Integrity Is An "Action" Word Series

Sermon Brief

Date Written: August 31, 2006

Date Preached: September 3, 2006

Where Preached: OZHBC (AM)

Sermon Details:

Sermon Series: Living a Life of Integrity

Sermon Title: Integrity is an ‘action’ word

Sermon Text: Daniel 2:16-18 (1-49)

16 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.

17 Then Daniel went to his house and informed his friends, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, about the matter,

18 so 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.

Dan 2:16-18 (NASB)

Introduction:

Aint it great that this morning we had 4 wonderful young children who were obedient to the command of Christ to be baptized! Today they stood up to the world and boldly proclaimed, “I stand for Jesus!”

Thank you Jerry for the wonderful music and worship mood you have set for the breaking of the bread of life! Choir you never cease to amaze and impress me with your rich and full sound and your desire to use your talents for God!

I want to thank our youth for their participation in our service this morning. The reader’s theatre was wonderful and I hope we can do it again in the near future!

I want to also thank Cindy Wagner McBane for blessing us with that song. It is so wonderful to see talent being used as God intended for it to be used… AMEN!

Turn with me to the book of Daniel… chapter 2 and we are going to be reading v. 16-18, but we are going to focus on the entire chapter for our message this morning!

Now last week I asked you the question… What is integrity? And I told you that the Encarta Dictionary defined integrity as “…the possession of firm principles… the quality of possessing and steadfastly adhering to high moral principles or professional standards…”

Last week we learned that TRUE INTEGRITY can only come from God and that we do not have it within ourselves to have godly integrity. But when we are obedient to God’s commands He is with us and guides us to the utmost high integrity there is…

Today I want us to see the integrity Daniel has through his obedience to God… I want us to take notice that this integrity from God is not a passive thing… but integrity that comes from obedience to God is an action thing…

Now when we read the book of Daniel… especially the first 3 chapters they are similar to Genesis 1 and 2. Not in content but in the style of writing or how the information is presented…

Genesis 1 presents the overall Creation event in very broad strokes, where Genesis 2 takes a more detailed and personal approach to the same Creation event…

Well Daniel 1, 2 and 3 are similar in the fact that Dan 1 sets up the overall situation and brings Daniel and his friends into captivity and Daniel 1 ends by saying that Daniel continued to serve until the 1st year of a king of another kingdom… some 70 yrs in the future…

Whereas Chapter 2 relates a story that was specific to Daniel that happens during or toward the end of the 3 yr training that Daniel and his friends were going through…

The King has a dream and his wise men cannot interpret it… he will not tell them what the dream is because he feels that if they are wise enough to interpret…they are wise enough to know the dream w/o being told…

The king is furious that none of his wise men can interpret… this is a clue that Daniel is still in training because at the later part of chapter 1 when the King is introduced to Daniel… he holds Daniel is high regard…

Here in this passage we do not find Nebuchadnezzar asking for Daniel, so we must presume that Daniel is not known to the king at the time. The King sees NO benefit in his wise men and wants them ALL killed and we see that they begin to kill them and are seeking Daniel and his friends…

Now I believe that you would agree that Daniel is in a very awkward situation. Because of the decision of the king, his life is being threatened. But what I want to share with you this morning is that it did not matter to Daniel about his situation, he was going to remain obedient to God.

So this morning I want us to look at this passage and understand that the obedience to God that reveals TRUE INTEGRITY is an active action on our part! Our actions reveal the obedience of God in our lives and He grants us the integrity we need!