As the ministry of The Trinity Church increases and moves temporarily online, Pastor Mark, Grace, and family will be releasing a special series of “Ask Pastor Mark” videos each week to help answer pertinent questions during this time! This question is about how, as a pastor and ministry couple, you can balance caring for your home and church family in times like this.
As the ministry of The Trinity Church increases and moves temporarily online, Pastor Mark, Grace, and family will be releasing a special series of “Ask Pastor Mark” videos each week to help answer pertinent questions during this time! This question is about what steps men can take to lead their homes during this time.
As the ministry of The Trinity Church increases and moves temporarily online, Pastor Mark, Grace, and family will be releasing a special series of “Ask Pastor Mark” videos each week to help answer pertinent questions during this time! This question is about how to do devotional time as a family.
When you are suffering, always remember that lost people are watching. Daniel was thrown into a lion’s den as punishment for praying to his God openly and publicly. God miraculously delivered him.
Some crooked politicians made a law that for one month no one could worship anyone but the king of Medo-Persia. The entire intent of the law was to trap the godly Daniel into violating the decree which would result in him being thrown in the lion’s den.
The most powerful human king on the earth could not be reached by anyone. He commanded the world’s most crushing military lived behind a walled city, in a palace filled with soldiers. But God got to him. In a dream, the King of Heaven revealed the doomed fate of this earthly king. Unable to interpret it’s meaning, the Spirit-filled slave Daniel was brought in to give understanding.
The mightiest man on earth, Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, was awakened from his sleep drenched in sweat terrified by a dream sent from the King of Heaven. Frantic, he demanded that his counterfeit spiritual advisers, empowered by demons, reveal to him both the dream and its interpretation.
The most powerful and feared man on the earth, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, was shaken to his core by a dream from God that foretold doom and demise in his future. Frantic to know exactly what this revelation from God meant, the king demanded that his spiritual advisors and political cabinet tell him both the dream and its interpretation. Because the dream came from God, only a person with the Spirit of God could know and interpret it.
Some years ago, we had a big reunion of extended family. I remember feeling a bit overwhelmed as a park filled up with people that I was apparently related to but had no idea who many of these people were, where they were from, or what their life story was.
How did Daniel remain faithful to God from his teens to his eighties while living in Babylon pressured every day in every way to dishonor, disobey, and disregard his God? One secret to Daniel’s success was his prayer life.
Daniel knew God and knew how to talk and listen to God. Daniel’s prayer life is highlighted throughout the book and a prime cause of his fortitude and wisdom. In fact, Daniel gets into trouble with the demonic leadership in Babylon because of his immovable prayer life.
We read in Daniel 6:10 that he prayed three times a day on his knees openly and publicly as a form of nonviolent protest against false gods and praise to the real God. In 2:17-23, he asked friends to join him in prayer and was emboldened to risk his life interpreting the kings dream. Daniel 9:1-27 is a long explanation of his prayer life, complete with fasting and prayer answered by an angelic visit from Gabriel who would later visit Jesus’ mother Mary.
To live in a world filled with the spirit of Babylon, the only way to navigate all the landmines is with wisdom. Throughout life, both Daniel’s and yours, there will be difficulties, days, and decisions that are so complex and challenging that knowing what to do is incredibly difficult to determine. The Spirit-filled example of Daniel is that we need to be humble enough to pray, asking the Lord of specific wisdom and courage, and then acting in faith upon what He says without trying to control the outcome but leaving those details in His hands.
How is your prayer life? How can it be improved? What kind of decisions have you made in the past when you failed to pray?
As you read Daniel, you will find the following three kinds of people. The point is to show you your options on which kind of person you will be and how you will live your life during your Babylonian exile here on earth.
A godly few. Daniel and his friends are a godly minority. They repeatedly face opposition, persecution, and attempts at execution because their loyalty is to God and God alone. Daniel is not perfect, but he is godly. The Bible has nothing negative to say about Daniel.
The ungodly majority. The entire nation of Babylon is filled with ungodly people who have no interest in the real God or any kind of relationship with Him. Their demonic false gods have given them riches, power, and success. For them, live in Babylon is their version of heaven and they have no appetite for the Kingdom of Heaven. Most of the people in our day are sadly similar.
Those who say they are believers but live like unbelievers and bring God’s judgment. Just like a parent does not run around discipling random children, God only disciplines the children He loves in an effort to bring them back to their senses and His Spirit (Hebrews 12:5-8; 1 Peter 4:17). Today, we’d call these people lukewarm backsliders.
Which kind of person are you? Which kind of person do you want to be?
In this final sermon in the “Joy To The World” series, Pastor Mark tells how loving God with your mind, obedience, contentment, partnership, and words will help give you joy going into a new year or new season when you don’t know what’s next.