If you have your Bibles this evening, if you turn over to the book of Daniel, Daniel chapter 6 this evening, Daniel chapter 6, as you're turning to Daniel, I always have to give my world-famous dad joke that my daughters always look at me like, what is your problem? And I always, whenever I tell them the story about Daniel and the lions, and now, of course, now I'm telling Ellie about it, I say, you know, Daniel was thrown into a den, but he was not afraid. In fact, he grabbed his Bible, he laid down, and he read between the lines. Yeah, actually, your response is better than theirs. And Daniel chapter 6 this evening, Daniel chapter 6. I do like the book of Daniel. I would say it's probably one of my favorite books in the Bible. I really do enjoy it. I was younger, the pastor came up and I was actually still in college, I guess, high school, no, yeah, first year of college. And he wanted me during the summertime to teach on a book of the Bible for adult Sunday school. And of course, I was like, I don't know. He said, well, who's one of your favorite characters or favorite books? So I liked Daniel. And he said, that's a good idea. Go ahead and do Daniel. I said, oh, okay. And so I got home and started looking at Daniel. And Daniel chapters 1 through Daniel chapter 6 is a very practical, wonderful stories. And I mean, you know, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, or Hananiah, Mishael, whatever you want to call them, Azariah. You go Daniel purposed in his heart, Daniel chapter 1, Daniel chapter 6, probably one of the most known chapters in the Bible. Daniel in the lion's den, and of course the statue that was 90 foot tall, and representing that this is good, this is great, I really liked it. But then I got into Daniel chapter 7, and Daniel chapter 8. Daniel chapter 9, 10, and so on. And I came back to the pastor, I said, I like practical, but this prophetical stuff, I don't know if that's my cup of tea. And he said, well, too late, you've got it. But as I was looking through and as we got into Daniel chapter 7, I really started to enjoy it. And I'll tell you, as you look at the book of Daniel, it is one of the most attacked books in all of the Word of God. And the reason simply is this, because for Daniel to write what was written hundreds of years before things took place is impossible. But of course we have a God that does the impossible. And so it's very much attacked and people say that it's written a much later date than it is, but God gave him some very interesting understanding. And one of the things I love about Daniel is this, that I know Daniel was not a perfect individual, but Daniel was one of the few people, I think he's one of two in the Bible, I think the other individual may be Joseph, whose whole, for the most part, his whole life is told about him, and yet nothing negative is ever said about Daniel. That's interesting. Was he perfect? Absolutely not. But he was a man that walked with God. And of course, we see that in Daniel chapter 6. And of all the individuals in the Bible as well, Daniel, along with John, is the only two people that are specifically called beloved of God. Daniel said, thou beloved of God. John also was named that. But then again, he did mention some other people. You know who else is beloved of God? We are. God said that we're beloved of Him. Now these are the only two that are mentioned by name, Daniel, thou beloved of God, and of course, John. But the Bible just says that we're beloved of God. That's a wonderful, wonderful thought to think how much that God loves us. We'll come to Daniel chapter six here, and a very familiar passage of scripture, so I'm not gonna try to delve in here and tell you all about it. I think you know most of the story here. But again, it's a great, great chapter, and there's so many things that could be said about it. I guess the topic I want to look at tonight or the thought I want to look about tonight is this, the idea of having faith. And, of course, we get the idea of what faith is. A lot of people have a different idea of what faith is. Hebrews 11, we'll look at it in just a little bit, the Bible says, now faith is the substance of things hoped for. But that word hope is certainly a different word than the way that we use it today, but the idea of faith, and God wants us to have faith in Him. And God wants us to trust Him. And we live in a day and age where we have a lot of freedoms. We have a lot of blessings from God. We live in a great country and we can definitely start to attack it. But let's face it, this is a pretty awesome country. And it really is. We have a lot of freedoms here. I know we're losing our freedoms, and I know there's a lot of things that we could talk about, but God has given the United States of America a lot of prosperity. God has certainly been good to our country, and we benefit from that. But you go back into history, and you look at Christianity in general, Christianity has been very much under attack. If you go back and people being martyred for the cause of Christ, there's several books you could read. Martyrs' Mirrors is a good book, Fox's Book of Martyrs, The Trail of Blood, certain books like that that talk about heroes of the faith, individuals that gave their life, that had faith that God was in control. And I believe that God wants all of us to have that kind of faith too. And there is power in firm faith. And there certainly is. So let's look at Daniel chapter 6. Look, if you will, at verse 10. Daniel chapter 6, verse 10. The Bible says, now, when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house, and his windows being opened, and his chambers toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and he prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime. Then these men assembled and found Daniel praying. Now, by the way, do you think Daniel was a pretty smart guy? Yeah, he was pretty smart. I mean, he was a pretty intelligent individual. God gave him much wisdom and much knowledge. We saw that in Daniel chapter 1. He was able to stand in the king's court as a teenager. And Daniel knew what was taking place here. Daniel knew that they were watching him. But the Bible says, and these men assembled found Daniel praying and making supplication before his God. Then they came near and spake before the king concerning the king's decree. Hast thou not signed a decree that every man that shall ask a petition of any God or man within 30 days, save of thee, O king, shall be cast into a den of lions? The king answered and said, the thing is true, according to the laws of the Medes and Persians. I won't go into a lot of detail, but as you look at Babylonians, the Medo-Persians, the Grecians, and certainly the Romans, you're going to find out that the power becomes dispersed as time goes on. Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, and we can look at other kings, Belshazzar and so on, they had ultimate power. They made a decision, it stuck. And if they wanted to change their mind, they could change their mind. They were the king. But the Medo-Persians had a little bit different set of laws. The king would make a law, but he just could not go back on this law. So he was stuck to the laws of the Medes and Persians, as we see here in verse 12. Verse 13, then answered they and said before the king that Daniel, which is of the children of the captivity of Judah, regardeth not thee, O king, nor the decree that thou hast signed, but maketh his petition three times a day. Then the king, when he heard these words, was sore displeased with himself. He knew he got set up and set his heart on Daniel to deliver him. And he labored till the going down of the sun to deliver him. Then these men assembled unto the king and said unto the king, Know, O king, that the law of the Medes and Persians is, that no creed nor the statute which the king established may be changed. Then the king commanded, and they brought Daniel, and cast him into the den of lions. Now the king spake and said unto Daniel, Thy God, whom thou service continually, he will deliver thee. And a stone was brought and laid upon the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with his own signet, and with the signet of his lord, that the purpose might not be changed, concerning Daniel. For sake of time, we won't go through there, but it was interesting. The king could not sleep all night, but I think Daniel did quite well. And he had a peace. He had a faith that God could and God was in charge. Again tonight, I want to look at just this thought, if I may, for just a few moments on this. There is power in firm faith. Faith that God is in control. Now, I'll be honest with you. I think we all could admit this at times. We do get concerned about things, do we not? We get worried about things. Sometimes we find ourselves thinking too much, and we find ourselves wondering about things. And oftentimes my wife will look at me and say, what are you thinking about? And I say, well, I might say something. And I said, well, how do you know I'm thinking about something? She said, because you're just wondering around in a circle, basically. And you're just kind of wondering, you're just kind of in la-la land. You know, everybody's talking to you and you're going, uh-huh, uh-huh. You ever been there before? And uh-huh, yeah. And then she looks at me and said, what did you just say? Uh, I don't know. All right. And what are you thinking about? And let's be honest, sometimes we find ourselves in predicaments and situations and trials, and oftentimes the devil likes to put thoughts and ideas into our mind. And as a result of that, we become worried, we become troubled, we start to fret just a little bit. And we see here in this pastor's scripture that Daniel certainly had much that he was going through. He was in an adverse situation, probably more than we were. He was thrown into a den of lions. He was in a tough situation, but we see here that Daniel had faith. So tonight, for just the next few minutes here, I want to speak about the importance and the power of having firm faith. Let's ask the Lord to bless. Father, we're so thankful for this evening you've given us. We're thankful for your blessings. And we're thankful for the opportunity that we have to look at your word. And I pray as we do so tonight that you would speak to our hearts. I pray that I wouldn't say anything that I shouldn't say. I pray that I would be led by you. And again, we'll thank you so much for it. Lord, we do love you. And we're so thankful that you sent your son to die on the cross for our sins. And not just that, but you're here with us tonight. And I pray that you would just bless and we'll thank you for it. In Jesus' name, amen. I heard a wise man once say something like this, he said, you seldom get what you deserve from people, so don't expect it. He then said this, you will always get what is best from God, so don't doubt it. And then he ended with this phrase here, your ability to handle both is directly related to your consistency in your faith in God. and your walk with God. There's certainly some truth to that. I read an interesting story of the famed 12th Legion of Rome's Imperial Army. There were 40 soldiers, top-notch, some of the best there was in the known world at that time, and 40 of those individuals professed their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. One day their captain informed him that the emperor had set out an edict commanding all soldiers to offer a sacrifice to pagan gods and to pagan gods alone. These Christian warriors said to their captain, they said this, you can have our armor, you can even have our bodies, but our hearts and our allegiance belong to only one and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. Because of their stance, they were marched out into a frozen lake in the midwinter of A.D. 320. They were stripped of their clothes, and as they were standing there, they began to sing their song of victory. Forty martyrs for Christ. That freezing night saw 39 of these 40 men fall to their icy graves. But there was one man. One man said he could not take it, and he left, and he stumbled back to the shore, and he renounced Christ. The officer that was in charge to watch these 40 men that were out on the ice, and he was guarding them, was listening to their singing, 40 Martyrs for Christ. He had secretly come to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and he immediately replaced that man that had renounced Jesus. He walked under the ice, he threw off his clothes, he confessed his faith in Christ, and at sunrise, when the Roman soldiers found these 40 men, they found 40 men that had given all for the cause of Jesus Christ. Here was 40 people that demonstrated a faith that was firm. They were willing to give up everything because they had faith in Christ. You know, sometimes God prefers to keep us safe from the lion's den, but let's face the fact, sometimes God chooses to keep us safe in the lion's den. That's what we see here in Daniel chapter 6. We see an individual, and we can certainly look at him, a man that had faith. And by the way, to our young people here tonight, his faith that he's an older man here, but it was a faith that was seen throughout his life. He was a man that believed God, and he believed that God would take care of him. Spurgeon once said this, he said about Daniel chapter 6, he said, Here was a man that professed a firm faith in God. He was a man that had faith despite the circumstances. Not about you, but for me, oftentimes, it's easy to stand up for God when things are going well. It's easy to do what's right when everything's great. It's easy to say, I love Jesus when I feel good, and the bank account's good, and everything seems to be going well. But sometimes, in adverse circumstances, we start to question ourselves. We start to wonder, is God faithful? We start to wonder if God will take care of us. We start to wonder if God sees our problems, if God knows our situation. Does God know what I'm going through? But can I encourage you with this tonight, what we need to have as Christians is we need to have a firm faith, despite what the circumstances may be in our life. In Daniel chapter 1, you saw Daniel, a young man. He was a man that was separated. In Daniel chapter 5, you see a middle-aged man that was sold out for God. In Daniel chapter 6, you see an elderly man that was surrendered, no matter what. I don't know about you, but I've seen a few lions in my day. Not in the wild, but I've seen a few lions at the zoo. I could only imagine being thrown into a den of lions, but Daniel had faith that God was in control. Who knows? The lions may have ate him, but Daniel knew that God is in charge of things. And can I remind you of this tonight? No matter the circumstances of your life, no matter who is in the White House, no matter who's the mayor, no matter what trial you may be going through, God is in charge tonight. God's in charge of this thing. Nothing happens in your life and God goes, whoa, that was a shocker. That was a surprise. I never expected something like that to happen. Can I tell you tonight, God is in charge of our life. God knows what's going on and we as individuals need to get our eyes off our trials and our problems and our situations and get our eyes on Jesus. Bible says, looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. You say, that's hard. I understand that. It's hard sometimes. Everything else going on in life, and it's easy to get our eyes on problems, get our eyes on different things, and get our eyes off things that we just seem to worry about. We need to get our eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ. We need to have faith that He's in charge. Hebrews chapter 11 verse 1, a great verse. The Bible says, now faith, get this now, now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Now that word hope in the English language has the idea of wishing. I hope. I hope after the service tonight that, you know what, I'm going to get a good meal. I hope. Alright. In the English language, that's that idea of hope. It's a wishing for. And sometimes in the Christian life, we have this idea that faith is just leaping out into the dark, hoping for the best. You know, the preacher gets up there and he says, you gotta have faith. You gotta have faith that God will supply your needs. Well, I'm just gonna jump and hope for the best. But that is not what biblical faith is. Biblical faith is not jumping out into the dark and wishing for the best. Faith is a conviction of truth that brings an assurance of an eventual outcome. I have faith. That when it's all said and done, God wins this thing. I have faith in that. I have faith that whatever I may be going through in my life, God has a purpose for it. I have faith that this trial that I have, I don't like this trial, I don't like this situation, but God is to be glorified. God is in charge. Faith is not a blind leap, but rather it's solid evidence of the character and the ability of Almighty God to keep His promises. I don't know about you, I'm glad God keeps His promises. I really am. I'm going to throw something out there. My girls oftentimes remind me how I forget my promises sometimes. Ellie, I don't know how, she can't remember anything half the time, but she remembers the promises I make. I'm like, how in the world, you know? You know, I told you to make your bed. Oh, I forgot. I told you to clean your room. Oh, I forgot. It comes down, you know, hey, dad, eight years ago when I was just two years old, you promised that. I'm like, how in the world? But can I tell you something? God never does. God keeps His promises. And faith is that solid evidence of the character and the ability of Almighty God to keep His promises. Faith is stepping forward in obedience to God with full assurance of the outcome is in His hands. That's what it is. And God always does what's best. God always does what's best. God always does what's best for us and does what's best for His glory. I heard a story about a man one time, he had a son, and they were out in the country, and hey, you know, they found a little, slight little hill, a mountain of sorts, and they decided they were going to climb that little short, small little cliff. And so his son took off being younger and, you know, had a little more energy and he started climbing that cliff and the dad walked over to that cliff there and all of a sudden as he was getting ready to climb the cliff there, he heard a voice from above and it yelled this, hey dad, catch me. He turned around to see his son joyfully jumping off a rock straight at him. jumped and then yelled, hey dad! Anybody ever done something like that? Have their kids do something like that? Hey dad! And he turned around, he had jumped and he yelled, hey dad. The father became an instant circus act, caught his son, they both fell to the ground, and for a moment the father could say absolutely nothing. He was astounded that his son literally jumped and then yelled at him to catch him. Finally, after he caught his breath, and for a moment there, he gasped in expiration. He said, son, can you give me one reason why you just did that? The son responded with this remarkable calmness. He said, sure, because you're my dad. You're my dad. And his son had faith and assurance, and you know what it was based on? It was based on the simple fact that he knew his father was trustworthy. Can I tell you tonight, God is trustworthy. No matter what we may be going through, no matter what our situation may be, God is always there, and as a Christian, I have faith in his awesome ability to take care of me. James chapter 1 verse 2, the Bible says, My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations, knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience, but let patience have her perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. You know there's gonna be a lot of things in our life that test our faith. Don't let that frighten you. When those situations come into your life, instead of becoming frightened, believe and trust God that He will do what's best for you. And that He will do what's best for His glory. And when we remain firm in our faith, we will become more mature. We will become firmer in our faith in Him. And that's the story that we have tonight. And we see a man that was firm in his faith. He had affliction, he had circumstances that certainly were not great. There was a guy that was going to get thrown into a lion's den. But you know what? He had faith in Almighty God. Let me just give you a couple points tonight when it comes to the idea of firm faith. The first thing is this. When we understand, we must first of all understand that firm faith does mean that we will at times face persecution. Look at, if you will, at chapter 6, verse 3. Then this Daniel was preferred above the presidents and princes because he had an excellent spirit that was in him, and the kings thought to set him over the whole realm. Then the presidents and the princes sought to find occasion against Daniel concerning the kingdom, but they could find none occasion nor fault for as much as he was faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in him. There's an interesting verse over in 2 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 12. The Bible says this, If you choose to live for the Lord Jesus Christ, you know what? You're going to have trouble sometime. You're going to have problems sometime. Now, we as Americans, sometimes we get to this point, that's just not fair. And I'll be honest with you, there's been times in my life where that's just not fair. Here I am God, I'm living for you, I'm doing this, I'm doing this, I'm doing that, and I'm trying to live right, and here's this thing upon my life, and I say it's just not fair. But can I tell you something? There's a lot of people in the Bible that went through persecution. We're not exempt just because we're saved. The Bible says those that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Can I tell you something? There's a lot of people that suffered persecution. The disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, they first faced persecution. The Apostle Paul, he faced persecution. The early church, they faced persecution. Most importantly, Jesus faced great persecution. And it goes without saying, the followers of the Lord Jesus Christ will face persecution. I heard a little, a person once say this, a little saying, he says, whom Christ blesses, the world curses. And the heirs of heaven that have never been, have never been the darling, darlings of this world. Charles Haddon Spurgeon, he had this on his wall, it was a little, that verse over in Isaiah chapter 48, it said this, I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. That was an interesting passage, or passage of scripture, and they said when he died, they took that off his wall. I looked into Spurgeon a little bit. Spurgeon was an interesting man. He was called the Prince of Preachers. He was a great man of God, but he suffered greatly as a preacher. In fact, he died at an early age, and if I remember right, he dealt with the problem of gout. And he suffered with that, and not only that, but he suffered great depression at times because of his great sickness. But on his wall he had those words, I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. So we often times think, well, I've given my life to God, I have decided that I'm going to serve him, so I should never have problems. And by the way, if you turn on the, if you can't sleep at night, and you turn on the TV, and you hear these prosperity gospel preachers, that's exactly what they say. You know, if you serve God, every person that serves God will have a chicken in every pot, in a car, in every garage, or something like that. You know, if you serve God, you won't have problems, you'll have all kinds of money. But biblically speaking, when we have a faith in Almighty God, there will be times that we will face persecution. But that's not a bad thing. Because quite simply, persecution produces great faith, if we allow it to. We have to understand that firm faith means there will be persecution. His firm faith, by the way, it cultivated his life. You know, this is not the first time that he had to exercise faith. You go all the way back to Daniel chapter 1. Daniel chapter 1 verse 8, the Bible says this, but Daniel, he purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself. Here's a young man that had been torn from his home, torn from everything he knew, torn from life itself. And yet he purposed in his heart, he had a faith that God was in charge. George Mueller said this, we ought to, instead of wanting no trials before victory, no exercise before patience, to be willing to take them from God's hand as a means. Trials, get this now, he said this, trials, obstacles, difficulties, and sometimes defeat, you're gonna hate this, are good for faith. Let me say that again. He said this, he said trials, obstacles, difficulties, defeats are good for faith. He said when we have those issues, we should take them out of his hands as evidence of his love and care for us in developing more and more that faith which he is using, are seeking to strengthen us by. Sad thing is oftentimes when trials come our way, Christians become bitter. They become upset. How dare God do something like this to me? How dare He allow this trial? How dare He allow this situation in my life? Does He not know that I'm one of His children? And we get aggravated, and we get upset, and we get mad at God. We get to that place where we quit on God. But can I tell you tonight, trials are not there to make us bitter. Trials are there to grow our faith. God allows those trials, those furnaces of fire to make us the Christian that He wants us to be. God doesn't want to destroy us. God wants to make us into a Christian that can be used of Him. Jeremiah chapter 20, the Bible's 29, excuse me, the Bible says this, for I know the thoughts that I think towards you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, not of evil, to give you an expected end. So God has a purpose for our life. And it's not to ruin us, but to make us the vessel that he wants us to be. So his firm faith, it cultivated his life. His firm faith, it convicted others. You know, we have to remember that God is always honored when we, as Christians, remain faithful. I'll be honest, there's sometimes, you know, I think we've all been there, if we just would have hung on a little bit longer. If we just would have stayed on the right path just a little bit longer. And we have to remember this, that his faith, it convicted, and not just anybody, it convicted these evil men. You have to understand that sometimes firm faith means that there certainly will be persecution. Not only that, very quickly we see this. Firm faith will always make a proclamation. You know, sometimes the testimony of faith under trial is louder than the testimony of words." Have you ever noticed that when we come to children that our actions speak louder than our words? I told you this. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but I know better. You know, sometimes we think that I can just say it because I say it, that makes it so. But can I tell you our actions speak louder than the testimony of our words. Daniel did not waver from his practice of righteousness regardless of what the law that was passed. In fact, as Daniel got up to pray, I'll guarantee you, he knew that he was being set up. But Daniel said, you know what, I'm going to do what is right. He made a proclamation to all his friends, to all his enemies, that he had faith in God. Look at verse 10, if you will, of Daniel chapter six. The Bible says, now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house and his window being open in his chamber towards Jerusalem. He kneeled upon his knees three times a day and he prayed and gave thanks before his God as he had done a four time. He proclaimed his faith to his foes. The dangers that he faced did not diminish his faith. The crisis that he was in did not curtail his faith in Almighty God despite their circumstances. He said, you know what? I'm going to have faith in God. I'm going to do what's right. I'm going to do what's right. We live in a world today where, I'll tell you something, we, Christians just, in general, just willing to back off. I know, I know this is the right thing to do, but I, I, I, you know what? Everybody else is doing something else. Can I tell you something? What we need tonight is this. We need some Christians to say, you know what? I'm just going to have faith in God. I'm going to do what's right. I'm going to follow God. I'm going to obey his word. I'm going to have faith that he's got everything under control. So he proclaimed his faith to his foes. Not only that, but he proclaimed, as we see here, his faith to his friends. Look at verse 14. And the king, when he heard these words, was sore displeased with himself. He set his heart on Daniel to deliver him, and he labored to the going down of the sun to Deliver him. Daniel's faith had an impact not only on his foes, but he had an impact on his friends. It always amazes me here with King Darius here. It amazes me. Here is the king. Here's the man in charge. Here's the individual that has the palace. Here's the individual that has everything. And here's a person that can't sleep at night. Daniel in a lion's den is at perfect peace. Never think that your faith goes unnoticed. Say, I don't think anybody notices. Can I tell you this much? God notices it. God notices our faithfulness. Your family will notice your faithfulness. Those around you will notice your faithfulness. Daniel's faith was so great, as we see in this passage here, that the king of the Medes and Persians said, you know what, Daniel, because of your great faith, I know that your God is able to deliver you. That's a question we need to ask ourselves tonight. How is our faith? Firm faith will make a proclamation. Very quickly, look at this, a firm faith obtains the prize. Daniel's faith gave him victory. He got victory over the den. He got victory over the danger. He got victory over the dark. He got victory over King Darius. He got victory over the detractors. He even got victory for himself. His firm faith carried him through his trial. Now, I don't know where you're at tonight. You might be here tonight and say, you know what? I feel like I'm on a mountaintop somewhere. Who likes to be on the mountaintop? I enjoy that. Remember as a kid, you used to play King of the Mountain? I used to use that illustration occasion in Texas. They're like, yeah, we had these big snow mounds. They're like, what? What does that look like? Remember at school, they'd take that big old pile, and they'd heave it up in the snow, and they'd heave it up in a big pile. And you get up there, and you play King of the Mountain. And you get up to the top, and you say, I'm the king. I like that. That's a kind of cool place to be, isn't it? I don't know about you, but in life, that's a wonderful thing. You feel good, and you wake up in the morning, and you're like, man, look at out there. It's the sun shining tomorrow, 54 degrees. You're like, life can't get any better than this. It's February, and man, I feel good, and everything's wonderful. It's a great place to be on top of the mountain. But you may be there tonight, but can I tell you something? I don't want to be negative here. But in the year 2025, we're all going to go through some valleys. None of us here are immune to having some problems this year. Every one of us here are going to face some adversity this year. Every one of us here are going to face some trials. Every one of us here are going to face some persecution of some sort or another. You say, well, I never do. Well, the Bible says, yea, all those that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Can I encourage you with this? When you're going through a difficult time, when you're not on the mountain, but rather you're in the valley, you know what's going to help see you through? It's faith in Almighty God. Faith that He will see you through. What helped Daniel get through the lion's den? His firm faith. You know, you look at individuals that had faith. Faith can do great things. Faith can part the seas. You don't believe that? Ask the disciples. Faith can fill the barrel. You can ask the widow lady there at Zarephath. Faith can help you walk on your storm. You can ask Peter about that. Faith will multiply your loaves and your fishes. Ask the little lad. Faith can guarantee you victory as The child of God. Mark chapter 9, the Bible says that Jesus said to them, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to them that believe. Let me ask you a question. Do you have faith in God tonight? Do you have faith in Him? Well, you don't understand. It's just what I'm going through right now. It just seems like there's a dark cloud. Have faith in God. Well, you don't understand. You know, the doctor said this. Just have faith that God's in control. Yeah, you don't understand. I got this financial issue. Have faith in God. The sad thing today is this, because of what we have in America, we have so much that we've come to this place where we just don't have to depend upon Him. But if you're going to be the Christian that God wants to be, you have to have faith in Him. Someone once said this, God will either get you out of your trial, or He'll give you the grace in the trial. I like that. God will either give you grace to get you out of the trial or He'll give you grace in the trial. What He says is this, what He doesn't take away, He makes a way for us to take. I think that's pretty good. Let's not forget that firm faith gives us victory. We will obtain the prize. We sing that song encamped along the hills of light, you Christian soldiers rise. And press the battle ere the night shall veil the glowing skies against the foe and veils below let all our strength be hurled. Faith is the victory we know that overcomes the world. Faith will allow us to do great things for God. Faith allowed Abraham to leave everything he knew and follow God's direction. Faith gave Moses the courage to stand before a mighty Pharaoh. Faith gave David the determination and the grit to stand before Goliath on the battlefield. Faith allowed Job to say these words, Though he slay me, yet I will trust in him. Faith gave Stephen to say these great words as he was being stoned. lay not this sin to their charge. Firm faith is a sure thing for a sure victory. The Bible says over in James 1, it says, I'll close with this. There's a lady that, A few years ago, me and my wife had the opportunity to go see her grave there in California. She wrote a book, it's called The Hiding Place. You've probably, maybe some of the ladies here have read the book about Corrie Ten Boom. She wrote this story, interesting story. Corrie Ten Boom was at a Nazi death camp there in Ravensbrück. where the roll came every morning at 4.30 for them to get up. Most mornings, she said, were cold and sometimes the women would be forced to stand without moving for literally hours in the bone-chilling pre-dawn darkness. Nearby, she said, as they were standing there, there was what they called the punishment barracks, where all day and far into night they could hear the sounds of cruelty. blows landing in regular rhythm and screams, keeping them up all night long. But Corrie and her sister Betsy had a Bible. And every time that they had an opportunity, they would gather the women together like little orphans around a blazing fire and they would read Romans chapter eight. And that special verse that said this, Who shall separate us from the love of God? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? In all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us." Corrie later said in her book, she said this, I would look about us as Betsy would read those words. I would watch the light leaping from face to face, and I would think of that thought more than conquerors. And then it dawned on her that phrase more than conquerors was not a wish. It was a fact. It was a promise that was given by God, and she said this, we knew it. She said, we experienced in minute by minute, in an ever-widening circle of help and hope, life at Ravensbrook. And it came to a place that it took on two levels. One level was the observable external life grew every day more horrible from all the persecution. But the other, was the life that we live with God. And every day, in a prison of war camp, we lived with this knowledge, that with God, every day grew better and better. Truth upon truth, glory upon glory. Sometimes we get to the place, we don't even know which way is up. Sometimes in life, we get to the place we say, I just can't go any further. I love what Psalm 119 verse 5 says, thy word is a lamp unto my feet, is a light unto my path. Daniel knew this, and can I tell you tonight, we can know it as well. That with a firm faith, we can make it through. With faith in God. And can I tell you tonight, just like Corey Ten Boom said, faith in what God can do is not a wish. It's a fact that we know as Christians that whatever the circumstances, whatever the problem, whatever we may be going through, faith in God will see us through. Let me ask you that question tonight as I close this service. How's your faith? How's your faith in God? You say, well, you don't understand. No, I may not understand what you're going through, but we have a God in heaven, and He certainly does. And I, as a Christian, may be going through trial and trouble. I may be in a valley. I may not be able to see the sunshine on the other side. But you know what? I just keep pressing forward. I keep my eyes on Jesus. Why? Because of my faith in him. Does that mean that life's always gonna be easy? I wish. Wouldn't it be nice if I could stand up just like those preachers? Hey, you serve God, put up a couple million dollars in the offering, no problems. Can't do that. In reality, the Bible says the opposite. We stand for Him. When we live for Him, we will face persecution. But have faith. Keep your eyes on Jesus. There's a crown that's waiting. We will obtain the prize. Just stated true to Him. I'll close with this. I know I said that already, but I'll close with this. I may have used this illustration. I may not have. I don't know. I was a little kid. My dad used to, we lived in Illinois, and my dad used to like to go duck hunting. He had a wonderful thought process when it came to rearing children, and that was this, why do any extra work when my kids can do it for me? Great thought, I've tried that myself. He'd go out there, and he'd go duck hunting, and he'd get all done, and it's cold outside. He'd go out in the water with his waders. He'd grab the decoys. He'd throw them in a big bag, decoy bag. But you know that simple little fact where you wind up the line? Hey, why do that? I'll throw them in there. My kids can take care of it when I get home. One night he came in there, one afternoon he said, hey guys, I'm going hunting tomorrow, something like that. I got a bag out there of decoys and they're kind of tangled up a little bit. Yeah, a little bit is right. They're tangled up a little bit. And so we got out there, me and my brother, we got out there and we took that bag and we dumped it out and it was a mess. You know how it is. You tried this magic little disc right here. You shake them a little bit, and everything's untangled. It didn't work. And one by one, we had to start stringing those lines through, one by one, hour upon hour, getting it all put back together. The ring put on that decoy's head, put back in the bag, cinched it up, set it there right by the door. He wasn't home. We went to bed. I don't know, time we went to bed, school day, next day. Late in the night, 10.30, 11 o'clock, we're sound asleep. Knocks on the door. Hey boys, you awake? No. Wake up, I want to talk to you. I still remember this as a little boy, little boy, 10, 11, I don't know, maybe a little bit younger than that. Looking up there, wide eyes, what is he going to talk about? What is he going to say? What did I do? What did he find out about me? I don't know. Looking up at him and he said, you know what, I walked in tonight and I saw that bag and it looks really good. I just want to let you guys know I'm proud of you. Door closes, we go back to bed. Not really. I sit there for a little bit as a little boy thinking, wow, my dad's proud of me. Next day, my dad's proud of me. One of these days, can I say this, we're going to stand before the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't know about you, but of all the trials and troubles that we may have in this life, wouldn't it be wonderful if we hear, not from our earthly Father, but from our heavenly Father, well done, thou good and faithful servant. Everything that's happened to us in this life, Every valley, every trouble, every trial, every hurt, every pain, I can guarantee you, will be gone. When we hear those words. How do we do it? You know what? I'm just going to keep my eyes on Jesus. I'm going to have faith in Him. And I'm just going to keep pressing forward. That's what I'm going to do. And when the trial comes, I'll hurt a little bit, I'll cry a little bit, I might struggle a little bit, I might get knocked down a little bit, but I'm gonna get back up, dust myself off, and I'll just keep going. You know why? It's all about the Lord Jesus Christ. It pays to have a firm faith. Let's bow for a word of prayer. Father, we're so thankful for this evening. You've given us for your blessings. We're so thankful for the opportunity that we have to look at a wonderful individual, a man by the name of Daniel. We could say a lot of good things about him. We could describe a lot about his life. You certainly did so in the Word of God. But Lord, from day one, as a young man, he had a great faith, a purpose in his heart. He was going to do what's right. He's going to stay true. He was going to keep his eyes on you. I pray tonight that we as Christians would have that same thought. Lord, help me to have a firm faith. Help me to put my trust in an almighty God that always keeps His promises. I pray now you bless the invitation. We'll thank you so much for it in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's all stand with our heads bowed and our eyes closed.