In a situation where everyone is in opposition to your faith, do you compromise or do you take a stand? In a culture that pushes you to silence, can you speak up regardless?

When standing for God, it won't always be easy; you might lose your possessions, job, family and even your life but trust in God's ability to save you and even if He doesn't, don't compromise.

We've seen time and time again that the central theme of the book of Daniel is that in spite of present troubles, God is in control and we will have victory. We will not only survive, we will thrive. God can promote you and make you thrive even when you're in exile. Daniel and his friends never protested despite all that happened to them instead they created opportunities for God to work and be glorified.

Babylon is any system that stands in opposition to your God and the flourishing of your faith.

In the book of Daniel, we saw even when Daniel and the Hebrew boys were in situations in opposition to their faith, they didn't protest but they gave God room to be glorified. When in exile, it's not in every system you rebel rather let God make a name for himself through you.

When reading the Bible we must learn to approach it the right way, understanding its culture, content and literary style.

Through the Old Testament, we see man's rebellion, judgement and exile, and God's plan for salvation. In the continued rebellion and exile, we see the origin of the Book of Daniel.

In the good times and the bad, God remains good. Using wisdom literature books of the Bible such as Job, we learn how not to use our bad experiences to make conclusions on the nature of God.

If the Bible says that God is good, then He is good. Choose to trust God regardless of your situation.

There are two steps to Bible interpretation are:

Exegesis and Hermeneutics

Exegesis is the careful systematic study of scripture to discover the original meaning. It is therefore understanding the there and then.

Hermeneutics is knowing how the writer's intentions and words find contemporary relevance to us. It therefore means understanding the here and now

As a good bible student, you must be able to do proper exegesis and one of the approaches while doing exegesis is knowing the historical context. This deals with knowing the time, culture, geography, when it was written, and what necessitated the writing.

The very core of our faith isn't ordinary, it started with a Man dying and rising again. Our decision to follow Jesus is a call to radical living and men who follow Jesus are dead men, you have to pick up your cross and follow Him.

Jesus must command our desires not the treasures of this world. We are called to be different and our actions must show for it.

We have to be radical in the Christian faith.

Our devotion is not complete if we have not learnt how to pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ.

In this sermon, we are taught how to pray for the church and we address prayers on churches that are being persecuted, churches that no longer maintain the standards set by God in His Word in terms of doctrine, and churches that have become lukewarm, that there is rejuvenation, revival and repentance in these churches.

The church of Christ is an assembly of His people called out on the revelation of Him as Lord and Saviour. The Bible must be our single authority to what the church must be.

The most important thing is the doctrine of Christ, you know the truth of Christ by what they declare. We must be united at the core.

Every church must have a strong discipleship culture. The unity of faith is God's desire.

The amount of grace in any local assembly is dependent on 2 things:

• Love for the saints

• Honour for the ministry gift.

True growth in Christ will always be marked by love for the saints. The more you study the Word of God, the more you inculcate the culture of the early church which is love.

Our devotion to God isn't complete until we learn the family side of it. Love for God mandates love for the saints.