Introductory Comments
1. Today is the day when we celebrate what we have learned in the past year in Sunday School. Many of you have studied hard and have memorized many verses from God’s word. You have been taught by teachers who have spent hours preparing to teach you those things that are most important for you to know. You have learned about God, about Jesus. You have learned about God’s people in the Bible. And you have learned how you can be and live as a child of God.
2. For the next two months you will not be having Sunday School. A summer break just like you get from school.
3. Does that mean that you will stop learning during the summer? Of course it does not. Because we are always learning. Even those of us who are much older than you are still learning.
4. We learn when we read or when we are taught by a teacher. But that is not the only time we learn. Every time we see something, hear something or do something we are learning.
5. Not all the things we learn are good things for us to learn. We learn bad things and good things. We may learn to say or do bad things. We may learn to lie, we may learn things that are not true.
6. From whom do we learn those things that are good for us to learn? From God and His word. The apostle John says "Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth." Psa 119:105 Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.
7. The apostle Paul was a teacher. He taught people about God, about Jesus. He taught them the word of God. He told them how good God’s word was.
Phil 4:8-9 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me--put it into practice.
8. But today we learn many things that are not good. Things that are against God’s word.
9. Are these things we learn true or false? Good or bad?
1. Take care of yourself before you take care of others?
2. You can do whatever you want?
3. If it makes you happy, go ahead and do it?
4. You don’t need to believe in God?
5. The earth is millions of year old, dinosaurs lived millions of years ago?
10. Whether we know it or not, we learn good and bad things everyday. No matter how young or old we are, we need to be able to decide if what we learn is right or wrong. Whether it is from God or against God.
Teaching
1. Today we look at a young man, a boy who shows us how we can make decide what is rtight and wrong. And how we must deal with the wrong things we are taught. What he teaches us is something that we can use to make sure that we live the way God wants us to.
2. The young man was probably 13 years old, the same age as some of you here this morning. His name is Daniel. You probably remember him best for the time he was thrown in the lion’s den and how God rescued him. It is one of our favourite stories in the Bible.
3. But today we look at how he was able to know what God wanted him to do and how he was able to stand up for God.
4. Daniel was an Israelite, a member of God’s chosen people. But the people of Israelite had not lived the way God had wanted them to. They stopped trusting in Him. They learned bad things from the world around them and had begun to worship false God and had also stopped caring for the poor and the sick amongst them. They had stopped loving God and loving one another. And so God allowed them to be taken captive and sent to Babylon. Just like if God allowed people from some other country to come here today and take us to live in their country.
5. That would have been hard. Different ways of doing things, a different language, far away from home with no freedom.
6. But Daniel was special. Because he was handsome, strong and very smart, he was taken with some other smart boys to live in the kings palace. He would live in luxury - eat the best foods and learn from the best teachers. He would almost be treated as a king. It seemed like a good opportunity for Daniel to become a very rich and important person.
7. But it was also a very dangerous situation. Because they would be taught about the language and literature of Babylon. They would be taught about false gods and about doing things that God said was bad.
8. We see how important it iwasthat Daniel to discern or decide what is right or wrong.
9. There were three things that tempted Daniel to go along with the ways of the world.
a. First, he was separated from his own people, culture and faith. He lived in the palace apart from his own family. It would be easy to forget who they were and to forget their God. The king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar even tried to change names of Daniel and his three friends so they would not think of God.
i. Daniel - "God is my judge." Neb. tries to change this name to Belteshazzar. This means "Bel protects his people." Bel is a Babylonian god
ii. Hananiah - "The Lord shows grace." changed to Shadrach, meaning "Commandment of Aku" Aku is a Samarian moon god.
iii. Mishael - "who is what God is?" changed to Meshach, "What is what Aku is?"
iv. Azariah - "the Lord helps" changed to Abednego, "Servant of Nego." another god.
It is very important that we always remember who we are and remember God. And that though we live in world, we always remain part of God’s people. And that we remember what God says is good for us.
b. Second, Daniel was indoctrinated or taught lies. They were taught the language and literature of Babylon. The things we are taught are the things we remember. We may know something is wrong but if we are told repeatedly that it’s ok and if everyone else does it, after a while we may start to think that the wrong thing to do is the right thing to do.
We can see this in church today. Many things that are against God’s word are seen as right because the world teaches that it is right. - eg. Lottery tickets, gambling, adultery.
We need to be careful. What we see on television affects the way we think. If we hear people saying bad words we may start to do the same things. If children on tv are rude to their parents, we can easily become rude as well.
And we need to be care ful what we learn at school. Especially if we go to public school, we need to compare what we learn with what God says. If they teach that the earth evolved over billions of years, we know that is against God’s word. We need to respect our teachers, but not believe what they teach without comparing it to God’s word. Most of what is taught is safe, but be careful. Especially as parents we must be aware of what our children are being taught
Notice that God gave the young men knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning. God allowed them to learn all these things. There are many things we need to learn besides what is in the Bible. Algebra and mathematics are not taught in the bible, at least not directly. It is alright to study philosophy and to see what other people believe, but we need to have understanding as to what is wrong and why.
c. The third thing that Daniel dealt with is the tendency to compromise. Say you are with your friends walking home from school. Tthe others want to take a shortcut through private property. There is a sign that says "No tresspassing." You know its wrong but you may find it easy to go along with the others. Otherwise they may make fun of you.
10. Daniel did not compromise. He was supposed to eat a daily amount of food and wine from the king’s table. But he knew that this was wrong. Some of this food and wine had been offered to idols and God had told his people not to eat this kind of food. Also the food had not been prepared in the way God had told the Jews to prepare their food in the OT. And so this food was defiled or wrong to eat. Daniel resolved to not eat this food. If it was wrong he would not do it. And so he asked if he could eat other food. When they disagreed, he did not argue, but instead suggested they let him try his own diet for 10 days. They agreed and he ended up looking healthier and better nourished than the men who ate the royal food.
10. Each of us needs to be like Daniel so that we will follow the way of God rather than of the world.
11. There were 4 things about Daniel that helped him make the right choices.
a. He was a person of purpose. He was determined or resolved to do what is right. Do you want to do what is right? Do not give in to what others say when you know what is right
b. Daniel knew what was right. He knew His God.
Dan 9:2-4 in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the LORD given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years. So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes. I prayed to the LORD my God and confessed: "O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with all who love him and obey his commands,
We need to learn in SS, in our homes what is right, what God’s word says. Amazing how some survey’s show how little "Christians" know of God’s word. Study and read the word
c. Daniel had good godly friends. They w ere willing to die for their faith (furnace). So we should have Christian friends who can help us to do what is right.
d. In Daniel 6 we read that Daniel prayed to God thanking Him and asking God for help and we must ask God to help us. When we are tempted or face difficulties, we also must ask God to help us to do what is right.
12. I thank God for all that you have been taught this year. I thank God for your teachers and parents.
13. You have learned much, but you must put what you have learned into practice. Deciding what is good and what is bad. May you do so wisely, just as Daniel did.
