Daniel in the Lions Den
We’re in a series on the top ten favorite bible stories,
Which you all voted on a few weeks ago.
Today we’re up to number six on the list,
Which is the story of Daniel in the lions den.
If you have your Bible you can flip over to Daniel chapter 6.
I was looking for a good illustration to start off this morning,
and I just couldn’t find anything about a lion,
but I did find something about a cat,
so that’s pretty close.
This is very valuable information,
especially if you’re a cat owner.
Memo: HOW TO BATHE YOUR CAT IN 8 EASY STEPS
1. Thoroughly clean toilet.
2. Lift both lids and add shampoo.
3. Find and soothe cat as you carry him to bathroom.
4. In one swift move, place cat in toilet, close both lids and stand on top, so cat cannot escape. 5. The cat will self agitate and produce ample suds. (Ignore ruckus from inside toilet, cat is enjoying this) 6. Flush toilet 3 or 4 times. This provides power rinse, which is quite effective. 7. Have someone open outside door, stand as far from toilet as possible and quickly lift both lids. 8. Clean cat will rocket out of the toilet and outdoors, where he will air dry.
Sincerely,
The Dog
Now here’s my disclaimer ----
I know somebody’s going to go home and be mad at me, and think,
oh, Pastor Ken hates cats.
That’s not true,
I have a cat named Tiger,
and I love Tiger, even if he has a bad habit of attacking certain people and biting their ankles,
but I would never bathe Tiger that way.
Now on the other hand,
Pastor Chris also has a cat,
and when I shared these 8 steps with him a couple days ago,
he told me he was going straight home to try this on his cat,
so you may want to pray for him.
Lets read this story from Daniel.
This is one of the most well known stories of the bible,
Some of you have heard the story ever since you were a kid in Sunday School,
But its not a children’s story,
it has a lot to say to us today.
Daniel 6:1 NLT
Darius the Mede decided to divide the kingdom into 120 provinces, and he appointed a prince to rule over each province. 2 The king also chose Daniel and two others as administrators to supervise the princes and to watch out for the king’s interests. 3 Daniel soon proved himself more capable than all the other administrators and princes. Because of his great ability, the king made plans to place him over the entire empire. 4 Then the other administrators and princes began searching for some fault in the way Daniel was handling his affairs, but they couldn’t find anything to criticize. He was faithful and honest and always responsible. 5 So they concluded, "Our only chance of finding grounds for accusing Daniel will be in connection with the requirements of his religion."
6 So the administrators and princes went to the king and said, "Long live King Darius! 7 We administrators, prefects, princes, advisers, and other officials have unanimously agreed that Your Majesty should make a law that will be strictly enforced. Give orders that for the next thirty days anyone who prays to anyone, divine or human--except to Your Majesty--will be thrown to the lions. 8 And let Your Majesty issue and sign this law so it cannot be changed, a law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be revoked." 9 So King Darius signed the law. 10 But when Daniel learned that the law had been signed, he went home and knelt down as usual in his upstairs room, with its windows open toward Jerusalem. He prayed three times a day, just as he had always done, giving thanks to his God. 11 The officials went together to Daniel’s house and found him praying and asking for God’s help. 12 So they went back to the king and reminded him about his law. "Did you not sign a law that for the next thirty days anyone who prays to anyone, divine or human--except to Your Majesty--will be thrown to the lions?"
"Yes," the king replied, "that decision stands; it is a law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be revoked." 13 Then they told the king, "That man Daniel, one of the captives from Judah, is paying no attention to you or your law. He still prays to his God three times a day." 14 Hearing this, the king was very angry with himself for signing the law, and he tried to find a way to save Daniel. He spent the rest of the day looking for a way to get Daniel out of this predicament. 15 In the evening the men went together to the king and said, "Your Majesty knows that according to the law of the Medes and the Persians, no law that the king signs can be changed." 16 So at last the king gave orders for Daniel to be arrested and thrown into the den of lions. The king said to him, "May your God, whom you worship continually, rescue you." 17 A stone was brought and placed over the mouth of the den. The king sealed the stone with his own royal seal and the seals of his nobles, so that no one could rescue Daniel from the lions. 18 Then the king returned to his palace and spent the night fasting. He refused his usual entertainment and couldn’t sleep at all that night. 19 Very early the next morning, the king hurried out to the lions’ den. 20 When he got there, he called out in anguish, "Daniel, servant of the living God! Was your God, whom you worship continually, able to rescue you from the lions?" 21 Daniel answered, "Long live the king! 22 My God sent his angel to shut the lions’ mouths so that they would not hurt me, for I have been found innocent in his sight. And I have not wronged you, Your Majesty." 23 The king was overjoyed and ordered that Daniel be lifted from the den. Not a scratch was found on him because he had trusted in his God. 24 Then the king gave orders to arrest the men who had maliciously accused Daniel. He had them thrown into the lions’ den, along with their wives and children. The lions leaped on them and tore them apart before they even hit the floor of the den. 25 Then King Darius sent this message to the people of every race and nation and language throughout the world:
"Peace and prosperity to you! 26 "I decree that everyone throughout my kingdom should tremble with fear before the God of Daniel.For he is the living God,and he will endure forever.His kingdom will never be destroyed,and his rule will never end. 27 He rescues and saves his people;he performs miraculous signs and wonders in the heavens and on earth.He has rescued Daniel from the power of the lions." 28 So Daniel prospered during the reign of Darius and the reign of Cyrus the Persian.
Like I said, this is a very well known story,
but today I want to dig below the facts in the story,
and look at what was happening spiritually.
You see, it was no accident that some of these other leaders in Babylon were trying to figure out ways to get Daniel.
Daniel at this time was one of the most powerful people in the kingdom,
and he was also absolutely committed to God,
faithful, honest, full of integrity.
And as a result, everything he did was blessed by God,
which made him even more successful,
and he was on track to become even more powerful in the kingdom.
Now someone like that is going to be loved by everyone right?
Someone who is full of integrity, successful in everything they do,
and getting continual promotions,
they won’t have any enemies, will they?
We know better.
The Greek philosopher Plato predicted in 300BC that if ever a truly good man were to appear, a man who would really tell the truth, he would have his eyes gouged out and in the end be crucified.
300 years later a man like that appeared
He told the world the truth - about itself -
and even made the incredible claim: "I am the Truth."
And just as Plato predicted, Jesus was crucified.
Like Jesus, Daniel had lots of enemies,
because he was so successful,
because God blessed him so much.
But there’s no doubt that Daniel also had another enemy,
that we don’t read about here,
but that was certainly at work behind the scenes.
You see, Daniel was not just the most powerful leader in government,
he was also a spiritual leader.
If you read the last half of the book of Daniel,
you read all the visions he had,
and prophecies about when Jesus would come,
and about the end times.
Its incredible stuff.
And so Daniel had another enemy, Satan,
who was not happy with Daniels success,
and was not happy with his commitment to God.
So Satan was out to destroy Daniel,
any way he could.
1 Peter 5:8-9 NIV
Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.
I believe that Satan, the roaring lion,
was using those other government officials
to have Daniel thrown to the lions.
We often don’t think about the fact that there’s a spiritual battle going on all around us every day.
We don’t see it, so we ignore it, and forget about it.
But there is a battle going on.
When I was growing up, in junior high
I didn’t like to fight, and I can only remember a few times when I did.
It was usually when I was pressured into it by other kids.
One time in about 5th grade I was fighting my best friend,
he took a swing at me,
and I ducked, and he hit a tree and broke his hand.
I figured, better his hand then my face.
But I remember another time in 8th grade when it didn’t work out so well.
I got pressured into fighting a guy named Kevin Thomas.
I didn’t want to fight him, he used to be my best friend, I didn’t have anything against him,
but all the other guys were pressuring us,
and we let the peer pressure get to us.
It was a Friday evening in the summer and we were at this park with a bunch of other kids, and we started the fight,
and I can remember it very clearly,
we were under a tree in this park,
and there was a crowd of about 10 other boys standing around, and we started fighting.
I wasn’t any good at fist fighting, but I was good at wrestling
(in fact I was on the wrestling team in HS).
I didn’t want to hurt Kevin,
So I just grabbed him and wrestled him down to the ground, and sat on top of him holding his hands out.
Unfortunately, Kevin had more friends in the crowd than I did,
and one of his friends named Joe was one of the toughest kids in the school,
Well Joe didn’t like the fact that Kevin was losing,
so he jumped on me, hit me a few times hard,
and the fight was over.
And I remember that really being a bad day.
Now the worst part is, I hadn’t even wanted to fight,
and to make it worse,
it wasn’t even a fair fight.
Most of us don’t want to fight anyone, either,
and that’s how we approach this whole area of spiritual warfare.
We say, I don’t want to fight spiritual enemies.
I’ll just leave the devil alone, and maybe he’ll leave me alone.
Unfortunately, the Bible says that all of us, whether we like it or not,
are in a spiritual war,
and we have an enemy that is fighting us.
If you are a believer, If you are following Christ, and trying to obey God,
trying to do what’s right in your relationships, in your marriage, with your family in your workplace,
then you can be sure that Satan is after you.
Maybe you’d say,
Well I’m not even sure if I believe in Satan,
well I’m not even sure if I believe in a literal devil,
who goes around trying to wreck people’s lives.
I don’t know if I believe that Satan can actually affect my life,
so maybe if I just ignore this whole area of spiritual warfare,
and if I just ignore the devil,
maybe he’ll just leave me alone,
because I don’t want to fight.
I’m sorry to say that
you don’t have a choice.
As that last scripture says,
Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.
Whether you believe in him or not,
He believes in you, and he’s willing to fight.
So spiritual warfare is not an option in the Christian life.
You’ve got an enemy who is out to get you,
and if you ignore him
you’re just making his job easy.
When we try to ignore the devil,
or ignore the fact that we’re in a spiritual war,
its like a little child covering his eyes and going
You can’t see me, You cant find me.
The devil doesn’t go away just because we don’t believe in him,
and he won’t leave us alone just because we leave him alone.
In spiritual warfare, ignorance is not bliss.
Ignorance can lead to
bondage and defeat, and pain in our lives.
A few years ago a book came out called
This Present Darkness, by Frank Peretti
It became a bestseller,
and it described in graphic detail the invisible war between angels and demons,
that we can’t see but goes on all around us.
We don’t know what that battle actually looks like,
but we do know from the bible that there is a great cosmic invisible struggle between good and evil, between light and darkness, between God and Satan.
In fact, if we go back to the book of Daniel,
in chapter 10 there’s another story
that gives us some insight into that spiritual battle.
Daniel tells in chapter 10 how he’d been fasting for 3 weeks (or in other words, going without food)
and he’d been praying for 3 weeks,
Then he says in verse 4:
On April 23, as I was standing beside the great Tigris River, I looked up and saw a man dressed in linen clothing, with a belt of pure gold around his waist. His body looked like a dazzling gem. From his face came flashes like lightning, and his eyes were like flaming torches. His arms and feet shone like polished bronze, and his voice was like the roaring of a vast multitude of people. ……
So Daniel sees this angel –
and this is what the angel tells him…
Verse 12 Then he said, "Don’t be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day you began to pray for understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your request has been heard in heaven. I have come in answer to your prayer. 13 But for twenty-one days the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia blocked my way. Then Michael, one of the archangels, came to help me, and I left him there with the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia.
So this angel says,
Hey Daniel, sorry it took so long to answer your prayer,
but I ran into a little trouble along the way,
You see, this mean dude from Satan’s army met me,
and I had to fight him to get through,
but he blocked my way for 21 days
until finally I got some reinforcements,
Michael came along to help me,
and of course Michael is the general of God’s army,
so you don’t want to mess with Michael, and while Michael was fighting the bad guy,
I was able to slip away and get to you with the answer to your prayer.
Have you thought about the possibility that
maybe when you’re praying for something
and you don’t get the answer right away,
Maybe its not because God is saying no.
Maybe its just because there’s some spiritual battles going on behind the scenes,
and maybe the answer is on its way,
but you need to keep praying for a while longer,
till the answer to your prayer gets through the battle lines.
I know it sounds a little strange,
but the truth is,
whether we realize it or not,
there’s a spiritual battle going on.
And that battle affects men and women and children
all over Hamilton, and Fairfield, and Liberty township, and whatever town you’re from.
And just like my fight with Kevin wasn’t fair,
Satan doesn’t fight fair either.
Max Lucado describes it really well: "(Satan) is the master of the trapdoor and the author of weak moments. He waits until your back is turned. He waits until your defense is down. He waits until the bell has rung and you are walking back to your corner. Then he aims his arrow at your weakest point and...Bullseye! You lose your temper. You lust. You fall. You take a drag. You follow the crowd. You rationalize. You say yes. You sign your name. You forget who you are. You walk into her room. You look in the window. You buy the magazine. You lie. You covet. You stomp your feet and demand your way. You deny your Master. It’s David disrobing Bathsheba. It’s Adam accepting the fruit from Eve. It’s Abraham lying about Sarah. It’s Peter denying that he ever knew Jesus. It’s Noah, drunk and naked in his tent. It’s Lot, in bed with his own daughter. It’s your worst nightmare. It’s sudden. It’s sin."
Now lets go back to the story of Daniel and the lions,
because if we look at that story,
we can see 3 ways to defeat the enemy,
3 ways to keep him from wrecking our lives.
There’s 3 things that Daniel did,
that will bless our lives if we do them.
The first thing we see Daniel do is to:
CHOOSE CHARACTER OVER COMFORT
Verse 4 Then the other administrators and princes began searching for some fault in the way Daniel was handling his affairs, but they couldn’t find anything to criticize. He was faithful and honest and always responsible.
There were no skeletons in Daniels closet,
waiting to haunt him. He wasn’t doing anything behind closed doors that he was ashamed of.
Even Daniel’s enemies couldn’t find any dirt on him.
Even Daniel’s biggest enemy, Satan
couldn’t find anything.
Now lets make this practical.
We read that verse about
Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.
When Satan prowls around like a roaring lion
Looking for a nice juicy Christian to devour
What’s he really looking for?
He’s looking for someone who’s an easy target,
Someone who has areas of their life
that open them up to Satan’s attack,
someone who has areas of disobedience that give Satan a foothold.
That’s exactly what Daniels enemies were looking for,
and that’s what your enemy is looking for.
Eph 4:27 …and do not give the devil a foothold.
Daniel made a choice to live with such a high standard of integrity that there was no foothold for Satan. no weak area for him to attack.
It was impossible for any of Daniels enemies to find any area to even accuse him of.
Let me ask you,
Are you giving Satan a foothold in your life
that he can exploit?
Some of us look at our lives, and we say,
I’m doing pretty good.
There’s no major areas of sin in my life.
I’m not stealing from anybody,
I’m not having an affair with anybody,
I’m not doing anything big, I’m doing OK.
But we have little areas of our life,
that we know are wrong,
and we know they don’t please God,
but we ignore them because they’re not very noticeable.
And I don’t need to give you examples.
You know exactly what those areas are in your life,
the little areas that don’t please God,
but you just let them go on and on,
and just try to overlook them
because they seem fairly small.
You know what those are?
Those are footholds.
Those are places where your enemy can start to work,
and start to bring trouble into your life,
Satan uses those little areas to try to create big areas,
to try to separate you from God,
and destroy your relationships,
and your integrity,
and your peace, and joy in life.
They’re footholds.
Now maybe you realize that you have a foothold in your life,
and you’re thinking about it right now…
Well, the wrong response, is to start feeling guilty and condemned and depressed.
That’s what Satan wants you to do.
He wants you to feel really bad about yourself,
but never do anything to change.
That’s the wrong response.
Don’t get down on yourself
Instead, get down on your knees,
and admit it to God,
and ask for help.
And tell God,
I am not going to let the devil have any foothold in my life,
I am tired of him trying to destroy the good things in my life,
I am not going to let him keep that up the rest of my life,
This is going to stop,
With your help and your strength God,
I know that I can overcome the enemy,
and I am not going to settle for second best any longer,
I am not going to give the devil a foothold in my life.
Daniel made that decision,
and you can too.
Daniel chose character over comfort.
The 2nd thing we see Daniel do is to:
CHOOSE DISCIPLINE OVER DISORDER
Some of us don’t like the word discipline.
I like it, because I was in the military,
and I learned there’s some great benefits to discipline,
but some of us aren’t crazy about that,
so let me suggest another term for you.
Self control.
Self control is one of the fruit of the Holy Spirit,
listed in Galatians 5:22.
The Bible tells us that when the spirit is working in us,
and making us more like Jesus,
one of the ways we’ll be able to see the difference,
is that we’ll have more self control, or more discipline in our lives.
Daniel chose to live a life with certain disciplines
that helped him defeat the enemy.
What kind of disciplines?
Daniel obviously had a disciplined prayer life.
Verse 10
He prayed three times a day, just as he had always done, giving thanks to his God.
Some of us have a real problem having a quiet time,
where we pray and read the bible,
even once a day.
But Daniel made time for that 3 times a day, every day, consistently,
and his life was blessed because of it.
But we see it in other areas of his life too.
At the beginning of the book of Daniel
it tells the story of when he was a teenage boy
brought to Babylon as a slave,
and he refused to eat all the rich foods of Babylon,
and insisted on eating vegetables and water.
Now some of you are saying,
whooh, I don’t want that much discipline.
Don’t worry, I’m not suggesting you become a vegetarian,
but this just shows the kind of discipline Daniel had,
that made a huge difference in his life.
You know,
the reason why some people succeed while others fail usually has very little to do with abilities.
Most of our failures can be traced to an lack of discipline
somewhere in our lives.
If you think about the people who excel
in every area of life,
whether its business,
or sports,
or music,
or raising kids and building a great home,
or whatever,
The people who really excel,
are almost always the people who have discipline,
and they’ve made an incredible effort,
and spent an incredible amount of time
working toward that area that they excel in,
they’re disciplined.
They don’t do just enough to get by,
they go the extra mile.
When I was in high school,
I was a long distance runner,
and one of my heroes from that time
was a guy named Steve Prefontaine.
He was one of the top runners in the world in the early 70’s,
and believe it or not he was the first athlete that Nike ever picked to endorse its shoes.
I remember when I was running in track,
the hardest practices we ever did were when we would run 20 quarter mile sprints,
with a minute of rest in between.
All of us on the team would much prefer to go out for a 10 or 15 mile run, then to do these quarter mile sprints.
Because you’d sprint around the track for a quarter mile,
trying to beat the other 15 guys on the team,
and then you’d be huffing and puffing and trying to catch your breath,
but you only had one minute, and then you went again,
you wouldn’t believe how fast those 60 sec went by
when we were trying to catch our breath,
and we did this over and over again, 20 times.
And we’d be counting the laps,
and wishing for it to end,
and just wanting to get it over with,
That was a killer practice.
We all dreaded that kind of practice.
I read later on, Steve Prefontaine’s track team in high school would do the same practice, 20 quarter miles,
but that after practice was over,
Steve would go out and do 20 more quarter miles,
by himself.
I read that and I thought first of all that
this guy must have a mental problem,
but then I thought,
no wonder he was such a great runner.
Talk about discipline.
The simple truth, that you’ve heard many times before, is that You reap what you sow.
Some of us sow wild oats and then we pray for a crop failure,
but that prayer doesn’t work very well.
We do reap what we sow.
If we’re sowing discipline and self control in our life,
it pays off with huge rewards.
Now you might say,
well I’m pretty disciplined in some areas of my life,
I’m a hard worker, I do a good job at work,
or taking care of my kids.
I’m just not very disciplined in spiritual areas.
There’s a little more to the story of Steve Prefontaine.
Right in the midst of his success and glory of his running career,
at the young age of 25,
he had too much to drink one night,
and driving home crashed and killed himself.
Funny that someone so disciplined in running,
would let a lack of self control in another area,
kill him.
The moral of the story is that,
discipline doesn’t do a whole lot for you,
unless you have it in the right areas.
What are the right areas?
The ones that will last forever,
the ones that are important to God.
James 4:7 Submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
Daniel disciplined himself to do the things
that would bring God’s blessing on his life,
and that would defeat the enemy.
He chose character over comfort,
and he chose discipline over disorder.
The 3rd thing we see Daniel do is to:
CHOOSE LOVE OVER LIFE
How does Daniel respond to this new law,
that you can’t pray to anyone but the king?
Verse 10,11
when Daniel learned that the law had been signed, he went home and knelt down as usual in his upstairs room, with its windows open toward Jerusalem. He prayed three times a day, just as he had always done, giving thanks to his God. 11 The officials went together to Daniel’s house and found him praying and asking for God’s help.
Daniel hears about the law,
and he instantly knows that he has to make a choice.
Will I choose love for God,
my relationship with God,
my communication and prayer
with the one who is more important than anything else?
Will I choose love for God,
or will I choose my life?
Daniel chose love over life.
You see, he knew something important.
He knew that if we hold onto our love for God,
we will never ultimately die,
that God will protect our lives here on earth,
and then bring us to live with him forever.
But he also knew that if we choose our lives over God,
if we place more importance on life or success,
or our career,
or wealth and things,
or other relationships or sports or hobbies or TV or the internet
or anything else this life has to offer,
if we place more importance on those things
then we do on our loving relationship with God,
then that has eternal implications also.
Our relationship with God here on earth,
determines forever what our relationship with him will be like in heaven.
If we take responsibility to grow that relationship here,
and do the things that honor him here,
then he rewards us,
and gives us more spiritual responsibility,
and those rewards go on for eternity with him.
So Daniel knew this wasn’t just some small choice here.
He knew it wasn’t just a matter of taking a 30 day break from prayer,
or maybe just hiding his prayer for 30 days.
He could have done that easily.
Just make sure nobody saw him pray.
He could have chosen life, over love.
But he didn’t.
The fact is,
I really don’t think that Daniel was interested in becoming Sunday brunch for the lion’s club
any more then you would want to.
He didn’t want to die.
He was no different from any of us.
But when he had to make a decision, he had no doubt,
there could be no wavering,
no second guessing,
no hiding his prayer,
no half-hearted response ---
he chose love over his own life.
How would you make that choice?
Is your love for Christ more important than your ambitions? Is it more important than the acceptance of your peers? Is it more important than the pursuit of power or possessions? Is it more important then anything else,
even your own life?
We sometimes sing a song that goes:
Lord, you are more precious than silver.
Lord, you are more costly than gold.
Lord, you are more beautiful than diamonds.
Nothing I desire compares with you.
Most of you have probably sung that.
Do you really mean it?
Do you really desire God, more than anything else in life?
And if you did, would it change any of your priorities,
would it change the way you spend your time,
would it change the way you spend your money,
would it change the way you spend your energy,
or what you commit yourself to?
What is it costing you to be a follower of Jesus Christ?
Is your faith based on convenience?
Sure, I’m committed, as long as it’s convenient.
The great part about being a follower of Christ, is that
when we make the decision to give up everything
and follow him,
then He gives us back more than we ever had in the first place,
more love, more joy, more peace,
more of his Spirit guiding and directing us,
more purpose for our lives,
more fulfillment as we see God working in us and through us.
That’s the strange thing about being a believer.
God asks us to give Him everything we’ve got,
and then he blesses us so much that we’ve never had it so good.
We see that at the end of this story of Daniel.
Daniel chooses to give up his life,
so that he can stay faithful to God,
and God not only shuts the mouths of the lions
and protects his life,
but God blesses him incredibly.
Instead of having to hide his prayer to God,
In verse 26 King Darius issues a proclamation that says
everybody in the whole kingdom now must worship the God of Daniel.
And then in verse 28 its says,
So Daniel prospered during the reign of Darius and the reign of Cyrus the Persian.
God protects Daniel from Satan, and blesses him beyond what he imagined,
Why?
Because Daniel chose character over comfort,
discipline over disorder,
and love over life.
God rescued and blessed Daniel,
and God does the same for people today.
Col 1:13-14 TLB
For God has rescued us out of the darkness and gloom of Satan’s kingdom and brought us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, who bought our freedom with his blood and forgave us all our sins.
When we put our trust in God,
we’re delivered from any power
the devil ever had over us.
The only hold Satan has on you is what you give him. If you don’t give him anything,
he’s already lost.
And when we live a life,
filled with God’s Spirit and living in holiness and peace and humility,
by forgiving others,
and asking forgiveness.
If you live like that, Satan can’t find a place to attack you,
he can’t find a foothold,
and he’s going to lose every time he tries to attack you,
so eventually he’ll get tired and go find an easier target.
Let me close with one last verse, Romans 16:19-20 (MSG Paraphrase)
Stay alert …. and before you know it the God of peace will come down on Satan with both feet, stomping him into the dirt. Enjoy the best of Jesus!
That’s the real key.
We want to enjoy the best of Jesus,
and the real life that he has to offer,
not just eternal life, but a great life here and now.
How do you get that life, if you don’t have it?
Not thru religion, but thru a relationship with Jesus.
Some of you this morning may not be sure that you have a personal relationship with God, thru Jesus.
I’m not talking about a religion,
where you show up at church and obey the rules,
and try to do your best.
That won’t do it.
You need a personal relationship with God.
You need to know him personally,
by inviting him into your life
and making him the manager of your life.
STAND and PRAY
