Today we move to a new a new
era in our continuing journey through
time, as we “Experience the Bible” right
here on Sunday mornings. We began this series by reflecting upon how
Jesus was tempted by the devil in the dessert while He was praying. Jesus was a man, and He suffered from
temptations, just like we all do. But
Jesus found the “Word of God” to be a source of strength and comfort, so was freed from the devil’s overtures to
sin. Jesus found the strength to stand
his ground, and the devil gave up….at least temporarily. (For those of you watching the Bible series
on the History Channel, tonight you see this story dramatized as part of the
show)
So, three weeks ago we built
on that by exploring just how God is working to free us to live in communion
with Him. Would you please take out the
insert from your bulletin, entitled “Basic outline of Old Testament
History.” This is a document that you
should take home and put right in your bible.
It makes a wonderful reference.
Let’s look at the introduction at the top of the page:
BASIC OUTLINE OF OLD TESTAMENT HISTORY
(Introduction)
The term’ Old Testament’ means ‘Old Covenant,” containing the Hebrew Scriptures. God spoke His Word through the Hebrew
scriptures, establishing His unique relationship with the descendents of Abraham,
& his wife Sarah, Isaac & his wife
Rebecca, Moses, King David, and the people of Israel. The ‘New Testament scriptures’ refer to the
New Covenant of Jesus Christ, whereby He invites all people to become part of
His family
I. PATRIARCHS 2000BC In our 2nd sermon,
we saw how the story of ABRAHAM AND Issac prefigures the sacrifice Christ made
so that we can be freed from sin.
II. SOJOURN IN EGYPT So, moving
to point # 2----from 1875 to 1450 BC, God’s people were enslaved in Egypt. However, God is a god who opposes tyranny and oppression, and
so we learned how God miraculously freed the slaves in the
Exodus.
III. EXODUS 1450 BC
IV. CONQUEST
& JUDGES 1400 BC
Then, moving
down to point 5---We saw how David defeated Goliath, the giant & leader of those who wished to imprison and
kill God’s people.
V.
UNITED MONARCHY of ISRAEL —Kings Saul, David & Solomon—1100 BC
VI. DIVIDED MONARCHY: Israel (northern tribes) and Judah (southern tribes) 933 BC
VII.
EXILE 587 BC
(
Outline from William Carey College)
Today’s
installment takes place in point # 7—God’s people had been defeated by the Persians, and they
were then exiled to Persia, where the King of Persia could keep an eye on them. During that time, numbers of
God’s people turned away from the worship of the God of Abraham, Moses &
David—because that made it easier to fit in with the crowd in this foreign land. However, there were those faithful few who
continued to worship God.
One
man who remained faithful to God was the refugee named Daniel. Daniel had distinguished
himself as a man of profound wisdom, insight, conviction, and courage. He was
so outstanding, that the King made him a major leader in his government. However, Daniel had political enemies, who
tricked the King into sentencing Daniel to death because of his faith. You see, Daniel understood that his purpose
in life was not to curry favor with the King, but to love and to worship the
one true God. So, when Daniel refused to
worship the statue of the King, he was sentenced to death.
He was thrown in a den of wild, vicious, and hungry lions.
However, God sent and angel who closed the mouths of the lions. The King was so
shook up, that Daniel not only walked out a free man, but he was promoted to be
chief administrator of the Persian Kingdom.
One
question that this story raises for me is how did Daniel have such
courage…courage to face certain death? He
had the same courage of Jesus, who refused to renounce his faith. But God delivered Daniel from the Lions’ Den—but
God did not deliver Jesus from the cross.
·
Well, looking at
Daniel—I believe that the source of his courage was that Daniel felt free to be
himself, even when the powers and forces from the world tried to pressure Him to conform…….so that he could get along,
so that he could be safe, so that He would not suffer the danger of standing
out from the crowd.
·
You see, it seems
to me that the real miracle of Daniel’s story is not the fact that God sent and
angel to rescue Him. Throughout the
Bible, God does miracles---but it is clear that we have no control over what
God does or doesn’t do. No, the real
miracle here is that Daniel was determined not to let the world take away his
identity, his personality, and his faith.
You see, Daniel was courageous because he understood his purpose in
life.
·
Daniel lived a
purpose driven life. Daniel understood
that he was important to God; that God loved him, and that Daniel’s purpose was
to love, worship, and serve God. Anything
that distracted him from his life purpose was of far less importance, even at
the risk of his own life.
Now most of us will never be asked to sacrifice our
lives as we live out our faith. But like Daniel, we live in a world where there are forces, powers, and people who seek to make us conform……to go
along and get along, to keep our faith hidden under a bush basket, for fear of
incurring rejection…. one way or
another. Some of us may find that there are times when the opinions of others
influence us more than the opinions of the Word of God. Now, I am not talking about everyone going
out and preaching on a street corner and
being obnoxious and offensive. I’m
talking about our desire to conform our behavior by disregarding the Word of
God…to not rock the boat with those close to the Christian faith.
I know of what I speak, because for much of my life, I
was a people pleaser. My family
background as a child of an alcoholic
taught me the importance of not rocking the boat, not speaking out , and
hiding my true identity in order to protect myself from the rejection of
others. As I look back, it seems to me
that my real purpose in life was to do everything possible not to be offensive
in any way.
Well, as I participated in Small groups, as I read the
Bible, as I received prayers for healing—I grew in God’s wisdom to reject that
false purpose. I grew to accept God’s invitation to all of us—the invitation
accepted by Daniel—to live a purpose driven life. Knowing your purpose gives you courage,
wisdom, confidence & clarity.
Now there are people I this parish who have know their
God given purpose for many years. There
are people in this church who learned a lot about this thorough our Purpose
driven Life last year. And then there are many, many of us, who are in a
searching mode—seeking to understand and to grow. My friends, here at Christ Church Quaker
farms, you are free to be yourself. You
are free to have faith, you are free to have doubts. You are free to search, and you are free to
find. And, there are two resources currently being offered that can
encourage and facilitate that growth process:
·
One is our Prayer
and Healing Ministry, which we are offering today while communion is being
administered, and every Wednesday—currently gathering at 6:30 Pm. Come and let our trained prayer counselors
pray with you, that you might find freedom to grow in Christ.
·
The 2nd
resource that we are offering, as many of you know, is Small Groups. The Bible becomes alive in Small groups as we
talk and share and listen. Please feel
free to join us any Friday at 7 pm for our Experiencing the Bible
discussions. Try it one time, and you
will come back.
So,
the message of Daniel was later fulfilled by cross of Christ, who died that we
might all be freed from the forces of sin which would reject us, that we can be
free women and men of God. In so doing, you, too, will experience the Bible.
Amen.
--The Rev. John Donnelly, Christ Church Quaker Farms
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