Well, good morning. If I haven't met you before, my name is Michael. I get the privilege of being one of the pastors here. Welcome. If you are visiting today because you are supporting somebody getting baptized, we are so thankful that you're worshiping with us. If you don't have a church, we'd love to have you join us more regularly, but definitely don't want to take you out of the church that you're a part of. And so, yeah, very thankful to be here today and to celebrate what God has done in people's lives. And so about two weeks ago, I started writing this sermon and I wrote a statement, I think, on September 3rd, and it said this. It's not a very profound statement. Any of you could have written this, but it says this. We live in a crazy world, and it's not a coincidence that fear, anxiety and confusion are high. Now, again, told you it wasn't very profound, right? Not prophetic. Because that's the reality that's true for the world that we live in. And the events and responses of this past week only serve to prove that point, that our world is broken. And we try to fix it in a lot of ways, a lot of ways outside of the Lord. Now, this is not new info to most of you in the room, right? This was just put more on public display this past week. And I'm not diminishing death. I'm just trying to help you realize that in Genesis, chapter three, at the beginning of time, we decided that we wanted to do life on our own and that we thought we could do a better job of running our lives than the Lord could. And so Adam and Eve sinned, and there was brokenness. And within one chapter of the Bible, there was hate and there was murder and there was a death of two brothers, Cain and Abel. Because this is not like my son asked me, like, dad. And that's crazy. Like, it's not shocking for the believer to watch our world operate this way. Like, this is how we view the world. Because this is. This is what's true about the world. There's hate and slander and murder and death and lots of trouble in the world that we live in. And we could have a lot of responses to that trouble. We could panic, we could run, we could withdraw. We could get angry and revolt. We could give in and compromise. And when I was writing this introduction two weeks ago, I also wrote this question. How can you live with confidence within a world marked by so much trouble, fear, anxiety, panic, and confusion? Like, how can we as people live with confidence in the type of world that we live in. If you got a Bible, turn with me to Daniel, Chapter two. We're going to continue in our series in Daniel that we started last week. And what we're going to encounter this morning is a faithful worshiper of God living with incredible confidence in incredibly troubling situations. So let me set the scene for you. If you missed last week, you haven't missed much. You only missed one week in the book of Daniel. But this is the scene. So the empire of Babylon has taken over Jerusalem. And what they've done is they've taken over, they've plundered, and they've begun to take the Israelites out of Jerusalem and bring them in exile to Babylon. So now you have the Israelites living as a minority culture in a foreign land with a new culture and new gods. And we get this story of Daniel and three of his friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And last week we began to see, like, how do you thrive in this kind of culture that is not your home? Because, guys, let's be clear. If you're a follower of Jesus, this is not your home. This is not your home. So we started to see what this kind of looks like, because these guys were brought in in exile. And as they're brought in, in exile, I would say they went through BIU Babylon Indoctrination University. So they spent three years kind of being indoctrinated by this pagan culture in Babylon. And they're trying to figure out, like, how do we live in this culture but still follow the Lord? So that's the scene we have. And then we get to chapter two. Now, there's 49 verses in chapter two. All right, we spent this summer preaching on one or two verses, and it took us 40 minutes. So we're here for six hours, guys. Just kidding, just kidding. Only four. So I'm going to read some of the verses. I'm going to summarize them. So you're not here for four. Okay, so let's start. Daniel, chapter two, verse one. In the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, he's the king of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar had dreams. His spirit was troubled and his sleep left him. So Nebuchadnezzar had dreams like most of us. And he has dreams. But there's this one dream that is deeply troubling to him. It's deeply disturbing in the depths of his soul. It's incited this fear in him. And he's kind of confused, and it's caused him to lose sleep. So how does Nebuchadnezzar respond to that? In verses two through nine, what you have is that this dream has been so rattling to Nebuchadnezzar that he's like, I gotta figure out what this dream was. I gotta figure out what it was about. So what his response is, I'm going to gather the magicians, the enchanters, the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans. I'm going to gather the ones that kind of looked at the horoscopes and studied the stars to determine people's future. Kind of people that practice witchcraft and the demonic and the cultic. And the Chaldeans were these wise scholars who actually kept really meticulous dreams, like manuals of dreams. They had libraries of people's dreams where somebody would dream something and then they would track the outcome of their lives. So if somebody else had a similar dream, and they go, oh, these were similar. So every time you have this dream, this is what it means. So Nebuchadnezzar goes, I gotta find somebody that can give me an answer, because right now I'm really troubled within. So he gathers all of them, and he says he makes a pretty ridiculous request to them. Hey, I'm getting all you guys together. This is what I need you to help me with. I need you to tell me what the interpretation of the dream was. So what does this dream mean? And I need you to tell me what the dream was. Wait, how are we gonna pull that one off, right? Like, how are we going to do this? And he goes, just so you know, if you can do this, I'm gonna give you great rewards. But if you can't do this, I'm gonna tear you from limb to limb and destroy your houses. All right? Not my words. Like the word of God, okay? So Nebuchadnezzar is saying, this is gonna be great if you can help me out. It will be terrible if you can't help me out. Okay? So their response is, hey, like, can you just, like, tell us what the dream was and then we'll tell you what it's about? And he goes, you're trying to delay. You're trying to be deceitful. You're trying to lie, you're trying to compromise. Tell me what the answer is. And then this is what is said in verses 10 and 11. The Chaldeans answered the king and said, there is not a man on Earth who can meet the king's demand for no great and powerful king has asked such a thing of any magician or enchanter or Chaldean. The thing that the king asks is difficult, and no one can show it to the king except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh. So Nebuchadnezzar goes, I'm confused, I'm fearful. I don't know what this is about. I need some help. And the Chaldeans go, you're asking us to do something crazy. This is impossible. We can't pull this off. In fact, no person on earth can pull this off. Only the gods who don't dwell among his people. Little do they know God's going to come dwell with his people, if a little later, right? But only the gods can, like, help you with this. You're asking something that's impossible. So then we keep moving on the story. And Nebuchadnezzar says this. He gets. Says he got angry and very furious. Like, why didn't the Bible just say, oh, he got angry or very furious? It says, he got angry and very furious and says, you're done. We're going to kill all, all the wise people in the world, including Daniel and his companions. Now, that seems a little irrational, right? Like, hey, I can't figure it out. Let's kill all the wise people. Like, doesn't make a whole lot of sense. But when troubling situations come up, sometimes we do things that don't make a lot of sense. He makes this irrational decision because he's fearful, because of a dream. He's confused because he can't remember it. He's desperate because the wisest people that he knows of can't give him the answer. And he thought they were trustworthy and could be able to help him. So he makes this rash and angry decision because of fear and confusion and desperation. So how was an unbelieving world, Nebuchadnezzar and all these folks that he brought in, responding to this troubling situation? They were fearfully searching for answers in the wrong places. They were delaying, they were deceiving, they were compromising, and they were becoming combative. So let's not talk about them. Let's talk about us. How do you handle troubling situations? How do you handle hard situations, stressful situations? Do you respond like an unbelieving world? Like, what situations in your life are troubling you and creating confusion and causing sleeplessness? Maybe it's our world, maybe it's America. Maybe it's politics, maybe it's the economy, maybe it's your personal finances. Maybe it's aging parents. For us in our house right now, it's aging cars. All right? We have a 13 year old car and a 21 year old car. And they're like a 13 and 21 year old car right now. And it's stressful, okay? There's been in the shop a lot lately, right? And they're not worth fixing. So, like, there are a lot of things, right? From big things to like smaller things, like cars, right? Maybe it's your health that's troubling you. Maybe it's your children that are stressing you out because of the choices that they're making. Like, even like the world that we live in just can bring so much information. It's like, is that helpful? Is that necessary? That can be stressful. I get emails from our elementary school kids, teachers, regularly. It seems like it's like, hey, just want to let you know, somebody in the class has. Has strep throat today. Hey, the next day somebody in your class has like, Covid today. Somebody has influenza A today. And it seems like it gets to the point, it's like somebody played Oregon Trail and got typhoid today, right? Like, come on. Like, they just get sick. They're kids, they're gonna get sick often. But like, we, like, we get these emails all the time. We get all this information in all the time. You're like, ah, I'm fearful, I'm scared. What do I do? And there's panic that sets in. You're like, should I just pull my kids out of school? But then they come home and they have three siblings and they're getting sick too. Like, how do we do this? Like, how do we live this kind of life? We could get frustrated and combative because we're bitter and angry. We could say, man, I'm just weak in this culture and I feel like it would be way easier for me to just give in and I'm going to compromise. Or maybe you're just scared and you're exhausting your resources trying to find answers in all the wrong places outside of the Lord. Guys, that's how an unbelieving world responds. So let's see how a faithful follower of the Lord responds in Daniel in verses 14 through 19. Then Daniel replied with prudence and discretion to Arioch, the captain of the king's guard, who had gone out to kill the wise men of Babylon. He declared to Arioch, the king's captain, why is the decree of the king so urgent? Then Arioch made the matter known to Daniel, and Daniel went in and requested the king to appoint him a time that he might show the interpretation to the king. Then Daniel went to his house and made the matter known to Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, that's Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, his companions, and told them to seek mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery so that Daniel and his companions might not be destroyed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. Then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision of the night. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven. So what's going on here? Nebuchadnezzar in the world's responding with panic and confusion and anger. But over here you've got Daniel says he respond with, with prudence, with tact and counsel. He responded with discretion, with wisdom and discernment. Daniel doesn't give in to the fear and the panic of the culture. He's calm, he's level headed, he's solid, he's stable, he's poised under pressure. And what does that lead him to do? It leads to incredible confidence, guys. So much confidence that he goes to the king's captain, captain of the king's guard, Arioch, and he says, hey, Arioch, I'm not real sure why the king is so urgent in this matter. It doesn't seem like it should be that urgent. That's a pretty bold move, right? When the king wants to kill you, hey. But he makes this confident move and he goes, hey, what I need you to do, like in our terms, like, hey, can you just send the king a calendar invite and say, hey, I want to come, like show up and I might be able to tell him what the dream is. So he tells Arioch that. And then what does he do next? He immediately goes to his friends, other followers of the Lord and he goes, guys, we got it. We got to get together and I need you to start seeking the mercy of the God of Heaven with me. We got to get on our knees and pray to the God of Heaven who knows everything to reveal this mystery to us. So in the midst of this troubling time, he goes to the Lord in prayer. Cause he realizes I'm not confident on my own. He doesn't arrogantly say, hey, I'm gonna come meet the king. He goes, I wanna come meet the king, but I don't have the ability to figure out this dream on my own. I need the Lord's help. So guys, let's seek the mercy of the God of Heaven together. And then God graciously and mercifully in verse 19, what does he do? He reveals the mystery to these guys. So when he does that, Daniel gets even more bold and he goes back to Arioch and goes, yeah, I need to see the king. Don't kill everybody. I need to see the king, because I need to tell him what's going on. So he brings him to the king, and the king questions him and says, hey, can you actually do this? Can you do this? And then this is Daniel's Response. In verses 27 through 30, Daniel answered the king and said, no wise men, enchanters, magicians, or astrologers can show to the king the mystery that the king has asked. Anybody else said that before in this passage. That's the exact same thing that the Chaldeans said, almost, right? Like, here's these worldly unbelievers saying, nobody can pull this off. Daniel saying, nobody can pull this off, right? Verse 28. But there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and he has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days. Your dream. And the visions of your head as you lay in bed are these to you, O king, as you lay in bed came thoughts of what would be after this. And he who reveals mysteries made known to you what is to be. So this is the future that's coming. But as for me, this mystery has been revealed to me not because of any wisdom that I have, more than all the living, but in order that the interpretation may be known to the king and that you may know the thoughts of your mind. So he goes, you're asking something impossible, Nebuchadnezzar for a normal person. But God. But God can reveal this mystery, and he has revealed this mystery to me. But he says, just so you're clear, don't mistake this wisdom that I'm giving to you right now as my wisdom, because it's not my wisdom, it's from the Lord. And there's something that begins to take place that we can see here. There is some understanding about God that Daniel has in this moment that begins to bolster his confidence. Now, we're going to circle back to this. So just keep that there. That. Oh, Daniel's believing something about God here that's going to embolden him. So then he reveals the dream to. To the King. Verse 31, 35. You saw, O king, and behold a great image. The image, mighty and of exceeding brightness stood before you, and its appearance was frightening. The head of this image was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver. Its middle and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. As you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay and. And broke them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold all together were broken in pieces and became like the chaff on the summer threshing floor. And the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. Now, if you're here today and you're just checking out church, you don't know much about the Bible. You're like, this is weird, right? What are we talking about? We're talking about all these dreams. Like, what does this have to do with anything? I don't understand this. Let me just explain what this dream that Nebuchadnezzar had, he goes, nebuchadnezzar, what you saw in your dream was this giant statue fashioned by human hands, like, giant statue. And at the top, the head was made of fine gold. And then each layer under that was made from a different material. The chest and the arms, they were made of silver. The middle and the thighs were made of bronze. The legs of iron, and the feet were made of partly iron and partly clay. So he sees this massive statue of all these different materials. But then all of a sudden, there's this stone that wasn't cut out by human hands, and it comes in and destroys each level, each material, and it destroys them so much that they're, like, swept away by the wind, and no trace of them could ever be found. And then this stone becomes a great mountain and. And it fills up the whole earth. So what does that mean, though? Okay, Daniel? Yeah, that's what I dreamed. But, like, what does that mean? Now, there are some clear things that he dreamed, and there are some debatable things of what this means, right? The clear thing is this, he says later on in verses 37 and 38, or really 36 through 43, the top of that thing made out of gold. That's you, Nebuchadnezzar, and that's your empire, the Babylonian empire. You're the top of this statue that you're seeing. Like, you're it. You're the king. You're the king. That's really clear. And what else is clear is that each of those materials underneath are, like, successive kingdoms or empires that are to come after Babylon. Now, what those successive kingdoms exactly are like we're not fully sure. But the traditional interpretation is this. Because there's lots of interpretations. But the traditional interpretation is, okay, the top one's clear. It's Babylon. Then what comes after Babylon? Most people would say the Medo, Persian Empire, then the Greek Empire, then the Roman Empire. All right, so they're all made out of different things. So there's kingdoms that are coming after Babylon. So that's a little unclear. Now, this chapter plays a huge role in the rest of the Book of Daniel. So understanding this dream is important. I'm just not gonna spend all the details here. Cause we're gonna circle back to this when we get to chapter seven. All right. I'm not trying to get out of something hard, but we're gonna get back to this a lot, into a lot more detail. So you get this big statue, all these successive kingdoms. Babylon's at the top. But then there's this stone that comes in. And it comes in. It's not fashioned by human hands, and it destroys every one of those kingdoms. And the interpretation was this. Verses 44 and 45. And in the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end. And it shall stand forever. Just as you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold, a great God has made known to the king what it shall be. After this, the dream is certain, and its interpretation is sure. So what is this stone? It's the kingdom of God that will never be destroyed, that will never be left to another people, that will break all the other kingdoms into pieces, bring an end to them, and. And it will stand forever and become a giant mountain that fills the whole earth. Veritas. What you need to know from this is that God's kingdom is absolutely victorious. God's kingdom is absolutely victorious and will destroy all other kingdoms, but offer salvation to all of those that are a part of it. God's earthly kingdoms will not last. God will destroy every kingdom who rejects him. He will not reorient his mission around other kings and kingdoms, but he will use them for his purposes and then ultimately annihilate them. Then he will re establish a kingdom. Let me tell you about this kingdom that we find out in Revelation 21. It's not going to be on screen. It's not, but it's a kingdom with no tears and no death and no mourning and no crying and no pain. And it's a king and a kingdom that we won't confidently have to hope for one day, but we will see face to face and dwell with that king forever. That's the kingdom of God. Yet some of you are living for other kingdoms you're living for, kingdoms that there will be no trace of in the future. Maybe that's your own kingdom that you're living for. Maybe it's your kid's kingdom that you're living for. Maybe it's America that you're living for. And any threat to the kingdom that you're living for leads to great panic and fear and confusion and anger. If that kingdom is outside of God's kingdom. Veritas, I beg you, live for a greater kingdom. Invest your time and your money and your resources in a greater kingdom. Devote your life to a greater kingdom that will last forever, not a lesser kingdom that will be destroyed. So how does Nebuchadnezzar respond? Because if I'm Nebuchadnezzar and I hear, oh, man, like, yeah, I'm the king, I'm the head of this statue, but I'm going to be destroyed, I don't know that I'm going to be very happy in that moment. Let's see how he responds. Verse 46. Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face and paid homage to Daniel and commanded that an offering and incense be offered up to him. The king answered and said to Daniel, now this is an unbeliever's response. Truly your God is God of gods and Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries, for you have been able to reveal this mystery. And then he goes on to give great high honors and a promotion to Daniel. And Daniel even says, hey, can you give a promotion to my buddies, too? So he gets a promotion for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. What is an unbelieving God? How does he recognize God now? You are the God of gods. You are the Lord of kings. You are the revealer of mysteries. When we see God for who he actually is, it's a humbling thing for us. And we take a humbling posture to go, man, I'm not the king. I'm not in control. But you are God. So he acknowledges God. But before we just get too excited about Nebuchadnezzar, next week, he's going to turn the opposite way. All right? So it's not going to go well for him, because I Don't think he had true saving faith. And I think that's a caution, maybe for a lot of you in this room, that some of you recognize the greatness of God, but it hasn't actually transformed your life. Watch out, be careful, and your responses will reveal that. So God makes this dream and this interpretation known to Daniel, makes it known to the king. But I don't think this interpretation and this dream becoming known was just for Nebuchadnezzar. Can you imagine for Daniel how much this had to stir his faith? Oh, I can see what's to come. It's really hard in Babylon right now, but I know what's coming. This is going to be way better. And this is a dream and an interpretation that we could look at and go, that's weird. Or we could allow it to stir our faith as well. Like, how can somebody respond with that kind of confidence in a troubled world when truth, when well being, when. When even your own life is threatened, how can you respond with that kind of confidence? Because Daniel had a belief. He had a trust. Now what was his belief in? I want to show you back. Verse 16 says this, and Daniel went in and requested the king to appoint him a time that he might show the interpretation of the king. So that was early on. And Daniel's going, I might be able to show you king, what this is all about. That was before he even knew about the dream. Hey, I'm going to go to you because I might be able to show this. But then we go Forward in verse 24, and it says, therefore Daniel went to Arioch, whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon. He went and said thus to him, do not destroy the wise king of Babylon. Bring me before the king and I will show you, show the king the interpretation. So it went from, oh, I might be able to do this to I'm going to show you, king. Like there was a. There's something that's making him so confident. And then we get to the end after he shared all this with the King. In verse 45, it says the dream is certain and its interpretation. Sure, that's before Nebuchadnezzar even responds. He goes from I might be able to do this to I will be able to show you. And this is certain and true. Like, how could somebody have that much confidence when he doesn't even know if it's true or not? Because he had faith. And many of us know this passage In Hebrews, chapter 11, verse 1, it says, now faith is the assurance of Things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Like this is what faith is, believing in something that you can't see. And Daniel believed that God was greater than what he could see. In fact, it shows up multiple times. We're not going to go back and look at all these references, but three times he references God as the God of Heaven. Nebuchadnezzar recognizes God as the God of gods, the Lord of kings, the revealer of mysteries. Like, for Daniel, writing this to a group of exiled people, like, this should be what bolsters our confidence, a belief in this kind of God. He's the God of gods, the Lord of Kings, the revealer of mysteries, the God of Heaven. But then we skipped over a section that I think really reveals what Daniel believed about the greatest king. In verses 19 through 23, after he goes and says, hey, guys, I need you to pray with me about this. And the Lord reveals this dream to him. In verses 19 through 23, it says this. Then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision of the night. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven. Daniel answered and said, blessed be the name of God forever and ever. To whom belong wisdom and might. He changes times and seasons. He removes kings and sets up kings. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. He reveals deep and hidden things. He knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells within him. To you, O God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise for you have given me wisdom and might and now have made known to me what we asked of you. For you have made known to us the king's matter. Says Daniel blessed God. And that idea of blessing is taking a posture of humility and praising God. So not only in this troubling circumstance did Daniel run to his friends and say, we've got to pray and seek the mercy of God. So not only did he pray, but. But he praised and he worshiped. Oh, I'm feeling this in the culture. I'm going to seek the Lord and I'm going to praise God for who he is. And he says, I'm going to praise him because wisdom and might belong to God. He's the owner of wisdom and might. No other person, including any other king, owns wisdom and might. It is God's. And then he says in verse 21, he changes times and seasons. He's the only one that can pull that off. Can you make it go from like 39 one week to 95 the next week? Nope. I can't either. Right. But he sure can. Can you make it go from summer to fall. No, like this. We're talking about a big God that's in control of creation. So wisdom and might belong to him. He's the one that changes times and seasons. And it says he removes kings and sets up kings. Guys, there is no person in any political office, from a mayor to the king, anywhere in this world that operates outside of the sovereignty of God. Good kings or bad kings do not operate outside the sovereignty of God. There is no ruler in any position outside of God. There is no ruler in the past, no ruler in the present, no ruler in the future that will come into power or leave power outside of the sovereignty of God. So what kind of God are we to look for and believe in? A God that can change seasons whenever he wants to, and a God who sets up kings and takes out kings whenever he wants to for his purposes and his glory alone. Guys, when the culture is so troubling, you can find incredible security. Not in a time, not in a season, not in a king, not in any politics. You can find it in a sovereign God. You're like, we just talked about God's sovereignty last week. And we'll keep talking about it because he's over it all. He's over it all. This is what Daniel believed in. This was the object of his faith. So when the culture presses in on you and threatens truth and threatens your well being, maybe even threatens your own life, the posture of your heart and the object of your faith will determine the response of your life. Someone who has anchored their belief in a great sovereign God will not have a posture of anger that leads to rebellious fighting, will not have a posture of fear that leads to running away, will not have a posture of weakness that leads to compromise. But we will have a posture of humility that recognizes the strength, the sovereignty and power and wisdom of our God. That's what we will do in the midst of troubling times. Have you even thought about how great God is this past week? Have you even thought about how in control he is? Have you thought about his sovereignty? Or have you been so consumed in the things of this earth that you've forgotten? If we're going to live and thrive in Babylon, a place that is not our home, there is truth about God that we must cling to, that we must hope in, that we must believe to bolster our confidence so that we don't have to take matters into our own hands. Because confidence within a troubling culture is fueled by faith in a triumphant king. Confidence within a troubling culture is fueled by faith in a triumphant king, trusting that your king and his kingdom are greater. As a believer, you serve the greatest king. You belong to the greatest kingdom. You do not belong to a Babylonian king, a Medo Persian king, a Greek king, a Roman king, an American Republican, or an American Democrat. You belong to the king of kings, the God of gods. That's what you belong to. The Lord of kings, the God of gods, the God of heaven, the revealer of mysteries. Guys, when you struggle as a foreigner in a troubled world, this is what we have to cling to. Guys, we have to church. Be confident because your king is better and his kingdom is greater. So stop responding like wicked unbelievers. Stop panicking over politics and the future and disturbing trends. Stop trying to find answers outside of the Lord. We don't even have time to talk about the psychics and the horoscopes and all that demonic junk, right? Stop trying to seek answers outside of, like, biblical authority. Stop becoming so furious because you aren't in control. Because here's the issue. You don't have an anger problem. You don't have an ignorance problem. You don't have a fear problem. You might have a faith problem. Stop responding like Nebuchadnezzar and all those other people. Start responding like Daniel. Get your eyes off the things of this world and onto a sovereign king and savior. Because his confidence was stirred. Because he went to the Lord in prayer and he went to the Lord in praise when you're troubled. Prayer and praise when you're scared. Prayer and praise when you're panicking. Prayer and praise when things feel out of your control. Cause they are. Prayer and praise when you're angry because of the culture. Prayer and praise. I'm not saying don't be a good citizen, but don't start there. Start not relying on yourself, but going to the God of gods and the Lord of kings. Daniel is an incredible example for us, an incredible example of a prisoner of war that was trying to figure out how to live in a culture that was not his own. And he stood confidently before a ruler and. And faced his own execution. But guys, Daniel is not the one we need to be following. It's Daniel's God that we need to be following. Because there is a far better person than Daniel that we need to follow. Because there was a prisoner of a spiritual war that stood before the ruler of his day. And he faced his own execution. But he didn't just face it. He. He endured his own execution so that we might become a Part of his kingdom and his name is King Jesus. Guys, that's who we serve. That's what this life is about. So your troubling circumstances in this life. Guys, this is not very good news. They may not stop, but your confidence can't be attached to just escaping suffering. Your confidence must come from knowing that a troubling world and a troubling culture are not greater than your king and his kingdom. And because your king rose or your king died and rose from the dead, you can be confident in both life and even in your death. If the culture takes out your life and you die, you serve a king that defeated death. Guys, this is good news. And this is good news that several people are about to put on display in the waters of baptism, that they have recognized that I can't be the king of my own kingdom, but I have a king who is far greater, and his name is Jesus, and he has changed my life because of his death and resurrection. And that's what they proclaim, that they have a king and they belong to a kingdom that's greater than anything this world would ever offer them. And so we're going to stand, in just a second, we're going to worship as people get dunked underwater to reflect the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. Because that water does not save them. It's the same water that we just got out of a spigot somewhere. All right? It's not fancy water. It's to represent what God has done in their lives. And we're going to stand up and we're going to praise Jesus while they get baptized. We're not going to praise the people in these tanks. We're going to praise the one who transformed their heart. That's who we're going to worship today. So before we do that, let's pray together. Father, you're awesome. You are king. You are Lord of Kings. You are God of gods. Lord, thank you for the people that are going to step into the water waters of baptism this morning. Lord, would you embolden them knowing that their security is in a greater king and a greater kingdom, and they get to put that on display today. Lord, I pray for our church that we would not be marked by chasing a news cycle or panicking or running away or getting angry, but we would be marked as people who trust you because you're better. We pray all this in Jesus name. Amen.