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Our passage today is From Daniel, chapter 6, verses 1 through 7, 9, 11 and 1323. It pleased Darius to appoint 120 satraps to rule throughout the kingdom with three administrators over them, one of whom was Daniel. The satraps were made accountable to them so that the king might not suffer loss. Now Daniel so distinguished himself among the administrators and the satraps and by his exceptional qualities, that the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom. At this, the administrators and the satraps tried to find grounds or charges against Daniel in his conduct of government affairs, but they were unable to do so. They could find no corruption in him because he was trustworthy and neither corrupt nor negligent. Finally, these men said, we will never find any basis for charges against this man Daniel, unless it has something to do with the law of his God. So these administrators and satraps went as a group to the king and said, may King Darius live forever. The royal administrators, prefects, satraps, advisors, and governors have all agreed that the king should issue an edict and enforce the decree that anyone who prays to any God or human being during the next 30 days, except to to you, your majesty, shall be thrown into the lion's den. So King Darius put the decree in writing. Now, when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room, where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before. Then these men went as a group and found Daniel praying and asking God for help. Then they said to the king, daniel, who is one of the exiles from Judah, pays no attention to you, your majesty, or to the decree you put in writing. He still prays three times a day. When the king heard this, he was greatly distressed. He was determined to rescue Daniel and made every effort until sundown to save him. Then the men went as a group to king Darius and said to him, remember, your majesty, that according to the law of the Medes and Persians, no decree or edict that the king issues can be changed. So the king gave the order, and they brought Daniel and threw him into the lion's den. The king said to Daniel, may your God whom you serve continually rescue you. A stone was brought and placed over the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with his own signet ring and with the rings of his nobles so that Daniel's situation might not be changed. Then the king returned to his palace and spent the night without eating and without any entertainment being brought to him. And he could not sleep. At the first light of dawn, the king got up and hurried to the lion's den. When he came near the den, he called to Daniel in an anguished voice, daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve, continually been able to rescue you from the lions? And Daniel answered, may the king live forever. My God sent his angel. And he shut the mouths of the lions. They have not hurt me because I was found innocent in his sight, nor have I ever done any wrong before you. Your majesty. The king was overjoyed and gave orders to lift Daniel out of the den. And when Daniel was lifted from the den, no wound was found on him because he had trusted in his God. The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our God endures forever.
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All right. Good morning. My name is Aaron. I'm one of the pastors here, and I want to extend a special welcome, particularly to those of you who are visiting our city for the extended weekend. We're glad that you can come and to join us to worship our God together. I want to begin today by showing you an image of one of mankind's greatest inventions. And it is a picture of a New York City pie of pizza. And like most pies, this pie is divided up into eight slices. And the reason why I want to show you this image is not to make you salivate and get hungry, but the reason why I wanted to show you this picture is because oftentimes there is a correlation between this pizza that is divided up into eight slices and your life. Because much like this pie of pizza, we live sliced up, divided, compartmentalized lives. And so if you take a look at the next image, we have all these different versions of ourselves. We have a church self. We have a work self. We have an online Persona version of ourselves. We have a family self, we have a home self, we have. We have a friend self. And of course, we have a secret self. We have all these different versions of our lives, but the best leaders, which is the series that we're doing right now, the best leaders don't live divided, compartmentalized lives, but the best leaders live integrated lives with integrity. Did you know that the word integrity comes from the Latin word root word for integer, which means whole, Like a whole number that is undivided, that is not a fraction. And so a person with integrity doesn't live a fragmented, divided, compartmentalized life, but a person with integrity. Their private life, it matches their public life. Their inner life, it matches their outer life. Their words match their actions. Their character is consistent in every room and space and environment that they go through. Their online Persona matches their offline Persona. And this is a challenge for our generation in particular, because we are a generation that is obsessed with being seen versus unseen. The problem with that is that character and integrity are usually not born in environments where you are seen, but it's constructed, formed, and built in environments where you are oftentimes not seen. That is where integrity thrives and grows. And so I think a better picture of what integrity looks like if we can use a pie of pizza again, and this is the extent of my ChatGPT skills, but a better picture of what integrity looks like is a whole pizza that is undivided, that is not compartmentalized, but is whole. This is what integrity looks like. So can I ask you, as you think about your own lives, how much integrity would you say you have? Is your heart undivided, or is it all divided up with different versions of yourself that don't match who you are in private? It will show in public. If I could say this, you oftentimes fail in private before you will fall in public. Can I just say that again? You fail in private before you fall in public. This is where having an inner private life that matches your outer life is so, so important. In Daniel chapter six, we see now an elderly man who is captive as a teenager but is now almost 80 years old. We see a man that has integrity, whose private life matches his public life, who not only talk the talk, but walk the walk, whose offline life matches online life, whose faith was not just on Sundays, but was 24:7. So read with me verses 1 and 2. It pleased Darius to appoint 120 satraps to rule throughout the kingdom, with three administrators over them as managers, one of whom was Daniel. The satraps were made accountable to them so that the king might not suffer loss. So satraps were basically governors over a distinct province. These provinces were called satrapies. That's why they were called satraps. Darius divides up his entire Kingdom into 120 distinct provinces or satrapies. And he puts one satrap over each of those distinct provinces. And like a good executive, he puts now three managers in particular over those 120 satraps. And the reason why Darius does this is because some of the satraps lacked integrity, and Darius didn't trust them as far as financial management. And so, in order to make sure that tax revenues were not being stolen by these 120 satraps, he put three trusted managers in particular, to oversee them so he wouldn't lose revenue for one of whom was Daniel. And this is what we read in verse three and four about Daniel. Now, Daniel so distinguished himself among the administrators and the satraps by his exceptional qualities that the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom. At this, the administrators and the satraps tried to find grounds for charges against Daniel in his conduct of government affairs, but they were unable to do so. They could find no corruption in him because he was trustworthy and neither corrupt nor negligent. And so here we see a little picture of what Daniel is like, what kind of pizza pie he really is. We see that he is a man that displayed exceptional qualities. We see that no corruption was in him. We see that he was trustworthy and that he was not negligent. And so because of that, the satraps do what many modern politicians do today. They do something called opposition research or oppo research. And so in opposition research, what you try to do is you try to gather and collect as much data as you can about your adversary to weaken their credibility and eventually take them down. And so these sack traps are trying to dig up as much information about Daniel as they could. Background checks. They comb through his social media, they talk to his old high school buddies, they're looking at all of his accounts to find as much incriminating evidence against Daniel as they can. The problem was he lives a life of such integrity, an undivided life, that they couldn't find a thing on him. I just want to pause and pivot out of Scripture, and I just want you to think about your own life for a moment. If your worst enemies, if your worst enemies did opposition research, oppo research against you, what would they find? If they combed through all of your online viewing history over the past year, if they combed through all of your texts, what would they find? If your worst enemies could somehow have AI and read what's going on in your mind and what comes out of your mouth, how much dirt would your worst enemies find on you? Would they find someone that lives a distinguished, exceptional life with no corruption? Or would they find enough dirt to take you down? And this is where having a life of integrity is so important, because, again, you fail in private before you fall in public. A couple years ago, a buddy of mine texted me, and this is when we were actually interviewing Pastor Penn, and he texted me on the side, and he says, bro, you have to bring Pastor Penn on board. And he said, after Lloyd, who's one of Our mutual friends. Lloyd is like the fourth member of the Trinity. He's like the godliest person we know. And he says after Lloyd Penn has the most integrity and character out of anyone that I know. And I didn't know Pastor Penn that well at the time, but after I got that text, the praise of the praiseworthy is above all rewards. After I got that text, to a certain degree, I didn't even care how much capacity he had. And he does, by the way. But his character was so high, I was like, this is a no brainer. Let's bring him on board. Character and integrity matter so much. Daniel's enemies couldn't find any dirt on Daniel. Most of us live our lives worrying that people will think too little of us. Daniel was the opposite. He was afraid that people would think too much of him because of the way that he lived his life. And you know what typically happens when people think too much of you? Have you ever read Plato's Republic? There's a conversation with a guy named Glaucon and Socrates. And Glaucon says to Socrates, when a perfect man enters an imperfect society, society will do one of two things. They will either worship them because they are non conformist, or they will kill them because they are nonconformists. This is what we see happen to mlk, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, of course, Jesus Christ. This is what we see happening with Daniel, verse five through seven. Finally, these men said, we will never find any basis for charges against this man Daniel unless it has something to do with the law of his God. So these administrators and satirists went as a group to the king and said, may king Darius live forever. The king should issue an edict and enforce the decree that anyone who prays to any God or human being during the next 30 days, except to you, your majesty, shall be thrown into the lion's den. So the satraps here, they throw a Darius appreciation month. For the next 30 days, they convince Darius that if anyone prayed to any other God but him should be thrown into the lion's den. And in verse 10, this is what we read. Now, when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the window opened to Jerusalem three times a day. He got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God. Check out this phrase. Just as he had done before. Integrity, integration, public life matching private life. Can I ask you if Christianity became illegal for the next 30 days? Where coming to church was illegal, on Sundays, praying was illegal, reading the Bible was illegal. And not only was it illegal. It was the death penalty. If you did it, how would you respond? I think most of us would say, God, this law is ridiculous. So how about we just go on a quick 30 day hiatus and then after that we'll be right back and resume back to normal. I think that's what most of us would have done. It's just 30 days. This is like normative anyway. Just 30 days. But what does Daniel do? Because he lives an undivided life, he did what he always does. He goes up to his upstairs room, opens the window because he's in exile in Babylon, looks towards the city of God, Jerusalem, and prays to his heavenly father. Tim Keller writes this. The infallible test of spiritual integrity. Please listen. The infallible test of spiritual integrity, Jesus says, is your private, not public, your private prayer life. If you want to know how much spiritual integrity you have, just do an audit of your private prayer life. And there you will find the answer to how much integrity you have. Last week I was with my buddy Edwin Colon, who's oftentimes a guest speaker at our church. We were at a, a seminar listening to a psychologist talk about the intersection of shame and neuroscience. After the event was over, the two of us were just hanging out and he says to me, and he said this to me before, but he says, hey. He just totally interrupts our conversation and he goes, hey, actually, Aaron, is it okay if I do some midday prayer? And Edwin has said this to me before. And I know that one of Edwin's rules of life is, is to do prayer and devotion in the morning, afternoon and evening. It's like clockwork, three times a day. So it's 12 o' clock and his alarm goes off and he says, you know, can I do some midday prayer and devotion? I was like, of course, right? So I'm sitting on a couch across from him and he turns on his phone and he puts the Bible on audio and he just starts listening to the Word. And so I'm across from him, I'm less spiritual. So I'm just, you know, on my computer doing work. I kid you not. I kid you not. In seconds, I look at him, his mouth is like this, sleeping as he's osmosisly, like absorbing the word of God. And I looked at Edwin and I thought, I looked at him and I thought to myself, what a beautiful picture. You understand what I mean? What a beautiful picture of a child of God who wants to fall asleep even when he is dead tired, who is falling asleep in the arms of a father. As a father, can I tell you if my daughters were dead, exhausted, but they didn't want to be in any other room but to be on my lap and they fell asleep on my arms, and the last person they were talking to was me. You think I would be upset at them now if they did it every time? Maybe. But I looked at him and I saw a dude that just wanted to be with his father even though he was dead. Exhaust. That's all prayer is, just wanting to be in the father's presence, even if it was illegal. Daniel made the decision, the conscious decision, to be with his father, to obey his father, rather than the civil magistrate. Character is not born, it's formed. And it's formed with every conscious decision you make. To either bend the truth or to tell the truth. To numb your pain with something or to persevere through it. To choose the easy way or the hard way. To look at the wrong thing, or to look and practice self control and look at the right thing. To compromise because no one is looking. Or to choose character because. Because God is looking. Daniel chose character instead of compromise. And as a result, in verse 11, we read this. Then these men went as a group and found Daniel praying and asking God for help. Clearly, this edict, this nationwide edict, it was not national, it was personal. This wasn't targeted towards a group of people. This law, this law was targeted towards one man. And in verse 13 and 15, we read, then they said to the king, Daniel, who is one of the exiles from Judah, pays no attention to you, you, Majesty, or to the decree you put in writing. He still prays three times a day. When the king heard this, he was greatly distressed. He was determined to rescue Daniel and made every effort until sundown to save him. Then the men went as a group to King Darius and said to him, remember, your Majesty, that according to the law of the Medes and Persians, no decree or edict that the king issues can be changed or reversed. And at this point, the king realizes that he has been duped. He has been tricked by his own satraps. And because he can't overturn this edict, we read in verse 16 and onward. So the king gave the order and they brought Daniel and threw him into the lion's den. A stone was brought and placed over the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with his own signet ring. At the first light of dawn, the king got up and hurried to the lion's den. When he came near the den, he called to Daniel in an anguished voice, daniel, servant of the living God. Has your God, whom you continually serve, been able to rescue you from the lions? Daniel answered, may the King live forever. Two things I just want you to notice from these verses. Number one, your character. Depending on how high it is, your character will always outweigh any lie that is told about you. The truth will always come out. Your character will always outweigh any misunderstanding or lie that is told about you. That's why character is so important. Cool wins in high school. Character wins in life. Your character will outweigh any lie that is told about you. Number two. When you hear about someone who is innocent but unjustly sentenced to death, when you hear about someone that is thrown into the mouth of a tomb, when you hear about someone who has a large stone rolled in front of the mouth of the tomb, when you hear about a story where, at the light of dawn the next day, they are not dead, but they are living, what are the echoes of that story? What does that sound like? These are echoes, a foreshadowing of what Jesus Christ himself would do. All of Scripture points to the main hero, main character, the person who lived with the most character and integrity of all mankind. And that is Jesus himself. And this is why, in verse 22 and 23. But we do read one difference. In verse 22 to 23, Daniel says, My God sent his angel. He shut the mouths of the lions. They have not hurt me because I was found innocent in his sight, nor have I ever done any wrong before you, your Majesty. The king was overjoyed and gave orders to lift Daniel out of the den. And when Daniel was lifted from the den, no wound was found on him because he had trusted in his God. Here is where Daniel and Jesus in many ways have parallel stories, but here is where they differ. God shuts the mouths of the lions in the den, and no wound was found on Daniel. But unlike Daniel, Jesus was not protected from the mouths of lions, and he was wounded. Which is why in Psalm 22, verses 1 and 13, which is a Messianic psalm pointing to Jesus, we read, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish? Roaring lions, the that tear their prey, open their mouths wide against me. Psalm 22 is a messianic psalm that points to Jesus. And in Psalm 22, the roaring lions are not the sat traps. The roaring lions are not this edict. The roaring lions are not literal lions, but the roaring lions that want to devour Jesus is the curse of sin. And the Final enemy, death itself. And on the cross, Jesus is devoured. He is swallowed up. He is wounded for our sins and our transgressions because of the divided life we all live. The good news is that when you take a look at Scripture, it is filled with characters that look like you and me. Here are a few examples. Peter had a short fuse and was a coward. Jacob was a liar. Solomon was a sex addict. David was a murderer and misused his power. John. Mark was rejected by Paul. Hosea's wife was a prostitute. Abraham cared more about himself than his wife. We talked about Peter already. Paul was a murderer and persecutor. Moses was a murderer. Jonah ran from God. Miriam was a gossip. Gideon and Thomas both doubted. Jeremiah was depressed and suicidal. Elijah was burnt out. Martha was a worryworth. Noah got drunk. And the point is. The point is all of us, including our heroes and heroines in scripture, all of us live divided, compartmentalized lives that don't have the character and integrity that we need. And the tension, of course, is that we believe in a God that sees all things. In Luke 12, it says, There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed or hidden, that will not be made known. Or if I can put it more into a modern parable or saying. Someone once said, you can fool some people all the time, you can fool all people some of the time, but you can fool the Lord, never. Your divided life cannot fool God. It can fool others. It cannot fool God. And this is why Jesus gladly enters into the lion's den for you and for me, gladly to be devoured in our place. And I don't know about you, I don't like the idea of someone paying the consequences for something I did. I don't like that idea. But when it comes to this, I am thankful, I am grateful. And if someone gives their life for the consequences I deserve, they deserve my life. Tim Challis gives some powerful questions for us just to diagnose ourselves. And he says this. Are there any ongoing sins in your life that would bring shame to you, your family and church if they were made public? Number two, Are there any parts of your life you deliberately hide from others? Let's just be honest, okay? Number three. Do you know what sins you are particularly prone to, and do you have measures in your life to guard against these temptations? Four, if the people around you heard charges against you, would their reaction be, that's impossible? Or would it be, yeah, that's not super surprising? What does their response say about you? Would you say you have a good rep or an iffy rep? How often do you repent of your sins? Why do you think your life right now is pleasing to God? And last but not least, are you regularly attending church, the means of grace, and participating in the life of the church? Do you have times of private worship? These are just helpful questions to make sure that we live integrated lives and to check ourselves. And to be honest, a friend of mine who wanted to live a life that is more integrated, I was just spending time with him a couple days ago in one of our cohorts. And I didn't realize this, but this past Friday, just two days ago, I didn't know this at all, but he was finishing a 40 day fast, water fast. So a couple days ago he broke the fast with some bone broth. And I spent half the day with him and he was just drinking bone broth. He was like, this is so delicious. And during the few hours that we were together, I kid you not, I think he vomited like four or five times because he just couldn't hold the bone broth down. It's not even solids, it's liquids. And I was like, bro, how do you feel? You know, it's like 40 days. This is no joke. And he says, I feel so weak and empty, but my heart feels so full. He said the first few days in particular were really hard. But by the second week, he said, I can see more clearly than ever before. And to be honest, I am so weak, I am too tired to sin. I'm too tired to be reactionary against my kids and explode on them. I'm too tired to do things in secret. All I am is so weak, I have no choice but to literally depend upon God. He was living such a clean life of integration. And this is where preaching and downloading content is not enough for your transformation. What are some things that you can do this week? Maybe reflect on these questions every day this week to do a gut check. Maybe it's fasting to making sure you see more clearly. And by the way, if you want to fast, you can take me up on this. And you feel like I can't do this by myself and you have no one to do it. I will do it with you this week as a pastor, as I will do it with you this week. If that's what it takes for you to live more of a life of character and integration, take me up on it. I will do it with you this week. But we have to live lives that are deeply integrated and not divided up into different versions of ourselves. God is in the business of not fragmenting our hearts by making our hearts whole again. Again. Let's stop playing Christianity. Let's start being Christian and acting like the child of God that you are. He loves you, he forgives you, but he also wants to transform you. Let's pray. I want to give us one to two minutes for some space to think about your own lives and just be honest with yourself. Are there different versions of yourself? Does your private life actually not match your public life? Do you have a secret self at home that no one else in public knows? Take this time to confess. Let's. Let's also take this time to rest in the Father's arms and to pray that you will make us whole. Let's pray and then I'll close our time in prayer.
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Father, we come before you broken and divided and compartmentalized. There are so many different versions of ourselves, some, to be frank, that we are not very proud of. But God, our heart's desire and prayer is that you would make us whole, integrated, pure, high character, like Daniel, but most of all like your son. Make us clean. Help us to be gentle with ourselves, just as you are with us. And daily help us to fall and collapse into your arms to be more like your son. May our private lives matter, our public lives. May our words match our actions. May our online life match our offline life. May we walk the walk and not just talk to talk in Jesus name, Amen.