Staying in the Lion’s Den | Why Following God Means An Invitation to Danger

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[music: That's Who My God Is]

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- Have you ever felt like the walls were closing in?

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Like there was danger all around and there was no way out?

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Well, hey, you're not alone.

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There's actually a guy named Daniel

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who felt this exact way as hungry lions surrounded him.

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But what he found out was wild,

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that God doesn't always show up

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to save us from the lion's den,

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sometimes He shows up right in the midst of it.

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Hey, welcome to Crossroads. My name is Andy.

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And we're continuing a series called Epic Wonders.

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As we just take a deeper look at

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these jaw dropping stories of how God showed up

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to guide, to lead, to provide for,

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and to protect His people.

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And here's the thing, these aren't just

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the stories of what God has done in the past,

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they're the stories of what God is still doing today

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in your life and in mine.

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So first, we're going to spend some time

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connecting with God in worship.

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And then we're going to be having

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an incredible talk from our lead pastor, Kyle Ranson,

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about Daniel in the Lion's Den,

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and how God might have something special for us

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in the midst of our dangers.

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And then I'll be back up to share some of the ways

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that we can move beyond just content into community,

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getting the best and the full expression

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of what it means to belong to a church across the globe.

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Now, in just a moment, we're going to spend some time

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with music, using songs to connect with God

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and just encourage you.

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This isn't just a playlist.

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These aren't just songs to listen to.

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This is the start of a conversation

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between you and a God who is with you always

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and everywhere, even in whatever

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your personal lion's den is right now.

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- Well, let's sing that again.

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- Jesus, I think --

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I think those claps are not just to fill

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silence of an awkward moment, maybe,

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like, we're uncomfortable with silence, I know.

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But I think those claps are not to fill that space,

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but those claps are maybe one of the only ways

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in this moment with the things we have

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and with the things we have here to say yes.

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Yes, that's what I want.

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Their agreement, their hearts behind those claps saying

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yes, I want more of you. Jesus. That's why I'm here.

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I think that's what those claps are, Jesus.

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No applause for anyone else other than You.

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No desire for anything else other than You.

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And I know I fall short of that every day,

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but that is what I'm aiming for,

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to say in every moment, in every place I am

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and everything I have, I want more of You,

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the living God, the one who created everything,

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the one who knows me.

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I want more of You, because You have life

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and You are close enough to give it to us.

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You are good enough to give it to us.

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So any applause, Jesus, is for You and You alone

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to say we want more of You.

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Thank You for being so good and with us.

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We pray all this because of You, Jesus. Amen. Amen.

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That's so, so good. So, so good.

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I love singing together.

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I love it every week that we get to be together.

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If you're in the room with us,

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why don't you turn to somebody right now and say,

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"Hey, glad to be here with you tonight."

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Then you can have a seat.

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And if you're online, I'm so glad you're with us, man.

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You're about to hear one of the greatest stories,

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one of my favorite stories in all of history,

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about a guy named Daniel who did just that, man.

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He had the presence of God with him,

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and he stepped into danger all the way.

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So glad you're with us. Take a listen.

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- Uh, don't be scared, but we're in the lion's den.

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Like you just heard, we're talking about

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Daniel in the Lion's Den today,

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hence the the bones and the rocks

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and the cave and everything.

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The smoke you might be wondering about.

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That's because in my contracts it's written

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I can have smoke once a month if I want it.

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There's no evidence there were fires in the lion's den.

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I just thought that'd be cool.

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Now, the goal of the story,

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I'll explain it to you a little bit, all that stuff.

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Don't worry about that. I'll tell you all the details.

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But the goal seems pretty obvious, right?

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If you're in the lion's den, the goal is to escape,

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get away from the danger.

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Now, it's also worth talking about

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how do he get in here in the first place?

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You might be seeing some of these bones and skeletons

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and, you know, like, how did this guy get in here?

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Well, that's Steve.

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And he ignored a parking volunteer on the way out

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and so, God, God put him in here.

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I just -- little public safety announcement for you.

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By the way, we haven't met, my name is Kyle.

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I'm the Lead Pastor here at Crossroads.

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And we're talking about these stories.

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We're in this series called Epic Wonders. Right?

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Because the Bible has these crazy stories.

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They're just almost,

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like, ridiculous when you think about them.

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A lion's den and being, like, what does that even mean?

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But these stories hold unique value

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if you want to understand who God is,

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and believe it or not,

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the life that He wants you to live, like, today.

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So we're examining stories like Daniel in Lion's Den

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throughout this series.

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Now this one is one of the most famous stories in the world,

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which is actually one of the biggest problems

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because it's also one of the most misunderstood stories

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in the entire Bible.

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What we think of how it goes is not quite right.

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Now, what we think is something like this.

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- Hey, everyone. Daniel here.

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So the king signed a law banning prayer for 30 days.

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Obviously I prayed. Let's see how that goes.

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All right, guys, it's official,

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they're throwing me into the lion's den.

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I'll film what I can,

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and if I survive, this is going to blow up.

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All right. Welcome to my crib.

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That one's asleep. That one's just staring at me.

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Honestly, they're kind of chill,

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but I'm whispering because

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I really don't want to wake the angry one.

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Morning, folks still here, and they are too.

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That one's been staring at me since sunset.

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Starting to think they like me.

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All right. Made it out, thank God, literally.

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If you watched till the end, comment what you think.

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And hey, maybe I come back if y'all want part two.

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- That's my favorite part:

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Maybe I'll come back if you want part two.

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Somebody's like, I didn't know they had iPhones back then.

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Yeah, they did, they did, they did.

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That was totally real. You got it.

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That was not AI at all.

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That was real, mom and dad. Thank you.

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Basic beats of this story.

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There's a guy named Daniel.

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He's going about his business.

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He rises to the top of the government.

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The other government employees get very jealous

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because he's about to be put in charge

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of the entire kingdom of Babylon.

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And so they trick the king, more or less,

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into signing a law that outlaws prayer.

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They know that Daniel is going to pray anyway,

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and they say, "Let's make it so that

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if you pray to anybody but you, King,

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you get thrown to the lions."

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And king's like, "Sounds good," signs a law.

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Daniel prays, tossed them in the lions.

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And then Daniel does something incredible somehow.

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And then the next day comes in out of the lion's den,

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escapes it, not a scratch on him.

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That's the goal of the story.

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How can you and I escape danger just like Daniel?

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By the way, at the end of the story,

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the guys who tricked the king and got Daniel thrown in there,

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the king is so mad he throws them in there too.

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And not just them, but their wives and their kids too.

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It's like it's crazy. It's crazy.

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That seems like the goal though, right?

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Like, those guys paid the price.

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They got thrown in the lions.

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But Daniel escaped without a scratch.

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Isn't that the goal?

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If I'm faithful and I'm courageous like Daniel,

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then God will lead me through life

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away from danger without a scratch.

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Isn't that God's goal?

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Well, the trouble with that is that

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Jesus seems to say the exact opposite.

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Listen to this from Jesus, Matthew 10. He says:

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Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves.

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Sounds like a person in the midst of a lion's den.

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So be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.

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Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts

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and flog you in their synagogues,

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and you will be dragged before governors and kings

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for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles.

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This is Daniel's story.

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He's literally dragged from his home

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in front of the king to be a witness.

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See if you want to understand

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the story of Daniel in the Lion's Den,

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you have to flip

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everything you've ever thought about it before.

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Because it's not a story about trusting God

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enough to help you escape.

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It's a story about trusting God enough to help you stay.

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It's not a story about how to escape

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the lion's den without a scratch.

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It's a story about how to live in the den and leave a mark.

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And it all comes down to do you trust God?

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This is the defining characteristic

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that we'll see in Daniel.

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He had an uncommon trust in God.

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That's what we're pressing into today.

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Before we go further, let's pray.

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God, thank You so much for these epic, crazy stories

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in the Bible that somehow relate to us.

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I'm asking that for each and every one of us,

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we would walk out of here, God, trusting You more. Amen.

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Now, one of the misleading things about this story

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is that when you picture Daniel going to the lion's den,

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you probably imagine Daniel as like middle age-ish, right?

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He wasn't.

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By the time he went into Lion's Den, he was over 80 years old.

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Some of you are like, "I get it now.

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I know why he wasn't so concerned.

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You know, Daniel is probably like,

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'I got bad knees anyway.

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Gotta pee four times in the middle of the night.

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You know, I'm ready to go.'"

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And of all the ways you could go, this is kind of a cool one.

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Kind of make good, good small talk when I get to heaven.

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Right? You're in the waiting room.

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Everyone's waiting their turn for admittance or whatever.

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And naturally, what questions is going to come up?

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"Hey, how did you get here?" Right?

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"Oh, well. Died of the flu."

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"Oh, okay. That's not that exciting."

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"What about you?"

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"Uh, I removed the do not remove tag off my mattress,

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and that came straight here."

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"What about you?"

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"I was the first guy to die of dysentery in the Oregon Trail."

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"Wow. That's pretty cool."

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And then they turned to Daniel. "What about you?"

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He's, like, 'Got ripped limb from limb by a pack of lions."

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They're like, "That's so cool. That's awesome."

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You're instantaneously famous, right?

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That's Daniel in the Lion's Den.

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But no, that's not the story. See.

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Yes, he was 80 when he got tossed to the lions.

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But that's not at all where the story starts.

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If you want to understand the story,

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we actually have to start at the beginning

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at this moment in Daniel's life.

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Babylon was the champion of the world at this point.

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They had just been on a winning streak.

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They ate Egypt for lunch.

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They ate Assyria for dinner.

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And then they marched to Jerusalem

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to conquer the city for dessert.

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And they get there and they utterly crush everything.

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I mean, rip it apart, set it on fire,

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knocked on walls, crush houses.

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God had warned Israel, His people, by the way,

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that this was going to happen.

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Through the prophet Jeremiah He had said:

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For thus says the Lord of hosts, cut down her trees;

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cast up a siege mount against Jerusalem.

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This is the city that must be punished;

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there is nothing but oppression within here.

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God goes, "You're not following Me.

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You're not trusting Me.

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You're not being faithful to Me.

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And therefore destruction will come your way.

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That's what you're bringing on yourself

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and it's going to come in the form of the Babylonians."

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Then that's exactly what happens.

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1 Kings 25 records the moment where Nebuchadnezzar

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marches in with the army and describes it this way:

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Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came with all his army

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against Jerusalem and laid siege to it.

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And they built siege works all around it.

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Exactly like Jeremiah had said.

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And he burned the house of the Lord and the king's house

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and all the houses of Jerusalem;

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every great house he burned down.

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And broke the walls around Jerusalem.

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Now this is the capital city.

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This is the promised city of God,

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smashes it, destroys it, crushes it.

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And this army, by the way, who marches in here,

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the Babylonian army, the Babylonians,

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they were a polytheistic crew,

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so they had lots of different gods.

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But their goddess of war, one of their top goddesses,

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her name was Ishtar.

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And guess what her symbol was, a lion.

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And so the story of Daniel starts at the moment

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where the lion army marched into his den

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and crushed and destroyed his town.

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Estimates are that up to 50% of the population

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died in this attack.

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And we don't have any record if we read Daniel

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of his parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters,

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cousin, no record of his family.

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What we do know is that he was of nobility.

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And what we do know from the 1 Kings verse that we just read

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is that every great house was crushed,

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every great house was destroyed.

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And so it's very possible that Daniel's entire family

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died in this attack.

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Daniel was 15 years old when this happened.

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So to understand, Daniel, you have to understand

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the story starts at the moment where it looks like

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God has utterly failed him.

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It starts at the moment where it looks like

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if you're surrounded by lions,

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the one thing you can't count on is God

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in any way, shape or form.

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I mean, think about this moment.

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How would you feel if you were Daniel?

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That the protection you would enjoy,

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the family you had was all gone?

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You're in chains. You're you're walking away.

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And this is a moment, by the way,

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that Daniel remembered for a long time

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because this scene is burned in his memory.

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How do we know that?

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Because there's a moment where

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Daniel's walking away from this city,

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and one last time, he turns and looks over his shoulder,

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and he sees the smoke, and he sees the ashes,

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and he hears the weeping from his city.

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And then he turns back and starts walking

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with the rest of the exiles,

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the rest of the prisoners towards Babylon.

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And that last glance would be the last time

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he ever saw his home in his life.

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Burned in his memory the seeming failure of God.

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And yet this man becomes the model of trusting God.

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I just wonder in your life,

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where does it feel like God has failed you in the past?

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For Daniel, it was the moment that the lions surrounded him.

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That was his moment.

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The lion army comes in, this is where God has failed me.

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Trusting God again in the place that seems like

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He's failed you is one of the hardest things to do.

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And yet, if you want to be a person of faith,

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a powerful person who follows Jesus,

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you will have to make that choice. You will.

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I don't know where that place is for you before.

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I don't know what it is in your life,

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but it's coming if you want to follow God further on.

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Now Daniel was rounded up with the rest of the survivors.

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He was led off away from Babylon,

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or away from Jerusalem to the city of Babylon.

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Now there's a desert between the two.

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Jerusalem is over by the Mediterranean Sea on the coast,

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and Babylon was across the desert.

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Now there's a shortcut that they didn't take.

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Instead, they walked a 900 mile route

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up the Fertile Crescent through Damascus.

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Maybe you remember the Fertile Crescent

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from your social studies in sixth grade or whatever.

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Yeah, that fertile crescent.

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Then they came down the Euphrates River

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all the way to Babylon.

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The lion army marches them out.

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Now, if you were to walk this path today,

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you would see no lions.

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But back in Daniel's time, there were lions everywhere.

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In fact, this is the historic range of the Asiatic lion.

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They were around until relatively recently.

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In fact, the last one was killed in 1918 in Iraq.

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So not there today, but definitely

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we have record of lions through this territory.

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And so, Daniel, think about this,

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Daniel is led away by the lion army through lion country,

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and then he gets to Babylon after three months.

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And so do you think by the time he gets here,

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maybe he's in a moment of like,

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"I just want to get away from the lions"?

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Of course he is.

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Well, he was probably disappointed then

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when he was marched into the city

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and he saw these gates right here.

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These are known as the Ishtar Gates.

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These were in the middle of the city of Babylon.

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They're dedicated to the goddess of war, Ishtar,

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whose symbol is a lion.

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They were excavated,

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uncovered by a German archeologist in 1904.

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They're currently, the actual ones look like this.

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This is an AI recreation.

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But the actual ones look like this right here

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in a museum in Berlin you can go and see them.

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Now they have these animals on the gates.

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They have the lions lining the promenade.

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When you walked into the city again,

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this is the lion army led by Ishtar.

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So not unreasonable to assume that

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what would have happened for Daniel

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is when he was led in by the army,

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they would have went on to walk down the promenade

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through the gates.

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And this entire wall on this walk had 120 lions on it.

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The lion army grabs him. He walks through lion country.

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He comes in, he discovers

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he's going to live in the lion city.

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And not only are there symbols of lions in this city,

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but there's live lions everywhere,

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like, living in this city.

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The archeological record outside of the Bible

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shows very, very clearly that ancient Near Eastern kings,

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they loved lions. Lion hunting. Lion capturing.

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Having a lion as a pet.

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It was kind of like the way to show your power

00:34:44

and prowess outside of war.

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In a way, kind of like golf is now, right?

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If you're a business executive, you're like,

00:34:52

"You know what I'm going to do on Saturday?

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I'm gonna hunt some birdies."

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They're like, "We actually hunted lions.

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Very impressed with your birdie hunting."

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That's why we should never invent time machines,

00:35:03

because if we ever face our ancestors, they will crush us.

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Just keep them in the past.

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They're so much stronger than us.

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Now we know that the kings held lions,

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that they hunted lions.

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We know that they kept them in their palaces.

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They would even put in their palaces,

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they'd have these reliefs.

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There's one that shows an attendant

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releasing a lion from a cage in the palace

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so that the king can hunt.

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And so this idea of Daniel in the Lion's Den,

00:35:29

again, our modern sensibilities, it's like this,

00:35:31

"Come on, this doesn't match.

00:35:32

There's no lions in this territory.

00:35:34

And I mean a lions den?"

00:35:35

Well, no, actually, the archeological record

00:35:37

outside the Bible would say this is

00:35:38

a very reasonable thing to conclude,

00:35:41

that this story actually happened

00:35:43

the way that the Bible describes it.

00:35:46

Now, this moment for Daniel, thinking about him,

00:35:51

just imagine you at 15, the lion army captures you.

00:35:57

You walk through lion country.

00:35:59

You get to the lion city.

00:36:00

You're surrounded by lions.

00:36:01

Like I said, he wasn't thrown to the lions

00:36:03

until he was 80 years old.

00:36:04

So what does all that mean?

00:36:06

It means that if you think that Daniel and the Lion's Den

00:36:10

is about a guy who, at 80 years old,

00:36:13

spent one night with the lions, you've missed the story.

00:36:17

Daniel didn't spend one night in the lion's den.

00:36:19

By the time he's tossed in he had been there for 65 years.

00:36:25

God marched him off

00:36:26

and called him to live in the city of lions.

00:36:30

Now, I think it's not a stretch to say that

00:36:33

you and I live in a lion's den.

00:36:35

You know, the lion's den for Daniel

00:36:38

wasn't just the pit with the actual lions in it.

00:36:41

It was being surrounded in a culture that was anti his God,

00:36:45

full of people who wanted to take him down,

00:36:48

who viewed his religion as ridiculous,

00:36:50

who mocked his way of life.

00:36:52

Sound familiar in some ways, to our culture.

00:36:54

We live in a culture that

00:36:56

many times does something very similar.

00:36:58

And it's worth asking the question,

00:37:00

why would God put Daniel

00:37:03

into the city of lions for 65 years?

00:37:06

Why would God put us into the culture

00:37:10

that He's put us into?

00:37:12

Well, it's because He sent us here.

00:37:15

It's because it's His purpose, God's design.

00:37:20

Like I said, it's not a story

00:37:21

about escaping without a scratch.

00:37:22

It's a story about leaving a mark.

00:37:26

Now, when you live in a lion's den,

00:37:29

there are two pressures that you're going to feel.

00:37:31

The first pressure is the pressure to assimilate,

00:37:35

to bend your beliefs, to cut the corners,

00:37:38

to become less offensive, to fit in.

00:37:41

"No one else is showing grace.

00:37:43

And so, yes, Jesus talks about about grace.

00:37:45

I'm not going to show grace in this moment

00:37:47

because we're just fitting in."

00:37:49

That's assimilation.

00:37:50

And this is the pressure that Daniel felt

00:37:52

from the moment he walked through the gates

00:37:54

at 15 years old.

00:37:56

He was immediately put into a three year long

00:37:58

junior management training program, literally.

00:38:01

Goes and lives in the King's palace.

00:38:02

They give him the king's food,

00:38:04

and a lot of that food does not match his dietary law,

00:38:07

coming straight from Scripture.

00:38:08

And so he refuses to eat it,

00:38:10

even though it might cost him his life.

00:38:12

He says, "I'm not going to.

00:38:13

I'm not going to eat your food."

00:38:14

And for 65 years, the fast forward of Daniel's life

00:38:18

is that he does that again and again and again,

00:38:21

refuses to assimilate.

00:38:23

And because of that, Daniel became very, very polarizing.

00:38:28

On one hand, there was a group of guys

00:38:30

who conspired against him to throw him to the lions.

00:38:33

They hated him.

00:38:34

And on the other hand, was King Darius,

00:38:36

the guy who eventually signs the law just absentmindedly,

00:38:39

that tosses Daniel to the lions.

00:38:40

And it's very clear, I'll read it to you later,

00:38:42

that Darius did not want Daniel to get eaten.

00:38:45

He loved Daniel. He valued Daniel.

00:38:47

So Daniel was this incredibly polarizing figure.

00:38:50

And when you live in the lion's den,

00:38:52

you'll know that you're doing it

00:38:53

in the Jesus following, God honoring way

00:38:56

because you'll be polarizing too.

00:38:58

There'll be people who hate you and mock you

00:38:59

because of your beliefs, and they'll also be people

00:39:02

who love you and are attracted to your God.

00:39:04

You will be polarizing.

00:39:06

This has always been Crossroads, by the way, always.

00:39:08

Some people come and they love it.

00:39:10

Some people come and they hate it.

00:39:11

That's okay. We're great with that. It's all right.

00:39:14

Most Christians get a neutral response.

00:39:17

We go through life and we're basically like

00:39:19

the Panera Bread of people, right?

00:39:23

I mean, have you ever asked someone,

00:39:25

what's your favorite restaurant?

00:39:26

And they said, "Panera Bread"? No.

00:39:31

Have you ever, on the other hand, ask somebody,

00:39:33

what's your least favorite restaurant?

00:39:35

And they said, "Panera Bread"?

00:39:37

No, it's just fine.

00:39:41

You know, if I just magically around noon today,

00:39:44

there's a Panera in my hand, I'm like,

00:39:46

"Oh, okay, I guess I'll eat it."

00:39:48

I'm not excited about it.

00:39:49

I'm not going to take a picture of it,

00:39:51

put it on Instagram or anything. I'm just gonna --

00:39:53

That's most of us.

00:39:55

We get a neutral response from people

00:39:57

and the reason is because we have,

00:39:59

in some way, shape or form, whether we know it or not,

00:40:01

we have assimilated. We gave in when it got tough.

00:40:07

What did Daniel do when the rules changed?

00:40:09

Like I said, these guys that conspire against Daniel

00:40:12

and they get this thing signed into law.

00:40:14

Now, the interesting thing about Babylonian law

00:40:16

is that once the king signs the law,

00:40:19

no one can undo the law, including the king.

00:40:23

And so the officials know this.

00:40:24

They get Darius to sign the law.

00:40:26

And Daniel knows this, once he hears the law is signed.

00:40:29

Daniel is the highest official in the government.

00:40:31

Do you think he knows the rules? Of course.

00:40:34

And so what does Daniel do when the moment comes

00:40:37

to assimilate when he hears this law is signed?

00:40:39

I'll read you the story. Daniel 6:10:

00:40:42

When Daniel knew that the document had been signed,

00:40:45

he went to his house where he had his windows

00:40:48

and his upper chamber opened towards Jerusalem.

00:40:50

He got down on his knees three times a day

00:40:53

and prayed and gave thanks before his God,

00:40:56

as he had done previously.

00:41:00

Daniel changes nothing, not a single thing.

00:41:05

Doesn't go, "You know that noon prayer,

00:41:08

streets are busier, maybe I'll knock it down from 3 to 2."

00:41:12

Doesn't do that.

00:41:13

Doesn't go, "You know, I'm going to keep praying

00:41:15

three times a day, but the open window thing,

00:41:17

I mean, God knows my heart.

00:41:19

I'm going to shut the shutters."

00:41:21

He doesn't do that.

00:41:22

Leaves it open and does the thing, refuses to assimilate.

00:41:26

Now, you might go, "Well, that's because Daniel

00:41:28

had confidence that God was absolutely

00:41:30

going to shut the mouths of the lions,

00:41:32

and he would escape danger."

00:41:34

No it's not.

00:41:36

There's no record in this story of Daniel ever saying,

00:41:39

"Do your worst.

00:41:41

I'm a lion tamer because of my God."

00:41:44

Doesn't do that at all.

00:41:46

In fact, Daniel had three best friends that

00:41:48

came with him as exiles into Babylon a long time ago.

00:41:52

You may have heard of them:

00:41:53

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego

00:41:54

from another famous story, Daniel chapter three.

00:41:56

These guys refused to assimilate, just like Daniel,

00:41:59

and they're tossed in the fiery furnace.

00:42:01

And this was the attitude that they had

00:42:03

that I think Daniel shared in their moment.

00:42:06

This was their response, Daniel 3:

00:42:08

If this be so, they're like,

00:42:09

"We're gonna throw you in the furnace. "Okay."

00:42:11

If this be so, our God whom we serve is able

00:42:14

to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace,

00:42:17

and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king.

00:42:20

But if not, be it known to you, O King,

00:42:25

that we will not serve your gods

00:42:26

or worship the golden image that you've set up."

00:42:29

They go, "Our God can. Is he going to?

00:42:33

I mean, I don't know. Even if He doesn't.

00:42:36

But if not, we're still not going to assimilate."

00:42:41

This is the thing, if you want to trust God,

00:42:44

if you want to know do you have the trust of God

00:42:46

that Daniel had, look at the places in your life

00:42:49

where you're tempted to bend the truth.

00:42:51

Where you're attempted to round the corner

00:42:53

off of the beliefs that you have.

00:42:54

Where you're tempted to fit in in some way, shape or form,

00:42:59

compromise, even just a little bit.

00:43:00

If that's true, there's a space of trust

00:43:03

to grow in towards God for you.

00:43:05

That's assimilation.

00:43:06

Now, the other pressure that you'll feel

00:43:09

when you live in the lion's den

00:43:11

is almost the opposite of assimilation.

00:43:14

It's separation.

00:43:16

And this is what the exiles do when they get to Babylon.

00:43:19

They don't want to live in the lion's den,

00:43:22

in the city of lions.

00:43:24

Instead, they decide to live outside it,

00:43:26

and they make the assumption

00:43:27

that this is what God wants them to do.

00:43:29

They literally start setting up camp

00:43:30

outside the city walls.

00:43:32

And so God, through the prophet Jeremiah,

00:43:34

sends them a letter and says don't do that.

00:43:37

That letter is now known as Jeremiah 29. Jeremiah says this:

00:43:42

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel,

00:43:44

to all the exiles who I've sent into exile

00:43:47

from Jerusalem to Babylon:

00:43:48

build houses and live in them;

00:43:52

plant gardens and eat their produce.

00:43:54

Take wives and have sons and daughters;

00:43:56

take wives for your sons.

00:43:57

In other words, think ahead.

00:43:59

Live here for a long time.

00:44:00

We're in the second generation.

00:44:02

And give your daughters in marriage,

00:44:03

that they may bear sons and daughters.

00:44:05

Now we're in the third generation.

00:44:06

Multiply there, and do not decrease.

00:44:10

But seek the welfare of the city

00:44:12

where I have sent you into exile.

00:44:16

God sends us into the lion's den.

00:44:19

And pray to the Lord in its behalf,

00:44:20

for in its welfare you will find your welfare.

00:44:25

God says, "If you want a good life,

00:44:29

if you want the best of what I have,

00:44:31

don't try to escape the lion's den I've sent you into.

00:44:35

Instead, live there and try to change it.

00:44:38

Put roots down. Sink into it.

00:44:40

Change the city you live in."

00:44:42

By the way, you know, one of the most famous verses in the Bible,

00:44:46

one that you may have seen on a coffee mug

00:44:48

or stuck on a t-shirt somewhere or whatever

00:44:53

comes just three verses later.

00:44:55

I've almost never heard it talked about in this context.

00:44:58

It's Jeremiah 29:11:

00:45:01

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord,

00:45:05

"plans to prosper you and not to harm you,

00:45:08

plans to give you hope in a future."

00:45:12

Did you know that's in the context of God saying

00:45:14

live in the lion's den?

00:45:15

He goes, you --

00:45:17

A lot of times I think we hear that verse

00:45:19

and we're like, "Yeah, that's right.

00:45:20

God's going to get me out of the problems in my life.

00:45:24

That's His goal. Alright.

00:45:25

Plans for a hope and a future."

00:45:27

No, the future was in the lion's den.

00:45:30

Build houses here, plant gardens here.

00:45:33

This is the call of God towards His people.

00:45:36

See, God says don't separate. Don't Assimilate.

00:45:41

Instead, I want you to infiltrate.

00:45:45

Get into the mess. Don't try to leave it.

00:45:48

And when you do, I will literally bless you.

00:45:50

Go into the city, is what He says.

00:45:54

And I know cities are hard, by the way, always have been hard.

00:45:57

You layer people on top of each other,

00:45:59

different cultures and economic backgrounds

00:46:01

and all this stuff, it gets kind of messy sometimes.

00:46:04

But the thing about God's people is that

00:46:06

we've always been called to cities.

00:46:08

You know, the story of the Bible starts in the garden,

00:46:10

Garden of Eden, but it ends in a city, New Jerusalem.

00:46:13

That's what heaven is. It's it's a gigantic city.

00:46:17

You know that Jesus, when He preached,

00:46:18

He retreated to the countryside by Himself to recover.

00:46:22

But He went city to city preaching.

00:46:25

When Paul, the most impactful follower of Him,

00:46:28

comes after Him, he starts writing these letters

00:46:30

that now make up much of the New Testament.

00:46:32

Where does Paul send him, to cities,

00:46:36

the biggest, most important, impactful cities of his day,

00:46:38

Ephesus and Corinth and Rome and in Philippi.

00:46:42

Cities are in God's heart.

00:46:44

God calls us, His people, a city on a hill that cannot be hidden.

00:46:50

That's why, as a church, we've always been about cities.

00:46:54

Talk about flipping this city 10 or 15 years ago,

00:46:57

that was part of our vision that was forming.

00:46:59

We just did the 10X Push back in October

00:47:01

and talked about this vision that we have

00:47:03

to be in ten cities within the next ten years as a church.

00:47:07

That's because God has called us to cities.

00:47:10

It's also why the thing I'm about to tell you next

00:47:12

is so incredibly exciting.

00:47:14

I have an announcement for us,

00:47:16

but it's an announcement that comes under the banner

00:47:19

of God doing the things He says.

00:47:21

It's a verse that sounds a lot like Jeremiah 29:11.

00:47:26

I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you.

00:47:29

And those plans for prosper, if you stay,

00:47:32

if you invest where you are, those are

00:47:34

what God describes as immeasurably more.

00:47:37

It says this in Ephesians 3:20:

00:47:40

Now to him who was able to do immeasurably more

00:47:44

than all we ask or imagine, according to his power

00:47:47

that's in work in us, to him be glory in the church

00:47:51

and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations,

00:47:53

for ever and ever.

00:47:55

God says, "I can do so much more than you can imagine."

00:47:59

I'm so pumped to tell you

00:48:00

that's exactly what he's doing in our church.

00:48:03

Now, before I tell you what that means,

00:48:04

I got to walk back a little bit,

00:48:06

just like with the story of Daniel.

00:48:07

Two years ago, we made the very difficult decision

00:48:10

to stop services at Crossroads Uptown

00:48:12

in the heart of the founding city

00:48:14

where we are in Cincinnati.

00:48:16

It was one of the hardest decisions

00:48:18

that we've ever had to make.

00:48:19

Why did we make it?

00:48:20

Well, because it wasn't the secret,

00:48:23

college life was the slowest and hardest hit,

00:48:26

slowest to recover and hardest hit by the pandemic.

00:48:29

And so even a couple years post the heart of the pandemic,

00:48:33

student life just wasn't what it was.

00:48:34

And despite having a thriving, strong team of staff

00:48:38

and volunteers, we were not having the impact

00:48:41

on reaching the college students

00:48:43

in and around that university.

00:48:44

A community that had once been a thousand people

00:48:47

was down into the one hundreds.

00:48:49

And we said, "God, have you called us away for this?

00:48:51

What's happening here?"

00:48:53

And God took us to another scripture.

00:48:55

This is Ecclesiastes 3:1. It says:

00:48:56

For everything there is a season

00:48:58

and a time for every matter under heaven:

00:49:00

a time to be born, a time to die;

00:49:03

a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted.

00:49:08

So we decided it was time to pluck up

00:49:09

the Sunday morning part of this ministry,

00:49:11

and refocused, double down on reaching college students

00:49:13

because we still feel called to reach this demographic.

00:49:16

And so we started a little seed.

00:49:18

We planted in the ground a little thing

00:49:20

to reach college students that has grown

00:49:22

and become a ministry we now call 1824

00:49:25

that has done immeasurably more

00:49:27

than we could have ever asked, thought, or imagined.

00:49:30

And then we cast this vision as a church

00:49:32

of going to ten cities in ten years.

00:49:34

And again, God delivers immeasurably more

00:49:36

than we could have asked, thought, or imagined.

00:49:38

And so I'm so excited to tell you where we stand right now.

00:49:42

We are going to reopen Crossroads Uptown

00:49:44

for Sunday services in January.

00:49:53

Why would we do that?

00:49:54

The city is still hard.

00:49:56

Maybe the city is harder than it was

00:49:58

when we stopped doing Sunday services two years ago.

00:50:00

Why would we do that?

00:50:01

It's because God says, "While everybody else

00:50:04

might get to complain about the problems and run away,

00:50:08

not my people.

00:50:10

I send My people in to the heart of the problem."

00:50:13

See, our hope is that the future leaders

00:50:17

of an awakening that happens in all the cities around us

00:50:22

meet Jesus and get built into and turn into

00:50:25

powerful, faithful followers

00:50:27

willing to be sent into the lion's den,

00:50:28

just like Daniel through this place.

00:50:31

That's our hope and that's our prayer.

00:50:33

Now, we never launch a location

00:50:36

without the right called and qualified leader.

00:50:40

And I'm so excited to tell you,

00:50:41

we have exactly that person.

00:50:44

His name is Brody Schrader.

00:50:45

Please welcome up here with me. [applause]

00:50:50

- What's up?

00:50:52

- What's up, dude? - Hey, buddy.

00:50:54

Come on. It's exciting.

00:50:55

- Now Brody, if you don't know Brody.

00:50:57

Brody has been leading our Oakley student ministry

00:51:00

for the last four years.

00:51:02

He's done amazing work,

00:51:03

seeing that thing take off and grow.

00:51:05

Came to us originally from Michigan.

00:51:06

- I did, I did.

00:51:07

I feel like I'm a little bit in the lion's den right now

00:51:10

these last four years. I'm an enemy territory.

00:51:12

- Yeah, well, and he got in here, you might not know this.

00:51:14

There was a -- he's an intern

00:51:16

in the sign stealing program, so they kind of --

00:51:19

They sent him down for the -- - Stop.

00:51:21

- Just kidding. That's not what he came here for.

00:51:23

No, you came here to really double down on student ministry.

00:51:26

It was in the section where we went, "Man,

00:51:27

God's called us to middle schoolers and high schoolers,

00:51:30

but we want to see more," and we've seen that.

00:51:32

- Yeah. We have.

00:51:33

Four years ago, my wife Megan and I,

00:51:34

we came down here to be a part of relaunching

00:51:36

our student ministry.

00:51:37

And, you know, we're from Michigan,

00:51:39

but Cincinnati quickly became home for us.

00:51:41

And it was for a lot of reasons, because of the things

00:51:43

that we saw God doing in the next generation of our church.

00:51:46

It just felt like this is home for us now,

00:51:48

like, we're going to be here because of what God's doing.

00:51:51

And a lot of our students, we've graduated out

00:51:54

thousands in the last four years that are now a part of 1824,

00:51:57

and God's doing amazing things through them.

00:51:59

So just kind of felt like for Megan and I,

00:52:00

we were reading the writing on the walls

00:52:02

and thinking, like, if there's a time,

00:52:04

if there's ever been a time to bring back Uptown,

00:52:06

it's right now. - That's right.

00:52:07

- We're thrilled to be part of it.

00:52:08

- For such time as this.

00:52:09

Well, and I don't know if you guys have seen this too,

00:52:11

but there's something that God's doing

00:52:13

on university campuses.

00:52:14

Have you seen these headlines about, like,

00:52:16

revivals breaking out and college students coming back?

00:52:18

It's like all over the nation,

00:52:20

even on the other side of the world,

00:52:21

it's happening in England.

00:52:23

There's a crazy seed.

00:52:24

As we talk about awakening, it's a dream

00:52:28

that it feels like God has put on His people's hearts

00:52:31

and He's moving in.

00:52:32

And so we're excited to press into it

00:52:33

and see more of it happen in our spaces, man.

00:52:35

I mean, look at that. Let's go through more of that.

00:52:37

Okay, so if you are part of Crossroads

00:52:39

or if you just have a heart for this kind of ministry,

00:52:41

maybe it's your first day here. That's awesome.

00:52:43

I want you to extend a hand

00:52:44

and I just pray a blessing with me

00:52:46

on Brody and on this ministry.

00:52:50

God, thank You so much for Your dreams.

00:52:53

Thank You for Your call to the hard places.

00:52:55

Thank You for Your call to the danger.

00:52:57

We're asking, God, that You'd give Brody and his team

00:53:00

the favor of Daniel, the courage of Daniel,

00:53:03

not to run from the fight, but to march into the den.

00:53:06

Not to try to escape without a scratch,

00:53:08

but to leave a mark, God, Your mark on our city

00:53:11

that would change the surrounding cities,

00:53:13

that would change us for generations.

00:53:15

God, do something mighty through him and his team.

00:53:17

Bless him. Amen, - Amen.

00:53:19

- Thanks, man. [applause]

00:53:26

- That's what it looks like to infiltrate,

00:53:28

which is what Jesus talked about.

00:53:29

You know Jesus said to infiltrate.

00:53:31

Matthew 5 He looked at His followers and He said,

00:53:35

"You are the salt of the earth."

00:53:39

Nowadays we think about salt as flavoring.

00:53:41

I've always been more of a salt versus sweets guy myself.

00:53:44

As a kid, we would go get dessert in Bellbrook, Ohio,

00:53:47

at the Dairy Shed. Have no idea if it's still there.

00:53:49

And my parents would go, "Would you like ice cream?"

00:53:51

I would say, "How about a foot long cheese cone instead?"

00:53:54

And I get that. Unrelated note, I wore husky jeans.

00:53:58

Salt is for flavor. That's the point.

00:54:05

Back then, though, salt was for preserving.

00:54:09

And so you put salt on the stuff that would otherwise

00:54:14

rot and decay and fall apart without the salt.

00:54:19

Now, salt is able to hold things together

00:54:21

because salt has a unique quality.

00:54:23

It's a tiny little ionic compound NaCl.

00:54:28

And at a molecular level, it's so tiny

00:54:30

it can actually get into the channels

00:54:32

of the thing you put it on.

00:54:33

When you put it on meat, if you give it enough time,

00:54:36

it'll soak into the meat, it'll infiltrate the meat,

00:54:39

and it'll actually change the protein structures of the meat.

00:54:44

If you've ever brined a turkey, dry brine,

00:54:46

wet brine, whatever, it's why you put it in the bag

00:54:49

3 or 4 days ahead of time.

00:54:50

Give it enough time, it'll work its way in,

00:54:52

and it'll change the meat.

00:54:53

Herbs don't do this.

00:54:54

Hate to break it to you, by the way.

00:54:56

If you put herbs in your brine, you are wasting your money.

00:54:59

They are organic compounds, far too big to get into the meat.

00:55:03

That's why God Jesus doesn't say

00:55:04

you're the rosemary of the earth.

00:55:06

No, if you're talking about flavor,

00:55:09

that's what He would say.

00:55:11

No, you're the salt of the earth.

00:55:14

You're the preservative of the Earth.

00:55:16

Now, salt was very expensive back then.

00:55:18

You wouldn't waste it on something

00:55:20

that didn't need preserving, right?

00:55:21

You wouldn't put it on, like, bread or potatoes or whatever.

00:55:26

You wouldn't waste it.

00:55:27

You only put it on the thing

00:55:29

that would otherwise fall apart without the salt.

00:55:32

And I think sometimes for us, we wish that

00:55:35

God would call us to the places that are fine,

00:55:38

that are not falling apart. You know?

00:55:40

"God, could you call us to live

00:55:42

in the den of the Golden retriever? That'd be great.

00:55:47

Or call us to the den of the box turtle.

00:55:50

That would be awesome. Call me there."

00:55:52

No. God says that's not what needs you.

00:55:55

I would be wasting you.

00:55:56

You know, God says that you're valuable.

00:55:58

You're His masterpiece. You have immense value.

00:56:00

God's not going to waste you on a place doesn't need you.

00:56:02

And so if you look around your life and you're like,

00:56:04

"It seems like there's all these problems.

00:56:06

There's issues in my neighborhood.

00:56:07

There's issues in my family.

00:56:08

These issues in my school.

00:56:10

These issues in my city."

00:56:12

And if you're praying to God, like, end the issues

00:56:15

or send you somewhere else, I'm just telling you,

00:56:17

you're asking Him to deliver you from the place He sent you.

00:56:21

And he's unlikely to do that.

00:56:23

He might say fine, at some point.

00:56:25

"You don't have to try.

00:56:26

I'll find somebody else to do the job."

00:56:28

But again, you'll miss out on the Jeremiah 29:11,

00:56:30

for I know the plans I have for you,

00:56:32

plans to prosper you, not to harm you.

00:56:33

That's the promise if you stay in the city, be the salt.

00:56:39

See, when you're the salt, when you're the salt

00:56:42

and you infiltrate, you have things to celebrate.

00:56:46

And when you infiltrate, by the way,

00:56:47

you might not have a place in your life

00:56:49

that's as grandiose as Daniel, right?

00:56:51

The city of Babylon, the capital city

00:56:55

of the most powerful nation on the earth.

00:56:57

God might not call you into that place,

00:57:00

but you might have places in your life.

00:57:01

And they're just as important

00:57:03

because God has sent you there.

00:57:04

Sarah and I have looked around our life recently

00:57:06

and just kind of just had these thoughts. like,

00:57:09

"God, what do you want us to infiltrate?

00:57:10

Where have you put us in places that we could be salt?"

00:57:14

And really, obviously, one of those became

00:57:16

the sidelines of our kids sports.

00:57:18

We were dumb enough to have two kids

00:57:20

play club sports at the same exact time.

00:57:23

That's a really bad idea.

00:57:24

We got soccer and baseball. Oh, my gosh.

00:57:27

Baseball lasts forever.

00:57:29

If you have a son that wants to play baseball,

00:57:31

I would suggest putting a golf club in his hand,

00:57:33

swim, take up knitting.

00:57:36

I mean, anything else. You will not regret it.

00:57:40

So we find ourselves in these, on these sidelines

00:57:42

with a lot of other parents and amazing families.

00:57:45

So, so great. We're so blessed with them.

00:57:47

But many families who don't share our beliefs.

00:57:50

There's many times it would be easy to assimilate,

00:57:54

to round the corners off, to kind of hide what we are.

00:57:57

When people find out that I'm a pastor,

00:57:58

they always react to me weird. You know?

00:58:00

They're like in the middle of cussing.

00:58:02

They're like, "I'm so sorry."

00:58:04

I'm like, "If you only knew. It's okay, it's okay."

00:58:08

It'd be easy to do that, try to assimilate,

00:58:10

or separate, you know, when they go out

00:58:12

to the brewery afterwards and want to hang out

00:58:14

and have some beers to separate ourselves,

00:58:16

"No, we got other things."

00:58:17

And instead we said, "No, no, our job is to infiltrate."

00:58:20

And when you infiltrate, you have things to celebrate.

00:58:23

A couple of weeks ago, we got to celebrate as a church.

00:58:25

We baptized over 600 people in one weekend.

00:58:28

It was amazing. Immeasurably more.

00:58:34

The most special baptism of that day

00:58:36

I got to baptize at Crossroads East Side

00:58:38

at the 9:15 service, and the most special baptism

00:58:40

for me personally that I got to celebrate

00:58:42

was my own daughter, Gracie, who at 11 years old

00:58:45

made the decision to follow Jesus forever.

00:58:47

Got to baptize her with my parents, my sons,

00:58:50

my brother was there, Sarah.

00:58:52

It was just amazing. Big celebration moment for us.

00:58:55

Now, what was really cool was right after that,

00:58:58

I got to baptize her soccer teammate Cadence,

00:59:02

whose family we got to know

00:59:03

just hanging out on the sidelines, just talking,

00:59:06

just being there.

00:59:08

And it was an amazing honor to give to be a part of.

00:59:10

By the way, they're in their soccer uniforms

00:59:11

because they got baptized and were like,

00:59:13

"All right, dry off. We got a game, so got to go."

00:59:17

It was a special moment.

00:59:19

You get to celebrate when you infiltrate.

00:59:23

What's the place God might call you to infiltrate?

00:59:26

What's the place that you're like, "Man,

00:59:28

that place is just a lot of work"?

00:59:31

Your neighborhood. The gym you go to.

00:59:32

I don't know where it is, but what if

00:59:34

God's put you there on purpose to change it,

00:59:38

even if it's uncomfortable?

00:59:39

Even if it takes energy and trust to stay there?

00:59:44

See, you're born, every one of us with a God given fight.

00:59:48

You're born to go to a place that will otherwise

00:59:53

fall apart and rotten decay without you.

00:59:56

But what the enemy wants you to do

00:59:57

is to abdicate that responsibility.

01:00:00

Assimilate. Separate. They're both the same thing.

01:00:03

They are both abdicate.

01:00:06

Which is exactly how this whole messy story

01:00:08

of Daniel getting actually to the lions begins.

01:00:10

King Darius actually abdicates.

01:00:11

All of these officials come to him, and they're like,

01:00:14

"Hey, man, we're thinking this law would be awesome.

01:00:16

Sign it. 30 days. People only pray to you,

01:00:18

otherwise they're tossed to the lions."

01:00:20

And he's like, okay, signs his name

01:00:23

despite not having been having the moment of going like,

01:00:26

"Wait, the number one guy prays three times a day

01:00:29

and he's not here."

01:00:31

He just abdicates.

01:00:33

Immediately he regrets it.

01:00:35

He tries to change the law. He can't.

01:00:37

He can't figure out a way to do it.

01:00:38

The law is binding.

01:00:40

And so he has Daniel sent into the lion's den.

01:00:45

Here's a story, Daniel 6:16:

01:00:47

Then the king commanded,

01:00:48

and Daniel was brought and cast into the den of lions.

01:00:52

The king declared to Daniel, "May your God,

01:00:55

whom you serve continually, deliver you."

01:00:59

And then a rock was placed over the mouth of the den,

01:01:02

and Daniel was in darkness.

01:01:05

The king was distraught.

01:01:07

He didn't sleep at all that night.

01:01:08

He didn't eat at all that night, no nothing.

01:01:10

He was just totally distraught.

01:01:12

And he wakes up the next morning

01:01:13

and he goes to see what happens.

01:01:15

And the story continues.

01:01:16

As he came near to the den where Daniel was,

01:01:18

he cried out in a tone of anguish.

01:01:20

The king declared to Daniel, "Oh, Daniel,

01:01:23

servant of the living God, has your God,

01:01:26

whom you serve continually,

01:01:28

been able to deliver you from the lions?"

01:01:31

Then Daniel said to the king, "O, king! Live forever!

01:01:35

My God sent His angel and shut the lions mouths,

01:01:37

and they've not harmed me,

01:01:39

because I was found blameless before Him,

01:01:41

and also before you, O King, I've done no harm."

01:01:44

Then the king was exceedingly glad,

01:01:46

and commanded that Daniel be taken up out of the den.

01:01:49

So Daniel was taken up out of the den,

01:01:51

and no kind of harm was found on him,

01:01:53

because he had trusted in his God.

01:01:57

See, Daniel trusted his God,

01:01:59

not for one night, but for 65 years.

01:02:05

Yet when the story is taught as, like,

01:02:06

"Hey man, how to be like Daniel,

01:02:08

how to how to live in the lion's den,

01:02:10

escape without a scratch."

01:02:11

Part of where that falls apart is that,

01:02:13

you know if you read the story,

01:02:14

there's nothing where we learn

01:02:16

what Daniel actually did in the lion's den.

01:02:19

That part of the story, we know what God did.

01:02:21

God sent an angel, shut the lion's mouth.

01:02:23

We don't know what Daniel did

01:02:25

in the den itself in that one night.

01:02:27

Maybe he was like riding lions around.

01:02:30

Maybe he picked up a bone,

01:02:31

You know, playing fetch or whatever with them.

01:02:34

We don't know, because that's not the point of the story.

01:02:37

If you if you want to learn from the life of Daniel,

01:02:40

you learn from the 65 years he spent living in the den.

01:02:44

Now, once he's out of the den,

01:02:45

there's another interesting fork in the road

01:02:47

in Daniel's life, because the King

01:02:49

starts to send the exiles back to Jerusalem,

01:02:53

to return and rebuild the city.

01:02:56

Sends them with supplies to rebuild it.

01:02:57

And so you might go like, man, at the end of his life

01:02:59

Daniel's got a clear, easy path out.

01:03:03

Did he take it?

01:03:06

No, no he didn't.

01:03:08

We have record at the end of the book of Daniel

01:03:10

that Daniel is still living in Babylon

01:03:13

years after the exiles have returned.

01:03:15

See, seemingly Daniel decided

01:03:17

not just to live in the lion's den,

01:03:20

but he did decide to die there.

01:03:22

He died in Babylon at about 90 years old,

01:03:25

still impacting the culture.

01:03:28

See, the story of this man is a story of a guy

01:03:30

who started in a moment where it looked like

01:03:34

God had failed him when the lions come to his city,

01:03:37

and yet he chose to trust that God

01:03:40

and live in the lion's den for decades.

01:03:43

And the result is that the world was literally changed.

01:03:47

At Crossroads will talk about changing the world

01:03:49

and it's an aspiration. It's something we're aiming for.

01:03:53

We're saying, "God, would You bless us?

01:03:54

Would You give us favor to be used that way?"

01:03:56

It's aspirational.

01:03:58

For Daniel, it was literal.

01:04:00

Here's the end of the story, Daniel 6:25:

01:04:03

Then King Darius wrote to all the peoples,

01:04:07

nations, and languages that dwell in earth,

01:04:10

"Peace be multiplied to you.

01:04:13

I make a decree that in all my royal dominion

01:04:17

people are to tremble in fear before the God of Daniel,

01:04:21

for He is the living God, enduring forever:

01:04:24

His Kingdom shall never be destroyed,

01:04:26

and His dominion shall be to the end.

01:04:28

He delivers and He rescues;

01:04:30

He works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth.

01:04:33

He who saved Daniel from the power of the lions.

01:04:37

Now what we know about royal decrees

01:04:39

that were read at that time is that

01:04:41

they would have been read in the city gates.

01:04:44

And so this decree that the God that Daniel served

01:04:48

shut the mouths of lions was read.

01:04:51

Maybe there's banners hung in the same place

01:04:54

as the lions for the goddess Ishtar.

01:04:56

It's crazy the full circle here that Daniel sees.

01:04:59

And this wasn't just read and Babylon.

01:05:01

It wasn't just hung in these gates.

01:05:03

King Darius says, "I'm sending this to the entire earth,

01:05:06

as far as I can reach."

01:05:08

People will know this story

01:05:10

because of what Daniel did, the faithfulness

01:05:13

to stay in, to trust God.

01:05:16

Not to leave the lion's den,

01:05:18

not to escape without a scratch, but to leave a mark.

01:05:22

What would happen in your life?

01:05:23

What would happen in our cities if we as a church

01:05:28

stop asking God to end the problem,

01:05:31

stop complaining and grumbling

01:05:34

about the pain points of our lives

01:05:35

and instead said, "God, I'm going to assume

01:05:37

You sent me here and I'm going to trust You enough

01:05:40

to give me the power to see Your mark

01:05:44

leave this place changed."

01:05:45

That's what we're going for as a church.

01:05:47

We talk about an awakening.

01:05:48

It starts with that attitude. It starts with that mindset.

01:05:51

Every single one of us, every family

01:05:53

having that goal, having that dream,

01:05:54

having that same desire that Daniel had.

01:05:56

That's my hope and prayer for you.

01:05:58

Let me pray for you before you run out of here.

01:05:59

God, thank You so much for the powerful story of Daniel.

01:06:02

Thank You for the model of trust, God.

01:06:04

Would You give us the favor You gave Daniel.

01:06:07

Would You give us the courage You gave him,

01:06:09

not to run, but to stay God.

01:06:11

And with all the lion's dens in our lives,

01:06:13

all the places that You call us to be changed,

01:06:16

not for our glory, not by our power,

01:06:18

but by Your power for Your glory.

01:06:21

God, You're good God and we love You. Amen.

01:06:25

- Man, I love these weeks,

01:06:27

the great teaching, the great music, but most of all,

01:06:30

the chance to be pushed and to be stretched

01:06:32

to trust God more and to lean in Him.

01:06:35

It's so good and I need it.

01:06:36

But I want you to know there's more on the table for you.

01:06:39

There's more for you than just something to watch.

01:06:42

There's actually an incredible community for you to belong to.

01:06:46

You and I weren't made to live life alone.

01:06:48

We were made to function best and to grow the most

01:06:50

in the context of community.

01:06:53

That's actually why groups matter

01:06:54

and why we've got a new group season kicking off

01:06:57

September 8th, and I would love for you to consider

01:07:01

finding a group, help find your people

01:07:03

that you can celebrate with, pray with,

01:07:05

and grow alongside.

01:07:07

If you go to Crossroads.net/groups,

01:07:08

there's a bunch of them listed there.

01:07:10

But if you're not finding the one that's perfect for you,

01:07:12

hey, we can help with that.

01:07:14

You can click the link or go to crossroads.net/Anywhere

01:07:16

and myself or somebody on my team will reach out

01:07:18

to help you find your people here at Crossroads.

01:07:22

Now, there's an example of this that I just love.

01:07:24

It's actually a group who met online

01:07:26

as part of our Crossroads Anywhere community,

01:07:28

had never met in person, and met online for over a year.

01:07:32

The first time they met was actually

01:07:35

the one time of year when our entire community

01:07:37

comes together from around the globe.

01:07:40

And man, it was incredible. They were inseparable.

01:07:43

I saw them laughing, getting beers together,

01:07:46

enjoying being together, and they were fast friends.

01:07:49

It was absolutely incredible.

01:07:50

And that's happening again with Revival at Base Camp.

01:07:53

So I want you to find your community,

01:07:55

sure, yes, join a group.

01:07:56

But I also want you to make the sacrifice

01:07:59

to travel here October 31st through November 2nd,

01:08:03

where tens of thousands of people, I think,

01:08:05

are going to be joining

01:08:06

not just because they love camping,

01:08:08

but because they want more of God

01:08:10

and are expecting Him to show up in a powerful way.

01:08:12

It'll be an incredible time.

01:08:14

And if you aren't near one of our physical sites

01:08:16

or a part of our Crossroads Anywhere community,

01:08:18

we have some really, really special stuff for you.

01:08:20

Again, just head to crossroads.net/Anywhere

01:08:23

for more of the details.

01:08:24

But no matter who you are, no matter where you are,

01:08:27

I hope you will join us for the Revival at Base Camp.

01:08:29

It's going to be incredible

01:08:31

and I cannot wait to see what God does.

01:08:33

So groups, camps, trips, all of this stuff happens

01:08:37

because people are generous.

01:08:38

There's no corporate sponsor.

01:08:40

It's normal people like you and me who just say,

01:08:42

"God, I believe You can do more with what I have than I can."

01:08:45

If you want to join the example and follow the example

01:08:48

of faithful people all over this community

01:08:50

and be a part of what makes this stuff happen,

01:08:52

you can do so at crossroads.net/give.

01:08:56

Hey, thank you so much for joining us.

01:08:57

We'll see you next week on Crossroads.

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