We live in a culture that's becoming more and more antagonistic toward anyone who follows Christ. In the Bible, through his actions and prayers, Daniel gives us a powerful example of what it looks like to live unashamed in a culture that sees no need to live righteously and obediently for God's glory.
We spent quite a bit of time last year going through each verse of the Book of Daniel. I would like to use portions of the Book of Daniel for the next few weeks to help us to stay true in a world that is far away from God.
I want you to think about a brand new, white T-shirt for a moment. No matter how careful you are with that shirt, the bright whiteness seems to eventually fade. It starts getting a dull yellowish color. That's kind of what happens to believers.
Every Christian is living in the middle of a culture with different priorities, values, and beliefs, and as much as we try to remain clean and clear from all of it, we all become a little less bright the more time we spend in this world. Despite this natural dulling, we still need to remain true to who we are in Christ.
Here are a few questions that we're going to try to answer in this message today: First, think about what are some firm convictions that have defined your life so far? How close is your relationship with God?
How can we, as believers, respond to the pressure to conform to a non-Christian society?
How can we help each other stand against the culture when it conflicts with our faith? That's the direction we are going in the message today. Prayer.
Nebuchudnezar, king of Babylon, had conquered Jerusalem and gotten rid of its king. He had carried off to Babylon some of the precious items from the Holy temple. Along with those vessels, he also took some of the noble youth. He had planned to train them in the Babylonian ways and customs for political purposes later on. He was hoping that along the way they would return to positions of influence in their own countries and extend Babylonian ideas into those conquered lands. It was a way of deeply and permanently integrating formerly autonomous nations into the empire of Babylon.
That was Nebuchadnezzar's intent, but God had other ideas. Daniel was among a group of Israelites who found themselves living a foreign land, among foreign people. The best and brightest of Israel have been sent to the cultural center of the Babylonian empire. They had hoped to change their ways to Babylonian ways. But Daniel intended to follow the plans of God rather than the intentions of the Babylonians.
Daniel 1:3-7 – “The king ordered Ashpenaz, his chief eunuch, to bring some of the Israelites from the royal family and from the nobility— 4 young men without any physical defect, good-looking, suitable for instruction in all wisdom, knowledgeable, perceptive, and capable of serving in the king’s palace. He was to teach them the Chaldean language and literature.
**********5 The king assigned them daily provisions from the royal food and from the wine that he drank. They were to be trained for three years, and at the end of that time they were to attend the king. 6 Among them, from the Judahites, were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. 7 The chief eunuch gave them names; he gave the name Belteshazzar to Daniel, Shadrach to Hananiah, Meshach to Mishael, and Abednego to Azariah.”
No one had asked Daniel and the others what they would like to learn, or to eat, or even if they wanted their names to be changed. But they lived in Babylon now. We should have an idea of how they felt because we as believers in Christ find ourselves living in a culture with all kinds of expectations. As believers, we have an unchanging source of truth. It's not in our nature to fit in with the world. It should be in our nature, as children of another kingdom, to stand apart.
To Daniel and those with him, it must have seemed like their lives were out of control. But God was conditioning and positioning these young men for a greater impact. When you think about it, that is God's pattern throughout Scripture:
Remember Joseph? Joseph’s life spun out of control into Egypt, but God was positioning Joseph to help preserve his people.
- Moses’ life spun out of control when he ran into the desert, but God was preparing him to be the deliverer of Israel.
- David's life spun out of control when Saul turned on him and wanted to kill him, but God was planning just the right time for David to ascend to the throne.
Time after time, when it looks like the whole world has been turned upside down, God is still there and still at work. It was true in all of these circumstances, and it's true for us today. No matter how out of control our circumstances might seem, God is always at work behind the scenes moving us into a position where we can be an influence for His kingdom. Is there something in your life right now that seems like it's spinning out of control? God's reminding us that He is still providing these unlikely opportunities in unlikely places for us to remain faithful to Him. God was providing Daniel the opportunity to remain faithful to Him.
Daniel 1:8-12 – “Daniel determined that he would not defile himself with the king’s food or with the wine he drank. So he asked permission from the chief eunuch not to defile himself. 9 God had granted Daniel kindness and compassion from the chief eunuch, 10 yet he said to Daniel, “I fear my lord the king, who assigned your food and drink.
**********What if he sees your faces looking thinner than the other young men your age? You would endanger my life with the king.” 11 So Daniel said to the guard whom the chief eunuch had assigned to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, 12 “Please test your servants for ten days. Let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink.”
As we go through the book of Daniel, you'll notice that the entire book is about choices. And that was the food issue. We might look at these verses and think that the issue of diet is nothing but trivial. It's only food, after all. Surely there couldn't be much harm done. Surely there must have been more serious issues to fight. Refusing to eat what was put in front of them? That might seem to us a place where compromise is understandable.
There were still Jewish laws in place that governed what they could eat and what they could not eat. Daniel knew better. He trusted that God's law was the good and right way, and even though compromise would have been easier, he didn't give in. For Daniel, the issue wasn't about diet. It was about faithfulness. God had given clear directions about food to his people, and Daniel wasn't willing to disobey.
You see, compromise begets compromise. Maybe Daniel also knew that this small choice he was facing was also an invitation to something bigger. Maybe he knew that compromise on this issue would only lead to more compromise in the future.
The progression is pretty clear. The first step is just passing by sin and compromise. But if we stop there for a while, before we know it, we're sitting down. It's like we never intended to end up sitting in this company, but it's impossible to have a casual relationship with sin.
Compromise always has a way of compounding, and always has a way of growing. Maybe Daniel knew that. We can easily talk ourselves into letting go of something we consider small, but in the end, our walking will turn to standing and then sitting right in the middle of sin. I guess the question now is where have you compromised lately?
Like Daniel, we're going to encounter places in which cultural norms and expectations contradict the Law of God. But we can draw a line and have confidence in God.
Daniel 1:13 – “Then examine our appearance and the appearance of the young men who are eating the king’s food, and deal with your servants based on what you see.”
Daniel was confronted with a choice, and he knew what choice to make. The question for him is now how to communicate that choice. That was another challenge because Daniel really had no right to make a different proposal. He wasn't consulted on what he would like the menu to be, nor did he have any authority over decisions like that. He was, no matter how much his situation was dressed up, still a prisoner of the lost battle over Jerusalem. So, what to do?
But Daniel was smart. He reasoned with the person over him and offered up a test case. He had thought this through. He was convinced that his ideas were right because he was confident in God. He was so confident that he simply acted faithfully and then asked those around him to look at the results.
The title of this message is how strong is your conviction. What we are seeing here is a convicting response for many of us. The world we live in tells us that we have the right to have things just the way we want them at just the time we want them; that we should be loud enough to get someone's attention; that we should argue forcefully for our point of view, never stopping to consider how our point of view might be perceived or affect someone else. Daniel not only chose a different way when it came to food, he chose a different way when it came to expressing his conviction. His way of being reasonable and having a respectful attitude was founded in his confidence in God.
Do we have that same confidence in God? Or is our tendency to justify and argue a reflection of our insecurity in Him? Oh, if only we could be as secure and trusting in God as Daniel was.
Daniel 1:17 – “God gave these four young men knowledge and understanding in every kind of literature and wisdom. Daniel also understood visions and dreams of every kind.”
In this one simple verse, we get a preview of what much of the remainder of the Book of Daniel is based upon. If we keep reading the Book of Daniel, we will see that throughout his life, Daniel was able to glorify God through the gifts of wisdom and understanding that God had given him. Time and time again, we see Daniel using his gifts in a way that brought praise to God. What we don't see, though, is Daniel profiting personally from these gifts or using them to elevate himself. The lesson in this for us is that God's gifts are to be used for His glory.
God has gifted each one of us in a particular way. These gifts have been given not so we can make a lot of ourselves, but so we can glorify God and put His grace and power on display. Even though we might not ever be interpreting the dreams of a king, each of us has a specific role to play in the growth of God's kingdom, and we should always be aware of our tendency to use those gifts for God's end, not for our own end. This should cause us to think about the gifts that God has given us and ask ourselfves if we are using those gifts to make ourselves look good or to bring glory to God.
Daniel 1:18-19 – “At the end of the time that the king had said to present them, the chief eunuch presented them to Nebuchadnezzar. 19 The king interviewed them, and among all of them, no one was found equal to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. So they began to attend the king.”
The King was so impressed by these young men that he appointed them to be his personal servants. Daniel chose to trust and stand firm and left what happened next in the hands of the Lord. This is not just one instance. History is full of faithful believers who also stood but didn't have the same kind of results. But the call of God is clear: stand faithfully and entrust the rest to God.
To give you an idea of how quickly things escalated, in the space of 3 years, Daniel and his friends went from being deported servants to direct attendants of the king of Babylon. And how did that happen? It all started with a choice about what to eat and drink.
What can we learn from all of this? The biblical principle is pretty clear. Jesus said:
Luke 16:10 – “Whoever is faithful in very little is also faithful in much, and whoever is unrighteous in very little is also unrighteous in much.”
Daniel and his friends chose to be faithful in the small things, and God trusted them with a lot more. Of course, that doesn't mean that if we're faithful in the small things we will end up advising the leader of the nation. It does, however, help us see that faithfulness isn't measured by the size of the opportunity. It's measured by our choices within each of those opportunities.
For instance:
We can choose to be faithful with the money we earn, contributing to God's kingdom work among us.
- We can choose to be faithful with our time, being careful what we say yes and what we say no to.
- We can choose to be faithful with our friendships, investing intentionally to help those around us grow in their faith.
And when you think about it, all of life is about management and choices. We are really nothing, but each day God entrusts a certain amount of resources to us. Even though that measure might seem smaller some days than others, we're still only stewards of what He gives to us. God, in His wisdom, decides the amount of each opportunity. Our job isn't to question or second guess that amount; it's only to be faithful with however little or however much has been entrusted to us.
God provides opportunities for us all the time. Some of those opportunities are a big deal, and some of them seem very small. But whatever the size of that opportunity, God has entrusted that to you. What we need to do is to be aware and watch for those opportunities and then act on them.
One such opportunity is like right now during our response time. This is the time at the end of the service that we allow anyone to respond to how God has touched their heart during this message. It might be to come to the altar and pray by yourself. It might be to come up and pray with one of the deacons or with someone else.
But the greatest opportunity God is providing right now is the opportunity for you to know his son Jesus Christ in a personal way. If you've never asked Jesus to be your Savior and your Lord, now is the time for you to do just that. And believe me, that is a huge opportunity. But, just as it was with Daniel, you have to make that choice.
