Living Among Lions (5/3/23)
Part of Living Among Lions—How to thrive like Daniel in today's Babylon
May 3, 2023

Culture Study
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Deuteronomy 11:1-8 - Love & Keep
* Power is the ability to do something.
* Authority is the right to use power.
* God gives us both, but there’s a requirement.
* Vs 1 - “Love the Lord your God and keep his requirements, his decrees, his laws and his commands always.”
* The command is two-fold:
* 1) Love God - the essential element of love is sacrifice.
* 2) Keep His commands - honor God’s boundaries.
* Tony Evans says, “Love is compassion with standards.”
* You don’t really love God if you don’t do what He says.
* What’s the result when you obey God?
* Vs 8-9 - “Observe therefore all the commands I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to go in and take over the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, 9 and so that you may live long in the land the Lord swore to your ancestors to give to them and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey.”
* You end up with power and authority.
* You can do the thing God is asking you to do.
* Your nature becomes super-nature.
* Vs 22-23 - “If you carefully observe all these commands I am giving you to follow—to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him and to hold fast to him—23 then the Lord will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations larger and stronger than you.”
* You not only end up w/power and authority, you also gain a partner!
* God will go before you to pave the way.
* Vs 5 - “It was not your children who saw what he did for you in the wilderness until you arrived at this place…”
* The only way these kids would end up trusting God is to witness their parents loving God and keeping His commandments - not living a double-standard life.
* Loving God and Keeping His commandments has a trickle-down effect.
* It not only grants us power, authority, and a partner…
* It gives our kids a powerful example to follow
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Psalms 35:13-14 - The Power of Prayer
* We are all called to be intercessors.
* Our prayers should not all be about us.
* We need to pray for others - our friends and our enemies.
* ACTS - Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication.
* Job 42:10 - “The Lord restored Job’s prosperity after he prayed for his friends.”
* Backstory - this Psalm is all about David pouring his heart out to the Lord about his enemies rising up against him.
* It opens w/people against him and closes that way.
* They wanted his demise and cheered when he stumbled.
* But something happened in the middle that shows the secret behind David’s power.
* When his enemies were sick and in trouble, what did he do?
* Vs 13-14 - “Yet when they were ill, I put on sackcloth and humbled myself with fasting. When my prayers returned to me unanswered, I went about mourning as though for my friend or brother. I bowed my head in grief as though weeping for my mother.”
* He prayed heartfelt prayers for those who hated him.
* How’s your prayer life for those who don’t like you much???
* The importance of prayer is not only that it connects us to God, but it softens us to others.
* Matthew 6:21 - “Where our treasure is our heart will follow.”
* Our greatest treasure is our time.
* So when you spend time in prayer for others, your heart will draw toward those for whom you pray.
* This aligns w/God’s heart toward them and allows you to walk in His favor.
* I’m a dad, so if I see my kid mistreating someone and that person responds w/grace, it endears my heart toward that person.
* God is the same way - He knows we have enemies, they are His kids too.
* But when He sees us responding as David did, it draws God’s heart close to us in a special way.
* So the next time you have a negative interaction w/someone or you think of that person who hurt you badly in the past, pray for them and see what starts to happen in your heart.
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