Daniel 5 - It’s Not About You
Main Idea: We must bring glory to the God who created, sustains, and saves us.
WE INSTINCTIVELY GLORIFY OURSELVES
We glorify ourselves by how we spend.
We glorify ourselves by what we say.
We glorify ourselves by who we support.
WE CAN INTENTIONALLY GLORIFY GOD
We glorify God by refusing greed.
We glorify God by revering Him.
GOD WILL INEVITABLY BE GLORIFIED
He is sovereign over all nations and circumstances.
He is Savior of those who trust in Him.
Sermon Transcript (Auto-Transcribed by Apple Podcasts)
This week, we are in Daniel chapter five, and the title of today's message is, It's Not About You. It's not about you.
My dad would testify about maybe 25, almost 26 years ago, when my younger sister Harmony was born, I was, what, 18 months, 20 months, something like that.
And when my sister was born, they have a great video of, I think it's a video, if I remember correctly, of me entering into the room and with my new baby sister right there, I was so excited.
And do you remember what I said, dad, when I entered the room? Balloons. And though there's the miracle of new life and new family members, what I was intent on in that moment was, here's something for me.
It's about me. And certainly, that is true for us as we look at the world around us, as we look at our relationships, we tend to make it all about ourselves, where scripture would tell us, even as we learn today, it's not about us.
One pastor once said, part of the identity of humanity is our capacity for religion.
Calvin several hundred years ago had made the observation that man is an idol factory, so committed to religion that even if he removes himself from the living God, he will replace his concept of God with a God made of his own hands.
Luther, in similar fashion, commented that man, if he has no God, will make an idol because he has to have something. Today, we are all intent on glorifying something. Sometimes it's ourselves, sometimes it's a sports team.
I'm not getting after any of you Ravens fans, even after what y'all did to my Broncos. We all want to glorify something. There's something that we give our lives in service to, something that we support more than anything else.
Sometimes it can be a political figure, sometimes for some people it can be sports, it could be recreation, it could even be different family members that we would say, this is what I have devoted my life entirely to.
It's what consumes my words, it's what consumes my time, it's what consumes the money that I have. All of us want to glorify something, but we're learning today that we need to glorify God.
The Book of Daniel, as we've seen, it details the lives of some Jewish boys that around the turn of the 6th century BC., they were kidnapped when Jerusalem was ransacked. They were taken hundreds of miles away from home.
They were made eunuchs and were forced to serve in the court of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. They decided to live for God despite their circumstances.
And they show us an example of what it looks like to thrive in exile, to live in a place that's not our final home, but to still glorify God and to live lives in that place, to live for the Lord in a culture that does not.
Several decades have now passed since that initial story that we read. So we're no longer looking at about 600 BC. We're looking at about 650, 640, maybe even a little bit after that BC at the very end of the Babylonian Empire.
Nebuchadnezzar is now dead and gone. His son-in-law Nabonidus is fighting for Babylon's survival and is losing badly.
And Nebuchadnezzar's crown regent grandson, Belshazzar, is hosting a party of desperation in besieged Babylon as the Medo-Persian Empire prepares to supplant the once proud nation as the rulers of most of the known world.
In a drunken stupor, Belshazzar brings in the items from Jerusalem's temple that his grandfather had taken decades before, and he utilizes those cups and bowls to worship the false gods of Babylon.
But the god of Israel had not been unempowered by the temple's destruction or its contents being robbed. He was still very alive and active, and he made a personal appearance that evening.
As Belshazzar and Babylon learned that night, we're going to learn today as well that we must bring glory to the god who created, sustains, and saves us. We must bring glory to the god who created, sustains, and saves us.
Let's open in a word of prayer, and we'll get into our passage this morning. Dear Jesus, thank you for today. God, we think of many hearts right now, some that are rejoicing, some that are in sorrow.
And God, we ask that you would be with each person. Lord, as we consider our lives and what we spend our lives in and doing, may the focus be brought back to you time and time and time again. We love you, God, and we pray all of this in your name.
Amen. Let's begin reading in Daniel chapter five and beginning in verse number one.
The words will be on the screen from the verses, or if you have a physical copy of God's word, or if you have a Bible app or something on your phone, you can follow along. Would encourage you to do so as we walk through it today.
King Belshazzar held a great feast for a thousand of his nobles and drink wine in their presence here. As I mentioned, Babylon is currently under siege by the Medo-Persian Empire.
This is not the time when you want to throw a gigantic party and get riotously drunk. Frankly, this is kind of just a last-ditch effort to be like, hey, guys, keep your spirits up. I'm sure that everything's going to go completely fine.
Belshazzar, as I mentioned, is the crown regent. His father, Nabonidus, is away fighting battles and losing them. And so Belshazzar is currently the one that is in command of the actual city of Babylon.
It was a formidable city. We'll get more to that later.
Verse number two, under the influence of the wine, Belshazzar gave orders to bring in the gold and silver vessels that his predecessor Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple in Jerusalem so that the king and his nobles, wives and concubines could
drink from them. So they brought in the gold vessels that had been taken from the temple, the house of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, wives and concubines drank from them.
They drank the wine and praised their gods made of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone. I want you to think about that real quick.
In a moment of siege, in a moment where you don't know how long you're going to live or you're going to last, I don't really know that I'd be spending my time praising the gods that had not done anything for me. The gods hadn't given Babylon victory.
The gods hadn't kept the Medo-Persians away or made them allies. And yet, these people were putting their trust in things that could not save them. I want to remind you today that our salvation is not found in earthly possessions.
It's not found in great times or experiences. It's not found in political figures or parties. Salvation is only found through Jesus Christ.
What he has accomplished for us on the cross, where he took our place, he died for us, paid the price of redemption in full so that we could be reconciled to God. That's the God that we can call on.
And even as we think about what the Hebrew children did, Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael, or Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, as you might know them, even as they expressed a couple chapters previously, they said, we believe God can save us, but even
if he doesn't, we are still worshiping him. They knew that not every circumstance will always be good, but they knew who could save them and who ended up saving them.
For these individuals, the gods of silver and wood and stone and gold, they did nothing for them, as we'll see as we continue on.
Verse number five, at that moment, the fingers of a man's hand appeared and began writing on the plaster of the king's palace wall next to the lampstand.
As the king watched the hand that was writing, his face turned pale and his thoughts so terrified him that he soiled himself and his knees knocked together.
If you have maybe a more literal translation, it might say the knots of his loins or his legs were loose. He is absolutely petrified. A very drunk person, as he sees a hand, began to write on the wall of his palace.
He's in the palace because he's expecting safety from everything outside and he didn't realize that even as he had brought in these vessels from the temple in Jerusalem, that there was a God who he was accountable to.
Verse number seven, the king shouted to bring in the mediums, Chaldeans and diviners.
He said to these wise men of Babylon, whoever reads this inscription and gives me its interpretation will be clothed in purple, have a gold chain around his neck and have the third highest position in the kingdom.
Notice here, he says third highest position. This isn't that he's saying, hey, I'm number one, and I like someone else more for number two. If you'll recall, Belshazzar is technically the second in command of the kingdom at the moment.
His father away at battle is the first. So he says, someone's gotta tell me what in the world this writing on the wall is.
Verse number eight, so all the king's wise men came in, but none could read the inscription or make its interpretation known to him.
These people that were supposed to be the smartest guys around were incapable of providing what Belshazzar needed to know. Then King Belshazzar became even more terrified. His face turned pale and his nobles were bewildered.
Because of the outcry of the king and his nobles, the queen, this would be the queen mother, came to the banquet hall. May the king live forever, she said. Don't let your thoughts terrify you or your face be pale.
There is a man in your kingdom who has a spirit of the holy gods in him. In the days of your predecessor, he was found to have insight, intelligence, and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods.
Your predecessor, King Nebuchadnezzar, appointed him chief of the magicians, mediums, chaldeans, and diviners.
Your own predecessor, the king, did this because Daniel, the one the king named, Belteshazzar, was found to have an extraordinary spirit, knowledge, and intelligence, and the ability to interpret dreams, explain riddles, and solve problems.
Therefore, summon Daniel, and he will give the interpretation. Here, a person that had been around the king's court for a couple decades knew about this man who had once been young.
He's much older now, and we'll see how he interacts with King Belteshazzar in a second.
But she remembers what Daniel had done, the times in which he had given King Nebuchadnezzar advice and counsel, and when he had made known to him what God wanted him to know. And as a result, she tells him, just call for Daniel.
Daniel will get it sorted out. He helped the crown once, and he'll definitely help you out again. Verse number 13, then Daniel was brought before the king.
The king said to him, Are you Daniel, one of the Judean exiles that my predecessor, the king, brought from Judah? I've heard that you have a spirit of the gods in you, and that insight, intelligence, and extraordinary wisdom are found in you.
Now the wise men and mediums were brought before me to read this inscription and to make its interpretation known to me, but they could not give its interpretation. However, I've heard about you, that you can give interpretations and solve problems.
Therefore, if you can read this inscription and give me its interpretation, and you will be clothed in purple, have a gold chain around your neck, and have the third highest position in the kingdom, then Daniel answered the king.
If perhaps the king, whether current President Biden or next up President Trump, if he called one of you in and he said, hey, Jim, I'm gonna make you third in charge. I'll make you as secretary of state.
I'll make you the head of the Senate, whatever. If you can do this for me, you might be very thankful. You might say, oh, thank you, sir.
I'm honored by that. That's great. It's not how Daniel responded.
Then Daniel answered the king, verse 17. You may keep your gifts and give your rewards to someone else. However, I will read the inscription for the king and make the interpretation known to him.
Your Majesty, the most high God gave sovereignty, greatness, glory and majesty to your predecessor, Nebuchadnezzar. Because of the greatness he gave him, all peoples, nations and languages were terrified and fearful of him.
As you look back at archaeology and read about the insanely terrible things that Babylon did to the people that they ruled over, you would absolutely agree with this statement. You can read one of the more graphic chapters in scripture.
It's Psalm 136 or 137, where the children of Israel grief-stricken over how Babylon had so demolished and treated them and their families. They prayed to God, God, we wish that they would get what they did to us.
They even bashed our baby's heads out against rocks. God, would you punish this evil nation?
And here Daniel reiterates to Belshazzar, your kingdom was amazing, not in the sense of all the good things it did, but it was fear-inducing, it was terrifying to encounter the Babylonians.
He says, he killed anyone he wanted and kept alive anyone he wanted. He exalted anyone he wanted and humbled anyone he wanted. Nebuchadnezzar was a complete tyrant and despot.
Whatever he wanted, it happened. Verse 20, but when his heart was exalted and his spirit became arrogant, he was deposed from his royal throne and his glory was taken from him. We read about this last week.
He was driven away from people. His mind was like an animal's. He lived with wild donkeys.
He was fed grass like cattle and his body was drenched with dew from the sky until he acknowledged that the Most High God is ruler over human kingdoms and sets anyone he wants over them.
We read about that last week where Nebuchadnezzar, he lost his mind, went insane. And for several years, he basically just lived like an animal, completely unkempt, no care for his own personal hygiene or interaction with other people.
He was driven out from his role. And then when he came back into his right mind, had a few more years as king. Verse number 22, But you, his successor, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, even though you knew all this.
Instead, you have exalted yourself against the Lord of the heavens. The vessels from his house were brought to you.
And as you and your nobles, wives, and concubines drink wine from them, you praise the gods made of silver and gold, bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see, hear, or understand.
But you have not glorified the God who holds your life breath in his hand and who controls the whole course of your life. I want to stop there at verse number 23 real quick.
I want to ask you this morning, are you glorifying the God who holds your life in his hand and the one who controls the whole course of your life? Are you living your life apart from Jesus?
Are you living your life in the way that you see fit or are you following his word?
There is a God who loves you, who created you, who knows you personally, has known you from all of eternity past, knew who you would be born to, where you would be born, what you would do with your life, who would know your job, your friends, your
loved ones. And he has a plan and purpose for your life that you would know Jesus Christ as your Lord and your Savior, that you would call on him, that you would pursue him with your life, that you would be joined with his people, and that you would
invite others to know Jesus as well. Are you following God's path for your life? Are you glorifying God? Verse number 24, Therefore he God sent the hand, and this writing was inscribed.
This is that final wake up call to Belshazzar. Verse 25, this is the writing that was inscribed. Meany, meany, tekel, and parson.
This is the interpretation of the message. These are Aramaic words. Meany means that God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end.
God's the one that decides when kingdoms and kings and political parties and everything, when they have their start and when they have their stop.
And that goes for whether you like that particular king or political party or not, the same truth exists. God has numbered the days of the kingdom of Babylon, brought it to an end.
Tekel means that you have been weighed on the balance and found deficient. Can I tell you, this doesn't just go for King Belshazzar and for Babylon. That is God looked at their actions, their words, their beliefs and their behaviors.
And he said, this is wrong. And so judgment, punishment, the end of the kingdom is coming on them. There is a judgment day that is coming for you as well.
If you're a person, you wouldn't necessarily call yourself a Christian, you don't know if Jesus is your Savior and your Lord.
There is a day of judgment coming where scripture says the books will be open and you will be judged by the things that you have done, whether good or bad. And scripture tells us this, that there is no one righteous, not even one.
James chapter two tells us if you keep all of God's law and yet break even one point, you are as guilty as if you had broken all of God's law. Think about it this way. There's some glass over there for those windows.
You could throw a rock or shoot something through one portion of that glass, one portion of that window. And you could say, well, I didn't break all of the window, but you break one, the entire thing is broken.
And so it is with your soul today that if you have ever sinned against God, if you have ever lied, if you have ever lusted in your heart, if you have ever been unreasonably angry with someone else, Jesus tells us that we have all sinned.
And because of our sin, we are headed for destruction and judgment, what the Bible calls hell. But the Bible also tells us this, that Jesus did not want us to die in our sin. That was our natural state.
That's where we were all headed for. We were headed in alienation from God, that we had rejected His way of doing life. And so instead of embracing God in His life, we were headed for death.
But Jesus came. And the Bible says this, God loved the world in this way, that He sent His one and only Son, so that whoever believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life.
The Bible says, by grace, you have been saved through faith, and that not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not from works, so that no one is able to boast. The Bible says, the wages of sin is death.
What you get for your sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
If you don't know Jesus as your Savior today, today can be the day that you call on Him, that you say, Jesus, I realize that I am a sinner, that I have disobeyed what you have said in your word.
And so, God, I'm turning from my way, from following just what I want for my life. I am accepting Jesus as my Savior. I accept the payment that He paid for my sins, and I'm going to follow God's way now.
The Bible says whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. You don't have to clean up your act before you get to Jesus. You can turn to Him.
You don't have to do enough good works to get to Jesus. You can turn to Him and find salvation. I encourage you, if you've never done that, do so today.
Call on Him. Ask Him to save you and He will do it. As Jesus says, no one that comes to me will I ever cast out.
What a wonderful truth.
And for the Christian today, there will come a day when your works will be looked at, not for the sake of your soul and eternity in heaven or hell, but at that judgment seat of Christ, where our goal ought to be, God, I want to do everything for you
so that when I come to that day, that I will be rewarded for the good that I've done, and I can bring those crowns and all of the glory to you because you are worthy of it all. Christians, let us live our lives in light of that coming judgment day
that we would exalt and glorify Jesus. Then verse 28, Perez means that your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and Persians. This was kind of a joint country during that time period. So Daniel gives the interpretation of the dream.
Verse 29, then Belshazzar gave an order, and they clothed Daniel in purple, placed a gold chain around his neck, and issued a proclamation concerning him that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom.
That very night, Belshazzar, the king of the Chaldeans, was killed, and Darius the Mede received the kingdom at the age of 62. Just as Daniel had warned, he said, this kingdom is not lasting. It's ending.
It's divided. It's been judged and found to be deficient, and so it's going to this new place. Belshazzar didn't listen, and as a result, Belshazzar goes off the scene.
He is killed, and Daniel is saved alive, as we'll see later on. So what do we learn from this? There's a couple hundred, well, over 2,000, about 2,500 year old account.
What can we learn from this? How does this tell us that it's not about us? How does this inform us on how we ought to glorify God?
I want us to look at three things this morning. Number one, what we can learn from Belshazzar is that we instinctively glorify ourselves. We want to praise us.
We want to benefit us. We make the little idol factory and we set up a little Bryon or a little John and we say, okay, I'm gonna do everything I can for this person. Well, how do we do that?
How do we glorify or worship ourselves? First, we glorify ourselves by how we spend.
You can look at the Feast Extravagance that it was put on for a thousand nobles that the king and his nobles and his wives and his concubines, they all were enjoying this thing. And so we too glorify ourselves by how we spend.
Paul tells the church at Colossi that greed is idolatry.
As we look back in human history and we think about specific times and places where people set up little wooden gods or little silver gods, we go, man, how silly were those people to think that those things could benefit their life.
But I wonder today if we don't have our own gods of our checking accounts, or if we have our own gods of our amazing possessions and we say, this is going to bring me happiness, just like other ones would look at an idol and say, hey, this invisible
god that's behind this little figurine, he will help me to have success in my crops, or he will help me to have a large family, or he will help the weather to be what I want. Certainly, we can think that our financial status will get us everything
that we want in life. Hebrews chapter 13 in verses five and six, the writer would tell us keep your life free from the love of money and be content with what you have. Do you glorify yourself with your money?
Matthew chapter six in the Sermon on the Mount, Christ would tell us, don't store your money, your possessions up on land, but in heaven. Live for the kingdom of heaven, not the kingdom of earth.
He tells them where your treasure is, that is where your heart will also be. Can I tell you today, one way to know, where am I in my life? What do I value?
Where is my heart? Is to look at your checkbook. Or if you're my age and don't have as many checkbooks, look at your credit card statement.
It'll inform you as to where your heart is. Is your heart just consumed with you? Is your heart towards generosity towards others?
Is your heart towards loving the Lord and His work? Is your heart towards the betterment of other people, or is it just building wealth for yourself?
Jesus closes that section of the Sermon on the Mount by saying the statement, no man can serve two masters. You cannot serve God and money.
Money is one of the easier things that we can physically see and look at and go, okay, where is this headed in my life? Can I encourage you? We glorify ourselves by how we spend.
How are you spending? Secondly, we glorify ourselves by what we say. And we can see this through how Belshazzar, he gives this glory to the idols.
Other people give some honor to Belshazzar. Other people, the Queen Mother and Belshazzar, they give glory to Daniel, and they're just building them up and saying, you've got so much wisdom and intelligence and greatness all on your own.
And we tend to glorify ourselves or our own idols by what we say. Proverbs 20 and verse six says, most people will proclaim their own goodness, but who can find a faithful person?
First Samuel two and verse three says, do not boast so proudly, or let arrogant words come out of your mouth, for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and actions are weighed by him.
We tend to exalt ourselves, to lift ourselves up, to paint ourselves in the best possible light.
But James four and verses 13 through 16 say, come now, you who say, today or tomorrow, we'll travel to such and such a city and spend a year there and do business and make a profit.
Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring or what your life will be, for you are like vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you should say, if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.
But as it is, you boasting your arrogance, all such boasting is evil. With your words, do you glorify yourself or do you benefit others? Do you benefit the Lord?
As you look at your texts, at your letters, your emails, your social media, what do you draw attention to time and time and time again? Is it yourself and your own greatness or do you bring attention to the Lord?
And lastly, we glorify ourselves by who we support.
You can look at how the people here, they're bringing all this honor for Belshazzar, even though he's sadly lacking any legitimate reason for them to be supporting or exalting him or to say, hey, live forever, when he wouldn't even make it through
the night. I think of one man who's written a book, We Become What We Worship.
And he looks at in the Old Testament how those that worshiped the idols, these false gods in Israel, they ended up becoming like them, that the idols they couldn't see, they couldn't hear, they couldn't respond.
And just like that, the people that worshiped them, they couldn't see or hear or respond to what God was telling them.
And they ignored him, that people that were involved in different types of human sacrifices, as they were then killed and their bodies were burned on funeral pyres, just as they had burned other humans, that we become what we worship.
Who you look up to, who you idolize, who you post about, who you brag about to others, it has a forming emphasis and impact on your soul. Who do you want to be like?
Who do you look at character traits of and say, that's the kind of person that I want to be? Because I'll tell you, who that is in your life will play an impact on your words. It'll play an impact on your thoughts.
It'll impact how you live your life. Do the people that you talk about, post about, listen to music from or et cetera, bring glory to God or to themselves?
Then not only do we instinctively glorify ourselves like Belshazzar, but as we can see from the life of Belshazzar, from Daniel, that we can intentionally glorify God. It's natural for us to exalt just human people.
It's natural for us to exalt ourselves, but God wants us to glorify Him, and we can do that. As we see in the life of Daniel, we can glorify God by refusing greed, that when all of these things were offered to him, he says, you keep it all.
I have no desire for it. Here's what God says. We can glorify God by refusing greed.
Acts chapter 2 says, now all the believers in that early church, they were together, and they held all their things in common. They sold their possessions and property and distributed the proceeds to all as any had need.
One way that we can glorify God is to say, money doesn't own me, God owns me. Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 16 says, don't neglect to do what is good and to share, for God is pleased with such sacrifices.
And Galatians 6 and verse 10 says, therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone, especially to those in the family of faith.
Can I tell you today, greed can be, I won't give what I do have, and greed can also be, I won't give until I have. And can I encourage you, let's reject both.
Let's not just say, okay, if I get this amount of money in the bank, then I'll be generous to others, then I'll give to God's work, then I will be sacrificial in my giving to others.
Let's not wait until we have, let's be faithful with what God has given us before expecting him to give us any more.
I think of the promise in 2 Corinthians 9, where the apostle Paul writes, now the one who provides seed for the sower and bread for food will also provide and multiply your seed and increase the harvest of your righteousness.
That God provides for everything that you have, every penny in your account, God is placed there. And he is able to make that increase. He says, you will be enriched in every way for all generosity, which produces thanksgiving to God through us.
That as we give, as Christ would tell us, as the psalmist would tell us, give and it will be given to you. And that is how we ought to live our life, by a refusal of greed. Secondly, we glorify God by revering him.
We ought to praise God with our words, that we would speak well of him. We wouldn't take his name in vain. That we would boast about everything that he has done in our lives.
Not boasting in ourselves, but boasting in God. We ought to praise God, revere him with our singing. We ought to revere him with even our social media posts or our texts.
We ought to revere him with spending time with him, whether reading the word of God or time in prayer or time gathering together with his people. We ought to glorify God by revering him, by taking set aside time in our life for devotions for him.
And then lastly, God will inevitably be glorified. So we naturally glorify ourselves. God wants us and has enabled us to be able to glorify him through our lives.
But in the end, God will be glorified. And we see this very clearly in this chapter that whether Belshazzar recognized who God was or what God had done or what God had done in the life of Nebuchadnezzar before him, it didn't matter.
God was still going to get the glory. First, God is sovereign over all nations and circumstances. Psalm chapter two says, why do the nations rage and the peoples imagine vain things?
Why do they think that they are going to overcome the Lord? It says, he who sits in the heavens laughs at them. The one who sits and thrown in heaven will have them in derision.
That no one is a threat to God. God is the one that is sovereign over all nations and circumstances. He sets up kings and tears down kings.
He holds your life in his hands. He has counted the days that you have left. Even as we look at the books of Daniel and the book of Acts in the New Testament, it shows us that God is in control of the lives of those even in government.
You can look at King Herod in Acts chapter, I believe it's 11 or 12, and how the moment that God said his life is over, he was done. Or with the life of King Nebuchadnezzar or Belshazzar. When God says your time is up, it's up.
And so we don't have to be fearful or worried about the nations of this world because we know the one that is over it all. But not only is God sovereign, he is also the savior of those who trust in him.
As I mentioned earlier in John chapter one, the writer would tell us, as many as receive him, Jesus, to those people that receive Jesus, he has given the power to become the children of God to those that believe on his name.
In John three, we are given eternal life through Jesus' work, through believing in Christ.
In second Corinthians five, we learn that we are forgiven and commissioned to be those that would tell others about Jesus because of what Jesus has done for us, that he has reconciled us to God, and we are called to bring that reconciliation to
others. And Peter, Paul and Silas, David and Daniel here, they all highlight for us that God can protect and provide for and save us in impossible situations.
That normally, if you're one of the advisors to a king of a nation that's being destroyed, you're not likely to make it through that invasion of the capital city.
And yet, that's exactly what happened to Daniel, that he lived for several years more, as we'll see next week.
And this Savior, the one that protects us in our everyday life and our everyday walk, he is also the one that one day every single person will confess that he is Lord to the glory of God the Father, as Philippians chapter two tells us.
God, just two questions for you here at the end. When I ask you today, in what ways are you glorifying yourself in your life? How are you spending your money?
What are you talking about? Who do you look up to and support? Are you glorifying God?
Are you refusing greed and are you revering God and giving your entire life entirely to Him? Today, the question for you is, we're all going to glorify something, but we must glorify the God who created us, who sustains us and who saves us.
