All right, please turn with me and your Bibles to Daniel chapter 6. Daniel chapter 6. We're beginning this new section in the book of Daniel, new chapter. This well-known section, I would say it's probably the most well-known section in the book of Daniel, the chapter of Daniel being thrown in the lion's den. But specifically this afternoon, we're just going to see how it all started. Namely, Not with prayer, but actually with Daniel's excellence in the workplace. Look with me at Daniel chapter six, verses one through nine. Hear the word of the Lord. It pleased Darius to set over the kingdom 100 satraps to be throughout the whole kingdom, and over them three high officials, of whom Daniel was one, to whom these satraps should give account, so that the king might suffer no loss. Then this Daniel became distinguished above all the other officials and satraps because an excellent spirit was in him, and the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom. Then the high officials and the satraps sought to find a ground for complaint against Daniel with regard to the kingdom, but they could find no ground for complaint or any fault because he was faithful. and no error or fault was found in him. Then these men said, we shall not find any ground for complaint against Daniel unless we find it in connection with the law of his God. Then these high officials and satraps came by agreement to the king and said to him, O King Darius, live forever. All the high officials of the kingdom, the prefects and the satraps, the counselors and the governors are agreed that the king should establish an ordinance and enforce an injunction. May the Lord bless the reading of his word. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you once more for your word. We thank you that you have not left us without guidance, without your revelation of how to know you, of how to live the Christian life. And Lord, we thank you. for this afternoon to gather together as your people to worship you. And we thank you for your word, and specifically here in Daniel chapter 6, as we come to this well-known chapter of Daniel being thrown in the lion's den. I pray now that as we look at these beginning verses, Lord, that you will stir our hearts and affections to love you, to work as unto you for your glory. We pray that you would do this in Christ's name. Amen. So here we're in Daniel chapter 6. You might see maybe in the bulletin, I'm not, the original plan was to do verses 1 through 15, but I think there's a little bit too much here. So we're just going to look at verses 1 through 9. And by doing so, we're going to specifically look at how the whole aspect of Daniel being thrown in the lines then, how it all started. Like I said at the beginning, this is probably the most famous of all stories in the book of Daniel. If you've ever heard this story and maybe heard it read outside of today, raise your hand. This includes you children. Who's ever heard the story of Daniel and the lion's den? I think pretty much every hand goes up, right? Except for Russell back there. I guess he didn't... No, no, I'm kidding. I'm kidding. No, but pretty much every hand goes up, right? So this, even if you've never gone to church possibly, you probably have heard something about a story of a lion's den. Maybe you know the name Daniel. I mean, this is one of the most well-known stories, especially to children. Now, probably the first reason it's the most well-known story is because there's lions in it, right? I mean, who likes lions, especially kids? Who likes those? I mean, I know my boys love lions in any story. That's definitely an obvious reason why this is a fan favorite. But I think it's more than that. It's more than just children loving lions. But I think we love this chapter because Daniel is so praiseworthy here in this chapter. He really just shines forth the works, good works that God has given him. We see Daniel just being excellent, good, and true. For I think when we come to this chapter, what we see in Daniel, deep down is what we want to see in ourselves. I mean, even if you're an unbeliever here this morning, as you see what Daniel does in this chapter, it's hard not to praise him for it, and it's hard not to want to be like him. For here, Daniel is a man who truly believes. what he believes and he acts accordingly to it. He's a man of principle, a man of conviction, what we call as Christians, a man of faith. And that's why I want us to look at this afternoon as we begin this story. We won't look at the lions just yet, children, but we'll save that, Lord willing, for resurrection Sunday. But today, the focus of the message is on what started it all. What fuse was lit that led to Daniel being thrown into the lion's den? And the answer is actually rather surprising. It's rather mundane. The answer is Daniel's faithfulness in the workplace. That's where it all started. That's the main idea of our passage today is the courage of Daniel and Daniel chapter 6 begins with his courage. in the workplace as he worked unto the Lord. Now, many times when we think of Daniel's courage, I mean, throughout the whole book, but especially Daniel chapter 6, I mean, this is really the climax of the story of Daniel, you could say. When we think of his courage, what do we usually think of? His courage to pray, right? Or we think of his courage to be thrown into a line of a den of lions and remain calm and trusting God. We think of those things, but do we ever think of his courage in the workplace? I mean, because that's really what we have here in these first few verses. That's where it all starts. And if you really think of, you might think, well, courage in the workplace. I don't think of courage with workplace, but the word courage is defined by some as this, the willingness to confront agony, pain, danger, uncertainty, or intimidation. I think as we'll see, when Daniel's in his workplace, what is he facing? Danger. I mean, he was in a position that was a difficult position. Every time he was almost about to die while he's in his position. So very hazardous workplace Daniel has. He's always been threatened to die. His workplace was rather uncertain. I mean, he's gone through a few kings so far. He's had intimidation in the workplace. Even in this passage, you see intimidation in the workplace. And how does he face it? How does he face this danger, uncertainty, intimidation in the workplace, he faces it with courage, with resolve. He doesn't let it faze him. That's what we're going to look at today. So the outline for today's message and text is twofold. First, I want to really zero in on Daniel's excellent work. We're told that the spirit of excellence is within him. So I want to look at that, Daniel being excellent at his work. That's in verses one through three. And second, we'll see the response by the high officials to Daniel's excellent work, which is their nefarious plot to have him killed. That's in verses four through nine. So Daniel's excellent work, and then the high official's nefarious plot in response to his work. It has been the case throughout the book of Daniel. I mean, one of the main takeaways from this chapter, from this passage, is once again, Daniel is a great godly example for us, how to glorify God in the public square, but specifically here, how to glorify God in the workplace. May we dare to be like Daniel at work. All right, so let's look at the first section of this story. The first section of the story of Daniel and the lions then begins with Daniel performing well at his job. Look at verses one through three with me. It says, It pleased Darius to set over the kingdom 120 satraps, to be throughout the whole kingdom, and over them three high officials, of whom Daniel was one, to whom the satraps should give an account, so that the king might suffer no loss. Then this Daniel became distinguished above all the other high officials and satraps, because an excellent spirit was within him, and the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom. So here, the opening verses of this well-known chapter begins with Daniel in the workplace and him working faithfully. Now, this chapter opens up with a new king. It's King Darius. It's interesting, the last chapter, how did it begin? With a new king, King Belshazzar. Well, now that we're in Daniel chapter 6, if you remember the end of Daniel chapter 5, Babylon is no more. King Belshazzar is no more. But guess who's still around? Daniel. King Nebuchadnezzar, dead. King Belshazzar, dead. Daniel, he's still alive, so far in the book of Daniel. But here we have this new king. And if you remember at the end of Daniel chapter 5, Babylon falls to the Medes and to the Persians. Exactly what Daniel prophesied, not only in Daniel chapter 5 with the writing on the wall, but he even prophesied this in Daniel chapter 2. remember when he interprets King Nebuchadnezzar's first dream, how man's kingdoms will not endure, but they will fall. And here we have the name of the king of the Medes, Darius. Now, I don't want to spend too much time on this, but I want to make this note just so that you're aware of it. There are no archaeological evidences as of now, best I know, of this king, King Darius, and his reign during this specific time. You may know of other King Dariuses that come up in scripture, but if you line up the history, it just doesn't really fit with this one. And you probably have guessed, if there's no archeological evidence for this specific person and king, guess what the critics of the Bible will say when we come to Daniel chapter 6? What do you think they're going to say? Oh, here's an example where the Bible is wrong. Here's an example where the Bible is false. You know, they're always looking for ways to pick at the Bible and try to find falsehoods. And they'll say, look, this chapter says there's a King Darius over the Medes, and we have no historical or archaeological evidence of this. They'll say that this was just made up by Daniel, by the Bible writers. Well, so far in the book of Daniel, everything he has said historically has been what? Has been true. Even unbelieving Bible scholars or unbelieving historical scholars will say everything leading up to chapter 6 has all been historically true, as much as they can find out when it comes to King Nebuchadnezzar and King Belshazzar. and the timing of their kingdoms and everything that's going on. Up to this point, everything's been historically verifiable. So it would make sense that it continues to be the case. Just because we don't have the historical record of a certain person doesn't mean he didn't exist, right? That's just an argument from silence. Just because they haven't found anything that goes against it, they just haven't found anything to prove it. As with every other instance like this, you know what usually happens when they point something out in the Bible that hasn't been discovered? You know what usually happens within a few years? It gets discovered. And then once it gets discovered, guess what? There's no apologies that ever happened. Do you ever see one of those guys ever apologize and say, Oh, for 10 years I said the Bible was wrong because of this. And then when that thing is found, no one comes back and say, Oh, I was wrong for 10 years. Well, I think that'll be the case here. You know, if we haven't found it, it'll probably come up at some point. But my two cents are this King Darius was under King Cyrus, but most likely as a governor over this Babylonian area. You know, he's still a king, you could say, but he's probably...King Cyrus is the head, but he's given the whole new Babylon. They just took over Babylon and he's made Darius the head over this whole region. And he probably was the head over it for a short period of time. But that's not the main point of this passage. It's not Darius. It's going to be Daniel. And here Darius is put over Daniel, and he puts Daniel in one of the most powerful positions in the kingdom. There's the king. Think of king over Babylon, this new Babylon. There's King Darius. And then right under him, he picks three people, three high officials. So really, they're all the second most important people in the kingdom. They're right under King Darius. Think of a similar situation in our country's government. Daniel got the job of kind of like the Speaker of the House or maybe the Majority Leader of the Senate or even the Vice President position, a very high position in the government of the Medes. So here we begin chapter 6 with Daniel being in the highest position he's been in so far in the book of Daniel. Think of he's become Vice President of New Babylon. And we're told originally that the king did this so that he would not suffer loss. Now, what that most likely means is, you know, Daniel's been there for a little bit, hasn't he? He's been around. What happens when maybe a company buys another company? Instead of firing everybody, what do they usually do? What's a smart thing to do? Maybe keep around the person who's been there the longest to help with the transition. They know all the ins and outs similar here. I mean, Daniel, It looks like Daniel was the most important person in Babylon for Darius as he's considering it. You think about Daniel, how old is he probably at this point? He's in his 80s, so 82, 81, 83, whatever the case. When did he first get to Babylon? About 15 years old. So you think about it. He's been there, I mean, his whole adult life and probably the last, I mean, I mean, from age 18 to 82, he's been in the royal court. Okay. He's been with King Nebuchadnezzar. He's been with all the kings. He's got just decades upon decades of experience there in Babylon. So most likely Darius puts him in this position because he doesn't want to suffer any loss. He can see Daniel's giftedness and how Daniel can be a blessing to him. So we have that. So it makes sense. Darius doesn't want to get rid of Daniel, but puts him in a position of power. And once he does this, we're told this in verse three. So what began with Daniel just being there for the transition, Ended up with Darius saying, I'm going to give you the whole kingdom, most likely the whole new Babylon that they've conquered. And why? Well, we're told in the passage because there's an excellent spirit within Daniel. Excellent meaning extraordinary, preeminent, great. He was amazing at what he did. Another way to put it simply, Daniel was really good at his job. That's why Darius wanted him to one day be over the whole kingdom. He had great giftedness as it came to administrative and leadership. Now, I don't think it's just his competence either though. I would bet it was his godly character that bled through. That's why he worked so hard. I bet you he was the most honest among the men. No matter if you're an unbeliever, If you are a boss or a worker, would you rather an honest co-worker, an honest employer, or a dishonest one? An honest one, right? Whether you're wretched or whether you're an unbeliever, you're still wanting honest workers. I think he saw that in Daniel. Daniel was simply good at the work assigned to him by Darius, ultimately the work assigned to him by God at that time in his life. And it's here I really want to consider a theology of work taught here in the book of Daniel. You know, work is good. We've seen that when we went through 1 and 2 Thessalonians, but we see it here with Daniel. I think we look over it too quickly. But work is good. We're actually made to work. Now, work doesn't mean, doesn't equate with just getting a paycheck. Work is that which God has called you to do, to use your gifts and talents for His glory. Many times this will involve a paycheck, but it may not. And work is good. God created us to work. men and women, all of us, and our work is to glorify Him. You may ask, how can we glorify God in our work, something that we're all doing? Well, one way to do it is to work excellently, as Daniel is an example for us in these beginning verses. Now, this was an aspect, this was a part of doctrine and practice that was recovered in the Protestant Reformation. You know, so many times we just think of the five solas, but when the gospel is recovered, I mean, when the gospel is lost, you know, a lot of other doctrines are lost. And when the gospel was recovered, a lot of other doctrines were recovered. And one of those was a theology of work. Who's heard the phrase Protestant work ethic? That came from the Protestant Reformation. Because before the Reformation, how did people view work? Even professing Christians, they viewed a stark divide between secular and sacred work. That sacred work, like that of the clergy and priests, that was important. But secular work, that wasn't important. There's no calling upon that. It's just that if you're not a priest, you just have to do these other mundane things. And that's how they viewed it. Well, then when the Reformation comes, there's a recovery of a biblical view of work. You know, sola scriptura, you have the scriptures, your authority, and they start seeing the blessing and beauty of work. And what the Protestant reformers, and specifically Martin Luther, said about work was, no, there's no sacred-secular divide. Actually, all of our jobs are vocations. Y'all have heard that word, vocation? It's a great word to describe our jobs and occupations. vocation comes from that Latin word of calling, meaning all of our jobs are callings. That's what the reformers saw, that no matter if you're in the medical field, if you're an engineer, if you're a lawyer, if you're a sanitation engineer, a teacher, all sorts of secular jobs, no matter what it is, those are callings. Just like a calling for a clergyman, there's callings upon all of God's people. that God has you where you are for a reason. And that job, that vocation, you're there for a specific reason. It's not that God is concerned with everything else in your life except other than your job. But you're in that office, you're in that home because God has divinely appointed you to be there for this season of life. Work is not to be seen as drudgery only. We know it's hard. We know since the fall it's difficult. But it stretches us. It grows us. I mean, who in here can give a testimony? I'm pretty sure if we had Testimony Night, we could all give testimonies of how, in our jobs, in the workplace, the Lord grew us. Who's ever faced something difficult in a workplace and the Lord taught you something there? I think all of us, right? Whether in the workplace or if you work in the home, there's been some sort of struggle where the Lord has sanctified you. That might be one of the main things that the Lord has used to sanctify you, right, is your job. But we are to work as unto the Lord and to do so excellently. We're to work excellently, not so that other people would notice or that we would get a promotion, but to please God. You know, it's interesting, the statistics of our government right now, our current generation in America is that the current generation, they've done the polling and they'll say they only want to work if their job provides some sort of meaning or fulfillment for them, some sort of purpose. Now that might sound good, but I think another way to say is they want to simply enjoy their work, enjoy what they're doing. Well, one thing for us to consider in contrast to that desire and a reality is that our jobs, our vocations cannot give us meaning or fulfillment. So if you're wanting one to give you fulfillment or meaning, I have a rude awakening for you. It won't give it to you. If you're living as if your job will give you everything that you want to bring you fulfillment, you will never get it. And you will, in the end, hate that job because it won't give you what you want. None of those things can bring us. There's no perfect job or perfect position out there that will bring you all the meaning and joy and fulfillment. If you hold your breath, well, don't hold your breath because it's not going to come. Right? The answer is not to find a job that brings meaning and fulfillment mainly, the answer is that whatever job that God has given you, to find your meaning and joy and fulfillment in God as you work unto Him, trusting in His sovereignty and where He has placed you. I mean, think back to Daniel here. Do you think Daniel loved his job? I don't think so. He lived in Babylon. Where do you think Daniel wanted to be? Where do you all think Daniel wanted to be? Back in Judah, right? Back with his people, his family. He was ripped away. He's been in Babylon since he was 15. I mean, he's basically kidnapped and enslaved. And he's been there since he's 15. He's worked these sort of jobs. That wasn't by choice. Do you think he loved working for pagan, wicked kings? Think he loved working for wicked kings in Babylon? Think he loved working for Medes and the Persians here? These pagan, idolatrous leaders? I mean, we've looked at his workplace. He's got one of the most hazardous workplaces ever. He's got terrible bosses. Bosses telling him that he's got to bow down and worship and commit idolatry. He's got bosses, I mean, here in this chapter, tell him not to pray if he does. to get thrown into a lion's den. I think we may, you may say I have a difficult job situation. Is it like Daniel's though? I don't know if many of us are being thrown to lions, maybe some figurative lions in our workplace, but not physical ones like this one. I don't think Daniel's thinking, man, I've got to, I won't really work hard until I get the job that I've always dreamed of. No, I don't think this was his dream job. Pretty sure he wanted to be back, He was there and God did place him in that position. And his ordained purpose at this time was to work there under King Darius of the Medes. And what did Daniel do about it? Did Daniel pout? Do we see anything in this passage about him pouting or maybe stop going to work in Babylon or now in Persia? We don't see Daniel talking about he doesn't like his boss. I'm not going to work. I'm only going to go to a position that brings me great fulfillment. No, what we are told here in this passage is that he was faithful at his job and he was excellent in it. That whatever the Lord gave him to do, he was excellent in it. So much so that the king of the Medes, Darius, who was his conqueror, I mean, you could say he's an enemy, Daniel won his trust over. So much so that Darius, I mean, by the end of our verses, verse four, we'll say, is planning to give the whole kingdom to Daniel. exile from Judah. That's pretty amazing. That's how great Daniel was at work. That's how, I think, godly he was at work. So godly, he won over his pagan, idolatrous boss. I think he did so simply by being a faithful, godly worker. Instead of seeking Darius's harm, he sought his good. He sought to be a blessing to his co-workers and to his boss. So when we think of Daniel chapter 6, again, we usually think of Daniel's courage, but we think of prayer and lions, but it actually just started here in the workplace. His courage to work as unto the glory of the Lord. As we see, it's going to be what gets him in trouble. But here we see he didn't whine about his job. He had tough tasks before him. I mean, to be in those high positions, I mean, administering a new country that's been taken over, I mean, it had to be difficult. And he trusted the Lord in it and he was faithful. Now, this brings me to asking questions of myself. Hopefully you'll ask questions of yourself from the text. Questions like, is this how you are in the workplace? How are you in the workplace? Would your coworkers or boss say something like this about you, that you're excellent or trust you with work to be given, that they would say that you're excellent in your work, that you work hard, that you put your best foot forward, that they would say you're not selfish, but you seek to bless others, that you're honest and trustworthy, that you're reliable, or would they say, yeah, I know Corey. Yeah, I know how he is at work. He's selfish. He'll only do the work that's assigned to him. Won't help anybody out. He's all about looking to that next position. He's a ladder climber. Or they'll say, yeah, Cory, he's always grumbling and complaining. I know about that coworker. Or he's never doing his job. I always have to pick up where he's leaving off because he's not working. He's at the water cooler talking all the time. You know, this is important. The way we carry ourselves in the workplace is important to our Christian testimony. You're testifying what you believe to those in your workplace by the way you work, right? Whether in the home, if you're working, if you're in the home, if you're a mother, I mean, how you go about your business, you're testifying what you believe to those around you, to your children, if you're in the office or wherever it might be. you're testifying to them. And what would you be testifying? Well, if you're working unto the Lord, you're testifying of God's goodness, of God's sovereignty, that God's placed you there and you're trusting in Him and you're going to be faithful and excellent at whatever task is given to you. Or you're going to be testifying the opposite. You're going to be testifying by the way you work that, you know what, we can't trust God. He puts us in places that are not for our good. We can't trust Him. That's why we complain or that's why we're lazy. And I think it's here as Christians, you know, sometimes we major on the minors or minor on the majors, meaning we can major on something as minor as maybe a social media conflict with somebody and spend a lot of time with that. But we minor on the majors like how we perform at our jobs. That's actually more important than maybe that one comment you might make in two weeks on a social media platform. Because your workplace is where you go every single day for hours and people see you and the testimony you have. Our work is important. We spend most of our days there. We spend most of our time doing those things. And the question is, are we glorifying God? Would we be like Daniel? Would people see us like Daniel? So may we recommit ourselves to this, to working as unto the Lord, to be like Daniel in his day. All right, so that's the first part. We see Daniel just being so excellent at his work that Darius just wants to give the whole kingdom to him. But as we see in verses 4 through 9, just because you perform great at work doesn't mean you'll get a reward here on earth. Look at verses 4 through 9. Here we see a nefarious plot, a murderous plot by the high officials against Daniel. We're told this. Then the high officials and the satraps sought to find a ground for complaint against Daniel with regard to the kingdom. but they could find no ground for complaint or any fault because he was faithful. No error or fault was found in him. Then these men said, we shall not find any ground for complaint against Daniel unless we find it in connection with the law of his God. Then these high officials and satraps came by agreement to the king and said to him, O King Darius, live forever. All the high officials of the kingdom and prefects and satraps, the counselors and the governors are agreed that the king should establish an ordinance and enforce an injunction that whoever makes petition to any God or man for 30 days except you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions. Now, O king, establish this injunction and sign the document so that it cannot be changed according to the law of the Medes and the Persians, which cannot be revoked. Therefore, King Darius signed the document and injunction. So how is Daniel rewarded with having faithful, excellent work in the workplace? How is he rewarded? Yeah, what's that? Hated. Jealous. Envy. True hatred of the heart that leads to actions to try to get him killed. That's what happens. That's what it leads to. These men hate Daniel because he was so good at his job that he was going to get the promotion that they thought they deserved. So they became jealous and envious and are thinking, how can this guy, this exile from Judah, they thought themselves to be greater than Daniel, which pretty sure they were not. But they were so prideful thinking, this guy, How is this guy going to be here? They probably thought to themselves, we've been with King Darius for decades. We should be getting that promotion. We should get that job. Because they didn't, they respond with hatred, even so much so they really are plotting to have him killed. Now, how do they plot? Well, at first, they couldn't come up with a scheme to get Daniel. I love this. In verse four, we're told they could not find any fault or error or complaint against Daniel. I can only imagine what these men were doing around the kingdom, around the workplace, trying to get as much dirt on Daniel, maybe going to somebody else and saying, hey, you know, what do you know about Daniel? Has he done this? Has he cut this corner? Did he not pay this tax? I mean, there's got to be something on this guy. They go everywhere, and guess what? No. It probably made them so angry after every person they went to. Each person was like, no, we love Daniel. What are you talking about? He's like the best guy here, actually. He's the one who does his work other than you three guys. He's actually honest, right? They're going to all these people and no one would give him anything. Not that he's completely perfect or sinless, but we can see that he just has a great reputation. He's actually working. He's actually faithful in his job. They couldn't find anything. He never tried to stab someone in the back for his own gain. He said he was faithful in the task that God had given him. They couldn't find anything against him. I got a real quick question for you as we come to this juncture of the story. If someone could dig up dirt on you in the workplace, could they find something? Have you been honest in all your dealings? at work, co-workers, bosses, clients. Now, even if other people don't see, God does see. May we seek to glorify Him in the workplace and do it, again, not to please men, but to please Him. So now what do these high officials do? Like, we got nothing. They come up and they say the only way we can get this guy is something connected with his love for the Lord. We know he loves God. Maybe we can use his strength as his weakness. And this is how wicked, nefarious, sinful men can be. What should they be doing? This whole time they're coming up with this plot, what should they be doing? working, okay, they should be following Daniel. I mean, think about it, if these guys just worked like Daniel, this kingdom would have been far greater. But this whole time, they're spending just so much time trying to get this guy in trouble. So they know that he loves the Lord, so they're like, okay, we're going to find out, we're going to work in a way, we're going to draw new legislation, new laws to get Daniel in trouble. Because all the laws we have now, he hasn't broken any of them. So we've got to come up with new laws. And the new law they came up with was, let's come up with a law that doesn't look like we're trying to get Daniel. This is how wicked and sly and deceptive these men were. I think that's why they're in these positions. Sometimes people get these high official positions because of just that. I mean, Daniel didn't, but these guys did. You can just sense it. So they figure out a way. They're like, okay, well, let's just say we know King Darius loves Daniel. So we got to somehow make him pass a law that he doesn't know will impact Daniel in a negative way. So let's make a law saying how great we love you, King Darius, and we love you so much for 30 days. Everybody just has to say how much they love you. They can't petition to any other man or God. They only can petition to you. Now, when King Darius hears this, I mean, as an unbeliever, he hears it, he doesn't see anything wrong with it. He's probably, you know, he's probably flattered by it as two of his high officials are saying how great he is. So he's like, okay, let's do it. 30 days, I'll sign the document. And he does so. They came up with this new law. I know this new law sounds a lot like King Nebuchadnezzar's command to worship the golden image, if you remember that. Here they duped Darius to signing this law into effect, which cannot be revoked. They emphasized that. And the whole reason was to get Daniel in trouble, not to help out the kingdom, not to do anything like that. And the only thing they could find against Daniel was his faith, his prayer life to the Lord. And here's another question to consider from the passage. Could those you work with, your co-workers, boss, family, if you work in the home, could they convict you of being a Christian, knowing who you loved? They didn't like you, could they have come up with something like, oh, I know this one thing about Cory, I know he does love the Lord and he's a Christian. Maybe we could use that against him. Could someone in your workplace around you could actually say, I know this person is a Christian? Are you a Christian at work? That doesn't mean go around beating people's heads over with a Bible, but do they know that you're a Christian? I mean, that's pretty basic. I mean, if that's an important part of your life and no one knows it, that you work however many hours every day with, they should have some sort of inkling to who you belong to. And if you're saying, no, they don't know anything about my faith, then why not? We're to be Christians in the public sphere. And sometimes when we hear public square, a public sphere, I think we immediately go to maybe politics or, I don't know, something big. you know, or social media, though that's not big. But you might go to public sphere means doing something, you know, crazy out there. But you know, public sphere includes the workplace. And that's where we're at the most. So if you want to be bold and courageous as a Christian in the public sphere, that means doing it in the workplace, which includes just being faithful at your own work and being excellent in it. So could someone bring up your faith to get you in trouble? Hopefully they could. I want to close with this word of encouragement because here we definitely see Daniel. We're going to see he's going to suffer in the workplace terribly for his faith. I want to encourage you, brothers and sisters, if you do suffer in the workplace because of your faith, you may have already done, that may have already happened. If it hasn't, Not a prophet or a son of a prophet, but I'm guessing it may in the near future. You may suffer in the workplace because of your faith. I want to encourage you to not be ashamed of that if it does happen. And don't be fearful. Instead, lift your head up. Your king sees, God sees you, and he will reward you in the end. You know, I think we're living a time closer than Babylon than not. And I think we're going to have a lot of opportunities to be courageous like Daniel in the future. And the question is, will you be like Daniel? Will you rise to the occasion? Will you work excellently unto the Lord? Will you be public with your faith? And you may be thinking, man, that sounds great, but I know if I do, I might lose the job, I might lose favor with the coworkers or bosses. I mean, I've told y'all, I mean, I've heard just instance after instance of those who, if you don't put your pronouns in your bio, you might lose your job. If you don't do this or if you don't do that, you might be thinking, can I really I don't know if that's for me, maybe that's for pastors, or maybe that's for older Christians in the faith, or maybe that's for someone else, but for me, I just can't see myself doing that because I would lose my job. I just can't see me doing that. Well, I want to encourage you, if you're a Christian, that's your vocation. You're a Christian first, and then you're an engineer, then you're a doctor, then you're of military personnel, then you're whoever it may be, but you're a Christian first. Your allegiance is to the Lord first. And if you will be now in the workplace, you know, when it really gets difficult, what do you think you're going to do? When it's your life now, if you're not willing to to glorify the Lord in the workplace and lose a job for Christ, what makes you think you'll lose your life for Christ? You probably won't. And that's why Daniel is so important. The reason we all want to be like Daniel and think when we get thrown in the lines then when the government comes after us, we're going to stand firm and we'll be willing to die. But if we're not willing to do it in the workplace, what makes you think you'll do it later? So I think that's something important for us to think about. I want to encourage you, if you're in that situation, you're thinking you would never be able to, I want to encourage you that Christ is worth it. God is worth it. Christ is worth more than your job. How do you think you got your job in the first place? God called you to that job and gave you that job. Christ is worth more than your job, worth more than your paycheck. As we'll see at the end of this story, just a spoiler alert, Daniel's faithfulness, his courage in the workplace will ultimately lead him to being honored by the whole kingdom and by the king. Now again, I don't think, Daniel's not doing it for that. I think this whole time Daniel's never been trying to get promoted. But at the end of this story, that's been the whole point of, I mean, it's come up every chapter in Daniel. He will actually gain a reward here on earth because of his faithfulness. That may happen to you. The Lord might work that out in your workplace. You might think you're going to get fired. Instead, you get a promotion. Instead, you're put in charge of the whole area because of your honesty and your faith. You never know what the Lord may do with you and your courage within the workplace. He may change lives for eternity. He may change your workplace. He may bring a great revival and awakening. You never know. So whether you get thrown in the lion's den for your public faith or that you truly get rewarded or both, like Daniel, he got both. He got the lion's den and he got rewarded in the end. Christ is worth it. I really believe it's not until you're willing to lose your job for Christ's sake that you're able to really do your job to the best of your ability. in an excellent way to honor the Lord and to honor Him alone, that you work with no fear of man, only unto Him, because those are the best workers. So may we end on Christ. How was Christ rewarded for His excellency in the public sphere? You know, He was most excellent. Now, we know Daniel did sin at work, okay? He wasn't completely perfect. He's still a sin, but you know who was completely perfect in the public sphere, in the workplace, was Christ. the God man. He never sinned privately or publicly. And what did they do to him? Remember Pontius Pilate. What did Pontius Pilate try to find? What were they trying to find? They could not find any fault, could they? Yet they still hung him upon the tree. But to their surprise, God's sovereign plan before the foundation of the world was for Christ to die on the cross. And the end of the story was far greater than Daniel's story for God raised Christ from the dead, conquering sin and Satan. What appeared to be defeat was actually the greatest victory. What appeared to be defeat in the cross was actually Christ's greatest victory, salvation for us. And it's this Christ who's worth our jobs. He's worth our lives. Surely we can give up our jobs for him if he's willing to give up his life for us. So all glory be to Christ. Let's close in prayer.