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Crossroads Community Church


Sunday May 3rd, 2015
An air of celebration was in the air this morning as we marked our third anniversary. We give glory and thanks to the Lord for his loving guidance and blessings. Pastor Don shared announcements and prayed, “Dear Father God we come humbly before you with grateful expectant hearts, lead us by your grace to remain faithful and full of integrity as we stand for what we know about you, in Jesus' name Amen.”
Last week we learned about the integrity of Daniel and his great love and reverence for the Lord. We also saw the great cost for the faithful integrity of Shadrach, Mesheach and Abednego. These four men did not bow down to the pressures of King Nebuchadnezzar, nor did they copy the behaviour of those around them, their trust and dependency was on God alone, (Romans 12:2).We continue today to see how far Daniel's integrity was tested. Although King Nebuchadnezzar eventually acknowledged that Jehovah God was powerful, he did not follow and serve Him. His profession didn't equate to possessing faith in God. The King as we know trusted Daniel to interpret dreams and in Daniel 4:1-8, the King once again had a dream, he called upon faithful Daniel and he was able to interpret the dream again by depending on God's power. In verses 24-27, Daniel warned the king of his judgement and punishment if he continued in his evil ways instead of God's path.
Unfortunately the king did not heed the warning and the dream came to fulfillment one year later, we read in verses 28-33, that for 7 years the king went insane, lost all power and glory, because the king was prideful the Lord humbled him,
After his time of chastisement, the Lord restored clarity of mind to the King, consequently the king realized that all he had ever accomplished in his life was by God's grace and mercy. The remainder of his reign he continued to praise God.
When King Nebuchadnezzar past away, his son Belshazzar came to power and Daniel's stature and responsibilities changed. In Daniel 5 we read this king was wicked and during a certain festivity he was misusing the Lord's sacred temple cups and goblets. Suddenly he and his guests saw fingers writing on the wall, but they could not understand it. He summoned the diviners to interpret but they could not. His wife reminded him of a certain man who could interpret such things named Daniel. Sure enough, Daniel at great risk to his life trusted the power of God and was able to tell Belshazzar that God was sending judgement upon him for his evil deeds. “This is the inscription that was written: mene, mene, tekel, parsin 26 “Here is what these words mean: Mene: God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end.27 Tekel: You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting.28 Peres]: Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.” That very night the King was killed and the kingdom was split amongst Medes and Persia.
Again the integrity and consistency of Daniel made the other wise men in the kingdom look bad and became jealous so they had a plan to get rid of him. They knew he prayed 3 times a day, so they would use it as a trap. In Daniel 6 we read that they convinced the new king to decree an order that whoever bows and worships any other than the king should be thrown to the lions. This did not deter Daniel from living faithfully before his God, he did not give in to fear and he continued to pray 3 times daily. As you may have guessed it he was caught and brought before the king. This greatly saddened the king as he also had grown fond of Daniel and respected him, he did not want Daniel to die, but a decree is a decree. Before throwing Daniel into the lion's den He said “May your God, whom you serve so faithfully, rescue you.”
That night the king was restless, and the very next morning went to see what had happened to Daniel. Once at the den to his great joy, he saw Daniel's life was spared, God had rescued Daniel for his integrity and this caused the king to praise the living God.
Beloved the cost of our integrity may be at a great risk to our lives, but we know that God loves us and he corrects us when we have gone astray. He wants us to walk and talk in a faithful manner before Him to preserve our salvation and bring salvation to those around us, (1 Timothy 4:16) God also chastises and resists the proud but gives grace to the humble, (James 4:6). And if we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us so we can leave our past behind and look forward to what lies ahead. May the Lord bless you and keep you under His grace, Asherey Shalom.
Post date: 2015-06-04 09:16:16
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