What’s It Take to Get You to Act?
An exposition of Daniel 6
What does it take to get you to act on your faith?
What would it take to move you to do something illegal or contrary to policy, willing to suffer the consequences, because the government or an employer was requiring you to do it?
Hugh Latimer, in the 1600s, decided it was better to obey God than men (and a woman!). He was sentenced to sentenced to being burned at the stake. He turned to the fellow believer being burned to death with him, Nicholas Ridley, and said,
What would it take for you to take such a stand? To see what it takes, listen:
The Conspiracy (6:1-9)
People today want to believe in a God who will give them popularity and success. Daniel is hard working, honest, scrupulous, efficient and loyal. Daniel is free from corruption. The other officials resent him. They look for some complaint against him, some skeleton in the closet.
Can the world look at us and think the only thing we can accuse them of is being faithful to their God?
To learn more about how when you are faithful to the Lord, those who are unfaithful to Him may conspire against you, click on the YouTube link above and listen.
The Conflict (6:10-18)
Daniel faces a conflict: will he be faithful to the Lord or to the government, to God or to man? He continued to pray as normal.
When prayer is prohibited, to start, then, praying in private is an act of cowardice.
Daniel was willing to act, because he believed in the living God. Darius is conflicted (6:14). He has to decide to do what is right or what is legal. You may have to be an illegal Christian. But it means paying the price: the lions’ den!
The Conquest (6:19-24)
While we don’t know if we’ll be rescued from hungry lions or not, one thing this passage does tell us with certainty is who will conquer! God’s angel conquered the hungry lions. Daniel explains that God rescued him because God attributed no blame to him.
The lions glorified God, when they munched on the conspirators before they even hit the ground, by showing that it was only God’s power that had kept Daniel from their jaws the night before.
To learn more about the conflict and the conquest, click on the YouTube link above and listen.
The Confession (6:25-28)
Daniel’s God “is the living God.” The God of Daniel conquers; He saves; He acts. He rescues not just in a spiritual realm but right here on earth.
What’s it take to get you to act on your faith?
Faith that saves is faith that acts. If your faith doesn’t move you to act it’s dead. Daniel had faith and so prayed to the God who would raise up a new temple. Jesus is the new temple whom God raised up. God saved Jesus from the power of death. God raised Him up and gave Him all authority in heaven and on earth. He acted.
Faith that saves is faith that acts.
To hear how to get faith that acts, click on the YouTube link above and listen.
Covenant Reformed Baptist Church is Caswell County’s/Danville’s Reformed church.