Well, good morning. It is. It is good to be with you this morning. And I'm excited that we have created a tradition around here. I didn't know it was that big of a deal, but it obviously is a big deal that on Shark Week that I get the chance to preach If you haven't been around long enough, some of y'all are like oh no, it's Shark Week? I say yeah, like in 2019. I made a comment about the fact that I like Shark Week. And I put like a little analogy or something in my, my sermon in 2019 and I spelled out the word shark and all of a sudden before I knew it that, that now I am the shark week pastor. And so, every year it's like, are you preaching on Shark Week? I mean even BHBC is like posting like it's Shark Week coming hear Chip preach. It's like, wow, OK. But somehow, we've created that tradition and we skipped it for a couple of years and then finally we came back to it. I honestly only think I've spoken like once on Shark Week, but now it's a tradition and everybody thinks it's supposed to happen every time. But it is. It's Shark Week. And so, I'm preaching this morning. I even got my shark shirt on this morning. And excited that I get a chance to share with you. Now, kind of one of those things I want to understand. I'm a pretty creative personality. I love to be creative. I love to be constantly kind of thinking outside of the box and trying to make sure that I'm challenging people. 

But at the same time, I'm also a person always kind of dig deep into the word and spend some time in the word. So, I'm not going to spell out the word shark this morning, just so you know. But something I am going to do is that I am going to I'm going to mention a couple of shark names in my sermon today, and I'm just going to see if you catch them. Let's just see what happens it to be kind of fun to kind of see that and we'll see if you catch it or not. But anyways, this morning I am excited that I get a chance to share, and I've been thinking about where God was going to take us for quite some time throughout the summer. And this summer has been an amazing summer, man. It has been busy. It has been going. And for some of us, we're like, Oh, it's just summer. That's just what we do. Some of us, it's a time to relax. In ministry, it's a great opportunity just to really see God move. It's a great opportunity to kind of get us springing forward into what God has in store for us for the fall, as well as throughout the rest of the year. And so, we stay pretty active during the summer in student ministry as well as in children's ministry and just in the church in general. And we've seen a lot of pretty amazing things happening this summer. We've seen some lives being changed, and we've been seeing baptisms like crazy where people have been surrendering their life to Jesus. We've seen people all the way over on mission trips to Alaska, and we've got a group right now in Guatemala doing ministry there, and it's just amazing to kind of see what God has been doing and is busier as it has been. It has been a blessing to see the presence of God moving in our community and through our church. And so, as I started to kind of think through where we're going to go this morning, and how we were going to kind of land into this morning, I came across this thought when Pastor Matt came to me and said, Hey, I want you to preach. And he said, it just happens to be Shark Week, but I want you to preach. He said, I need you. And you just kind of think about what God's leading you. And I was like Okay, cool. Am I in a series, or am I in something? He said, No, whatever the Lord lays on your heart. And I was like, OK, cool. Let's go with this. 

And so, I came up with this title this morning that I feel like is really going to kind of prepare us for stepping forward if we can if we can grasp this and this this this understanding of what matters to God should matter to us. And so, we're going to sit in that today. We're going to sit in that moment of understanding that what matters to God should matter to us. Now, in order for us to get there, we have to understand some things before we can get to what matters to God or what how to live in the matters of God. We've got to understand what truly does matter to us. OK? And so, I started thinking, what is it that really matters to us? And how do we know when something matters to us? Well, I've had the privilege and the opportunity to be married for over 20 years now. And I've learned that in those years that we've been married, there are things that make us up. And these are the things that matter to us, the things that make us who we are, things that matter to us. And, and my wife knows me very well. She knows the things that I like, but I also know some things about my wife. I know that my wife is a person that enjoys quality time. Now, you've probably have heard about love languages at some point in time if you've been around, whether you've been in the church or not. It's one of those things that we use in in marriage counseling, in all other kind of areas to understand people and it's their love language. What is it that makes them tick? What is it that matters to them? So, my wife, one of hers is quality time, and that matters to her. Now, quality time to her is not just sitting in the room together watching a movie. It's not just all of us on the phone and we're in the same place. It's not just sitting in the car and just going somewhere. 

Quality time is truly just engaging in conversation with each other, spending time with each other by not having any interruptions from normal daily tasks. It's just really quality time. It's not just spending time together. It is quality. It is something that brings value. Now, me, I'm a little different. I enjoy doing. I really sometimes I wonder how we've made it so long because she's like, Let's sit down and be still. And I'm like, I can't. I need to go and do like that's just who I am. So, like, she gets aggravated with me because I'll walk in the house and I'm like, Hey, I got to go do this. She's like, Can you not just sit still? I'm like, No, I really can't. I really try. Sometimes I try to rest, sometimes I try to sit still, but I just that even in my rest, I'm restless. So, I'm like, I got to get up and I got to do something. This is who I am. And so, I believe that's why I was called to student ministry. I really do. I believe that was part of my calling is understanding that I'm going to be active, that I'm going to be doing stuff. You'll see even this morning that I'm going to be moving a lot because that's what I do. I can't sit still. 

I have to be constantly moving and doing something. And some sometimes that frustrates her, and sometimes she's just kind of gotten used to it. But we'll go to the beach, and we'll be sitting around. I don't just sit around and be like basking in the sun. I've got to be doing something. I've always got to be doing something. I'm either digging a hole, or I'm either putting up a tent, or I'm either setting up something, or I'm moving seaweed out of the way. I'm like, Oh, there's a project. Let's work on that. Let's get that done. I'm over here sweating at the beach, right? I'm always doing something. And she's like, Can you not just sit down? I'm like, Well, I can, but this isn't going to work for me, right? So, I'll sit down for a little bit. Then I'm like, I'll be up here just kind of pedaling with the sand because I have to be doing something. And so that's just who I am. She knows that about me, and I know that about her. So, we try to find those balance because that matters to her and this matters to me. 

Now, other things that I've learned about my wife is this is that she's an amazing gift giver, really good at gift giving. For me at least. I am one that loves to receive gifts. So, I'm OK with that. And so, if you ever have a gift, I will receive it. I love to receive things. I have no problem taking gifts. She is really good at giving them and she knows the things that I like. Why? Because we've spent time together. She knows the things that that that kind of make me tick, that you make me excited. And it's I love to do adventurous things. I like to go and do things that kind of stretch me beyond my limit. Like, there are certain things that I do that I probably shouldn't do because of either as I'm getting older, I pay for it. I'm like, oh, that really hurts. And I probably shouldn't have done it, but hey, let's do it again kind of thing. That's just who I am. And so, she'll buy me things every once in a while, for my birthday, for example, she bought me a skydiving thing one time and I was like, Oh, this is awesome. I'm like, You want to go skydiving? She's like, No, I'm not getting jumping out of a plane. I'm like, Well, I want to jump out of a plane, strap that little 18-year-old to my back and let's get out of this plane, right? You know, he's going to save my life. He's going to pull that parachute. We're going to float down. 

And it's the closest and kind of most exciting moment of my life at that point. I'm like, Yeah, let's do this. I'm all about it. Let's go skydiving. So, she buys gifts like that. She bought like me the having the opportunity to fly a plane. I'm getting up on a plane and the guys like, Do you want to fly? I'm like, Yeah, I was waiting for you to get me the handles. I'm like, Let's go, you know? And I'm like, Let's fly, man. I want to do that kind of stuff. And I started getting a little worried after she bought me the skydiving and the flying the plane that maybe she had heard about my insurance or something. She's like a lot of things really dangerous. But then she also has, has bought me like a shark dove. It was super cool because she knows that's what I like. And we did the Georgia Aquarium shark dove, and it's like, oh, this is a gift for you. And I know this is what matters to you. This is exciting to you. This past year, she bought me this, like, water jet thing and I'm really excited about like, you put these water jets on your feet, and you get out in the water like you're like, you know, flying in the air. I'm pretty sure it's going to be a YouTube video that will not end well. And I may not get to preach next Shark Week, just our next search, you know? Yeah. But it's one of those kinds of things that I'm like, oh, this is cool. I'm excited she knows about. I'm hoping maybe just hint that someday maybe she'll get like some bull riding lessons or something. I'm not really sure. Might be kind of exciting to get some of that, but. But she knows things about me. She knows what matters to me because we spend time together with me. Like I said, I'm not the best gift giver, but I do know what she likes, so I get her a one-hour massage. I'm like, There you go babe. Got a one-hour massage. You like that quality time, right? And I'm like, hey get a Mani Pedi. There you go. Enjoy that. I do projects around the house for her because I'm like, hey, this is what you like. I know she likes those kinds of things. And even though we may not be doing things together and when we're doing the projects around the house, I know those are things that matter to her. What we understand is that things that matter to us, we show people. We show people what matters to us. People know about what matters to us. 

We don't have to tell them typically what matters to us because we talk about it all the time. Like, you know, that person I talk to all the time about that thing that that water, you know, I talk about this and like, man, I mean, that's important to you. Obviously, that matters to you. They talk about their kid and how good their kid is at this and you're like, your kid's really not that good at it. But OK, I'll listen to you. And you're kind of like, OK, cool. But they talk about they're excited about what their kids do that matters and the kids matter to them, or they talk about how busy they are and we're so busy and that actually matters to them. Being busy matters to them. It is important to them. So, they talk about it. The things that we that matter to us, we wear the things that matter to us. We drive the things that matter to us. We yearn for the things that matter to us. We play the things that matter to us. For example, there's this game that obviously matters to a lot of us. Now, Pastor Matt likes to always try to say that you guys are on Bedazzled or whatever, that little jewel the game during his sermons. We know you're all on Wordle right now, OK? We know that that's like the word of the day. If you're not, I just made you a new addiction, OK? But people love this game world. It's what matters. And they're like trying to figure it out. People are like, show me the screen. Like, Yeah, I got it in five I'm like, Yeah, OK, cool. That's exciting. Some of you guys playing those things. You brag about the things that matter to you. We post about the things that matter to us. And for some of us, we need to stop posting because everything that matters to you doesn't always matter to us and some of us, we really don't care. But that's a different spiel. But the reality is, this is the way we understand what matters to us because we are going to make sure people know what matters to us. 

We're going to put it out there ourselves. We're going to post ourselves out there. We're going to put things out there. We want people to know what matters to us because it makes us who we are. But then Jeremiah 9:23 - 24 says this The wise should not boast of their wisdom nor the strong of their strength, nor the rich of their wealth. If anyone wants to boast, they should boast that they know and understand me. And that's the Good News Translation of Scripture. It says that we should not boast about those things, but instead we should boast about the fact that we understand and know who Christ is. See, often we try to make God about us and about what matters to us and not about Him and what matters to him. And for some of us today, we need to see Jesus correctly. We need to see Him in a new light. Today, we need to ask ourselves this question in my seeking God for what matters most to me, what matters most to God? A lot of times we like to create this whole thing, like God, if you really love me, you're going to give me this. You're going to do this for me because this is what matters to me, right? Instead of going, God, is this what really matters to you? Should I really be stressing out about this? Should I really be focused on this? Should I really be allowing this to drive my life to where it's at? So, we know there are things that matter to us. But what matters to God? Before we can live in the matters of God, we've got to know what matters to God. In Philippians Chapter three verses eight in the New Living Translation, it says Everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus. My Lord, for his sake, I discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage so that I could gain Christ. So, I could gain Christ. 

So, I need to understand we matter to God we matter to God. Our relationship with Him matters. You matter because God created you. You matter because you were designed to be in a relationship with Him. You matter to Him. God cares about the little things in your life, and he wants us to understand that we are more significant than any title or honor or position or possession because we are a child of the King, and we matter to him. Our relationship matters to him, what we desire, what we talk about, matters to God, it matters to Him. It is important to him as a result of being a child of God, it is important to God, what we talk about, what we do, how we live. Does that make sense? Because hopefully it does. It makes sense that what we are excited about does matter to God. For example, this past week I had a chance to do missions with some college students, and I talked about how we know what matters to us, but we also know what matters to God in a serving and doing the things of God right. And so, I had a chance to go out in the in to serve with a bunch of college students and spend time with college students. And we worked over at the college house for a little bit, and we worked with some of our men here at the church who were helping us put a just kind of overhaul on the back deck over there. And so, these college students were learning how to do those things. But then we also stepped into the community, and we stepped into some widows’ yards and had an opportunity to work in the yards and to redo some stuff in some people's yards as well. And I realized real quick that, man, these guys like to serve, but they're also things that they're going to talk about that matter to them, and they want everybody to know about it. And I had one of my college students who came up to me when he first got here and he said, you know, hey, I just need you to know something. I'm like, what is it? He said, Man, I did something this week that I didn't know was possible. And I was like, What was it? He said, Man, I was hammering this this thing in the ground. And he said, When I hammered this thing in the ground, I broke the hammer head right off, man. It just broke in half. I didn't even understand how it broke. And so, for the rest of the day, all we did was talk about the fact that he had broke, not the handle, OK, not just the handle. And I was like, you know, I can do one of two things. 

I could act like this is not a big deal. And I get it. Like, it really doesn't matter to me, and I can do whatever. But it did matter to me because I wanted to help him understand that that was kind of an important thing for him. He was like, Man, I've never seen a hammer head actually break in half and I'm like, Me neither. I've never seen that happen either. But it mattered to him. And because it mattered to him, it began. It began to matter to me. God is the same way where he says Hey, it matters to me. You are a part of what I do, and it matters to me. And I think we see this in the miracle, the first miracle Jesus ever performs in John Chapter two. We see a miraculous thing happens at a wedding. When Mary comes up to Jesus and he looks at Jesus and she says to him, Hey, they have no wine. At this point in time, Jesus has the opportunity to respond back to Mary in such a way that seems somewhat rather harsh and somewhat out of character. Even if you've heard this story before, Jesus looks back at Mary and he says, Woman, why do you involve me? My time has not yet come. Now when I was a child, let me help you understand something. If I had ever said to my mother, Woman, why are you asking me to clean my room? I just need you to understand that I would have probably not seen the light of day, and I would have needed a nurse or a doctor to pick me up off of the ground at that point in time. 

It would have not ended well had I looked at my mother and said, Woman. But I need you to understand something here. A lot of times when we read this scripture, we can read into this scripture. Like, for example, you ever read a text someone sent to you, and you read that text and you can't see the emotion, you can't see the facial expression of what's happening, and you start reading that text on, Oh, wait, are they are they mad? Ooh, did they just say something snarky to me? Or What does that mean? And you're kind of like, Yeah, I'm not reading into this. Am I saying something I shouldn't say or what I'm about to text him back, man? I'm glad to go at it. And you start to read into that text. If we're not careful, we can do the same thing here in the Scripture. What we can read into this text, and we can look at this going, Why is Jesus talking to his mom this way? Right? But when you look at the context of the Scripture and you start to see that you can't see the facial expressions, you start to see that when he asked her or when he says the things, why do you involve me? What he was saying is this My concerns or my matters are not the same as yours. 

You're concerned about somebody's emotions; you're concerned about somebody being embarrassed. Is what he's saying there. I'm not concerned with that. Instead, Mary's like, hey, you know what? You know, we're at a family wedding. Things are going you know, if they run out of wine, this can be pretty embarrassing. And Jesus, I know what you can do. And I know you can make a difference in this situation. So, I'm asking you, hey, guess what? They don't have any. Why do you do something about it? And he goes, Hey, I need you understand? My manners are not your manners. I'm about the cosmic work of salvation and redemption. Said, my ministry is about God's great plan to this world, and it's orchestrated on God's schedule. And, you know, it's not the right time, right? So, what he's saying is not really that harsh as it sounds. What he's saying is, hey, I'm about God's will and his matters. And what you're asking me to do doesn't necessarily fit in that plan. He says that earlier in Scripture actually when he was about 12 years old and he's left at the temple and she finally finds him and he goes, Don't you know I'm about my father's business, about his matters. But I want you to see what happens here as well, where Jesus does give Mary a reminder that He's about God's will first, and that God's will always comes first. What does he do? He turns the water into wine, does he not? Why? Because what matters to us does matter to God. 

Still matters everything else is worthless when compared to the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. But God still says I'm you're my child. And even the little things do matter. So, we understand what matters to God. We understand what matters to us. We understand what matters to God. We understand that the things that matter to us are important to God. But at the same time, we should be more about God's will first so that we stay in the matters of God. So how do we say in the matters of God? How do we truly just live in the matters of God? And how are we really going to step in this moment? Now, this is the point in the sermon that we're going to stick into this this this book called Daniel. We're going to spend some time in chapter six. We get to walk through chapter six over the next couple of minutes, OK? And we're going to spend time talking to that because what I need you to understand, this is where live change is going to happen. All the other stuff about figure out what matters to us and what matters to God, that's not the life change. Where life change is going to happen is when we understand how to stay in the matters of God and in Daniel, we're going to see how Daniel was an individual that made the choice to remain faithful to God, even though he had been exiled. And he's living in a time under some pretty ungodly kings at times. But yet he continues to live in the matters of God. In Daniel Chapter six, verses three through five, I need you to follow with me. It says this now Daniel so distinguished himself among the administrators and satraps by his exceptional qualities that the King planned to set him over the whole kingdom. OK, he's been so faithful. He's been so radical living, that a guy that's been exiled is now about to be over the whole kingdom. At this, the administrators and satraps tried to find grounds of 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 a law of his God. Let's just pause there for a second. OK? They're looking at Daniel. They're like, Oh, wait, we don't want this guy, so we've got to find something wrong. Hey, go, go, go look to a social media. So, let's see if we can find anything he's posted. Let's find if we can see him. Things done. Let's go find something. Oh, we can't find anything. What do you mean, you tell about you can't find anything? You can't find, he's done nothing wrong? He never slipped up what? Oh, I know how to catch him. Let's do something that's going to be against his faith. Let's make him do something that breaks the law. But yet he's living in his faith, and that's going to happen because that's the only way we're going to make it corrupt. That's the only way we're going to make him do what we want him to do. So, we go on. It's just that the administrators and the satraps went as a group to the king and said My King Darius, live forever. The royal administrators, the prefects, the satraps, advisors and the governors have all agreed. We've all gathered in a back room somewhere. We've been talking about this, 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 you, Your Majesty, shall be thrown into the lion's den. Now, Your Majesty, an issue the decree and put it in writing so that it cannot be altered in accordance with the law of the Mendes and the Persians, which cannot be repealed. So, King Darius put the decree in writing. Now, this is where we start to see Daniel staying in the matters of God. Because we get into verse ten, it says, Now, Daniel learned that the decree had been published. He went home to his upstairs to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, give thanks, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before. Now, catch this for a second. It wasn't like he learned about the decree and then started to pray. Scriptures tells us he had already been doing this regularly. 

This was a normal part of his day. So, what we see, the first thing we see in this story that in order for us to stay in the matters of God that we have to stay faithful. Hey, faith isn't built in the battle. A lot of us like to pray more we like to trust God in our prayer life when we are in trouble, when things aren't going well, we start to pray more. Right? God, I need you to help me out of this situation. When things are going great, we have a tendency not to talk to God quite as much. But Daniel was consistent. He stayed faithful. Prior to the battle, before anything went down, Daniel was faithful. He was on his knees. He didn't is he didn't just start praying after he heard out, heard about it, and said he stayed faithful in his prayer life like always. He wasn't just some cookie cutter type Christian. He was a Christian that truly was sold out for Jesus. That was radical. From the beginning to the end. They said, I'm not going to just be faithful when things are happening. I'm going to be faithful when God is still good no matter what. And so, he continued to pray just as he had done before. 

Let me ask you a question. Who are you when no one's watching? Who are you when no one's applauding? Matthew six and verse six says this. It says, But when you pray, go into a room, close the door and pray to your father who is unseen than your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. James 5:16, says the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. See, I need you and I to understand that prayer is not a mere human obligation, prayer is a royal invitation. It is an opportunity that we have been invited to, and we should be consistently in it. Now, my wife and I had the privilege of reading a book called Draw the Circle is by Mark Patterson, if you've never read it, and it's a phenomenal book by Mark Patterson. He writes this book, It's 40 Days of Prayer. She and I walked with it prior to summer through it. And this quote that I just mentioned came from that book I encourage you to do it with your spouse, do it with a friend, do it by yourself. It doesn't matter. But it's a great book. But it helps us understand that that our life is not just some obligation. 

It's not like something we are required to do because of the fact that we are Christians, but instead it is an invitation that we are constantly able to be invited to do. Our Father in heaven, our God in heaven is inviting us to spend time with him. Why? Because we matter to him. He's inviting us to pray with him. Daniel understood that he was invited prior to the battle to build his faith so that he could walk through the battle in his faith. So, he stayed faithful. How do we stay in the matters of God? Stay faithful to understand that you are not a commodity of God or for God but your treasure to God. We need to understand that you are not a commodity for God. You are a treasure to God. God does not love me because He can use me. He uses me because He loves me. In Daniel chapter 6 and verse 22, it says, 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. And I want to catch you up here. You've probably heard this story, but what happens is he gets taken. He gets thrown into the lion's den. King Darius isn't really happy about this. He realizes he's been tricked. He realized that he likes he likes Daniel, actually. And he sees and he's kind of upset emotionally. We see that in Scripture, that he's emotionally upset that he has had to follow through with this decree that he's put out there. 

Daniel was thrown into Lion's Den. The next day, he walks up, they open up the den, and they see him sitting there and Daniel replies with the fact that my God has sent his angel to shut them out of line. Now I need to understand something. How easy would it have been for Daniel to have looked at this and go, Hey, God, I'm in trouble? I'm in a hard place you mind helping me out of this. Can you send somebody to get me out of town? He doesn't. He steps in, and he's like I am going to be faithful through the whole thing because I understand I'm a treasure to God. Why? Because God sent an angel and protected Him. We protect the things we treasure. We put them in a safe, things that we want to keep, things that we want to be taken care of. We don't just throw it out and let anybody have it, let anybody hold it, let anybody mess with it. We treasure it. We protect it. God says, hey, you're my treasure. I'm sending my angel down to you. He's going to build a safe around you. He's going to protect you. A lion is not going to touch you. He's not going to put a scratch on you, not a hair, not nothing is going to be placed on you because you're not a possession of God. You are a treasure to God. Deuteronomy 7:6 says this for you are a people holy to the Lord, your God, the Lord, your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the Earth to be His people, his treasured possession. He treasures you, therefore he protects you. 

You know, when we were in Alaska a couple of weeks back, one of our leaders had taken her wedding ring off because of the prongs had gotten loose and was concerned about losing one of the diamonds. So, she had taken it off and placed it in a little bag to protect it because we didn't have anywhere else to put it and accidentally got thrown away. Because she treasured it so much, she was willing to do whatever it took to get it back to protect it. In the midst of that, she was diving in a dumpster to get it. I have a picture of not only her, but four other leaders that she brought alongside her because it was so treasured that they dove into a dumpster to find this treasure. Why? Because it was important to them. It mattered to her. And we understand that we're treasured will bring people with us we'll take people with us. We'll bring people alongside us because we matter to God. We are treasure. At the same time, there are things in our life that we slave over and then we want to be the biggest and greatest and biggest thing ever to make a world life changing type moments. Right? Like for some of us, we're entrepreneur personalities. So, for me, every activity, every event, every outreach that I do, and I want it to be bigger and better and greater than the one before. I want it to reach thousands of people I want lives to be changed. I know there are some of us in here that we want to be the next Shark Tank winner. We want to be the next whatever it takes to change the world. We want to be the next whatever it's going to be. This going to truly just life changing. 

So, whether it's a worldly matter or spiritual matter, we want to slay both of those things and make it something that God will treasure. So, it's got to be huge, right? But then sometimes it's not always huge. Sometimes it's not a fish and loaves kind of thing that changes 5000. It feeds and does amazing things. Sometimes I believe and I truly understand that we need to understand the treasure that God has placed in our hands. Sometimes the treasure, the things that we slave over, the things that were so hard for are also meant to be a large jar of perfume to be poured on the feet of Jesus. And both are beautiful in the eyes of God, whether it reaches 5000 or is poured at the feet of Jesus. Both are beautiful because we need to understand that as a treasure, our job is to sacrifice. His job is to multiply. And sometimes he uses all the service that we have, all the beauty that he's given us just to be poured out at his feet. Just to be placed at his feet. Because we are not a commodity, we are a treasure. Third thing is this Act like you've been set free, Daniel, chapter 6 and verse 23 says the king was overjoyed and gave orders to lift Daniel out of the den. And when Daniel was lifted from the din, no one was found on him because he had trusted in God. 

Daniel was set free from the lion's den. He had been brought up out of the Lion's Den and John chapter and verse 36 of the sun has set you free. You are free indeed. And he has to understand we have been set free from the captivities, the addictions, the strongholds, and the sin that this world has placed on us. We're not bound to those things anymore. So, we need to start acting like we've been set free. Stop acting and living and thinking we're in bondage to a world and that it has control of us when the reality is God says No, I brought you out of the lion's den. I've protected you. That lion that is seeking to devour you has no stronghold over you. I have protected you and I've set you free. In Second Corinthians 3:17 says, Now the Lord is the spirit. And when the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. You have been set free from the wages of sin, so let's live like it. Guys let's tell people about it. Let's be excited about the fact that we are no longer bound to our sin. Romans 6:23 says for the wages of sin is death. But the gift, the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord. It is a gift that He has given us that has set us free from sin. You know, sometimes when I talk about that, people go, Yeah, but if I if I've been set free from sin, why is it that we, you know, you want me to serve a God that would send people to hell? I'm like, I don't God is not sending people to hell. Can I can I just clear that up for you really quick? God provides a way out of hell. When you and I are born, we're set on a trajectory on a path headed to hell. 

And instead, God goes, I don't I don't want you on that path. So, I'm going to provide you a way off that path. So, he provides a way for us to be set free because we're treasure. He gives us everything that we could ever need and desire. In Daniel 6:25 - 27, says the king, then king dares wrote to all the nations in the people of every language and all earth. May you prosper greatly. I issue a decree that in every part of the kingdom people must fear and reverence the God of Daniel, for he is a living God, and he endures forever. His kingdom will not be destroyed, his dominion will never end. And He rescues and he says he performs signs and wonders in the heavens and on the earth. He has rescued. He has set free Daniel from the power of the lions. And because of the fact that Daniel has acted like he has been set free, a nation has been turned towards God. The true God. Their eyes are now on God, and they are chasing after God because Daniel chose to continue to be faithful and act like he'd been set free. But then the last thing is this. We want to live and be in the matters of God. Live like your loved live like you are loved. See, I need us to understand something today. Love is not a feeling. It's not. You've been watching way too many movies. We've been reading too many books, been watching too many hallmarks. Too many million dollar, billion dollars, cinematic type things that have told us that love is a feeling. Feels like loves in the air, right? You know, it's feeling can you feel the love tonight? This grand great white feeling comes over us. And that is love, love. I need you to understand is what you do in spite of what you feel. 

Love is not this feeling. Love is fighting for someone else. 

Even if they don't see the pain. Even if they don't see the struggle, they don't see the sacrifice you have done to get that love to them. That is love. Love is what Jesus did on our cross for you and me, that is love. And sometimes I need you understand love hurts. Sometimes love is painful and because of that, we don't always understand the depth of love that is given for us because we can't comprehend fully what it took to get that love to us. We can't comprehend the fact that Jesus would step on of heaven to bring love to us by placing himself up on a cross. Why? Because we matter to him. He wants to provide a way for us and because of that, he's presented us with love, through nails, the crown of thorns, through victory over the grave, because death could not hold him back. That's love. 

So, let's live like you are loved. Let's live that way. See, I need you to understand something as we close, you're as close to God as you choose to be. When you feel far away from God. It's not because he ran away. It's because you ran away. So, if you want to be in the matters of God, if you want to be about what He desires and want to be in the will of God, you want to be living and chasing after the things that God has desired for us. That's going to make a nation turn their face toward Jesus. Live like your loved. Live like you are loved. 

Rick Warren says this, and I close with this. Knowing and loving God is our greatest privilege and being known and being loved by God is our greatest pleasure. Guys, it is a privilege to be loved by God, but it should also be our greatest pleasure. Why because he matters to us, and we matter to him. So, what matters most to you day in and day out? Is it what matters to God? Or is it what matters to you? That's my challenge today, is that we would live in the matters of God so that we can see a nation, community, a neighbor, a family member turns their eyes towards Jesus. Because we live like we're loved. 

Hey, maybe you're here today. You've never stepped into a relationship with Jesus. You've never understood what it meant to be loved like that. Can I encourage you today maybe today is the day that you need to look at God and go God, I don't understand that love, but today I want that love? I want to be about your matters. I want to be about what you think is important. I want to be about your will. I want to be about you. Maybe today I ask you if you need someone to pray with you, I'm going to be right over on the side. Not going to be out front, be right over here on the side over here, just kind of waiting for you to pray. I'd love to pray with you. But may we be about the matters. 

Let's pray, Father, thank you. Thank you for your word, for your truth. That is found in Daniel for all that you've placed in front of us. For all that you have given us, but god may today, may we focus on what matters to you most. And may we live in that today. God, if we need to surrender to you, may we surrender to you for the first time. If we just need to realign and have a moment of going, Lord, I need to get my life back focused on you, God I pray that you would do that. Work in this place today. It's in your name we pray. 

Amen.