Choices, Faith, and Perseverance: Lessons from Daniel

1) "Your life choices bring us to who we are, and we are the result today of every decision that we make. We are the result today of every decision that we make. We are the result today of every decision that we make. We are the result today of every choice that we have made. Right here today, you are who you are and where you are because of the totality of choices that you have gone through and that you have made." [45:06] (17 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2) "Confident faith is developed by our choices. We don't just fall into it. You don't wake up one day and say, wow, I have powerful faith. Confident and powerful faith grows by each choice that we make. And that's what we do. We don't just fall into it. We don't just exercise it. Today, we're going to explore how to build and sustain the confident faith that you need before, during, and after the crisis. Looking at Daniel as our example." [46:52] (29 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3) "It's how we react in the midst of the crisis that's directly related to the confident faith that we have. And that, again, is based on the choices that we make. We've made prior, during, and after the crisis. Just to recap from Pastor Terry last week, at around 15 years old, Daniel and some other young men were violently taken by an invading army from their home in Jerusalem and marched all the way to Babylon to serve in the king's court. And as we read the book of Daniel, we can see that even at an early age, when Daniel gets to Babylon, his faith was confident that God would sustain and keep him." [48:24] (43 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4) "Parents, sometimes we have to make choices for our children, okay? Let me tell you just a little bit about some choices that my parents helped make for me. First, I want to say this. My choices, not anything my parents did not do, led me away from God. Not because I didn't get the bicycle that I wanted. Not because I didn't get to do that or go out or do this. It was a choice that I made. But it was also the choices that my parents made, instilling a faith in me early in my life that led me to circle back around to God and bring me to where I am today." [49:59] (42 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5) "Your choices impact, others around you, sometimes more than yourself. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, there was a Russian submarine with nuclear weapons on it, and it was off the coast of Cuba, and they lost communications with the rest of the fleet. And they actually, due to some debris and other things that they saw in the water, they thought the war had already begun. They thought the United States and Russia had already begun. They thought the United States and Russia had already started a war. This particular submarine needed three specific officers, the top three officers, to fire that nuclear weapon. The captain and the first officer wanted to fire that nuclear weapon, but the information officer, Vasily Arkhipov, vetoed it and said, no, we cannot begin World War III without knowing. Think about that. One choice, by one man with limited information, probably prevented World War III and saved probably all of our future lives." [55:52] (72 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6) "We need to choose to strengthen our faith in times of peace and happiness, right? When we're all in a crisis, what do we do? We hit our knees, we open our Bible, right? It's human nature. When things are going well, it's easy to say, eh, maybe I just won't spend as much time with God right now. Things are going well, I'm doing pretty good. But we can see in Daniel's life from what he accomplished that he chose to continue to strengthen that faith during the good times." [57:26] (28 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7) "Ladies and gentlemen, parents, young people, instead of scheduling the things of God around our lives, it's time we begin to schedule our lives around the things of God. Point three, is this. We have to choose to consistently exercise our faith during the crisis, right? Daniel has choices now. The law has been made. Now, the first choice is this. He could take 30 days off. God will understand, right? God doesn't want me to die, Daniel could say. I just won't pray just for 30 days. I That's not what he chooses." [01:00:31] (44 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


8) "Daniel's prior choices in the good times gave him the strength to choose faith over fear when he faced his greatest crisis, his imminent death. Your choices, again, impact those of us who are in the midst of a crisis. The king knows he has to kill Daniel. He has to throw Daniel in the lion's den. That's what the law was. We're going to see here where the king actually prayed and fasted for Daniel. The Bible says this, the king said to Daniel, may your God whom you serve continually rescue you." [01:03:39] (36 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


9) "Choose to grow your faith when the crisis is resolved, right? That was a pretty big crisis for Daniel. He could have took a little bit of time off. But as Pastor Terry taught us, last week, Daniel continued to choose to grow his faith in three distinct ways. Daniel 9, one through four, tells us this. And during his first year as king, that would be Darius, I found out from studying the writings of the prophets that the Lord had said to Jeremiah, Jerusalem will lie in ruins for 70 years. Then to show my sorrow, I went without eating, dressed in sackcloth and sat in ashes. I confessed my sins and earnestly prayed to the Lord my God." [01:06:47] (40 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


10) "We need to choose to persevere in faith when you need an answer. Every single person that's sitting in here needs an answer about something. It could be a relationship. It could be something spiritual. You're struggling with God. It could be financial. Whatever it is, we all need an answer. We need to continue to persevere in our faith. I don't have the time to flesh this out, so this is your next step today. In Daniel chapter 10, Daniel needs an answer. He chooses to fast and pray for 21 days before the answer comes." [01:08:07] (35 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)