It is the closest that God’s people have ever come to actual extinction.  It was the original attempt at the final solution.  Driven from the security of their nation home, into a diaspora that spanned the farthest reaches of the Persian empire – from India to Ethiopia – they were at the complete mercy and goodwill of the peoples among whom they lived.  Which they enjoyed…until they didn’t.  The hatred and determination of just one man flowered into an irrevocable, empire-wide edict, which when carried out would have resulted in the extermination of almost every living Jew on the face of the earth.  Never have God’s people hung by a thinner thread.  But as we’ll be reminded this morning, the survival of God’s people has never depended upon God’s people.  It is the sheer miracle of the mere existence of God’s people that is on full display in Esther 8:1-14, in a message entitled, “Saving the Unsavable”.

It has become an idiom for a place or state of extreme disadvantage, antagonism, or hostility. We’ll say, he or she was thrown into the lion’s den. Or a person who is entering a dangerous or threatening situation will describe their experience as they felt like they were walking into a lion’s den. It seems like there are more people than ever, who for many reasons, feel like that’s exactly the place where they find themselves today in the midst of these turbulent and uncertain times. This morning we’ll take a close look at the actual story to which we owe the familiar idiom. The experience of a godly young man, in a strange land far from home, who faced down not only antagonism and hostility, but a literal den of lions. What brought him to that situation, how was he delivered, and what happened as a result? And importantly, what exactly does it have to say to those of us who find ourselves feeling like were living in the midst of our own lion’s den, right here and right now. For that we’ll turn this morning to Daniel 6:1-28, in a message entitled, “Shutting the Mouths of the Unshuttable”.

Matthew 14

Daniel 3:1-30

Jonah 3:1-4:11

2 Kings 6-7

Devout believers, in most times and in most places, have had to live out their faith in conditions decidedly uncongenial to the practice and propagation of that faith.  And none more so than the prophet Elijah.  In his day, the spiritual tide was so low – and the spiritual momentum so heavily in favor of Baal and Asherah worship – that he finally came to the conclusion that all was lost.  He raised the white flag and prayed that he might die, “I have had enough, Lord”, he said, “Take my life” (1 Ki. 19:4).  But as it turned out, the reports of the death of God’s work had been grossly exaggerated.  God wasn’t quite ready yet to declare lights out on either Elijah or his saving purposes, as we’ll see this morning, in 1 Kings 18-19, in a message entitled, “Reversing the Irreversible”. 

When the young peach-skinned David made his way across the Valley of Elah that morning to confront the crude, bellicose Philistine giant Goliath, he looked every bit like a lamb on its way to slaughter. Not a single soldier in all the army of Israel, not Saul, not any of his commanders, not any of his most experienced, most well equipped warriors had risen to the occasion, not one. The only taker was a young shepherd boy, armed with only his shepherd’s staff, pouch and sling, and an indomitable faith in the living LORD God Almighty. What happened that day made holy history, and stands as the quintessential example of the formidable giants we can sometimes face and the conquering faith that can easily slay them, as we’ll see this morning in 1 Samuel 17:1-51, in a message entitled, “Defeating the Undefeatable”.

He has been described as a he-man with a she-weakness. Raised from birth in a privileged spiritual environment, with a unique and special calling upon his life, his unusual spiritual gifts and power were on full display early on in his young adult years. Unfortunately Samson’s great physical strength was not matched by a corresponding strength of character, and his bent toward living life on the edge eventually caught up with him resulting in the tragic loss of his sight, freedom, and every last vestige of human dignity. But, as we’ll be reminded this morning, human sin and the terrible toll it can exact, does not necessarily get the last word. God’s ability to turn tragedy into triumph was on full display in the closing scene of Samson’s life, in Judges 16:23-31 in a message entitled, “Redeeming the Irredeemable”.

There was no more daunting image, jutting out of the lush Jordan valley, then the ancient walled city of Jericho.  It was an imposing, impregnable fortress, standing sentinel over the gateway into the land of Canaan.  No sooner had the ill-equipped, rag-tag group of wilderness wanderers crossed the raging Jordan river on to the banks of the promised land, then they were staring down both barrels of the oldest, strongest, most intimidating embattlement in all of Palestine.  What God did, how he did it, and what he taught them in the process is powerful witness to the certain truth that we are indeed more than conquerors, as we’ll see again this morning by way of Joshua 5:13 – 6:27 in a message entitled, “Destroying the Indestructible”.