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Seek God Under Pressure
September 27, 2026 · 53 min
Life is not fair, especially when unexpected hardship strikes while you are doing everything right. In Daniel chapter 2, Daniel faces an impossible crisis as King Nebuchadnezzar threatens to execute all royal advisors over an unrevealed dream. Rather than falling into panic, Daniel leans on wisdom, community, and unwavering faith in the God of heaven to navigate extreme pressure.
Series Daniel - Courage in the Culture September 27, 2026 · 53 min · Daniel - Courage in the Culture
Life is not fair, especially when unexpected hardship strikes while you are doing everything right. In Daniel chapter 2, Daniel faces an impossible crisis as King Nebuchadnezzar threatens to execute all royal advisors over an unrevealed dream. Rather than falling into panic, Daniel leans on wisdom, community, and unwavering faith in the God of heaven to navigate extreme pressure. ...more Show the full description Show less Life is not fair, especially when unexpected hardship strikes while you are doing everything right. In Daniel chapter 2, Daniel faces an impossible crisis as King Nebuchadnezzar threatens to execute all royal advisors over an unrevealed dream. Rather than falling into panic, Daniel leans on wisdom, community, and unwavering faith in the God of heaven to navigate extreme pressure.
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Pastor Jeff Schwarzentraub serves as president of Pastor Jeff Ministries, a national and global ministry designed to equip believers and challenge them to take
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In this video 0:00 Life Is Not Fair5:00 Endure the Crisis You Did Not Expect17:15 Act Prudently Without Panic27:30 Pray Together and Praise God42:00 Boldly Declare the God of Heaven
Life Is Not Fair 0:00 Well, good morning. Would you help me welcome all of our campuses here this morning? So great to worship with all of you. And I gotta tell you, yesterday was our women's conference. My wife and daughters came home and0:11 they said, you know, dad My wife didn't call me dad, but the kids call me dad said, That was the best women's conference we had. And then I started hearing it from everybody. So thank you to the women for putting on such0:21 a great deal yesterday. Ladies, ladies, would you do me a favor? Like at Brave, we target men on purpose to bless women and children. But ladies, if you're here today, could you please stand? Because we just wanna0:32 recognize you and tell you how special you are to us. We love our ladies here at Brave. Can we just honor them for all that they do? We love you.0:44 Thank you. Thank you all the wonderful ladies. Also a prayer request for you, just so you know, Warden Jones and some of the other wardens that have been working with us have been given regional designations now0:56 where they're now covering the southeast and all western territories. So they've contacted us and they've said, hey, we think we're gonna get be able to get you in about 50 more prisons because of what we're able to do,1:07 which is a praise. Fast as we have laborers. And we're praying for God to raise up laborers and other churches across the country and more laborers here,1:19 so we can continue to work and spread the gospel. Because just because you you don't see the prisoners when we gather on Sunday, but I can tell you, in every prison we're in, about 10 percent of that prison is coming to
1:30 a brave campus. And we praise God because God's with you and he sees you in there, and it's awesome. Also, I wanna let you know we started something last week. If you touched the, you know, use the QR code on the back of
1:41 your seat. If you have questions during the message, send them in. I'm gonna start recording, answers to those questions immediately following services on Sunday. It'll come out on Tuesday. If they can be helpful to you,
1:52 we'd love to answer questions because I know sometimes as we're going through a text, you're like, I got a question about that. Just use the QR code behind you and do the Ask Pastor Jeff and love to answer your questions
2:01 that you send. With that, let's continue our worship this morning as we go before the Lord and get ready to hear us. Our father in heaven, we give you glory, honor, and praise for who you are. Lord, we thank you to be
2:11 able to gather in your house with your people, other saints, to sing praise to you, to seek you in prayer, and to hear from your living and active word. And Lord, we love your word because we believe that every time your
2:22 word is faithfully and accurately proclaimed, that it is you who are speaking. So our prayer this morning is, speak Lord for we are ready to hear. And so now for all of you who have gathered who desire to hear the Lord
2:33 Jesus Christ speak directly to you, who will believe what he tells you, and who will by faith put into practice what he shows you. Will you agree with me very loudly this morning by saying the word,
2:44 amen. Amen. Have you ever heard anybody tell you life's not fair? Have you ever said, life's not fair? I'm here to tell you on the authority
2:56 of God's word, life's not fair. If you live long enough, things are not gonna go your way at different times. And we can understand that and appreciate that if we're the ones who have caused it. Perhaps
3:08 we've made a mistake. Perhaps we've done something we shouldn't have done. There's consequences for those actions. We may not like those actions. But at least we can get our head around the fact that, I did this and
3:18 here's the result. Well, we have a much more difficult time with is when we're doing all the right things and we're seeking the Lord and we're in prayer and we're reading his word and we're living obedient to Jesus and
3:29 we're doing what he wants. That circumstances arise that had nothing to do with us where we say, that's not fair. That's not fair. Why did that have to happen to me? And we tend in those moments to look to God
3:41 because we hear the enemy's voice tell us, if your God was good, this wouldn't be happening to you right now. And we tend to look around and we think in our spirit, that's not fair.
3:54 Marriage, my marriage didn't work out? Why is it that if I'm doing what God wants me to do and I'm obedient to him that I got cancer? Why is it that my family can't why can't we conceive as a family and have
4:05 children? Why is it that if we took our kids to the store and we let them in the ways of the Lord that they're wayward? Why Lord, this doesn't make sense. It would make sense if we didn't do the right things, but I've
4:16 done the right things. Like it didn't work out. And I'm here to tell you on the authority of God's word, life's not fair. That's gonna happen to you. And the question comes, like, what do you do when those moments
4:27 happen? How is it in those moments that you can seek God when you're bring a weight into your life. It's so heavy and you feel like you can't
4:38 even carry it. How where how do you seek God in moments like that? And that's what we want to talk about today. And we're gonna be in Daniel chapter 2 looking at the
4:50 ways that you can respond during moments like that in your life because they are going to happen. And when they do, you're going to want to be prepared for them.
Endure the Crisis You Did Not Expect
5:04 Chapter 1, Daniel made up his mind long before it came that he wasn't gonna defile himself with the king's food. He had integrity. He did what he wanted. And now that he's doing what is right, he's gonna find himself in
5:15 an extremely uncomfortable situation. And notice what happens. In Daniel chapter 1 and verse 2, it says, now in the 2nd year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar
5:27 had dreams and his spirit was troubled and his sleep left him. So what's going on is, it says in the 2nd year of King Nebuchadnezzar, we talked about this last year, as session years weren't counted by the Babylonians.
5:39 So this is really Nebuchadnezzar's 3rd year of ruling. Daniel was in a 3 year internship with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and they're getting trained in the ways of Babylon. And during this time,
5:51 King Nebuchadnezzar has a dream, and his spirit was troubled, and he couldn't sleep. He's not getting any sleep. Magicians, the conjurers, the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans
6:02 to tell the king his dreams. So they came in and stood before the king. So the king has a group of wise men. And all of these wise men are skilled in different things. Some of them were skilled in dream interpretation.
6:13 Some of them were skilled in fortune telling. Some of them had occult practices that they worked. Some did incantations in different things. So anytime the king had a problem, he had this group of wise men, he would call
6:25 in to say, help me with and so that's what's going on. So he calls in his cabinet, so to speak. And the I had a dream, and my spirit is
6:36 anxious to understand the king in Aramaic, Oh, king live forever. Tell the dream to your servants and we will declare the interpretation. So King Nebuchadnezzar can't sleep. He's got a
6:48 dream. We're gonna take a look at that dream next week. He has this dream. This dream is causing him severe anxiety. So much so, he's so worked up. He's so worried. He can't sleep. So he calls all of his wise men
7:00 together. He brings them in and says, I have a dream. I had this dream. I can't sleep. I'm totally worried. I need you to interpret the dream for me. Tell me what it is so I understand
7:12 why it is that I'm so anxious so that I can sleep, so that I can get back to bed, so I can understand what this actually means. Dream and we'll tell
7:24 you what it means. That's the way this works. King, you tell us what you saw. Our job is to do the things that we do. We'll tell you what it means. Pretty cut and dried, but that's not what's gonna happen. Notice in
7:35 verse 5 what happens. The king replied to the Chaldeans, the command from me is firm. If you do not make known to me the dream and its interpretation, you will be torn limb from limb and your
7:47 houses will be made a rubbish heap. So the king says, no. No. No. You don't understand. Here's my decision and it's firm and I'm not changing my mind. I'm not asking you for the interpretation. I'm telling you, you need
7:58 to tell me the dream and the interpretation. You need to tell me what I dreamed and then interpret it for me. Because if I'm the 1 telling you the dream, you're just gonna make stuff up. So I'm telling you, the
8:09 decision's firm. And if you don't tell me what I dreamed and what it means, I'm gonna kill all of you. I'm gonna tear you limb from limb. I'm gonna destroy your houses. I'm gonna make them a rubbish heap. Does that sound
8:21 fair? Life's not fair. It sure doesn't sound fair. So notice for a 6. He said he continues, but if you declare the dream and its interpretation,
8:33 you'll receive from me gifts and a reward and great honor. Therefore, declare to me the dream and its interpretation. So King Nebuchadnezzar says, I'm a pretty good guy.
8:45 I'll give you gifts. I'll give you a reward. I'll be with you. You're gonna get great honor in the kingdom. So notice what they say. They answered a 2nd time and said, let the king tell the dream to his servants and we
8:56 will declare the interpretation. It's as if they're not listening because they know it's impossible. Listening because they know it's impossible. So king, we hear what you're saying. Now just tell us the dream. Let's get
9:05 back to reality here. You tell us the dream. We'll tell you what it means. This is what we always do. This is what we've done in the past. Not a big deal. Notice how the king's gonna gonna answer. 1st, it's Not a big
9:12 deal. Notice how the king's gonna gonna answer. Verse 8. The king replied, I know for certain that you are bargaining for time in as much as you have seen that the command from me is
9:24 firm. That if you do not make the dream known to me, there is only 1 decree for you. For you have agreed together to speak lying and corrupt words before me until the situation has changed. Therefore, tell me the dream
9:36 that I may know that you can declare to me its interpretation. So it's King's say, you're wasting time. You're just bargaining for time. I know what you're doing. You guys are all liars.
9:48 You're always lying to me. You're not telling me the truth. This is how I'm gonna know that you're telling me the truth. My decision's firm. We've been over this before. You tell me the dream and the interpretation or
9:58 y'all die. So that's the goal. And so that's what This is the hand that all these wise men that have been trying to help the king for years are dealt. And notice how they answer in verse 10.
10:10 The Chaldeans answered the king and said, there is not a man on earth who could declare the matter for the they're telling the truth. What are they saying? Nobody can do what you're
10:22 asking. Just us, but anybody. And there is no 1 else who could declare it to the king except God's whose dwelling place is not with mortal flesh. So
10:34 what are they saying? There's not a human being alive that could do what you're asking us to do. There's no way that we could possibly do it. Only the gods could do it. And here's what we know about
10:46 gods. Gods do not dwell with mortal flesh. I got good news for you. We have a new testament. Our God became a man and he tabernacled among us. Our God
10:57 became flesh. He dwells with mortal men. Amen? But this is what they're saying. They're like, you're asking us to do what only the gods can do. That's what they're saying and nobody can do what you're
11:09 asking to do. The king's not bending. Notice this. Because of this, the king became indignant and very furious and gave orders to destroy all the wise men of Babylon. So the decree went
11:21 forth that the wise men should be slain. And notice this. Listen to this. And they looked for Daniel and his friends to kill them. Life's not fair. And when life's not fair,
11:33 here's how you seek God under pressure. 0.1 is this, you wanna endure the crisis that you didn't expect. May I encourage you this morning? Endure the crisis that you didn't
11:45 if you're here this morning and you say, what's the crisis that I didn't expect? Keep breathing. And you will know. The crisis you didn't expect is when you're serving the Lord and
11:57 you're doing what he wants and you're being obedient and you are dealt a hand that is unfair. Remain in it. Remain under it. Because what
12:09 we know is that God is sovereign in all situations and he is the 1 who is working all things out. And so if and he is the 1 who is working all things out. And so many times throughout the Bible, we're called to endure.
12:19 We're called to, remain steadfast. We're called to fiery ordeal among
12:31 you which comes upon you for your testing, as though something strange were happening to you. Like, don't be surprised. James and we're like, this is
12:43 a hard 1 to swallow, but we gotta do it. And James chapter 1 and verse 2, here's what he says. Consider it all joy, my brethren, whenever you encounter various trials. So when you encounter trials, when you
12:55 encounter tribulation, here's what he says, make a careful assessment, give it great thought, and here's what you need to think. Consider it all joy. Why? Knowing that the testing of your faith produces
13:06 endurance. Endurance, steadfastness, perseverance. What does God bring these things into your life for? So that you would endure. The Greek word for endurance is hupomene. It means to remain under. It's like remaining
13:18 under a weight or being crushed in front and back. And you're you're just like, I don't know if I can breathe. I don't know if I can take another step. I don't know if I can do. And that's 1 of the biggest and keep
13:27 taking steps. But what if I fall down? Then you get back up and you keep taking steps. That's what it means to endure. You do everything right. It means that you continue
13:39 to endure with the Lord. You continue to pursue the Lord. You remain under the trial. When those of our Lord and
13:51 Savior in John 16 33. Here's what Jesus told you. In this world, you will have tribulation. But take courage. I have overcome the world. Who's the you?
14:03 Jo. Jesus, and you're gonna follow me. You're gonna have tribulation. In this world, there's gonna be trouble. In this world, you're gonna be dealt a hand sometimes where you say life's not fair. And when you're dealt
14:14 the hand, the enemy always whispers in your ear, if if your God was so good, then why do you have to go through this? If your God is so good, then why don't you have your health? If your God was so good, why is your kid
14:22 wayward? If your God is so good, how come you got overlooked at work? If your God is so good and you're doing everything right, how come you got overlooked on the sports team? If your God is so good, why aren't things
14:31 working out for you? Why is life so hard? It's the enemy talking to you in times where God is building perseverance. And here's the challenge that we have. For many of us as born again believers,
14:43 especially those who attend a Bible believing church, here's how we pray sometimes. Lord, make me stronger. Make me more spiritually adept at the things that are going on. Help me understand your word more. And God is in
14:53 heaven saying, oh, thank you so much. I will bring tribulation right into your life do, you'll pray harder, you'll seek me more in the word, you'll need other people around you for
15:04 community, you'll want to worship me more frequently. So that's incredible. Thank you so much that I know you want to grow. I know just how to get you there. Reading the Bible, praying, doing things.
15:16 I'll do it outward. And those things are helpful. But I tell you this, when you go through a trial, it's as if the Lord is multiplying his growth through you. And
15:28 there's nobody that follows Jesus that doesn't go through a trial. And there's nobody that follows Jesus that doesn't go through a trial. In this world, you will have tribulation. Anyone who wants to live a godly life in
15:38 Christ Jesus will be persecuted. But here's the Lord's promise. And through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will
15:50 not be scorched, nor will the flame burn you. Remember our friend, Jo. You can't even get out of chapter 1 without saying that is a horrible day for that man. I mean,
16:02 what a day he had. He lost his oxen. He lost his donkey. He lost his sheep. He lost his camel. And he lost all of his children with a series of events that all took place. And everything in his life that we
16:14 would look at and say, these are the most important things in my life are gone out of his life. And here's what he says. Job arose and tore his robe. This is Job 1 20. Shaved his head. That's cool.
16:28 He was doing it for morning. I do it because I think it looks good. He he he fell to the ground and worshiped. He said, Naked, I came from my mother's womb and naked, I shall return there. Here's what he says. The Lord
16:39 has given and the Lord has taken away. On the day, he lost all of his livestock. On the day, he lost all of his income. On the day, that his
16:51 kids were crushed. And they all died. On that day, blessed be the name of the Lord. Through all this, Job did not sin, nor did he blame God.
17:03 Right? Why? Because God was allowing the enemy. The enemy had to get permission to bring the trial into Job's life, because God had a greater purpose for Job. I mean, his worst day was that way. And we all
Act Prudently Without Panic
17:15 have things that happen. I mean, sometimes we get that phone call and it's from the doctor or, you know, our banker or somebody else, and our life changes forever because of the call that we got.
17:33 Something that we can't change. We're a have the tendency to say life's not fair. And when you have these things happen, endure the crisis you didn't expect. You
17:45 need to act prudently without panic. Yeah. Prudently without panic. Notice this. It says, then Daniel replied with discretion
17:57 and discernment. So Daniel doesn't freak out. Daniel doesn't get worried. And why are they seeking to kill Daniel? Training in the internship program becoming 1 of the king's advisors.
18:09 And because the king has this dream and says, if nobody can interpret it, I'm killing all my advisors. Daniel just happened to be part of that group. For him to say, God, I never wanted to come to
18:21 Babylon. I didn't want to march 900 miles away. I didn't want to learn a new language. I didn't care about this new culture. This is not what I'm looking for. And this doesn't really feel like life is fair. God,
18:33 if you loved me, I'd never be going through this. That's not what you see. The executioner is looking for Daniel, and Daniel stands firm, and he replies with discretion and discernment to Arioch,
18:45 the captain of the king's bodyguard, the 1 who has gone forth to slay the wise men of Babylon. And he said to Arioch, the king's commander, for what reason is the decree from the king so urgent? Then Arioch
18:57 informed Daniel about the matter. So Daniel went in and requested of the king that he would give him time in order that he might declare the interpretation to the king. So Daniel's
19:09 about to be executed. He's about to be executed by a guy named Arioch. Away from Arioch. Daniel goes right to the guy that's about ready to kill him and says, hey, what's up? What's going
19:20 on? Why is this such a big deal? And he says, here's why it's a big deal. Because the king needs his dream interpreted and you gotta know the dream and interpret it. Meeting with the
19:32 king. I'm gonna go straight to the king. And here's what he asks for. He asked the king for time so that he can receive the revelation of his dream. Step of faith.
19:45 Because Daniel has no idea what the dream is. He has no idea what the interpretation is. And there's nothing in his past that would dictate that he can do any of it.
20:01 That I might come up with the dream and interpret it for you. So he's acting prudent. Prudent is prudence is practical wisdom and in the moment. The way Webster
20:13 dictionary defines prudence is the ability to govern and discipline yourself by the use of reason. It means in moments where there's a crisis, you're
20:31 the word prudence really comes from a Latin word that means to see ahead. It's the same root word that we get for providence. And so here's what Daniel Daniel can only see so far. But he's trusting the 1 that can see all
20:42 the way ahead. So he's responding with prudence to the extent that he can see what he needs to do. He's going to act that way. He's gonna trust that God can come through with all the things that he can't see. That's
20:54 called a step of faith. So Daniel doesn't go in because God spoke to him and says, you go talk to the king. I got you. You go talk to the king. I'll give you the dream. He goes in because it's the only hope he has of
21:04 staying alive. And he begs the king for mercy and says, give me a little time that I might be able to come up with the interpretation of your dream. That's what he's saying. And here's the truth. When the crisis hits,
21:17 that's the time to seek. Remain calm and not panic. Isaiah 26 3, the
21:29 steadfast of mind you will keep in perfect peace because he trusts in you. Isn't it interesting when you're around other Christians that are going through a severe crisis and in the middle of the crisis where you're
21:40 looking at what they're enduring and what they're going through and you're like, that is so unfortunate and that's so awful and that's so horrible. And yet you see them remaining steadfast and enduring under the trial
21:55 faith? Doesn't it go off and you're like, man, if I had that, I don't know that I'd be responding that way? I mean, it bolsters faith. So sometimes when God's bringing trials and tribulations into your life, it's not
22:05 even for you. It's for the people who are watching you to see what it really looks like to trust Jesus when times are hard. So it's not like this is happening to me. It's happening
22:17 for you. So this is what Daniel sees. Daniel is acting with prudence. Daniel doesn't see this as a death sentence, or why is this me, or woe to me, or all these different things. He's looking
22:29 to his God. He's acting prudently. He's talking to the 1 that's going to execute him, his executioner. He's going in and talking to the he's being wise. He's being calm. He's asking for more time because
22:41 he believes in his
22:56 God holds all wisdom. God has answers to your questions. Sometimes he doesn't answer our why questions. Sometimes we're gonna have to wait till we get to heaven to understand the fullness of why, but he will give wisdom
23:07 on how to act in the moment if we seek him. Notice Colossians chapter 4 verses 5 and 6. Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of every opportunity.
23:20 Let your speech always be with grace as though seasoned with salt so that you will know how you should respond to each person. Friends, when the tribulation and trial hits, when the life's not fair happens, this is your
23:32 opportunity to seek the Lord. This is an opportunity for you to get divine wisdom. This is an opportunity for you to remain firm in your faith. This is an opportunity for you to speak words of wisdom about what God's
23:41 doing. And when you can do that, you not only will see God strengthen you, but you will build the faith of those that are around you. And we have moments like this in our lives, maybe not as dramatic
23:53 as the ones I'm gonna share, but some of you remember the story about captain Sully. Captain Sullenberger on January 15th 2009, US Airways flight 14 49 hit a flock of geese and lost
24:05 both engines. Remember that? And this captain had only seconds to decide what he was going to do. And he didn't panic, and he didn't jump out of the plane with a parachute and say good luck or
24:17 anything like that. He started thinking about, in my role, my responsibility is to land all the passengers safe. How do I best do that? And in calm, he turned the plane and he landed on the Hudson River and all
24:28 155 people on that plane survived. Now we may not have as dramatic of a story as something like that, but I promise you, you're gonna have moments where things hit you that hurt you.
24:40 And moments that things hit you where you're gonna think to yourself, this isn't fair. And you're not necessarily wrong. But here's the truth, God never promised it to be fair.
24:52 He promised you He wanted you to be faithful even when it's not fair. Amen? And if you're an employer or you're an employee or if you're a teacher or you're a student or if you're a
25:04 husband or a wife or if you're a child or a parent, there's gonna be times in your life to say that's not fair. And you're right. And God's looking to you saying, hey, will you endure this crisis that you didn't expect?
25:16 And will you act prudently without a panic? Remember Nehemiah in chapter 2 when he was the king's cupbearer and the king was looking at him and seeing that he was so sad. He's like, hey, what's wrong with you? Why why
25:28 why is your face so downcast? Well, he was downcast because he wanted to be in Jerusalem and he heard it was devastated and he wanted to get back there but he knew, executed for not serving my king. So he immediately
25:40 prays a quick prayer. He he he breaths prayers up to the Lord of heaven. Help help me. And then he responds. Sometimes in the moment when life hits and it hits so hard, it's a time to just look to heaven real quick and
25:50 say, God, help. God, I need your help right now in this moment because I have no idea what I'm going to do. Amen? I mean, even Abraham Lincoln, history shows that after Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln
26:02 wrote a very angry letter, to General Meade because he was so upset that he let General Lee's army get away. And they found that letter later because Lincoln had the prudence to not mail
26:14 it. Desk. Because he knew better than to send it. Acting with prudence in the
26:25 moment is not to respond in anger, it's not to respond in revenge, it's not to respond in sadness, is not to respond it's to respond to the Lord saying, Lord, here I am. I know that you see me. I know that you know what
26:36 I'm going through, and I trust you in it. So act prudently without panic. And if you can endure the crisis you didn't expect and act prudently without panic, then I would strongly encourage you to do what Daniel did
26:46 next. Pray together and praise God. I mean, notice what Daniel does. He goes to the executioner. He asked what's going on. The
26:58 executioner tells him. So then he goes to the king to buy time. And notice what happens when he's given time. Then Daniel went to his house and informed his friends Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah about the matter. So
27:10 that they might request compassion from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that Daniel and his friends would not be destroyed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. So what's the
27:22 1st thing Daniel does? 3 friends that were deported with him and he says, guys, can we pray to the God of heaven to give us compassion? Why? Because our God is a God ofShow more
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