Let us pray.
Dear Lord, thank You so much for bringing us together. Thank You that it pleases You to show things of Yourself to we humans. Thank You that Your desire is for us to draw near to You, to be shown who You are, and to see Your wonders.
Be with us. Let there be clarity. Let there be listening ears, and hopefully not a stammering tongue. I ask this in Your name, O Jesus. Amen.
Good morning, brothers and sisters.
Today, I will be talking about Daniel, titled Walking with God. So there is the title. If you get nothing else, use this as an incentive to reread the Book of Daniel, because it is a wonderful story.
I had two verses I wanted to start with:
Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.
Daniel is one of my favorite biblical figures, actually, because I think he did something that is really valuable to we believers: he walked with God.
Now, a lot of us know by default that walking with God is something we are supposed to be doing, but it is one of those things where the definition is a little bit funky.
Can I hear some definitions—some attempts? What is a definition of walking with God off the top of your head?
Very good stuff. But that is a lot of range of definitions for something that all of us are supposed to be doing, would you not say?
The story of Enoch is a good example, but I was a little slow to use it because we do not have a lot of details. He was born, had a father, had a kid—as I hear a lot of parents do—and then walked with God and vanished. Poof. Kind of a hard example to follow.
So I thought we would use our brother Daniel, because his story is one of the more complete examples of what walking with God actually means. We have a whole lot of his story. There is a beginning, there is a middle, and there is something of an ending. There is something we can follow.
I wanted to give you a couple of examples of what walking with God does not mean:
So, what does walking with God mean?
The Lord has an order about Him. He has a way. He has a progress. That is who He is. He does not do things aimlessly. He is not random.
The picture I have in mind is a delta. It may look like a jumbled mess, but what I love about this walk with the Lord is that it is broad, because we as people are incredibly broad beings. We have a spirit, we have a soul, and we have a body. The Lord wants us to walk with Him in all these little different ways.
You remember there was a variety of definitions. Those are all areas where the Lord wants to walk with us. He does it scattered here and there, everywhere, in different little streams. But let me tell you something about streams: they always flow toward a river.
So, in my mind—my definition, because I am the person speaking—is simply this:
Walking with God means that you have found the Lord in some area of your life and are walking in the truth that you have found, no matter how small.
Now, right now, I do not know where y’all are, but some of you, maybe it has been a little while. You are in a bit of a dry spot. You are like, “Lord, I do not look like that. I look like a parking lot in the middle of July. There is no water here. There is no moisture here. How am I supposed to find where You are?”
Let me remind you of the story of the woman at the well. This lady went out to the well in the middle of the day because she was thirsty, and we are all thirsty because we thirst for God. But the Lord met her precisely where she was. She knew she was thirsty; she did not necessarily know where to go.
The Lord said that if she took the living water, there would be a stream bubbling up to eternal life. So, if there is that willingness—that thing of being like, “Lord, I am dry, but I am trying to find You”—the Lord will find you in some little area.
But remember the definition: you have found the Lord in some area of your life and are walking in the truth that you have found, no matter how small.
So, definitions aside, I want to talk about a couple of streams that Daniel found leading to this river of life.
Daniel kept his heart clean.
Somewhere in his mind, the Lord got across to Daniel that maybe he should not be eating the king’s food. I am sure you know the story. Daniel gets picked up from where he is originally from, gets dropped in an enemy country, gets enrolled in school—which is frankly evil—and then the king says, “Here is a bunch of special food for you.”
Somewhere deep down in his heart, something about that does not resonate well with Daniel. So Daniel says, “You know, I do not think so.”
The verse actually says:
But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the king’s dainties, nor with the wine which he drank.
A lot of the time, it starts with something as simple as that. There can be a little pull somewhere in your life where you feel a little bit of misgiving.
Maybe you are watching a show, and in the back of your mind you are like, “I do not like that.” Or maybe you are having a conversation, and you feel it veering toward a gossipy direction. You are like, “Eh, I do not like that either.”
These are different areas where the Lord is trying to provide a touchstone: here is a little bit of living water in the place of something worldly.
Practically, that can be a little hard to tell because our consciences are confusing. There is a lot of stuff that I am fine with that Ryan is not necessarily fine with, and there are a lot of things that Stewart is fine with that I am not necessarily fine with.
Something I have found with the Lord is this: is your room clean?
I want to credit my friend Joey, because he gave me this thought: a lot of the time, you can tell the condition of someone by the condition of their room. This is a metaphor. I am not—metaphor.
But if you are looking around in your life, are the sheets in? Is the closet closed? Is all the laundry in the basket? Sometimes there are little tells.
If something is wrong—if you are maybe watching something you should not be watching or talking about something you should not be talking about—there is always a tell. You are just like, “Wait a second. All of a sudden, I do not have any peace, and I am not able to enter into worship times. What is going on?”
It is being mindful: is this clean?
Daniel was the sort of guy that, when people were looking for things to accuse him of, they could not find anything. Daniel 6:4 says:
Then the presidents and the satraps sought to find occasion against Daniel as touching the kingdom; but they could find no occasion nor fault, forasmuch as he was faithful; neither was there any error or fault found in him.
Believe it or not, the Lord cares a whole lot about how we look to the world. Again, this can be one of those streams of life that seems kind of silly. “Lord, why do I have to make sure everything is filed correctly? Why do I have to make sure that I did not park illegally? Why do I have to do this?”
Because people will see your life, and they will see that you are trying to honor the Lord. Then that can become a stream for them. It can be another drop of water where they are like, “Oh, there is something there, and it is leading toward something.”
It is never for nothing, trying to have a walk that is pleasing to the Lord. Honestly, the Lord has different areas that He is trying to put His finger on, but it is well worth asking Him about. David asked the Lord to search him and try him, and it is worth doing.
Daniel was a Bible nerd.
A lot of the time, we read the story of Daniel and hear the big events: Daniel was going to get thrown into a lion’s den, and he did not give up; the king came to him with his dream, and the stakes were so high, and Daniel did not give up.
Then you think, “I do not look at all like that. What is going on? I am a failure.”
But let me remind you that reading the Bible is one of those things that can bring us to the Lord. A lot of the time, reading the Word is seeds.
Sometimes we think, “How do I get through? I pray, ‘Lord, who do You want me to marry? Do You want me to marry Sharon? Great. Do You want me to go to school? Do You want me to be a missionary in Cuba? Great.’” That is not generally how it works. Sometimes it is; sometimes it is not. It is your life.
When we read little Bible stories, it can seem like it is for nothing. Sometimes you are a parent reading the Bible to your kids, and you are like, “Why am I doing this? This is a waste of time.” Or you are reading a little storybook Bible, and you are like, “This is kind of light. Why would I want to read it?”
But here is food for thought. When the king demanded that Daniel tell him what his dream was, do you not think it is interesting that Joseph was told something similar? Do you not think it is interesting that, thousands of years earlier, recorded in Genesis, he had been asked the exact same thing?
Do you not think that Daniel perhaps remembered that, and that it was an encouragement to him during that time?
Further on, with Daniel in the lions’ den, do you not think it is interesting how David talked very specifically, saying:
And David said, The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, He will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine.
A lot of the time, we proceed in fear and apprehension because we are not rooted in the Word. There is a word for every situation that we ever go through, really.
One of my favorite songs in the hymnal says, “What more can He say than to you He hath said?” The Lord is trying to get through to us and guide us through.
Sometimes, when we are wandering around in this desert, we find ourselves facing situations we do not know how to overcome because we do not know the Word. So, very practically, if you are a believer and you are kind of struggling along, a good exercise toward the stream is trying to remember and seek out the Word in and out of season.
That just means: be ready whether it is relevant or not.
I remember one time I was waiting for my dad on a Sunday morning. We were going to drive to the brothers’ prayer meeting, because we are so spiritual. I was parked outside my house in true non-spiritual format. It was taking a second, and I was like, “We do not have time for this. We have got to go.”
I took a second and read my Bible, kind of arbitrarily. It was just like, “That seems like a good thing to do. I am going to do this instead of freaking out at my parent who raised me.”
I read this verse, and it touched my heart. Unexpectedly, I had to share something a little bit later that day. I think that is the hardest I have ever cried during a sharing time.
I cannot take credit for it. It is not one of those things where I am like, “I am so spiritual. I did this, and it was here.” It is just: you take a minute, you read the Word when you have a second, and the Lord brings it around.
In a similar way, Bible stories are valuable. Whenever you are stuck listening to Bible stories, or you have to talk about them with children, it can seem like it is not valuable. But a lot of the time, you are going to hear stories of Jonah being cast into the sea and being eaten by a whale, and you think, “What does this have to do with anything?”
Then you are at work, and you are overwhelmed. It is crazy, and you feel like everyone is turning against you. But you can remember: “Wait a second. The Lord is the One who made the storm. The Lord is the One who directed the fish, and the Lord is the One who is going to spit me out and see that I continue living to serve Him.”
The principle is this: always be gathering. It always ends up being useful. The Word is always valuable. It is always useful, and it is a way to keep us close to where the Lord is.
Daniel was a prayer. We tend to see Daniel’s big experiences as one big rush: Daniel had to interpret a dream, Daniel got thrown into the lion’s den, Daniel had a bunch of really weird dreams, and then that was the end of the story.
But there are three types of prayer that I think Daniel learned about, and that I think the Lord is very pleased with.
First, Daniel was not afraid to ask for help. Throughout the story, Daniel is put in situations where he does not know what to do. It is scary, and it is life or death. And he asks the Lord.
It sounds obvious, but a lot of the time it is not our natural inclination to go to the Lord when we need help.
How often do we ask the Lord for help when our computer is taking a second to load, when the elevator is taking a second to open, when we are trying to park, or when we are trying to merge lanes? It is not natural to us.
You might say, “Well, that is absurd.” But let me ask you: any potty mouths? Do not raise your hand. Are there any recovering potty mouths—people who struggle with some coarse language? You know who you are.
For those of you who are not in the know, because you are better people than I am, sometimes anything happens and you say a bad word. You accelerate a little too fast: bad word. You pull out into traffic: bad word. You are frightened merging: bad word.
I present to you that this is sometimes how we can pray. It has to become knee-jerk: “Lord, Lord, Lord.” It is practice.
Again, this sounds so spiritual, but it is a simple thing of practicing. A lot of the time, we do not know that the Lord is trying to have an influence on our lives because we do not ask Him.
A lot of the time, we are in situations where we are about to be thrown into a lion’s den, and we are like, “Lord, I do not know what to do. I do not know if You can get me out of this.”
But if we are praying to the Lord about the little things as things go, we see all the times He has been faithful. We see all the different occurrences where He has come through for us.
Then it becomes this beautiful stream: I asked Him for help with this, I brought this to Him, I encountered Him in this. Then there is a bigger stream where I find that He was truly faithful in this big area. It goes, and it goes, and it goes, and it takes you right to the heart of where the Lord is.
Second, Daniel started praying about what the Lord cared about.
I know a lot of precious saints who are reluctant to pray about themselves, and some who are reluctant to pray about big things. They are like, “Well, Lord, I do not know how to weigh in on this. I do not know if I have any helpful input. It seems Brother Kenny is praying about this real, real good, so I might leave it up to him.”
But the Lord wants to draw us into being on His page. Daniel somehow found out that the seventy years were over, and he started praying for the nation of Israel to come back. He started praying, and he started humbling himself.
There was this beautiful story not that long afterward: it was put on the king’s heart, and the king sent all the Jews back.
I do not know if Daniel was an especially nationalistic guy, but this was not a prayer that came from him. This was a prayer that came from God.
A lot of the time, further along in this stream of trying to draw close to God, it stops being about all your little needs necessarily—although He does want you to honor Him by asking Him for things—and it starts becoming, “Lord, what do You want? What are You doing? What is going on?”
It is this stream where Daniel went from praying not to get in trouble while eating vegetables, to not getting eaten by lions, to, “Lord, reunite Your people back to where they are. This is about You. This is about Your glory. I humble myself, and have Your way.”
It is a beautiful picture. It builds, and honestly, you will not know unless you start trying.
Third, Daniel prayed for his people.
Again, it sounds completely obvious, but it is not so intuitive sometimes. Sometimes we start praying and we are like, “Oh Lord, help today to go real good,” you know?
But Paul mentions praying for people by name. It is taking people up and being like, “Lord, please be with so-and-so. Please guide poor so-and-so.”
Sometimes we think, “Oh, I am being a little repetitive, and I do not want to bother the Lord.” But it is pleasing to the Lord when we do that.
In 1 Samuel 12:23, Samuel told the nation of Israel:
Moreover as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you.
An easy stream to get to where the Lord is, is in the morning simply being like, “Lord, today I really want to pray for Brother So-and-so, and I really want to pray for Sister So-and-so.”
Even if you only pray for two people for thirty seconds twice during your day, that is so pleasing to the Lord, because it is so close to where His heart is. It is a stream that will take you right to Him.
Can you imagine what would happen if everyone here started praying for two people, and everyone here was getting prayed for twice a day, every day?
I am completely sold on it. Last summer, we were getting ready for the Richmond Christian Conference—Richmond Christian Conference? I do not think that is what that is called.
Christian Family Conference. You will forgive me for not knowing, hopefully.
We were starting to get ready, and I was like, “Lord, I want to try to get ready because I had some responsibility. I want to try to serve. I want to try to be in a good place with You. So, Lord, help me get through here.”
It was like I was skating on ice afterward. I do not know how to describe it. It is not prosperity gospel. It is just that, for a week, everything was straightforward. Everything got resolved. Everything was able to be addressed. I was kept in good health.
At the end, I was like, “You know, that was really cool. I guess good on me for wanting that.”
But then I realized about a year later, “Oh, like a thousand people were praying for the Richmond Conference.” A thousand people were praying, and because I was trying to vaguely align myself with that, I got to make good on a thousand different people praying. It was incredible.
Do not underestimate the power of your prayer. A lot of the time, so many brothers and sisters are under so much stress.
My father showed me this tragic picture of horses—graceful, beautiful creatures. You look at a horse, and you are like, “What can I give to the horse? I do not have anything to offer the horse.” But the poor things are being stung by bees and horseflies all during the day, and there is nothing they can do.
Sometimes, as believers, we can pray, and we can go after some of those yellow jackets with a fly swatter. Do not underestimate the beauty and power in that.
It is so simple. Like I said, just pray for two people in the morning. You have no idea the comfort you can bring to people, whether they know it or not.
So you have an assignment: write down two people. I am not going to proceed until you all write down two people.
In your mind or electronically, you have an assignment. I want all green lights tomorrow. That will be my sign.
And now, quite finally, where is this all going?
It led to Jesus.
Daniel 7:13 says:
I saw in the night-visions, and, behold, there came with the clouds of heaven One like unto a Son of man, and He came even to the Ancient of days, and they brought Him near before Him.
Who told him that?
It is this thing where you are walking, and you are trying to walk in all the light that you currently have. Even if you are reading two verses every day, even if you are praying for one person, the Lord will take you down the stream and take you down the stream.
Then it will be like, “Here is Me in a way that very few people have ever seen.”
A lot of the time, we think this came out of nowhere. Daniel was just living his life, and then all of a sudden, “Hey, here is an excellent secret: I have a Father, and I am pleasing to My Father, and I am being presented before My Father and being seen as worthy.”
To us, that is not anything new, but to Daniel, I do not know if this was something that had been shown to anyone before.
Again, it is just the result of walking and walking and walking and walking and walking. In your life, it leads to more and more Jesus.
The closer you get to the source, sometimes the more water there is. You keep walking and walking and walking, and then you find Him.
Hallelujah! I have found Him
Whom my soul so long has craved;
Jesus satisfies my longings;
Through His blood I now am saved.
If I could show you the question from the beginning that I thought I moved, but did not, here is the question:
Am I walking with God, or am I being walked by God?
Take this as you will. I am not here to guilt-trip you, because I am a cripple and cannot run away if you get upset.
A lot of the time, it is a progression, and we are getting closer and closer to Jesus. That is the whole point. We are in water, and it is so good, and it is so beautiful, and it is being drawn close to where the Lord is.
But sometimes we end up being like the nation of Israel, and we are just kind of, “Well, I am here. I am saved. I am standing on the foundation of the gospel.” Meanwhile, everything around you is as dry as this table.
Sometimes, in our minds, we think we can procrastinate this. But hopefully, as I have been presenting over the last couple of minutes, why would you want to?
We all need water to survive. There is no surviving without water.
If you are walking with the Lord, you have the water, and you are being moved toward Christ. It is the classic case of having your cake and eating it too.
Whether you are in the middle of a desert or whether you are just trudging along, I just want to encourage you: try to find Jesus at the well.
He is not going to judge you. He is not going to be like, “Well, I know your secret.” He is going to be like, “Here is a little bit of water. Follow it and see where it goes.”
Just to close, I had a final verse for those of you who are already doing all of this. I do not want to make anyone neurotic.
This is the last verse of the Book of Daniel:
But go thou thy way till the end be; for thou shalt rest, and shalt stand in thy lot, at the end of the days.
I just want to encourage those of you who are already going: keep going. Do not stop. It is hard. There are lions. There are people allowed to get you, maybe. But do not stop.
Keep going the way that He has shown you, because you will be able to enter into rest.
Going back to the verse at the start:
Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Walking and resting sound like contradictory terms. There is no way to have peace in this world unless you are walking. No way. Zero chance.
But if you are with Him, then you will continue walking, continue walking, and someday you will be with Him. You will have that closeness because you tried to get closer and closer to the source, which is, of course, Christ.
Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, thank You so much for opening up these streams of water. Thank You that You intend absolutely for us to have our cake and eat it too, because we keep discovering You and experiencing You, but keep possessing You and drawing closer to where You are.
Strengthen the legs that are weak. I pray You would give courage to those who are troubled. I pray You would draw us so close to where You are, because nothing compares to You, Lord. There is nothing like finding You or being in Your presence.
I pray this in Your name. Amen.