Unshakable in a Shaky World
An elderly man lay dying in his bed. Near death, he suddenly smelled the aroma of his favorite chocolate chip cookies wafting up the stairs. He gathered his remaining strength and lifted himself from the bed. Leaning against the wall, he slowly made his way out of the bedroom, and with even greater effort forced himself down the stairs, gripping the railing with both hands. With labored breath, he leaned against the doorframe, gazing into the kitchen. Were it not for death’s agony, he would have thought himself already in heaven. There, spread out upon newspapers on the kitchen table were literally hundreds of his favorite chocolate chip cookies.
Was it heaven or was it one final act of heroic love from his devoted wife, seeing to it that he left this world a happy man? Mustering one great final effort, he threw himself toward the table, landing on his knees in a rumpled posture. His lips parted; the wondrous taste of the cookie was already in his mouth; seemingly bringing him back to life. The aged and withered hand, shakingly, made its way to a cookie at the edge of the table, when it was suddenly smacked with a spatula by his wife. “Stay out of those”, she said. “They’re for the funeral”.
You know things are shaky when you’re still alive and the cookies are already being made for your funeral. That’s shaky! Today, we’re going to talk about what it means to be unshakable in a shaky world. Lets Pray!
We must first look at the word unshakable. When I use the word unshakable, I am not talking about a person who is perfect and without error or someone that doesn’t have trials and weaknesses. But I am talking about a person who is consistent in character, persistent through trials, and who stands for what is right.(REPEAT)!
What do I mean by a shaky world? Listen to these headlines: Man found guilty of murder will spend life in prison – Man cleared of murder after 17 years in prison – Simpson road rage trial set for June in Florida – Suspect charged with store clerk’s death – police say school shooting could have been worse – Toddler who nearly froze to death is awake – Cops think mom tossed baby out to a grisly end – Nursing home sued for negligence – Worker dies in set accident – 3 year old thrown from jeep in accident – Crane collapses at school construction site – Suspected shooter is described as troubled – Ex-worker shoots and kills former co-workers – Children killed in yet another school shooting. Depressing! Did you watch the news last night? I didn’t!! I know it’s just one tragic incident after another. This doesn’t lessen the fact that positive news isn’t shown on TV nearly as much as negative. Nevertheless, we do live in a shaky world and many of these incidents could or have impacted our lives.
If you are still not convinced we are living in a shaky world, look at the family today. More than half of the children will grow up in a broken home where there is no father at all. That’s shaky! What about our jobs. There is not one week where I don’t hear of down sizing or people being laid off. That’s shaky! How about politics. The chaos that went on in the past Presidential election only highlighted the fact that we should be called the Divided States of America rather than the United States of America. That’s shaky! And the church, sadly to say, has just as high of a divorce rate as society at large. That’s shaky!
However, in the midst of this shaky world, there is hope. Thank God for the Bible because not only does it show the pain, anguish and ugliness of this world, but it offers hope as we face this world. There are many in the Bible who can be examples of an unshakeable life, but one to me stands out very strong – Daniel. Since Daniel couldn’t be here today – busy feeding his lions – I will step in for him. We can look at his life and get encouragement to be unshakable. Daniel was an Israelite from Judah. In chapter 1 we see that Daniel and the other Israelites were taken from Judah to Babylon as King Nebuchadnezzar had taken over Judah. He took articles from the temple of God, but he also took some of the Israelites captive – one of which was Daniel. Neb ordered that the Israelites be trained in the language and literature of the Babylonians so that after 3 years, they could enter the king’s service. At this point in Daniel’s life his whole world is turned upside down as he is taken from all that is familiar to him and put in a situation that would rock any of our worlds.
Like the slaves in Africa being taken and brought to America, imagine if everything that was familiar to you was taken from you instantly? Your family, your house, your church, your hairdresser? You see we are in a shaky world but still get to experience those things that are close and familiar to us – while Daniel, on the other hand, was stripped of everything even down to his name – Belteshazzar. Some of us would benefit from a name change (i.e. Shaquita).
We get a glimpse of Daniel’s unshakable life in chapter 1 as Daniel was determined not to defile himself with the king’s royal food and choice wine. He took a stand and told the chief official “give us vegetables and water for ten days and at the end of the ten days we will look better than the men who eat the royal food and wine. Daniel passed up “pig feet and chitterlings and chose the vegetables” When it was all said and done, after ten days Daniel, Shadrach, Meshcach and Abednego looked better and healthier than the men who ate the king’s food. As a result, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshcach and Abednego had distinguished themselves before the king and he found none comparable in the whole kingdom. In Every matter of Wisdom and understanding the king found them ten times better. Those of us who are believers in Jesus Christ, how does our work compare to those who don’t know Jesus. Would our boss say that our attitude is different? Do we show greater effort? Are we putting in the amount of time we should be? (CONVICTING!) Daniel was also given the ability to interpret dreams and as a result of interpreting the king’s dream in chapter 2, he saved his own life and the lives of others in Babylon because if the king could find no one who could interpret his dream he was going to have all wise men of Babylon killed. God gave Daniel the ability to interpret the dream. As a result he was placed in a high position in Babylon – He was put in charge of all the wise men and even helped Shadrach, Meshcach and Abednego get high positions in Babylon. That’s what I call moving on up in a shaky world! As we look at chapter 6, we see that Daniel is still one of the leaders in the kingdom even though there are new leaders that have taken over the land (King Darius of the Medes and the Persians). Daniel so impressed the king that the king was going to place him over the whole kingdom as stated in verse 3. This upset a few of the Administrators and leaders so much, that in verse 4 they wanted to find some grounds for charges against Daniel. When you are living for God and doing the right thing there are always going to be some people who will not like you, and they will even want to find something to accuse you of. But verse 4 also says that they were unable to find any corruption in him as he was trustworthy and neither corrupt nor negligent. When all the evidence is examined into to your life, Are you trustworthy or are you corrupt? You know people are watching, your spouse, your kids, your co-workers, your friends. They know in an instant what you are. So we see that in verses 5-7 That these Administrators and Leaders had to find something about Daniel that would get him to break the law of his God. This says a lot about Daniel because others could see that God was the center of his life. Daniel shows us the first characteristic of an unshakable life. It starts with the foundation. The foundation is central. Our foundation has to be God. God is the foundation of an unshakeable life. Daniel’s foundation has been God all along the way. You know too many of us instead of God being the foundation we rely on our own wisdom and experience. This only leads to irrational and wrong thinking. We say something like “since my marriage didn’t work out, I’m never getting married again”. Then we tell everybody else that marriage is no good. It’s not marriage that’s the problem – it’s the two people in the marriage that may be the problem. Don’t rely on experiences as your foundation, but rely on God as your foundation. What if Daniel had relied only on experience, instead of relying on God? He may have made a lot of wrong decisions. The Foundation is key to an individual life, a family, a job, a ministry. Jesus Christ needs to be the foundation!
Mathew 7:24-27 says…
Is your foundation the Rock – Jesus Christ) or is it the sand? The answer depends on how you look when the winds and the waves of this world hit you. Are you standing because you’re built on the Rock or are you sinking because your life is built on the sand? Foundation is the key to the beginning of an unshakeable life. (If Jesus wasn’t the foundation in my life).
In verses 6-7 we see that the Administrators and leaders went as a group to the king and had him issue a decree that if anyone prays to any god or man during the next thirty days, except to King Darius, shall be thrown into the lions Den. What will Daniel do? In verse 10 Daniel responds by going to his room and praying to God. Daniel shows us the second element to an unshakeable life, living by the word of God. Why else would Daniel not stop praying when the decree was issued in verse 7 that anyone who prays to any god or man during the next thirty days except to the king would be thrown into the lion’s den. I’ll tell you why – because Daniel knew the word of God. He knew the first of the Ten Commandments states “you shall have no other gods before me. If he had prayed to Darius, he would have put Darius in place of the true God. Someone might say well he could have pretented to pray to Darius. But then he would have been found guilty by those who were trying to accuse him. He also would have broken the heart of God. He also knew Psalm 1:1-2. Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He knew he couldn’t disobey the scripture by listening to these men who were out to destroy him just because of envy.
Corrie Ten Boom was at the Nazi death camp Ravensbruck where roll came at 4:30a.m. every morning. Most mornings were cold and sometimes the women would be forced to stand without moving for hours in the bone-chilling pre-dawn darkness. Nearby, were the punishment barracks where all day and far into the night would come the sounds of cruelty. Blows landing in regular rhythm and screams keeping pace. But Corrie and her sister Betsie had a Bible, and at every opportunity they would gather the women together like the orphans around a blazing fire and read Romans 8: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril or sword? In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us” Corrie later said “I would look about us as Betsie read, watching the light leap from face to face. More than conquerors. It was not a wish. It was a fact. We knew it. We experienced it minute by minute in an ever-widening circle of help and hope. Life at Ravensbruck took place on two separate levels. One, the observable, external life, grew every day more horrible. The other, the life we lived with God, grew daily better, truth upon truth, glory upon glory. You know even in the midst of the worst circumstances, the word of God can calm a heart that is shaken by the evils from outside that threaten to destroy us. You may be at a point where you don’t know which way is up and which way is down, but take heart – God’s word says in Psalm 119:105 His word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Daniel knew this and we can know it too.
Prayer is also a key to the unshakeable life. Daniel in the presence of all this strife realized he needed to communicate with God and depend on God through this seemingly impossible situation.
Read Daniel 6:10
Now Daniel learned that the decree had been published. He went home to his room where the windows were open toward Jerusalem and 3 times a day he prayed just as he had done before. Because Daniel prayed he was given the strength to face his circumstance head on. In verse 16 Daniel was thrown into the Lions Den. Someone once said “Daniel would rather spend the night with the lions than to miss a day in prayer. What keeps us from prayer: We let TV, People and Schedules stop us. If it was a Lions Den we would say no problem Lions Den I’ll stop praying. Not Daniel!
Are we praying about the situations, challenges, and people in our lives that seem to be impossible. If not, we may be full of worries and anxieties. If you’re worrying, you’re probably not praying. Philippians 4:6-7 says do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving present your request to God and the peace of God which passes all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Daniel was a man committed to prayer. Even Jesus prayed – when he was agonizing over going to the cross for you and me Not my will but your will be done. Prayer is crucial to the unshakable life!
Because of Daniels obedience, it opened the door for a miracle. In verse 22 it reads My God sent his angel, and he shut the mouths of the lions. They have not hurt me, because I was found innocent in his sight. Nor have I ever done any wrong before you, O King. When we are doing what God wants us to do even when the situation looks hopeless, a miracle may be around the corner. Keep doing what God is telling you, although the stress on your job is about to take you under- a miracle may be around the corner, live for God in the midst of that hurting marriage- a miracle may be around the corner, kids, follow God and do what’s right in school even when others will laugh and make fun of you-a miracle may be around the corner. Daniel knows this and we can know this to.
You know what is also amazing about the unshakeable life – others are impacted. Verses 25-27 reads that King Darius wrote to all the peoples, nations and men of every language throughout the land. May you prosper greatly! I issue a decree that in every part of my kingdom people must fear and reverence the God of Daniel. “For he is the living God and he endures forever: his kingdom will not be destroyed, his dominion will never end. He rescues and he saves: he performs signs and wonders in the heavens and on the earth. He has rescued Daniel from the power of the lions.” Daniel’s life had an amazing effect on those in two kingdoms (Babylonians and Persians) and throughout the whole land. By his life, he encouraged his own people who were in the same predicament that he was in.
There is a story of a girl who was the only one who showed up at the flagpole at her school to pray. Because she was unshakeable, other students were inspired to join her that following year.
Being unshakeable doesn’t mean that we won’t face tough circumstances or even that we don’t at times have fears or weaknesses. Even though we don’t read of Daniel’s fears, I’m sure he had some. But Daniel ultimately shows us what an unshakable life looks like.
In closing, we can learn a lot from the story of the 3 little pigs. One pig had a house made of straw, the second a house made of sticks and the third a house made of bricks. When the Big Bad Wolf came to the first pig’s house made of straw, he said “little pig, little pig let me in”. When the pig said no, the wolf said “well I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house down”. So he huffed and puffed and blew the house down.
When he got to the second pig’s house made of sticks, he said “little pig, little pig let me in”. When the pig said no, the wolf said “well I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house down”. So he huffed and puffed and blew the house down.
Finally, the wolf got to the third pig’s house made of brick. He said “little pig, little pig let me in”. When the pig said no, the wolf said “well I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house down”. So he huffed and puffed and nothing happened. He couldn’t blow down that house made of brick. What was the difference between the 3 little pigs? They all had the same circumstances, but the difference is what the third house was made of. Brothers and sisters, what are we made of? Are we made of things that when life hits us we go crashing down or are we made of things that are unshakeable and unmovable. You know it really comes down to the fact that it isn’t us – it is God who makes us unshakable. We need to have God in us to be unshakeable in a shaky world. Let’s pray.
