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
It would have been terrifying to have been thrown into that pit with all those savage lions. (HOLD UP PICTURE OF DANIEL IN LIONS’ DEN) – just imagine having nowhere to hide from starved man eating lions! And to make matters worse these lions were kept solely for the purpose of eating people – that was their job!
Well if Junior Asparagus (HOLD UP ASPARAGUS AGAIN) was scared sitting in his bedroom at night, how do you think Daniel felt in that pit, surrounded by bones and lions! Even the king thought Daniel was a goner! You know we’re told he just couldn’t get any sleep that night. He was a really distressed guy!
It’s interesting to note that when the king called to Daniel the following morning, he spoke of Daniel’s God as the ‘living’ God. ‘Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to rescue you from the lions?’
It seems that Daniel had clearly portrayed his God as alive and active. And maybe the king regarded Daniel’s fate as a test as to whether his God was really the living God.
If Daniel’s God did exist He would look after His faithful servant, the king reckoned. For if anyone deserved to be looked after it was Daniel, who would not stop worshipping God even if it cost him his life!
The fact that the king questioned God’s ability to deliver Daniel from the lions, ‘Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to rescue you from the lions?’, also demonstrates this usually foolproof method of execution.
3. WHY DIDN’T DANIEL DIE?
Daniel should have died in the den! And yet he lived to tell the story. What actually happened in that den on that occasion?
Well, this is where Bob (HOLD UP TOMATO) & Larry (HOLD UP CUCUMBER) come in - You see in the Veggie Tales story, Bob and Larry are like angels who are sent by God to rescue Junior in his time of need. For Daniel, in his time of need, (a matter of life and death!) God sent one of His angels to shut the mouths of the lions. Bob and Larry plopped through the stone that sealed the mouth of the pit and sung the lions to sleep!
We don’t really know how the angel did it – but we do know that the angel ‘shut the mouths of the lions’. And in verse 23 we are told that these man-eating lions didn’t even scratch him, or knock him around at all – ‘…no wound was found on him, because he had trusted in his God.’
4. WHAT HAPPENED TO THE ‘BOOGIE MEN’ IN DANIEL’S LIFE?
God took care of them!
He rescued Daniel from the lions. The king was able to speak to Daniel when he was thrown into the den, ‘…Daniel, ‘May your God, whom you serve continually, rescue you!’ But when Daniel was brought out of the den and those who had falsely accused him were thrown in they had no chance of hearing any word the king spoke. For we are told that ‘…before they reached the floor of the den, the lions overpowered them and crushed all their bones.’
God rescued Daniel from both his ‘boogie men’.
The ‘boogie man’ of the slanderous scheming nobles, and the ‘boogie man’ of the ferocious lions. And we are told in verse 28 that, ‘Daniel prospered’. God delivered him and he prospered!
5. WHAT LESSON CAN WE LEARN?
What can we learn from Veggie Tales (which is based on teaching from the Word of God) and from this true episode in the life of Daniel?
I believe the main thing is this – there is nothing too big for the living God to handle. He can shut the mouth of your lion. He is bigger than your ‘boogie man’.
I believe there are three things about Daniel that contributed to his rescue:
1. He served God continually (vs 16 & 20)
2. He was innocent in God’s sight (vs 22), and
3. He trusted in his God (vs 23)
If those three things apply to us - we can be sure that God will send His angels to deliver us from our ‘boogie men’.
How can we know if those three things do apply to us?
Well, we ‘serve God continually’ by trying to live as He wants us to. And by determining to be obedient, with His help, to what He asks us to do.
We are ‘innocent in God’s sight’ by putting on Christ’s righteousness. That is, by becoming Christians. Turning away from seeing our life as our own, seeking God’s forgiveness for living apart from Him and trusting in Jesus.
And we ‘trust God’ by knowing His Word and being convinced of the promises He has made there.
The challenge is –Are you OBEDIENT to God? Have you GIVEN YOUR LIFE TO JESUS Christ? Do you BELIEVE what God has promised in His Word?
If not, the Lord challenges you this morning to take that first step of obedience and give in to the Lordship of Jesus Christ! The Lord challenges you this morning to soak yourself in His Word and hold fast to His promises! The Lord challenges you this morning to put God first! The Lord challenges you to be obedient to Him!
‘Daniel, (David, Lynne, Laura, - put your own name there) servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to rescue you from the lions?’
May we be able to shout a booming YES!!!!
Our God is bigger than the boogie man!
Lord help us to believe that and put our complete trust you!
