INTRODUCTION
• SLIDE #1
• Welcome!
• Today we as we explore chapter 18 of The Story we will being dealing with a chapter that hits us as close to where we live than any other thus far.
• Living out our faith in a society that is getting increasingly more hostile to Christians and Christian values is not easy.
• Living out your faith can be very challenging and in chapter 18 of The Story which covers an overview of the book of Daniel, we will see four young men who in 605 BC were carted off to Babylon.
• Last week we talked of the final fall of Jerusalem in 586-587 BC, but before that there were two other deportations in Judah, the first in 605 where Daniel and his friends were taken along the best and brightest of the southern kingdom.
• In 597 there were over 10,000 taken into captivity and the final deportation took place in 586 BC where all that was left were the poorest of the poor.
• When Babylon took Daniel and his three friends, Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar wanted the elite, brightest, best looking to serve in his court.
• Daniel (Belteshazzer) Hanniah (Shadrach), Mishael (MY SHE AL) (Meshach), and Azariah (Abednego) would be part of this group.
• Daniel 1:3-4 gives us insight.
• SLIDE #2
• Daniel 1:3–4 (NIV) 3 Then the king ordered Ashpenaz (ASH PEN AS), chief of his court officials, to bring into the king’s service some of the Israelites from the royal family and the nobility—4 young men without any physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of learning, well informed, quick to understand, and qualified to serve in the king’s palace. He was to teach them the language and literature of the Babylonians.
• So here we have, four boys in a strange land, with no support network, np parents, nothing!
• Pet tells us in 1 Peter 1:1, that we too are strangers in a foreign land. In chapter 2 verse 11-12 he writes…
• SLIDE #3
• 1 Peter 2:11–12 (NIV) Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
• So, four boys in a foreign land, let’s see how they faced up to the challenge of living out their faith in the real world they lived in!
• SLIDE #4
SERMON
I. Daniel and his three friends were willing to trust God.
• Daniel and his friends are going to be put to the test in what seems like a small thing, their diet!
• SLIDE #5
• Daniel 1:5–6 (NIV) 5 The king assigned them a daily amount of food and wine from the king’s table. They were to be trained for three years, and after that they were to enter the king’s service. 6 Among those who were chosen were some from Judah: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael (MY SHE AL) and Azariah.
• These young boys are in Babylon, no family, no support network, then they are given new names, but it does not seem all bad, they are going to be given food and wine from the Kings table!
• By the way, Daniel and his friends were probably about 15 years old when all this starts to take place!
• They were at least going to be well-fed, or will they?
• Daniel has a problem with the food situation.
• SLIDE #6
• Daniel 1:8 (NIV) But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way.
• I wonder if Daniel’s friends were saying, hey, be quiet!
• This seems like something small, just eat the food and be thankful that you are eating well!
• Will God care if you compromise on the issue of food?
• That is how it usually starts, small compromise along the path until one day we have nothing left to compromise.
• For Daniel, there was no compromising what he knew to be wrong in the site of God, not matter if he understood why it upset God or not!
• So how does Daniel deal with it? GRACIOUSLY!
• He did not stomp into the next room and give the chief official a piece of his mind, he respectfully spoke with the official.
• The official was reluctant to do what Daniel asked because he reasoned that if they looked sickly, he would lose his life!
• So Daniel makes the official a deal. A 10 day test. Give us vegetables and water to drink. IF we look bad, then we will eat the Kings food.
• The official took the deal and wouldn’t you know it, Daniel and his friends looked better and healthier than all the young men who were eating the king’s food!
• Now how could Daniel even make the deal in the first place? He was putting his trust in God that he would make sure Daniel and friends looked ok without the wine and other foods.
• Simple, Daniel trusted God, Daniel knew that God would honor his faith.
• You see, this how we can make our faith work in the real world, we are not put in a situation where we have to compromise our faith. God will honor faithfulness!
• It is so easy to compromise our faith in small ways, many of us do not start out BIG TICKET compromises, and it usually starts small and then grows in magnitude until we have nothing left to compromise.
• Yet we also do not have to be offensive in staying faithful. We cab politely stand our ground.
• God blessed Daniel and his friends in a big way for their faith according to verses 17-20.
• Look at verse 20
• SLIDE #7
• Daniel 1:20 (NIV) In every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king questioned them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his whole kingdom.
• WE read a lot in the bible about food and the fact that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. BUT. What other “diet” does our culture offer? Cheat on out taxes? Gossiping about others? WE must refuse to eat the world’s diet!
• Time passes and Daniel and his friends distinguish themselves as of great use. A few years later another incident will occur to Daniels friends that will put them through a fiery ordeal to say the least!
• SLIDE #8
II. Daniel’s three friends were willing to take the heat for their faith.
• As Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were managing the providence of Babylon by Daniel’s request. Daniel stayed in the King’s court.
• Chapter 3 of Daniel tells us that Nebuchadnezzar had a golden statue made that was 90 feet high and 9 feet wide.
• Here was the plan.
• SLIDE #9
• Daniel 3:4–6 (NIV) Then the herald loudly proclaimed, “Nations and peoples of every language, this is what you are commanded to do: As soon as you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe and all kinds of music, you must fall down and worship the image of gold that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up. Whoever does not fall down and worship will immediately be thrown into a blazing furnace.”
• So when the music starts people are supposed to fall down and worship the image of Gold!
• Ok, so now what, this is probably at least 5 years after the food incident.
• Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are going to face a choice. I mean they are living in Babylon, they know the statue is nothing more than a bunch of gold, so why not just bow to it and be done with it?
• That does not seem like it would hurt anything? The food was just food, if you disobey this, you get to be extra-crispy bar-b-que!
• These young men are not going to comprise.
• Now it is politics time!
• The Babylonian’s with whom these young men were over were looking for a way to depose them. So they rat out the young men for not bowing down!
• The King is not happy about this and he calls the young men before him. He threatens them, tells them he will give them one more chance to bow down, lest they be tossed into the fire.
• SLIDE #10
• Daniel 3:16–18 (NIV) Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him, “King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”
• Well the King is furious, so he has the furnace heated to such a high temperature that those who toss the young men into it was burned alive!
• God saves them, the King is astonished to say the least and not only that look at what the King saw in the furnace!
• SLIDE #11
• Daniel 3:24–25 (NIV) Then King Nebuchadnezzar leaped to his feet in amazement and asked his advisers, “Weren’t there three men that we tied up and threw into the fire?” They replied, “Certainly, Your Majesty.” He said, “Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.”
• The King calls them out of the furnace and they do not even smell like fire, the King gives glory to God and promotes Daniels friends!
• When we stand for what we believe in even in the face of what looks to be certain death, God will be glorified. These guys were willing to stand their ground even if they were going to meet a fiery death!
• When you start compromising on the little things you eventually will not have anything left to compromise.
• Let’s finish with a final look at Daniel, he is very old at the time we are going to look at now.
• Daniel had served the Kings of Babylon for over 70 years, and now there is a new King in town, the Persians!
• SLIDE #12
III. Daniel would not compromise his faith in the face of pressure.
• Daniel found favor with the new Persian King and he was set up as one of the three administrators over the 120 satraps of the nation.
• Well, Daniel distinguished himself over all the others so naturally were jealous because Daniel was going to be placed ahead of them all!
• The jealous folks decide to hatch a plan to trap Daniel since they could not find any reason to accuse him. They went to the king and appealed to his pride.
• SLIDE #13
• Daniel 6:7–9 (NIV) The royal administrators, prefects, satraps, advisers and governors have all agreed that the king should issue an edict and enforce the decree that anyone who prays to any god or human being during the next thirty days, except to you, Your Majesty, shall be thrown into the lions’ den. Now, Your Majesty, issue the decree and put it in writing so that it cannot be altered—in accordance with the law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be repealed.” So King Darius put the decree in writing.
• When Daniel hears of the edict, he just does what he does, he leaves his window open toward Jerusalem and prayed. He did not hide it!
• Daniel gets turned in, the King does not want to throw him to the lions, but he has to.
• Daniel spends the night with the lions, the next day the king comes finds Daniel unharmed.
• Darius realized his other satraps and administrators duped him and he had them all tossed into the hungry lion’s den along with their families.
• The lions were very happy and rewarded for their patience!
• Daniel stayed faithful even when death seemed certain!
CONCLUSION
• Now, I want to close with three observations that can help us live out our faith in the real world.
• From our lower story perspective, living out our faith seems almost impossible, but when we realize our God is alive and well we realize we are not alone!
• How did Daniel and his friends have the strength to live out their faith?
• 1. They resisted bitterness. They were taken captive. They could have thought God did not like them and therefore they did not have to follow Him. Their faith is what made them successful in life!
• 2. They always remained respectful. From the beginning they were not “in your face” with their faith and when there was a problem, they dealt with those around them with respect!
• 3. They maintained a hope in God’s word. They believed Jeremiah’s prophecies about the fact the exile would only last 70 years. They lived like they trusted God’s word!
• What are about you, are you ready to fully trust God. Daniel shows us once again God’s love for us!
