God Is Bigger Than The Boogie Man!

GOD IS BIGGER THAN THE BOOGIE MAN!

Daniel 6:16-24

INTRODUCTION

Who got a little bit scared Thursday night?

(ALLOW RESPONSE)

Who got a lot scared?!

(ALLOW RESPONSE)

It was pretty scary stuff – all that thunder and lightening! In our home all the kids ended up in the same room! Well, I was actually going to talk on something else but during that night I felt led to change the theme to this.

See, Thursday night reminded me, in terms of its scare factor, of an event that took place a year or two ago – it went like this:

A SUSPICIOUS CHARACTER!

Daniel (my son) was playing cricket out on our nature strip with a couple of his mates, when they saw a man running for his life to what seemed to be a getaway car. The man jumped in and it took off at the speed of light!

Next minute another car, with 4 or 5 young fellows in it, hung it into our street and called out to the kids, ‘Are you Ok? Did you see that guy? Where did he go?! ‘

Then one said to another, ‘Just go and check that the house is Ok!’ Then they piled out of the car, split up and went searching for this suspicious character.

Well you can just imagine the state of the children by now! By this time Sharayah and Anna (my daughters) had been caught up in it all too. Adrenalin was running thick and fast everywhere! Then to top it off – just when things were beginning to settle, some expected friends arrived. And unwittingly continued the drama – you see when Daniel, still worrying about what he had just seen and heard, answered the intercom Janet simply said ‘hello’. But when Daniel asked who it was, Doug (a bit of a practical joker and not having the foggiest about all that had just taken place), said, ‘None of your business, just let us in!’

Well that was it! I not being aware of the fear Doug had just instilled into Daniel and mum, went to open the gate – I could hear Daniel inside saying, ‘Mum, don’t let him open the gate!’ And just as I’m about to open it, Cheryl starts going crazy saying, ‘David don’t open it, don’t open it!’

Panic stations everywhere!

INTRODUCE VEGGIE TALES

Well, earlier that day the kids had been watching a Veggie Tales video entitled ‘Where’s God When I’m Scared?’

(HOLD UP VIDEO & PICTURES)

The story line goes a bit like this:

Junior Asparagus (HOLD UP ASPARAGUS) got scared watching a tiny bit of ‘Frankencelery’ (HOLD UP FRANKENCELERY) on TV. On his way to bed he said to his mum, ‘I’m not scared’ ‘I liked it’ ‘No, that didn’t scare me’. But he really was much more scared than he was letting on!

In his room, at night, sitting on his bed, all alone, trying to fight his fear – two angel-like beings plop through his ceiling. Bob the Tomato (HOLD UP TOMATO) and Larry the Cucumber (HOLD UP CUCUMBER) come to the rescue with a rollicking song (PLAY SONG). And the name of that song is what I have called today’s talk – ‘God is bigger than the boogie man!’

Well, getting back to that eventful scary day at our place, it was beautiful to hear that night my three older children singing themselves to sleep with the words ‘God is bigger than the boogie man!’

Daniel could you please come and read to us Daniel 6:16-24.

1. DANIEL AND THE ‘BOOGIE MAN’

Thinking about Daniel - not the Daniel who read, but the Daniel in the reading - do you think he had a ‘boogie man’ in his life?

(ALLOW RESPONSES)

Yes! I believe he had at least two ‘boogie men’ trying to scare him!

a) He had the ‘boogie man’ of the king’s nobles, who badly wanted him out of the picture. We read about them in the first part of Daniel 6 and the plan they schemed up to get rid of him! They tricked king Darius into passing a law which meant that Daniel could not pray to his God. If he did he would be thrown to the lions!

Which brings us to the next ‘boogie man’ -

b) The ‘boogie man’ of the fierce, man-eating lions. And those lions wanted to rip him to bits for tea! They had nothing personally against Daniel – they just wanted their tucker.

So yes, I believe at this point in Daniel’s life he had some pretty heavy ‘boogie men’ on his case!

So how do Larry and Bob of Veggie Tales fame fit into all this? Well, lets think a bit more about this true Bible story of Daniel.

2. DANIEL THROWN TO THE LIONS