Standing Firm: Trusting God's Best Plan
Devotional
Sermon Summary
Bible Study Guide
Sermon Clips
### Quotes for Outreach
1. "You must always keep in mind the choices you make makes you. And that's very true. You see, Daniel was under a lot of pressure. It wasn't just political pressure to please the king. There was also peer pressure. And we all deal with peer pressure. And peer pressure can be crushing. You middle schoolers, you high schoolers, you deal with it all the time. But so do adults. I had convictions. And I wouldn't join in with them in that. Wasn't that I didn't like them. Wasn't that I didn't pray for them. I just didn't want to be a part of that world. You see, Daniel was the first one there who said no. There were probably hundreds of Jewish teenagers that had been taken into Babylon. And Daniel stood up. He stood his ground. He stood on God's side and said no." [50:10]
2. "Friends, we desperately need to teach our children to say no when the world says yes. And to say yes when the world says no. We're in week two of our VBS sermon series called Break a Rock Beach. Each sermon is going to mirror the five days scripture of VBS. We're going to be in day two today. Last week, we learned that God's word is truth. All truth comes from God. Today, we're going to learn. Another absolute eternal truth that God's plan is best. I love that song. Good plans. That was actually the first time I'd ever heard that. And I'm sitting there saying, yes, Jesus. Amen. Because God's plan is the best for us." [38:05]
3. "There is always hope in Jesus Christ. In our scripture today, we're in the year 605 B.C. It's about 2,600 years ago. And one of the promises made to the nation of Israel is very simple. God said, if you will obey me and follow me, I will bless you. But if you disobey and rebel, I will turn your back. I will turn your palaces into prisons. They had fair warning. The prophets had come. God had sent prophets over and over again. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Zechariah, Habakkuk. They pleaded and they begged with Israel to repent and get right with God. But all their preaching fell on deaf ears. That is a theme throughout the Bible. Preaching falls on deaf ears. People do not repent. People do not come to the Lord. And when that happens, there are consequences to disobedience." [39:47]
4. "No matter how desperate or desolate your situation feels, you are never out of options, because with God there are always options." [01:08:32]
5. "God's plan is for you to get saved. God's plan is for you to be a child of God. And I'm preaching to some Christians and I'm preaching to some non-Christians. And I want you to hear, if you do not know Jesus as your Savior, today is the day of your salvation. Stop listening to the world. Satan hates you. Satan wants to kill and destroy. He wants to rob you of your joy. He wants to take away your life. He wants to take away your eternity. Jesus offers us eternal life. The world wants us to compromise." [01:04:04]
### Quotes for Members
1. "Teach and train your children in the ways that they should live. And the paths that they should go. When they're old, they won't depart from them. And you say, well, you don't know my teenager. They departed from them. Well, if the word of God is hidden in their heart. And I know. Because I was a prodigal. Like probably 99% of the folks here today. I always joke that when I was a kid, I had a drug problem. I was drugged to church every time the doors were open. And when I turned 18, I said, I smell freedom. I have car keys. And I have a job. And I have 27 bucks in my wallet. So on Sunday, I'm going to get some beauty sleep. By the way, it didn't work." [52:01]
2. "I have in my life what I call guardrails. If you drive down the street and you veer off, you hit a guardrail, it's going to do some damage to your fender, but it's going to keep you from going off a cliff. So you can recover from the damage, but you may not recover if you go off the cliff. And trust me, I've seen a lot of people who were living in the shambles of going off of a cliff. See, you cannot decide what your ethical standards are when you're doing your first income tax return. It's too late at that point. Yeah. You can't decide what your boundaries are the first time you go to that party or the first time you take that first drink or that first puff or the first time you climb into a back seat. It's too late when you get to the hotel room to decide what movies you're going to watch if you don't have any boundaries in your life. We need to know what our boundaries are and we need to resolve to guard them." [55:01]
3. "Daniel had apparently grown up in a home where he was taught to love God with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength. And so you could change Daniel's home, but you couldn't change his heart. You could change his name, but you couldn't change his nature. You could put Daniel into Babylon, but you could not put Babylon into Daniel. There was a God-given boundary in his life. And there's a word that goes along with God-given boundary, and that is conviction. It was a conviction that he had." [55:52]
4. "Friends, I don't know where you're at in your life right now, but many of you are absolutely convinced that you're out of options. You feel like your back is against the wall. You're convinced there's no way out of your dilemma except to do what everybody else is doing, taking that path everybody else would take and making the decision that everyone else would make. But there is good news. God is always working. Do you think that when Daniel's home was destroyed, he thought that God was working? Do you think when Daniel was snatched away from his parents and his family and his friends and his home to go to a foreign land that didn't even believe in God Almighty, that he was taught to serve and love, that he thought that God was working? When he was being asked to compromise his conviction to do that in his heart that he knew was wrong, apparently with no other option, Daniel knew that God was working." [01:01:36]
5. "And see, Daniel, just like the eunuchs, had to wait on God for the results. Daniel had never been a vegetarian before as far as we know. But God led him to only eat vegetables and only drink water. And of course, God's plan is always best. So what happened? At the end of the day, these kids looked great. Their hair was sparkling, their skin was shining. They probably had better cholesterol, they probably had better blood pressure at the end of just ten days of eating God's diet for them. But see, the thing that mattered to Daniel was not how he looked in the eyes of the king. What mattered to him was how he looked in the eyes of God. And we all have to make a decision in our lives if we are going to listen to the voice of God, follow the direction of God, and go the way of God. We can always know that God's path is straight. And God's way is correct. We can always rely on guidance from heaven." [59:52]
Ask a question about this sermon
1. "You must always keep in mind the choices you make makes you. And that's very true. You see, Daniel was under a lot of pressure. It wasn't just political pressure to please the king. There was also peer pressure. And we all deal with peer pressure. And peer pressure can be crushing. You middle schoolers, you high schoolers, you deal with it all the time. But so do adults. I had convictions. And I wouldn't join in with them in that. Wasn't that I didn't like them. Wasn't that I didn't pray for them. I just didn't want to be a part of that world. You see, Daniel was the first one there who said no. There were probably hundreds of Jewish teenagers that had been taken into Babylon. And Daniel stood up. He stood his ground. He stood on God's side and said no." [50:10]
2. "Friends, we desperately need to teach our children to say no when the world says yes. And to say yes when the world says no. We're in week two of our VBS sermon series called Break a Rock Beach. Each sermon is going to mirror the five days scripture of VBS. We're going to be in day two today. Last week, we learned that God's word is truth. All truth comes from God. Today, we're going to learn. Another absolute eternal truth that God's plan is best. I love that song. Good plans. That was actually the first time I'd ever heard that. And I'm sitting there saying, yes, Jesus. Amen. Because God's plan is the best for us." [38:05]
3. "There is always hope in Jesus Christ. In our scripture today, we're in the year 605 B.C. It's about 2,600 years ago. And one of the promises made to the nation of Israel is very simple. God said, if you will obey me and follow me, I will bless you. But if you disobey and rebel, I will turn your back. I will turn your palaces into prisons. They had fair warning. The prophets had come. God had sent prophets over and over again. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Zechariah, Habakkuk. They pleaded and they begged with Israel to repent and get right with God. But all their preaching fell on deaf ears. That is a theme throughout the Bible. Preaching falls on deaf ears. People do not repent. People do not come to the Lord. And when that happens, there are consequences to disobedience." [39:47]
4. "No matter how desperate or desolate your situation feels, you are never out of options, because with God there are always options." [01:08:32]
5. "God's plan is for you to get saved. God's plan is for you to be a child of God. And I'm preaching to some Christians and I'm preaching to some non-Christians. And I want you to hear, if you do not know Jesus as your Savior, today is the day of your salvation. Stop listening to the world. Satan hates you. Satan wants to kill and destroy. He wants to rob you of your joy. He wants to take away your life. He wants to take away your eternity. Jesus offers us eternal life. The world wants us to compromise." [01:04:04]
### Quotes for Members
1. "Teach and train your children in the ways that they should live. And the paths that they should go. When they're old, they won't depart from them. And you say, well, you don't know my teenager. They departed from them. Well, if the word of God is hidden in their heart. And I know. Because I was a prodigal. Like probably 99% of the folks here today. I always joke that when I was a kid, I had a drug problem. I was drugged to church every time the doors were open. And when I turned 18, I said, I smell freedom. I have car keys. And I have a job. And I have 27 bucks in my wallet. So on Sunday, I'm going to get some beauty sleep. By the way, it didn't work." [52:01]
2. "I have in my life what I call guardrails. If you drive down the street and you veer off, you hit a guardrail, it's going to do some damage to your fender, but it's going to keep you from going off a cliff. So you can recover from the damage, but you may not recover if you go off the cliff. And trust me, I've seen a lot of people who were living in the shambles of going off of a cliff. See, you cannot decide what your ethical standards are when you're doing your first income tax return. It's too late at that point. Yeah. You can't decide what your boundaries are the first time you go to that party or the first time you take that first drink or that first puff or the first time you climb into a back seat. It's too late when you get to the hotel room to decide what movies you're going to watch if you don't have any boundaries in your life. We need to know what our boundaries are and we need to resolve to guard them." [55:01]
3. "Daniel had apparently grown up in a home where he was taught to love God with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength. And so you could change Daniel's home, but you couldn't change his heart. You could change his name, but you couldn't change his nature. You could put Daniel into Babylon, but you could not put Babylon into Daniel. There was a God-given boundary in his life. And there's a word that goes along with God-given boundary, and that is conviction. It was a conviction that he had." [55:52]
4. "Friends, I don't know where you're at in your life right now, but many of you are absolutely convinced that you're out of options. You feel like your back is against the wall. You're convinced there's no way out of your dilemma except to do what everybody else is doing, taking that path everybody else would take and making the decision that everyone else would make. But there is good news. God is always working. Do you think that when Daniel's home was destroyed, he thought that God was working? Do you think when Daniel was snatched away from his parents and his family and his friends and his home to go to a foreign land that didn't even believe in God Almighty, that he was taught to serve and love, that he thought that God was working? When he was being asked to compromise his conviction to do that in his heart that he knew was wrong, apparently with no other option, Daniel knew that God was working." [01:01:36]
5. "And see, Daniel, just like the eunuchs, had to wait on God for the results. Daniel had never been a vegetarian before as far as we know. But God led him to only eat vegetables and only drink water. And of course, God's plan is always best. So what happened? At the end of the day, these kids looked great. Their hair was sparkling, their skin was shining. They probably had better cholesterol, they probably had better blood pressure at the end of just ten days of eating God's diet for them. But see, the thing that mattered to Daniel was not how he looked in the eyes of the king. What mattered to him was how he looked in the eyes of God. And we all have to make a decision in our lives if we are going to listen to the voice of God, follow the direction of God, and go the way of God. We can always know that God's path is straight. And God's way is correct. We can always rely on guidance from heaven." [59:52]
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