mean it's been amazing, just the opportunity. But at the end of the day, I just want to say one thing I mean it's been amazing, just the opportunity, but at the end of the day, like, I just want everybody to know like you know, usually sometimes you always don't come out on top but like we, we want we know, we truly know who our leader is and that's God and Jesus Christ, and ultimately, just having the ability to use the gift that that he gave us to share to the world. Having the ability to use the gift that he gave us to share it to the world, I mean it's been amazing and obviously amazing for me just growing up in Austin and having the opportunity but everybody's not blessed to do things we do just to be here. You know people dealing with fires and chaos in New Orleans, so just to have the opportunity to glorify God on the football field is truly been an honor. So I appreciate everybody.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much.
Speaker 4:Wow, from the other sideline Folks. What did Daniel do? He loved God and he served others. That's something we can all do, whether we're 80, 90, on down. If there's anyone 100 years old, I apologize. I didn't mean to leave you out and you have no idea the impact that you can have on others. You can have on others.
Speaker 2:Sweetly Lord, have we heard Thee calling? Come follow me and we see where Thy footprints falling lead us to Thee Footprints of Jesus that make the pathway glow we will follow the steps of.
Speaker 2:Jesus where'er they go. By and by, through the shining portals, turning our feet, we shall walk with the glad immortals heaven's golden street. Footprints of Jesus that make the pathway glow. We will follow the steps of Jesus Where'er they go. Footprints of Jesus that make the pathway glow. We will follow the steps of Jesus where'er they go.
Speaker 2:You are beautiful beyond description, too marvelous for words, too wonderful for comprehension, like nothing ever seen or heard. Who can grasp your infinite wisdom? Who can fathom the depth of your love? You are beautiful beyond description, majesty enthroned above, and I stand, I stand in awe of you, I stand, I stand in awe of you, holy God, to whom I stand, I stand in awe of you. Holy God, to whom all praise is due, I stand in awe of you. You are beautiful beyond description, too marvelous for words, too wonderful for comprehension, like nothing ever seen or heard. Who can grasp your infinite wisdom? Who can follow the depths of your love? Who can grasp your infinite wisdom? Who can fathom the depths of your love? You are beautiful beyond description, majesty enthroned above, and I stand, I stand in awe of you. I stand, I stand in awe of you and I stand, I stand in awe of you. I stand. I stand in awe of you, holy God, to whom all praise is due.
Speaker 1:I stand in awe of you, amen, have a great week. Everybody. Tell somebody about the living God this week.