Daniel 2: Living as Exiles Under God's Sovereignty

If we live in that truth, that forever kingdom, eternally home with him, then we live more confidently and boldly. That's the call of Daniel two is is for us to understand we control nothing. We're called to obedience. God will do the rest. And even if everything that happens on this earth hurts, stinks out of our control, we know the end of the story. [01:13:42] (33 seconds)  #ForeverKingdomFaith

If in this moment, being obedient to the Lord brought about welfare for others, those around him, those who didn't deserve it, it might also bring change. It might also bring about saving grace. And hear me, that should be a goal of every exile for all of time. Look at this point. If obedience to the Lord, even when difficult, brings good for our enemies, we should trust the Lord and rejoice. That's what a godly exile looks like. [01:02:08] (40 seconds)  #ObedienceForOthers

In the days of those kings, the God of heavens the God of the heavens will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed. And this kingdom will not be left to another people. It will crush all things, all these kingdoms, and bring them to an end, but will itself endure forever. You saw a stone break off from the mountain without a hand touching it, and it crushed the iron, bronze, fired clay, silver, gold. The great God has told the king what will happen in the future. The dream is certain, and the interpretation is reliable. [01:07:11] (37 seconds)  #UnshakableKingdom

And in all of this, Daniel remained steadfast to his true king while also blessing those around him, blessing those and praying for the good of his captors, the welfare of others. And I know this sounds like a tall order. I know that this sounds hard, but in God's economy, we're called to live this way, folks. This is who we're called to be. We can live this way because God is truly in control. [00:47:46] (34 seconds)  #SteadfastBlessing

So this is one of our first points. Under pressure, the truth of divine control becomes evident. Under the pressure of culture, under the pressure of life, the the these things start to show whether whether the person believes in God or not. There is this point where where ultimate control can only be attributed to something or some one higher than us. [00:55:45] (31 seconds)  #PressureRevealsGod

In the act of obedience of going to prayer, that that's not a that's not a point on our screen today. It's a given. I want you guys to hear that. It's a given. Every time you open your journal on a Sunday morning, you should somewhere put prayer even if it's not a point because that's what Daniel does. In obedience, he goes to the Lord in prayer and he calls the Lord to have mercy on them. [00:59:43] (31 seconds)  #PrayAsDefault

Their current captivity is completely out of their control, but they still had the hope that Yahweh would allow them to be part of the future he was orchestrating even in their disobedience, even because of the cons the earthly consequences of their disobedience. And here's what happens. In their faithfulness, God does the work. He reveals the dream, he gives the interpretation, and Daniel living the way of an exile goes to the king's guards and does something incredibly strange, maybe even shocking. [01:00:24] (41 seconds)  #HopeInCaptivity

Daniel and his his friends and the people that were close to Yahweh, they did a fourth thing, a a fourth way. Daniel embraced being in exile, living in a land that was not his own. Even when the world around him and his people, the the people of Israel, even when that world was trying to redefine things of attitudes and actions and and trying to make them permissible in their culture, Daniel and his exiles went a different way. They chose to to live under this premise that they are not citizens of this world. [00:45:06] (43 seconds)  #CitizensOfHeaven