Learning To Trust Series

DEFINING MOMENTS

“Learning to Trust”

Daniel 6:1-22

There are events that are etched into our minds and hearts that live there forever. Because there was a moment in time when everything seemed to change. We refer to these sometimes as defining moments. Here are a few.

October 24, 1929. While there are only a couple of people here today who were alive at that time, you still may know that was the day of stock market crash. Banks were suddenly broke and the Great Depression started. And it all happened in just a moment.

August 5, 1960. The US became involved in Vietnam. Although his vice president advised him against it, Lyndon Johnson make that decision. A decision mad in a moment and that war went on for 20 years. Over 1 million lives were lost.

On a lighter note, August 17, 1977 Elvis died. In a moment, Elvis fans everywhere crushed. And believe it or not there still people believe he is still alive somewhere. And so there are Elvis sightings reported in the Memphis area still to this day.

Life is made up of a series of moments. Some good, some bad, but some of them become defining moments; moments that actually change the course of history.

Noah decided to build an ark. Abraham made the decision to go to a new country. Jesus said follow me to a man named Peter and in that moment he said yes. And then there was a day when a man named Daniel made a critical decision and that decision became a defining moment. Now if you know anything about Daniel you likely the story of Daniel in the Lion’s Den.

King Darius appointed 120 men who would be accountable to keep him, as the King, from being defrauded. Over that group he placed three administrators who would answer directly to him. One of those man was Daniel. Daniel was such a capable worker that the King put him in charge of all of them. Well everyone doesn’t always like the leader, there is often jealousy; others think they should have gotten the position, so now the others, 122, went to work to try to find something Daniel was doing wrong so they could bring him down. But Daniel was different and they just couldn’t find any dirt on Daniel. So what do you do? Well you try to create some. So the 122 went to the King and said we have voted and we believe that the king should establish a rule for 30 days that anyone who would petition, make a request to any God or any man for that matter, other than the king-that individual would be thrown into the lion’s den and the King signed this into law.

Now there are times when every one of us will be faced with difficult decisions, moments, when the decision we make has the potential to change our future for the better or for the worse and there is only one person who can make that decision and guess what-it’s you. You. No one else can do it.

1. The greatest decision you will ever make is to continue to trust God even when your world is completely falling apart. Daniel grew up---- a good Jewish boy in Jerusalem. He had the word of God, went to the temple and also learned to pray. But suddenly his nation was attacked and they became a completely different culture. At that time, Daniel was only a teenager. Yet everything around him was changing.

• New culture

• new environment

• new language

• new people

And they all said the same thing. Daniel, you must become a new person. You have to change. You have to live like we do. It’s tough when you are being forced to change; to do so something against your wishes. To move to a new school-a new community. Your parents moved. My wife and I have lived in five different states since we were married. 13 different houses. Our children faced a great deal of change as well. It’s very hard. For Daniel, his whole world had come undone. His world had fallen apart. And when your world has fallen apart, what do you do? And that’s the question for us. When your whole world is coming undone, can you still trust God? Because some of you are facing a crisis right now that is on that level. It feels as though your whole life is coming undone.

So here’s a truth that we need to get hold of, hang on to never let go of. There is a God in heaven he is in control! While life may feel out of control, it is not. Someone much greater than us, much more powerful was holding it all together. There are times when it seems easy to trust God... Things are going great... All the bills are being paid, health is good, everybody loves you, kids are happy-easy to trust God the. But suddenly the bottom falls out and that’s when it’s hard. Life is made up of a series of moments; and at any given time things can change for the worse. And in those moments, the greatest decision you can make is to continue to completely trust God.