Daniel Series

Now you can add the details to that

This had to be horrible!

--separated from family

--his home nation destroyed

--in a land of pagan idolatry

--now humiliated and violated

But yet, I want you to know, it didn’t stop Daniel from…

--being all that God wanted him to be

--seeing visions of the future

--writing a book of the Bible

--having CLOSE ENCOUNTERS

And I want you to know something, I look across this congregation and I see some of you that…

--are in some bad situations

--are in some horrible circumstances

--have been violated

But I want you to know that you can still have CLOSE ENCOUNTERS with God

Bad surroundings, mistreatment, terrible conditions have NEVER kept people from doing mighty things

Zig Ziglar reminds us that…

"A study of three hundred world-class leaders, including Franklin D. Roosevelt, Sir Winston Churchill, Helen Keller, Mother Teresa, Dr. Albert Schweitzer, and Martin Luther King, Jr., revealed that 25 percent of them had serious physical disabilities and an additional 50 percent had been abused as children or were raised in poverty."

It makes no difference…

---that your father was never there for you

--that your mother wasn’t a good mother

--that you had terrible circumstance

--that you were violated or molested

It’s not a matter of…

--where you’ve been, but where you’re headed

--what’s been done to you, but what Jesus did for you

--who you are, but who He is

And you can have CLOSE ENCOUNTERS with God

That was, the POSITION HE SERVED

But secondly, I want you to consider…

2. THE PREDICAMENTS HE FACED

Because not only was he in a bad situation, things were about to get worse!

And the first predicament Daniel is found in the story of…

A. THE KING’S MEAT – Daniel 1

As part of the king’s staff, Daniel and his friends had to have a special diet that included certain kind of meet that was forbidden by the Jewish law

And so Daniel, politely asked if they could eat something different

And the captain of the king’s guard let them try it, and at the end of 10 days, wouldn’t you know it, Daniel and his Jewish friends were doing better than the rest

And that tells me right there that we can’t eat the same diet of this world and expect to be different

We can’t…

--see the same movies

--listen to the same music

--have the same diet

As this world has

And then, the second predicament for Daniel is found in the story of…

B. THE KING’S IDOL – DANIEL 3

Now, this is the famous story of the 3 Hebrew boys…

--Shadrach

--Meshach

--Abednego

Now, in this story, Daniel is not actually present – he was probably away in another part of the country, but I’m tying this in with Daniel, because these were Daniel’s close friends

And you know the story, how that the king made an idol and said that at the sounding of music, everyone was to drop everything and bow down

Well, Daniel’s friends said we’re not going to bow!

They said that if God delivers us fine, but if not, fine – either way, we’re not going to bow