Religion & Spirituality
This morning we begin a brand-new series called The Courageous Church, and in this series we will look at the mission statement of PBCC: Connect, Grow, Serve, and Go. Now, this was just going to be a sermon series on the book of Daniel, but God has refocused my thoughts, and we will be studying several characters from scripture who demonstrate the kind of courage God has called His church into.But as we begin, Daniel will be a great study, because, with an increased intolerance in our culture for the sacred, I think Daniel and his three friends give us a great model of what it means to be a COURAGEOUS CHURCH.You see, Daniel’s situation parallels our own. For most of his life, Daniel was in the minority in a pagan culture. From the time he was a teenager until his death at 90, Daniel lived out faith in God under a series of pagan kings. He never had the luxury of living in a country surrounded by people who had faith in Yehovah, the One True God. There was continual pressure to conform to the pattern of the pagan world - threats, persecution, temptations to compromise. And yet Daniel is able to stand against all of that - and God BLESSES him and provides and protects him.